Hey guys! Today I thought I would post about Sugarfina, which is a luxury candy brand. They produce sweets such as gummies, jelly beans, and chocolate. My mom loves purchasing candy from this company. Recently she bought two small boxes of gummies, pictured below, and I will be talking about my view of this brand. One of the main reasons why my mom loves this brand is because of their Hello Kitty collection. She would even go as far as to spend $8.50 on each box. Yes, you heard me right. Each small box costs around $8 to $9 dollars. However, Sugarfina incorporates some really special flavors into their candies. For example, there are gummies flavored like alcohol, including a champagne flavor, and a rosé flavor. My personal favorite is the apple pie flavor of the hello kitty gummies pictured above. I recently tried some that were pear flavor, and those were pretty decent as well. The packaging is simplistic and minimalistic, which is something that I really appreciate. Look at how sleek the box looks, the perfect right angles, and the little sticker sealing it on top. Sugarfina also has cool packages that you can customize what candy you want. My mom recently got the mailbox one. Pretty much, you choose whichever two candies you want, and they'll send it in a cool mini mailbox that you get to keep. This is worth it if you get the candies that are originally more expensive, because the mailbox package is set at a price, no matter which candies you get. Pictured below is the mailbox. Anyways, this time my mom got the butterfly gummies, and the hello kitty head gummies. Like I mentioned before, the hello kitty ones were flavored like apple pie, but it's really just an apple flavor. As for the butterfly gummies, from what I can tell, the flavors are lemon, lime, strawberry, and another type of berry that I can't quite discern. Unfortunately. on the Sugarfina website, they don't list the flavors of the butterfly gummies, so this is purely from what my taste buds can tell. But they are quite delicious, though. Once I start munching on them, I can't stop.
Some of the past boxes of gummies we got (of which I unfortunately do not have my own pictures) include the strawberry Hello Kitty gummy bows. We also got other types of candies, like the chocolate pearls. All in all, it is quite expensive, and I wouldn't say that this is worth the purchase. But I think as a one time thing, just for the experience of the flavors and the nice packaging, it's alright. I can see why the brand is attractive to those like my mom, and makes them want to spend money on these products. Thanks for reading my short take on Sugarfina. Happy Sunday!
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Hey guys! Recently, my school hosted its annual winter dance. However, you all know I never attend these events. Instead of going, my friends and I decided to treat ourselves to a night out. It was a really wild adventure full of twists and turns, and I thought that night was interesting enough to blog about. Let's start. I went out with four others: two girls and two boys. Let's call them Mary, Jessica, Bob, and Joe. The girls decided to get ready together, so right after school, we drove to Jessica's house, and spent about an hour changing, and doing hair and makeup. I wore tights underneath my dress and rolled them up since my dress was on the shorter side, and of course we don't want any slip ups. The girls also collectively agreed to wear high heels, because hey, what other chances would we have to do so? I wore some pretty heeled knee long boots. After we were done with this, we had to drive back to our school first because Jessica had to get something from her locker. I underestimated the difficulty driving with heels on, and it was only a two minute drive, but let's just say that I'm never driving in heels ever again. Learning from this experience, I drove to Bob's house after our trip to our school without shoes on, which was by far, much easier. Anyways, at his house, we took a bunch of pictures of just us girls together while waiting for both Joe and the Uber we called to show up. We agreed to meet at Bob's house at 5, and it was already 5:10 at the time. So we called Joe, and it turns out that he took an hour trying to figure out how to put his tie on, but failed, and he was currently walking to Bob's house. Keep in mind that his house is about a 15 MINUTE walk to Bob's house, so it took ages for him to show up. He arrived sweaty, tired, tie in hand. Bob helped him put his tie on, and even by then the Uber still hadn't arrived (because we live in a traffic heavy area, and the time we were trying to leave at was the peak of the traffic). Anyways, the Uber came at 5:30, and we were off to the restaurant we reserved seats at (or so we thought) called Left Bank, located in Santana Row. Our reservations were at 6:00, and we were nervous that we weren't going to make it. On the Uber, I found out that I got accepted into SDSU early. I screamed when I saw that email. I felt a wave of relief and a huge amount of stress lift from my shoulders after I received my acceptance. Mary opened her email, and saw that she got accepted early as well in the same school. It was a nice ride to the restaurant, to say the least. Our Uber driver drops us off at Menlo Park, only - wait a minute - weren't we supposed to go to Santana Row? Santana Row is a 10 minute drive from Menlo Park. Why did he drop us off here? Turns out that Mary - who was in charge of Uber - chose the Left Bank at the Menlo Park location! We went inside, talked to the host, and thankfully, they still gave us a table. But major yikes. That could have been such a fluke, but good thing they still had space for us young, innocent kids. We order, and thank God, the food is decent, contrary to my expectations. That could have been because I read the reviews pertaining to the location in Santana Row, but we enjoyed the meal fully. I ordered salmon; below is the picture! After dinner, we decided to walk around a bit before grabbing some dessert. Bob spotted a really pretty Christmas Tree on the way to the restaurant on the Uber, and we walked in that direction. We took some pictures, and headed into a nearby bookstore to warm up. It was when we walked to get dessert when the next major mishap happened. Dessert was between