Finding Answers in Rome
Finding Answers in Rome

On a warm July evening in Rome, after a long day on foot, Kristen and I shared dinner and dessert in one of the quieter corners of the city. Outside of the Italian cafe, at a little two-person table, we rehashed once again all of our wonders, fears and hopes for the years ahead while strangers filtered through unnoticed. Three hours into our conversation, in between sips of my lukewarm cappuccino, I blithely expressed a simple yet powerful intention that would ultimately change the course of my life.

"I'm going to marry that boy."

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Travel, Career, RelationshipsEmily BlasikFeatured, Archive 16Comment
The Road Paved with Disappointment
The Road Paved with Disappointment

About a month ago, I was driving to downtown Franklin, Tennessee with a friend and spilling my fearful, panicking guts from the passenger’s seat. I had just received news that I would not be getting a job I had spent three interviews preparing to accept. I was rundown and disappointed, feeling lost in the jungle of post-graduation.

“You should just drive across the country,” she said lightheartedly, and laughter ensued. Drive across the country, what an absurd idea. But then the joke got taken one step too far and all of a sudden we were plotting about who would pay my rent for a month and where I could stop to stay the night in Oklahoma and Arizona and California. Suddenly, I was calling my parents and asking if I would still be allowed to come home for Christmas if I made a rather (arguably) reckless decision and drove my tired, thirteen-year-old car across the country. (It took some negotiation but I am, indeed, still allowed to come home.) We sat in a coffee shop for an hour and hammered out the plan and concluded that there really wouldn’t be one, that sometimes you have to take a leap, whether or not it looks like a promising landing, and whether or not people are going to speculate about where your mind might have run off to.

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Dreams, Life, CareerChelsey SatterleeFeatured, Archive 16Comment
Now & Then: Advice to Your Past and Future Self
Now & Then: Advice to Your Past and Future Self

Because I’m still not over the fact that a new year has already fallen upon us (and I’m also not over the fact that it’s been almost a year since we graduated… NO),  I still can’t help but reflect on 2015 out of the pure shock that it’s behind us now. What a major year this was for me: I (somehow) graduated college, moved into an apartment, got a big-girl job and experienced infinite laughs, loves, let-downs and lessons. So like every other year before this one, I found myself mentally making a list of all of the things I wanted to change about myself after the ball dropped. Past resolutions include eating healthier, exercising more, volunteering more, everything you've already heard before and everything I never actually do, etc.

But then I started wondering; if I could go back, to 2015 or 2014 or 2011 or 2006, what would I tell myself then?

In the end, would I have done it any different?

So I decided to put my senior-year newspaper class experience to the test and use my hard-hitting journalism skills (just pretend…) to ask the same question to those around me: What would you tell your past self?

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Life, Dreams, GraduationAlyssa VottoFeaturedComment
Do As I Say, Not As I Do: 5 Tips for Traveling Abroad
Do As I Say, Not As I Do: 5 Tips for Traveling Abroad

As a person with admittedly limited wisdom, I was initially shocked and delighted at the idea of my words being featured on any type of public medium. After all, I’m only 22 and survived a day and a half of Girl Scout camp, rendering me totally unwise. How many people, disregarding relatives and my therapist, could possibly care about my tales of adventure and woe? 

With that being said, That First Year has been my first experience with blog writing and after each completed post I continue asking myself if I’m saying anything that actually matters. Although my life got reasonably more exciting once I decided to spend the year before graduate school traveling, I didn’t know if it was fodder for blogging gold. While that gold part is debatable, I realized I have a lot to say. Not just about “figuring it all out,” but about some pretty big advice. Namely: what to do (or not do) when you decide to travel. From five months abroad, let me spell out my greatest learning lessons along the way. Traveling has been wildly fun and a little glamorous in the times when I haven’t been dining at a South American KFC, but if anything, my experiences are a constant serving of humble pie.    

