To my future students…

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I’m not a teacher yet, but I will be soon. I wanted to share a poem I wrote to being a future educator. To show everyone that teachers are passionate about what they do, they were made to do what they love, and not do it because it’s just a job.

“Some Teachers do not just teach”

Your first day of class is my first day too, everything you’re nervous about I am nervous too.

Let me show you that I can do more than just teach; I will show you more than just standing there saying a boring speech.

Together lets count and shout, and let me show you what I’m all about.

You might be scared, but I promise you I will always be there.

There to show you what’s right and to show you what’s wrong, I promise sitting in class won’t feel too long.

You might love to learn your letters, but I will do everything in my power to make math way better.

I’m not going to just teach you so you can move on to the next grade, I am going to show you what it feels like to accomplish everything with an A.

But it’s not just a good grade I’m going to make you accomplish; it’s going to be way more than just what you wished.

I’m going to show you what it feels like to fly, being able to never question why.

To grow strong and independent, humble and kind, being able to always use every bit of your time.

By the end of the year I want to watch you grow fully, and be able to be the one who stops the bully.

So listen up to my future students, with me by your side you won’t have to hide. Hide the doubts of failing, and the feeling of bailing.

We are going to rock this school year out like it’s the fourth of July, and make it so memorable you’ll miss saying goodbye.

So to my future students who I can’t wait to meet, just know it’s going to be one step at a time with your feet.

We will have good days and bad, but no matter what no one will be sad, because I will be here to direct you with all the right gears.

When summer ends, you’ll be sad they’re no more pools, but now I’m going to show you why school is so cool.

It’s to the final week of finals..

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What better way to avoid studying and doing work for finals than to write a post about ways to avoid procrastinating, ironic right? The stress on the end of the semester is inevitable. You reflect …

Source: It’s to the final week of finals..

It’s to the final week of finals..

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What better way to avoid studying and doing work for finals than to write a post about ways to avoid procrastinating, ironic right? The stress on the end of the semester is inevitable. You reflect back and think what you should of done different to earn a better grade, and how to cram a whole semester worth of studying into nights just before finals. I’ll admit i’m the big suck when it comes to studying. I find every excuse and way to distract myself from consuming my time into something productive. Instead I like to waste hours on Pinterest pinning pins I’ll never look back at, watch Facebook videos that have no meaning, and search through Spotify to find the perfect song to get me to concentrate to even though i’m already being distracted by the endless playlists of songs. We damn sure know we don’t want to waste our weekends studying, so instead we lose sight of reality in mixed drinks and cheap beer. After a Saturday night of drunk dancing and endless memories, the sunday feels consist of a shitty hangover and a big burden on your shoulders of cracking down to the horrific week of finals.

Step 1-Overcome Denial:

Everyone is in denial that the semester has already come down to the last couple of weeks. You thought you had more time to get everything you pushed to the side down but you don’t. E-mailing your teachers trying to persuade them for more extra credit, or more time to turn in a project. To get one step closer to being prepared for finals you first need to accept that you screwed up, and you need to bite the bullet and get your work done. No matter how many sleepless nights, and stressed out days you have adding up to it, it’s worth it. Now you can move to the next step and start preparing yourself for the last steps of success.

Step 2-Challenge your stress:

What’s even worse than stressing about finals? Stressing about stressing over finals. The only thing that is holding you back from being successful and feeling prepared for finals is a semi mental break down that you just have too much to cram in before you finish out the semester. If you can figure out a way to challenge yourself into using your stress for positive energy then you will have a better rate in remembering everything you studied, and being able to get assignments done. Don’t look at everything as a whole. Break it down by concentrating on getting one thing done at a time, studying on one section at a time, and giving yourself the motivation to be able to do it. Here’s my saying that I think of when i’m stressed; “Stressed, a mess, insanely can’t give my mind a rest. Prioritize, redirect, and then reflect on what’s next the best.” Don’t push your stress to the side, instead accept it and be able to redirect it to the successful agenda you will plan to be able to nail these finals.

Step 3-Celebrate your mistakes:

In school you either fail or you pass. You might barely pass, and that is either good enough for you or not at all what you were looking to do. So instead of putting yourself  down about how you ended the semester learn that there is always a next time. A next time to be able to never make the same mistakes that you made the previous semester. Being able to know how to prepare for a whole semester in syllabus week, and write down everything you wanted to do different. Even if you aced the semester, no one is perfect and you could of always done something different to make a little more success in your accomplishments.

Testing and grades don’t determine the type of person you are; it’s the hard work, the dedication, and the acceptance of your mistakes that reflect on you as a whole. Failing is a success, because it would of taken you a damn effort to fail a whole class rather than succeed. The type of way you study, the effort you want to make to succeed, and the dedication you put into a semester is what adds up to you being able to earn that piece of paper at the end that makes you feel no longer stressed, empty, and all of those finals worth it. So I hope you either get something out of this and it helps you finish off your ending of the semester, or it was a damn good post to distract you from the studying and give you a break.

