I've been slackin....

Thank you Katherine & Amy for getting on to me and reminding me that I need to stay on top of this.

Between being caught up in binge watching FRIENDS, classes beginning, working out again, and having a somewhat social life seeing I have wanted to become a hermit and read more than anything, I have not been blogging like I intended to.

Grad school: Good news is that I was informed that they would defer my application for a semester so that I do not have to resend all of my transcripts and pay the application fee. Yes I am still bitter that I wasn't able to send final grades last semester courtesy of an extremely shitty professor, BUT the good news is that if I can pull A's in the classes that I am retaking this semester my CUM GPA will then be a 3.22, and grad school requires that it be a minimal 3.0. Fingers are crossed that things go accordingly, and that I can get in, the one downfall will be attempting to find housing halfway around the world a month before classes would begin. I have had people ask me questions on whether I have thought about applying anywhere in the USA, and the answer is yes (but being by an ocean is a major bonus so I am going to apply to UNC and FIU)

Life: I have started a workout routine with my little and then Amy, and I can say that workout sessions always tend to be entertaining when their company is present. Regardless of if it is getting caught up on all the latest things going on in each others lives, or running around the square and laughing when someone almost falls (mainly me). Speaking of falling, just to solidify the fact that I deserve an award for being the most accident prone person on the face of the earth, I managed to completely bust my ass on a banana today. Most of my friends that have heard this have said "That only happens in cartoons!", yes I know this, but I am pretty sure that the majority of my close friends can all agree that if anything only happens in stories or movies happens to me. As true as that statement may be, and how unfortunate it occasionally is depending on the situation, at least it adds entertainment to life and provides for some great stories later on, and life lessons that can be passed down to those nearest and dearest to me.

Banana incident: Best part of this was that I saw the banana peel on my way to the gym and thought, its going to be so funny when someone slips on that, and then of course I end up being that person. Ohhhh the irony. I managed to run at the gym, and get through 11.7 miles on the bike, but walking will ALWAYS be something I can never manage to grasp. The worst part was the fact that I could see my car from where it happened, and now I have banana on the top of my new running shoes that I was wearing for the second time because I just bought them over the weekend. Thanks to my little for coming to the rescue and meeting me with tissue paper in order to clean my knee some before attempting to further than my car to the sorority house, and Sarah for having bandaids.

Conclusions for the day: I deserve an award for how clumsy I am, and then I have also learned today that my BS tolerance is about as long as I am short. Here's to finding the entertainment in any situation, and for those friends that join in the laughs. Time to go pay attention in class, even though I would much rather be on a beach, but lets be honest-- who wouldn't rather be on a beach instead of dealing with bipolar weather and monotone professors?

Tomorrow I will have to post the playlist that has been getting me through this week, and some newly discovered gems.

Its been too long

Boy was I wrong with thinking that I would be able to maintain a blog and a life during this fall semester and the second part of summer classes. Needless to say this is something that I will be getting back into.

August-now was absolutely jam packed full of memories, good and bad, but I wouldn't trade a single one of them for anything. Im currently attempting to figure out how to put my life into words, because its not the easiest to summarize months, let alone the amount of memories I made so bare with me.

First sorority life: I managed to grow close to so many girls I would've never thought would be some of my best friends within my sorority, and met so many new people. One of my favorite memories hands-down would be the countless nights that were spent working on the dreaded homecoming float. It was the best homecoming I could have asked for and we had the best partners that we could've possibly had. There were so many nights that were spent laughing so hard I cried, or the impromptu dance parties we would have jamming out to 90's and today. I gained another grand-little who fits perfectly into our family. I took part in welcoming an amazing group of girls into our sisterhood whom I can say I would do anything for at any time. I moved into the house and had so many memories with my Roomz (laughing goats) and have a new gained love for TSwift after her. Nights where we did absolutely nothing but sit around and talk and laugh, or the nights that I cried over grades and my little and god-little tell me to stop and everything is going to be okay. Then there were those that I managed to share a twin sized bed with my best friends for a couple nights which was EXTREMELY interesting and I really wish pictures had been taken on how we would end up passing out haha. Zeta changed my life in so many ways, and this semester was definitely the best semester I had within Zeta.

