Hey guys!
So I decided to make a new blog because I felt that this blog wasn’t really reflective of who I am/what I originally wanted to blog about. This blog will still remain here cuz I might go on it from time to time but i’ll mostly be on my new blog 🙂 Feel free to unfollow this blog and follow my new blog 😀
bye for now & thank you for following me
Find me on my new blog Science + Caffeine
Don’t let people discourage you. Go out there, follow your dreams, and defy expectations.
Waking up early in the morning can be such a drag. Your bed is so warm and comfy and the world outside your blanket cocoon isn’t. Morning people are successful people. The earlier you wake up, the more time you have to seize the day, so create a morning routine and stick with it!
Studies have shown that willpower is the strongest in the morning before you start to get exhausted and other priorities getting your way. Create your perfect morning ritual and stick with it! You will begin to see amazing results. So stop hitting the snooze button and read some of my tips for a more productive day!
|| Start Your Day With a Positive, Uplifting Message
What do you do when you first wake up? I know after I turn off my alarm, I’ll usually roll over, groggy eyed, roll some more and reach out for my phone to check my messages and other notifications. Lets be real, I don’t think I’m the only one. If you’re already going to be checking your phone, why not try adding this?
Put a motivating quote as your phone lock screen wallpaper or set it as an alarm so you can see it and start your day in a positive way. Similarly, you can download an app that sends you daily quotes. Just set it to send you quotes in the morning when you’re waking up so you get a new quote every day to help jumpstart your day.
|| Get Moving
Once you’ve actually rolled out of bed, get up and stretch a bit, walk around and get the blood flowing throughout your body! It can help to reduce pain and aches during the day.
You can also go for a full 30-min workout which can really help release endorphins that aid in making your day a positive, happy one. It can help you to kickstart your day with an extra burst of energy.
|| Look Good, Feel good
I know when I look good, I’ll feel better about myself and about the day. Confidence does come from within but my appearance can affect that. I know that if I don’t look my best, I won’t feel my best, thus lack in confidence. I am always sure to carve out a 10 minute window in my morning “getting ready” schedule for putting on make up and brushing my hair. Even if that just means putting on some lip gloss, it can really change my mindset about myself and my day. A full face of make up isn’t always necessary on a day to day basis. Try using tinted moisturizers with SPF to protect, hydrate your skin while providing some coverage. A couple coats of mascara and a nice lipstick is an easy way to look polished. I always try to pick my clothes the night before to save some time in the morning.
|| EAT Breakfast
One of the best ways to jump start your day is by eating a healthy, satisfying breakfast. Supercharge your energy to get the mind juices flowing. No one like a hangry you. If you’re constantly in a rush in the morning, stock up on fresh fruits that are easy to carry (apples, pears, etc) and granola bars. Easy grab n goes.
If you have a few minutes, sit down with a hearty bowl of cereal or oatmeal. Or blend up a green or fruit smoothie of some sort and drink it on your way to work, or wherever you’re headed that day.
|| Shower in the Morning
Showering in the mornings have allowed me to wake up my muscles and make me feel great. I’ll play some music and shower and have a little dance party as I shampoo my hair and such. Plus, showering in the morning will allow you to smell fab all day from your body wash (no need for extra perfume or body spray).
If you’re more of a shower at night person, I would still recommend maybe not shampooing in the morning but stepping in the shower for a quick body rinse just to wake up your muscles and to wash off anything that might have stuck to your skin during the night. Just as you wash/rinse your face in the morning, you should do the same with your body.
Those are just some of my tips on how I get ready in the morning to jumpstart my day 🙂
What do you do to jumpstart your day?
Hello lovely readers!
So next year me and two of my friends are going to live in a 4 bedroom apartment next year (whoop whoop)! Thing is though, theres only 3 of us and 4 bedrooms… So the apartment leaser people have paired us with a fourth roommate to fill all the rooms.
Basically, we just got our roommate assignment and my friends and I are terrified because all three of us had bad experiences with our previous roommates back in the dorms.
Shal hated her roommate (and honestly our whole dorm was terrified of her roommate) and her roommate ended up leaving our dorm. Shal ended up having her own room (one person in a double, so jealous).
Ashley (my roommate spring term) and her roommate did not get along at all. They did not get a long at all. No one in my dorm really liked her roommate because she was kind of annoying and was a moocher when it came to school work.
I had a semi-okay relationship with my old roommate (i think). We worked okay as roommates but we weren’t friends. We were acquaintances at most. Eventually, I ended up moving out of my room and switched rooms with Ashley’s roommate. So, Ashley and I became roommates.
We all just have bad luck with roommates so we’re hoping this new roommate isn’t like our previous roommates.
Wish us luck!
Have you had a bad roommate experience?
hey lovely readers!
