18.

Yesterday I celebrated my eighteenth birthday.
 Fun fact: Josh Groban and I were both born on February 27th. As far as I know, he's the only relatively "famous" person who has my birthday.

I spent the day with my amazing friends, plus I had a FaceTime session or two with my mom and one of my best friends from home. The evening consisted of a wonderful trip to Olive Garden with a dozen of the most wonderful people I know here at Salem. I'm so grateful to be able to live so close to smart, wonderful, and funny women.

Fun fact: I get the same dish every time I visit olive garden. Seafood Alfredo. No lies. 

I only ate half so I could take the rest home for lunch today. Plus an extra chicken and gnocchi soup. AND they gave me extra breadsticks and about a thousand andes mints just because it was my birthday. Thank you, Olive Garden! 

My friends got me a slice of black tie mousse cake with a fancy-schmancy candle on it (which I kept). And then when we got back to Salem, my absolutely perfect roommate baked me a cake with my name on it. I love her so much. 

This was the first birthday I've ever spent away from home, without a trip to the mall with my mom for five or six hours, and without a sleep over with my two best friends. So I have my Salem sisters to thank for making 18 the best birthday possible.

Keep not settling, 

Weekly Roundup.

As I mentioned in my last post, this week has been absolutely nuts. Yesterday we had our fourth snow day in two weeks, which means that I've now missed 3 sessions of my Tuesday and Thursday classes, and 2 Monday classes. Ugh. Nevertheless, the snow has given me some seriously amazing time to catch up on homework and find some pretty neat things for this week's Roundup! 

ONE | Yet another snow day 

I took this picture this morning in the Salem Square! Everything looked so white and clean. Hopefully my SD card will work soon, because I have almost 100 shots that are a heck of a lot better than this. You can guarantee that I'll be posting them as soon as my computer doesn't freak out every time I put my SD card in. 

TWO | An inspirational quote 

I think there's a lot to be said in this quote. Failure is a hard thing to deal with, but it's necessary to know what "greatness" actually is. 

THREE | The Economist 

I'm required to read the Economist for my ECON100 class, and since the online version only lets your read 3 articles weekly for free (tear), I opted to subscribe. Let me just say... I love it. Like every news magazine, it has it's flaws, but it's pretty great all around.  

FOUR | Lilly Pulitzer Spring 2015 

To say that I'm obsessed with Lilly Pulitzer's latest prints would be an understatement. I've always been a fan, but this year has been A+++ so far. 

FIVE | Rifle Paper Co x Paper Crown 

Rifle Paper Co. has been on my radar for quite a while now, and their latest collaboration -- with Paper Crown (Lauren Conrad) -- is absolutely perfect. I really wish the iPhone case was available for the 5S, because I'd have my hands all over it. Plus, how cute are those notebooks? 

Keep not settling,

Seventeen.

Short note before we dive into today's content: This week has been absolutely crazy. It seems like all of my professors have chosen this week to have everything due. I've been swamped (so much so that it's even in my dreams.. like, what?). BUT, today was another snow day! So I've had the chance to catch up on pretty much everything that's needed my attention. Thanks everyone for sticking around and continuing to read Keep Not Settling in the last few days, even though there hasn't been much new to see! Sometimes, life really does get in the way.

ANYWAYS.

I turn eighteen on the 27th.
AKA in 3 days.

A lot has happened in the last year, and I thought it would be interesting to writ up a blog post about some of the highlights of being seventeen, by month!

• March: Two weeks after turning 17 I flew back up to Winston-Salem to accept my offer at Salem in person! I also attended Applicant Overnight. Paying my housing deposit in the business office was surreal. 

• April: Frankly, all I can remember of April is my last spring break of high school and lots and lots and lots of homework. Spring semester of senior year pretty much sucked up every second of my day and night.  

• May: High school graduation. Enough said. 

• June: This month actually wasn't too exciting, just normal summer-y stuff like working, spending time with friends, chilling... you know. The usual. 

• July: Keep Not Settling came into existence! Little did I know, when I started this blog, how greatly it would affect my life. Honestly, it was probably one of my best decisions of Summer 2014.  

• August: Salem College! My mom and I flew up (again) about a few days in advance to get everything I needed before move-in. We had an absolute blast. Plus, orientation and the first day of classes about a week later. 

