How To Get Over A Boy

Step One: Go get a breakover (breakup makeover)! I'm 99% that every girl has or will do this at some point in her life. Breakovers are great because not only do you get that confidence boost, but you can subtlety post a fab selfie to show him what he's missin'! It's important to note that this breakover should be a little drastic but not like, scary drastic. Example? I dyed my hair black (yes, black). It was the middle of winter and I was super pale and I also happened to be going through an eyeliner phase so I looked like an actual panda. See photo below for proof.

#EyelinerIsBAE #Not #Ew 

Step Two: Cry. Here's the catch, you're only allowed to cry once. Pick a night, maybe get some ice cream, put on sad music and cry your eyes out. After that, no more tears. Sure, you'll be sad the next few nights/weeks/months/however long it takes but only throw yourself the pity party once. I have only used this for one guy because the other one wasn't even worth crying over. #IGotOneLessProblemWithoutYa ;)

Step Three: Write a letter to the boy. DO NOT MAIL THIS LETTER. EVER. Maybe it's because I am obsessed with writing but this is so powerful for me. Write down everything you want to say to him. I've written angry letters as well as sad letters. I've even written a couple novel style letters...oops.

Step Four: Make a girl power playlist with lots of Taylor Swift (the peppy stuff not the Dear John/Back to December stuff), Demi Lovato (the ultimate girl power singer), and Katy Perry (Part of Me = gold). Play this playlist as loud as you can in your car or while your showering. Repeat songs as much as necessary.

Step Five: Reflect, forgive, and move on. This step may take a while but that's okay! When you're ready, you'll be able to move on and forget all about Mr. Ex.

DO NOT:

• Try to get revenge by hooking up with a rando at a frat party on the following weekend.
• Constantly bombard The Ex with "I miss you" texts or anything of the like. Sounding desperate automatically gives The Ex an upper hand. 
• Give in to what they want. Some guys will say they'll stay with you if you sleep with them, or do x, y, or z. Don't do these things.
• Mail that letter. Seriously.
• Throw yourself a pity party every single day. Not only does it make you feel more pathetic but your friends will get sick of hearing the same stories and will slowly begin to distance themselves. 
• Send boob pics.
• Or nudez.
• Cause Facebook drama between your friends, his friends, his mom, your BFF, or anyone for that matter. 
• Stalk him.
• Sabotage your birth control in thinking that a baby will keep him around. It won't and you'll have to deal with a breakup while being pregnant/have a kid that may resemble The Ex therefore leaving you with a permanent reminder of how stupid you were.

This post is dedicated to my lovely sister, Laura. ;)

Hello, Adulthood.

I spent most of my senior year of high school terrified of the life that awaited post-graduation. I equated the acquisition of a high school diploma with the beginning of adulthood - a world I felt unprepared for. High school does a terrible job of preparing you to take on adulthood. Time is spent on SAT strategies, AP classes, and extracurriculars-slash-resume-builders because let's be real, no one is a member of National Honor Society, Mathletes, and Key Club without an ulterior motive (i.e. admission into college). The stress got to me so much that I ended up taking a year off after my senior year until I was ready to go to college.

Even as a college freshman, I didn't feel any closer to the ever-approaching world of adulthood as I did in high school. If anything, I took two steps backward my freshman year. Influences around me unfortunately led me to act really childish and immature. I pretend the first half of that school year didn't even exist.

I've come to realize that there isn't a moment that defines the start of adulthood. Growing up, I expected there to be an obvious sign or an 'Aha!' moment as Oprah would say. There never was. Suddenly, I found myself living with my boyfriend, paying bills, buying groceries, and working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Sure, I feel like an adult but I also feel like a kid who has adult responsibilities. Despite this contradiction, I've realized that there are some drastic changes between the thinking of high school me and adult me. Buckle up, it's about to get really deep.

