Beauty Haul!

Sorry to our, if any, male readers. I can’t guarantee this post is going to be incredibly fascinating. Yesterday, I had the HUGE pleasure of going to visit a Sephora. Now, if y’all have one close by you, you probably do this as a regular thing. BUT I DON’T. I suffer from Sephora withdrawals. The only eyeliner I use is from Sephora, and now mascara, etc. So, obviously it’s a little bit of first world suffering on my end. I have none around me when I’m at college, and then one that’s two hours away when I’m visiting home. However, there’s one 45 minutes away from my family up North!

My first concern was getting my eyeliner yesterday. Sephora makes these AMAZING, tiny eyeliners that are only 5 bucks a piece (cheaper than most drug stores!) I use it everyday and it lasts at least 7 months. It’s called their Nano eyeliner, and it makes precise lines. I prefer Midnight Black. Two eyeliners and 10 dollars later, I’m set for a year and a half.

http://www.sephora.com/nano-eyeliner-P235502

I’m a strict Bare Essentials user. I’ve tried other foundations and have gone back to Bare Essentials every time. I prefer using their primer with their foundation and concealer, and I had to pick up their oil-control primer yesterday. This is the only thing that helps me get through hot, humid Southern summers! Another popular primer by Bare Essentials is their brightening one. My mother loves it.

http://www.sephora.com/bareminerals-prime-time-foundation-primer-oil-control-P312112?skuId=1431089

Lastly, I was on the hunt for new mascara. I’m not too big into volumizing mascaras, so I went for a lengthening one. I picked up the Eyeko Skinny Brush Mascara that not only came in a squeeze out tube, but also came with a guitar pick and a super skinny wand. Naturally, I was very curious about this mascara. I grabbed the nearest sales associate and asked her about the tube; she said not only is it a great lengthening mascara, but it actually satisfies one of their pickiest clients. I just tried this mascara for the first time this morning and LOVED it! It has not flaked nor smudged yet in six hours. It’s actually British, and made it’s way overseas in February of this year. 

http://www.sephora.com/eyeko-skinny-brush-mascara-P307589?skuId=1409259

These are my beauty finds I got yesterday! I also upgraded my Longchamp bag to a tote size, so I’ll have to do an updated What’s In My Bag soon!

Love y’all!

Syd

Don’t get me wrong, body image is a topic brought up often. Even though this is a common topic, it wasn’t enough to distract me away from negative thoughts from my own body. 

We are surrounded by a surreal idea of body image everywhere. In magazines, on TV, in movies, and even on our own world of Tumblr, where sometimes we just want to get away from these body images.

My eating and body image problems always struck when I was at home these past few months. Over Christmas break, I struggled to eat right (who doesn’t?!), but I still got a whole bunch of exercise done (lots of running; I was training for my first 10k).

However, spring break was where I hit my breaking point. My ex-boyfriend had just broken up with me, and he was a firm believer in making me feel better about my body. I went on a vacation when I couldn’t exercise. I basically was a window that had been shattered, ready to fall out. Most of my nights were spent upset and crying about my stress level due to not having the perfect stomach. I knew I had to make a change.

This is my first time talking publically about the matter; I went back to school and got my mind straightened out…aka teaching myself mentally I wasn’t going to gain 10 pounds when I had one dessert or had a glass of chocolate milk. I kept training for my 10k, and ran it in 54 minutes. I had to straighten out things mentally for myself so I could function normally again.

Granted, people very close to me have gone through much greater issues and I can’t imagine what they have had to go through. Struggling with body image is the worst: it’s all you can think about, even if you have a minor mind problem like me (some of which can be attributed to my OCD). It consumed my every thought.

This is my first week home, and so far, I’m doing pretty well. I’m surprised at how well I’m doing. I think I knew as part of my responsibility I had to straighten myself back out, and realize that it was a problem to be fixed. Not to mention, we always need a little reminder we’re beautiful. We are all beautiful, no matter what someone says, or what you think the mirror is showing you. Stay strong and don’t let others bring you down. I love you all, and thanks for letting me share my story.

Sydney

To our beautiful followers-

I am SO sorry. I promise I haven’t been trying to neglect y’all. The Thursday prior to this was part of my crazy finals week..I had an exam on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Not to forget, I also was packing up everything to move back home (for 3 weeks) this summer! I just completed my last final on Wednesday before heading to the beach to finally relax, and finish packing. I moved back this past Thursday, and I’ll be heading back to start my job May 26th.

While I’m on the topic of moving, and some of y’all are packing for school or packing to move back home, I have some tips for y’all!

1) Stay organized. The last thing you need is unsorted belongings. Keep school supplies in one box, keep things you’ll need to start your new job/or move back in another box, and keep clothes color coordinated. It’ll help in the long run, I promise!

2) Consolidate. Don’t start a new box just because your hole punch won’t fit in the school supplies box. Shift things around, and make space if you can! 

3) Start early. Packing at the last minute is NO FUN. Nor is it effective… I know my Mom would’ve had a heart attack if I had been packing half of my belongings the morning of moving out. This also gives you a few moments to relax before shifting everything out of the dorm/apartment/etc and you can say goodbye to your friends!

4) CLEAN. I don’t know about y’all, but my roommate and I were going to be MEGA fined if we hadn’t cleaned our rooms properly. Not to mention, you definitely don’t want to be the person on the other end of a dirty room. Sure, everyone cleans their room when they move in…but it’s better when the dust hasn’t been tripled.

5) Listen to music. Last but not least, have some music going while packing/cleaning/organizing! It will help time pass and ease your stress.

I hope everyone’s finals/graduation/last exams/everything is going well! Talk to y’all again on Thursday.