Then there was actual school. BLEH. Honestly the worst semester of my LIFE, and I have a new found hate for accounting after Intermediate I, and I am incredibly happy I changed my major from Accounting to Finance after my first semester in college (yes I declared as a freshman, joys having been top 15%, but it wasn't necessarily a good thing to declare that soon). Club Willis had been my life, included with tears shed over redbull and shots of espresso on ice. They hadn't been mixed together, the redbull and espresso that is, but maybe they should have been. Looking back I still can't believe that I managed to pull so many all nighters, have a social life, manage homecoming, and a position within zeta without completely losing my shit. I learned that I definitely want to be involved in corporate law in the future, and I need to invest in a scheme to bottle sleep and sanity in jars to sell. Grad School has been postponed by a semester so I can have some downtime and retake Intermediate I for a better grade, BUT I am also going to go ahead and start studying for my GMAT and GRE to take those and apply to schools stateside as a backup plan. Schools near the ocean are going to be my focus, but Sydney is still the dream, and yes Sydney, Australia.

Actual Life. Boy 2014 were you interestingly difficult but great at the same time, go figure. I did manage to check a few more things off of my bucket list: scuba diving, zip-lining, repelling, tubing down the guadalupe river, and I plan to do them all again. I had the chance to see one of my favorite bands live, Kings of Leon, thanks to my best friend and it was the first alt rock concert I had been to. Bonus is they are one of my favorite bands. Countless weekends were spent at the lake, until school overwhelmed my life once again. Countless sunburns were gained, and I finally went camping in August and then again on Labor Day at the lake. Of course scars were gained, joys of being accident prone. One scar is from attempting to put artwork I received back into the box it came in, but still no broken bones so I guess that was good! Nights out with my sisters and best friends and guy friends and then Lady Wings, are definitely ones for the books. Walking at graduation, and one of my best friends making it home on leave for graduation with later being surprised by another good friend I hadn't seen in years, grandparents making it down, and seeing so many of my amazing friends there was the best graduation present ever.

I suck at trying to sum months up into one post with words so I'm uploading a video of photos and videos combined once I can figure out how to do so, but my goal is to maintain this better now that some free time is definitely going to be present. Friends were made friends were lost, just like relationships. 2014 you were nothing short of a learning lesson, and I will definitely be taking everything to heart. Would I go back and redo anything for a different outcome? NOT A CHANCE IN HELL (except for rolling my ankles countless times).  I still stand by what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and in everything there is a good thing to be learned and positive light present. Cliche? Yes, but its the truth. The love and support I have had from my friends this year has been the most I have ever felt in my life, both through the good and the bad, and you may not have been mentioned in the post, but you all know how much you mean to me. If I haven't been social or in contact much its because my life had been so insanely busy and hectic and overwhelming, and well the past few weeks I took to disconnect from the world some and decompress. 2014 thanks for the memories, 2015 lets be better and make it even bigger.

Here's to not looking back, and slamming some doors shut.

Monthly Check-In

A couple of weeks ago I posted about how I was trying to lose weight once again. Well, I have decided that I am going to do a monthly check-in just to see the progress that I am making or not making, and to hold myself more accountable for the goals I want to reach. 

The picture I posted a few weeks ago under personal was a photo from the end of June, and I took some today to see the progress. I personally can same I am extremely happy with the progress that I am making (down 11lbs in a month), and plan to continue to stay on this path. 

It has felt amazing to be able to consistently workout again, and I am a lot more productive throughout the day on the days where I do get up earlier. Those who know me know I am by no means a morning person, so that is a feat all within itself. 

This is just the start, and hard work and determination are going to be what gets me to where I want to be. I know I have some sisters that are following this also, and this fall there are a few of us who are planning on going to the gym together to help motivate us to continue to go, so if you want to join us you are more than welcome to. 