The stylish ways of living twenty-something

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Every year of being twenty something are the best years of our lives (as people express). Those are the years were you discover who you are becoming, starting college, becoming the legal age to drink, for most finding the love of your life, and starting a family. Being twenty-something has become a style. It has become the years of life where anyone in the twenties can relate to what you are experiencing. One night stands, relationships, break ups, working full time, going to school, really anything and everything. These are the most crucial years of life.

For myself I am twenty three years old. I’ve began to realize how sad it is that being twenty-something is the best years our lives, yet we are fading them away because of our worries, and growing up too fast.

1. College

College for most can be the best or worst years. Meeting life long friends, having endless memories, and finally knowing what you want to be for the rest of your life. When it comes to us being twenty-something and college being in the same sentence, you think of partying and being a broke college student. For the average student you are in college for four years, that’s almost half of your twenties (depending when you start and finish college). It has become a trend that when people talk about college they talk about how broke they are, the struggles of school work, and how much they are going to drink the upcoming week. In your twenties, college is the most memorable experience one can gain.

Think about this- think of the education you are lucky enough to gain and achieve in your four years, think of how you accomplished something that not every twenty-something year old will ever have a chance to do, and think of how far you will get after college by gaining this experience. College is always going to be hard, you personally can’t change that. So instead of stressing out your next four years while they pass you by, you should endure them and challenge your stress to be a positive motive. Think about it this way… this is the LAST time in your life you will gain as much knowledge as you are. Why not love every moment of it, even the hard ones. The style of college is remembering the knowledge for your career, and then of course the social experience of meeting life time friends and countless memories.

2. Sex, love, and heartbreak 

Everyone experiences the pressure of trying to find “the one” in their twenty somethings. No matter if it’s from seeing friends on facebook you went to highschool with getting engaged, or your group of friends starting to slowly find that person, and you becoming the odd wheel before you even know it. Everyone has that hard break up that will be the one thing that keeps their guard up from the next relationship, or rushing into a relationship because you don’t want to be alone anymore. Searching for “the one” only leads to one thing. It’s wasting time for yourself being in your twenties and finding who you are.

You can’t be happy with someone until you are happy with yourself. If you need to sleep around with people to get it out of your system to finally settle down then so be it. Better than cheating on one that loved you. If you need to break up with someone because you need time for yourself to figure out what you really want, then do it. Better than leading them on and having an unhappy relationship. Everyone in their twenty somethings experience the random one night stands from meeting someone in a bar, the new style of online dating with Tinder/Bumble, or becoming an old married couple with your loved one before you’re even married.

The style of feeling pressured of finding someone in your twenties is inevitable. Don’t waste your years trying to find someone, instead live life to your fullest and wait for that person to show up unexpectedly, because sometimes that’s the best way to find love.

3. Working to live 

Before we even start our careers in life we are working full time to support that dream. Working forty hours a week, or for some even more is just the style of being twenty something. As I mentioned in a previous blog post I posted, I quit my full time job a few months ago. I realized that my years of life where I should be traveling, going out, trying new things are ending before they even were started. No one should work in their twenty somethings and not being able to experience what you should be- living young. You have to find a balance and know what YOU want your priority to be in life is. If you want to work to save money for the future then go for it. If you’re going to be that person that is going to regret all of those memories that you never got to capture then stop what you are doing- ADULTING, and go live life before it passes you by.

So that stylish trend of being twenty-something is only becoming a thing that everyone is experiencing in society. Know what you want, know who you are looking for, and live everyday knowing that being twenty-something is going to be the best, hardest, most changed years of your life, and you need remember to take a step back and open up your eyes to the world before you can take three steps forward. The Daily post

Actions speak louder than words

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I wanted to write a post that could help people understand. Help people who want to help the ones they care about or love but don’t know how to. The one thing that these two types of people have in common is they both feel helpless. The one who is suffering feels helpless to describe how they are feeling. The person who is trying to help feels helpless because they just don’t understand what the other person is going through. I feel if I can explain my personal story than others will be able to relate, and the ones who don’t know how to help might feel more at ease of how to connect with the person more.

What I’m referring to is affecting 18% of the population, which is about 40 million adults. What i’m about to share is not easy to share, nor is it taken seriously by everyone. This is a mental illness-Anxiety. Now if you go and google anxiety it will lead you to depression, and other disorders associated with anxiety. Someone who suffers from anxiety does not suffer from all of those other disorders. Don’t get me wrong they can, but everyone is different because they all have a different story of how they have gained this illness, and how they deal with it. I personally do not associate it as an illness.