1. The importance of family. My family has always been supportive of everything that I do which sadly, not everyone has. I am beyond blessed to have parents who work so hard and who care so much about my sister and I. Living four hours from my parents and over 24 from my sister is definitely difficult at times. Luckily, we make time for visits and because our visits never really last more than a few days, every moment is precious. Even when my family is gone, I can still feel their support and strength from miles away.
2. Life is short. The older I get the more I am realizing how short life really is. At this point in my life, I've lost family members, pets, and peers whose losses have all illustrated that life eventually comes to an end. I may only be 22 years old, but I'm trying to live in every moment and not waste time on the things that don't matter because life is too short to not be happy.
3. Change is, and forever will be, happening all around us. Lots of people fear change even though it happens every day. You could do the exact same things at the exact same times each day and the calendar still changes. The traditions that our parents raised us with always seemed to be cast in stone but there comes a time when even those most precious traditions are broken. Is it weird not being home for Thanksgiving? Maybe Christmas? Sure, but that's life. I never in a million years expected to be where I am in life but I'm embracing it because change doesn't have to be a bad thing.
4. Stop and smell the flowers. Seriously. As a twenty-first century child, I live life plugged in to many different devices and platforms. This goes along with #2, but I've realized how important it is to cherish all of those little beautiful things Mother Nature has created. I try to have at least one "pause" per day. What do I mean by pause? Take one minute, or five, heck, even ten minutes just to look around you. Look up at the sky. Take in your surroundings. Smell the flowers! Every morning on my 4:30am drive to work, I get to see the beginnings of the sunrise which has literally taken my breath away on multiple occasions. Life gets so busy sometimes and it's important to just pause once in a while. 
5. Ow! My legs! Okay, okay, so I'm sure this one will give me a laugh in twenty years when I reeeally start getting pains but I swear, I have them now! Laying on the ground all contorted isn't as easy as it was five years ago. Seriously how is that possible?! I'm sore. I'm in bed by 9pm. What is happening to me?!?!?

Entering into adulthood is a really strange transformation. Suddenly, cupcakes for breakfast are as appealing as staying up all night at a sleepover party. Painting your nails neon pink looks obnoxious and conversations about debt, loans, and payments become part of your daily vocabulary. Maybe your hair starts thinning, or turns grey, or falls out. There's pressure to go see a doctor just to make sure your body isn't planning a mutiny against you. Summer vacation is no longer for lazy days of reading in the backyard...it's for saving up as much money as you possibly can so that you can attempt to pay off some of your *gulp* college loans. Meanwhile you will still feel like a kid and unfortunately, some adults will treat you as though you are inadequate because of your youthfulness.

I'm gonna end this by saying that Jesse and I went to go buy beer on two separate occasions this week and didn't get carded either time. Yikes. Hello, adulthood.

Juuuuuuuuune Updates!!!

I feel like almost every blog post I write is an update post. I'm going to blame it on a lack of creativity because while I've been really inspired lately, every time I sit down to write a new post I can't. Case in point? I have 12 posts sitting in the draft folder that consist of a few - often misspelled - words (a.k.a. my "professional" outline process). Maybe it's the weather but for whatever reason I haven't been able to get myself to write anything that I'm proud of. I wrote a (PMS-induced) post a few weeks back that sounded really sociopathic so I decided not to post it. So without further adieu, here's another list of life updates!

1. I'm happy to announce that I am currently typing on my newly fixed laptop!!! If you remember, this laptop stopped charging/recognizing the plug in February but I was too poor to fix it and for some reason even when I had the money I kept putting it off. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the only reason this one is fixed is because my old laptop (Dell circa 2009) is now broken too....oops.

2. For the past few weeks I've been a peer academic advisor for the UNH incoming class. I am absolutely in love with the job and I have no idea what I'm going to do when it's over. Actually, I do know what I'm going to be doing after it's over - working 35 hours a week at Dunks. Yikes.

3. Speaking of Dunks, our new manager begged me to come into work at 5am instead of my usual 6am so that means that every day, I have to get up at 3:45am to get ready. SOS. #NoSleep

4. Summer is going well. Jesse and I both have Sundays off and we're trying to plan fun activities for each week. Last Sunday, we went to a wine tasting which was a lot of fun even though I was totally that girl and accidentally got drunk. #Oops

That pretty much sums it up! I'm really hoping to get some posts up in the next couple weeks about things unrelated to my life updates...Stay tuned!