HOW I PREPARE FOR THE DAY

There’s never been one day something has gone completely according to plain, let’s be honest that’s just how life seems to be for me. I haven’t quite come to terms with this yet because I feel strongly that my perfect day is out there. For now though, while I continue on my quest, there are a couple of things that I make sure I do every single day, to keep myself feeling like there’s at least a LITTLE conduct in my life. Like I said, it may seem like things are all over the place, but it’s organized chaos and there is SOME method to my madness. Here’s what I like to do daily, regardless of most other things in life being completely hectic.

RIP GEORGE

My plans originally were to relaunch the blog on September 1. When I found out that it was a Thursday, that for some reason bothered me and I didn't like the idea of restarting something when it wasn't happening on a Monday. Although it marked the beginning of a brand new month, I just had a problem with it for some reason. Despite my reservations, it was all ready, content planned, and launch date selected for September 1... until August 28 happened.

3 THINGS THE WORLD NEEDS MORE OF

There are three things that I definitely think the world needs more of and I think they are very reasonable to say.  They are very simple and I want to share them with you. 

NOVEMBER ON FLEEK

I've never really been one to use the 'on fleek' phrase, but if there were ever a moment to use it, I feel like this month so far, would be the time to use it.  The weather we've had so far in November feels unprecedented to me.  Seventy degrees everyday makes me so happy.  Everyone has been talking about how annoyed they are because it's not fall temperatures lately and they want it to be cold.  I say EFF THAT.  I want it to be this degree + every single day.  

How has the weather been where you are?  Tweet me and let me know!

5 THINGS THAT INSTANTLY MAKE ME HAPPY

We all have bad days and we all have good ones.  Whether I'm the happiest I've ever been or I'm really feeling completely horrible, there are a couple of things that never fail to completely cheer me up.  I figured that today, I would share them with you.  Let's get started.

How To Find A Mentor

It's no secret, I've said it before.  My relationship with my father is second-to-none.  There is no one in this world that I would rather look to for advice, confide in or share my family time with!  I look to my father for all of the guidance in life.  He has acted as both parents for my entire life, even when my parents were still married and for that I am forever thankful.  I definitely consider him my mentor for life.  

As a student and young professional, I have witnessed and have heard of a lot of my friends talking about how they have had business mentors and relationships.  It was something that I thought I was missing out on and I thought it was something to be ashamed of/scared about.  Let me tell you why.  For some reason, the idea of having a mentor never really crossed my mind.  Like I described, I always confided in my father for most of my decisions and for any questions I had.  So when all of a sudden friends of mine started discussing professional mentors/people in their field that they could look up to, I thought I had missed out on something amazing.  I thought there was a possibility that I could lose myself in my own world.  

Not only this, but I thought not having a mentor was going to stifle my own growth in my field.  I thought not knowing anyone that I could directly report to with questions or queries would really hurt me. I was honestly more 'FOMO' than anything, but this just fueled me to think about mentors and mentoring as a whole.  

I figured out, over the course of my high school/college years that if you don't have a mentor, it's okay.  Why?  Here are a couple of reasons:

Putting Yourself First

It's hard to think about how to put yourself first.  It actually took me a long time to understand how to completely do it.  Not so long ago, I wrote a blog post about how to be unapologetically yourself and I felt like in that post, I was able to get a lot of off of my chest.  It felt amazing, cathartic actually.  This, I guess you could say, is the second installment to that certain blog post.

Why You Shouldnt Be Afraid To Be Unapologetically Yourself

I have, for some reason, been doing a lot of thinking about this topic.  I normally don't practice 'speaking out' about things like this because I do believe that it's up to you what you think about such topics.  BUT!  There are a couple of reasons why I believe that you really shouldn't be afraid to be unapologetically yourself. 

First Things First

There will be a lot of people who are going to try and bring you down no matter who you are.  In regards to your style, what you eat, how you approach certain things, etc.  There's a lot to be said for someone who has the balls to come up to you and tell you that the way you are doing something isn't the right thing.  Everyone has differences for a reason.  Just take a minute and think about what the world would resemble if we were all the same person.  

When you're young, you have no choice but to follow in the footsteps of your parents.  You look to them for guidance (which wont change even when you become older) and you always listen to what they have to say.  With that being said, when you start getting older, it's your time to start learning, growing and listening to yourself.  This is the time where you really start becoming someone who you are going to be proud of, and THIS is a powerful thing.  I have always been the one to say that in the end, you are only going to have yourself, and growing up to become the person that you are proud of is the first step in this process.  Ultimately, making yourself happy is the first step in being able to make everyone else in your life happy.  

