School

I have been at school for about 3 weeks now and so much as happened since this summer:

First, I am all set to graduate this Spring. I have completed my audit, and I even have my classes all picked out for next semester. It is absolutely crazy to think that in 8 months I will be graduated from college and beginning my adult life; it is scary, exhilarating, exciting, and sad all at the same time. The plus side is this semester has made me more confident than ever that I chose the right major and I want to spend the rest of my life doing PR. I absolutely love my classes and I finally feel excited to be learning and at school. It is a strange feeling to actually enjoy going to class and doing work, but it shows me that PR is what I was meant to do.

Second, I am studying abroad!!!! Due to an extremely random, accidental scenario, I found out that there was a J-Term to Rome and Malta to study immigration and human rights, and it sounded super interesting. Thanks to my amazing and supportive parents, I was able to apply as soon as the application was posted online. Although it is not set in stone yet, I am extremely excited for this opportunity. It makes me a little more prepared to be graduating college now that I will have had the opportunity to go abroad. Plus, I will be spending my new years eve in Rome!!! It still hasn't set in yet, but I do realize how lucky I am for this opportunity.

Third, I am so so so so so happy to be reunited with all my friends. I really lucked out with the friends I made in college, and now I get to live with my 3 best friends. It is great to have people to stay up late and talk about life with, or someone to make you cookies when you are sick, or someone to watch Greek with when you have a bad day, or someone to celebrate with when we finish our first week of classes. It's sad to think that this is our last year all together, but I definitely plan to make the best of it!

Woah. Summer is almost over. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that I start my last year of college in a week. This summer has felt really long but at the same time flew by, especially August. After moving into my apartment the first week of August the rest of the month has been filled with my internship and birthday celebrations.

Finishing my internship was surprisingly saddening. I loved going into the basilica and everything that I learned; I really didn't want to leave. I also was extremely lucky in having an amazing boss, and I have very high hopes for all of my future bosses and coworkers! I ended my final day at the basilica with a lunch with my boss and the other intern. We went to Barrio and it was delicious. Seeing all of the young professionals out for lunch on Nicolett Mall made me seriously consider coming back to the cities after graduation.

I also got to go out on the water one final time this summer. We went to Stillwater and rented a pontoon on St. Croix for my grandpa's 70th bday. It was great to spend the afternoon relaxing and floating down the river. The next day was filled with 2 more birthday celebrations. I also got to see a "gender reveal cake cut" which was a lot of fun.

My final weekend of summer was spent with my best friend celebrating her birthday and partying at Ribfest. We watched 21 and over, which might be one of my favorite movies ever, on Friday night. Saturday was Ribfest; an entire day sitting outside, drinking, listening to music,  and talking to friends. This was one of my favorite years of Ribfest, even though I don't remember much of it! I also was in charge of judging (which I found out at the last second). It was extremely hectic and crazy, but now I am better prepared for next year if I am home.

Now I have 2 days to pack and then we leave for Milwaukee and Chicago. My goal for the next two days is to go mini golfing, go out to dinner with my grams, see all of my friends, pack and clean my room, and spend as much time as possible with my nephew. Fingers crossed I can fit it all in.

Summer!

I can't believe it is less than a month until I go back to school. This month is so busy that it is going to fly by. I think I only have 5 days that I am not busy in this next month, and those 5 days will be spent packing. I am almost stressed out just thinking about everything going on, but thankfully it is all very fun stuff. 

Tomorrow night I am kicking off this last stretch of the summer with a twins game.  Then after a day of packing the craziness begins. Friday through Sunday morning I will be up north, and then as soon as I get home Sunday I head back out to Chicago until Tuesday to move into my apt! Next Friday I get to volunteer with habitat for humanity at work, and then Saturday I am going boating for my grandpas birthday. The next week I will finish up my internship, which will be really sad. I am ending my summer with a bang - ribfest is that Saturday! Then on Tuesday it is back on the road to Chicago again. 

So so so much to do! This last month of summer is going to be a lot of fun! The best part is that as soon as it is all over I get to go back to my favorite city and see all of my favorite people. I have a lot to look forward to and am so thankful to have been blessed with such a fantastic summer.

Painful Realizations

Although it completely goes against my astrological sign, for some reason I love to give out second chances... and third and forth and fifth chances. This is one of the biggest things about myself that I want to change. Instead of realizing that maybe somebody shouldn't be in my life, I continue giving them second chances, knowing that I am just going to end up hurt. For some reason I would rather live in ignorant bliss and consistently get my feelings hurt than cut someone out of my life.

