When Fate Steps In

I am still coming down from my Disney high and trying to re-energize myself from two extremely hectic weeks of travel. The kink in my neck is getting worse and I think I now have a jaw issue from clenching it so often. Travel=stress. 

That being said, the last thing we did at Disney was watch the Magic Kingdom firework show, "Wishes". Obviously, the show is based around the premise of wishes coming true and well, you know the rest. They play an incredibly corny song that I love and may or may not know all of the words to. But really, at this point are you surprised? One of the lines I've always loved from "When You Wish Upon a Star" is "Fate is kind, she brings to those who love." Which brings me to the point of this post; there are a lot of things that are not so great about Disney, but like I've said before, their songs and their movies hold every lesson a child could hope to learn. And regardless of the fact that I grew up with Disney as a staple in my life, I always forget about fate.

So, what of fate? What of wishing?

When You Believe in Something

I got back from Mexico safe and sound yesterday, and tomorrow I am off to Disney World with my family! A hectic two weeks, but fun none the less. After spending all last night doing laundry so I'd be prepared for our drive down to Providence today, it's safe to say I'm pretty exhausted. Excited to be going to Disney, not so excited my parents chose to fly us out of an airport that is five (yes, FIVE) hours away from home.

But, I can't really complain because I'm lucky enough to still be going on vacation with them at 20. It's likely to be one of my last family vacations for a long time (seeing as after next year I have to actually be a real grown up...), so I'm planning on cherishing the time I get to spend with my family in our favorite place! Yes, we may or may not call Disney World our home away from home. My brother insists he doesn't like Disney, but I think he secretly enjoys it! Not that he'll ever admit it...

Lose Sight of Shore

As you read this I'm on my way to Mexico with Taylor and Julie, two of my best friends from high school (and my new roomies!). Jealous? I'm so excited to finally be on vacation. We booked this trip kind of spur of the moment back in February or March and have been waiting for it ever since! Cancun, here we come!

Leaving America to head to Mexico hasn't exactly done wonders for my nerves. I am not the world's best traveler. It's a little better when I'm on trips alone or with friends. Anyone else feel like traveling with their whole family is extra stressful?? I love them, but I'm a significantly better solo traveler. (Sorry parentals.)

Last summer when my friend Kate and I went to Europe for two weeks, I found during the weeks leading up to our trip that I was just an anxiety-ridden mess. Granted, this was before I realized just how bad my anxiety was, but still. I was surprised to find that I've been feeling the same way since I got back from DC a few weeks ago.

Sundays in Bed

Normally my posts start with a picture of a bed (hence the "Sundays in Bed" thing...), but for this post I thought I'd go with a relaxing by the pool theme. Seeing as I spent almost all day yesterday chilling by the pool with friends, I felt it appropriate. By the way, Luke Bryan was amazing. I think he got cuter since I saw him last year, which I didn't think was possible. Also, my voice took a hit from the concert-- probably won't catch me singing for a while!

This week has kind of been a whirlwind between packing (or rather, procrastinating on packing) and traveling, but it's been a fun week nonetheless! Tonight I'm packing up the last of my things and tomorrow morning I move into my apartment! Hard to believe. Yesterday my friend Caitlyn was talking about how weird it is we're all pretty much grown up now (she landed an awesome internship in DC for the summer), and yeah, it's all starting to kind of hit me. We're grown ups now.

Take Me to Rio

It should come as no surprise that I'm a Kate Spade addict to any of you, but alas, I couldn't resist doing a post on their latest new arrivals. I browse the site almost daily and while I had my doubts about the latest additions to the collection, they've really grown on me.

As if I wasn't obsessed enough with their book clutches, I absolutely fell in love with this one. It's so bright and summer-y, if I had a reason to carry around a clutch I would totally invest in it! I have a feeling that my bag addiction is never going to stop. I love them, and really, can a girl ever have too many bags? Hint: the answer is an unequivocal no.

Summer is my absolute favorite (although my hair would suggest otherwise... frizz is at it's highest from May to August). I love dresses, and I love skirts. I am the epitome of a girly girl and summer is my season.

