One Little Memory

I think the hardest thing about growing up and moving on is most definitely leaving home. By the time kids are heading to college, most of them are, in fact, ready to leave home and start out on a new adventure. I was not one of those kids.

In all honesty, when I moved out of my house at the start of last month I was extremely nervous. I had lived away from home before, but in a dorm with a meal plan and heat/hot water that I didn't have to pay for. And even though I still go home multiple times a week, mostly due to the fact that I have become a pro food moocher-offer, sometimes I still get nostalgic thinking about my childhood home.

As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in my bedroom in my new place listening to one of the biggest storms of the summer roll out of town. When I was a kid I used to be terrified of thunder storms, now I find them calming (unless I'm driving in them, then not so much.) Whenever it rained my mom would always sit in her chair and read a book, or if my nana was up then you could always find her sitting in our living room, a book on her lap but her face turned toward the window, watching the raindrops fall. It's these kind of little memories that made leaving home hard.

 If I wasn't always there, would I miss them all?

Shake It For Me

For those of you who don't know, this Thursday I'm jetting off to DC with my friend Taylor to visit our friend Esther and go see (I'd be lying if I said I wasn't squealing as I write this...) Luke Bryan! Also known as one of the best men to ever walk this earth. Excitement aside, I'm notorious for not packing until the last minute, and even more notorious for not planning what I'm going to wear to an event until the (you guessed it) last minute. Shockingly, I know what I'll be wearing come Friday when we drive off to Virginia for what will be the best concert of the summer! I mean... It is Luke.

He shakes his butt.

And he looks like this.

Yeah nothing else needs to be said.

Let It Go

Surprise! This post is not actually about Frozen, so if you were rolling your eyes you can stop now. Monday I wrote about how I'm trying to make this year my year, but there's one specific thing I always find holds me back from recognizing just how lucky I am. I fret over such silly things. Really, I do. Over friends, over guys, my family, school, and so on and so forth. None of these things when taken in a general context should be considered silly, but the tiny, mediocre, little things that come with them? You could call a fair majority of them silly or dumb or whatever.

Truth be told, I'm pretty upset/annoyed/mad right now. I saw something on a certain social media site that made me upset, and in true Emily fashion, now I'm here... writing about it. I should have known I was a writer when all I'd do when I was mad as a kid (aside from scream) was go up to my room and jot down angry poems and/or not-so-impressive song lyrics about whoever had done me wrong this time around.

There's Strength in Friendships

Anyone else ever see this quote on Pinterest? If you haven't, I may or may not be mostly convinced you live under a rock. EVERY time I see this quote on Pinterest one part of me cringes, another part of me wants to punch something (mostly myself), and the other part of me is like "Yea! Let's do this!" The latter part is often overruled by the comfort of my bed or couch, and therefore I'm afraid I'll never be quite as good as Queen B. Maybe Taylor Swift though, she seems to like to relax just as much as the next girl. Hehe.

Anyway, if you haven't picked up on it yet, my motivation has seriously been lacking.

I may have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce...

But I also thoroughly enjoy sleeping in. And spending time making a yummy breakfast. Writing blog posts, reading my favorite blogs, Pinterest-ing, Tumblr-ing, stalking people catching up on Facebook, tweeting celebs in hopes that maybe (just maybe!) they'll tweet me back. Note: The closest thing to a celebrity that's ever tweeted at me/favorited a tweet/retweeted a tweet include The College Prepster and KJP/Sarah KJP. And yes, I do squeal and jump up and down every time it happens. Whatever.

I look at weekends (like I think most normal people do...) as a time to relax, sit on the couch, watch some Netflix, maybe read a bit. Sure,  to some it kinda comes off as slacking, laziness, and so on, but I enjoy my lazy slacker Saturdays and Sundays! Sue me. I've found this past year I've just been so busy that I need the weekends to decompress. It's the very reason I don't like to go out! Some people love to go crazy with their friends to unwind after a long week; I like to go to bed, sleep in, watch TV, and not have a pounding headache the entire time!

I've been taking the entire school year to kind of try and come to terms with the fact that I'm not the crazy child I was for my first two years of college. I'm really mellowing out, kinda turning into a grandma. Don't really care about it. To be honest, I'm really quite content by myself most of the time! My family and my friends don't really get it. Sometimes I don't even get it! Why am I so content to hang out by my lonesome when all everybody else wants to do is be with their friends every second of the day?

I guess it's time to stop asking that question.

You've gotta do what makes YOU happy. The way I'm starting to look at it is like this. If your friends are really your friends, they'll understand. I do make my friends a priority; I think the older you get, the busier you get, and you need friends to get by... So you have to make them a priority. Yes, you've gotta do what makes you happy, but you've got to make choices with the people you care about in mind. 

Like relationships, friendships are hard work. You have to invest in them in order for them to become any good. I often find myself getting so wrapped up in my life that I forget to check in with people I care about. It's something I really need to work on. I mean, what's the point of being happy if you can't share that happiness with the people you love?

"There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate."

Don't focus so much on yourself that you forget the people who have helped to make you you in the first place. Self-love and acceptance are important, but the people who've stood by you through your triumphs and failures, the people who've taught you lesson after lesson, are the people who are going to continue to help you on your journey to discovering who you really are. Life can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. And that's all up to you.

1/2/3

Happy Monday!

xoxo

Weekly Wonders: Favorite TV Couples

First things first. Happy Valentine's Day lovelies! I hope your day is filled with love and warmth and happiness! And not too much snow... But we won't think about that right now.

Anyways, we all have our favorite television shows, right? Some we are borderline (if not completely...) obsessed with. For me, my favorite shows are all based around stories with one thing in common. A love story.

