Resolutions

A friend of mine posted this online and I absolutely love it! I'm going to add a few of my own side comments for good measure.

Twenty New Year's Resolutions for Twenty Somethings

1. Before you status update, Tweet, Tumble or Instagram, pause and say to yourself, “is it entirely necessary that I share this morsel of thought with my entire social network?”and if the answer is not, “yes, I absolutely must,” then step away from the Internet.  I wish some people would really take this to heart. Granted, everything I put up on the Internets is definitely not worthy of everyone's viewing and definitely not thought provoking, however, one of my favorite things that one of my girlfriend's says about people who use the Internet to express their emotions: "Write it in your journal, or put it in a card."
2. Know which candidate you’re going to vote for in the upcoming presidential election, and know why.
3. Enough with the 14-day juice cleanses. If you want to lose a little weight quickly, eat less and exercise like crazy. If you want to lose a lot of weight slowly, do whatever Jennifer Hudson did.  I feel like we are all enough to understand that crazy diets do not work, but people in their twenties and older still do them.. I'll never understand why.
4. If you really like the person you’re hooking up with and would like them to be your boyfriend/girlfriend, find a way to tell them, and hope for the best. If you don’t and wouldn’t, stop.  More people should take this route, and I should have done so as well in a few past circumstances. What's the worst that could happen?
5. Find a way to save approximately 300 dollars and spend it on a flight to see a friend or family member who lives far away.  Noted! The experience of traveling to see one of your favorite people definitely outweighs three unnecessary trips to Target.
6. Please stop liking the Kardashians, all of them. It’s not helping anyone, least of all the Kardashians.  More specifically, please stop paying ANY attention to Kim. I've actually fallen a little bit in love with Kourtney and Khloe, but Kim has got to be the worst person in America.
7. Spend less than or equal to the money you earn each month.  Going to promise to at least try to work on this.
8. Wear clothes that fit you, especially to work.  HA!!!!
9. Call someone on the phone at least once a week, and speak to him or her for at least ten minutes.
10. Start preparing now to get over the fact that Facebook is probably going to change again in six months. You’re not going to deactivate your account. You don’t know how.  I also don't know how to unfriend people or restrict them from my profile information. It's getting a big ridiculous... oh, look - there I go complaining about Facebook.
11. Wait 30 seconds before you look up a fact you can’t remember on your phone, and try to remember it using your brain. This is what the olden days were like.
12. Replace one terrible reality show you’re currently watching with one wonderful scripted show currently available on television.  Swap suggestion: Real Housewives of Anywhere for HBO’s Enlightened.  Unfortunately I can't follow this one. The RH franchise has sucked me in and I don't have much room in my life for anything else to watch.
13. Try that food you think you don’t like but have never actually tried, unless it’s brussels sprouts. They really don’t need any more attention.  I'll never understand why people hate on brussels sprouts. They're delicious.
14. Cut one person out of your life who you truly do not like and add one person who you truly do. Note: not on Facebook, on Earth.  I think I'm finally at a point in my life where I truly enjoy everyone in my life. I think... I'll have to get back to you on that because now tomorrow I'm going to get a phone call from that one person I really want to cut but can't seem to find the scissors to do it and I'll remember the fact that there are still people in my life that I truly do not like.
15. If you’re still blacking out regularly, you should stop.  Who said 2012 meant not having fun?
16. Volunteer once over the next 90 days.  You’ll feel really good about it, and probably end up volunteering again over the next 275.
17.  Tell someone who you love that you love them on a more regular basis. To their face, not in a text.
18. Back up your entire online life onto an external hard drive, especially your photos.  This is something that I seriously need to work on.
19. Crap or get off the pot. This applies to whatever thing you’re not doing that you should just sack up and do already.  Wonderfully said.
20.  And in the eternal words of Tom Haverford, “TREAT YO SELF!”  If you have never watched this video, do it now. And seriously, treat yo self.

Leaping into 2012

Well, well, well... look who took another sabbatical from blogging! I was catching up on reading my best girl's blog last night and felt the need to catch up with my blog as well.

Cheers!

It's currently 6:16 p.m. on New Year's Eve and I'll soon be prepping for a night of love and laughter with some friends to ring in 2012 on a positive note. In the past hour I got to thinking about all of the many things that happened in 2011 that change my whole life and many of the fun and exciting things I was lucky enough to experience. It made me realize how much of a lucky girl I was in 2011 and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be just as blessed in 2012.