• September: My first FALL FEST! Heck yes. Other than Big/Little, I think Fall Fest is my favorite Salem tradition. It was such an incredible day, and many of my friends and I still talk about it regularly (plus, we're already starting to team up for next year). 

• October: I visited Washington D.C. for the day with about 50 other Salem students early on this month, danced in the rain with west coast friends, and actually started to feel like Salem was truly my home in October. 

• November: I'll be honest, most of this month was spent preparing for Thanksgiving Break: getting caught up and ahead on homework, projects, etc. so I didn't have much to do for those wonderful 4 days. One of my amazing friends brought me home to be with her family for Thanksgiving since I couldn't fly home... it was amazing. 

• December: The first semester of college is officially over. I honestly cannot believe how quickly the months flew by. Most of the beginning of December is a blur, with finals and projects and presentations, but the second half of the month -- being home with my family and friends -- that was A+++. 

• January: My trip to Vienna & Prague! I actually have an installment of blog posts written about this, so if you want to know more, click here, here, here, and here. 

• February: Spring semester starts, lots of good vibes going on this month. I have some exciting projects coming up, both for school and recreationally, and I can't wait until I can actually write about them in an official manner. Plus, I still can't believe it's been a year since my first visit to Salem. 

And there it is, seventeen in one blog post. 

Oh, and if you're wondering how I feel about eighteen... you'll read about that soon ;) 

Keep not settling,

Looking forward to...

There are several things I'm looking forward to in the near (and not-so-near) future. As much as I've been trying to stay focused on the present lately, I can't help but think about some of the exciting things that are coming up in the next few weeks and months: 

• Mom's coming to NC! Yes, that's right! She's visiting me over Spring Break! Originally, the plan was for me to go home, but the tables have turned, and that's super exciting. We're going to have lots of fun, I'm sure. 

• Eighteen. I turn 18 on the 27th... Crazy. I remember when I was little, it seemed like forever between birthdays.. and now it's like all of a sudden, I only have 6 days of seventeen left. Bummer. 

• Model UN. I've gotten involved with some new things on campus, and one of the most exciting ones is Model UN! There's a regional conference coming up in April, and I'm pumped to see how that goes. This fits in perfectly with my love for political science. 

• Taylor Swift! Yesterday, my Big and I got tickets to see Taylor Swift's 1989 tour! It's not until October, but we have sweet seats. After nine years of being a fan, I'm finally getting the opportunity to see one of my favorite artists in person. 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

Weekly Roundup.

This week has been something else, that's for sure. Between snow days and school days, being overloaded with reading for classes and having two major assignments due next week... ouch. Nevertheless, I've found some things that I wanted to share with you. 

ONE | Make It or Break It 

If there's one thing I've been a huge fan of (again) lately, it's been Make It or Break It. I used to watch this show all the time when it was on ABC Family, and then I watched it again when it was on Netflix. Now, it's on Hulu, and I'm enjoying it all over again. Binge TV much... well.. yep. It got me through the snow day. 

TWO | Rainbow Rumble 

Along with MIOBI, Rainbow Rumble was a good distraction from how freaking cold it was this week... especially when I spent 100% of the time stuck inside my room. It's kind of like Bejeweled meets Candy Crush... talk about addicting. 

THREE | Formal Dresses

Formal is tonight and I couldn't be more excited about it. Because I was homeschooled throughout my entire life, I never went to any of the über cliche high school dances, so I'm finally getting the chance to now that I'm in college. 

Keep not settling,

My Life in Instagram Photos #5

Heyaaaa. I thought it would be fun to do a My Life in Instagram Photos update since it's been about a month since my last one!

• Top Left: I posted this quote a while ago because it really resonated with me. I think there's something so important about recognizing that sometimes, we have to fight for who we are and what we want to be... but it's even more important to appreciate that we're here. 

• Top Right: There's nothing I love more than coffee and Pinterest in the morning. This was actually one of the last mornings that I actually had coffee before cutting back on caffeine... let me just say that the days after this were hard. Really hard. 

• Bottom Left: I posted this picture right after I got my mask for formal. This year, the theme is Masquerade: A Night in Paris, and I'm so excited. This is my first official formal dance, since I was homeschooled throughout high school, so it should be interesting, to say the least! It's coming up on Saturday night! 

