Time Management?

Your first lesson in time management from Sam and I. 

The most important lesson we learn in college is a toss-up between two things. One would be how to eat through the week with only twenty dollars to your name. The other – equally important – is how to manage your time.

“Don’t wait until the night before to do this project” we’ve all heard this before and have responded with “Challenge Accepted”. Then you turn into Barney Stinson and all of a sudden it’s 3 a.m and you’ve drank a whole pot of coffee and magically there is a semi coherent project sitting in front of you. Every time we promise not to do this to ourselves again and every time we do the exact same thing.

Then we have the students that make lists and have each step of the project planned out in their planner; the Ted Mosby's. Hey, more power to you. I could schedule out when I'm going to post blogs and what they're gonna be about for an entire month... but nothing will get posted for at least two months. This is one hundred percent because I am a last minute crammer. 

So, how is this learning time management? In the “real world” no one cares how you get your work done, it just has to get done. In college we learn how we work most effectively. Some of us do our best work when we have it all planned out and can start a week in advance, while others do better under the stress of having only a few hours to finish their work.

Once you figure out what works best, stick with it. If you are a last minute crammer, don’t be ashamed of it, embrace it! Likewise, if your strong suit is micromanaging and planning things out, buy a good planner and go for it! The world needs a good balance of Barney Stinson’s and Ted Mosby’s.

The Cinderella Effect

Alright, I'm back from my hiatus. I know I told you guys there would be a post last weekend but once again, my life took over and I had no time to vent to you all (remember that whole having no time thing).

Done by the extremely talented Sam!

Look at her stuff! deviantART and tumblr! 

My most requested topic is dating (insert dramatic pause here). Well, more like a lack of dating.

I'm at the age where half of the people I went to high school with are either getting married and/or having children or they're more like me with no time to find someone to marry or to have children with.

During this wonderfully stressful time of life, relatives and those dreadfully happy couples seem to think it's appropriate to ask you why you are still single. Why this is socially acceptable, I still don't understand. All these sadists do is make you feel like it isn't okay to spend your very little free time watching Netflix alone. Side bar- it is a million percent acceptably to watch Netflix by yourself all nigh.

 There are a few issues with dating, First being there is no time for it. If I don't have time to eat on some days, I certainly don't have time to spend an hour awkwardly making small talk. I take four classes, work, write for the school paper, blog for all you lovely humans (well, maybe you aren't all human, you could read to your pets for all I know...) and I have a lot of family obligations. Now, after I complete all of these tasks all I want to do is snuggle my puppies and binge watch Gilmore Girls.

That being said, even if I did find someone I wanted to date the timing never works out, I like to refer to this phenomena as the Cinderella Effect. "Oh, Friday? Yeah, that will work. Oh wait... no I have four papers and a test on Monday." So on the off chance I do get asked on a date we'll have to schedule a few months in advance. Oh, you're looking for a relationship? I hope you don't mind only seeing me for about an hour a week since our schedules are polar opposite.

At least Cinderella was allowed a night off to go to the ball. Too bad Prince Charming was too stupid to recognize her and made everyone try her shoe on... I bet it was stretched out by the time she got it back, too.

The American Dream

Before we dive into this post, y'all need to know who is going to be doing the artwork for Absolutely Unsure from now on! 

One of my really good friends from school is an all around brilliant creative mind. One day she showed me her art and then boom! Here we are!She is a self described " nerdy, hobby-artist and writer." I love her work and I think you guys will too! So go look at some more of it! She has Deviantart and Tumblr!  

Okay! On to the post! Today while trying to read through some dreadfully boring homework (Environmental Biology might just be the death of me) my mind wandered to my American Literature class from last week. We read "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of my faves, btw) and had a very intriguing debate over what constitutes as the "American Dream". At first, most people responded with the typical "a house with a white picket fence, a family and a dog" (cat lovers, you can switch that dog out). 

