Hello, dear readers! You may have realized that I’ve been on a blogging hiatus for almost two weeks. That’s because I was on vacation with my family in Orlando, Florida. While there, we went to three Disney World theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and – my favorite! – EPCOT), and we also went to both of the Universal Orlando parks. It was a great time despite a bit of rain from their first tropical storm of the season. Let’s just say that “Sunny Florida” isn’t always sunny. But all in all, we had a great trip. We experienced a lot of great theme park shows like “Beetle Juice’s Graveyard Review” at Universal and “Beauty and the Beast Live Onstage” at Hollywood Studios. Plus, we rode a lot of really fun rides and saw a lot of great attractions. We even tried two new (as in “new to us”) attractions for the first time – “Toy Story Mania” at Hollywood Studios and “Twister – Ride It Out!” at Universal Studios. Both attractions were really fun and innovative. “Twister” was so realistic that I felt like I was back at home in good ol’ Tornado Alley!
About halfway through our vacation, I randomly recalled that poster that hangs in the Kinkel Center. It says, “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Maybe it was the Disney Magic, or maybe it was my once-upon-a-time-an-author-to-be mind racing yet again, but I came up with my own version of this poster. It’s called “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Disney.” Enjoy, and be enlightened.
1. “What do you do when life gets you down? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”
2. “There’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day…”
3. “It’s a small world after all…”
4. (Based on one of my all-time favorite EPCOT attractions, “Ellen’s Energy Adventure” starring Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy): Brain power “is the one source of power that will never run out.”
5. “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
Vacation was a blast, and I got to spend a lot of time with my family. However, I’m excited to return to the lab, and I need to start preparing for the GRE. While looking forward, I’ll definitely look back on this and other great vacations I’ve had thus far in life.
And now, enjoy some of my favorite vacation pics. (Sorry – I just can’t resist!)
At my favorite park, EPCOT, with my mom.
Once a tiger, always a tiger. If you don’t understand this little inside joke of mine, read my previous blog, “What’s YOUR Animal?!“
Waiting for my favorite theme park show to start….
Grad school, here I come!!
Tagged as:
Disney,
family,
Kinkel Center,
Orlando,
vacation
As of tomorrow, I will have been on summer break for exactly one month. Which is kind of terrifying, considering the fact that I’ve really done nothing but think. And worry. And repeat. And repeat, and repeat. And as I was engaging in this fun little pastime of mine the other day during one of my first days back outside lifeguarding (it wasn’t even warm enough to be swimming, but whatever.), I had a really incredible breakthrough: all of my worrying has gotten me pretty much nowhere. In fact, if anything, I think it’s gotten me closer to death by a heart attack, or possibly obesity since stress does in fact cause you (read: me) to eat more (especially things like vegan cookies, or veggie pizza, for example. Not like I did this.). Indeed, I have solved absolutely nothing by worrying or writing really complicated blog posts about it. I figured that the more I worried and thought about it, I would surely come out the other end with my life totally planned out, and everything would be perfect: I’d have my grad school chosen, I’d know where I was going to live, where I would work, what my clothes would look like, the name of my future pet Goldendoodle when Shadow passes away (thinking about naming it after him, if said dog is a male), and I would know exactly what kind of girl I would be. That was my logic behind my non-stop worrying, anyway: that it would help me figure out the answers to all the unknowns of my future. I mean, there are a lot of things I’m scared of happening: I won’t stay true to myself, I won’t have the courage to go after my dreams, my Goldendoodle and I will live with my parents (okay, I’m not seriously afraid of this happening. But you get my point.). Non-stop worrying is my way of “preventing” or at least, my attempt at preventing, my worst nightmares from unfolding in my future life.
My mom told me that I could have things all planned out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s how my life will end up playing out. Indeed, rather than being so anxious about the “what if’s” that probably will never happen, maybe it’s time I start embracing the fact that I have no idea what’s going to happen down to the very last detail. And that that’s okay: “When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” Everything! But sitting around, wasting my summer and energy on worrying and trying to figure out the future isn’t going to make that “everything”, those possibilities, into a life I love. If anything, worrying is just going to make things worse and more confusing and make me a miserable mess. And I’ll end up dying an early death on top of it all, from that heart attack mentioned earlier.
