Finding a way to deal...

There has been a lot of recent drama in my apartment, one of the main reasons for this seems to be a lack of communication. It is really hard to talk honestly with the people in your life and especially in your home. If you are like any other girl you know it is hard to deal with confrontation, but that often leads to negative ways of dealing with the problems. I've found that girls will be so scared to talk to the person they're having a problem with they will talk to everyone else. This of course leads to far more problems than if you had just talked to them in the first place.

The best thing and often the most difficult is to just talk to the person you are having a problem with. Try as hard as possible not to talk to mutual friends about the problems you are having with them. It is really hard to let things fester inside you and not talk about them, which is why it becomes so easy to to talk to others about it, but it is really unhelpful in the end. I have overheard things said about me as well as said things about others and I know it doesn't lead to anything good.

If you are in a situation that is really bothering you, try to gather your thoughts to yourself and figure out what is the root of the problem. Once you find out what it is that's truly bothering you try to come up with the best possible way to talk about it. Have a time to sit down with them and talk things out, but the most important thing is to be completely honest! If you are not honest, you will not feel better or fix anything.

Take a breath, find yourself, and be honest with others and yourself.

Leave any comments or questions :)

A sea of question marks

Being a senior graduating in May one might think I have everything planned out. These are a few common questions I get
-"Oh where have you applied?"
-"What are you going to do after you're done?"
-"Oh..English (questioning look) what can you do with that major?"

It is very frustrating to be considered less of a Purdue student if I am in Liberal Arts. What will I do with this major? Who knows...I could be pretty much anything that I am interested in. I'm learning now that it really is all about who you know!

Tip #1 Network!!

I am definitely still confused as to where I am going, but it is not as scary as you might think. I just learned that in a survey of companies in America the hiring percentages are going up and they are interested in entry level jobs specifically for freshly graduated students. This was a huge sense of relief!

Tip #2 Research!!

It is so important to research a bunch of different companies or job titles you might be interested in. This way if you go to a career fair or interview you will be able to show how much you know about the company and really impress them.

Tip #3 Make a list of the most important things to you

If you categorize the things that are most important to you it will be easier to find a path or direction to start. For me, one of my top priorities is to find something I will be happy doing (that should probably be a given). For some it may be money, location, company size or values it's really up to you.

No matter what major you are in graduating is scary and intimidating. I will have a post on things to consider about living on your own, but school wise alone it's scary to approach the end that seemed so far in the past. There will be more posts on tips for your last year, I am in a senior job search class and I will be learning a lot about resumes, business cards, etc. so I will pass on some helpful tips.

Please leave any comments or questions for me

Hectic Schedules

This semester I am taking 20 credit hours! It is going to be super tough, but with a little better time management skills I think I can do it. So for this post, it's more of a we can figure this out together. My plan is to make a goal sheet for each week: hours spent on homework, nights to go out with friends, nights to go home (and get rest), hours of working out, etc. I am going to make this goal sheet and post a picture to get a better idea.
A couple things I already know are helpful with any schedule...
-Get your syllabi and write down every due date for major assignments, papers, exams, etc.
-I like to have a month calendar in the front of my binder and write all the major due dates down
-Have one place to write your to do list, homework assignments, etc.
-Finally, stay on campus as long as possible! I promise you, no matter how much you might think you can, you can not study best in your room/apartment if you have roommates. There are too many distractions and it can be too tempting. So find a place away, maybe the library is too quiet so go to a coffeeshop. Find any place that has limited distractions and by that I mean distractions directly related to you. Yes the coffeeshop may have noise, but the conversations don't involve you, the tv's or music isn't your choice so on and so forth.

Good luck with this new semester! Comment with any questions or ideas.

Winter Break

This semester was very hard and induced a lot of stress, so I felt a little rest and relaxation was deserved. While I've been home I have watched movies, hung out with my parents and friends as well as start making new recipes! Just wanted to share with you what I've come up with....


Semi-homemade Tomato Bisque:

Ingredients: One Tomato, Celery, Carrots, One 12 oz. can of Chicken Stock, a can of Tomato soup,
tablespoon of butter (unsalted), and whatever seasoning you like best I just used italian.
reduced fat sour cream (to your liking)

Directions:

-Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the celery and carrots that have been chopped pretty
small.
-Cook the vegetables for 8-10 minutes until soft and then add the chicken stock and the                  
 tomato chopped into pieces.
 -Add the tomato soup and just heat all together for a 3 minutes until the soup is hot
 -If you have a hand blender use that to blend the soup, but I just used a blender. Make
 sure you let the soup cool and don't fill about half of the blender.
 -blend in the desired amount of sour cream or plain greek yogurt, season and Enjoy!