Don't Be Afraid of Acceptance

People will have more respect for you if you are unapologetically yourself, than if you give in to everyone else's demands.  You are a stronger person this way.  As an individual, it's important to value respect from other people humbly, it will just make you feel like such a better person in the wrong one.  

Still Remain Respectful

If you feel like people don't understand you or you feel like they're not respecting you and your choices (big or small), you have to just kill 'em with kindness.  My father always told me that and it's really very important.  I think thats partially why I always try to stay so positive and succeed at it.  If you make a conscious effort to kill 'em all with kindness, you'll start to realize how kind and happy you can really be.

You'll Establish a Sense of Confidence

If someone doesn't like the shirt you chose to wear for an event, but you LOVE it and feel good in it:  WEAR IT, don't listen to outside influences because you're afraid of making someone else happy. By making these decisions (the small ones at first), it will give you a sense of confidence that you never knew you had to make decisions like this all the time.

How do you make sure that you're unapologetically yourself?  Share your methods with me in the comments or on Twitter.  Thank you for reading as always.  -Brit.

My 25th Birthday!

I literally cannot believe that I am 25 years old.  It is insane to think that I am going to experience the proverbial 'quarter life crisis' soon.  As if I haven't had enough crisis already, LOL.  As far as I'm concerned though, this year is starting out pretty great.  Ever since I made some of the decisions that I briefly talked about in my blog post about New Year goals, I have started feeling the best that I possibly can.  Emotions-wise, health-wise, etc.  

To be honest, it always kind of sucked having a birthday a week after Christmas.  The only thing I can think about now though, as an older person and as I have been getting older, is how awesome it really is.  I don't look at it as, 'Oh this sucks, presents are the same, celebrations are combined, etc.' I look at it as a new beginning, a full calendar year to start another year long journey of my life.  Awesomeness.

Every year on my birthday I always put on the same nail polish: Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday!  You need multiple coats if it's the only thing you want on the nail but I chose to just throw on Pink Pineapple from Revlon which is one of their Parfumiere polishes.  They are adorable and smell so good!  At least some of them do, lol.  Please excuse the random cut I have on my pointer.

The day started with some adorable messages of love from my Aunt on Instagram.  She gets aggressive on Instagram, so this is a big deal.  Gotta love her and that obnoxious as fuck picture she chose of me to include.  Thanks Aunt Kar, lol.  Also, this banana that we found on the walkway to our house when we were getting in the car.  Apparently my brother dropped it in the dark in the morning on his way to work?

There are no edits on this photo but it just looks perfect for some reason.  We started the day by driving up to Ikea.  The closest location to me and where my family is up north is the one in Elizabeth.  I wanted to look at a couple of things for storage in my room.

We started off at the cafe because we were starving.  Look at all the food on my tray.  I honestly promise you that I didn't eat all of this.  I hated the cinnamon roll.  Everyone always says Ikea cinnamon rolls are the best things ever but there was nothing special about it and it was gross to me lol.  I had one half of my wrap and all of the French fries.  It was my birthday, so even if I did end up eating everything, I wouldn't have cared.  Thank you very much.  #NoJustificationREALLYNeeded

Heres my dad just loving his life.

After fielding all of my birthday texts while we drove all the way to my uncles house, we finally got there.  We had some coffee and then I grabbed my cousin and we headed down Route 4 to Garden State Plaza for some shopping.  There was definitely an accident so it took us like 8 years to get there.  So annoying but we eventually made it and then I shopped my face off for my birthday.

Here are a few glamour shots of the drive up to my uncles house.  We pass Newark Airport and New York City to the East.  Can you see the plane and the skyline?

You know I was Snapchatting the day away.  Here are a few of the ones I included in my story.  

Here are a few eXcEpTiOnAlLy* flattering photos of my family at dinner.  We missed my brother as he was working but it was a nice meal altogether.  It was funny, we were sitting there waiting for our food and all of a sudden we saw JaRule enter the restaurant.  My cousin Pat spotted him and now all I have been singing for the past two days is 'Always On Time.'  Oddly, I can't say I'm mad at it.  We ate at Grand Lux Cafe in Paramus at the GSP.  They are owned by the same people that do Cheesecake Factory so you know it was delicious!    

I had a great day and I can't wait to celebrate with my friends soon!  How do you all celebrate your birthdays?  I will be continuing the celebration for the rest of the month :).  I also did a cute vlog of the day that I plan to maybe upload tomorrow or Monday.  Tweet me!  -Brit.