So i decided it was time to claim my blog on Bloglovin and i’ll be completely honest, i have no clue what I’m doing. I’m still trying to figure out Bloglovin and stuff. I heard it was a great way to find new blogs to follow so I’m giving it a go/
Anyways, feel free to follow me there & let me know if you’re on Bloglovin and I’ll follow you there! (i think thats how it works i’m not sure…)
Can someone help me navigate Bloglovin?
You’ve got a lot on your plate. You try so hard everyday to make sure all of your work is beyond perfect, to make it look like you’ve got it all together. You want to accomplish everything and perfectly. You want to be it all.
But the truth is, you can’t and that’s perfectly okay.
I know the feeling of wanting to do everything and perfectly. I’m in the same boat. Upon starting college, I thought it would be fun to take 18 credits while being in the Marching Band and attend various club meetings and do community service. Within those 18 credits, I was taking Gen. Chemistry + Lab, Psychology, Calculus, etc. I thought “If i could handle 7 classes all four years of high school with Marching Band, Swim Team, and be active in clubs, I should be able to in college too.” I was wrong. By the end of my first term, I had already dropped one of my classes and was not active in many clubs I wanted to be in. I had put too much on my plate.
It’s hard to learn to balance everything and to please everyone. Everyone’s said that giving in is a sign of weakness, that you can’t handle life when things get complicated. And you want nothing to do with that. You want to challenges, to prove to people that you can handle challenges and do things well, not just half-ass it. It’s perfectly fine to dream big and to challenge yourself; how will you know your limits if you never test them? You want to be an overachiever and that’s perfectly okay. I know I am.
Also know that it’s perfectly okay to say no. It’s okay to take a step back and say, “I have too much going on and I can’t do everything at this moment”. Everyone has their limits eventually, if not your health will soon tell you when you’re about to hit your breaking point. Don’t start comparing yourself to others, just because others can take on a certain task while doing other work doesn’t always mean you can. You’re not them and that’s okay. Be inspired by them but don’t let them make you feel inferior to them just because you haven’t achieved their version of success.
Learn to let go. Take on new opportunities but also know your limits. Know when enough is enough. You’re only one person. One person who can achieve a lot but can’t do it all at once. Don’t loose sight of the end goal. Once you learn to let go and say no, you will soon begin achieving more.
But until that day comes,
don’t forget to live and to explore life.
What’s your “stress reliever”?
Hello awesome readers! My apologies for not writing much lately! haha i’m sure you missed me soooo much (sarcasm intended). Anyhoo, I’m finally on summer vacation (okay i’ve been on summer vacation for approx a month now hush).
Sadly, I began summer school last week so i’ve been focusing a lot on that. Hopefully now that I’ve finally been able to finalize my schedule (sort of…for now), I can write more regularly! Summer school is so blah. 6 weeks of intense school since they’ve basically packed 12 weeks of school into 6 weeks of summer….gross…
Okay, done complaining/explaining life.
Thanks for reading
Bye for now 🙂
ps if you’re on tumblr, feel free to follow me there (tropical // personal)
We tweet. We text. We lol. We omg. We blog. We write. We share. We communicate.
But do we really.
When was the last time you picked up your phone and actually called someone? Like used your phone for its original purpose. Remember, before phones had texting and internet and apps? Before smartphones? Before technology?
We share a lot about ourselves in various ways through social media. On Facebook, I share where I go to school and I share photos on online albums. On Instagram, I share photos, sharing little snippets of my life. On twitter, I write quick status update on whatever I’m doing in life. On WordPress, I write blog posts about things in my life or in the media. I text people, to make plans, to talk to people, to update people on my life.
Yes, technology has made my life easier. Sometimes, I feel like everyone is too addicted to technology and social media that they forget to talk to people.
Honestly, the last time I called someone was my parents, and part of the reason is because they don’t like to text.
People are loosing communication skills because they can just type it out and share it with a random crowd. No one really is talking face to face, or using their voices really. Everyone is a victim of hiding behind a screen and writing without showing their true emotion. I know I am. Typing out things allow me to hide my true feelings about things.
I vote that people should put down their phones, close their laptops, shut down their tablets and truly have a conversation with someone. Have coffee with someone and just talk. Like actually use your vocal chords that you were born with.
Do it.
Call someone.
Make plans.
See them in person.
Speak.
Communicate.
Actually communicate.
When was the last time you called someone or actually had a meaningful conversation with someone not through social media/with technology?
So a couple of days ago my friend, Jane* and I decided to hang out with our friend Anna*. Background: Jane, Anna, and I used to be best friends in middle school. We were inseparable and we managed to keep in touch throughout high school even though all three of us went to different schools.
*names changed for privacy purposes
Well, as you know I just finished my first year of high school and so did Jane. Anna chose not to go directly to college right after high school. Instead, she decided to take a gap year and studied abroad. Since she’s gone abroad, both Jane and I have had a harder time keeping in touch with Anna. Anna went and studied abroad with her evil friend, Sally*. Sally is a bad influence on Anna (in my opinion). Though it’s her life, I don’t think she’s made the best decisions with her life since befriending her.
