Back To The Start

Hi guys! Sorry I forgot about all of you for a little bit, life has been…well, quite filling lately! I realized the other day that I missed blogging/journaling. Just being able to write down my thoughts and emotions and be able to look back on my past experiences and life lessons and smile a little bit. I’ve come a long way from where this blog first began. I’ve matured, physically and mentally and emotionally too. I’ve gotten myself into situations, both good and bad, that have lead me to be the person I am today. So I thought it would be fun to share them with you all 🙂

So this summer I’m actually in Boston, Massachusetts (still can’t spell Massachusetts without the help of autocorrect, haha) working for one of my dream companies, Vic Firth! For those who don’t know, Vic Firth is a drum stick and percussion mallet company. I am in the offices in Hyde Park where we deal with all of the shipments, the social media, the accounting, the customer services, and the artist relations that go into this 52 year old company. It’s a lot of fun, not as hands on as I had hoped, but nonetheless a fantastic opportunity that I have been blessed with.

Living in Boston has been a great experience as well. I’m in a house with 5 other people, all of us kind of doing our own thing. None of us are super close to each other, so it has been a very independent summer to say the least. I have explored the city of Boston and visited amazing restaurants and historic landmarks by myself a lot, which wasn’t easy at first but has become much easier as I’ve “practiced.” I feel like this is the biggest skill I have gained this summer, being independent and able to live and thrive on my own. It makes me feel ready to take on the real world after college in many ways. While I don’t necessarily enjoy the solitude and lack of partners to go adventure with, I have been looking for the silver lining. I can do things at my own pace which is nice. So I don’t feel bad if I want to change my plans around at a whim and stay in for the night or buy a reasonably expensive meal for myself. I am very much looking forward to going home though and being with my friends and family for a few weeks before school starts.

Crazy to think I’m a senior in college now. And to be honest, I still have no idea what I want to do after I graduate in May. Honestly, I’m not too scared though. Because I have options. What I mean is I have a handful of companies that I have been in contact with over the past few years or months that I feel like I would enjoy working for and that there are opportunities that I want to pursue with them. Sometimes (actually, a lot of the time) I feel like I’m not meant for “real” jobs. I don’t want a 9-5 Monday to Friday kind of job. I don’t want consistency, at least not at first. I want to be on my feet, outside, traveling, interacting, enjoying myself. I want to make people happy and I want to make a difference in the world, those are the main two things I want to aim for in my career moving forward.

Just a few hours before this, I took a look at my bucket list from a while ago. I hadn’t edited that thing in years! There were still things on it like “Hike Mt. Everest,” and “Fly to the Moon,” things I realistically can say I will never accomplish in my lifetime. So I went through the whole thing and kind of revised it. I got rid of the ridiculous goals, the ones I really don’t expect to ever happen. I downgraded others, like changing “Compete in a Triathlon,” to “Run a half marathon.” I checked off the ones I had done so far, which were a lot surprisingly! And I added a few new goals, ones that I have discovered about myself over the past few months of introspection. I feel like I have been drifting away from the person I really am recently, and I have been fighting to understand who I really am; as a person and a friend and a lover and a human being. But that story I will save for another post 😉

So I will leave you all with this update on my life. I hope everyone else following along is doing well and enjoying life and being the beautiful creatures that we are meant to be. I’ll leave you all with a little quote: “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”

Happy Weekend 🙂

The Power of Touch

So yesterday I went to the eye doctors just for a regular eye exam and to get some new contacts, nothing too big. I was quickly escorted back to the eye exam room and told to get comfortable in the chair with all the equipment around it. As the doctor performed her tests – asking me “1 or 2,” “2 or 3,” “4 or 3,” over and over – a thought crossed my mind.

I was really enjoying the exam, almost feeling happier because of it, and I couldn’t quite tell why. Until I realized it was the touch of the metal machine on my face, on my chin, the head rest on the back of my neck, my lower back pressed against the chair. Even though the doctor wasn’t touching me, the sheer act of being touched by those machines was improving my mood and making me feel more loose, more comfortable.