Cold Stone, which was only 0.1 miles away from our location at the time, or a place called Midnight Munchies which was 0.3 miles away (or apparently it was. It ended up being about a mile away...). We all know that Cold Stone serves ice cream. Midnight Munchies, however, was a cookie shop, and the cookie photos on Yelp looked amazing. So we decided to walk over to Midnight Munchies. The journey there was not fun. Like I mentioned above, the place ended up being a mile away, and keep in mind that us girls decided to wear heels. It was not as painful for me or Jessica because I was wearing heeled boots, and Jessica wore wedges. For Mary however, she stuck with a classic high heel, the heels that are thin like a stick. It was a horrendous walk for her; she complained of sores and blisters on the bottom of her feet. So we get to the location, but we don't see the shop. Mainly because Yelp said that the shop would be in the middle of the park, and we did talk about it being sketchy, but decided to go anyways. The area was dark and deserted (or should I say, DESSERTed??), with minimal lighting, but hey, we walked a mile for this, so we might as well check it out and try to find the place, you know? We explored the park, but of course, couldn't find the shop. Disappointed, we made our way to a local Safeway, and called for an Uber. On this Uber, I had to climb to the very back of the car, and I bumped my thigh really hard on the seat. I still have the bruise, and I would provide you all with a picture of the lovely bruise, but I think it's a little too much. After that adventure, we went back to Bob's house. I changed out of my heels, threw on a nice comfortable coat, and rolled down my tights. Bob's dad made us mocktinis as well, consisting of crushed berries, cranberry juice, lemonade, and sparkling water. Here's a picture: It was 9:30 PM, and we played Settlers of Catan (a board game, for those of you who aren't familiar) until 11, which was my curfew. Unfortunately, a game takes about 2-3 hours to completely finish, so we weren't able to close out the game. We said our goodbyes, and I left to take Mary and Jessica back to their respective homes. And that was the end of my crazy, fun night.
A few days later, Jessica messages our group, and reports her tragic findings. Midnight Munchies was not a walk in cookie shop; it was a delivery company. We were hysterical, as we risked our feet for that trip, but we honestly should have seen this coming. All in all, these instances made the trip highly memorable, and honestly, everything happens for a reason, right? It was a really fun night. Hope you all enjoyed reading, and happy Sunday! Hey guys, welcome to part 2 of my boba series! Today, we're going to focus on milk teas. I can't wait; let's get started! 1. TP Tea First, I'd like to talk about the location, and not the actual tea. TP Tea is located in Cupertino, which is about a 30 minute drive - without traffic. However, there's always traffic. It's right in the middle of the bay area, for goodness' sake. So normally, it takes about double the time it takes to get there to go back home - over an hour. That being said, the only times I drink TP Tea is when I'm in the area, or when my parents are there (because my dad owns properties and he's usually traveling around to these cities for work) and they bring the drinks back to me. Oh, and I forgot to mention: on good days, you'll have to wait at least 30 minutes for your drink. They are really, really popular, and the customer line often wraps outside and around the store. But honestly, the milk tea is worth the wait. I love their classic black milk tea, and contrary to most other boba shops, they put more emphasis on their mini boba than on their regular size. In most places, I also don't like the oolong milk tea, but here, it's probably my favorite, and I like it better than the black milk tea, by a tad bit. Their teas are fresh and really strong, and definitely not watered down. Anyways, I could go on and on about how great this place is, but we have other places to talk about, and showcasing this store is making my mouth water for some of their boba. Let's move on. 2. Sharetea Sharetea is much, much closer to my house than TP Tea, only a five minute drive away, and it's definitely not a bad alternative. I'd say that out of this list, Sharetea in terms of flavor and quality is the most similar to TP Tea. They give plenty of the tapioca pearls in the drinks as well. The last time I got Sharetea was probably a month ago, but their teas are always on my mind. I think I'm going next weekend with some of my friends, so that'll be really fun! 3. Meet Fresh I mostly go to Meet Fresh for their yummy desserts, but their milk teas are excellent as well. It's sweetened perfectly, and the tea flavor is really strong. They also have so many different toppings, including taro balls, almond pudding, and jelly noodles. My dad recently bought about 200 dollars worth of gift cards for this store, because that's just how much we love going here. 4. Who's Tea Who's Tea is in my top 5 even though their milk tea is actually quite different in terms of flavor than the three other shops I have listed above. Their black milk tea almost has some sort of a nutty flavor to it. However, the tea is still quite tasty. Whenever I go there, I find that their sweetness levels are a bit less than the other shops, so I always get 100% sweetness here as opposed to 50-75% that I usually get. Who's Tea is a really cute place to hang out at because their logo consists of a mustache! This is in reference to their mustache teas, which means that the tea comes with foam, which after drinking will leave a foam mustache on the drinker! I personally have never tried them. However, my brother always gets the Black Mustache Milk Tea, and he tells me it tastes like chocolate flavored milk tea, and that it's really delicious. Fun fact: I tried getting a job at Who's Tea, and I even went to an interview for them. But they never contacted me back (LOL). 5. Milk and Honey Milk and Honey has one of the largest cup sizes I have ever seen offered at a boba shop. You have to add a dollar to get the largest size, but it honestly feels like double the regular. The above image shows just that. Their milk teas are pretty good as well. It's smooth and fresh.