Before I continue with my thoughts, it's important to have some plot information about "Winter Dreams". A young man, Dexter Green, grows up in a small town. He works as a caddy growing up, here he is surrounded by the elite members of society. This is when he decides that one day he will be a part of this upper class. As the story goes on our Mr. Green builds a laundry empire and makes his fortune. AND THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA TELL YOU! Go read it, it's phenomenal. (Here's a link to the story.)

Now that I went all English major on you...

The point is the story is about a young man works his way up to better his life. During my class discussion we concluded the "American Dream" is really just having the ability to better your life. The "American Dream" is all about chasing dreams. I believe that's always been the "American Dream", our country was founded on the belief that we could better ourselves.

My question for you then is, what does the "American Dream" mean to you?

Insecurities.

The other night my girlfriends and I all decided we needed a girls night. I don't know about you guys, but when we all get together the most random stuff happens.

On our adventure we met some guys who were in town for the weekend to fish (we live off Lake Michigan, it's the only reason people come to our sleepy town). My friend and I walk into the bar and the first thing that happens is one of these men says, "You ladies are so beautiful!" and proceeded to take us by the hand and spin us around.

This was the point we realized we were in for an interesting night.

These men were all so adamant about telling us how beautiful we were. It wasn't in a creepy, "Hey girl, what's yo name, number and sign" (this has legitimately happened to me, seriously guys get it together. In what world would that actually work?). These guys were genuinely just complimenting us, expecting nothing in return (except maybe some fishin' tips).

Now to the point of this post. The next night one of the girls commented on how strange it was that those guys were so persistent while expecting nothing in return.

My thought here is that we all need these kinds of people. We need people to make us stop and realize that we are valued and that we are in fact beautiful. It"s depressing that we all get so insecure (sometimes with out even realizing it) about how we look and even who we are.

I don't care who you are this happens to everyone. 

So this is a thank you. Thank you to the people that go out of their way to make someone else's day. You're all absolutely lovely people, go compliment someone and make their day!

Lazy Sunday

This isn't from today, but a lazy day nonetheless. 

I live for lazy Sundays.

I can't think of a better way to start my vacation than to spend all of Sunday morning in my jammies drinking coffee and eating Lucky Charms. All while cuddling with my puppy nieces.

I've watched three movies and read about four chapters of my book. All guilt free because it's Sunday and I'm on vacation.

Even when I'm not on vacation I try to take one day out of the week to do absolutely nothing. Sure, I might do a load of laundry or the dishes on this day BUT I won't commit to more cleaning or chores than that.

I'm a firm believer that taking time to do absolutely nothing is good for the soul. We are always so busy. With what? I'm still not entirely sure but we always have something to do or have somewhere to go.

In all reality it shouldn't be all that difficult to take one day out of seven to do nothing and relax. The dishes will be there tomorrow and laundry is a never-ending cycle so binge on Netflix, take a three hour nap just do whatever it is you like to do.

What's your favorite way to spend a lazy day?

Hiding Behind Others

Hiding behind others. It happens to the best of us, and sometimes we don't even realize it.

In this mess we call life we are faced with a lot of different challenges. Some of these challenges are as simple as “should I wear jeans or a maxi today?” whereas many of these challenges are much more complex.

The most complex is finding your identity. What makes you, you. Personally this has always been a struggle but recently I have seen many of the people closest to me struggle with finding themselves as well.

It's scary finding out who you are. What if your current friends don't like who you become? What if your family doesn't understand? These are all things that go through your head when trying to find yourself.

A lot of us will latch on to someone (a friend, a significant other, a family member) because it's just easier than finding out who you are.

STOP IT!

It's okay to have a best friend and it's okay to spend a lot of time with someone. It's not okay to hide behind them, or to hide in their personality. This is one of the hardest things to learn in life and unfortunately some of us never do.

Take some time to yourself. Spend a day just reflecting on what you like to do.

I'm challenging all of you to spend a day by yourself doing something you absolutely love. Let me know how it works out for you! Good luck!