Friday, August 24, 2012

Happiness Journal

About a month ago, I was watching an Elizabeth Gilbert interview she did with Oprah. She talked about a new thing that she started doing every day and that was writing in a happiness journal. She would write down in a journal of things that made her happy that day. She pointed out, why focus on the bad, the negative? That stuff just brings you down. I was intrigued by that idea and it was that day that I found my own journal that would be my own happiness journal. It was almost as if I was meant to do this. It was weird because I was in the journal section at Target and I stumbled across this one that was by itself, the last one. As if it were meant for me. I knew it was just from reading what it said on the front.
It is perfect because I would be writing about things that make my day bright and a lot of you know that "sparkle" is a word that I kind of own for myself. Something that people associate me with. There was no doubt that I had to get this and it would be my happiness journal. I started it that night and with an introduction. I took a picture of it and shared it on Instagram and Twitter. I had feedback and one girl said she was inspired to do it so she can look back at it and see what she was doing in her life then and what not. It is a nice way to see what you were doing at that time in your life and what was making you happy then.
I have written in it every night since I have gotten it. I don't really write everything out in sentences. I just list things out, but not in a list form. It's in prose form almost. Sentences, half sentences, words. Short thoughts and things that made me happy. It is a nice way to reflect over the day and see all that I have done and actually how many things made me happy. It adds up. You will see in the picture in the bottom if you are able to read it, that I mention that I might learn some things about myself just by doing this and I kind of already have. I have learned that people are an important thing in my life. I value the people around me. All the conversations, phone calls, texts, skype dates, and bonding moments. I mention a lot of people and things I do with people. I found that interesting.
I encourage you to get a happiness journal and to see what you come up with. It is nice to focus on the good and by doing this, you revisit that happiness, which can only be a positive thing that can enrich your life. One journal that was at Target said, "We write to taste life twice..." - Anais Nin. I find that true in a way. With this you can taste that happiness twice when you write it and maybe even three, four, or five more times if you go back and visit it. If you have a bad day or going through a tough time, this can be another tool to help you get through that. It is a reminder of things that have made you happy before. It can help you revisit that.
Let me know if you start one and how it goes. It is a neat thing to experience.

Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel

Thursday, August 16, 2012

City Lights

I am really excited about this poem I started working on last night and finished tonight. Well not technically finished. I think I am going to use this to workshop as one of my poems for my poetry class this semester.

This poem was inspired by my trip to Indianapolis. I pulled imagery from my experiences there in the beautiful city. This is dedicated to my dear friend, Kirsten, who also went to Indianapolis. We had a conversation about something on her bucket list.

She would love to have this amazing adventure with an awesome guy she randomly meets where they pretty much get to do anything (not hookup!) for a night. 

It has a movie-esque feel to it and I think it is safe to say a lot of girls probably have this on their bucket list! So here it is. My poem dedicated to Kirsten, other girls like us, and Indianapolis.

It's a whirlwind night
Surrounded by 
City lights
Strings of them
Wrapped in limbs of trees
Twinkle
A beautiful monument
Makes it a romantic
Place where I'm glad to be
In this unfamiliar city
The hum of cars pass
By on the brick roads
Of the round about
Conversations float in the air
From people walking around
And I'm enjoying the company
Of a boy from LA
That just bought me ice cream
From a shop across the way
We indulge
We chat
As we sit on the ledge
We pass flirting
Now on the edge
Of a crush
When I so easily blush
He spits out the chocolate chips
Because he only likes the mint
We talk school
We talk religion
He plays it cool
Makes it a mission
To pick on me
To get closer to me
Like any boy that plays games
It was today I learned his name
As I stand before him
I slip my arms around his neck
Our pauses
Longer
Knowing what's next
It's right
It's now
We don't make a sound
We both ease in
To a perfect first kiss
For a perfect moment
On a whirlwind night
Surrounded by city lights



Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel



Nail Polish Review: "I'm Not Lion" by China Glaze

Jessica knows me well and my taste in nail polish. She pretty much told me I was going to get the China Glaze nail polish cleverly named, "I'm Not Lion" from their safari collection. She told me it was me.
I chose to wear it for my first week of school. I was already falling in love with it as I was painting it on. I knew then that Jessica as right.
This is a great color because it goes on by itself which is great for a glitter. You don't need to hassle with finding a good shade to put underneath. You can just use the glitter. I also love the color because it is really subtle and simple. This makes it classy and sophisticated but at the same time, it is enough to be girly with the sparkle. I definitely recommend! It's good for any occasion and pretty much any season too. A good one to add to your collection!
Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Indianapolis: CASE ASAP "Race Towards Excellence" Network Conference

There is nothing like hanging out and sharing a common bond with 600 college students from all over the nation. Last week I went to Indianapolis with 5 other girls from ESU Ambassadors and our amazing adviser to attend the 39th annual CASE ASAP Network Convention. We traveled 9 hours in a van and on the first day I requested White Castle for lunch! We don't have White Castle anymore in Kansas City let alone Emporia. Almost everyone hadn't had it before. So it was exciting getting to have that and be a part of others first experience having it!