Hope you all enjoyed the second part to these series! I love boba so much, so I absolutely had to blog about it. Happy Sunday! Hey guys! Today I wanted to officially document what I do on a normal school day, starting from the moment my alarm clock rings to the second I get into bed at night. Now that school is over, I can sort of average out my school days and write about my general routine. Let's start! First, I wake up at 7:10 to the lovely ringing of my alarm clock. Ahh, what a great way to start my day. I give myself 2 minutes to quickly check my email and my snapchat, and then I start getting ready for the long, long day ahead of me. I brush my teeth, put in my contacts, get dressed, and put my hair in my classic ponytail. This takes me about 12 minutes. I don't wear makeup or anything so it doesn't take me very long at all to get ready. Afterwards, I'll go downstairs, and my mom usually cooks breakfast, so I eat whatever she's prepared. Usually it's leftover rice or noodles, but sometimes she'll toast some Eggo waffles (my favorite is the cinnamon one!) and grill some sausage patties. She makes breakfast and packs lunch for both me and my brother. It takes me 5-10 minutes to eat. After eating, I bring out my vitamins. I consume gummy vitamins everyday, which include vitamin A and D. I pop them in my mouth, put my lunch and water bottle into my backpack, and head out to school. Again, my mom drops us off. Here were my classes in order: AP French, Digital Imaging, Precalc, Honors English, -lunch- , US History, and AP Biology. Out of all of these, my favorite one was definitely Digital Imaging because I love graphic design. Out of the 5 academic courses, I prefered biology. I find biology so fascinating and I loved my teacher. Plus, it doesn't hurt that biology comes naturally for me. I had a strong A in the class. The worst class for me is always math, so of course, this year, I absolutely LOATHED precalc. I ended up with a borderline A in the class, only because my teacher decided to boost everyone's grade up last minute. If that hadn't happened, I would have been stuck with a B. After school ends at 3:00, I go home and make myself a snack. Chips are probably my all-time favorite thing to eat after a long day. I rarely grab something sweet to munch on because I'm definitely more of a savory-over-sweet kind of person. We also always have juice or soda in the fridge and I grab one of those as well. Sometimes, my mom buys boba for us so when she does, I have that instead of my usual beverage choices. I eat and relax for about half an hour before I get started on my homework. On average, I've had about 3 hours of homework each day from Monday to Thursday. I have about 5 hours of total work each weekend, and I divide that up through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I like to start with the easy stuff first, and that's usually history. I save english homework for last because it's usually the most challenging. The homework for that class is usually analysis work, and I'm not the best at it. I like to take breaks after each subject. Around 7:00, I'll go take a shower until 7:15, and I usually eat dinner around 8:30, so after my shower I'll either continue with my homework, or if I'm done I'll watch some YouTube videos. I watch an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball and an episode of Sailor Moon. I go downstairs, have dinner until 9:30, and then I have another hour before I get ready for bed. In this hour, I'll continue studying for any tests / quizzes I might have the next day, or I'll read a book. I'm currently reading The Mark of Athena. At 10:30, I pack up my backpack and start getting ready for bed. Now, the latest I let myself sleep at is 11:30. If I'm not done studying by then, I will stop, because sleep is more important to me. I brush my teeth and change into some comfy pajamas, and I give myself 15 minutes just lying on the bed going through my social media once again. At 11:00, it's lights out for me. I get some much needed sleep for the next day. That right there was a documentation of an average day in my life. Now, it's summer, so obviously my day looks quite different. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this post! Exercising is super important. Whether it be going on a jog, biking, swimming, or even just simply moving around, exercise is essential to a healthy lifestyle. For today's post, I'm going to talk about my 2 exercise routines that I like to alternate every time I work out. I am by no means a specialist in health and fitness; I simply wanted to show you guys what I do, and hopefully it'll inspire those of you who are like me and can't seem to bring yourself to work out! Also, I do all of these indoors, never outside, the reason being that my grandma who lives with me doesn't want me out alone even though I'm almost 17. But whatever. Let's start.