ANYWAYS, I’m getting side tracked.
So a couple of days ago, Jane texted me asking me if I wanted to hang out because we hadn’t seen each other since spring break. I decided we should hang out with Anna as well because we hadn’t seen her in a year (she got back from studying abroad while we were finishing spring term). Jane and I knew it was going to be awkward since it’s been forever since either one of us had talked to Anna. I made a group text with Anna and Jane and we decided to grab dinner and to catch up on life.
Well, Jane picked me up early from my house (I didn’t want to drive) and we decided we wanted to get in-n-out fries because we were hungry and Anna was still babysitting. While we were getting fries, we decided to call Anna and ask her if she wanted food.
After, we met up Anna at a milk tea cafe downtown and things got real awkward real fast. As per usual, we said hi and stuff. After ordering our drinks, we sat down and started digging into our fries (we got animal style fries).
Animal-style fries (left), Regular fries (right). In-n-out, CA
Jane and I started asking Anna about her abroad adventures and how things were. Basically (and I kid you not), all she said was “it was fun”, “I don’t know where to begin”, and “it changed the way I view the world” and that was it. She didn’t tell us anything else. Not that I’m trying to pry into her life but it was more like I thought we were friends why are you talking to us like we’re like your aunts asking about life (you know, when you come back from college or someplace and people keep asking you the same questions over and over again).
It was really awkward. Like that was that. Anna didn’t really as us questions or anything either so we kinda sat in awkward silence at certain times. Jane and I would kinda make eye contact with each other because we were sitting across from each other and it was just weird I don’t even know how to explain it. 
Literally felt like ^ that Miley. I just didn’t know what to do. Eventually we started talking about childhood and how crazy it was that we’ve known each other for such a long time and stuff. Idk it was honestly more awkward than I was expecting. It almost felt like I was breaking up with someone but just didn’t know when or how to do it. After roughly 45 minutes of awkward chatting, Anna said she was very tired and had homework to do. (Anna is now enrolled at community college, still not sure of what she wants to do yet but just wants to get her gem-ed’s out of the way). So Jane, Anna, and I decided to part ways. Well Anna left and Jane and I stayed back and walked around downtown a bit to burn off some of the fries + milk tea we had consumed.
Overall, it was a super awkward night and I guess I won’t be hanging out with Anna much anymore (or at all really). It’s kinda sad to see a friendship go but I guess that’s kinda what happens over time. Friendship is a two way thing. I put in my effort in keeping the friendship alive, but if she doesn’t want to put in equal or any effort, then I guess that’s that. I don’t really want to try anymore if she doesn’t want to try and be friends anymore. Our interests have changed and I respect her choices. Jane and I are still friend and plan to continue to be close friends for a while, no matter the distance.
I’m just sad to see our friendship end. I’ve known both Anna and Jane since kindergarten. I guess I’ll see her around on Facebook and Instagram and other social media. Bye to ~13 years of friendship.
How did you meet your life long friends?
University of Oregon
Dear Freshman year,
It’s so sad to see this year come to an end. In less than a year you have taught me so much more about myself than I have in the four years of high school. When I first stepped foot on this beautiful campus as a shy awkward band kid, little did I know that I would grow so much. With every high and low, I learned something new. Life is unpredictable. Happiness can fade quickly but depression can turn around in a heartbeat. You taught me that every kind of person is worth getting to know. From the band kids to the greek life, and everyone in-between, there is something to learn and someone to get to know. You taught me what it means to be a good friend and that good friends become family when yours is thousands of miles away. Most importantly, you’ve taught me that life is full of surprises and to take nothing for granted. Sometimes I’ll walk in my room and find my roommate on the floor doing weird “stretches” and other times I’ll be joining her on the floor. Sometimes I wonder how I got blessed with her as a roommate and how I got into college.
Oregon, you’ve taught me how to live in the moment, and not be so worried about the future. So much more happens in one week at college than it does back home. Since being here, I’ve learned about the type of person I truly am and aspire to be — compassionate, driven, happy, loyal and adaptable. You taught me how to manage my time better, from marching band to balancing chemistry homework/exams. College is hard, not just because of the homework but because life is truly hard. I have learned to take more responsibility for my actions and what I choose to do. There is so much more to be responsible for when you don’t have your parents around to do things for you.
I have grown so much as a person since I’ve been here. I learned that getting a rejection will only open doors to other opportunities. I learned that when the going gets tough, just to take a break, watch netflix and snuggle with Baymax (I have a baymax pillow). In the end, I just wanted to say thank you to Oregon for accepting me into your community and welcoming me with open arms. Thank you for an amazing first year here, and I can’t wait for the next three years to come.
Always, Renée 