The Day We Thought We Were Irish-Italian

Yesterday, my friends and I went to a shopping center/downtown to celebrate the birthday of one of these said friends. Her birthday happens to fall on St. Patrick's Day, so naturally, this town center was having a St. Patrick's Day festival, complete with shamrock clothing, green wigs, and so much beer you could smell it in the air. We're underage, so of course, we didn't drink, but we definitely took advantage of the free cotton candy. Anyway, that's not entirely why I'm writing this post. I'm also writing to recount the day we had, because it was by far one of the most fun days I've had in a while. It was so nice to get a little dressed up for once, and spend some time outdoors window-shopping with my friends. We are so swamped with school work and extracurricular responsibilities, we hardly ever have time to just have fun together anymore. But yesterday, we made it an unsaid point to talk about anything other than school. We walked around with our hair blowing maniacally in the wind and took an unnecessary amount of pictures, had lunch at the insanely posh Vapiano's Italian restaurant, looked around at Anthropologie and cried at how expensive everything was while also taking advantage of their free Mason Jar Iced Tea (I took the jar home, by the way), tried on purple lipstick and green eyeliner at Sephora, and  got some ridiculously delicious gelato. The weather was beautiful, the crowd was just the right amount of cheerful, and they blocked off the roads within the town center so we walked in the street, which made me feel totally badass. I was so grateful to be there with some of my favorite people, and I really wish there was a way to ditch school completely and just have moments like these forever. :)


PS. - We originally thought the huge Irish flag hanging from the stage thing in the middle of the town center was an Italian flag, until we realized it was St. Patrick's Day in two days and that we are incredibly stupid. That, and the fact that the only food we ate that day was Italian, is why we thought we were Irish-Italian for the day.

Vogue-ing out in front of a flag mural

Lunch (which was homemade and delicious and expensive)

Looking fierce with her new round sunglasses (c'est adorable!)

Caught lusting after unattainable clothes 

Lost but unwilling to admit it ;)

Staring dreamily at the theater marquee 

Clubs on Clubs on Clubs

This year, I've decided to get more involved within my high school than I have in recent years, because I'm an upperclassmen, and I think it's about time I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. I want to try things that I would normally shy away from, because why the hell not? There's nobody telling me I can't but myself, so I'm just gonna shut myself up and do the things I want to do. For example, I'm gonna play football for my school's Homecoming Powder Puff game. It's something that never would've even crossed my mind until this year. To be totally honest, I'm absolutely terrified, especially because the majority of the girls that are doing it are friends with each other, but not necessarily friends with me. I have three other friends of mine that are doing it with me, so that's comforting, but I'm also worried that I'll make a fool of myself. But at the end of the day, I'm just going to regret not doing it if I convince myself to back out. It's a memory in the making, and I know that the triumph of overcoming my social anxiety will be worth a few minutes of terrifying exposure out on the field. This school year is going to be the year of trying really hard to be the best possible version of myself. (That was my New Year's Resolution for 2013, but I'm just going to reiterate it and make it the New School Year Resolution for 2013-2014.) I can only benefit from that mentality.

Speaking of clubs and activities, I'm planning on taking part in A LOT of them, which will make for some pretty interesting, diverse posts in the future. ;) Here's a brief list of  said current and/or potential clubs/activities.

• Film Club
• French Club
• French National Honor Society
• FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America)
• Fitness and Adventure Club
• Tri-M (Music Honor Society) (of which I am treasurer, thankyouverymuch.) 
• Powder Puff 2013
• Interact Club
• NHS (National Honor Society) 

I don't know how I'm going to find the time to fit all this in plus fencing that I do outside of school, a rigorous honors/AP schedule, and trying to maintain a semblance of a social life. But having a license opens up, literally, a world of opportunities. :) Here's to sleepless weeks of making memories!