Blair and Chuck (duh), Rachel and Ross (again, duh), Mindy and Danny. The list goes on and on. I watch a lot of TV.

The point is, the reason I love shows with a romantic aspect to them is because the plot lines these love stories follow are the most whimsical, magical, extraordinary things. Call me a fool, but I think we all deserve that kind of love!

All You Need is Love

Ross & Rachel, Friends

Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big, Sex and the City

Luke & Lorelai, Gilmore Girls

(Note: I'm still bitter about the way this show ended.)

Danny and Mindy, The Mindy Project

Mary and Francis, Reign

Mary and Bash, Reign

I couldn't choose! This show's too good! Completely and totally historically inaccurate but amazing nonetheless.

Aria & Ezra, Pretty Little Liars

I'm still holding out hope. #judgeme

And my all time favorite...

Chuck Bass & Blair Waldorf, Gossip Girl

Don't judge me for my extremely poor taste in television. I love all of these shows dearly, and in my defense I developed an obsession for most of them at like, 14 years old. If you're celebrating today with a special someone, have a blast! My best friend and I will be watching movies, snacking on cookies, and drinking some wine. Which sounds just perfect to me!

Happy Valentine's Day!

xoxo

Monday Inspiration: A Friend is Like a Good Bra

I've been pondering something lately. When you're little, your family is your everything. They're your built-in support system, the people you can always turn to, the ones who are always going to love you no matter what. In light of some things that have happened recently in my life and in my friends' lives, my eyes have been so completely opened to just how important friendships are in life.

The thing about strangers is that they don't have to choose to get to know you. They don't have to like you, pretend to like you, care about you; they don't have to do anything. I'm a big believer in the idea that nothing really happens by chance, and that people stumble upon certain people for certain reasons. Friends are the family you choose, but they're also the people who choose you as their family. And I never really thought about it that way.

As the years pass us by, it becomes more clear to me and my friends just who'll be sticking around. I can list a handful of girls right off the bat that I'd call the instant someone broke my heart, and I know they'd show up at my door, bottle of wine in hand (or two), within an hour. Your best friends are the ones who know almost every single thing you've ever worried about. Whether it be a boy or what skirt you're going to wear out. They just know.

 They know how you'll react to specific information, what situations make you nervous, what people they need to keep you away from, and they know the things that make you smile (cupcakes), laugh (yoga cats), cry (The Notebook), and so on and so forth. When you're happy, they're happy for you; when you're hurting, they're hurting for you.

When we all went to college, I remember being worried that our being separated was going to be the end of it all. Years worth of friendship all gone out the window, and I don't really know why I felt that way. Because so quickly I figured out that growing apart wasn't even an option. Some of my closest friends and I are miles and miles apart, and yet when we're home and together again for the holidays it's like nothing has changed. If you ask me, distance is the test of true friendship. Earlier this week I was going through something, and one of my friends in New York texted me just to say "Hey, I'm thinking of you and I'm so lucky to have you in my life!" Didn't even know what was going on with me, honestly we probably hadn't talked in the past two weeks before that either. But that was the amazing thing about it. I swear there's something in the universe that keeps us all connected somehow. And thank God for whatever it is!

They say, "A friend is like a good bra. Hard to find, supportive, comfortable, always lifts you up, makes you feel better, and is always close to your heart." It's a funny line, right? But it's also so true. It's taken me twenty years to find my real, going to be around forever friends. I suspect a few more are to come along the way, but if they don't that's fine too. I've kind of got my hands full already... (kidding, but not really.) The thing that gets hard about friendships when you're older is that they're work. Real work. You'll fight with them, laugh with them, and do some of the dumbest things with them.

For those of us without sisters, your girlfriends are your sisters. Especially nowadays, I'm so thankful for that. They keep me sane, and they tell the truth... even if it hurts. That's the measure of true friends, they'll help to make you the best you you can be. Keep them close, always.

xoxo

2013: A Look Back...

Happy New Year! It's officially 2014, I've taken a chance to reflect just how much has changed in the course of one year. I feel like every time New Year's rolls around I'm always dumbfounded at how fast time has flown by, and this year was no different. 2013 was a year of growth; dealing with personal issues and learning who to surround myself with has made all the difference in how this year has gone. 

I'm heading down to Massachusetts today to avoid the snow, and will be ending my first day of the new year surrounded by some of the people I love most. Nothing better than that! And then Friday I'm off to Colorado (here's hoping my flight out of Boston goes smoothly...)! I have family out there I haven't seen since June and I haven't been out there during the holiday season since I was very, very, very tiny. I am so excited!

Here's a look back at my 2013...

New Year's 2013 in Montreal

My best...

Ice cream reunion with some more amazing friends! (Excuse my work wardrobe...)

Dinner date with friends from school!

One of the best weekends ever... Luke Bryan can crash my party anytime...

The start of an unforgettable summer...

Snuggling this adorable pup on the 4th of  July!

And the next day off to Europe we went... My best friend/second half/sister and I in Austria!

And in Paris with the rest of our wonderful friends!

And at the top of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland... The trip of a lifetime. (We also made it to Amsterdam, Munich, Heidelberg, Venice, Verona, and London!)

Back home and reunited with the best of the best! Celebrating J's 20th!

The Color Vibe run! Before...

After...

Back to school and ready for fall with apple picking! My favorite time of year :)

October brought my birthday and loads of fun!

The only picture I have this year of the five us where we all look decent... Our reunions don't happen enough!

Christmas 2013 with the little sisters I never had! How cute are they?

Spending the last night of 2013 with some more terrific friends!

2013 brought so many challenges with it, but I'm so thankful that it did. I am so happy with where my life is right now. Here's to 2014, another year of ups and downs, fun times with friends, and quality time spent with family!