3 Wochen auf Deutsch

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Three weeks in German. No English allowed. This will either be fantastic or really rough.

A couple months ago I applied to the Governor’s School program– you can pick an area of study that you are proficient/interested in and apply for it– I chose to study German for three weeks. Woo!

In order to make it as close to a full immersion experience as possible, they cut all participants off from civilization. Which is, a good and bad thing.  It’s a great thing, because you get to take advantage of the attempted immersion. AND you don’t have a bunch of social media obsessed kids on your hands for three weeks.  Instead, you have a bunch of half-insane/deprived kids writing letters home, lol.

Yes, we’re allowed to write letters. With paper. And pen. It’s been such a long time….

The bad part of it is that mail is slow.  And also I’m selfish and want to be able to talk to people (J!!) while I’m there.

Buuuuut I know that it’s for the better… And it’s cool and exciting and nerve wracking– I leave tomorrow at 7am to drive 3 hours to Washington and Lee University… and then I’m there.  For three weeks away from home. YAY It’ll be like college–living in a dorm and eating on campus and taking tours and kadlfj;daklsjf it’s gonna be awesome. You can tell I’m not pumped at all…

Speaking of college, I visited JMU for a generic tour this past Thursday.  It was fabulous.  I reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllly wanna go there.  One thing our tourguide pointed out at us was that there are little circles of stone on the sidewalks on campus. If you stand in the middle of it and clap your hands, in addition to your handclaps you hear a little squeaking noise.  It’s the weirdest thing and only the person in the center can hear it.  (<– these people aren’t crazy, it’s a real thing!)

Not a major reason why I wanna go there, but you know (;

Wish me luck– I’ll be MIA for 3 weeks or more so I’ll MISS YOU ALL and reading up on you guys ),:  If y’all have a list of basic German phrases that you feel like I shouldn’t live without, feel free to comment and/or send them to me!

Aufwiedersehen!

~Steph xoxo

Pearls of Wisdom from my Economics Teacher

We’re at that point of the school year where classes are uneventful pointless, and everything is due before exams, making it both crazy and hectic.
In my Economics class, however, my teacher shared with us (he was feeling generous) a couple bits of advice for college and the real world, which I found rather humorous.  I wrote them down, and thought I’d share them with you.

Prof. W’s All-Purpose Words of Wisdom to Survive College and Life

• “You are not a special snowflake. No matter how special and unique you think you are, there will always be someone just like you, even better than you.” Seeing that Prof. W’s humour is very dry and sarcastic, I took this to mean “don’t be overly cocky and think you’re the shit,” because nobody likes someone who is like that.  That being said, embrace you for you and don’t fall into the all-consuming trap of comparing yourself to others.
• “Do the work, no matter how genius you are.” Again, assuming you’re being cocky, prescribing yourself as a genius who doesn’t think doing the work is required, he’s telling us to calm down. In order to be a special snowflake, you have to work hard and earn it.  No one likes fake snowflakes.
• “Be nice.” Duh. Short and sweet, and probably the most important and basic things to know.  Be nice to others, be kind, and people won’t hate you.  It’s not hard.  Plus, being able to get along with people is a precious skill in the workforce.  Might as well do it in school and in college, and just everywhere you come in contact with people.  Which is everywhere.  All the time.
• “If you can’t be nice, be funny.” This is Prof. W’s humour again.  You should always strive to be nice, but he reasons that if you’re funny, you can most likely at least disguise your less-than-pleasant attitude towards people.  However, different from Prof. W’s advice… being funny is different than being good-humoured.  Pick comedy and people may regard you as an asshole, depending on how you pull it off.  Pick good humour and people will find you easygoing and nice to be around. You shouldn’t use humor to cover up your assholiness, just…. work on it (;
• “Follow your dreams, but always have a plan B.” Man, he sounds like my mother ranting to my older brother.  But it’s true! Do not, for a minute hesitate in chasing your passions. However, that does not mean that you should abandon all sensibility either.  Prepare for change, and have a flexible counter plan handy just in case you don’t happen to get famous, be president, or get a record deal.

xx

10 Things I Learned at my Junior Prom

Hey guys! Sorry it’s been forever since I last posted… but I am back baby and I am going to write this post as if no time has gone by!

Anyways.

As you may know, this month and this past month are prime times for high school proms.  Ours happened to be one of the latest ones in our area and it all went down last night.  Our SCA rented the ballroom out at a Marriott near the airport and it was really nice.  But what made last night really special was what I learned during the course of my first big, legit, school evening.