 The pictures in the black swimsuit are from June, so of course that means the others are from today. 

Well, I am off to go finish figuring out what exactly and how exactly I want to do the tattoo that I have decided that I want to get this fall. In the meantime keep the following image below in mind, it applies to all situations and not just weight-loss. Create a better you in all ways that you can imagine, and you will end up being happier and who knows you may even inspire someone else. Have a good day/weekend y'all!

Intelligence.

INTELLIGENCE

a (1) :  the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations :  reason; also :  the skilled use of reason(2) :  the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests)

b Christian Science :  the basic eternal quality of divine Mind

c :  mental acuteness :  shrewdness

There have been several articles that I have read over the past week or so all dealing with the intelligence that a person has. One left me with an unsettling feeling, and another I found quite intriguing.

The article I really enjoyed is pertaining to IQ levels and also speaks about how those who are more intelligent are actually the night owls. There was a study done on this, and with the study it was found that those getting less sleep actually had a higher IQ. I know this varies greatly, and it is by no means a general statement that could, nor should it be, applied to everyone. 

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/night-owls-creative-intelligent/686025/

I spend entirely too much of my time reading articles on Elite Daily, and I can happily admit this was one of my favorites. I can also admit that I fall into the group of people that daydream, sometimes too much, and my best work is done at night. Granted there are days where I sleep in way too late, and I have a tendency to take classes later in the day because I'm fighting adulthood, but some of the best memories are made at night.

The lines that stand out most to me in this article are:

"The night is for passion. It’s for fanaticism, romance and trouble. It’s when your most tender, authentic and suppressed sides come out to play under the nonjudgmental eyes of the stars.

It’s for all those things you could never dream of doing by day, under the watchful eyes of the sun."

I will be completely honest and admit that my train of thought is gone, and this is probably going to seem extremely scatter brained, but thats the joys of having a personal blog and being able to say what you want haha. I must say one thing though, and it is to not simply base your intelligence on what you have learned from a book but also go out and experience things and learn from those. The other article deals with telling women that intelligence will hinder them from getting what they want out of life. 

http://elitedaily.com/women/intelligent-women-likely-single/678309/

This is going to come across as feminist, #sorrynotsorry, but telling women that they are going to be kept from getting what they want just because they are smarter than others is not ok. If anyone wants to achieve what they want, whether they are career focused or family focused or even a combination of both, they should set out to achieve that and should not be hindered based upon what they read. Granted those who put their career first before making a family will experience things in a completely different way than someone who did the opposite, and vice versa. 

It is also stated that women who are more intelligent are going to be seen as more of a threat. I don't know about you, but I would rather be seen as a threat than someone who can be walked on. The quote below describes how others may see an intelligent woman, and one way to look at it is to take them by surprise. There have been so many times people have looked at me and simply said "You're actually smart?" with a completely straight face and meant it, and every time I can't help but laugh and walk away. Take the world by storm, know what you want, enjoy the ride, and take no prisoners as several of my friends would say. 

"You may be sensitive, sweet and insecure, but your intelligence makes you threatening. You may not have muscles and a big d*ck, but men will look at you as competition."

Intelligence is an amazing thing, and others will never truly know everything that you personally know. Do not hold back who you are, or what you want to do, just because it may "put you back" in a life plan thats completely different to others. Intelligence makes us who we are, whether your IQ is high or low, and everyone is unique and brings something positive to "the table" as you could say. The one thing to always keep in mind is to not simply stay within your boundaries either, if you go outside of what you already know and learn something new you could possibly find a new passion, or even something you hate, but it will still better you in a way as long as you look for the good in it, as cliche as that sounds. 

Sorry for the late night ramblings, and I guess this is a result from not being able to sleep haha. 

Realizations.

It is literally only 12 days until summer session 2 ends, 28 days until the semester starts, 39 days until recruitment, and 137 days until graduation. I have absolutely no idea where the summer has gone, but more so where the entire year has gone so far. Guess that comes with the being busy all the time, but still it seems like the year has just started. 

