#ramonastudies

[rhiannonwrites]

It's been a minute since I

A) posted original content

B) posted a flatlay

And C) ate breakfast 😂

[rhiannonwrites]

12.11.18

This past year has been so unpredictable. I had no idea where I would end up after I graduated from college. I hoped I would end up working as an editorial assistant in New York, but that just didn’t happen. And I struggled with that. And, going back even farther, to a year ago from now - from December. That was a crazy time. I was having a falling out with my roommates that was so bad I didn’t even want to be alive anymore. 

2018 was all about change. It was about being happier and moving forward and everyone on social media seemed so inspired. I know I was inspired. I had to get through the last four months of my undergrad without losing my mind, and I did it. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I’ve graduated from college, that I’m out in the “real” world. I still can’t believe that I live with my best friend and instead of immediately diving head first into my career, I’m just hanging out. Allowing myself to breathe, taking things easy for once. 

I read at least three books every week. I’m currently revising my novel. I picked out a new planner for 2019 that isn’t based around the academic year and focuses on goal setting because that’s where I am in my life. I’m no longer a student and I need to work toward things. I can’t lose my ambition. 

I know I haven’t been blogging a lot. Over the summer I created a website, and while I was living at home doing nothing all day that website became my baby. It became my excuse to make a big deal about the little things I was doing, and I needed that and enjoyed that when it was relevant to my life. But now I’m actually living and I don’t have time to talk about all of it. And since I’m no longer a student it doesn’t feel right to post about it here. I have been thinking about deleting my tumblr and, for now, I just can’t bring myself to do it. But yeah, I just want to acknowledge that I know what my tumblr has become is something drastically different from what it used to be. And I’m not entirely sure where it’s going. 

It still inspires me, and I still love the studyblr community. So, yeah... that’s where I’m at right now. 

[rhiannonwrites]

7.6.18 I had a super long train ride today. I’m going to visit my friend in Ohio! I ended up using some of the time to be productive and work on content for my blog. I also took some pics for the post I want to do about the trip itself. Before and after working on my blog, I read. I’ve been reading a book called “Start With Why.” It’s what I’m planning to talk about in my Tuesday book review 🙃 Before leaving for my trip my mom treated me to Barnes & Nobles and I bought “Save The Date” by Morgan Matson, so when I got tired of reading about the importance of knowing my purpose (lol) I shifted over to some YA lit 😍

[rhiannonwrites]

4.27.18 - 4.30.18 I Graduated! 

Sorry I haven’t posted in a little while. After I handed in my papers on Thursday I was officially done with college! Last semester I was working on finals through the weekend, so it felt freeing to be done before Friday. I slept in on Friday until my parents arrived and we went to a few juicers in Pittsburgh that I never got the chance to go to (I’ll do a post about that later this week). 

On Saturday, I got up early for my graduation ceremony. I didn’t know how to put on my cap and hood and my parents weren’t answering their phones so I started getting frustrated. It turns out we had a miscommunication and they went to my own ceremony without me! Thankfully my friend Courtney was about to pass my apartment on her way to my graduation so we walked over together. The ceremony was nice and quick. My parents, my brother, Courtney, and Anthony were all there, and my academic advisor was the person reading names when I walked up so my name actually got pronounced correctly!

The rest of the day was pretty slow. We dropped Courtney off at the Greyhound station so she could go out of town for the weekend and then I hung out with my family for the afternoon. On Sunday we went to my professor’s book signing at the White Whale Bookstore. It was so awesome to be in her class, writing my novel, and get to hear about the process of her novel’s publication. It’s Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian. I haven’t read it yet, but I plan to once I unpack. 

Now I am at home. I did absolutely nothing today except catch up on sleep. I’m going to read the last manuscript for my internship and figure out a strategy for unpacking. My goal is to go through all of my belongings that have been at home and downsize since I’m used to living six months out of the year without all of this stuff. Then I’ll incorporate everything I brought home from school. 

And after that? I’ll keep you posted :) 

[rhiannonwrites]

5.2.18 

So, I actually stored up a few draft posts of pics I took while still living at Pitt so that when I was in this transition period and not curating a lot of photo content I would still have stuff to pair with my posts :) (I’m a dork who thinks ahead, whatever). 

This week is all about settling in at my parents’ house. Today is my first real day of going through my belongings and downsizing. I slept in again, had crepes and an egg for breakfast, and put a dent in the last manuscript I have to read for my internship. The only “work” I’m doing this week is this last manuscript and a few applications for jobs (the ads have been up long enough that I’m afraid the postings will be taken down any day now, so I have to jump on it). Otherwise, it’s just unpacking and fantasizing about the future. 