Routine #1 (1 hour including breaks) This routine is definitely more vigorous of the two, and focuses on developing the arms. Of course, I take short breaks after each step.
Routine #2 (45 minutes including breaks) This routine is more general, and is definitely the less vigorous of the two.
As you can see, I keep the first five things constant with both of my routines. If I don't have much time or I'm feeling particularly tired on a day, I will stick with doing just those 5. I personally believe the second routine is less strenuous of the two mostly because in the first routine, I added in burpees. Burpees are super difficult for me and leave me feeling really breathless after doing just 5. I try to do 10 but I usually only make it to 8. There's also one more exercise involved in the first routine; there are 10 steps as opposed to the 9 in routine #2. Both workouts leave me feeling sore the next day, in a good way. I try to exercise once a week during the school year, one day on the weekends. However, during break I will try to exercise every other day because I have more time. Anyways, that's it for today's post! Hope you enjoyed. Happy Sunday! Hey everyone! It's the first day of April (Happy April Fool's, by the way), and that means that we've completed three months of 2018 already! Let's take a moment and give ourselves a pat on the back. We've made it this far, and I really hope all of you are having a great year so far.
I thought that for today's post, a little update on how I've been doing regarding my resolutions for 2018 would be the best. If you haven't read the post, click this link to see my resolutions: https://hellamel.weebly.com/blog/new-years-resolutions-part-1 (part 1) and hellamel.weebly.com/blog/new-years-resolutions-part-2 (part 2). I think that a good schedule for these updates would be publishing one today, one the beginning of august, and one in december as well, just so you guys know what's going on and if I've been successful or unsuccessful. Let's get started! 1. Exercise more. I am so, SO glad to say that I have been keeping up with this so far. The past month, I have been working out both Saturdays and Sundays. I'd do it more often but I am just SWAMPED with schoolwork on the weekdays that I literally have no time. I'm thankful that I've been having free time during the weekends and that I've been choosing to spend it wisely by taking care of myself physically. And I do feel a lot better about myself, now that I have a little routine set up. 2. Drink more water. This is something that I tried to work on the first few weeks of 2018 but unfortunately I haven't been able to keep this up since. For example, I've been drinking the same 17 fluid ounce bottle of water for the past three days now, no refills or anything. It's quite bad. The weather definitely has something to do with it though because it's been absolutely freezing here in CA (at least for me) and I don't really get thirsty. When the weather's a bit warmer, I'll for sure be craving more fluid in my body. 3. Drink less boba. I have decreased my consumption from two drinks a week to one drink. I think that's progress right there! 4. Keep this website running and don't quit halfway. This blog is 4 months strong! I'm so happy that it's still up and running and I'm still taking time out of my day to write these posts. It is something that I really do enjoy doing. 5. Reach at least 100 followers on Twitter. I currently have 401 followers on Twitter, so yes, I have achieved this goal! I'm amazed at all the support I've been given and I thank each and everyone of you who have been stopping by and reading my posts! 6. Be more vocal. In my original new year's resolutions post, I said that I would make myself speak more in class. Well, that never happened! I'm still incredibly anxious whenever we have class discussions and I can't seem to bring myself to talk, even when I have something meaningful to add to the conversation. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but this is why I'm taking a marketing class next year, so that I'd actually be FORCED to talk. 7. More socializing! I do talk more to the people around me now. I've actually made a couple of new friends! I'm pretty proud of myself for that. I still find it hard to start a conversation, but I do try now. I think once I get more comfortable speaking with a smaller group, I'll be able to talk in a larger one. I haven't had a chance to hang out with my friends yet, seeing as we've all been busy with school. I'm planning on going out with them over spring break though, which just started this Friday for me! 8. Read more. For the past month, I have stopped reading for fun, because I just have no time at all. Before that though, I was reading on a daily basis, at least 15 minutes each day. Over spring break, I'll definitely be reading more because now I actually have time for relaxation and leisure. 9. Less overthinking. Nope. So far, I have not been able to stop or at least decrease the amount I overthink. For example, just last week, I prepared something to say in class and I spent the entire class period going over my lines. I really didn't need to do that either because the night before I spent writing and memorizing everything I was going to say. Turns out the class ended before it was even my turn! The next day, my teacher forgot about finishing the in class reports, so I spent so long worrying over nothing. I'm afraid it's giving me gray hairs. 10. Be more informed about current events. Lately I've been keeping up with the news A LOT. I have notifications from CNN, and when I have time I'll browse the web for more on what's going on. It's important to know what's happening in the world. 