1 - I took some fantastic trips this year! Nashville, Chicago, Louisville, New York, and Las Vegas. I experienced these cities with both friends and family and each trip created some amazing memories.
2 - I came into my own in my new career and allowed myself to fall madly in love with it. The school I was at last year was rough and the group I had was probably one of the toughest to handle, but about midway through the year (and especially after that dreaded FCAT), I realized how great I am at this and what an amazing decision I made to follow my heart and go into teaching. The students I had last year taught me as much as I taught them and they'll forever have a huge place in my heart. Leaving them at the end of the school year was absolutely heartbreaking, but I feel so lucky to have had them as my first class.
3 - I met a boy who, while he's no longer in my life, showed me that I am deserving of a lot. While going our separate ways was inevitable, he's one of the best treasures I've ever found and treated me like he felt the same.
4 - I became a godmother! It meant the absolute world to me when one of my very favorite people asked me to be the godmother to her son. Lucas is the most precious little boy in the world and it's such a special feeling to be a part of his life.
5 - I moved to a new city (sort of). I'm experiencing my 'hometown' (I don't know that I'll ever consider it my hometown as Louisville is what my family considers our real home) in a very different way than I ever had before. I moved back after getting a job at a school over here, but I only ever lived here with my parents and knew nothing about life outside of their home. I'm living in a bustling part of this city and it's exciting to see all the things I haven't experienced before, even though I had lived here for 12 years before college!
6 - I got a job that many teachers dream of. While I'm still trying to love my new school, it really is in a fantastic location and I've had a lot of opportunities to develop myself and leadership more into the world of education.
7 - I saw Garth Brooks in concert. "Just put me in a coffin and bury me," were my exact words to my dad when I called him to thank him for getting us tickets to see my ALL. TIME. FAVORITE. singer... IN. THE. WORLD. Being six rows away from Garth Brooks, in an intimate concert, was one of the very coolest experiences that I'll ever have.

There are a bajillion other things I could list. But thinking about all of these things helped me to realize that 2011 really was amazing and that there are probably many more amazing things in store for me in 2012! I'm excited for the future and all that is to come!

Same old story, but lots of new details

It's been a while AGAIN.. I know. Sorry to all of my millions of fans and followers who anxiously await these fantastic posts. :)

Well life sure has taken me for a ride as of late. Mid-summer I was offered a teaching job at a school in Orlando and it seemed like a very good opportunity compared to where I had been teaching. I accepted and was immediately thrown into looking for a new place to live and planning a move in the middle of vacations and trying to soak up my summer and life in Tampa as much as possible. All of this happening without really thinking -- oh shit, I'm leaving my whole life behind.

Yes, of course it's not a long distance. Thank goodness I can go see my friends whenever I want, but after living in one city for almost 9 whole years and then leaving can really be a bit traumatizing. I was too busy preparing for my new life to really realize that there was going to be a new life. I looked at all of the positives and tried to ignore that voice in the back of my head saying "Bitch! We aren't ready for this kind of change!" The week before the move I was on vacation in New York, pretty much moved right after I came back, and immediately after the move I started work that Monday. I was busy enjoying my new work environment and getting my new apartment set up and still not allowing myself to listen to that voice searching for my attention, still calling out to me, "This is a lot of change homegirl, you betta reckanize." (Yes I do get sassy inside my own head on the reg.)

It wasn't until I actually went back to Tampa to visit a friend in town 3 weeks after my move that it really hit me. I don't live here anymore, holy shit. And again, people may wonder why it's such a big deal... but this little lady does not like change. I was comfortable. I knew everyone around me. I knew my surroundings like the back of my hand. It was my home. It broke my heart to drive past my old apartment complex, to go to the bars I used to frequent on an almost weekly basis, to know that everyone I was seeing was able to stay there - in our old routine - and I had to leave in a couple of days. Once I got back to Orlando I was almost devastated. I couldn't stop feeling like I'd made the biggest mistake by moving to Orlando, the place I technically grew up and was supposed to be 'home' for me. It was a very rough week of trying to convince myself that it would all work out and it's all happened for a reason.

My affection for Tampa is so strong because I feel like that is the place I actually grew up. I went to college there, met the best friends in the world, met the boys I loved and lost, experienced firsts of almost every kind, and really grew into and became a person I am so proud of being based on everything that was experienced and happened there.

It's been, and still is, a rough transition. It's been just over a month since my move. I still miss my old apartment, my comfort of knowing that city, my bars and nightlife, and of course my friends in Tampa. However I'm slowly forcing myself to adjust. Luckily I have been able to see the bright side of my career opportunities at my new school, and decided to take serious advantage of the friends and family that I do have here in order to build upon the life I left behind.