At first I was a little confused by my feelings. Was I getting turned by eye exam equipment? No, but I was experiencing some sort of chemicals being released into my body, mixing together, and resulting in a very warm wave radiating through my chest and my shoulders. Just by being touched, held and supported by the chair and machine, I was feeling the same emotional response as I would from receiving a hug or being held by someone.

Physical touch is so utterly vital to our moods and emotions that it blows my mind. Our brain somehow senses the comfort and happiness we are feeling when hugging a friend or spooning on the couch or just holding hands, and releases these natural substances throughout our body. Without them being released, something is just…missing. You don’t feel complete, you don’t feel 100% in the moment. All from touch, the power touch has on us.

I’d love to hear if anyone else has noticed this as well and what their thoughts are 🙂 Also open to a good conversation! Have a great Saturday though guys!

Let Love In

This is one of my new years resolutions. I’m not really all that big on new years resolutions, because I feel that if you put your mind to it you can begin a resolution whenever you want. But while I was sitting at my aunt’s house with the rest of my extended family, I couldn’t help but think about the possibility of having a girl next to me. Someone to share a new year’s kiss with, someone to talk to about all the funny stories our family has been a part of, someone to hold that night, to eat breakfast with the next morning, and to sit next to on the car ride home. I wouldn’t mind the cramped back seat, with our shoulders rubbing because of how squished we were in our tiny Subaru. I would love every second of it.

I went to a party last night. Just over at a friend’s place, nothing special. Literally, NOTHING special. I realized once I got there just how often our group of friends did the same thing every weekend. I felt like I was getting into a rut. I left an hour later. And as the cold wind blew on my face as I walked home, I couldn’t help of thinking back to the new years party, wishing I had someone to walk besides, someones hand to hold as we crossed the street. Someone to whisper to as we got in bed and tried not to wake my already sleeping roommate. Just someone.

I’ve been in a handful of relationships during my life, two really major ones, one which lasted the last year and a half of high school, and the other which stretched through the first two years of college. I learned a lot from these experiences, a lot more than I would have imagined. I always feel like we take away something very important from the relationships we are in, even if they end terribly or only last a few weeks. I didn’t treat these two girls nearly as well as I should/could have, and I realize that after the fact. I was younger, less mature, and just not 100% in the relationship.

But now I’m ready. I’m ready for miss right to show her face. I want her to be beautiful and smart and talkative. I want her to get shy when she gets nervous, I want her to laugh when we make mistakes together. And I want that cute booty, I want it to tease me constantly. I know she’s out there, it’s only a matter of time. But don’t you think she could be a little considerate and show her face soon. I’m starting to worry she’s not out there…

A Rambling Post about My Life (no, but really)

Wow, it has been quite some time since I’ve written anything… Amazing how that happens, time just escapes you and you forget this all existed. Well, nonetheless, I am back!

It’s been a fun past few weeks. Just to update my life, my internship with Crowne Plaza has ended, and it’s been very bittersweet. I knew I didn’t want to end up there forever (there are countless things that they do at the Crowne that I don’t approve of, and neither do my college textbooks…) but at the same time I’m going to miss the people and the fun of working events. I have since started setting up my next job, working aaaat… (drumroll please) STARBUCKS! I’m super excited to be a barista, and work in a coffee shop, something I’ve wanted to do for a while now! So that will begin in a few weeks then and hopefully will be my job for at least the next year or two.

In other news, I won this online contest provided by a local tennis store and got $100 worth of free Nike tennis clothes. First, turns out that can only really buy you two pairs of shorts and a nice shirt…crazy… But more importantly, I didn’t think I would use the free clothing to its fullest extent, so I took my little brother (a tennis professional (not really, but maybe someday)) and let him pick everything out for himself. I figured he would appreciate it and use the clothes more than I would, so yea!