• Bottom Right: I've been talking about Scholarship Weekend here on the blog quite a bit in the last few days, and it translated over to Instagram pretty quickly after we all attended the hostess matchup meeting last Thursday! I wish I had more pictures to reflect on the weekend, but that's ok! It was still an amazing time. 

See you tomorrow for Weekly Roundup!

Keep not settling,

Snowy Days.

The last few days here at Salem have been interesting, to say the least. 

Scholarship Weekend was followed quickly by a night of snow, snowmageddon (AKA 1-3 inches) as many on campus -- those who aren't used to snow -- called it. 

The school closed yesterday due to the whiteness and icy roads, and we had a delayed start this morning. As much as I love going to class, I think this snow came at the perfect time... everyone was absolutely exhausted from Scholarship Weekend, and it was nice to have a day just to relax (read: catch up on homework). 

Here was the view from my window on Monday after about an hour or two of snow. Today, most of the fluffy snow has melted and we're down to just the hard, icy stuff. Yuck. 

Even though it probably doesn't look like much to anyone who lives in the north or the mountains, it's a big deal to everyone around here. Let me tell you, the salt they put on the ground here is closer to table salt than rock salt... it's actually kind of sad.

I never believed people when they told me that North Carolina winters started at the end of January. I thought the snow last year when I was a prospective student at Scholarship Weekend was just a fluke. Well... I was wrong. 

 Keep not settling,

6 Months.

It's been six months since I moved to North Carolina...

Wait. What?

This weekend I mentioned to an out-of-state prospective student that I usually don't realize how far away Salem is from California. I've made so many amazing friends and connections here that, on a day-to-day basis, North Carolina has become my home in many ways. 

Even though my immediate family isn't always with me, I talk to them -- and my amazing friends back home -- often enough that I don't get homesick. I guess that's why it's surprised me that the last six months have gone by so fast.

When I chose Salem College, I was constantly asked if I was ready to move so far away from California. "Of course," I always responded, because I knew that I couldn't spend the rest of my life on the west coast. Choosing to move across the country for college was probably the best decision I've made in a very long time, and the last six months have proven that over and over again to me.

In the last six months, I've grown close with many people in my building and classes, I've developed personal relationships with professors who mean the absolute world to me (and who have changed my perspective on many things), and I've gotten a whole lot smarter, not just in the book-sense. 

I can already tell that, after graduation, I'm going to have a heck of a hard time leaving. 

Keep not settling,

Scholarship Weekend.

Today concluded the amazing weekend-long adventure that was Scholarship Weekend. Here at Salem, this weekend is such a huge deal. Everyone on campus goes all-out for prospective students in order to give them the greatest, most at-home experience possible.

It's ridiculous to think about the fact that it's already been an entire year since my first visit to Salem. And in less than a month, it will be the one-year anniversary of making the commitment to come here (I paid my housing deposit at Applicant Overnight!). I remember thinking at first that Salem was this big, confusing place. Oh, how wrong I was.

This weekend I was given the opportunity to host two incredible girls. They're incredibly smart, thoughtful, exciting people with so much potential. Anna and Annie, if you end up reading this at any point... it was an absolute honor to host you, and I hope that wasn't the last time I see you! wink. 

The entire weekend, I kept saying "oh my goodness, I can't believe how ridiculously cool all the prospectives are! I wasn't that cool last year!" The levels of professionalism and class in everyone I met this weekend was mind-boggling. Rewind to my senior-year self, because I could've used some lessons from these ladies. 

Although Scholarship Weekend was crazy busy, especially since I worked several shifts with Fremdendienerin, it was such an awesome experience to see it from a current student's perspective this year. Getting to show the future Class of 2019 everything I love about Salem? so much fun. Although I did have a great time last year as a prospective student, I think I had even more fun this year! 

One thing I know for sure: Salem is going to see a pretty freaking amazing first-year class step foot on campus come August. Even though I'm partial to the Class of 2018, 2019 has a lot going for them! 

Keep not settling,

Social Media.

In today's world, the way you represent yourself on social media is super important. Really, when you think about it, you can't avoid some aspects of the online world. As time goes by, keeping yourself up to date and familiar with online processes can be extremely helpful. 

 

There are several things I've learned about social media since I've started blogging. There are several facets to an online "persona" and each are equally important. Here's what I've come to know: 

• Just because it's the internet doesn't mean you can throw away professionalism. In every email I write, I make sure that I maintain some element of professionalism. Even if I'm just emailing a professor to ask a one-line question, I make sure that I've formatted everything properly. This says a lot about how you respect other people, even if you aren't seeing them face-to-face. 

