Surviving The Holidays

After a long week of Thanksgiving festivities and awkward family encounters I have finally found myself at my favorite place. The couch. Between driving over 300 miles the past few days and answering all of the typical questions you get at any family gathering I am without a doubt ready for some normalcy and a routine. I have learned over the past few years that I am a type A personality when it comes to a day to day routine. I love schedules. Especially when it comes to scheduling naps.

Anyway, lets get to the good stuff.

This year was my third Thanksgiving as a college student and it was also my third year of answering the same questions that all of us college kids have to answer to the best of our abilities. After obtaining all of this so called experience, I have decided to give some advice to my fellow college gang so that we can easily make it through the next Holiday! P.S. Christmas is 25 days away. So hang around and read on!

Through careful consideration I have decided that the following questions are of the upmost importance to know how to answer.

1.) What are you planning on doing after graduation?

Ummmmm... like most of us even know what we are doing right now. This question is the big kahuna of all questions. The  honest answer would be to make lots of money and travel. But the realistic answer would be this..

I DON'T KNOW.

Easy right? Even though your relatives will probably think you are a slacker and wasting all of that tuition money that your parents work so hard for, it will stop the conversation right in its tracks. Now, on to the next!

2.) How are your grades?

This is something that my grandpa LOVES to bring up. Particularly at the dinner table in the middle of a game of left right center. Why must grandparents do this to us! One, we are on a break. We do not want to discuss our current grades that we are actually stressing out about while we stress eat our favorite pie (you know you do it). And two, like we are actually going to admit that we have a D in college algebra.  So the best answer to this question would be this..

THEY ARE GOOD.

Again this is answer is short and sweet and to the point. No further questions asked and no added on stress eating. So go ahead and skip that third piece of pie.

3.)Why don't you have a boyfriend yet?  or Where is your boyfriend?

Ahhh.. this is a personal favorite of mine. Can we be honest with them and tell everyone that we couldn't bare to let our boyfriend suffer through another family gathering just because we have to? Or do we make up some excuse about how he is out volunteering and making the world a better place when he is really playing Xbox until 4 in the morning in his underwear. Decisions Decisions.. The answer to this question is actually quite simple..

HE COULD NOT MAKE IT.

Then.. walk away.. and go grab that third piece of pie.

The lesson for today is as follows. Keep your answers short, simple and partially true. And you will without a doubt survive your next family holiday.

Adopting a blog

Today I gave a presentation for my blogging class. Yes, I am actually taking a class that teaches us to be better bloggers, and yes it's fantastic. Anyway, for the assignment we were asked to "adopt" a blog and ask the owner of the blog some questions regarding their blogging. 

I was lucky enough to think of Raina Wansick. Her blog is titled "Real Talk With Raina" and it's absolutely fabulous. Her writing is so attention grabbing and so conversational. She is a strategic communications major and says she owes her success to all of the advertising courses she has taken. Raina has only been blogging since March of 2015 and already has over 2,500 followers. Thats how good her writing is. The list of things Raina is involved in at UCO is endless, and she is someone that I think college women and young adults could easily look up to. 

Her writing is geared toward personal experiences that she has gone through and hopes to hopefully inspire her readers to face their own personal experiences. Now, lets get to some real talk...

These are some of my favorite posts on her blog-- go check them out! realtalkwithraina.wordpress

1.) What does no mean?

2.) Who inspires you?

3.) Are you offended?

4.) Oh, you're in a sorority?

Throughout these posts, Raina is so honest with herself and her audience. She is isn't afraid to put everything out there for the whole world to see. I personally think that's what I like most about her blog, and I think others would feel the same way if they read it too. 

So go give her blog a read and a follow. 

Do they celebrate birthdays in heaven?

Just last week I celebrated my 21st birthday. It was a day filled with family, friends and lots of celebrating. I was overwhelmed with love from my favorite people.

The next day was when the countdown began.

According to all the posts on Facebook, last Tuesday was my little sisters 18th birthday. It has been 8 months since she left and the past week has been a struggle. All of the long posts on her Facebook wall make me want to delete my Facebook forever. 