We needed to be there in time for Heather, a fellow ESU Ambassador, to get to a meeting. She is the district representative for our district in the CASE ASAP organization. It is a pretty big deal and we are proud that she is from ESU! So when we were on the way, we noticed the time on our phones changed. Oh yeah, there is a time difference in Indianapolis! That was an adjustment we had to make! Once we got there, Heather had to go to dinner and work with the exec board with other district representatives so the girls and I went and got dinner at a mexican restaurant that didn't have Dr. Pepper or Pibb Extra. It was a sad moment! We walked around town and got shakes at Steak N' Shake too!

Ashley and I had a room to ourselves so we got to have our own beds! I have gone on a lot of trips through high school and college and I have always had to share a bed. So this was a neat first for me to have my own fluffy bed of bliss! It was quite comfy and by the window :) It was also nice to have it for just Ashley and I. We got to relax and also have a lot of bonding time!
Since we had to go a couple days early because of Heather and our adviser's meetings, we had our second day there all to ourselves with nothing planned! We slept in and went to the mall for awhile. For dinner, Ashley, Amanda, and Kirsten and I went to the Colts Bar and Grille which is all things Colts that is dedicated to their fans. I had a flat bread pizza that was delish! I definitely recommend if you ever want to visit Indy!
That night we went swimming at the hotel pool. The view was amazing. There was a wall of windows and part of the roof was made of windows as well. You could see the city lights and tall buildings as you relaxed and swam. It began to thunderstorm. Something that has became foreign to us due to the drought we have been in this summer. Amanda and I lounged and looked up through the roof windows and watched the lightning and rain fall down.
Our view through the window at the pool.
That night we went to the lobby and lounged and got on our computers in these super duper comfy seats! We also got desert from a restaurant at the hotel and ate them in the lobby. It was nice to unwind with the ladies and be girly!

The CASE ASAP conference started that Thursday! I was so anxious for it to finally start and felt like a kid waiting for the first day of school! We went to registration to get our things and set up our table decorations. They messed up my name tag and had my name as Machel which was a big joke to the other girls, but luckily we got it fixed :)

We went to roll call which is when all the students are gathered together in the ballroom and they introduce all the schools attending the conference. This is a time for schools to do a chant, cheer, or whatever they want to let everyone know they are there. This is a rush because everyone is so excited and they have a lot of school spirit. There are over 600 students representing over 100 schools. There are big name schools there such as KU, Mizzou, Florida, Tennessee, UCLA, Ohio, Texas, etc. It is cool to hear their chants and see what they do to show their school spirit. During that time they had a couple people from each district come up for a contest. Heather wanted me to be one of the people that went up for our district. For the contest I had to do my best rendition of "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!" I know, imagine me yelling this with my tiny voice. I think I did  a good job and I was thankful to have a microphone to assist me!

That night we went to a baseball game. We didn't stay very long because it was kind of boring. Hey, we are girls and we wanted to get ice cream! So we left early :)
Us at the baseball game.
We searched for an ice cream shop and found one that is in this beautiful area. It was in this round about with shops and this in the middle.

It had brick roads and the trees were filled with twinkling lights. Our adviser, Nikki, treated us to ice cream and it was delish. We decided to sit on the steps in front of the monument and had one amazing view of the city. This was what I saw...
One of my favorite pictures of all time. It was taken from my phone and I didn't edit or use filters. 
It was a special moment for me. Something that I will always remember. I felt this calmness and peace. I felt surrounded by love and a bond. Us girls just sat, ate our ice cream and observed. We saw some lightning in the sky and soon it started to sprinkle. We got up to head back to the hotel and it started to rain on us. It was a great feeling just walking at night in the rain with friends in downtown Indianapolis. I felt very in the moment.
Getting back to the hotel in the rain.
Ashley and I needed to practice our presentation so we ran through it a couple times at a random spot in the hotel and we presented for our fellow ambassadors and they helped us out! Friday was the big day and we had our presentation at 3:00pm. We presented to a room full of people about how to give effective campus tours. We got quite a few chuckles, went our full time, had questions asked, and people that came even had discussion among themselves helping each other out. It was such a great feeling and a lot of excitement and right after was market place in which schools exchange/barter things such as t-shirts, stickers, pens, and more. I was able to get a couple hard to get t-shirts from UCLA and Florida! :)
My loot from market place!
The food we were served at the hotel during conference was amazing. We had an etiquette lunch and we were taught by a really funny lady how to conduct ourselves at fancy dinners and what not.  This was our lunch during that.