• Please don't throw grammar out the window. This ties into professionalism, and it's something I've noticed not a lot of people pay attention to. Grammar, whether it's online or offline, is such an important part of life... just because you've joined the internet "scene" doesn't mean you should forget about it. 

• Set standards for yourself. Before I started Keep Not Settling, I thought long and hard about how I wanted to portray myself through this blog. What tone of voice did I want to write in? What kind of content would I put up? Even though this seems like a duh kind of thing, I think it's very important to decide how you want to be viewed online.

• Be aware of others. There have been times when I've witnessed people on the internet abuse usernames/screen names to attack others, and it's incredibly sad. In my opinion, there's nothing more important about social media etiquette than maintaining your awareness of others. 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

#EyesOnIt: iPhone Cases

Yesterday was the first day in quite a while that I've missed a scheduled blog post. I felt terrible all day for not posting but it really did come down to how I was feeling (and it wasn't "human"-like). My  apologies. As of today, it's back to normal. Today's post is a new installment of....

J.Crew | Lilly Pulitzer | Kate Spade

I've been interested in finding a new case for my iPhone lately, since the one I'm currently using is beginning to deteriorate. The problem is trying to find places that are still keeping up to date with producing 5/5s cases, since the 6 and 6plus are now so popular (thanks for that, apple). When I have free time, I'll do google searches for nice cases... at one point, I think I had a list of about twenty that I liked... oops. 

I've narrowed my options down to three, as you can see above, but I'm not sure which one yet. Decisions, decisions. Who wants to bet that I spend so long deciding that my current case is going to actually fall off? Yep. 

Keep not settling,

Loving Yourself First.

In honor of Valentines Day this weekend, I thought it would be fun to do a post about all the reasons why it's important to love yourself first. Now, don't get me wrong, loving other people is important and being in relationships can be rewarding... but at the end of the day, we have to recognize ourselves and appreciate ourselves to be able to appreciate and love anyone else. This isn't too serious of a list... just a few fun things to think about! 

LOVE YOURSELF FIRST... BECAUSE: 

• Only you really know exactly how you like your coffee. 
• Sometimes, nobody else is going to sit down and willingly watch your favorite trash TV show. 
• You know what it takes to make YOU happy. Do it. 
• Watching your favorite movie just for "the feels" is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. 
• Even though there are other people who love you, you're the one to fall back on. 
• Trusting yourself is important.
• ... And, if you're an introvert (like me), you're going to be spending a heck of a lot of time with yourself. So you might as well love it. 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

An Update of Sorts.

Although I talk about the happenings in my life in passing here on the blog, I think it's time for an all-around update. There's been so much going on in the last few weeks -- and there's so much coming up -- that my head's beginning to spin. 

As you probably know, last week was the first official week of Spring semester. I'm halfway through my second week and, now that things are starting to settle in, I'm really enjoying all of my classes (even math! gasp!). Once again this semester, I have amazing professors and super intelligent classmates that make going to class not only tolerable, but fun. 

Even though I'm taking more classes this semester than during Fall semester, I have about double the amount of study time which, in turn, has given me the opportunity to spend more time with friends. I feel like I missed out on a little bit of that last semester, but I'm starting to find my work-play groove. 

This week has been spent preparing for *drum roll* Scholarship Weekend! I mentioned in Friday's Weekly Roundup that I'd received my Fremdendienerin name tag and shirt... it's so hard to believe that it's already been a year since the first time I stepped foot on campus. Crazy. I'm so excited to be on the other side of Scholarship Weekend this year, meeting and learning about all the new potential members of the Class of 2019! I might be sleep deprived come Tuesday but who cares, really? 

Lately, I've also been dealing with some not-awesome (but not "major") health issues. I haven't ever mentioned this here on Keep Not Settling, nor do I usually talk about it with anyone but my family... but it's been such a ginormous part of the last few months, and the last week, that I figured it would be worth my while. Truth be told, I'm not really sure what's going on yet; hopefully that will change soon. Whatever it is comes and goes. I have good days, and not-so-good days. But I do know that I'm not going to let it fully control how I live. 