The hardest part is when these chances are going to a close friend. I think that a best friend obviously deserves a second chance for whatever they did, but I have a hard time deciding how many second chances they deserve before I realize that they are not much of a friend anymore. This summer has showed my that my weakness is always giving people the benefit of the doubt. No matter how upset or frustrated I am, I always eventually cave and give people another chance. And I always end up disappointed.

Now that I understand that second chances are not always a good thing, I want to gain a little more gumption. I want to be able to realize when someone maybe shouldn't be in my life, and be willing to accept it. I want to experience the pain of losing somebody for good over the pain of being perpetually disappointed. I want the courage to tell somebody no. I want to forgive and forget, and move on.

My Weekend of Music

This weekend I got to hear 11 different artists and 3 separate concerts. This has been such a great weekend filled with music and lot of fun.

Friday night was the Kenny Chesney No Shoes Nation Tour at Target Field. Opening for him was Zach Brown Band, Eli Young Band, and Kasey Musgraves. This was one of my favorite concerts I have ever been to. The concert broke the attendance record at Target Field with 43,940 people attending. Being right in the front (row 11!) I was able to see all of the people and I am not even sure how to describe it. The stadium was packed and full of energy and noise! It was also cool being at a concert with such a wide variety of people. I saw people as young as 9 or 10 and as old as 90-something! All 4 acts were amazing and so much fun. I was very clear why Kenny Chesney has won Performer of the Year so many times, he puts on an absolutely fantastic show. Overall it was a great night that was hard to be topped!

Saturday was the Basilica Block Party. The bands I was able to hear was Bomba de Luz, Van Stee, On An On, Walk the Moon, Goo Goo Dolls, and Matchbox 20. For the majority of the time I was working at the Basilica Landmark tent handing out stickers that I designed and running a twitter contest to raise our social media awareness and participation. It was a lot of fun, and seeing so many people love the stickers was really exciting. I also designed the volunteer t-shirts and had multiple people ask if they could buy a shirt from me! It was great to have such a positive response to my designs and creative ideas. Not too long into the block party we were all out of stickers and even gave away all of our extra shirts. The rest of the time I was able to walk around and listen to some amazing music. Being my first year at the Block Party it was really exciting and way bigger/better than I had expected.

I ended my weekend of music with a concert by the Imagination Movers. LOL. They performed at the Basilica's Move and Groove Family Fest. I first got to hear them warm up and do their sound checks as I was preparing the concert area of the event. Even though I am not a huge IM fan, I did really enjoy working the event. My day consisted of sitting in a bounce house and helping kids go down the slide. I always love working w/ kids, so it was a great day. The only low point would be when the Imagination Movers covered What Makes You Beautiful. They really don't come close to living up to 1D. But otherwise the event was a lot of fun. I definitely wished I were one of the little kids that got to attend and do all of the fun things there.

The weekend ended with a great dinner at my grandmas. I had not seen my nephew in a while so I got to hang out with him. We also played a game of Annie Annie Over, which is always fun, especially since I won. Sunday night dinners with my whole family is always a great way to end the weekend.

As nice as it is to be home this summer, I absolutely cannot wait to go back to Chicago for the sole reason that I will be reunited with my friends. I was reminded of this today when I received what I believe is the best postcard to ever exist from one of my friends in Spain. Being home for the summer made me realize how different college friendships are compared to high school. As much as I love and appreciate all of my friends from high school, I feel like there is a different type of bond with my friends  from college. This is really weird because I feel like we are friends due to coincidence, and not because we all have a ton in common. Maybe that is why we get along so well, we are all very different...?

Anyways I hope all my Chicago friends are having fabulous summers. Being that some of them are in Spain, Italy, and California, I am sure they are! I have a lot of fun things to look forward to this summer (Chesney concert, BBP, going up north, and ribfest!) but I am most looking forward to being reunited with my friends.

Right now I want to write about my good friend Sophie. Every time I see her she amazes me more and more. At only 12 years old she is the most outgoing, friendly, charismatic person I have ever met. This weekend I went to a twins game with her and had the opportunity to witness her ability to befriend anyone, no matter their age. She was able to hold a conversation with everyone she met that night and had our entire section helping her get Joe Mauer's attention and dancing, trying to get her on the jumbotron. Her friendliness paid off and 20 people yelling got Joe's attention - he threw her a strike out ball. I was so happy that she was able to get a ball from her favorite player, she deserved it more than anyone I know. It also amazes me that even with an 8 year age difference I can have such a fun time spending time with Soph. I am so blessed to be able to call her a friend.