Anxiety does not make everyone awkward:

For myself, I’m an extrovert. I am very outgoing, and love being social. You can put me in a room full of people at a party and I would make a whole bunch of new friends. Just because you have anxiety doesn’t make you socially awkward. There might be times that you are in a middle of a really big crowd like a concert, and you start to feel anxious and feel the need to remove yourself from the situation for a little bit.

For myself, when I start to feel anxious in a big crowd I feel dizzy, I can’t breathe, and I need to sit down. Only on occasion may that might happen. The best thing for me is to just walk away or just be quiet. Don’t think something is wrong or I’m not enjoying myself. I am still having the time of my life, and i’m enjoying the atmosphere, but sometimes it becomes too much. So when this happens, don’t ask me what’s wrong, don’t take it personally if I walk away from you, just accept that it is best for me to do. You don’t have to leave the person if they walk away, most times they feel better just having someone by their side and not needing to say anything. So just sit there as support, and that will mean more to them than you trying to figure out what’s the right thing to say.

Your biggest enemy is your own self:

You get frustrated with yourself because you don’t understand why you are worrying so much. I am the most optimistic person when it comes to everything. I always see the positive out of anything negative. I want to help others with their problems before I help myself. I never get angry, and I know how to deal with stress. The one thing I cannot control mentally is my worrying. Someone with anxiety worries ten times more than someone without it. The type of things that people with anxiety worry about are all completely different.  What I personally worry about is my health, the future, and my experiences from the past into the present that have started this whole cause for me. Worrying personally I think is one of the worst causes in relation to anxiety.  When I’m worrying it makes me feel anxious, I feel shaky, I can barely breathe, and I’m trying to avoid a panic attack. The best thing you can do is be that balance for that person. Let them know that it will be okay and everything will work out. Even though we might know that, sometimes we mentally can’t control our worrying even though we know it will be okay in the end.

The worst thing for us to overcome:

The one thing that I hate to do, and most people might agree with anxiety is talking about how we feel. I tend to keep all of my emotions in and not let anyone know how I’m feeling. I can on the outside look like the happiest person in the world and act happy, but inside i’m the complete opposite. I don’t like to talk to people about how I feel because it makes me feel more anxious, and all of my emotions and worries that I have kept in for years is the last thing I want to let out to someone in one conversation. Don’t get frustrated at us if we don’t want to talk to you about something serious, or let you know how we are feeling. We are people with many layers. It takes me a long time to let my guard down because I feel people will judge. Some people with anxiety might not show affection as much, or be as verbal to serious conversations, but that doesn’t mean we won’t wanna talk eventually. We just have layers, so it takes us longer to open up, and it takes us longer to trust someone to hear how we feel. Be patient with us, and let us open up when we feel it’s the right time to do so. We feel that you don’t understand why we take longer to share something with you, so we avoid hard conversations all together. The more understandable you are, the less questions you ask us, and the more you open up and wait for us to, we will feel more comfortable to be more vulnerable with you. That doesn’t mean when we get frustrated with you or seem aggravated we are annoyed by you. We love you as much as you love us, but we might not how to show it like you do.

Life is hard:

Life is hard for everyone, and we realize we aren’t the only ones with problems. The difference is we might not know how to physically or mentally deal with it. The more you understand us and the more you accept that you will never feel the way we do, the easier it will be for you to connect and understand more.

To sum it up for myself:

What I experience in life no one will ever understand and I will never want to talk about it. I might tell you most of my story, but never the whole thing. Because that’s not who I am, I have not understood yet how to open up with one person because no one has shown me they understand or is willing to just keep it between us. I cry sometimes for no reason, I sometimes would rather be by myself than with others, and I won’t tell you how I’m truly feeling. Overall I am the happiest person, but thankful understanding person I can be. Confusing right? Anxiety is something that you can try your hardest to explain to someone, but they really won’t understand because they aren’t experiencing it. If you can understand us then that’s all that matters. If you can love and accept that person for who they are, then that’s it, simple as that.

The reason not to judge someone until you know them, because you never know what they have been through, what they are going through, and why they act the way they act.

Learn to accept, accept to love, and love everyone because then life would be a better place to live.

 

It takes a certain person, time, and place

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Today I’ve decided to come to a downtown area because it’s eighty degrees out and beautiful. I wanted to come down here to just enjoy the day, and be able to clear my thoughts. This place that I have come to is filled with families walking around the river, people sitting in the grass with their babies, and people at the beach swimming and enjoying the weather. I truly never realized what our world has come to until I sit here in the grass by myself, and look around at all of these people.

