The Goal.

The goal is to have a job by August 31st! I'm applying to one job a day until I am hired.

Draw Your Life.

Today I marathon watched a TON of Jenna Marbles videos, because you know, she's awesome and I haven't actually watched any of her videos in like forever. I came across this one. It was really cute at first. She kept going back to this reoccurring feeling of "Sad Jenna" and not knowing what to do with her. The more I kept watching, the more I realized I could relate. I don't know what I'm doing....

My plan had been to graduate college at 21 and be in a Ph. D. program by now....but that didn't happen. Life got in the way. And here I am at 23 and I've finally finished my bachelors and I'll be working on a Master's really soon.

I moved to Houston because I thought this is where I wanted to be. But now I don't think it is....I want to see more of the world. Live somewhere outside of Texas for awhile.

I quit my job recently so I could focus on doing something more closely related to my master's degree, which is in French. But where the eff am I going to work in Houston and speak French?

I don't know where I am heading. And neither did Jenna Marbles when she made this video, and now look at her. She's pretty popular. I think the whole Youtube thing worked out for her. She just kept doing what she loved because it made her happy.

There was one part of the video that really spoke to me. "You have to be confused in life in order to grow". So maybe I'm confused and I don't know where I am going, but maybe that means I'm on the right track. Maybe I'll have more things figured out as time goes on. Or maybe not, at least I'm growing.

Political Consequences.

Photo by Erik Madigan Heck for THE NEW YORKER. Found here. 

BEFORE READING: The purpose of this post is not to offend anyone. If any of the information is in correct please feel free to post a comment and I will correct it right away.

As a freshmen in college I was asked to write a research paper. This is typical of the college experience, of course, but while my classmates were writing about abortion or illegal immigration (all very hot topics) I chose to write about the political consequences of Marie Antoinette's dress. I found this marvelous book, written by Caroline Weber and was so enchanted with it that I decided to write an entire 12 page paper on it.

I return to this topic now as it is relevant more than ever. If you're unfamiliar with the image below you can read about it here. 

"[The] response from a number of our Jewish followers was truly alarming. Although we understand the visceral reaction, we were shocked to see women immediately pit themselves against us, accusing us of being insensitive, putting our business above morals and threatening to 'unfollow' and need purchase from us again-effectively 'copying' the way of Israel/Jewish haters by boycotting a beautiful, holy Jewish business!"

Essentially this young woman, Summer Albarcha  (click her name to get a sneak peak of her Instagram account, it's totally worth it!) is of a different religion than the shop owners and the majority of the customers at Mimu-Maxi. So why the big fuss? 

For decades the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been raging. The newest conflict is between Israel and Hamas. The woman in the photograph above is Islamic. The Hamas are a Palestinian Sunni Islamic organization that has been marked as a terrorist organization by Israel and a number of Western states, including the United States. The mot popular customers to Mimu-Maxi are orthodox Jews. Israel is a nation mostly comprised of orthodox Jews. Thus the controversy. 

While this young woman is not wearing this skirt, as far as I am aware, to make some sort of political statement, I write about it because of the backlash the company and her have endured for simply putting on an article of clothing. We live in a world where every bit of our lives can be monitored by people from around the world. We share our lives on Instagram, Tumblr, blogs, Facebook, etc. We then have to read the positive or hateful messages that our photos incite. 

When can we stop the hate?

Quotes.

A Fourth of July Celebration

Last Thursday my boyfriend and I packed up our little dog and drove nearly 7 hours through Texas to his hometown in the desert. We spent the weekend with friends and family. I never wanted it to end.

A couple of instagram snaps from the weekend.

It was about midnight when we finally arrived at his parents house. We slept in late. The next day I had tacos for breakfast, because nothing says freedom like Mexican food. They were delicious! Later on we had hamburgers and chicken and ice cream. I spent a lot of the weekend over at the campus hanging out with friends still in college. We played volleyball and bbq'd. So much sand and sun! I finally got a little tan though :]