Apartments and Such

Countdowns:
Last School Day of My Junior Year: TODAY!
Last Exam of My Junior Year: 12 days
My 21st Birthday: 33 days

My Kitchen

Rwanda Trip: 49 days

We got the keys to our new apartment on wednesday! Possibly the single most amazing moment of this semester. I felt so legit and grownup (ironic how high school-y that sentence sounds considering I feel so adult...)! I love my new apartment. I have my own room. My closet is the size of the room I lived in while abroad last semester. Oh! AND I have an amazing shower all to myself! YAYAYAYAY! SO much excitement I can't even begin to contain it.

My room!

For those of you who don't know, Trinity has a THREE year living requirement. This means I have lived...in a dorm...for THREE years. Not fun. But now, that part of my life is behind me, and I have an amazingly beautiful 1500 sq ft apartment with two of the best girls I know. It also happens to be in a great location. One mile from school. Across the street from Quiznos and Central Market. Down the street from two of the best museums in SATown...etc. Could it get any better than that?! Um, no. No it couldn't. (Hmm...unless rent was free...Hey, Landlord?)

My Bathroom

My key is silver. My roommate, Emily, and I had to pick between gold (more like brass but gold sounds fancier) and silver. After much debate, she chose gold and I chose silver. It completes my keychain beautifully. It's hanging off my London keychain, which I find fitting because it combines two of my "homes,"San An and London  *love*.

Did I mention that my apartment complex is called Treehouse? Je l'aime beaucoup.

My living room/dining room

Me and a couple of my friends broke in the apartment last night by sitting on my kitchen floor drinking Beer N All margaritas and chatting. ----For those of you who don't know what BNA is- it's a drive-thru liquor store that sells you ready made margaritas in a styrofoam cup they put in a plastic bag so you don't have an open container in your car. Classy, no?---- Sitting on my apartment floor. No furniture. No air conditioning. Good friends. And good booze. Such a fitting way to spend the first GNO in the new apartment.

Well, all apartment business aside, life has been extremely full and stressful. End of the year rush is always insane, but this year it is unbearable. I have 4 term papers and 3 exams left before I can consider myself a college senior. What a daunting next week and a half... one way or another everything will get done. Hopefully moving into my apartment doesn't make me totally unmotivated and unproductive in school work as I think it will. Haha...yeahhhhhhhhh.




Also, totally off topic, but was Kate Middleton's wedding gown not incredible?! I loved it. So perfect for the occasion. Lovely service. Oh how I miss you, London! What I would do to be there... well we won't go into that! hehe!

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

Countdowns:
Move in to My Apartment: 10 Days
End of Junior Year: 14 Days
My 21st Birthday: 36 Days
Leave for Rwanda: 52 Days

What I have learned recently:
          Life is jam packed full of some crazy difficult decisions that are unique to every individual. Sometimes, no one you know has been faced by the choice you find yourself up against. This, my friends, is a very unfortunate event in several ways. Unfortunate in the sense that there aren't any precedents to follow or an expert to seek guidance from. There isn't a right or wrong answer necessarily, and definitely not an answer that the second you choose it will suddenly scream that it (and only it) was the best choice for you. Life choices do not ordinarily reap positive returns immediately. Sometimes it takes time, even lots of time, to finally discover that you had in fact made the right decision. 
What's funny is that this is true for the whole spectrum of choices you make in your life. One choice that you are faced with might be easier per say than another one, but it is very rare that you know you were right the instant you make it. 


Examples of such choices: picking the college/grad school you will attend, what your major will be, what career you will have, who you date/marry, a diet/exercise plan

Chose wrong? Well you could end up hating college and deciding to drop out to just go into the workforce. You end up being in tons of debt for no reason. You end up not finding a job that fits your skills. You end up divorced. You end up hating exercise and becoming obese and unhealthy. Etc Etc Etc.


This I find extremely frustrating... For someone who likes to plan in the long-term, I sure do prefer immediate gratification in life decisions. I'm impatient, and that is an understatement. I also loathe being wrong. Truly, madly, and deeply HATE it to be frank. And the very very few times I find myself to be on the wrong side of a decision, I prefer to find out sooner rather than later that I was incorrect. This way, I am able to flip flop if possible or at least cover my tracks.

But what do you do when you find yourself having to make a choice that only you can make? One that there is no one but yourself to turn to for help? One that determines your entire life? Well I know what you do. You make it and hope for the best. But seriously? That is so unfortunate. So truly unfortunate, because it isn't easy. It isn't clear, and you won't find out until much later that it wasn't the right one! Am I the only one that just hates that?! I doubt it...

