Grow and Enjoy

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

21 at 21 Bucket List

One of the ways that I am going to be purposefully enjoying each day is by trying to mark some things off my bucket list. A few of these items are long term goals or things that I know won't be feasible for this coming year. They are simply things that I know I want to do in the future.

For right now, I came up with 21 things to correspond to my age; but, I think bucket lists can grow and evolve. I will probably add more items as time goes on. The key to my bucket list is that these are all items that I believe I can accomplish and that I think I will truly enjoy. They did not come from a list of "What every 20-something should do." They are specific to my life and interests.

Listed in no particular order:

1.~~Graduate with my Bachelor's Degree.~~ Done!
2. Marry my other half.
3.Buy my own car.
4.Travel out of the country.
5.Learn basic sign language.
6. Beat my 5K time.
7.Have a Harry Potter marathon.
8.Visit Harry Potter Studios.
9.Earn my Master's Degree.
10. Start a family.
11.Learn to make pasta from scratch.
12. Visit every stop on the Bourbon Trail.
13.Camp for at least one night.
14. Serve as a Delta Gamma officer advisor.
15. Take a road trip with my DG Big.
16. Ride in a hot air balloon.
17.Own a puppy.
18.See the Princess Diana exhibit.
19. Bet on a horse.
20. Make a pie.
21. Buy a house.

One down, only 20 more to go! I'm excited to work towards crossing some of these things of my list in 2014. Now to enjoy a night of New Year's Eve festivities!
Here is a wish for you in the coming year :)

Monday, December 30, 2013

Enjoy Each Day

With the beginning of the new year, I decided to revisit and rename this blog. The main reason is because I graduated college less than three weeks ago. The title "Things College Students Love" isn't really appropriate any more. Plus my planner now looks like this:

Nothing happening. People keep asking me what I am going to do now and I give them the vague answer of, "Get a job." That's what I'm supposed to do right? While I am working on getting a job, the education market isn't that great in December.

I was the type of person that had everything planned out from high school through college. I had goals and knew exactly how I was going to reach them. Then, when I realized that I had absolutely no concrete plans for life beyond college, I had a slight freak out moment.

My determination isn't a bad thing, but it sometimes led me to move through life too fast. My new goal as I enter 2014 is to purposefully find ways to enjoy life. The small everyday moments and the big ones. Hey, I'm only 21 and maybe if I focus on enjoying life it will all fall into place ;) Here's to welcoming 2014!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween!

I don't have any cool plans for Halloween but wanted to share a funny video :)

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

Ellen's Scare Montage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9oYwheDY4Q

Monday, October 29, 2012

Kindle Fire

Last year I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and lately I have been using it like crazy. With only two months left in the semester I've been finishing up a lot of my course work and have had some extra time on my hands. I've always loved reading and love that I can have new books at my fingertips.

You can look at all of the technical stuff about the Kindle Fire and the new Fire HD on Amazon, but these are my personal reasons for why a Kindle is great for a college student.

It's easier to carry around campus than a laptop, or multiple books. I still take my class notes by hand so I hate lugging around my heavy laptop just to use during a class or lunch break. The Kindle easily fits in my backpack and I don't have to wait for it to load every time I turn it on.
Books on a college student's budget. Even though I love reading, I can't afford to buy a new book every week. The library at my school is an academic library so their "pleasure reading" section is limited. With my Kindle I can borrow books, get free books, and I always take advantage of the 100 books for under $3.99 that Amazon has each month. Plus, Amazon gift cards also make a great gift for book buying.
Textbooks. I have bought one of my books for school on the Kindle and loved that I didn't have to carry around another book and I could still highlight and take notes like I would with a regular book. Also, I loved being able to search for key words during a class discussion or when working on an assignment.
Easy to use. I have a basic knowledge of how to use computers but I am definitely not an expert. The Kindle is super easy to use and I've never had any problems trying to figure out how something works. For example, the Kindle Fire is integrated with Amazon so that all of your book, video, or app purchases are directly linked to your Kindle. You don't have to worry about downloading anything.
Unlimited cloud storage. Don't worry about running out of memory or space on your Kindle. All of your purchases are available and stored automatically.

Why did I choose a Kindle over an Ipad? The main reasons were cost and simplicity. I already have a laptop and I like to take my class notes by hand so I don't need the extra features of an Ipad. The Kindle has internet access, the ability to watch videos and download apps, as well as books. That was really all I needed and it comes at an affordable price.

I haven't had any problems with my Kindle Fire so far and I love using it. I think it would make a great gift for any college student that likes to read. I also looked a long time for a Kindle cover that I liked and I chose this one from Vera Bradley:

It would make a great gift as well. Like I said, these are just my personal reasons for why the Kindle is so great. Definitely check out Amazon's website to look at all of the features and check out the new Kindle Fire HD!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Service and Honor:Proud Greek

This past week has made me so proud to be a member of the Greek community!

First, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Spina Bifida Half-Marathon with my sisters. We were able to cheer on all of the participants and passed out water during the race.

Not only was it inspiring to see all of the runners, but I was proud to see my sisters volunteer through the pouring rain until the very last participants completed the half-marathon.

This week I also had the honor of being initiated into Order of Omega, an organization that recognizes the leadership and achievement of fraternity men and sorority women across the U.S. To be tapped for membership you must be a junior or senior who has exemplified high standards in the areas of scholarship, leadership and involvement.

I was welcomed into Order of Omega by several of my Delta Gamma sisters. This week has been one of those times when I look back and think, I am so happy that I went Greek! It has opened up so many opportunities for me and has only pushed me to be a better version of myself.

To learn more about Order of Omega you can visit their website:http://www.orderofomega.org/

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Trivia Night Fundraiser

These past few days I have been super busy with class and campus events. Just this past weekend one of the organizations that I am in hosted a trivia night on campus. As Norse Leadership Society we sponsor leadership development events throughout the year including a retreat to Gatlinburg, TN for upperclassmen and a white water rafting trip in West Virginia for freshmen. To raise money for these retreats we invited teams of up to eight people to compete in ten rounds of trivia. The trivia categories range from cats to football and boy bands.

I was able to get a beautiful team of Delta Gamma's to come out and support trivia night :) They were very proud that they got all of the questions in the boy band category correct.

This is the second year that we have held this event and as you can see, we had a great turn out! Each person pays an entry fee and teams have the option of buying one answer per round. We offered the teams free food and prizes for the top two teams. At the end of the night we raised over $2,500 dollars.

Most importantly, it was fun for those that participated and worked the event. A little friendly competition gets stirred up and all of the teams cheer like crazy when they get an answer right.

This would be a great event to start on your campus. We came up with the categories, used a space on campus, and got most of the food donated so there was little money coming out of our pocket. The key to success is of course advertising and making sure your members get out and recruit teams.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Favorite Five Friday: Decorating Pumkins

There are so many ways to decorate a pumpkin if you don't want to go through the hassle of getting out all the guts! I wanted to share the top five ways that I have found to decorate pumpkins without carving. I tried to pick ideas that not only looked great, but also would not be a huge time commitment.