Finding Deals

Knowing that I won’t exactly be flush during the next 5 years, I am always looking for ways to save money, while still living a comfortable and normal lifestyle for a young 20-something.

Latest finds:

Groupon! Yes, I know that this one has been around for quite some time, but I have started finding deals that worked for me only recently. The other day was Dunkin Donuts, and today was a hair straightener from a top brand.

Selling back textbooks! I sold some of the books that I know I will not be using again, or that will be outdated very soon. I went through Chegg, where they ship for free, and I get a gift card in the form of an AMEX card that can be used basically anywhere!

Yesterday I graduated from college. The past four years have been the most exciting and rewarding of my life. I made lifelong friends, found a passion for economics, and grew a lot along the way.

Thank you, Stonehill, for the most incredible 4 years of my life!

So Much Email

I realized today that I am currently maintaining 6 email accounts. 6. There is no earthly need to have that many email accounts, but somehow I have come to acquire all of them.

It is time to decide what my main email address is going to be. I have my college account, which will be taken away about 6 months after graduation, so that will disappear soon, but to replace it, I just got a new email address from my graduate program. This isn’t helping the email situation.

I have the old account that I have had since middle school, which has been relegated to the advertisement folder.

I have my iCloud account, which I prefer to use these days, because it is the easiest of all my addresses to give people. Those .edu addresses are always long and complicated for people to write down correctly.

How can I consolidate all of these accounts into one? I want to be able to check one place, and find it all right there. All this juggling is making my life very confusing, and that is not what I am looking for these days.

Overscheduling

I know that I over-commit, over-schedule, over-stress, and that this is not a good thing. Sometimes it is great to be able to say that I am super involved in my campus, my family, my community, and that I have an ultra impressive academic load. But other days, I just can’t take it anymore. It seems like there aren’t enough hours in a day, and my body is taking the hit for my mind’s overzealousness.

The majority of this school year I have been sick, in some form or another. If there is a bug going around, I will get it, and usually take it to a whole new level. My immune system has basically shut down, and is now laughing at me I think. It is trying to teach me a lesson.

In an attempt to become healthy again, I have been trying to be very aware of what I do to my body on a daily basis. To help me do this, I am employing the use of a neat little device (I’m a sucker for cool electronics). I bought the Jawbone UP after reading the review a fellow blogger posted on her blog (which is one of my absolute favorites). I had been contemplating the device for a while, and the rave review she wrote put me over the edge. This bracelet lets me track what I eat, how far I walk, my sleep patterns, and my workouts. It also serves as a gentile alarm clock that can wake me up when the moment is right, making me less groggy in the morning.

After 3 days of using the bracelet, I have to say that I am pleased so far, and that I am already learning a lot about my lifestyle!

Now, I have to learn to make some changes in my life that are not going to be easy for me. I need to learn to say no to things when I am feeling overwhelmed. I need to make sure that I am able to spend a bit of time each day taking care of myself, and making sure that I am living a healthy lifestyle.

Grown-up Realizations

I realized this morning that I will be turning 23 this year. I feel like 23 is such a daunting age. Maybe it is because I have not been 23 yet, and that by nature, it seems old to me. Or maybe, just maybe, it is because in my mind I associate 23 with being a full fledged adult.  This means paying bills, living on my own, and making my own career path (hopefully through some graduate program).

My future is hurtling towards me, and I think that I am ready to embrace it, and all that it entails. Don't get me wrong, I will absolutely have some minor, and a few major, freak outs along the way. I think that it is all natural, and a part of growing up, and I welcome the challenge with open arms.

The Power of Social Media

Last night I sent a tweet about my boyfriend’s TV show here at college. I included a link and a short quip about it, not thinking that it would lead to much, other than possibly a few people in my family watching the show. Boy, was I wrong. Within 5 minutes I had been retweeted multiple times, and it was out into our school’s alumni network among other things, all because of connections that I have with people through social media. It is now over 12 hours later, and my phone is still going off with people talking about his show, and sending the link to all of their friends.

I guess I never really thought that my personal twitter account, one of my many social media accounts could be reaching that many people, or that that many people cared about what I wrote on it.

Social media seems to be the way of the future, and I for one am completely in favor of embracing it. Living today means that you are always on the go, and that you are a part of numerous communities. It is a way of keeping up connections with all the people you know and meet, and it can be a great resource even when you don’t intend it to be!

Getting Everything Done

I find myself not having enough hours in the day to get everything that I want to do done. Between 3 jobs, 5 classes, and countless extra activities, it just seems like there aren’t enough yours in the day. I also want to enjoy my last year with my friends at school, but I feel like I always have too much to do.

This is a problem that I encountered in high school too, so I am employing a few old tactics to combat this problem. The best one: bring work with you everywhere, and get whatever you can done even at the strangest times. I can be caught doing homework while at work, while in the car waiting to pick someone up, sitting in front of the TV, and even while eating dinner. I will also break out work during that few minutes after I have sat down in class, and before the professor walks in. I have to make every second count.

There are enough hours in the day, you just have to find those wasted moments, and learn not to waste them anymore. You can gain back more time than you realize!