11. Write more. I actually started writing a story a few months ago but I have not updated it this past month because again, I'm a high school junior with absolutely no time at all. During spring break, I'll finally have more time to write and who knows, I may even publish it here on my blog. 12. Quit nail biting. Unfortunately, this bad habit still lives to this day. I just can't quit, it's literally impossible! I don't know how I managed to quit the first time around. I think I might start wearing clear nail polish, if it comes down to that (I don't like nail polish at all). All in all, I think I've been doing okay with my resolutions, so far. Some I've succeeded, some I still desperately need to work on. Luckily, there's still 9 months, including April, for me to try to work it all out! Happy Sunday! And of course, happy April Fool's Day! Hey everyone! For today's post, as a little extension of my tips for studying post (if you haven't read it, here's the link: https://hellamel.weebly.com/blog/tips-for-studying) I thought it would be helpful to talk about some ways to keep a clean desk. In fact, one of my tips in that post was that maintaining an organized work space is key to being able to focus, but I didn't go into the details about how I go about it. Anyways, here are 5 tips that I recommend trying out for a tidy work area! 1. Keep a trash can near your desk. This is extremely important if you're like me and want to minimize how much you have to get up from your desk and move around. I always have stuff that needs to be thrown away - whether it be old papers, scraps, wrappers - and it's just helpful to have a trash can right there for immediate disposal. I keep my trash can right underneath my desk and I easily pull it out anytime I need to throw something away. This way, I will actually dispose of my garbage and not leave it lying on my table. All in all, this creates a better and fresher environment to work in. 2. Tons of eraser shavings everywhere? Use a sheet protector like one of these: This tip is also useful if you don't want pencil / pen marks to rub off on your desk, when you finish writing on one side of a paper and need to flip to the other side. I started using this technique when I first got my white desk. I noticed that my pencil marks would transfer to my desk every time I flipped to the other side of the paper, and since my desk was white, it was extremely noticeable. Later, I also realized that my sheet protector collected the majority of my eraser shavings. This was a neat surprise because without the sheet protector, eraser shavings would start piling up in random mounds on my desk, and I didn't want to simply swipe them off of my desk onto the floor. With the sheet protector, I can simply pick it up and toss the contents on top of it into a trash can. Once again, no mess = more productivity! You don't have to use a sheet protector. You can honestly use anything you'd like, so long as you are able to write on it and it can collect scraps. I just like to use a sheet protector because I can insert a decorated piece of paper into it. For example, here's my sheet protector + paper combo: I also like to switch out the paper occasionally for some diversity. I think that method provides a lot more creativity because you can have fun perhaps making your own design on a piece of paper to put into the clear film, or you can, like me, take some pre-designed paper, insert it into the clear film, and periodically switch out the papers. Obviously, you don’t need a clear film for that, but I personally like it because it gives my paper a glossy look, which in turn looks better on my desk. 3. Use organizers / holders for the smaller items on your desk. Got a lot of random writing utensils lying around? If you don't have a proper pencil holder or box, anything resembling one will work. For example, you could use mason jars, mugs, or even tupperware. Of course, feel free to add accessories to make it look cuter. A visually pleasing workspace makes me more motivated to study. I also have a lot of random small items on my desk. I have a box of Altoids, lotion, eye drops, and oil sheets, and I also have tons of paper clips and binder clips. I keep these items in this box with an attached cover I found in my house so that they weren't all over the place. For my loose paper clips and binder clips, I put them all in a cute jar: See what I mean? Everything just looks so much better when they're all grouped together, organized and neat, ready at my disposal. 4. Use coasters / trays when you bring drinks / snacks. I always bring drinks and food up to my desk and eat while I work. I cannot place my drink on my desk without a coaster, especially if the cup I'm using is made out of thin plastic or glass and porcelain, since water will bead up and leave a mess on my table. Yes, personally, coasters are very important to me. Here's the coaster I use. My mom got this for me when she visited Japan. Isn't it so adorable? For snacks that are a bit messier (for example, snacks with dip, or watery fruit), I suggest placing everything on a tray and then placing that tray onto your desk. With a tray, you also eliminate the need for coasters, as you can simply place your drink onto the tray itself, but most of the time I will only bring a drink up and will therefore not require a whole tray to carry it. These methods reduce the mess that ends up directly on the surface of your desk and makes it much easier to clean up afterwards.