I realize this is an update on my life that no one really knows about, but I’m honestly just enjoying writing about it. I’ve been needing to talk to one of my best friends (whom I just texted after writing that) about my life and my summer and such. And obviously it would be nice to hear how she is doing too…

LESSON FROM THIS POST: Call your best friend who you haven’t talked to in a while. You won’t regret it 🙂

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

Life Is Beautiful

Today, I feel alive. I feel free and alive, like a bird gliding over the crisp blue water of an ocean. This week has gone from mediocre on Monday to a whole new life on Friday. To summarize it all (which sounds hard, but surprisingly isn’t), I got rid of the bad in my life and filled it with good instead.

This means leaving a job that was not enjoyable (which I did on Sunday, kinda), and replacing it with much more enjoyable and exciting job. This means replacing time wasted on Facebook with quality, face-to-face family time without the distractions of technology. This means living life to the fullest Every. Single. Day. and never taking a day for granted.

Life is truly beautiful, sometimes it just takes some change to see the true beauty. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend 🙂

A Very Inspirational Weekend

So this weekend, more than other weekend, was especially inspirational for myself. I don’t know if it was the fact that I had a long car ride to think in, or that I saw a lot of family, both young and old, that I hadn’t seen for a while. Or it could possibly have been because I turned 20 this Friday. Either way, I realized a couple of things.

First of all, I learned that being 20, though not much different from being 19, (21 is where it all happens, boy will I feel old when next year rolls around…) is filled with many more responsibilities. No more being a teenager, time to grow up and face the real world. Time to put work before fun (but occasionally the other way around), and start getting a little more serious about my life after college. A big part of this summer is devoted to figuring out what I, essentially, “want to do with my life,” so I feel like now I need to start taking this task more seriously and explore all the options that really interest me.

I also realized a couple other little things, such as the fact that I love to cook so I should be doing that more and exploring different recipes and ingredients and such. Also, I would like to learn to ride a motorcycle one day, not only because it looks fun, but because of its fuel efficiency and its convenience. And lastly, if I want my children to have good relationships with their aunts, uncles, and cousins, then I need to have a better relationship and outlook on my cousins now. My cousins are a little bit strange, but really who isn’t? So seeing them this weekend made me feel better about them and I was able to talk with them more than I usually do when they visit.

Overall, a great weekend. For anyone following along at home, I haven’t posted in a while on here, but I hope to pick that up a little more because I enjoy blogging for myself and hopefully getting feedback from other bloggers like myself. So I will be posting more frequently! Until then, have a wonderful day! 🙂

How to Calm Down, Relax, and Just Breathe

Life can be stressful sometimes, I should know as a college student trying to figure out my life. The world feels like it’s always moving, never stopping. When one deadline ends it seems as though another one magically appears. A constant cycle of doing but never feeling like anything is actually getting done.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming. The stress to do well in school or at work, to financially support yourself, to spend time with those you love when all you can think about is how late you are going to be up tonight doing homework or writing a proposal. One thing after another can start building up, creating a mountain of thoughts floating through your brain, things that need to get done before their deadline hits. Emotion rise, tension builds, until it bursts like a volcano, overflowing at the brim. Tears come out and there is no way to stop them. You feel weak, hopeless, not good enough. You crumble to pieces.

Life isn’t easy, no one ever said it would be. That is why I think everyone needs an outlet or a source that they can go to and know that everything is alright. Some people need to vent to feel better. You feel lighter after releasing all the stress that has been been kept inside of you. Some people need a good cry to let it all out. There’s nothing wrong with that, even guys need to cry. Some resort to a more physical source, maybe yoga or running. Whatever it is, I feel it needs to be personal, more often than not alone, and it needs to be true to you. Just because a certain method works for someone else doesn’t make it right for you.

Personally, I like to resort to music.