So. If you’re feeling pressure to have it all figured out, or you’re scared about what’s ahead of you, don’t be! No need to over think the future (like me)—just trust yourself. Follow your heart, your head, and, at times, your digestive system (I’ve found it’s a pretty good indicator when something isn’t right). Don’t worry about others. Know that the future will turn out to be probably way more amazing and different than those plans you stressed so much about making. Breathe. It’ll all be okay.
Now. I’m done. I promise. No more stressed out, obnoxiously long blog posts on this topic. You’re sick of it, I’m sick of it. And anyway, my skin is turning gold again! The sun is shining! New music is coming out! There are cookies to be made and eaten (but not because of stress)! There are runs to run! Let’s move on, shall we?
I’m ready.
-Carly
“I Need Fun in My Life” by The Drums
Tagged as:
life,
running,
Summer,
worrying
One week of study abroad classes down, four more weeks to go! Although, it’s not like I’m counting down the days I have left in London. I don’t want to rush this amazing experience. The course that I’m taking is called “Styling Fashion.” This is not a class offered in the fashion merchandising program at Fontbonne, which is one of the reasons I decided to take it at Regents School of Fashion and Design. I was nervous that the teacher was going to be really intense, but she is absolutely amazing. She is very cut-throat, but extremely knowledgeable, fun, and fabulous. There are 13 students in the class, which is nice. Coming from Fontbonne, I am used to having a small, intimate setting like this.
I was assigned to complete six photo shoots by the end of the term. Each one will have a theme that the student can be creative with in terms of styling, directing, photographing, etc. The shoots can take place in the campus studio or anywhere else out in the city if one decides to do so. Just in the first two class periods, we have traveled to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wallace Collection for inspiration (both of which contained stunning exhibits). The first shoot is called “Paper Whiteout,” in which I must construct a garment using only white paper. The second one is called “Deconstruct/Reconstruct.” For this one I will cut up a couple t-shirts and turn them into something completely new. After that I will do photo shoot called “Mood Food” and use any kind of food to make a garment, accessory, or whatever else my heart desires. Additional projects include “Weekend City Shoot,” Tribes,” and “The Rest is History.” The last one entails picking a famous icon, then emulating that icon in a modern way. I am extremely excited to be working on these assignments. I love hands-on projects, so this is definitely right up my alley. But this does not necessarily mean it is easy for me. I am still being challenged to use limited resources with a limited budget. One thing that’s not limited is creativity. Nobody can restrict that.
Tagged as:
Fashion,
London,
Study Abroad,
Summer
While I am not as busy during the summer as I am during the school year, I still find myself not having much free time. Between babysitting, my little brother’s baseball games, and other odd jobs I do, I’m never really that bored. Since I got back from my summer vacation, I feel as though I’m constantly on-the-go. Added to my to-do list these past few weeks is dancing, not for Fontbonne, but for my studio. I am an “alumni” since graduating a couple of years ago, and this year is the studio’s 20th recital. For a kind of celebration, an alumni dance was put together. We’ve all been practicing weekly for quite some time, and are rehearsing every day this week. Let’s just say I’m exhausted and am anxiously waiting for the recital this weekend!
I did find time today to put a new “cupcakes and muffins” recipe book to use. I love to bake, especially cupcakes and cookies. A few weeks ago while shopping for travel books with my roommate, we happened along the clearance section and I found a cookbook with over 100 recipes for cupcakes and muffins. I just had to buy it, and have spent the last week or so tabbing the recipes I wanted to try out first. I had some kiwi that was about to go bad, and a delicious sounding recipe for whole wheat kiwi muffins. Twenty-five minutes of some “me time” later and the house was smelling of scrumptious muffins. Only half of the household actually likes kiwi, and the sound of “whole wheat” has them running, but that just means there’s more muffins for me! Maybe next time I’ll bake some double chocolate cupcakes that they’ll devour. We’ll see.
Thanks for reading..
Tagged as:
Baking,
dance,
Free Time,
muffins,
Summer