What I am most excited about this summer is getting back into reading for pleasure and working on my novel. Even though I’m not a huge fan of my hometown, it will work in my favor that I have no friends and nothing to do here. In high school, this environment was perfect for reading at a pace of a book a day and writing five different novels. I’m also looking forward to the publication of one of my short stories! (but I’ll have more on that when I know the release date :) 

[rhiannonwrites]

4.2.18 Easter Weekend

I have returned from my weeks of shutting down and from my weekend away. At the end of February, I visited my best friend, Brittany, in Ohio. I remembered that last year her spring break falls at the end of March, so we coordinated and planned for me to visit one last time before I graduate. Since the end of her spring break also fell on Easter weekend, I was able to work with Anthony and we planned our trips to Ohio together. On Thursday we took the Greyhound. I stopped in one spot and he stopped in his hometown, but it was great riding the same bus and knowing the person I was sitting next to. Since the bus was delayed we started playing hangman in the station, and the first pic above is when I finally stumped him with Tuatara. He stumped me on the first try with marijuana (*facepalm*). 

I think the timing for this trip was good. After recognizing that I have PTSD I started retracing my steps and trying to remember who I talked to about my assault and who I hadn’t. I didn’t actively avoid telling Brittany about it, but when she went to Pitt and we were both freshmen I was still in the mindset of pretending it didn’t happen. I simply forgot to tell her. We talked on the phone a few times leading up to the trip and throughout the past couple weeks as I was internally freaking out I finally told her. During my visit, we talked about it a little more, and it was good. She’s the easiest person for me to talk to and whenever we are together we just unload everything on each other and it feels great. 

On Saturday, Brittany’s rugby team had their first home game of the season! I was able to go and watch and see her play one more time!!! They won, and Brittany scored so many points, it was amazing. I’m so happy for her, especially because she transferred out of Pitt for similar reasons to why I wanted to transfer. Seeing her play rugby and seeing her interact with her team makes me so happy because I see how happy she is and how much better she is doing. 

We spent all of her spare hours between work together, and one thing we did is get frozen yogurt! It was my first time trying frozen yogurt and oh my golly gosh I finally know what all the hype is about :) it’s so delicious! 

Today, Anthony’s mom swung by to pick me up on their way back to Pitt. Riding in his mom’s mini-van is a luxury compared to the Greyhound! The farmland of Ohio and PA was beautiful, dusted with snow, this morning. I watched all of the trees float by and I took a nap before we arrived. Once we got back to Pitt I had to hit the ground running and made it work on time. After work, I went home and unpacked, finished reading a book, and took a nap. I ended up sleeping through half of my night class and still felt exhausted, and dirty. My hair felt so dirty! So, at the last minute, I begged Anthony for us to not go to the gym tonight so I could stay in, wash my hair, and rest. 

Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity for something amazing! There are 20 more days of classes (26 days total) until graduation. I hope I don’t mess anything up before then ;D

[rhiannonwrites]

12.28.17 

I’ve been lowkey collecting Decomposition notebooks whenever I find ones that I like at my university's bookstore. For a while, I didn’t want to use them because I didn’t think I had anything worth writing in such beautiful notebooks. Usually, my notes for classes don’t fill up a whole notebook and I hate wasting the paper. I really didn’t want to use one of these notebooks and only get a quarter to halfway through it, so they’ve been sitting on my bookshelf at home for a while. This past semester, in my fiction senior thesis we had to journal in a composition notebook. I ended up filling mine halfway through the semester and realized that the one sure way I’d fill up a notebook is by using it as a journal! So now I’m journaling in my Decomp. notebooks!

I also have a Live in Wonder journal. I received it as a gift after I graduated from high school. After reading through the first few pages and then looking at some of the prompts I was sad because I didn’t have a lot of experiences worth writing about. Earlier this month, when I was done with finals I was looking at my bookshelves seeing if there was anything to do. I ended up thumbing through this journal. I read some of the prompts and instantly thought of things to write about. In my three years at college I’ve had so many worthwhile experiences, and now I have things to write about in my Live in Wonder journal! I’ve started answering prompts, and I’m going to take it back to school with me. The nice thing about it is that the prompts inspire you to recall positive things. The first one is literally recalling a moment that you were in wonder. They’re inspirational and make you focus on something positive, at least for a little while. I’m hoping that if I keep it with me at school I can force myself to think of a positive memory at least once a day, and maybe focusing on the good will help make my current living situation less stressful. 

[rhiannonwrites]

12.24.18 My cousin’s baby is one month old today 😊 I was so busy today. I meditated and went to the gym this morning; my back and chest workout was hot fire flames. Then I had work where i started writing notes to authors. I emailed some to ask for mailing addresses and the more people that respond the more nervous I get! Then I had to write the next 3000 words of my novel, which involved me sitting in bed eating a whole bag of snap pea crisps while typing rigorously. But I got it done and in my workshop I finally figured out a major plot point! After class Anthony and I played racquetball. It’s always annoying when there’s a sport event at the rec center because they close off the main entrances and you have to walk all the way around the building. Anthony and I scaled the snow covered hill to get up there but they caught us trying to do it to get home and stopped us 🙄 I’m honestly fine with the walking, it’s just the inefficiency of this system that pains me so. Now I’m all showered and am going to sleep. Tomorrow is leg day!!!