Coffee & Honeycomb: photos

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LIFE LATELY: WRAPPING UP SEPTEMBER

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

I know we're already a week into October, but September was such a great month I wanted to take a beat and reflect. :)

HIGHLIGHTS:
- I started my full-time job. So far? It is really, really great. And I'm extremely thankful I can say that with complete honesty. The culture is fun and the people on my team are bright, and I come home at night still with energy and enthusiasm to return the next day. It's hard being the "new girl," and to be totally honest, this new role is completely different from my past experiences so I am coming in with zero expertise; which isn't fun to not know how to do your job, but if there was a place to walk in new, this is the place to do it. (I'll update more about this later.)

- I'm checking out churches. E and I committed to church hopping until end of November, and it's been one verrry interesting process. Again, I've never looked for a church before, let alone been a visitor at a church before, so this is all foreign territory to me. Five weeks in and eight churches visited, and it has been one heck of a roller coaster. There's been phases of discouragement, doubts if we'll ever find a good church, homesickness for our old home church, etc. But also phases of hope, unique opportunity to worship alongside brothers/sisters we'd probably never witness otherwise, seeing a wide spectrum of church communities, and then once in awhile entering a church where you know God's blessing is present. Interestingly, MN has a TON of churches! Many, many mega-churches... I don't know if this is unique to MN or more on my radar just cause I'm looking, but there are so many mega-churches. I've been in more mega-churches this month than I have in my entire late! I definitely notice my guard go up with mega-churches and I need to be more discerning with that, but it has been cool to worship in super nice facilities/praise teams/etc. Anyway, as of late, there's a few I really enjoy so far and I'm eager to join a small group and be in a community again. :)

- I'm enjoying fall. All those fall things girls love. Apple orchards. Pumpkin spice latte. Flavored candles. Scarves and sweaters. You name it! I am totally embracing this season with open arms.

- I'm making new friends. While trying to refrain from sounding like a third-grader who made friends at lunch by trading their apples for chips or on the school playground, but hey, when you move to a new city you gotta make new friends and put yourself out there. You know me, I'm all about the story-sharing, memory-making and right adjacent to the spitting in your hand and making a secret handshake kinda thing, so I like making new friends. There's a bunch of 20-something transplants, so I'm definitely not alone in this process. What's great about being in a new city and making new friends is that you do activities that you probably never would have done before. Ex: my girlfriends and I call a great night one spent on the couch, and we visit the same spots for dinner. However lately, I've tried boat riding, kayaking, hiking, and apple picking. :) Just to name a few... I guess you can call me your adventure queen. (Clearly I didn't get funnier moving to a new state.)

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
venturing from starbucks
celebrating our three year
lakeside
apartment tour

And take out all my life lately posts here!

MOVE-IN APARTMENT TOUR

Saturday, September 27, 2014

I've been meaning to share these photos for awhile now, but once work started, things got busier delaying the post. However, the apartment hasn't changed too much since I took these photos, so I thought I'd share these now and update as I go along! The walls are still bare and I plan to throw up some photos and art to it, but I'm saving those Pinterest projects for winter when I'm hibernating. ;)

So far living alone has been great :) In a couple of days, it will mark an official month of being in Minnesota. (Time flies!) I really do miss living with my roommates and all the fun that it brings — eating dinner together, talking while getting ready, convincing one another to stay in and pop in a movie, and spontaneous adventures, etc. And it's definitely not like living with my parents who lovingly keep the house tidy and food on the table (gosh, I took those times for granted), but living alone also brings new liberation!

While I miss having roommates, one of my favorite things about living alone (so far) is having full control of the decoration and organization. So much clean space to work with, let me tell you, it is one big canvas. It took me a couple of days to unload my life out of boxes and plan out a strategic way to maximize my studio, but it was totally worth it. Now I am completely pleased with how it turned out and I enjoy coming home to it. :)

Take a look!

The walls are gray in the bedroom and the lighting is very dim, so it kind of washes out the space so I want to think of a remedy to this problem. Also, does anyone know an inexpensive place to find cute pillows to add?

I'm still finding good pieces to decorate my desk, but you should recognize this from my old 'working space' post back when I moved into my college apartment!

And there you go! :) If you have a recent post sharing a tour of your apartment/dorm, leave a comment below and I'd love to check it out! :) Home tours always give me the best inspo!

LAKESIDE

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Minnesotans love their lakes. I guess they are called the land of 10,000 lakes for a reason. ;) Rain or shine, people always seem to be flocking lakeside. If they can't be IN the water, you bet they're still biking/rollerblading/sitting to at least enjoy the waves from a distance.

Growing up in the midwest burbs, I was never much of a water person. I never lived near a body of water and the changing seasons didn't exactly cultivate that kind of culture. (Not to mention my swimming skills were limited to doggy-paddling until my freshman year of college. Yikes.) But fortunately for me, it looks like things are changing! And you know what they say, when in Rome... I now live VERY close (5-minute walking distance) to a lake and can't help but to be so attracted to it every time I pass by it. There's a 3-mile bike/walk path surrounding the water and I've gone around it a couple of times so far and it was so much fun — not to mention beautiful. I definitely understand they hype now. Count me in!

1 down, 9,999 to go...! Cheers to new adventures and cultures!

ALUMNA STATUS

Monday, May 19, 2014

This past weekend, I became an official college graduate and an UIUC alumna!
I DIIIIIID IT, I DIIIID IT, I DIIIIIIID IT.

People keep asking me how I feel and honestly, it really hasn't hit me yet. It kind of just feels like another school year ended and that I am returning in the fall. I think the three moments when it did feel the most real was a) when I took cap/gown photos with my friends b) when I saw my dad waving at me from the audience during the ceremony c) when the college dean called us "U of I alumni."

U of I alumni, huh. So surreal.

I just can't believe how quickly these four years went by... I did have my emotional moments over the weekend and I was so grateful that family, friends, and the boyfriend drove down to celebrate this special moment with me — because they have just as much of a reason to be celebrated. I know many of my friends are so sad that they're leaving campus, and it is, but to me, it just feels so, so, so right. It feels right to graduate. It feels appropriate.

And I think that's because I tried my best to take advantage of the endless opportunities on campus and I had my fair share of what college had to offer. There were a lot of things on my "college bucket list" and for the most part, I'm lucky to check off some. In the last four years, I wrote for my school newspaper, played for the school lacrosse team, worked at a local coffee shop, competed in two case competitions, interned at two agencies, lived in dorms, lived in an apartment, studied abroad in Italy, chartered an RSO, won a free trip to NYC, co-led a small group, (finalllyyy) won a BIFF trophy, made the most wonderful group of friends and colleagues, and... landed a job to end it all. :) It was, indeed, a good four years.

College was more than just receiving an education; and I know we hear this a lot, but it really was a space to grow, to live, to laugh... To take risks and walk out of your comfort zone, to eat junk food really late at night, to build a network and seek mentors, to find God and purpose and love...

So what happens next? What does real world and post-grad life look like? How do you navigate young adulthood? How do you navigate working life and a new city? How do you even look for an apartment? How do you search for a church? ... These are some of the questions floating in my new alumna brain because clearly there isn't a syllabus on how to do this anymore.

My blog is no longer a "college girl blog." I don't know what it is. But thank you for reading, thank you for following me since sophomore year. I don't know what life is going to look like anymore and I don't know what this blog is going to look like anymore, but I hope you will continue to follow along for the ride! :) Maybe I should make a new "20-something bucket list".... Is that what's next? #POSTGRADPROBLEMS.

CHEERS TO GRADUATING! HOOORAAAH CLASS OF 2014!