New Year, New MINDSET.

5 Things for 2015

Tbqh, I don't really know where to start with this.  I have been thinking about this blog post for a long time, but I didn't want to start writing it until December 31.  I just feel like this is such a reflective day and to begin writing it anytime before then is just not right.  Thinking about and planning it in my head is one thing, but to literally take my hands to my keyboard and begin typing is another.  I did not want to do so until now.  

I also grappled with whether or not I actually wanted to even write this post.  I still don't really know how open I'm really going to be with it.  There's really something about letting people into the depths of my life that scares the shit out of me and I know a lot of people feel the same way.  Just know that I am certainly not judging you for having that feeling.  With that said, let's get started.

Being that I started this post with 'internet jargon,' that might be a subtle clue as to how I feel about 2014.  Can you feel the tone of this already?  I sure can.  It was the shittiest year I think I have ever had in my entire life.  Even when my parents got divorced in 2006 and when I have almost died multiple times in the hands of my mother as she drove us around drunk as kids were better than this.  I'm getting a bit ridiculous here and I don't mean to be morbid, but it's true.  So rather than celebrating a new year coming along, I am mainly celebrating the departure of this one.

So with that being said, lets get this thing going.

I
 I really am looking to lean on my friends this year for the support that I NEED to make 2015 the best year that I have ever had.  I am willing to admit, finally, that I don't really make my feelings known and that is what has contributed to being the death of me this past year.  I have my best friend to thank for this.  I've never had someone in my life like Ally.  Although we've been friends for a while, this year, she really helped me realize something: I ALWAYS have a wall up.  I need to let that down and depend on my friends who are here to help me, not just excuse my feelings because I feel like I'm a burden.  I'm not a burden, I just have a wall up.

II
I cannot wait to make myself the happiest person I have ever been, career-wise, this year.  All I have ever wanted, since I was a little girl, was to be successful in a career and I am BEYOND stoked to make this happen.  Career of my dreams in the city of my dreams, coming right up!

III
My family is stronger than ever but there are things that can use improvement.  I always influence my brother in many different ways but I hope that this year, I can persuade him to spend more time with us.  He's been doing better with it recently but being that I have such a small family, I try my best to make sure that I spend AS MUCH time with them as possible.

IV
I want to eat better.  I don't really know how many promises that I can make but I just want to eat waaaaaay better than I have been for the past couple of months.  I did so well and lost a TON of weight about two years ago and then life happened and I gained ALL of it back.  Imagine losing 60-ish pounds and gaining it all back after all that hard work.  Eating right is going to be the first step of doing this because my eating habits have ridiculously gone to complete shit.

V
I don't want to make anything concrete or say anything with confidence, but I want to exercise a WHOLE LOT MORE.  Reason for this?  It's the perfect coupling with eating right and I used to be so keen on running all the time and I just never do it anymore.  I even have a gym membership that I pay for and never go to!  Im convinced thats definitely how those gyms make their money.

Lastly I would like to just include something positive because I feel like often people only state negatives, things they want to change about themselves, or resolutions.  I am so proud of my strength and focus this year.  I have been thrown a PLETHORA of curve balls and my ability to try and remain focused and strong has been enough to show everyone what kind of person I am.

These couple of things are among many others that I want to accomplish this coming year.  Lets not call them resolutions but goals, for sure.  Being that I have been writing this throughout the day, I have finally finished.  I've been opening and closing my laptop multiple times at multiple hours and have been thinking about some of the things I've wanted to include.  I specifically haven't listed ANY blog goals because I have some plans.  What do you want to see happen in your life this year?  Tweet me your goals for the year or comment them below.  Perhaps we can stir up some inspiration.  -Brit.

Emotions vs. Emojis #blogmas 20, 2014!

In a world full of emoji’s and cryptic messages formed of only 140 characters, it’s easy to get lost.  What is the value of real emotion?  What happens to emotion when we’re no longer using long form words to explain how we feel, rather we’re selecting the funniest/wittiest emoji that pops up at the bottom of our text screen.  As a 24 year old woman, I can definitely admit, I (at times) fall into this category.  But with that said, does this make everything get lost in translation?  Does the modern day emoji devalue emotion as a whole?

