operation beautiful

operation beautiful is something that i've known about for a long time. i stumbled upon the website on facebook my junior year of high school, and immediately fell in love with the idea. 

when you open up the website, you're bombarded with photos and photos of post-it notes. the premise of the movement is that you write something encouraging on a post-it note, or something similar, and then leave the post-it note in a public place. it's another way to do a random act of kindness--one that i really enjoy. 

i liked the idea so much that it became the inspiration for my gold award project. 

source {x}

i think that this idea--the idea of writing something positive and encouraging and posting it in a public place has taken off in ways that people don't even know. the original idea was to write something along the lines of "you are beautiful" but people have just expanded that to writing anything encouraging. 

the counseling center at my college runs a similar campaign, where students are encouraged to write positive affirmations on little pieces of wood, which are then hung up around campus as kind of a suicide awareness campaign. i'm not sure whether or not it's been particularly successful, but seeing those notes around campus always manages to make me smile. 

source {x}

i wish that there was a way to track one person's post-it notes and the impact they had, because you can only assume what the notes you left do, and you can only say what notes you come across do. but i believe that these notes can only be a force for good in the world. 

it's been a while since i've made any post-it notes of my own, but it's something i want to get back to. leaving them around public place always gave me a sense of joy. and i'd like to imagine that whoever finds my notes gets something from them.

source {x}

 i'd like to encourage you to make your own post-it notes if you'd like to. and if you've heard of operation beautiful or seen notes like this, leave a comment below!

-em xx

tbt: my life in 250 words

another tbt post! i'll probably be posting an updated version of this at some point, because i remember loving the challenge that this provided. 

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So this one post kept popping up in my feed today... My Life in 250 Words. When I found out that it was part of a blog everyday in May challenge.

I decided I had to do it. Here's my life in 248 words.

I was born in a suburb in Western New York. I met my best friend Julia in kindergarten and I wore brains and pretty dresses. In second grade my teacher compared me to the main character in Wemberley Worries. I met my other best friend Emily in third grade and I didn't want to meet her at first. She, Julia, and I became inseparable. In fifth grade I got moved into accelerated math and consistently felt like the dumbest person in the class. I also quit dance lessons. Middle school wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. I rejoined Girl Scouts and earned my Silver Award. I still felt like the dumbest person in my classes when high school started and I joined the swim team. I didn't make the musical and found tech crew instead. I fell in love with history and figured out I hated science.  I went to a Taylor Swift Concert. I found my group of friends. I met my bestest friend Kristina and joined yearbook. I finished my Gold Award. I earned my lifeguard certification and lifeguarded for the summer. I became stage manager and applied to college. I dropped down a level in math and am acing it. I no longer feel like the dumb kid. I love economics. I learned to love dancing and reading and writing. It took me four months to figure out that I was going to Michigan, and now I can't wait. I'm graduating in 48 days.

Trying to put your life into 250 words is hard...and I dare you all to try it and participate in blogging everyday in May!

-em xx

shatter me

over the past two days i've had a lot of downtime at work and i decided to catch up on some of my reading. naturally, i couldn't read anything that was actually on my list (okay that's a partial lie, i read the spectacular now, which was actually spectacular, but more on that in a different post) so i ended up downloading shatter me by tahereh mafi. 

in about two pages, i was hooked. 

i haven't been this excited about a book series since i first read divergent back in 2011 (and i never finished that series). 

something about the way mafi writes is just enthralling. she builds her world and her characters quickly--so fast that i thought that it couldn't be right, but it works. it draws you in from the get go, and then you want to stay and find out what happens in the final chapters. 

for the first three-quarters of the book i was physically nervous for the two main characters. mafi was able to make me experience what her characters where experiencing, and for me, that's really rare.

{source}

the only complaint that i have about this book series (there are three books and two novellas which i have yet to read) is that one of the characters gets annoyingly stupid at the end. but that's just how that character was written, and i wouldn't ask to change it. 

one of my friends who read the series complained that the characters changed in the third novel, but i didn't think that was the case. i read them in fairly rapid succession, and the progression of all the characters made sense about 98% of the time. 

i would highly recommend this series, unless you don't like love triangles or ambiguous endings, because this novel has both. otherwise, it's a great and fast read. 

have you read the books in the shatter me series? what did you think?

-em xx

things that make me uncomfortable

i'm always on the lookout for new post ideas, so when i came across the blog every day in may challenge (this is last year's, mind) i was pretty thrilled. here were 31 post ideas just sitting for me to complete, whenever i wanted to. 

and because i'm a lazy butt, and completely unoriginal, i'm going to do one of them today. 

so without further ado, here's a list of a few things that make me uncomfortable. 

cheese

i don't know what it is about it, maybe it's the texture, or maybe it's the taste, i don't really know, i just can't deal with it. like, the other day, i had takeout and i was going to put it in the fridge because i wanted to save it. there was a container of cream cheese on the shelf i wanted to put it on, and because cheese freaks me out i had to put it on a different shelf. 

using public toilets

i have a severe...fear that i'm always in the wrong toilet. like, i always have to look around for the containers that are for pads and tampons in order to reassure myself that i'm in the women's rest room. i'm a freak, i know. don't get me started on exploding toilets either. 

driving on the highway

okay, so i'm getting better at this, but it still freaks me out. especially if i have someone else in the car with me. driving fast with people who are reckless drivers (i mean, really, you don't need to weave in and out of traffic) is a little uncomfortable for me. 

romcoms

i literally get the worst secondhand embarrassment. romcoms and teen movies are the worst for me because they are chalk full of awkward moments and i curl into a ball and want to die. kind of. long story short, i can't watch she's the man or mean girls. sorry if that doesn't make me a girl. 

underwear that's too small

like i said, i'm a lazy butt, and that means that when i find underwear that's too small on me, i tend not to throw it out. and then i wear it by accident and i get wedgies and it's not comfortable. like, at all. 

what are a few things that make you uncomfortable?

