Save Your Youth For Later : High School Junior Edition

As (high school) midterms loom closer and closer, more and more of my peers are starting to lose it. Not in the literal, mental-breakdown kind of way, but in the "I have so much anxiety I might just explode" kind of way. As juniors, we have to make sure everything we do is impressive, if we ever hope to get into our dream colleges.It's a tough act to handle, because on top of juggling actual school work (which, admittedly, gets pretty overwhelming sometimes,) we also have to maintain leadership positions, actively volunteer within our community, and participate in at least one sport or club, if not more, (and in most cases, mine included, it's definitely more). Midterms are stressful because they factor in to your semester grades, and if you bomb them, you're in trouble. At such a young age we are expected to make sure our futures are solidified by excelling at everything, and as worth it as it is to get into college and finally begin the journey to the career of our choice, it's actually kind of sad to think of all the experiences we're missing out on while we're focusing so hard on making our resumes competitive. How many of us actually enjoy ALL of the extracurricular activities we participate in? Nearly everyone I know is a member of at least one club or is doing a particular sport solely based on how good it will look on college applications. That's more time given that we don't necessarily have, committed to something we aren't even passionate about.  The closer and closer I get to college, the more I almost resent it, because the idea of college has dictated my entire life ever since I was about 11 years old. That's 6 whole years and counting of my childhood, spent stressing out about college. There has to be a rule against that, somewhere, hopefully.  My parents observe the mental state of me and my peers and the exhaustion and anxiety we put ourselves through, and wonder what changed between their generation and ours, because they were never like this. I can only imagine what my children will be forced to endure in order to succeed. It's a scary thought, that's for sure.

**I am the original author of this post, but it will also be posted on Huffington Post Teen. 

A Catch-All of Things I Haven't Said ;)

So, remember a few posts ago I said there was going to be lots to come in terms of content on this blog? Well, obviously, I've been slacking, so to make up for it, here is a mass post of all the things I've been meaning to tell you all about. :) P.S. - For once, all the pictures featured in this post belong to me, and are not Internet-generated. Props for utilizing a camera!

First of all, let's throw it waaayyy back to early November, when I went to a Paramore concert with my sister and cousin, because that was one of the most magical nights of my life, hands down. It was just us, no parents in sight (that belonged to us, anyway,) which was a first for us, because we are lame, sheltered American children. But anyway, we got there like an hour or so early because we were afraid of lines and ticket complications and whatnot. But once we got there, we were so buzzed with energy and excitement. That's the thing about concerts - the anticipation of it is almost as good as the actual show. Once the show actually started, though, I was in a complete state of bliss. Hellogoodbye and Metric opened for Paramore, and they were hardcore awesome, if I do say so myself. Paramore, however, was phenomenal. Every single person in the crowd was up on their feet, dancing and singing along. I'm proud to say that I sang along, at the top of my lungs, to every single song, even the ones I wasn't completely familiar with. At one point, they were singing one song and went straight into "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac right in the middle, and then went back to their original song. It was kind of totally awesome. Essentially, what you should get from this is that I am totally in love with Paramore in all their laser-light-show glory, and if you go to one concert for the rest of your life, it should be a Paramore show, especially because Hayley is really good at engaging the crowd, in a way that makes it seem like she's your best friend talking to you in the middle of a huge amphitheater. Gotta love it!

Final bows at the Paramore show. They showered the floor crowd with green and yellow balloons from the ceiling and it was awesome. 

Secondly, let's talk about Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a great day that day, even though it was like a month and a half ago. I sure did, even though it was at my house and holidays at my house are the best kind of stressful, but stressful nonetheless. We started our day trying to catch a little bit of the Macy's parade on TV (which I love with all my heart, I can't explain it but I do,) before getting ready to go serve dinner at a local church for people who, for whatever reason, couldn't have a meal at home. It was our second year doing that, and every year, I love it, because I feel like, of all days, what better day to go out of your way to help people? Anyway, once we got back home, my extended family started to arrive, and that's when the fun began. It was kind of awkward at first, because we all hadn't seen each other for a while, but after a while, we all started talking and goofing around, and it was, for lack of a better word, heartwarming. All of us are pretty grown-up now, in regards to the cousins, so we're past our awkward stages and can actually have conversations, which is awesome. Cousins in general are awesome, am I right? Anyway, that was probably one of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had and again, I hope everyone reading this had just as much of a fantastic day as I did. 