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TravelKelsey WorshamFeatured, Archive 16Comment
An Open Letter to the Man Who Kicked Me Out of A Bar
An Open Letter to the Man Who Kicked Me Out of A Bar

My friends and I were having a lovely time. Laughing and dancing with passion only Usher’s songs can inspire, we were savoring our last night together. I don’t remember the DJ’s name (forgive me, friend), but I do remember that he provided my requested track ("Confessions Part II").

You left your lonely grouping of empty cocktail glasses and sleek liquor bottles to approach us.

“Who are you?” you demanded, assuming the classic position of a member of the “good 'ole boys club" - the power stance.

“Who are you?” I countered, less-than-amused at your question and tone which surpassed Eliza Dolittle’s false superiority upon her first entrance into high society.

“My family owns the Cowboys,” was your response to the question, but to me it felt like the punchline to a lackluster joke.

With all of the defiance I could muster, I countered, “And what do you do?”

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LifeLaurel DicusFeatured, Archive 16 Comment
A Winter Without Spring Break
A Winter Without Spring Break

The saddest I’ve felt since graduating is realizing I have no more set spring break. No more specifically set aside time to rush home from that last, ever-so-eternal-seeming class before freedom. No more frantic packing and driving all night to Florida and watching the sun come up over the Atlantic. If I wanted a spring break now, I would have to make it for myself, and that thought was daunting. How am I supposed to get through a spring breakless winter? Summer is too far off, too unreachable, so in the meantime, I’ve tried to do a few small things on my days off from work to beat back that winter idleness.

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Life, Travel, HealthAnna SpleanFeaturedComment
On Texting and Relationships
On Texting and Relationships

Nevertheless, I miss the days when people walked along the street talking to each other instead of texting people they are not even with at that moment. I also get annoyed when people text me 10 questions although we are about to meet up anyways.

The other day, one of my friends broke up with her boyfriend (she actually went to his house). Soon after she had gone home, he sent her four longer-than-long text messages saying how sorry he was, that he was caught off guard and did not know what to say when she was there and that he will most certainly fight for her and prioritize her in his life AND show his love on Facebook and Instagram. How cute.

Has technology turned us into cowards that want to save face by addressing problems via cell phones? Or is it just laziness? Why drive 150 miles to break up with somebody when texting is free?

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RelationshipsViviane SchmidtComment
A Tough Love Letter: Valentine's Day Edition
A Tough Love Letter: Valentine's Day Edition

This is a season in your life where you happen to be on your own. You won’t always be. Or maybe you will. Nothing is certain. Ha. Anyway, sourcing your worth or happiness in another human being—by nature, prone-to-error—will leave you disappointed. That isn’t to say that loving and caring for someone isn’t a beautiful thing, but even once you find that person, I think it’s healthy to know just how okay you’d be without them. Choosing to commit to someone, but not necessarily needing them—there are few things more attractive than that. That’s also one way to maintain longevity.  

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RelationshipsLane SasserFeaturedComment
To the Girl Who is Single on Valentine's Day
To the Girl Who is Single on Valentine's Day

To the girl who is single on Valentine’s Day,  

You are not alone. I know that feeling that hurts deep down in your stomach from seeing all of the cute dates people post about on social media. Or the rage of envy that consumes you when a friend tells you about the date her boyfriend took her on. Not to mention the feeling of being done with everything (go ahead and buy me a gallon of Blue Bell because I don’t care if I get fat anymore) when you see all of the engagements that are bound to pop up. But know this: you are not alone. There’s me, there’s thousands and thousands of girls feeling this same influx of feelings.

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RelationshipsKaitlyn BundrickFeaturedComment
The Year of No
The Year of No

Shonda Rhimes wrote a book called The Year of Yes and while she is my spirit animal, and I agree with the motivation behind the book, I want 2016 to be my year of no.

Why, you ask? Because I've always said yes. To everything that I don't want to say yes to, I've said yes. I have done so much damage to myself from saying yes to appease everyone in my life that it actually feels good to say no.

