Life without school

So, as you may have seen in my past three blogs, I am officially a graduate of college. Woohoo!! Partay!!! So, some may be wondering what is it like? Honestly, I thought I would hate it. I am not your normal person who really doesn't like school. Don't get me wrong, I hate schoolwork, but genuinely love school. So of course, I thought I would hate being done. I actually thought I would miss the work. Well.....I don't! Surprise! Ha! 

Of course I do miss my friends. However, since I'm still living in my college town I do still get to see them. I also am only babysitting right now and therefore I have a lot of free time. So, my days consist of babysitting, watching Netflix, reading, and hanging with friends and I am loving it. However, I am constantly searching for a "real" job and hopefully one within my field. The job search is the worst part of this whole thing right now. It's been a month and I still haven't found anything. 

For now though, I am working on my 50 books in a year challenge that I set for myself. So far, I have read five books which means I am two books ahead of schedule! I have also gone on a mini book buying spree at books a million thanks to their end of the year sale and picked up seven more books and I have already read two of them. In all this time spent reading I have also been watching a lot of booktubers on YouTube. I've been getting a lot of great book recommendations and I am thinking of starting my own channel or either turning my blog into a book blog of sorts. If I do decide to turn this into a book blog you can expect book reviews, movie/book review, book challenges, book hauls, etc. so let me know what you think. I mean if I could make a living off of reading and writing reviews I would. Hey, wait a minute! Haha, if anyone knows where I can get a good critic job, let me know! I'd be great at that. Except, I love just about everything and don't critics hate everything? ;) 

All I know for sure is that I am enjoying my time as a graduate and can't wait to read more books. 

Bout of Books Day 1....$100 book basket list

Bout of Books Read-A-Thon

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

In an effort to complete my 50 books read in a year challenge, I have decided to complete this read-a-thon for the week of January 6th. I watch a lot of booktubers videos on YouTube and I learned about this marathon through jessethereader (see video below) and thought it would be a good way to get a few books out of the way. Since I have not found a job yet, besides filling out applications, I will have a huge amount of free time to complete a few books during this week marathon of reading. So, I have decided to complete a few books I have already started and begin one more. The books I have chosen and will be reading are:

               1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

               2. Matched by Ally Condie

               3. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

               4. The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
If you would like to compete in this marathon, follow the button below to learn more. And if you would like updates on my progress I will be attempting to tweet it with #BoutofBooks and possibly a blog post at the end.

<div align="center"><a href="http://boutofbooks.blogspot.com/" title="Bout of Books"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5vTB-V4jGjufkh-0GtY4B6m6RiEqiYB-M_RZ19MtMuwR68zUlJHhV5WzmtU7QVPpff-gXXtnT-IjnYESStgBBSMbvRMReiIFf5zsR8gOxukQpPDYGuCivdEsAHC03UOWuNMTictFOeaUb/s200-no/BoB9.0-200x200.jpg" alt="Bout of Books" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

http://youtu.be/WYic4SW5OK0

New Years

Oh look! It's a blog post about the new year. Who saw that coming? Definitely not me! 

No, but in all seriousness, I have been contemplating over writing this post for the past few days. I have very mixed feelings about new year's resolutions. One reason I feel this way is because of course I'm in the majority of people who make resolutions every year and within the first week I have broken them all. And yet, still I am the ever optimist who believes that this year will be THE year. This will be the year that I finally achieve all of my resolutions and become a "better" me.

I often wonder why the new year is a symbol of fresh beginnings and a reason to start over and become a better version of yourself. And yes I know that question may seem silly, I mean "new" is in the description for goodness sakes. Still, there is something else about it that seems to say, this is the time to change. What about it makes you believe that you can make a clean slate for yourself? Why is January 1st so different from December 31st? Why are we not constantly looking to better ourselves? The new year should be everyday in my opinion. Each day we should get up and think, what can I do today to make me a better person. More importantly, what can I do today to help someone else? Honestly, the new year should be about others and not ourselves. So this new year, I resolve to listen better, to love harder, to be someone's crying shoulder. I resolve to be a better friend, sister, and daughter. Even more than that, I resolve to be a better daughter in Christ. 

Of course, still, I have made my own resolutions. I believe by making these personal resolutions I can exercise my physical and mental body and this can give me a better chance at achieving the goal of helping others more this year. More than ever, I really really want to achieve these. I lowered it to three this year in hopes that I could accomplish them. I've already told my friends about them in hopes I have their support and encouragement. This year I have resolved to no longer drink any Mountain Dew. I have resolved to lower my intake of fast food to only once a week, if not lower. Lastly, also, I have resolved to read fifty books in a year.

I am very excited about these resolutions and I hope my friends are there to encourage and support me as I seek to accomplish them. As many of my friends know, those first two resolutions are pretty difficult for me to even think about let alone actually achieve. I am addicted to Mountain Dew and I am constantly eating out due to laziness. So along with the fast food resolution, I resolve to cook more of my dinners this year instead of wasting my money the easy way. 

I hope that this new year brings just as much joy as the past twenty years or so has brought me. I hope that happiness and love finds my family and we can begin to slowly but surely move on from my mom's death. I hope that my dad finds peace and is no longer as lonely. 

Additionally, I hope that your new year is just as great and that happiness and love find you. I know that God will wrap his loving arms around you and I hope that you find comfort there.