Sundays in Bed

Hello everybody and Happy Mother's Day to all the fantastic moms out there! I'm in an especially good mood today following my run this morning and the gorgeous weather we're having this weekend. It was supposed to rain for five days straight after Friday, so thank goodness that whoever is in charge of the weather had a change of heart!

So maybe I'm just unbelievably excited that I don't have classes again until August, or just excited that this summer is going to be one of the best yet! I move into my first apartment in three weeks, I'm living with two of my best friends, and all three of my jobs rock. Life's pretty good!

I hope that whether or not you just wrapped up exams, or are wrapping up in the next few weeks you take a minute each day to be grateful. There's so much to be happy about. Today? I'm grateful for my mama.

Sunshine and a Little Pink

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day here that it put me in the most amazing mood! I love, love, love the sunshine. And even though it was only 58 degrees, I made up a cup of coffee and settled in on my back porch to catch up on some reading! It was a beautiful and relaxing afternoon, and sometimes the best music to listen to are the songs the birds sing when the weather is especially nice. Am I right?

What I'm really excited for is summer. Not only will the sun be out, but I'll also be able to really focus on this little thing! I've got some plans for Class and Sass over the summer, and we're coming up on our six month anniversary at the end of this month! Stay tuned as I'm trying to set up something fun to celebrate, a giveaway perhaps? ;)

A Switzerland Moment

I've had those moments. Those moments where you look at the people who care for and love you, the nature that welcomes you into its world with open arms, the summer breeze that blows in off the ocean right as the sun sets. I've been lucky enough to travel and to feed my constant craving for the new. I am incessantly chasing after the next adventure or chapter of my life-- so much so that I often don't appreciate what I've seen or felt until after the moment has passed.

There's something to be said for traveling. Experiencing a new place with new people is one of the only things in this world that reminds us of just how lucky we are to be alive. 

That aspect of travel is something that we love, it's the reason we keep embarking on new adventures, and yet, you'd think by now we would have learned to make it a part of our daily lives. I live in a beautiful place, one of the greenest states in America. I am so blessed for having grown up here, and I always forget just how gorgeous it is until I've climbed up a mountain and can look down on just what an amazing place it is. It's something that goes beyond the scenery though, it's the people too. But get this, I spend the majority of my days wishing I could be somewhere else.

Isn't that sad? I don't blame myself too much for it. If there's one thing I've noticed in people it's the unwavering feeling that there's always something better out there. But I think we could all benefit from acting like where we are, even if it's where we don't want to be, is some place worth loving.

I remember waking up in Switzerland this past summer. We'd stayed in a little ski lodge outside of Lucerne, nestled right in the Swiss Alps. The windows didn't have screens, you could push them right open and the crisp mountain air would fill the room. And the view out my window is one that has been engraved in my mind since that first glance. It was one of those moments that pictures couldn't do justice. It wasn't the unbelievable beauty of the mountain towering over me that made it so special, it was how looking at that mountain made me feel. I remember thinking how awesome it was that some random little place in Switzerland could hold so much natural beauty, and I've been to a lot of tropical locations, but still I've never seen water as blue as that of Lake Lucerne.

When I consciously took a moment to acknowledge the beauty surrounding me, to acknowledge how lucky I was to be there, in that moment, I felt so extremely happy to be alive. A lot of us experience this when we travel, and I'm sure some of it is the excitement that comes with travel. But I suspect there's just as much beauty surrounding me now as there was when I was in Switzerland. Between work and school and everyday normal life, it must just be something I have to look a little harder for. But it must be there.

This week I promised myself that I would take a chance every day to recognize why I'm thankful to be where I am today. Every time I've truly felt that this life is too good to be true I've been in the presence of nature. Or with my family out to dinner. Or with my friends on a summer night, huddled around the campfire, laughing and reminiscing beneath a starry sky.

All the things that surround us are so easily overlooked, but they're the things that make us who we are. The things we appreciate define us as humans. What if we appreciated every single little moment that passed us by to its full effect? What if every moment were like that moment in Switzerland?

Granted, not every day will be great. But there's beauty in that. It's the bad moments that make even the smallest good moments seem great. Focus on the good moments, focus on what surrounds you. Make one good moment a day your own Switzerland moment, and I guarantee you'll be happier for it.

