Rebuilding Again

This blog post is way overdue, maybe it's because I've been pushed into the ground too hard this time but everything comes out now...

In the last few months, I have been trying to please people and do everything that people expect of me without thinking about the effects it would have one me. Why did I need someone else's opinion of approval? Their opinion does not own me. I am saying this now, but within the last few months, this has been the routine: me running around in circles for everyone else and everything else except for myself (if that makes any sense)?

It occurred to me tonight that I am seriously worn out and exhausted from all the things I have been doing with work, school, and just trying to be a person that is acceptable for everyone. For example, I try to be there all the time if someone needs me and I rarely say no because I don't want to let people down. Another example would be if someone is upset with me, I feel guilty and take the blame on myself when that is not always the case; words may be twisted so the guilt falls on me and I feel that everything I do may be wrong in that person's eyes. It can really break someone down when they constantly are pointing out your flaws and then when you try to address them; it's still not enough. I kept trying to make others happy and would feel that I wasn't being a good enough person in other's eyes, but honestly that just made my judgement clouded and it makes me lose myself as a person. I should never try to be something that I am not, if someone can't accept that, then it's not worth trying to make an effort of keeping that person in my life! There are always moments when we may let people in too close and we get caught up in trying to make sure that our friends or loved ones come first and try to make them happy. Even though this is okay and healthy, there needs to be a balance of give and take in these friendships and relationships. I have realized that I cannot be anyone but myself and if others are looking down on that, there is really no point of stressing over it and there is nothing that can be done. We cannot change and should not change for others. At the end of the day, our strongest and biggest supporter is and should be ourselves. I have been working so hard in the last few months in all aspects of my life that I had to slow down to realize that I am exhausted and need to take time for me.

New Schedules Means Better Organization!

Ahhh...here we are again at a new school year! I could not be more excited to be back on a set schedule and routine, but it is harder than the last four years I've done now that I am in grad school. I will be having my blog posts in the future where I am venting about grad school and the horrors of it, but hopefully it won't come to that anytime soon! ;)

One of the things that I have been trying to get adjusted to is a set schedule, better planning, and budgeting with my bust schedule. I have decided to go back to trying to have an organized plan with budgeting and planning of the week, more in the food/meals area more than anything else.

Since tomorrow is Sunday, I will be taking advantage of having a day off and do my laundry, a little of work, but most important--planning and budgeting for the week! 

I have been slipping with my spending, I hate spending more money than I plan to weekly, but it adds up going out to eat, visiting friends, getting that tea out instead of brining it from home, etc. My plan for this week (even though it will be difficult with the new heavy schedule) is to come up with a meal plan for the week, go grocery shopping, and stick to my budget. I am also planning on making meals ahead of time and freezing some of them for the nights I get home late and don't have enough time to cook dinner. 

I'm excited to see if I can stick to this plan, especially this week since it'll be the first week. If I can get into this routine, I think I will be healthier and less stressed about finances and my eating habits with my already busy schedule! 

Budget, save, healthy, here we go! ;)

I have always been in love with New Zealand, especially when I visited there and stayed with family years ago, I will always believe that it is my favorite country to visit, I would love to live there or get to travel there again a lot in the future. I found these awesome youtube videos about a guy hiking in New Zealand. This guy is hardcore and amazing to watch when hiking through all these trails in New Zealand, thought you might enjoy too Jimmy (Adventure Proof)!

AH I'M A GRADUATE STUDENT! Well Almost

It's official! I am finally a graduate student! Well almost..the good news is that I did get accepted into the graduate program that I applied to, which is the master's program for Community Social Psychology. I will be starting this program in the fall! 

The only almost part is that I still have to graduate with my Bachelor's this Spring/Summer. I am walking in less than two months for graduation, but I will just need to take one last online course (french 4) in order to get my diploma. Now that I found out that I got accepted to grad school, there are things that I am have conflicts about with myself. The great thing is that YAY I will be going to grad school, I don't need to worry about the next stepping stone of my life...but the other problem is that there puts so much pressure on me to finish EXTREMELY WELL WITH A SUPER HIGH GPA within the next two months in all my classes, it is expected of me, especially from the graduate office because they expect the candidates that they chose to be great students, do you blame them? I am in the middle of having senioritious...I can't spell that word but it's there! Perhaps it's because it's the first day back from spring break and I am just really nervous to do great and not let anyone down. Either way I WILL do really well because that is the goal I have set myself for the next two months, even if that means losing a ton of sleep and barely get to go out, but sacrifice pays off! right?