That's not the point of my post today though. 

From the moment I woke up on Tuesday morning I have wondered what she did all day. I have wondered if she is here with us and how excited she would have been to finally turned 18. I wonder if she would have been so excited to receive her "birthday flowers" at school. All of these thoughts eventually got me to thinking......

Do they celebrate birthdays in heaven?

With this being Tristen's first birthday in her new home, I wonder does she start over like she's born again, again? Do they bring out the biggest and funniest cake ( she loved funny cakes) possible that would put any cake on earth to shame? Does her cake have 18 candles on it? Or only 1? Maybe they use those trick candles that never blow out no matter how many times she tries. Do they even use candles? Is there any need for them because Jesus is THE LIGHT OF ALL LIGHTS and he brightens up heaven. Does she receive gifts wrapped in the prettiest paper with big glittery bows? Or maybe, Gods presence is the actual gift. And she gets to unwrap him and enjoy him  everyday for eternity. I hope there is no end to her fun and she shares her loud obnoxious laugh with everyone up there. 

On Tuesday, my family decided to do something special for her birthday. We called our local flower shop and had them blow up 18 purple balloons. Each of us wrote a letter meant just for her and the florist put a letter into each balloon. At exactly 5 p.m. my family and Tristen's closest friends gathered out at the cemetery and released the purple balloons filled with notes from earth.

                                                           11-10-1997 to 3-5-2015

10 Things I Learned About Turning 21

As recently as yesterday, I turned 21 years old (yay). And as recently as right now, I learned some few things about becoming an adult. Are you ready for ANOTHER list? Well, ready or not....

1.) Staying up late is not as fun as it seems. 

Yes,  five years ago I would have loved staying up late on a school night and binge watching Netflix. Sometimes I would even watch late night Spanish soap operas.. Yes, that actually happened. But now,  if I could even get an extra 30 minutes of sleep that would be perfection. 

2.) Friends are cool and all, but family rocks. 

Yes, nothing beats going out with all of your favorite gal pals and dancing the night away. Or just going on late night sushi runs. But you know what? Turning into an adult has taught me that my parents are amazing, and any moment spent with them is so important. Even if it means just sitting around and listening to the whole fam bam argue over who's turn it is to choose what we watch on Netflix. 

3.) Eating late at night will almost kill you.

Well maybe not literally kill you. But it definitely will keep you up all night and include minor stomach pains in the morning. So, next time you are debating between eating that slice of pizza with extra pepperoni, ask yourself, is this really worth it? My answer would still be yes. 

4.) You can't please everyone.

Plain and simple. I wish I had learned this lesson way back. It probably would have saved me a lot of time and headaches. In reality, you just have to do what makes you happy. If by any chance, that also means making someone else happy then that's just icing on the cake. 

5.) You can't be too serious.

That's almost as bad as being too sarcastic all the time. It's great to be able to balance it out. 

6.) Hangovers are not fun.

Go out they said, take 21 shots they said.. How about no. Hangovers suck. And nothing is worse than waking up with that splitting sound in your head, no matter how funny or fun they are depicted in the movies. And with my age going up, it takes longer and longer to get over hangovers. 

7.) Taking pictures is so important.

And by pictures, I do not mean selfies. Ive honestly never been a fan of photography because I'm like totes not photogenic. But, the older you get, the more you will want to hold onto those special memories. My biggest regret in life was not taking more photos with my sister before she passed away. So if you take anything away from this post. Please take more pictures.

8.) Money is important. 

It may not buy you happiness. But it sure will buy you dinner when you are living alone in your one bedroom apartment. 

9.) "Emotional" drinking is crap.

I think just about everyone will learn this the hard way and I most certainly did. No amount of alcohol is going to fix your "broken heart" or your bad relationship. It just makes you dizzier and feel a whole lot worse when you wake up in the morning. 

10.) You will definitely make mistakes. 

But the beauty about turning 21 is that, for once, you might actually learn from those mistakes. You might do them again once or twice more, but each time you'll learn something new. Like not to eat pizza late at night. Seriously. I can't stress that enough.