Every single person that I have looked at is on his or her phone, and not being social with each other. A family of four all sitting side by side with each other has not said one word, instead looks down intrigued with what is on their phones. You wonder what they are doing, who are they talking to, and what’s so important that they are missing what is around them. They are missing so much that is going around them, so much energy and excitement. Since I am one to not be on my phone I have experienced a lot just in the past half an hour. I have seen an old aged woman with her walker and her middle-aged daughter walking together enjoying the beautiful day. I’ve noticed a young couple with the girl on her phone talking to someone, and the boyfriend just texting walking around irritated because they are not communicating and enjoying one another’s company. Then I see a young couple sitting under a shaded tree, enjoying the atmosphere around them. Then I’ve noticed in all how many people no matter what they are doing decided to come down here and enjoy the day. Took the time to get outside and be able to relax for however long they have.

It’d be nice if people interacted with strangers, get to know someone they don’t know. You never know, it could make a whole world of a difference in their eyes. Maybe that person came down here to get away from a problem, to relief stress from work, or enjoy one last day before going back to school. What I’m really trying to get at is don’t let those beautiful moments pass you by. Don’t be afraid to get outside of your comfort zone and meet someone new. Live life everyday remembering that it’s something special and you should take advantage of every breath you are given, every step you are able to walk, and every conversation you can take advantage of. Because one day, one minute, one second, all of that can be taken away from you, and then you look at yesterday and wish you could’ve changed it all.

Why quitting my full time job was the best decision i’ve so far made.

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Before I start this post, I want to give a little background of myself. As I start to post more about my life, I want my readers to be able to connect with me and relate as much as possible. I am a twenty-three year old full time college student that lives in the suburbs of Chicago. I went to a public high school, and in my graduating class there was about 1,000 plus kids I graduated with. Growing up I did not have the best family situation, and no I was never handed anything I wanted in life- I worked hard for it. One week after turning sixteen I started my very first job as a sales associate in retail. After seven long years in the retail world, I finally gave up. My first job was at Pacific Sunwear, I worked there for four years. I decided to leave that job because I was approached by a store manager to come check out their company and work for them. The best decision was leaving that job and becoming a manager at American Eagle. I left Pacific Sunwear as a keyholder and started American Eagle as a keyholder. Within three years of being at American Eagle I was promoted to a store manager. Now keep in mind I am still in college all of this time as a full time student.

School vs. Job..

There were times that I just wanted to quit, quit it all. I could not find a balance for myself when I was working forty hours a week with only one weekend off a month, and being able to keep up with school and managing good grades. For some reason I had this intent that I would bust my ass off at my job because I was getting paid for it, and school was whatever because for some reason I did not feel a reward at the end of the day putting hours of studying and class time in. So my job started to take over and school slowly started to slip out of my control. Dropping classes, failing classes, going on academic probation.. I couldn’t manage both.

My own sanity vs sacrifice…

Many people don’t understand how hard retail is, especially managing it. It was getting to the point where I was losing my mind, losing a social life, and most importantly losing my perception on life. Time was slipping away from me and there was no way of controlling it. All of my friends started to graduate college, and I was here still in community college with a full time job. What I started to realize was since i’ve been sixteen I was working a JOB-not a career. Now don’t get me wrong, this experience will get me so far after college, and I am so thankful for the endless opportunities, but it’s far more than that. It was time for me to make a difference because everything in life that I wanted to do and figure out in my twenties slowly seemed to be impossible to reach.

Life is too short and i’ve never been so damn happy…

I am a firm believer in living every day like it’s your last. I started to realize that life is more than clocking in for eight hours, clocking out, and then the next day doing it all over again. There’s a difference of getting to that place where you are clocking in to do what you love, and then to clock in to get paid hourly. I realized I was clocking in to just get paid. Putting in my two weeks was the hardest thing I ever had to do because the company was awesome and so good to me, but it just wasn’t enough. I quit my full time job in the beginning of July and I finally understand what it’s like not work late nights, being able to actually enjoy your weekends, and doing things that you have had on your “to do” list since six months ago.

Being so young I realized you shouldn’t have to work to live. Yes, of course I need an income, but not as important as getting through school. Not as important as accomplishing the littlest things like cleaning out your closet, washing your car, going to the gym in the middle of the day. I have gained sanity back because I have been able to do things for me. I wanted to figure out what I exactly need and want in life before life slips away from my hands, before I have a chance to grab it. I shouldn’t have to just get by in school because i’m working full time. I shouldn’t have to miss out on going out with my friends and those memories because i’m a store manager at twenty three years old. Not even being a manager, just anyone my age working forty plus hours a week. This is the time in life where everyone should figure out themselves before you can make others happy. Make sure you are happy with yourself before taking any next chapter in your life. Make sure you have a job that you are in love with. Make sure you still have time for YOURSELF. Because if you don’t, then what is the main thing you’re living for? Live for life, live for love, life for happiness. Don’t live for money, don’t live to please others, and don’t live thinking you will have tomorrow to change it. Change it now, because if you don’t that is going to turn into days, weeks, months, and maybe even years for you to realize and regret that you should’ve changed it when you first realized a problem. For me, I should’ve changed it three years ago.