Back at School, Break was Alright, and H&M needs to clean up their act!

This is my city.

Well, I'm back at school and I gotta say, break was pretty nice. Just enjoying being with my family (we had a rough few months at the end of it, so we all needed to come together and regroup), friends and coworkers (I worked for the whole three weeks for this semester's spending money) was something I desperately needed. I don't know about the rest of you (if there's anyone actually reading), but three weeks was plenty and perfect.
Just enough time to realize how much I love my parents and my brother, and just enough time to realize that I love my independence now too. It's nice being able to get up for classes when I know I need to get up, and not have to worry about anyone besides my roommate in the process.
Good news, I got the class I needed to be in off the waitlist! Now, my schedule is far from perfect (two 9AM classes and the rest are 10:10s, but whatever) but it'll be nice to be finished at a normal time with an hour lunch break almost every day.

Also, being social in college is soooo much easier than it is at home. At home, you have to call, work around everyone's schedules (probably spend money that you don't want to spend), then actually get together and not forget. At school, I just have to walk across or down the hall to see my two best friends, and if we want to go "out," we basically go across the street or down the road a bit. Easy.

Now, lets talk about winter. It's cold. It's icky, and I'm definitely not a big fan. However, with winter comes the lovely phenomenon of New Years Resolution-ing. Everyone has a new years resolution, and we're all probably going to try and complete those resolutions for about a week. It's probably not going to work out, but here are three tips I've picked up about how to keep a resolution in school.

1. Start small.
This applies in almost every facet of life, not just in Resolution-ing, and not just in school. You have to start somewhere, and vowing that you're going to go to the gym and work out for 2 hours every single day is not starting small. First, go to the gym at least two times a week (first 2 or 3 weeks) and get used to picking up and going. Work out for an hour or an hour and a half doing what makes you comfortable (bikes, elliptical, track, weights, etc.) and then after that 3rd or 4th week, move on to working out every other day or 4 times a week. You'll be more likely to keep it up because your brain and body are already used to the procedure; all you have to do is motivate yourself to take the next step, and you'll be able to turn it into a habit after about 30 days of 4 times a week.

2. Don't expect a miracle.
Seriously. Do not expect to drop 15 pounds your first month, or expect to have no transgressions in whatever you're trying to do. Chances are, you will fail a little. And that's good! We learn from our mistakes. If we don't recognize and accept mistakes, how in the world would we ever make progress?! See your mistakes, try and fix the behavior/action that caused them, and move on!

3. Motivate yourself.
Have a reason for wanting what you want. Why do you want to do well in school? Why do you want to stop tanning? Why do you want to pay more attention to your friends? Make sure that you know why you're trying for something you haven't previously had, and you'll keep those reasons in your head and be able to pull them out whenever you're feeling down. Also, writing them down in any kind of journal DEFINITELY helps. I think we can all safely say that I'm a journal-person, and beyond this blog I actually keep a personal journal, a food diary, an expense ledger, and I try to keep an archive of certain outfits I've worn that have "worked." It lets me look back on previous successes (and get an ego boost in the process) and also see why certain things haven't worked so that I won't make those same mistakes. Plus, it's super therapeutic. You can rant and rave to a journal and no one will get their feelings hurt (unless they snoop, in which case they deserve to be a little humbled, and you should get a lock), and you'll be able to let it out so you don't explode on some poor unsuspecting soul on your morning commute.

Now, if waste disgusts you just as much as it annoys me, then you'll absolutely hate this. The New York Times did an article about H&M's waste of perfectly wearable clothing that highlights this issue of America's horrible laziness when it comes to recycling. We have such a horribly populous homeless community in this country, and merchandisers in urban areas are more than aware of this. I expected much better from such a prominent company, and I sincerely hope that they're going to work harder to curb this behavior from their management. It isn't hard to donate clothing (believe me, I worked in second hand retail at Plato's closet, and when people would leave their clothing behind, we'd donate it. It's easy, there are donation posts everywhere, and when I'm in Chicago, I live in the suburbs and they're still everywhere). It certainly disgusts me, and I'm going to email H&M corporate offices and ask them what exactly is being done to stop this solid waste production. If I don't get a satisfactory answer, you can bet that H&M has lost me as a customer. Feel free to join my boycott if you want. Until I see that H&M is doing its best to make sure that their unsold products are being given to those who NEED them, undamaged and in perfect condition, free of charge, I'll be taking down any and all H&M products that were listed on this site.

Here's the article!

Beyond that icky bit of news, I hope the rest of you are enjoying getting settled back in at school, and make sure that you haven't forgotten anything at home. Write a list of what you've got in your room at school when you get back, and you'll be less likely to forget stuff on your way home at the end of the semester!

Well, here's another snippet of Taylor's photography that I love. Hopefully she'll be posting more up soon, but she's heading back to school to so she'll probably be busy. :)

PhotograTay


Love you all!
Miss Guided