I’ve discovered a lot about myself these past few months. I am a better person now because of everything, but it was a long, stressful, mentally and physically straining process. But what has gotten me through it all is relaxing music. Being able to take 5 minutes out of my day and listen to a smooth instrumental piece, feeling the melodies and sounds flowing over my body, relaxing my breathing and heart rate. 

I would like to share with you one piece in particular that has been a big help in feeling less stressed. It is titled So It Goes, by Greg Haines. It can be found on YouTube, or at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKCf4Y4Y8IU

If you ever need help or feel lost, I am there for you. Give this song a listen, it helped me and I can only hope to pass on what I have discovered to someone else. 

Put Down the Phone and Welcome to the Real World

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot more of the tops of people’s heads while walking around campus. It’s not because I’m getting taller, or because people are getting shorter, or because the tops of heads interest me. It’s because of technology, specifically cell phones.

I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about when I say a good majority of people are constantly on their cell phones, absorbed into technology like zombies. Strolling around the mall, walking on the sidewalk, at the gym, right before they go to bed at night and as soon as they wake up in the morning. Smart phones have taken over people’s lives, it’s the sad truth. As they stare down at whatever device is in their hands, all I can do is shake my head at them and walk on.

It has become a major issue, the fact that a lot of people are so reliant on technology that they feel the need to always be connected to the internet and to share every single picture or event that happens to them. We all know people like this, and become really annoying after a while. How do they even have enough time to post 30 Facebook statuses in one day? Whose attention are they trying to get with all these messages? And what’s the point really?

I think the whole downward spiral of face-to-face communication all began with texting. It gave people the ability to keep two separate conversations going at once; one with the person in front of their face, and one with a person anywhere in the world. It was convenient, easy to use, and best of all it provided instant feedback – something that has become more difficult for people to live without. Today, the same still holds true, sometimes rising to a more serious level.

Quite frankly, I think texting is terrible. I would much rather see someone face-to-face or at the very least call them on the phone rather than text them. Unlike texting, verbal communication provides so much more emotion and feeling that texting can’t provide (but tries to with the use of emoji’s). Also, texting can be taken many different ways, which can end in arguments or major miscommunications. I do admit, it is convenient, but that’s where the positives end.

As sort of a snowball effect (speaking of, how ‘bout this weather), manners and proper etiquette have gone out the window along with face-to-face communication skills. It’s rare that I can count on people to be on time to events because everyone has resorted to being “fashionably late,” which I don’t think is very fashionable at all. When I visit a store or a restaurant, it’s rare to see employees my age looking at me when they talk to me, being proficient in the work they do, or providing customer service when I have a question or a problem. Now that could be the fact that it’s a little bit awkward to treat a customer that is your age the same as an adult customer, but those kinds of situations are something we need to get more acquainted with as younger generations start to become the primary job holders.

But contrary to everything that is going on in the world, I think chivalry isn’t dead. I’ve seen signs that there is hope. People still hold the door for me, occasionally, and sometimes I hear the words “please,” “excuse me” and “thank you” as I ride the bus around campus. These are little things, but sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference, and these little things are a good start to getting better at face-to-face communication.

I hope those who read this can see that technology and our cell phones are pulling us farther away from each other. So put away your phone for a little while, don’t worry about who might send you a video of a cute kitten chasing its tail in the next hour. Other people can wait while you enjoy yourself. It’s not your job to respond to everything thrown at you 5 seconds after it happens. So put away your phone, look up, smile, and take a deep breath and take it all in. Welcome to the real world.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving this year was spent in Westport, Connecticut at my aunt and uncle’s new house. The house was only completed a couple months before last year’s Thanksgiving, so that was the “breaking-the-house-in” Thanksgiving so to speak. This year’s holiday has been much more relaxed in comparison to last years, considering the house has been lived in for more than just a few months. With family and friends gathered around the dining room table, (piled high with the traditional recipes – such as turkey, stuffing and ratatouille) it is nice to be spending a calmer Thanksgiving with those closest to me. It’s always a rare occasion to get everyone together for the holidays, and the fact that we hail from Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Maryland, Connecticut and Virginia doesn’t make it any easier. But this year, all but one of the cousins (who happened to be off in China traveling, lucky guy) is accounted for.