Oh by the way..I really want to buy a cape..that will be what I shall do every time I have a big accomplishment is run through the park with my cape like a superhero. Which means I must do that this week to celebrate my acceptance to grad school! Care to join me Jimmy? =)

Or will it be an evil cape!? To activate your cape feel free to run!

Books and Travel!

I decided that I want to travel as much as I can this summer and even now, even if it's just away to Boston this weekend, I want to take advantage to get away as much as I can, you are only young once and live once! Among these ideas, I have been reading some great books about it, here's some of them! They are great travel writings!

Taking Care of Yourself

My schedule has sadly been so busy where I have not been able to blog as often, but this needs to change. I am going to force myself to blog daily, even if it's just five minutes a day. The good thing about blogging for me is that it allows me to write, which I enjoy and get my thoughts all out. This particular blog is about taking care of myself and being overall healthy, not just physically but also mentally.

Here are a few things that have come to mind:

1. I need to exercise so much more often. I always tell myself I'm going to work out but I never seem to find the time (excuse I know) or I am just not "in the mood" to. After going to the doctors today for my yearly physical, I realized I NEED to exercise regularly now due to what my doctor told me I have. I have been having constant knee and leg pain for awhile now, I just never knew why. Apparently I have a loose knee cap, but I also have patellofemoral syndrome (anterior knee pain) which is very common in females. Squats and quad workouts will help, but now I have to do physical therapy, also for my neck pain that has not gone away =( Either way, I think this is a good wake up call for me to get into a good exercise routine weekly, which will def contribute to me feeling healthier mentally and physically!

2. Eating better! I try to eat healthy when I can, but that is not always enough. With my crazy school schedule, I need to be consistently eating healthy. What I plan to do is shop weekly for healthy foods that way I can have the food and snacks with me throughout the day and not go and spend money on unhealthy fast food or stuff that is not going to make me feel well. It also made me very excited for spring and summer when I can start my vegetable garden again, especially growing tomatoes! I think I will do some shopping at Trader Joe's tomorrow. Any suggestions for what I should buy or make with the food I buy?!

3. Happy mentally. I need to make sure I make time to always see my friends and spend time with my family. I have been realizing that the more we run ourselves into the ground, the worse our mental state can get. I have been trying to take breaks from my crazy schedule whether it is just reading, seeing friends, or taking a few minutes to clear my head. If I can continue to do this, I believe it will make me be able to handle stress better and be happier all around. Any ideas for what I should do to stay mentally happy and healthy?!

Hope you enjoyed this blog (Jimmy =) and whoever else reads it!

National Bubble Bath Day?

So I guess today is National Bubble Bath Day?! Had no idea this even existed, but I am not complaining. I love taking baths after a long hard day, but to make it a holiday? I will definitely take that! I have been running around like crazy today with work and school so this will be something I look forward to later! Best thing about it will be to light some candles and relax with some good music after this long day =) Here are some awesome products that I love, and they are animal free and all organic!!!!

Lush always has these amazing bath bombs, they are my favorite! They have so many different kinds and scents!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Candles make a bath even more amazing! Some of my favorites are from Bath and Body Works, like this one Yum! Last but not least, this is one of my favorite bubble baths, anything with lavender in it! =)

What a good holiday this is!

LOCKOUT IS OVER!

So I have been waiting awhile for this!! Before the last few days, we were very close to the nhl lockout being over, but it was just a cruel tease. Jimmy I know if you read this you will not be excited or really care about this blog post but I am super excited about this and had to blog about it! Its almost as exciting when we stood first in line and got Milan Luch's autograph and met him, thanks again for doing that! Jimmy is a real friend because he hates hockey and still stood in lane with me to get an autograph from the Bruins hockey player with me =)

I have decided that I will be investing a lot of time and money this season into going to the Bruins games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some people may think this is a stupid idea but if it makes me happy I don't care, which the Bruins def do make me happy!

The old schedule is up (the one before the lockout) and I got all excited and bought tickets to one of the games but then refunded it because the official new schedule is not up yet, the season should start January 15th or 19th..either way I want tickets to the Canadian game especially! We will see, I will probably blog about it when the official schedule goes up but until then I had to just blog about my excitement of the lockout being over because it's been SO long!

I will make sure that my next blog though is not hockey related because it is not that interesting to most, especially Jimmy who is the only one who reads my blog I think ;)