Merriam-Webster defines emotion as ‘the affective aspect of consciousness.’  When people could ask you at any given day, ‘How are you feeling?,’ it’s all part of emotion.  Perhaps people confuse the use of an emoji as an emphasis, replacement or quick fix for an implementation of a feeling, for the actual feeling itself.  Imagine if there were no such thing as emojis, think about what life was before them.  Sounds so completely pathetic, right?  Just the other day I posted a Facebook status just using ONE emoji and that’s it.  

Sometimes my explanation behind solely relying on emojis for expression derives from the fear or anxiety of actually putting my thoughts out there.  If I am able to admit this, just imagine how many people do not.  Perhaps the reason for your inability to express your real, complete emotions is because your mind is completely cluttered.  It’s easy to get caught up in real life scenarios that get thrown at you all at once: paying your student loans, car payments, satisfying your parents’ expectations, etc.  

While the pressure of conscious responsibilities can be the reason for someone choosing to express their thoughts or emotion through an emoji rather than actual words, the unconscious or unclear mind can be the reason for that as well.  Let me unpack that for you.  How many Instagram, Twitter, FB posts have you seen in your feeds lately with the captions just being emojis of drunk people.  Lets be honest, it happens A LOT.  A clouded (or drunk in this situation) mind, prevents you from being able to form actual thoughts, therefore only allowing you to provide thoughts through an emoji.  I AM NOT KNOCKING BEING DRUNK.  I love a drink (or 17) every once in a while, as long as it's done completely responsibly.  AND I can probably tell you that I've posted pictures this way before.

What are your thoughts on replacement of emotion with emojis?  Lets just get honest with ourselves for a minute.  Like I said several times, I have been in positions when I've tweeted an emoji in replace of my emotion and thats what has got me thinking about this.  I'd love to hear your thoughts so be sure to send me a tweet or leave a comment.  Thanks for reading! -Brit. 

My Week In Photos: November 8

I want to start off this post by saying the HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS to my all-time hero, my father.  One day you will get to know him more in another blog post (as if you don't know enough about him already).  I'm SO lucky to have been brought up by the BEST father in the entire world, I'm so thankful.  Love you dad, I hope you enjoyed your day and your gifts.  

As I mentioned above, it was my fathers birthday and this was one of the things that I got him.  He's a TOTAL fan of the Acid Kuba Kuba cigars.  This is just one of the ones that he always goes back to and one that I know if I get him, he will like.  It's one of the simpler ones that he likes among all of the other much more complicated ones in the smoke shop.

As you all know, I posted yesterday about this fabulous new necklace that I got, I wore it today!

I posted the other day about my Target Beauty Box.  I am LOVING it so far.  It even had one of my old faves, a NYX eye pencil in Milk.  I'm falling back in love with it and falling newly in love with this L'Oreal lip color in Nude Secret.  

Of course you have to know that I VOTED!  To check out my thoughts about voting, click here.

This is the ADORABLE mermaid lego that my little cousin gave to me.  I just think it's the cutest thing in the entire world.  I keep it in my car and it just makes me happy to look at it.

This is my gorgeous aunt after I straightened her hair.  I should have taken a before picture as well but just picture her with super curly hair.  She never straightens her hair and she let me do it tonight.  Basically when I was done she was wanting to take my straightener home.  She has doubts about it because of how long it can take her but I showed her this time that it really doesn't.  Next time I'm up by her, I will be taking her out to buy her own.  Loving it!

What was your week like?  I am happy to have included some fun photos in here for you and I hope you enjoyed.  I know some of them were repeats but there were a few new ones.  Tweet me some pics of your week or let me know what you did in the comments!  Ttys.  -Brit.

A Few Of The Reasons Why I Love Internet Culture

Honestly where can I begin?  It's so hard to explain why I love something so much when there are so many different reasons.  I guess the underlying theme, the motif if you will, is that no matter where you are in your life the internet is always there.  Now you may be thinking: 'What the actual fuck?' and you do have a right to feel this way.  BUT, what I am talking about can be understood in a plethora of ways.  Whether you're at the highest high or the lowest low, the internet almost always is a place that can make you feel stoked, find something to accompany your crying, enforce you're 'turnt up nature' or quench any type of thirst you may be feeling (*lets minds wander*).

It may or may not come as a secret to my readers that I haven't had the easiest life, but I don't complain about any of it to anyone except for my father and my best friend.  I really wouldn't want it any other way to be honest.  But when I say the internet helps you when you're at the lowest of lows, really applies to me before anything else.  This topic is so complex that I don't claim to expel all of my emotions and thoughts about internet culture here, but I just want to feel that cathartic feeling for a moment.

