Shatece Haynes

1:30 AM

Spring Is Here! And The Semester Just Got Longer, Didn't It?

Well, hello there, beautiful people! Again, sorry for not posting any content last week. I honestly can't believe that it's only been a week since I came back from Spring Break. This past school week seemed to drag on forever! School has been crazy: I've got auditions for next semester's shows coming up soon, dealing with trying to find off-campus housing has been crazy, and that's just the beginning.
Needless to say, I'm in the "screw everything" part of the semester. If you're in college, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. It's that time of the semester where you're just kind of over putting in too much effort in your classes. To be honest, I just want the summer to be here. I'm sure many of your are in the same boat I'm in. The weather is warming up and despite me being a couch potato who likes to lock herself in her room with Netflix, I actually want to enjoy it. However, I'm well aware that I can't just give up on school altogether, so here's what I'm doing to stay motivated to finish off this semester the same way I started it: hella motivated!

Prioritize
Yeah, I know. School sucks right now and at this point, your only objective is to not fail. But the reality is that there's still at least a month of school left for most of us. There's no need to not be excited about summer, but getting your priorities straight will help put things into perspective. School first. Then summer fun!

Stay Organized
Seriously, the only thing keeping me sane at this point in the semester is staying on top of things. If I let myself start procrastinating right now, there's no way I'm going to get anything done. With that being said, I'd recommend getting organized like it's your day job. A great way to do that is to get yourself a good planner, if you haven't already picked one up by now. But if writing things down isn't your thing and you like to electronically stay organized, there's an app called My Study Life that I just found out about this past weekend and I believe it's available for both iPhone and Android. It's actually a really cool app; it allows you to organize your classes, assignments, exams, etc. I just downloaded it and have only had a little bit of time to mess with it, but so far, I'm really loving it! It doesn't really matter what your methods of staying organized are, but just make sure you're doing it. You can't afford to start slipping up now!

By All Means, Do Enjoy The Outdoors When You Can
Of course, take advantage of this awesome weather! Go study outside (Yes, people actually do that, apparently) or go on a walk or invite your friends to play volleyball or something. These are all things that I see people doing all the time around my campus.

When School's Out, Celebrate!
After working your butt off for nine months out of the year, you deserve to celebrate your accomplishments. I don't live in a large city, but there are a few local festivals that I'm looking forward to going to. And since I'm finally 21 years old, I can finally have some real (responsible) fun. I'm also very excited about finally being able to dress nicely. During the school year, I always wear workout clothes because my classes are usually very physical classes, but now, I can wear whatever I want and I'm excited for that!

Speaking of summer and fashion, I'd like to share with you guys this awesome post I read from SRTrends.com about putting together the perfect outfit to wear to music festivals (for those of us that are lucky enough to go. Unfortunately, I'm not). I love the outfits pictured in this post and it makes me so excited and ready for the summer time!

Comment down below and let me know how you're getting through the rest of the semester and what your summer plans are!

With love from your girl,

1:30 AM

Book Review: Adulting: How To Become A Grown-Up In 468 Easy(Ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown

Hello there, beautiful people! Before I get into today's post, I'm pretty sure that I owe you guys an apology for being completely MIA for a couple of weeks. I'm sorry loves! There has just been a lot going on within these past few weeks with school and midterms, and not to mention the fact that the Wi-Fi on my university's campus has been down for what seems like forever. But, I'm aware that it's been a while since I posted any content on the blog, so I'm back and ready to go!

So what have I been up to? Glad you asked (even though you didn't, but it's cool). I've been going crazy over this book my friend referred me to. It's called Adulting: How To Become A Grown-Up In 468 Easy(Ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown and it's amazing! I am absolutely obsessed with this book; it's like the Bible for everyone in their twenties. Call it luck, but this book came into my life at a time when I really needed it. For those of you who don't know, Kelly Williams Brown is a phenomenal author (and after reading her book, you'll see why) whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and many other places. She also has a blog, relating to content from her book.

I'm only twenty-one years old, so no, I don't know everything about being a grown-up. But the one thing that I do know about growing up is that it can be scary as hell! In this book, Kelly breaks down the process of growing up into incredibly insightful and relatable chapters and it's so refreshing. I also love how relevant this book is to my life right now. Seriously. A couple of friends and I have been looking into getting an apartment off campus next year and, of course, the second chapter of this book talks all about domesticity and how to find an apartment, how to clean and decorate your apartment, and tips on how to haul all of your stuff into your new place. That's only the second chapter! There's also tons of advice on networking to get jobs as well as advice on how to generally have a grown-up conversation without constantly putting your foot in your mouth. She also talks about how to budget and save money, what the hell taxes are, and how to deal with relationships between friends, significant others, and family members, among a ton of other things.

Adulting is a perfect book for anyone who, like me, is in their early twenties and just really getting into adulthood and who may be dealing with many things mentioned in this book. One of the best things about this book, in my opinion, is how it's written. Kelly has a very witty and personable sense of humor that can be seen throughout the entire book, which makes it really freaking hard to put the book down. Then again, why would you want to? It's so damn good!

I highly recommend Adulting and I would love to thank my friend, Haley, for introducing me to this life-changing book. For more information on Kelly Williams Brown, check out her website here. Comment down below and let me know what books you guys have been reading or recommend reading!

With love from your girl,