All-in-all, the last few weeks here at Salem have been absolutely fantastic and I can't wait for the rest of the semester. Even though it feels like I don't have a free moment until March, I'm truly enjoying February... plus, my birthday is in just over 2 weeks! 

Until tomorrow... 

Keep not settling,

Bring Them Back! My Favorite Childhood TV Shows.

When I watched TV as a kid, it was pretty much always an even 3-way split between the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Discovery Channel. Today's post is all about the television shows I'd love to see brought back, even if just for a little while. I had such a hard time narrowing this down to five shows.. really, I want all of them back.

ONE | That's So Raven 

TWO | Rocket Power 

THREE | Lizzie McGuire 

FOUR | As Told By Ginger 

FIVE | Rugrats 

Let's just face it, the late 90s and early 2000s had the best range of television shows out there. I still like to pretend I'm a kid and watch any of these whenever I get the chance. Sometimes, I'll catch ones like Hey Arnold on Nick-at-Nite, and there are one or two Rugrats movies on Netflix. What really needs to happen is this: Disney and Nickelodeon should both put out box sets of classic cartoons and tv shows. I'd buy all of them. 

Keep not settling,

One of Those Days.

I'm going to be completely honest. I'm already having one of those days.

I woke up this morning on the very wrong side of my twin bed after an awful night's sleep. Breakfast hadn't even been considered yet and my mood had already been ruined. Maybe it's because it's not a very sunny morning, or maybe it's because my stomach was already giving me issues and I hadn't even been awake ten minutes... but I quickly realized it was one of those days. 

You know, when going back to bed forever seems like a really good idea until you realize that you have a trillion things on your to-do list. Things that cannot be ignored. 

Thankfully, I don't have too many terrible mornings. I'm extremely fortunate to live a pretty healthy life (with the exception of the stomach issues contributing to today's awesomeness) and a very happy one at that. But I'm also human.

I may not have gotten enough sleep last night... it may have been too hot in my room to even try. I may (read: definitely) have been worried about making sure that I get everything done this week, since Scholarship Weekend starts on Saturday and I'll have absolutely no time to breathe all weekend.   

It was never my intention for Keep Not Settling to be too much of a ranting place. Although this is my personal blog, I've always pictured it as a happy spot in my life. But today I need to be real. Because these days happen every once and a while and to pretend that I'm having a "fabulous" day today would be lying. 

BUT, I hope that your day is fabulous. If it's not.... Tuesday isn't that far away. 

Keep not settling,

image credit. 

How I Operate

Recently I took one of those cheesy little Facebook quizzes, just for kicks. It was all about determining how you "operate." Unsurprisingly, I got labeled as a "rational" and a "thinker" and, well, I can't deny that those things are true. While I think it's silly to try and determine how someone learns or thinks by a few answers to trivial questions, it prompted me to write this post. 

There are four extremely important facets of my everyday life that I do differently from most people on my hall, or just people I know in general. Over time, especially since being at school, I've had these things pointed out to me by others, and I've realized them in myself. 

1. I work ahead. I've noticed that a huge part of being a "college student" for many people is perfecting the art of procrastination. Under no circumstances am I ever comfortable with leaving assignments or important social "contracts" to the last minute. When it does happen, I panic. Instead, I like to start thinking about projects as early as possible. 

1. Once I establish a position, I keep it. That's not to say that everyone I know is wishy-washy in their beliefs, because that's absolutely not true. But I've always been exceptionally good at maintaining grounded views. The key here is that I really try not to have a solid opinion on anything until I know as much as possible about it. Pretty much everything I do involves an informed decision, even if I don't want it to. 

1. I take impossibly long notes. About everything. One of my friends commented on my notes in class a few days ago, and it made me start to look around at everyone else's notes... in a world shorthand, I have to do everything the long way. This comes with knowing that my brain can't work with only keywords. I need sentences. So, I take long notes, even if it takes forever. I've come to terms with the fact that my brain won't ever let me have a break.  

1. I work hard to know my stressors. I think it says a lot about a person when they know how to control their levels of stress in certain environments. Over the last few months, I've carefully watched my professors let stressful things slide while teaching their class. I've done my best to draw from that. Recently, I've spent a lot of time thinking about stressors in my life and healthier ways to react to them... I've gotten pretty good at dealing with stress. I turn it into positive energy. 

What are some things you do differently from everyone else? 

Keep not settling,

image credit.