This tomato bisque pairs perfectly with a perfect Grilled Cheese! yummy

If you want another healthy version of this which I just tweaked for what I had SkinnyTaste.com has a Tomato Bisque recipe as well. http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/08/tomato-bisque.html

Finals Week

In the spirit of the season it is that all wonderful week we all dread...Finals week! I have been semi-lucky in my years here and have not had too bad of a finals schedule, but we can't all be lucky. The important thing when it comes to Finals is to plan out a study schedule. No matter what you will need more time than you think. Even when I have a pretty easy final I will start studying and with in three hours I'll realize I may have underestimated how much there was to study. Make sure you leave enough time to study for each final fully. Try to find the best place to study, it is different for everyone! If you know your distracted easily don't study at home. If you like to have a busy environment, coffeehouses are always a good choice. When it comes down to it, most people can benefit from the library, it's not the most fun place to be, but it is efficient. Don't forget to have snacks and water wherever you study, if you're not thinking about food you won't have to leave to grab a bite. It's hard, but just try to knock it out and then get as much sleep as possible. Not having classes feels like it would be less exhausting, but it is easy to lose time and sleep during Finals week. Some good tips for this week include:
1. Sleep!! ZZzz
2. Eat healthy food, McDonalds is delicious and fast, but your brain wants good food
3. Make a study schedule for the week
4. Schedule some time to relax
5. Find the perfect place to study
6. Try not to stress too much, just do the best you can!

Being Healthy in College

It is a difficult task to stay healthy in an environment such as a college campus. There is already the difficulty of eating healthy, but with college there are many added hurdles! These can include: no time, no kitchen facility (dorms), increase of fast food and unhealthy restaurants, lack of funds (because in college its okay to be broke). Due to these obstacles eating and staying healthy is unbelievably hard. Here are 10 tips that can help get you by:

1. Eat some sort of fresh fruit or vegetable every day

2. Get to know what snacks are healthy, having little healthy snacks around or in your backpack will help you resist the urge to grab a scone from Starbucks.

3. Plan ahead, if you have a long day on campus pack a sandwich and an apple or whatever sounds good to get you through the day. 

4. Start experimenting with cooking. If you have a kitchen start trying to learn recipes that sound good and eventually start coming up with your own. 

5. Drink less soda! This is a really hard one for me because I LOVE sprite and root beer, but it is so bad for you and just empty calories.

6. Give yourself a break. I can't stress this enough, College is a stressful, fun, up and down kind of life and to expect to eat perfectly is insane. Do the best you can, but don't make it the top priority. If you really want to order pizza, chinese, or whatever strikes your fancy...Do It! 

7. Try to make weekly goals, if you tell yourself on Sunday "I will not eat fries at all this week"you are more likely to remember it and feel it is important. 

8. Get your friends involved, my roommates and I made a goal sheet and we like to cook for each other and workout together. Even something as simple as playing Kinect just to get the blood flowing. 

9. Walk to class!! I live in Indiana and it gets so cold and gross, but walking to class is the easiest way to stay healthy and in shape without feeling like your getting exercise. (Unless it's raining, yuck I just take the bus)

10. Tell yourself every day, "I am beautiful" don't ever let being healthy turn into wanting to look better. If you don't think you are beautiful no one else will be able to see it either. Stay positive no matter what!

Keep looking for posts of recipes and work out routines as well! 

Definitely check out my two favorite sites right now:

 - blogilates.com    (free workout videos) 

 - skinnytaste.com    (amazingly delicious, easy, healthy recipes)

Roommates 101

          One of the hardest relationships to keep are the ones of the people you live with. All I can offer is my advice backed by my 3 years of experience. I have had the worst roommate to the best back to the worst and I’d say the main culprit is knowing how to deal with small issues before they become huge blowouts. I’m currently wishing I had known how to address smaller issues sooner, but it’s also important to know the person your living with if they are going to be a friend. This may sound confusing, but in my experience “pot luck” or random roommates are not a bad option. There is very little need to have anything more than a professional situation and it can even turn into an acquaintance or possibly a friend. That being said, if you want to live with a good friend there are a lot of things you must consider. One, how well do you know that person (really), what are their living “quirks”. Two, ask yourself if you and your friends on the same page on budget, size, location, etc. it’s really important to be on the same page and to discuss it before the lease is signed. Finding the right person to live with is only the first step, living with that person is another part of this touchy situation.

      

           Living with anyone is a different situation than anyone can imagine. There is the business aspect with bills, room choice, and buying supplies (kitchen supplies, furniture, etc.). This can add a lot of strain to a friendship, so it’s helpful to have a plan before you sign and discuss how that will work. Things to talk about could be how to allocate the bills, such as will someone pay the bill and the other tenants can pay that person with cash or check, or the bills could be paid each month by alternating tenants. Next you need to consider who will bring what stuff to fill the apartment. It is extremely important to constantly keep a positive attitude and not to bring personal issues into the arrangements. The best advice I could possibly give is to truly evaluate what living situation will best fit your life. Sometimes the fun of living with your friends can overshadow the possible advantages to living alone or with a random roommate. Every situation is different and everyone has different priorities and you must make sure you make your own priorities instead of trying to alter them for the situation.