5. Got a lot of random papers? Use a magazine file! This tip is especially useful if you want to hold all your papers in one place yet be able to easily access them whenever needed. Remember, grouping everything up in one place is key. You can place one directly on your desk and fill it up with important documents or reminders. What you put in there doesn't just have to be loose papers; it works just as well with the storage of notebooks, journals, planners, and other stationary as well. Those were my tips for keeping a clean area to work in! These strategies personally have worked really well and I hope they do for you as well. Have a great rest of your day! Hey guys! Now that finals are getting scarily close for me, I thought I would share some tips and tricks I have learned over the past few years. I go to a school where finals are after Winter Break, which I extremely dislike because that means I have to study during the actual break, but I know my school is trying to change that, so I can’t complain. These tips don’t just apply to finals; try them out on tests and even smaller assessments like quizzes. 1. Start studying early. I think we all know to start preparing early for bigger and more important assessments, such as midterms or finals. A lot of people, though, don’t start studying for regular tests or quizzes until the day right before! If it works for you, GREAT! Some people are able to study the day before a test and STILL score pretty high. Well, I can’t say I’m a part of that lucky bunch! What works best, for me at least, is to try to study at least three days ahead of time. That way, I’d have more time to really absorb the information. I understand that a lot of you probably don’t have the time I have to start early, but if you can, it’s worth it. For bigger assessments, for FINALS, I start SUPER early, depending on the subject and what I know is going to be on the test. If the final is an in class essay, I can’t really do anything to necessarily STUDY for that, so I’d review any material that my teacher recommends and hope for the best! For actual exams, though, I start prepping my study materials and forming my study guide probably about a month before the actual test. For example, for this semester’s AP biology final, my teacher gave me a handy dandy paper with a list of the subjects that are going to be on the exam. Using that, I started reading the textbook and taking notes on those subjects on a google doc. It’s been about two weeks and I’d say I’ve completed about ¾ of the material on the study guide, and the final is in another two weeks as well. I’d been really productive during winter break in terms of studying for finals and I’m really proud of that. All in all, just make sure to start prepping early, whether it be a regular test, quiz, or especially a final! 2. Don’t study on an empty stomach. The worst thing is trying to stuff facts and information in your brain on an empty stomach. You’re already not feeling energized because of a lack of food yet you’re trying to push through prepping for a test you have the next day. If this is the case, please put down your textbook and GRAB SOMETHING TO EAT!! Aim for healthy snacks. Instead of grabbing some cookies or some chips and dip, try some veggie sticks, hummus, or apple slices and peanut butter. The options to healthier foods are endless! You’ll feel so much better with brain food in you instead of unhealthy junk. By saying this I guess I’m kind of being hypocritical. I’m guilty of grabbing delicious chocolate chip cookies when I’m feeling a little hollow myself. I know that it’s extremely hard to go for something healthy when there’s a nice fresh bag of chips sitting right there on the countertop, easily accessible to fulfill your hunger. I’ve been in this situation plenty of times because I’m always hungry (no joke), but just try your best to choose a snack that is better for you and it’ll leave you feeling great both physically and mentally, and therefore will help you with your studies! 3. Have a quiet and organized study space. If you’re like me and you prefer studying at a desk than on a couch or a bed, make sure it’s nice and organized. If you study at the dining table or anywhere that’s not your personal space, just make sure the space is clear and not cluttered. A messy work space is detrimental to your study process. I personally cannot work in a disheveled area littered with papers and trash so I always keep my desk nice and tidy so that I’m motivated to actually study. 4. Make sure you have all your materials with you before you get comfy. If you’re NOT like me and you love studying in a comfy area such as a couch, check to make sure you have all your textbooks, notebooks, other study materials, and even snacks, before you get TOO comfy. On the rare occasion that I move to my couch downstairs from my desk for a snuggier study space, I ALWAYS forget something, usually a pencil, and I get really annoyed because I’d have to go all the way back upstairs to grab such a trivial item. It’s even worse if I’m in the middle of my studying that I remember I’ve forgotten something. It disrupts my review process and basically dampens my mood. I sound like such a child complaining about something as shallow as this but hey, I’m telling the truth. 5. Use online material. I never realized how much the internet really helps with review. It wasn’t until this school year that I started taking more online practice quizzes and tests. It’s fast, simple, and easy. Just search up your topic, type in the word quiz, click one of the links, make sure the site doesn’t look sketchy (LOL) and you’re good to go! Other sites that most people already use such as Sparknotes and Shmoop are obviously great as well. 6. Don’t be afraid to ask help. If I’m stuck on something, I don’t hesitate to ask my friends who have taken / are taking the same classes. I actually have a funny story to tell you guys relating to this. I have a study buddy for precalc this year (math is one of my worst subjects) and EVERYTIME I have a question or I need to clarify something, I message her for help. But the thing is, after I text her, I immediately realize how to solve the problem I had a question on. So then I go back and text her “NVR mind”. It’s happened so often that it has developed into sort of an inside joke between us! But yeah, don’t be scared