Friday night we went to dinner and enjoyed it with a fellow school from our district, Drake University. We indulged at Hard Rock Cafe! Ashley and I really wanted to go there because we went last year while at conference in Nashville!
Saturday was a fun filled and busy day! We had more sessions to go to and we got a lot of ideas. At lunch the spirit award was announced and our district, District 6 won! It was awesome to be a part of and we got a cool ribbon to add to our name tag. That night was the banquet, so we got dressed up and had a fancy dinner. 

Afterwards was a dance party! I "Tonto jumped on it" and "jumped around" in my heels! It was cool dancing with other college kids from around the states.
With the beautiful ESU ladies :)
My Ambassador partner in crime, Ashley!
We decided to go out on the town in our dresses. We went back to the pretty round about and took pictures. It's such a romantic setting. Definitely felt like a Sex and the City moment strolling around all dressed up with some great girls! 
We went back to see if there were anybody at the dance party still and it was more packed than when we left! We went on the dance floor and danced with people that we had met while at conference. It was so much fun letting loose!
Me channeling Kate Middleton.
We were pretty sad leaving on Sunday morning. I was bummed to leave such a beautiful city and all the cool people I had met while I was there. Some live 100's and 1000's of miles away and you may never see them again, but hopefully we can stay in touch. I had a great time meeting new people and making memories with them. It was really neat to talk to some of them and hear about their programs and how different it can be. It makes me want to travel even more and experience more too. I also got to spend a lot of time with fellow ambassadors and learn about them too. I feel like we got closer and strengthened our bonds. Let me tell you, I know what Kirsten wants and does not want in a man! She was cracking me up and we started a new thing where we say "Chronicles of Kirsten continues" when she says something funny and outrageous! I love experiences like this because I get to learn and open my eyes more to the world and I definitely did through hanging with my fellow ambassadors, exploring a new city, meeting new people, feeling like I was living in a chick flick movie, going to conference sessions, and eating a lot of delicious food of course. :)
I was already starting to feel like Christmas was over and I was wandering how many more days were left until next year's conference. I definitely can say I had the time of my life. There wasn't a bad part to the trip. Everything seemed perfect

Now I can't wait to go to the 40th annual CASE ASAP conference in 2013. I will be looking forward to meeting you, New Orleans. :)

Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel 

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Homesickness & Excitment

As school was coming to an end, all anyone could talk about was how excited they were for summer. I felt like I was the only one that didn't really have excitement for it. At the time I had no idea what I was going to do about a job. I didn't really have any plans or anything. I felt like there wasn't much for me to be excited about. I was content with being at school and being busy all the time and doing things I love. I was the oddball.

The first few weeks of summer was weird. I didn't have a job, school, or meetings to attend. Nothing. I was going day by day. I watched a lot of Sex and the City and got to visit with a lot of friends and family in between sleeping in and going to the gym. It was a foreign feeling to me, but was much needed.

As time progressed over the summer, I was surprised at how much I was enjoying my summer. I was relaxing for once, doing things I wanted, seeing people I hadn't in a long time and growing closer to friends and family. I definitely strengthened my bonds with people this summer which has been really important to me.

As I was going over my schedule for August with my mom, walking her through all the places to be and things to do, she decided for me to not come home after my trip to Indianapolis and for me to just stay at school until labor day weekend which isn't until September. At that moment my heart dropped a little. I had this wave of emotion in my chest go through me. It was like it was anxiety or a shot of homesickness. I have spent so much time with my family and close friends, that it was weird to think I wouldn't see them for atleast 3 weeks when I would see them at least three times a week. As it is getting closer, it is getting a little tough. This morning at church I hugged my pastor and he asked when I was leaving for Emporia. I said, "tomorrow." Hearing it out loud hit me. I will miss going to church ever Sunday and bible study after week, but I will get to when I can.

It is a bittersweet thing. I live this unique life right now during college. I have home here in Kansas City, but Emporia has become a home to me too. I probably easily live there more than I do in Kansas City in a span of a year. I live both and I have so many beautiful people in both places. I don't know if I could be more blessed. Thankfully I have the technology. I have calls, texts, emails, Facebook, Twitter and Skype to keep updated and connected with everyone. I have hints of homesickness looming in me, but excitement for the upcoming weeks to come is shining too.

I am glad to have a great summer. It treated me well. I am so excited for what is to come. There are so many great things about to happen and I will be sure to keep you filled in. :)

Sparkle & Shine,
Rachel