P.S. - I took this pic, so I'm not in it, but here's my family, just to give you an indication of the environment in which I was raised. ;) 

Alright, moving on. :) The next thing I wanted to discuss was my trip to New York City for my birthday. We went about a week after Thanksgiving,  on December 6-7th. We began the day by getting up at ungodly hours, (we being me, my mom, and my best friend/neighbor). We left for the airport around 7:30 AM. Once we got there, we were in a state of excited delirium. It was rainy when we took off, but blindingly sunny above the clouds, which was surreal. Once we got to NYC, we checked into our hotel, which was right around the corner from Times Square, sufficiently fancy, and perfectly New York-ish. We then headed straight for the streets for a good ol' round of sightseeing. That first day, we visited the Times Square American Eagle, M&M World, the world's largest Forever 21, the Disney Store with a princess castle inside, and had lunch at Planet Hollywood, (which was magical and awesome inside and I loved it so much). After we tired ourselves out, we went back to the hotel to rest for a little while and get ready for the evening. Because the trip was my birthday present, we were going to have a birthday dinner and see a Broadway show. We walked from our hotel to Restaurant Row (the apparent name of a strip of fabulous restaurants,) where we had a superfancyandgrownup Italian dinner at a cute little restaurant called Latanze. After dinner, we walked around the city a little to work off the food, and ended up at Rockefeller Plaza, where we of course took pictures in front of the enormous Christmas tree. After that we took a cab to the theater to see Cinderella on Broadway. Even though our seats were way in the back and you kind of had to focus in on the stage to see, it was epic, and I don't use that word often or lightly. It was truly spectacular and the entire production was magical, from the cast, to the costumes, to the effects (which blew my mind completely). After a whirlwind day like that, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep in anticipation of the next day. The next morning, we woke up and got dressed quickly so we could get breakfast as fast as possible so as to not miss out on one single minute of the city. We ended up spending the day walking the entire length of 5th Avenue, seeing/witnessing Rockefeller Center, Macy's, The Empire State Building, Tiffany's, Harry Winston, NBC Studios, Trump Tower, Sephora, The American Girl Store, Papyrus, FAO Schwartz, the very edge of Central Park, the Apple Store, and of course, the New York City Public Library, among other things that I can't remember off the top of my head. At around 5-ish, we went back to our hotel to collect our bags and make our way to the airport to go home. I'm so lucky and blessed to have had this opportunity, because it's literally been my dream since forever to sight-see around New York City. The one thing I realized about the city, however, is that as magical as it is, it is more magical on TV. We all agreed at the end of the trip that while we loved it, we are definitely not cut out for a New York City lifestyle. I don't mean to sound ungrateful at all, because I am totally grateful. I now know, though, that even though I used to want to live in New York City, I don't think I'm cut out for it, as sad as it is. I would go back for vacation in a heartbeat, though. Most definitely. Especially because they apparently have Gossip Girl tours. ;) 