I have such an undying, unbelievable passion for current events, politics, fashion and beauty.  This should come as no surprise.  Whether five or 5,000 people read this blog, I hope to inspire people with it.  I went into Journalism and got my degree because I have an amazing love for writing and giving the people what they deserve, knowledge.  They have the right to know whats going on.  

Back to my love for the internet.  Being that above mentioned passions can all be easily combined and found on all media, I've always experimented with print, online, radio, TV.  Anything else there could possibly be.  I have never discounted anything and I never will.  I truly hope that print journalism never dies.  But while all of this is true, the connection with constant access to up to the date information inspires me to no end.  

While there are lines to be drawn between blogs and news sources, often times I feel its evident that they do play off of each other.  If I, at any time, am able to have access to both a credible news source and a blog at the same time, to me, that seems like the most powerful thing in the entire world.  Think about the social media platforms that bring readers and curious minds to these news stories.  Why do you think publications and websites that are the biggest news sources in the world are on Twitter?  

Following journalists on social media is the best thing that you could possibly do to educate yourself other than reading.  This is much different than just following a news source because you get the raw, unedited thoughts of the journalist from the field at times.  Take for instance the unfortunate events of the second Malaysian Airlines plane that went down recently.  When I had heard about the event, I immediately took to Twitter, scoured for journalists that were there on scene and was able to see photos, read first-hand accounts and then juxtapose those thoughts and ideas with what was actually happening on news channels.  

Don't have a television in your room?  Unable to see things happen live on TV?  Where do you turn?  To the internet.  Often times reputable news sources will offer live coverage of exactly what they are streaming on live TV, right on their website.  This is how powerful the media can be.

Moving away from news for a moment (as I can go on forever), we turn to the world of fashion and beauty.  Although they are completely separate worlds, they bleed together in many different facets.   Blogs are the most amazing thing in the entire world when it comes to the world of fashion.  Whether its runway you crave or street style, there is always something for you.  Fashion culture dominates social media with its up to the minute style insight whether its an Insta-vid from backstage at fashion week, an OOTD post, an 'Inside this Chic Fashionista's Brooklyn Apartment' feature or a fantastic interview with a designer.  It's so simple to get lost for HOURS in your bloglovin' feed catching up on the latest and trust me, I've done it.  

There's really no better feeling than following designers, socialites, insiders and models during fashion week.  Do you want to know what type of bra the models were wearing during Marc Jacobs?  Make sure you follow Kendall Jenner, she'll be sure to let you know.   Cara Delevigne will inform you on the latest from DKNY, Burberry, Chanel and others.  Curious to see who is wearing what in this years Victoria's Secret fashion show?  Check out all of the models on their Instas.  There really is no stopping you when it comes to finding out anything you want to know when it comes to fashion.  The fashion world is your social media oyster.  

Beauty.  Where can I begin.  While some of the things I said above about fashion can be said about beauty as well, nothing compares to some of the beauty brands and how well they run their social media sites.  When I think about fashion social media, I think the brands do great on social media, but the bloggers tend to outshine the social media footprint.  With beauty, it's the other way around for me.  Two of my personal favorites right now are Benefit Cosmetic's Instagram and First Aid Beauty's Twitter.  I cannot explain how much I love them, but I will try. 

Benefit is great.  I love how they create UGC so easily with contests, post quotes to keep people motivated, makeup tips that you can take for yourself or share with someone else and a whole lot more.  Perhaps the best thing about their Instagram is the colorful nature.  Nothing makes me happier and puts me in a better mood, than seeing bright vibrance and Benefit delivers this for sure.  First Aid Beauty makes me happy on Twitter because they deliver the best customer service possible.  Their social media management team is the best.  I have mentioned them on multiple occasions and I think almost every time I mention them, they either favorite, reply or answer my tweets.  Not only this, but sometimes when I'm going through my timeline, I see RTs from other blogs that they've done and I get to discover other blogs to become obsessed with.  This is the way the social media world works.

I will definitely do another post to follow up on my thoughts here.  I want to also talk about YouTube and how YT culture is probably the best out there as well.  I hope you found inspiration in this post to become more active online, better your knowledge, become obsessed or whatever!  Think of the internet as immersing yourself in a world full of things you love.  A place where you can bring it all together.  You can get access to everything that makes you happy, all at once.  And in that, there is power.

Send me a tweet and let me know what your thoughts are on internet culture.  Be sure to stay tuned for my follow-up post full of thoughts that I may have missed, as well as my thoughts on YT culture.  -Brit.