After plenty of hordervers, a heaping plate of food, some homemade pumpkin pie, a couple of home videos, two or three friendly games of billiards, and the chance to meet some new friends of the family, it was off to bed. It’s true what they say, turkey and good conversation really do make you sleepy. Even day-old turkey is having the same effect on me as I lounge on one of the couches, yawning intermittently as I type away at this piece. But last night, as I lay in my makeshift bed, I couldn’t help but think of all the things that I should be thankful for.

There are a couple different categories of things that I think we should all be thankful for in life. The basics are, of course, the health (mental, physical and emotional) of ourselves and our family, and the happiness we all share together. I think the friends and family that we have are extremely important as well, whether they are surrounding us at the dinner table or are thousands of miles away. And lastly, the physical possessions that we have either earned or that have been given to us.

Along with these ideas, most of which are fairly basic and which cross my mind frequently, there are other more individualistic things that I am happy for as well. Often when I think of the past, I think about where I am today and the journey I’ve taken to get here. From starting my schooling career in Pennsylvania in 3rd grade to now being close to done with my 3rd semester of college, a lot of time has passed from then until now, time that has been filled with memories and adventures from elementary school to well through high school.

Along this line, I am very thankful for where I am today. I’m thankful for the college I am a part of every single day, even when I’m not in class or even on campus. I’m thankful for the knowledge I have learned at school, which has helped me get to where I am today. Being a hospitality major, people think that all we learn how to do is hold doors. But in reality, the knowledge I have gained from these classes has helped me succeed in my field of work as well as in my everyday interactions with new people and working on projects. With the future being a common topic around the Thanksgiving dinner table, I’m glad I have a plan in the works for mine.

Plans sometimes don’t always work out though. We often forget that the unexpected is always lurking around the corner, easily able to turn a seemingly flawless plan into a disaster. But those failed plans can always become equally fun memories, another thing to be thankful for. The experiences behind these memories are something I always hold close to my heart. Over the summer, I discovered a quote from the famous author/composer who goes by the name “anonymous,” that said, “In a world where all is, in the end, ash, the only real moments of glory we have are in the moments of experience.” When you think about the world we live in this way, I think it really rings true to the fact that our lives are what we make of them. We are not defined by the things we own, but by what we do with those things.

Life is precious, it really is. Each day that we have on earth is a gift, and it’s our job to accept that gift and make the most out of it. Thanksgiving is a very special idea, a holiday that gives us a set date and an excuse to think about the things we are thankful for. But in reality, every day should be treated this way.

Only a few minutes before I began writing this article, at the top of my Facebook page was a post from an old friend about the unexpected passing of his grandmother. I knew his grandma well. She was a substitute teacher at my high school for a long time. She was strict to those she wasn’t familiar with, but once she got to know you, she was a very kind hearted and sweet lady. I can only imagine that the life of a substitute teacher must be an interesting one. A different class every day. A new adventure every morning.

This is exactly how she lived her life though, like it was a new adventure every morning. Each day was a new page in the book of life for her, and she was very thankful for every one of those days. At the end of the Facebook post, my friend wrote, “To everyone else who reads this, do yourself a favor and live each day like it’s your last because there’s no real way of knowing when that day will come.”

That day could be today. That day could be tomorrow.That’s the excitement of life; you never know what it may bring. Sometimes the thought scares me, but other times it energizes me. We are only guaranteed the present, the future is merely a thought in our minds. If today was your last day on earth, would you be happy with what you had accomplished in life thus far? Or would you be filled with regret, wishing you had said yes to some things you had said no to?

So, to everyone who reads this, do yourself a favor and live each day like it’s your last, because there is no real way of knowing when that day will come. Be thankful for today and every day for what you have. Life is a gift, accept it and reap the benefits of every single day.