Times Square baby! <3

After the excitement of New York, and my birthday (which was on the 10th,) the next thing to get hyped about was Christmas! I love Christmas, not just because of the presents (although, let's not kid ourselves, we all love the presents,) but also because of the time I get to spend with my family, the universally-acknowledged Christmas breakfast of cinnamon rolls and bacon, swimming around in a sea of wrapping paper, getting dolled up in a new Christmas outfit. It literally makes me want to sprawl out on the floor and smile up at the ceiling whilst belting "Jingle Bell Rock" just thinking about it. This past Christmas was the best Christmas I can remember. We went to my mom's brother's apartment for dinner, and because it was an apartment and there wasn't a whole lot of room to spread out, all of us kind of had to be around each other and engage in conversation, which, again, was way better than it used to be. I also made everyone a DVD as a gift, because I'm good at them and I'm also really broke. It was just a slideshow of pictures of the family put to music, but we ended up watching it and everyone loved it and I kind of felt really awesome because I was so happy that they liked it. Anyway, after we cleaned up from dinner, it was about 6 or 7 by then, and everyone started to head out, so we did as well. But because we go hard and party hard, we went to another family Christmas party, this time at my dad's brother's house, and it was also a ton of fun. We just hung out and ate chocolate cake, but I love being around my family, and I think I was still high off of the previous family party so nothing could bring me down. I hope you all had a fabulously awesome love-filled holiday, no matter what you celebrate. 2013 was definitely the year of successful holidays, for sure. Hopefully 2014 brings the same luck. :)

I'm finally in this picture! I'm the one in the middle with the white polka-dot shirt. :)

Lastly, I want conclude this post with a list of all the songs I've been listening to of late, that I absolutely adore and wish to share with you because you can't complain like people in real life do when I say such things. :) Here ya go.

• "Classic" by MKTO (I absolutely adore this song and I could listen to it on repeat for days.)
• The entire Midnight Memories album by One Direction, but "Little White Lies," "Does He Know?," "Better Than Words," "Strong," and "Alive," in particular.
• "From This Valley" by The Civil Wars (I included this in my Christmas video for my family, and they loved it.)
• "Same Old Same Old" by The Civil Wars (basically anything by The Civil Wars is worth listening to and loving, but this one in particular is especially wonderful.)
• "Chocolate" by The 1975 (Love love love love love. Enough said.)
• "Girls" by The 1975 (This song is so good and so catchy, and I love the cover by R5.)
• "Oh My Goodness" by Olly Murs (Every time this song comes on Pandora, I jam out hardcore and dance around like nobody's business, so of course, I bought it.)
• "L-O-V-E" by Nat "King" Cole (This song is a classic. It WILL be played at my wedding one day.)
• "Look What They've Done to My Song" cover by Miley Cyrus (This is an old song by a person that I am not familiar with, but Miley covered it a while ago on YouTube and I illegally downloaded it and listen to it often because I love it so much.)
• "Wishing I Was 23" by R5 (This band is my guilty pleasure, because they're not technically a Disney band, but they're featured on Radio Disney, so they kind of are, but I don't care because I think they're really good and this song is catchy as heck and I bought their entire album with no shame, ok? Ok.)
• "Everybody's Got Somebody But Me (feat. Jason Mraz)" by Hunter Hayes (I like this song a lot because I can relate to it on a painfully accurate level. It's also catchy and I like Hunter Hayes's voice with Jason Mraz's voice. They make pretty sounds come out of their mouths and I love it. This mashup video featuring Jason Mraz, Hunter Hayes, and a bunch of YouTubers is also phenomenal.) 
• Also, the Live Lounge sessions on the Youtube channel for BBC Radio1 is addictive and so awesome and you should check it out.

The End of an Era

I know I should probably be updating you on what's going on in my life, and my New Year's resolutions and whatnot but I have a very pressing issue I need to discuss. I literally just finished watching the final episode of Gossip Girl and all the little behind the scenes things on the DVD, and I feel so empty. Like, honestly, empty, a carved out shell of a person. I haven’t felt this way since the last Harry Potter movie. I didn’t think I was this attached to the show. I guess I thought it would never end, and when it did I had the biggest urge to burst into tears (I didn’t, but I could’ve.) I won’t give anything away, but this show is so much better than it’s perceived by people who don’t watch it. It will suck you in and you’ll fall in love with the characters and then you’ll hate them and then you’ll love them again and you’ll feel like they’re your friends and family. It came so far and I wish it never had to end. I hope they’ll do a reunion in the (near) future. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I'm sorry for my lack of posting, I'll try to get back into it soon. I just had to express this feeling of post-series depression somehow, just to alleviate it a bit. Thanks. :)