In early December I had a series of interviews for a job I didn't actually want; I just wanted a full time job. When it got to the point where they wanted me to talk to the HR department, I said no. The job wasn't a good fit for me, and I didn't want to put myself in a position where I'd have to move and not know anyone and be miserable at a job that wasn't right for me. I am not opposed to moving to the other side of the country - heck I'm not opposed to moving out of the country - but for a job that wasn't going to be a good fit for me? It wouldn't be worth it.

Saying no felt great.

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Career, Life, RelationshipsJackie MundryComment
The Lessons of Living in Community
The Lessons of Living in Community

Since August I’ve been living in intentional community with five other individuals. Through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps we were all placed in various schools and agencies across Tucson, AZ. We are provided a communal budget each month for rent, utilities, food and personal stipends. We do almost everything together; eat dinner at the table nearly every night, ride our bikes to the grocery store, attend street fairs and play vicious games of UNO. 

When applying to this program I thought I was this incredibly self-aware individual who might potentially be able to grow from this experience. I knew myself and was sure of what I wanted. I also knew I didn't need others to be happy. I could do that all by myself, thank you very much. Needing others was a sign of weakness. It made you vulnerable. But the more time I spend in this house, the more I’ve realized it is okay to be needy.

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Life, RelationshipsOlivia LandryFeaturedComment
Make Believe
Make Believe

I was recently babysitting a 7 year-old girl and her two older brothers. While her brothers played video games (which in my tomboy heart I secretly wanted to play instead), we played everything from doll house, hide-and-seek to beauty salon.

I fondly remember all throughout my childhood the majority of playing I did by myself and with my friends was playing make-believe. We would play house, doctor’s office and my personal favorite: school. The world of make-believe as a kid is a magical place with no ceilings or walls to stop you. You can literally be whatever you want to be with no limits to your imagination.

Now my make-believe skills were a touch rusty as Danielle and I played; I found myself having a hard time seeing all the things that she was seeing. She would be adding to the story and I was left fumbling with my words just trying to keep up with her. “When did this happen…?” I wondered. I used to be able to play make-believe with the best of ‘em. No storyline was too unbelievable for me. Yet here I was wondering why the dragon was in the garage or why the fairies would have their own pets.

I’d like to call this my Peter Pan moment. Without even noticing it, I had grown up, never to return to Neverland. My imagination is a more cynical, rational, shriveled up version of what it once was. In Polar Express, on Christmas morning when the parents jingle the bell Santa gave the little boy and can’t hear a sound at all… that is me! When did I stop believing in “childish things"?

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Dreams, CareerAlyssa RichardsonComment
Learning How to Rest
Learning How to Rest

I’ve been battling exhaustion for a few months now.

I know everyone has. Something about the “new school year” – even if you’re not in school or your work/life isn’t impacted by the academic calendar, it’s just so hard to get back into the swing of things post-summer and everything just gets crazy busy.

After a long hard day, Tyler’s and my favorite way to rest is to curl up on our upstairs couch and binge-watch a Netflix show. Lately it’s been “Suits.” We’ve been so tired and run ragged by daily life, we’ve been throwing ourselves on the couch more and more to turn off our brains and escape the day by immersing ourselves into Harvey, Mike and the latest plot twist.

Recently, I’ve heard a few comments from friends who got rid of their TV. Insert immediate feelings of shame.

DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME I NEED TO GET RID OF MY TV.

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LifeHanna SeymourFeaturedComment
On Surviving Storms
On Surviving Storms

As you may or may not know, the East Coast was recently the victim of a righteous beating. Winter storm Jonas (controversial because many folks dispute the practice of naming winter storms), came in with a vengeance last Friday and left many eastern cities crippled in its wake. As one who has never dealt with true winter (Texas represent!), I was beyond nervous about the impending storm; after all, I only recently got snow boots and I'm not even sure how to use them.

I am a weak human; I am made for temperate climates. Jonas' upcoming arrival forced me to face my anxieties and come up with a plan and incidentally made me evaluate how I encounter obstacles in all areas of my life, beyond large shifts in the weather. Spoiler alert: I made it through the storm, and I learned some lessons that can apply to the storms of life as well as storms on the East Coast.

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LifeRachel MallisonFeaturedComment