-em xx

food food food

if you know me at all, you know that i have a slight problem with pinterest. as in, i spent three days reorganizing my entire profile and go on pinterest binges where all i do is spend time there. as such, i have 45 boards (no shame) and 13 of them are dedicated to food, because let's be real, pinterest is the place to find recipes (if it makes you feel better, i have 11 boards dedicated to DIY projects). 

since one of my things on my 101 in 1001 days list is to make 15 recipes off of pinterest, i thought i'd share some food that i'd like to make off of pinterest!

rainbow cupcakes in a jar

i have this insane need to make things in jars, and i also have this insane need to make a rainbow cake. since i love cupcakes, this seems like the perfect way to mix the two! (not to mention that most of it comes out of the box, so it's easy and delicious)

honey chipotle chicken bowls with lime quinoa

the last time i made quinoa it ended up horribly, but there's an optimist in me that says i should try it again. plus, avocado and chicken is probably one of my favorite food combinations, so at the very least, i'll be able to eat that!

potato garlic gnocchi

i love gnocchi. like, if i could marry a pasta, i would marry gnocchi. is that weird? anyways, this look delicious and i definitely should not be writing this post on an empty stomach. oops. 

crispy chicken burritos

i've actually made these before and they are hands down the most delicious burritos i've ever eaten...save for chipotle, of course. i really like that they're crispy. i think that's what makes them. i just want to eat them again. 

what are some things that you've been wanting to make recently?

-em xx

tbt: how to write essays

ooh high school me has good advice sometimes. this post is still, sadly relevant. it will always be relevant as long as i'm in school. so enjoy.

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You would think that by now, having written countless essays for college and for school that I would know how to write a really good one. Yeah, that's not true at all.

My mom was (is?) appalled at my lack of essay skills, and despite what I think, she's write right. Apparently it's not just me either, basically everyone in my school district probably can't write essays, since they don't teach us the "right way" to write essays. My mom is going to write a letter and complain about it when I graduate.

Apart from that, it's been a long process trying to learn how to write an essay. This sounds so dumb, I'm seventeen years old, almost done with high school, taking AP Lit and I still don't know how to write an essay. I've been getting by on good ideas. My personal problem (and probably everyone else's too) is organization when I'm given a vague prompt, like "Write about death and justice in Frankenstein". That's really helpful, I know. I have way too many ideas and I just kind of word vomit them onto a piece of paper and decide that's okay.

It's not.

According to my mother (we'll pretend she's an expert) the proper way to write an essay is to come up with a thesis and three supporting arguments. Then in each paragraph, you provide evidence, and explain it, repeating until your paragraph is done. (This last part is supported by my Lit teacher, so you can know it's legit.)

It's definitely going to be hard, but a recent exercise we did in Lit, really showed me how right my mom was about my essays. So here are my tips/instructions/requirements on how to write essays. They're mostly here for me, but if you get use out of them, let me know!

• Write down any and all evidence you have or want to use. Then group them in similar/related categories. This will help you come up with your thesis.
• Write your intro and concluding paragraphs last. This sounds weird, but I did it for my most recent essay, and it really helps. This way you know the direction of your essay and can tailor the two paragraphs to that direction instead of having them being unrelated. (Lit teacher approved)
• If you state something from the book, you have to back it up with a quote (or at least 90% of the time). (Lit teacher approved)
• Explain your quotes and their significance. This helps it so your essay is not just a plot summary but actually original thought. (Lit teacher approved)
• Write an outline so you know where you're heading. 
• Make a plot map! This kinda goes with the first one, but at the same time, it's different. We did these for Frankenstein, and it was really nice to get all of my thoughts organized on a piece of paper. You just write a thought and another thought and more and more and then connect them!
• Take a few minutes to think. This goes with the outline, but if you take five minutes to think rather than just jumping right into writing an essay, you're guaranteed to come out with a better essay. (This is really helpful for timed writings.)

So that's that. I really like writing essays, but at the same time I don't. (speaking of which I have one I should be working on right now. I'd better go do that.)

-Em xx

one hundred happy days

one hundred and some odd days ago, back in the cold michigan winter, one of my favorite country singers, betsy lane, posted that she was starting something called the 100 happy days challenge. 

i've linked the website there for you to read about, but the basic idea is to post one thing in your day that made you happy for the next 100 days in your life. most of the people i did the challenge with post it on instagram. if you successfully complete the challenge, you get a book with all of your posts, not to mention that most people who complete it say that they're happier--and that people have noticed. pretty cool, right? 

anyways, it's really hard to believe that i completed it, but i think doing it with a bunch of my friends definitely helped. 

do i think that i'm happier now? well, i'm not entirely sure. there was definitely a period of time where happy was my default emotion. and it served as a really good reminder that even the little things can make you happy. 

all 100 of my instagram posts

a lot of the time i think we get really caught up in all of the bad things that happen to us on a day to day basis, and forget all of the good things. it's kind of like how you always leave a test feeling bad, because you do all the easy problems first and then focus on the hard ones, forgetting about all the easy ones that we did earlier. 

what this challenge made me do was to realize that even on really bad days, there was at least a little something that made my day a little brighter. i'm not sure if i'm going to keep posting on instagram every single day now that i've completed it, but it's definitely taught me to keep looking for the small happy things in life. 

if you want to try it, signing up is simple and free, and takes about two seconds. i'd definitely recommend trying it. if you do, let me know with a comment below and if you've already completed it--what did you think?

-em xx

p.s. my friend maire also just wrote a review on her blog as well, check it out!