to ask a friend, parent, older sibling, or teacher for help. I think it’s always best to ask a teacher but obviously they’re less accessible if you’re at home, unless you have their phone number or you can easily contact them. So I always text my friends, but sometimes I ask my parents. When it comes to getting help from my mom or dad, I assume that they aren’t knowledgeable in the topic I need help on, but I’m always highly mistaken. They end up knowing more than me! 7. Most importantly, TAKE BREAKS. Please, please remember to take breaks. Breaks are essential to a healthy study routine. You may be thinking, “I don’t have time to take breaks!” To answer that, I’d say that even a quick one minute breathing session can help you get back on track with studying. Remember Tip #2? You can treat getting yourself a snack as a quick break as well if you really want to maximize your time. I like to lay on top of my bed for a minute every now and then while I’m studying to stretch my back and rest my eyes. I also treat my shower time as a relaxing break as well. I have a waterproof speaker in my shower that I use DAILY so that I can listen to music while I bathe myself, which is refreshing and clears my mind. Sometimes I like to reward myself too by indulging in a chapter of a book I’m currently reading at the time as another effective break. Breaks are crucial and necessary to prevent you from exhausting yourself too much. Take it from a person who’s had constant headaches and tired, red eyes from studying for prolonged times without stopping. I’ve definitely learned my lesson! So that was my advice for preparing for assessments! All of this I’ve learned so far my three years in high school, and I hope they help! Now it’s back to studying for finals… *picture: https://www.gijobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/textbooks.resized-1.jpg Hello!! In today's post, as you can guess from the title, I will be sharing my last six resolutions for the new year.
1. More socializing! I’ve always been a very quiet and shy person when I’m around people I don’t know. Around my friends and family, though, I’m a totally different person. It’s extremely hard for me to make new friends. I’ve been with the same group of people for about 5 years now. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I love my friend group so so much. But they all have other friends they hang out with, and guess what, ya girl’s options are extremely limited! It’s funny, because even when my friends suggest going out and doing something together, I’ll find an excuse not to go, because I thrive off of being alone. I think that to start off this resolution, I should work on the easy stuff first. That being said, I need to start hanging out more with my friends and not bail at the last minute (yikes). 2. Read more. This is the only resolution that I don’t think will be too difficult. I LOVE to read but I don’t have much time to do so. When I do have free time, I spend it watching Netflix and YouTube. Pushing myself to read new novels would be a good use of my time and would be something that I would enjoy doing. 3. Less overthinking. Overthinking. Something I always do. I overthink mostly school, especially presentations. I absolutely HATE presentations. Each and every time before the day of my presentation, I spend a lot of time worrying and stressing. What if I forget my lines? What if my powerpoint doesn’t load? What if people get bored? I go through my presentations literally HUNDREDS of times to make sure I memorized the lines. Even then, when everything is ready to go, I myself don’t feel ready at all. I spend so much time overthinking this that when I go up and actually speak in front of the class, I realize it’s not so bad. And when my classmates clap for me, I realize that I’ve been stressing and wasting all that time for something that was easier than I thought. You’d expect that, after a couple of presentations, I’d stop overthinking before the next ones. Nope. Not me. I always think that something bad will happen next time I go up in front of the class, and therefore I’d have to be incredibly prepared for the possibility. You see, the cycle never ends. This is something I really have to work on. I have no idea how to improve this, "condition", of mine. Maybe more practice? 4. Be more informed about current events. In some of my classes, we always discuss current events. From politics to feminism, we talk about everything. I always find myself going “Oh, that happened?” or just being extremely confused because I never know what’s going on. I’m very ill-informed about world events. I guess that makes sense because I rarely watch the news or go online and find about what’s going on. It’s important to be informed and knowledgeable and not live completely under a rock. I should start keeping up with the news and since I’m on facebook and snapchat so much, I could customize my social media feeds to make my several hours a day scrolling through these sites more informative and productive. 5. Write more. I really want to improve my writing skills. Updating and keeping up with this blog will definitely help with that. Some people can make phrases and sentences sound so beautiful. They can literally make music with their words. I want to be like that. I’m definitely going to need to practice and refine my skills A LOT MORE (LOL!). 6. Quit nail-biting. This is a nasty habit that I have been trying to quit since 8th grade. I was actually able to stop chewing my nails for a period of time in 9th grade, but for some reason, this habit started up again, and ever since then, I couldn't stop it. Some people only bite their nails when they’re frustrated or nervous, but I do it ALL THE TIME. It doesn’t matter my state of emotions, it doesn’t matter what situation I’m in, I just do it and I can’t quit. It’s literally impossible to stop. This is going to be a hard goal to accomplish. That was it for my new year's resolutions! I had a whole list but I narrowed it down to these six and the six from the last blog post to make a total of twelve resolutions. I'm going to try my best to stick to these goals and hopefully I'll be able to accomplish some! Have an amazing day! Hey everyone! I know that it’s already the fourth day of 2018, but I decided that for today’s entry, I would talk about some of my new year’s resolutions.