1/2/3

Have a great Monday!

xoxo

Permanent State of Wanderlust

 Confession time: I'm procrastinating on homework as I write this. But you know when you just have so much other stuff going on that homework is the last thing you want to do? And your mind just continues to go over all sorts of things... Like your to-do list, and the "oh my god I already have a job and an internship and school and this blog and I just took on two more jobs" panic, and the "oh wow a vacation would be so nice right now.... beach included" thought. Life is in full swing people! 

There's nothing I do best (and I mean nothing) than create delusional and too-good-to-be-true scenarios in my head. Nowadays, I just think back to the fairy-tale of a night I got to have in Paris that one time (!!!)... but needless to say, dreaming is what I do best. And when I go into dream mode, these are the places (besides Paris) that my mind wanders to.

To Travel Is To Take A Journey Into Yourself

Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia

Colmar, France

Kilkenny, Ireland

The Maldives

Pisa

Santorini, Greece

St. Lucia

Tuscany

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

These are just a few of the many, many, many places I plan on visiting at some point in my life. Life's so short you've just got to live it. And my idea of living is seeing everything amazing and wonderful and real that this world has to offer me. I don't think there's anything quite like nature and architecture and history to remind us of just how beautiful life is. Oh, I'm consumed by wanderlust.

Monday Inspiration: Dress Yourself in Strength

So, you know how I was bummed on Friday? My poor mood was only made worse by the fact that my flight to Colorado was cancelled, changed, then cancelled again. And now I have to wait until the summer to make it out there. Trust me when I say I'm disappointed. Luckily for me, I have fabulous family here in Massachusetts and they have helped cheer me up tremendously over the weekend.

If there's one thing I've learned in the past week, it's that you can't control everything in life (sigh). I've come to accept this more so this year than ever. When it comes to how other people act and things like the weather, I've found you kind of just have to take a deep breath and roll with it. When life hands you lemons, you really just have to learn to make that lemonade.

Last Monday, after writing my New Year's post, I decided that I really and truly wanted to make 2014 my year. I even made a Pinterest board for inspiration... (follow it here!) As I was pinning pin upon pin, I realized just how many of my choices in life were driven by fear. The decision to not say how I'm feeling, to not go to that gym class because I'm terrified of embarrassing myself, to not take that hard class with that mean professor for fear that it'll tear me apart. 

Starting this blog was an absolutely terrifying experience. When I saw that even twenty people read my very first post about my trip to Europe, I teared up. And I felt so relieved. The part of me that always cared what people thought, the part of me that worried about those who would think, "Why did she start a blog? What could she have to say?", has slowly (and I mean slowly...) faded away-- post by post.

A few things have happened in my life that have made me feel like an unbelievably weak human being. The first two years of college were, in all honesty, horrible. My junior year is proving to be much different. I'm finally at a place where I'm not wasting my time on people who could care less about me, I'm not trying to nurse friendships that don't stand a chance, and I'm making my happiness my top priority.

When friends come to me for advice, almost always I can be quoted saying, "You're in your twenties, your life is just beginning. Do what you want to do and let everything else figure itself out." The problem with being in your twenties is that you second guess every move you make though, isn't it?

I'm just so sick of questioning myself. I love this quote about not requiring validation from anyone. Everyone is always telling me, "Enjoy your twenties, they'll fly by!" And after years of wishing year upon year away, I suppose it's time to take their advice. As depressing as it sounds, I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't feel like the weakest link. Nowadays, I've never been more confident in who I am and who I want to be. (And I can't tell you enough that when you start believing in yourself, everything else really does just fall into place!)

"Sky above me. Earth below me. Fire within me."

Growing up is hard. Being a teen is hard. High school, college, balancing friendships and relationships, good grief. Sometimes it's the worst! But you've got to dress yourself every day in strength. Designer jeans, that cashmere sweater from J. Crew, and Tory Burch riding boots might make for a great outfit, but it all means nothing if the woman who's wearing them isn't beautiful and strong from the inside out.

Go kick some butt this week ladies. Happy Monday!

xoxo

(ps. I'd love if you'd follow Class and Sass on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated!)