I saw a picture not too long ago and it was about college. It said something along the lines of "Freshman: I have no idea what I'm doing. Senior: Still have no idea what I'm doing." 

This is basically how I feel about everything. You fail to realize how much is coming up, well, until you finally sit down and look at a calendar. There was so much I was wanting to do this summer, most of which I wasn't able to get done, but the memories made in place of those were completely worth it. I am learning more and more that time is something that I need to stop taking for granted, and that sometimes you do need to stop and smell the roses, but only do that if they smell good.

The next month is going to be insane from ordering announcements, cap and gown, still needing to purchase books (but lets put that off as long as possible), probably should order my class ring, among needing to do many other things. As excited as I am for Fall semester to begin the nerves are finally starting to really set in, and I am currently unsure about how I really feel about adulthood approaching fast. I would much rather go back to childhood where we had naps and could watch Disney movies as much as our heart desired, but sadly that is looked down upon when you have responsibilities, le sigh.

Of course I sit here and now my mind is going in a million different directions, and those who know me know thats a tendency that happens when I really should be focusing on other things at the moment, like putting all of my laundry up. Procrastination is good for the soul, and its what I do best sadly. 

I'm just going to leave this here in the meantime, and am going to attempt to organize some of these thoughts (and clothing) even though its mainly going to end up in me dancing around my room, because what other way is there to clean?

Today & Forver

I meant to post this on Saturday, but came home exhausted from retreat, and ended up passing out before going to Top Golf. Needless to say this is a very late post, but it is about one of the things I hold near and dear to my heart, my sisters and my chapter, Zeta Tau Alpha. Just a disclaimer: this is in no way me trying to convince anyone to go greek (unless you want to), this is simply my view and opinion on everything, and is my view on greek life.

I know many people have formed an opinion of what they think greek life truly is based upon what they have seen in movies, tv shows, news articles, or what it is portrayed to be. Although many people have formed these opinions, they don't see that there is much more that goes on besides the "constant partying" that they think happens everywhere. Many fail to see that thousands of dollars are raised each year, by each chapter across the nation, for various philanthropies. They also fail to see the community service hours put in, the networking, the lifelong friendships, and most importantly is the fact that everyone is growing into a better form of who they are while also contributing to the well being of those around them and complete strangers also. Granted there are going to be formals, parties, events, socializing, and everything and anything between, but some of the most memorable are nights like the ones I had this weekend with my sisters.

Friday was the beginning of our chapter retreat to help prepare us for recruitment, and to establish what goals we wanted to achieve as a whole. I'm not going to lie, the main reason I was excited for this was to see the sisters I hadn't seen since spring semester ended, but in the end Friday and Saturday were both extremely memorable days. After I finally managed to get checked in and stopped dropping things out of my bag (Thank you Elissa, Jordan, and Maddison for the help to get everything to my room/picked back up) I finally got to see some of my Zeta fam, and ended up going to dinner with mainly Fall 13, and some Spring 14 members. The walk to the restaurant was hilarious with the conversations shared, and its safe to say that no topic is off limits when talking to all of them.

When people think of a sorority they generally think of a cookie cutter image that every single member has to fit, but I am proud to say that I am a member of a very diversified sorority and we all manage to blend together, and this was definitely shown once the retreat actually started. Everyone was able to voice their opinion on different things, and also what we all thought could help enhance our chapter. There were so many things that made me realize that each and every single one of us are what makes this chapter important, and that we all have an impact on the chapter.

Friday night was great and even more entertaining once we got back to the hotel, and I certainly was not expecting to be up until 430 am still laughing and making friends with people I hadn't really had the chance to hangout with before that night. "On July 10th...." is one thing that is going to make me laugh for some time to come, and I definitely did not expect that we would gain an additional 3 people in our room for the night, but its one thing I definitely wouldn't change about the retreat. 