This is actually going to be my first year where I made a legit list of things I want to accomplish or work on. We’ll see how I do and I will of course make sure to keep you guys updated on the process. Let’s get onto some goals. 1. Exercise more! Exercising and working out at home is something that I’ve always done, but in minuscule amounts. My house has its own little workout room at my leisure yet I’m just unmotivated to get myself moving. I have never set up a work out schedule. What I have been doing so far regarding physical activity is that I exercise during the weekends, only if I have time. What I mean is that if I am overloaded with schoolwork and extracurricular activities during the weekend, I will not touch the equipment. I go weeks at a time without exercising. This year, I’m hoping to work out at least once a week at first, and I hope it’ll increase as the year goes on. 2. Drink more water. This is definitely something I need to work on! Each day, I bring up a regular 17 fluid ounce plastic water bottle (about 500 mL) and by the end of the day, there’s usually some left over. It’s a good day if I’m able to finish one bottle. I started working on this goal a few days before 2018 using a couple methods. I realized that the main reason why I don’t drink much water is because water is boring. There’s no flavor, and without flavor it’s hard for me to force anything down my throat. Therefore, my favorite method is to mix a little something extra in my water. I like to mix 1 part lemonade (or limeade, orange juice, and other citrus drinks) with 3 to 4 parts water, and I add plenty of ice. This way, there’s a little something something in my water that makes it tastier. I have this huge hard plastic water bottle that fits about 34 fluid ounces (1000 mL) that is perfect for this. 3. Drink less boba. Boba is delicious. If you don’t know what boba is, it can mean two things. First of all, the word “boba” actually refers to edible black chewy spheres made of starch, sweet potato, and brown sugar. Boba is usually consumed with a drink called milk tea, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s just tea (it can be any tea, but I personally prefer black tea) mixed with a touch of milk. But the majority of people call the milk tea and boba combo as just “boba”. For example, when my friends and I want to get those drinks, we would say, “Hey, let’s go get boba!” and most of us would be referring to the drink combo, not just the boba itself. But yeah, the reason I want to consume less boba (and I am referring to both the boba itself AND the drink) is because of the SUGAR. I’m talking about more than 2 tablespoons of sugar for a 16 ounce drink. Yikes. But it is SO good, so much so that I could probably drink it every single day and not get tired of it. 4. Keep this website running and don’t quit halfway. I have a problem with “continuing” things, if that makes any sense. For example, I would start writing a story and run out of motivation halfway, and I would quit. That’s why I want to succeed in keeping this website / blog running as long as I can and update it a reasonable amount of times per week. It will be fun! 5. Reach at least 100 followers on Twitter. With this, I also mean followers and subscriptions of this website. I really want to expand this website and make it more popular, you know? I don't know if 100 is an unreasonable number, as this is the first time I've done anything like this, but we'll see how it goes. 6. Be more vocal. This is something that I’ve been meaning to work on since 8th grade but I just never actually tried accomplishing this. By this resolution, I mean participating more in class discussions and voicing my opinions. I usually just go with what other people say, even if I don’t necessarily agree with their opinions or thoughts. I never express my own thoughts and feelings because I’ve never been great with words, if that makes any sense. If I’m talking in front of people that I’m not familiar with, I’ll forget what I’m saying halfway and I end up sounding like an idiot. I stutter quite a lot as well. So I usually keep to myself and let other people do all the talking. That’s the same reason I don’t participate in class either. I just don’t trust myself with words, and I’m afraid of being embarrassed. Well, I really need to change that this year. I really do. And I’m going to make myself speak more in class when school starts on Monday (I’m on my break right now). That's it for part 1 of my new year's resolutions! I'll be posting my last 6 in the next couple of days. Have a great day everyone! |
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