1. Getting there on the early side will be awkward.  Hence, why so many people showed up like an hour past when it started… But even if you get there early, embrace it! Check in with people and say hi, not to mention that it’s the prime time to request a song because the band/DJ hired for the event will be getting settled and there won’t be mountains of song requests ahead of you. When I saw that people were just sitting around at tables and not really doing anything, I grabbed one of my friends and we made a fool of ourselves on the dance floor. After people had their laughs, they joined us and we walked off feeling accomplished. Don’t be afraid to dance (outrageously) alone. (;

2. Wearing heels greater than 5″ will be rough.  I know, because I did it. They were, great, but man… PAIN.  I’m short and I love embracing heels (being 4 feet 11.5 inches I can wear whatever height I want) but know your limits, lol.  Halfway through the night those shoes were outta there.  Kudos to the people I saw wearing cute short heels, chunky heels, and gorgeous dazzly flats.  I admire you. And your comfort level.

3. Every girl is a princess and every guy is a prince. In a classy environment, everyone looks stunning. I was scrolling through the aftermath of instagram and twitter and facebook and DAMN everyone looks good.  I dunno if there are those people who are like “I must be the most stunning at prahhhm” (verbatim) but just a bit of advice to those overachievers– that’s hard to do. When everyone’s suited up and dressed up, putting their best glossy toes forward, everyone shines.  And I just wanna say I was surrounded by beautiful people the whole night.  It was fabulous.

4. Someone will spill a drink (or something) on someone else’s dress. I would know because I was that someone.  For those of you with that bit of clumsy gene in you… Be careful, and be gracious lol.  It wasn’t my fault per se, I was standing in a perfectly fine punchline zone, when someone opened a door behind me and pushed me forward, thrusting half a cup of bright red punch on a friend’s baby blue prom dress.  Needless to say I whirled around to face her and apologized profusely, offering to go help her clean it.  To my surprise she said no, it was fine– she was smiling like it didn’t even bother her that much.  She just adjusted her ruffles, we laughed, and the night went on.  But it coulda been worse… It coulda been a bitchfight or something, haha.  So just be careful. And don’t drink red beverages.

5. There will be some people coming to the dance under the influence. Even though the principle has warned and explicitly told them not to.  Needless to say, be wary and be safe.  No one likes it when people are high or drunk in the middle of the dance floor. Keep it classy, y’all.

6. Teenagers are actually capable of putting their phone down for four hours. Believe it or not! I recall looking around the dance floor and not seeing one phone in the air or in people’s hands.  I felt REALLY out of place when I was taking pictures with some people because I had mine out.  It makes me happy that we can abandon those little bricks of technology for a while for some good, old fashioned socialization and dancing. Yay my generation! You’ve come a long way, I’m so proud *sniff, sniff*.

7. There will most likely be some low-key drama. Sadly, I don’t think a prom goes by where there isn’t some. So if you see someone sitting alone or kinda sad, smile.  And walk up to them. Ask them to dance.  It’s a special night and you want them to feel happy and special. Doing this helps to take their mind of of things so they can just have fun.  I did this, and I made a friend. I also like to think I made their night just a little bit better with my ridiculous dancing….

8. There will most likely be some extremely low necklines. Were their mothers aware? Lol. I understand that for some, the dress if their dreams is super low cut and a little lacking at the bust, which is… Fine. Expressing yourself is great, but please do your best to have the girls stay where they belong. Plus, you’ll be more comfortable dancing and you won’t have to adjust yourself so much.

9. It is okay to just do you. Who cares what the “norm” is for prom? For a little bit, J and I were being strongly pushed towards being in a group.  For me and my experiences, groups have always been… Not the most fun (though there was one exception my freshman year for homecoming). Just know that whatever your prom plans are, be it out with a group or just with your date, just concentrate on what will make you happiest for that night. J and I ended up staying at his house, cooking scallops, broccoli, and pasta together, watching Netflix and just casually hanging out before we went to the actual dance. As for dress? Do what you feel best in.  Wanna rock a high-low dress? Go for it.  Wanna rock those 5″ heels? Have at it. It’s your night, make it special!

10. Prom is what you make of it. So make it fun! It’s not guaranteed that everything will go to plan. Dinner reservations could be rocky, you may spill something on yourself at dinner, you could forget to give him/her flowers.. It’s not the end of the world. Just enjoy the night.

Here’s to wishing you a happy prom and more to come (:

Love always,
Steph xoxo