Saturday included some of the same things from Friday night, but we also did many team building exercises. My favorite was when we all had a piece of paper taped to our back, and you had to go around and write nice things about the person and they weren't allowed to see it until the end of the exercise. This was the last thing, and its probably a good thing that it was seeing as when I started to read the paper I had a few tears almost fall. There were several people who told me that I was someone that they looked up to within the chapter and that I was their role model, and even a couple "Mermaids" thrown in there haha. The one that affected me most was being told I was the reason that someone had stayed in ZTA. I would never have expected to read that, seeing I have only been in since Spring 13, but to know I have been able to have a positive impact on people within the chapter made me feel like this was definitely the place I belong.

Regardless of where my life may take me I know that I have made not only sisters, but lifelong friends. The idea that people are paying for their friends is far from the truth, you are paying for the events you compete in or for formals and date parties. The bond that you make with sisters, advisors, and even members of other greek organizations is not something that can be purchased, only because it is so much more than that. Originally I did not want to rush and had every intention of doing the complete opposite of becoming a member of a sorority based on what I had to deal with when I used to work events for another universities greek life, but I can say going greek was the best decision of my life. 

I know when I walk across the stage this December many things are going to change, and at the end of the day some people will come just like some people will go, but many of the people I have around me now are going to be in my life for years to come. Whether it may be someone in my family or not, if its someone I meet years from now when I am alumni, or even some sisters I had the opportunity of meeting in PCB, every single one of us have something in common even if its the only thing, and friendships can be formed on that. College may be the best years of our lives, but I know the best years will not only stop here, but will continue forever. 

Today and forever we’ll be Zetas true

We’ll honor our colors the grey and the blue.

A million tomorrows will all pass away 

Ere we forget all the joys that we have today.

My Texas

This month has been amazing (and its only halfway done!), from Casey Donahew giving me a shout out and telling me happy birthday on the radio, meeting Josh Abbott, 4th of July weekend in general, and seeing sisters and friends last night that I hadn't been able to spend time with since spring semester ended. Just a slight view into who I am: I am one of those people who has a very varied taste in music, but country and alt/indie are my all time favorites, and anyone who knows me knows that I have a passion for dancing also. 

Rockin Rodeo was celebrating their 9th birthday since opening, and through a little birdie I managed to find out that Josh Abbott was going to be playing. Regardless of how many times I attend one of their concerts, they are always amazing, just like many country artists. There's just something about being in the South that makes everything better, and seeing how the only dancing competitions that are going to be held in college (unless you are a dance major or on the university dance team) are going to be Homecoming or Greek Week, the country bars are my reprieve. 

There's just something about being able to leave all your stress and worries on the dance floor, and maybe its just me but its an instant mood booster. Being able to enjoy this night out with many of my close friends was amazing, and thats even an understatement. Its time to enjoy these moments now while retaking an intro class for a better grade, as compared as trying to enjoy a concert this fall when life is going to be chaotic with everything that will be going on. Besides, who can turn down a $10 concert for an amazing Texas Country artist?! If you can, then you may be a slight on the insane side, well if thats your cup of tea. 

I know there are going to be nights out dancing no matter what the next few months hold, it's kind of mandatory to happen at least twice a month. There are also several of my friends who wouldn't even give me the option, but would instead literally drag me out with them if they had the chance. Here are a few photos from last night, and just a slight view into the fun that was had. Needless to say it needs to happen again, stat. 

Throw what you know, ZLAM (zeta love and always mine) 

It's not even possible to have better people in my life than I do right now to make memories with. Whether its at a concert, dancing and getting my hair stuck in my friends beard (sorry bout that! haha), nights on the lake, meeting one of my favorite country artists, or even simply being at someones apartment talking (and even the texts with some people, you know who you are), the people in my life are the best and are irreplaceable. Fall cannot come soon enough so that more time can be spent in Denton. 

I hope everyone has a good day, and for those of my sisters who read this, can't wait to see y'all at the chapter retreat tomorrow :)