On top of being impatient, I also find myself to be terribly selfish. I have the basic annoying tendency to always stress over whether or not what I'm "giving up" is worth what I'm getting. I want what works best of numero uno: me. I know, I know... typical... But I'm being honest. I hate finding out that if I had just chosen door B I'd be better off. This even applies to me when I'm choosing a square to put the number 4 in while playing Sudoku. It's a real character flaw... haha! So just think how frustrated and irate I would be to find out I had done something like choose the wrong guy or took a job I ended up hating and that cost me a job I would have loved? One can only imagine...

In short, this entry is just really a vent more than anything. I want what I can't have in terms of desiring the ability to know instantaneously whether my decisions were the correct ones. I'll never have such a gift, and it's something I'll live with. I'll forge a trail instead of taking a well beaten bath and just hope to hell it doesn't lead me off a cliff. What else can you do ya know?

Humph...

The Real World or Real Boring?

Countdowns:

Go Home for Easter Break: 6 days
End of My Junior Year of College: 27 days
Move into My Apartment: 28 days
My Long Awaited 21st Birthday: 49 days
Leave for Rwanda: 65 days

I have a lot of exciting things heading my way over the next several weeks. I am having a bit of a crisis, though, thanks to them. Soon, I will be a college senior. Whoa...seriously? When did THAT happen?! 75% of my college career is nearly behind me, and soon, I will be out in the "real world."

The real world... hmm...what does that even mean? I get a job? I start paying bills? I buy my own insurance? Is that all the real world entails? Just simply growing up and joining humdrum adulthood officially? Well, that doesn't sound fun at all now does it? That can't just be all the real world has to offer us. If that were the truth, why wouldn't everyone just stay in college and live in their parent's basements forever? The real world must be more than just all that responsibility rubbish.

...Right?

Well you know me, of course I'm going to go with right! Especially since that makes me right! (Oh my own self pride and adoration, do you have no bounds?! Humph, apparently not.) All humor aside though, what about the real world makes it appealing? All anyone ever harps about is "bills this" and "work that." I don't know about you, but I for one do not wish to live in a life like that. I am under no illusions that the real world isn't made up of bills, jobs, and the boring, but I refuse to accept that's all there is.

So then, what is it? Well, let's think.

The Real World is:
Independence
New Adventures
Sacrifice
Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Accomplishment
Self-Growth
Reaching Goals
Improvement
Failure
Material Gains
Hard Work
Boring Moments
Exciting Moments
New Chapters

Honestly, I think the real world is whatever you make it. It can be one thing or all of the above. Really it's up to each individual. If one is ok with a boring humdrum life full of complaint and living on memories of the good ole days, well that's what the real world is then. But, if you put your grown up pants on and aren't afraid to take risks, be wrong, and work hard, then maybe juuuuust maybe the real world can be better than the "fake world" or whatever it is we college students are living in now. (Hmm interesting thought, if we aren't in the real world then what world are we in exactly? I just don't know?)

I am definitely going to go with a glass half full approach. How about you?

Favorite Things--- Summer Edition

These are a few of my favorite things....about SUMMER....

1) Getting tan----- I look infinitely better tan, and after being in London for a semester, I am sufficiently paste like. Which needs to change...like now.

2) The copious amounts of sunshine that provides lovely vitamin D

3) Storms--- I love me a good summer thunderstorm...sooo relaxing, no?

3) The smell of tanning lotion

4) The increase in the amount of people's pleasantry

5) Flowers--- J'aime les fleurs.

6) Wearing Sunglasses--- They make me feel like a badass/super star

7) Pool Hair--- I LOVE POOL HAIR. I can rock it too. Be. Jealous.

8) Insane Tan Lines--- Perma-tan lines to be exact. Oh the life of a life guard...

9) Sun Dresses

10) Profuse amounts of napping and daydreaming

11) Drive-In Movies

12) Put-Put Golf

13) Swimming

14) Nights being warm enough to enjoy without large amounts of clothing

15) Stars

16) My Birthday--- technically it's still Spring during my birthday but it's over the Summer holiday so I count it...obvs

17) Fourth of July--- I am obsessed with fireworks

18) Bar-B-Q's--- Yum om nom nom

19) Float Trips

20) Camping

21) Vacation

22) Not having school--- I'm not sure why this isn't at the top of my list, but oh well!

23) Making lots of money--- by lots I just mean more than what I do during the school year...

24) Picnicking

25) Staying out late and sleeping in literally every single night

26) Aloe Vera

27) Going months without wearing pants

28) Throwing themed parties--- Seven Deadly Sins anyone?

29) Not being a slave to a strict schedule

30) Butterflies--- They make me smile.

31) Drinking Margaritas and Corona with Lime--- Because summer makes them taste sooo much better

32) Not having to wear much make up

33) Flip Flops being suitable attire for all occasions

34) Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 Movie Premiere--- Yes, I know this is only applicable to this summer, but I don't care

35) All the reading and writing I get done

To make a loooooong story short.... I really LOVE summer....

The End.