Hibernation

This post is a little overdue but heavy course load, short deadlines and hours at work have kept me from posting as frequently as I would like. So until

I have more time it appears that the Whiteboard is in a temporary hibernation.

Before I sign off, I have one more self-promotion.... check out and follow - ConcordianLife on Twitter! (There is nothing there yet but I promise you it will soon be full of fun things).

Playing Catch Up

So it is only week three and the stress is already on and I feel like I have already fell so far behind. I am trying desperately to catch up which is hard to do while also writing articles for The Concordian and producing a certain someone's Bar Mitzvah video. Though with that said, I rather be busy than bored out of my mind. I know it may seem a little strange to complain about vacation, but winter break was rather boring and it is kind of nice to be back with some of my school friends being productive.

Anyways, a lot of people seem to be heading on exchanges and I have that "left behind" feeling. It does not make it easier that of all my school friends, I am the only one that lives at home. I was originally thinking that I should go on an exchange next year but certain circumstances like a full year course and an interest in getting involved in the school paper is keeping me home. I am definitely happy with my decision but saying all these goodbyes is just getting depressing.

In an attempt to stick with some resolutions, I had mentioned my discontent with my high school group of friends but promised to be proactive about solving this... well guess what? Tomorrow night it so happens that we are going out! I shall keep you posted on this.

I know the posting has been infrequent but as I have already mentioned I am totally overwhelmed. On the bright side, having a long list of things to do means I get to waste my time making a to do list... I do not know about anyone else but that has to be my favorite procrastination tool. I also often put things I have accomplished on it, so that I can cross it out and feel more productive than I may actually be.

Check out my newest article in this week's Concordian.

Time out: why taking a year off might be exactly what you need

How I Love Reminiscing

My previous post featured a link to an old post of mine. In order to post the link, I needed to search the archives which when I did, I came across this post from a little over a year ago. It is funny how little life changes.

P.S - Since that post I have probably acquired at least 8 new scarves.

Not Again...

A little while back, I received a friend request from an "Emily White". Interested I decided to click on her friends and noticed she had around 60 other Emily's as her facebook friend.

I was a little creeped out so rather than respond to the request I kind of just let it it there in my requests on facebook. Over the next few weeks I continued to check her friends and noticed she had gone from 60 to 102 Emily White friends. Finally journalism bff Jill told me it was enough and I deleted her. BUT it did not end there.... a few days later I received the following private message:

"Hello! As you can see my name is also Emily White. I have decided to friend request other Emily White's and start a group for us, since clearly, we are awesome. So Accept if you want but no worries if you don't. You can also find the group, Emily White’s of the World, and send me a request to join the group! - Emily"

This was followed by another Emily's friendship request. It

has now been weeks upon weeks that the two requests have been pending on facebook but I avoided deleting them until I wrote this post. Although I found it too sketchy to accept them as friends, I did request to join the Emily White's of the world facebook group just in case... Truthfully, I only did that this morning as I was writing my post so this post will definitely deserve an update once I have been accepted into the group.

The reason I entitled this post "Not Again...." was because it seems that every so often, facebook loves to remind me that there are 500+ Emily White's. Remember last year's "My Scottish Alias or Identity Theft". Maybe I should message that girl and find out if she ever found the right Emily White.

Room Redecorated

A few new touches to my room:

New Decade

Vacation is already over and I have very little to report on. The few weeks off were rather boring because I did not have nearly enough "fun" as I expected and hoped for. But what is good about that is I am not really dreading the new semester all that much. In fact I am kind of really excited about school and starting a new decade.

I know it is totally cliche to talk about resolutions in the days following new years, but I can not help but do it anyways. Amongst the typical promises to myself to 1. exercise more (well at all) and 2. eat healthy, I have also decided to attempt to 3. be more positive in life and 4. worry less. Two areas that for anyone who knows me, know how desperately I need to do this. My anxiety and pessimism are hard characteristics to rid myself of but I am making a promise to attempt it. A final resolution is to 5. to finish what I start. All too often I start a craft project, start re-organizing my room or avoid cleaning up after myself which eventually causes my surroundings to become a total mess which stresses me out, something I want to avoid.

Round Up - Part 2

So in an attempt to keep with my resolution, I will tie up some loose ends from a couple of posts ago when I wrote a list of things I want to blog about but only ever got to half of them.I wrote about Halloween, Building a portfolio, Buying a new watch, Olympic clothing and Where the Wild Things Are.

Here is what was left:

6. Going on an exchange - I really want to go on one with my friend Teddy because I think I will be too much of an anxiety case if I go alone. Unfortunately, we have not chosen our top destination though the deadline is in less than a month. Though this week we vowed to get together to discuss and I plan on approaching teachers to ask for letters of recommendations.

7. Black ankle boots - gave up the search and instead bought high riding boots which I adore. In fact, my boots were featured in Cosmo this month.

8. Being more confident - This is not just another resolution of mine but rather an attempt to be more comfortable in my chosen field. Too often I am overly shy to approach people or take initiative, something that I need work on if I am going to succeed as a journalist. Also, in life I just want to 6. be more bold.

9. Dwindling group of friends - basically our high school clique is dead, a fact I have had trouble handling for the last few years. I waste a lot of energy being disappointed in friends and rather than dwell, I have decided to categorize my friendships into "worth it" and "not worth it". This may seem overly I don't know what, but I need to avoid wasting time and energy making an effort with someone who has not interest in reciprocating it. I don't mean this rudely just a little frustration vent.

10. Camp - I am not going back for the first time in twelve years, and I am not okay with it. I am actually the opposite of okay, I am depressed about it... especially since I have no plans this summer. Not to mention my blog description is "camp addict". How can I be a camp addict if I don't go to camp :(

p.s - after all the NYE dreading the night was not so bad... who could have predicted that?

Already? Really?

September is always ruined with the pressure of what to do for my birthday.

October is always ruined with the pressure of how to celebrate halloween.

And December is always ruined with the pressure of finding the perfect New year's party.

That is why I like November... there is nothing to worry about.

Now it may seem a little unnecessary and pathetic to have an entire month ruined because of one day but it is more than just the day, it is living with the disappointment if (when) that day does not live up to my expectations. This year I was a little more apathetic than usual and barely acknowledged my birthday or halloween. In fact I went so far as to avoid both these holidays completely. A pretty losery way to celebrate but I just could not handle the pressure of invitations or of a costume.

Which brings me back to New Year's Eve. Can someone please explain to me why this holiday has creeped up into my November. Today when I signed onto facebook, there sitting in my events was a New Year's party. I was not ready for such an invite. Guess the pressure is already on :(

Countdown-Clocks

Okay enough ranting!

Check out my latest article:

Mind your manners: modern day etiquette guide for students

ps: if you are in town during the break aka not migrating to florida.. let me know

As seen in the Life section

So as a journalism student, it is pretty important to start getting involved. Whether it be in the school paper, school radio station, etc. In my first year I was nervous and self-conscious about my abilities so I made zero effort to write for the paper or get myself out there at all. Then it hit me... scholarship applications, internships and summer jobs in my field all require portfolios. They require at least 2 clippings of work you've had published. I had none. This lack of published work was not a good thing. So I decided to conquer my fears and my laziness and I emailed the editor of the life section at the Concordian. A couple of hours later, I had my first story - Recycled Clothing. The 1000 word limit came with a two week deadline. Now four weeks later I have had three articles published which is nothing in comparison to certain friends of mine (jill) but it is a start and I am proud. So here are my three feature articles that appeared in the life section of The Concordian.

1. Green fashion special

2. Sexin' up Halloween

3. Hotter than Ever (tea)

Time Check

After eight years wearing the same watch I got as a present for my Bat Mitzvah, I bought a new one! It was a "no plans to go anywhere for winter vacation or spring break" present to myself. I am truly in love with it though it is a little heavy to wear but I am sure it will not be long till I get used to it. It this this lovely Michael Kors gunmetal -------------------------->

I was torn between this one and a silver/white one but I thought that one was a little too classic and if I commit to such a classic style at twenty than I was being boring. Plus my mother liked the other one better and who doesn't love going against their mother's fashion sense? My tiny little wrists meant they had to take 5 links off the band but they did it right there so I did not have to wait for it. Best part is that it comes with a two-year warranty, something I hopefully won't need but are glad to have. The only reason this post is so long is because I could not figure out how to make the picture smaller and it looked weird without text next to it.

Halloween

Even though Halloween is now over, I have to admit that it caused me lots of stress and I am glad we have already found ourselves in November. Day Light Savings was great because I got an extra hour of sleep before work, but boy does it get dark out early now. Guess that means winter is approaching...

So for Halloween I hoped to find awesome plans that didn't involve a "very revealing" costume but waited too long and instead stayed home Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, the actual day of Halloween, I went trick or treating with my one-year-old niece who was dressed up as a very cute moneky. I got all dressed up in a geek costume but looked more like Avril Lavigne or Taylor Swift before she gets the guy than I did a geek. It was still lots of fun but most of the houses we went to were wondering where my bag was... they were shocked to find out I was twenty and their embarrassment often meant more candy for the baby (which really meant more candy for us adults).

Highlights included: the first house having FULL-SIZED chocolate bars, another giving out candy and halloween themed pencils AND the house that had foam flowing down their driveway!

Then later saturday night, I went to see Paranormal Activity... um I haven't slept in days. No that is not exactly true but it was for sure one scary scary movie though I recommend seeing it. Everyone in the theatre was dressed up which was funny. I was a ballerina by that point though I didn't really put the costume to much use after the movie.

SO to wrap up my halloween, I dressed in two very cliche costumes, got free candy and saw a scary movie making it a less awful halloween than I had expected. Guess it is time to start dreading New Year's Eve :)