Sending my love,

Sydney 

Hey y’all!

So, I’m here to sound like your mom for the week…haha.

A thing that’s been bothering lately is how students (particularly college students, especially in my classes) have been dressing to present their paper, PowerPoint, or project, whatever it may be. 

Throughout the past couple of weeks in all of my classes, we’ve been giving presentations. Regardless of whether it was my least favorite class or my absolute best class, I would dress up. Not only will your class have an opinion of you (and you may not care), but your professor will as well. You show that you not only can make the effort on paper or on your PowerPoint, but you can make the effort by demonstrating you are respectful to yourself, your classmates, and your professor. It’s not too nice to your classmates when they show up dressed to give a professional presentation, and you look like you rolled out of bed.

Don’t get me wrong, we all have those days we just aren’t feeling class, and we want to dress down. There’s plenty of sick days or just days you’re on the struggle bus. That’s fine.

For example, one of the people presenting was wearing norts, a t-shirt, as well as a hat. That’s no way to give a presentation. If you were in a work scenario, you would be axed immediately. Think of school as work- it’s training you for whom you want to be in your career field.

Sending my love this week to y’all, and especially SueAnn! Love you girl. 

Sydney 

So, I begin this entry with a question a lot of college (and high-school, although not as much pressure) students have: “What am I going to do with my life?” I have heard this question asked by my colleagues as a college freshman more times than I have heard what is going to be served at the dining hall that night.

Unfortunately, I believe this is something that does take a huge toll on college students. But you know what the good thing is? You don’t HAVE to know. If you don’t know what you like, that is why you are at college to take classes and figure out what you like. The same can be told to a high school senior or junior. You sometimes can’t and won’t be able to predict what you like and don’t like until you get into college. Don’t let any one tell you elsewise. Otherwise, they are lying. By taking mandated courses that the college hands to you, you’re broadening your horizons and seeing what interests you. If you find something fascinating, go ahead and take the next level up! Take chances, and it might end up being your college major. Even if you think you know what you’re interested in, you might end up finding something else even better, or potential minors! I just declared my first minor, and might end up declaring a second by the end of next semester all because of finding random interests.

Another thing I wanted to add to this blog entry was to take the opportunity to tell y’all to do what makes you happy. The last thing I like to see is someone so intent on being an Economics major even though they hate math and money, or majoring in Biology when they hate science and saying they need to be a pre-med student. If you aren’t happy, that’s not success. This nation was founded one of several principles, which is the pursuit of happiness. I know in the long run, I won’t be making millions with my major. But I plan to be successful, and happy. I might not own the Maserati, but I will be doing fine if I can supply what my future family needs, and we are comfortable. I have had more fun in the past two months being able to diagnose architectural styles versus trying to add up various variables and digits that won’t matter to me in the long run. It makes me feel alive to be able to learn the knowledge I feel is right for me. 

I hope y’all don’t feel like you got a lecture from me. And if you did, I’m sorry. I just feel as if this is something weighing on a lot of people’s shoulders, but I am aware of the issue and if you EVER want someone to talk to about it, I’m there for you.

Love, Sydney 

As some of you may know if you follow my personal blog (gothistory), my blog posts haven’t been the happiest to date.

Last Wednesday night around 11:30, my boyfriend, now ex-boyfriend, decided it would be a wise time to call and break up with me. Luckily, I have some pretty amazing friends who came over right away to comfort me and help me brush some negative emotions off. 

Regardless, I was devastated. While the relationship was only a month long, I invested a lot of care and patience into the relationship because I did not get to see him every weekend, nor during the week.  If I had been told the relationship was only going to last a month, I wouldn’t have bothered. I commit to things with 110% responsibility and carefulness. Naturally, getting over this relationship hasn’t been a one-day process. I’m still not over it as I write this, but with time, everything gets better. 

My instant, and best reaction that I had to this was to surround myself with friends. This helped me get things off my mind, and should help anyone get stuff off their mind. However, my friends were very busy this weekend (as was I, studying for 4 tests), so I ended up shutting myself off from my technology and my main bases of communication. Surprisingly, this really helped me to just be by myself. I wasn’t bothered by constant questions, nor was the topic being reiterated over and over again. The next thing I found to be super helpful was to delve myself into music. I turned to my favorite band SafetySuit just to calm my nerves. You’d be surprised to know how much music helps with just your thoughts alone. And lastly, as y’all know from my last blog post, I LOVE to exercise. Sprinting and feeling the pain in my muscles helped me get past my emotional nagging.

Now, hopefully y’all don’t think I’m going crazy and just writing about myself. I wanted to lend some tips to you guys if anyone else is going through anything difficult. If y’all ever need anyone to talk to, my ask box is always open. A one-month breakup hasn’t been the worst thing I’ve been through, and sure as heck won’t be bothering me forever. 

Remember, you’re all stronger than you think.

Love,

Sydney

Running.

You hate it, love it, or hate it during the process and love it later. 

Personally, I used to be the first person to want to sit out for anything that had to do ANYTHING with running. I couldn’t stand it. As a varsity singles and doubles player on my high school tennis team, you would think I would appreciate running. Not at all…running was the last thing on my mind. When it came to warm-ups, I was praying my coach was just going to have us jump-roping instead of running. I dreaded the 5k’s I did for charity, and I sure as heck did not run for funsies AT ALL. I would have rather pushed a dead car for a mile.

Luckily, that same coach is the reason I have running today. She commented on my running and how much I struggled with it. And well…you don’t tell ME that I struggle with something. I made it my personal goal to get better, make my strides longer, and have a better knowledge of running. 

To this day, running is my favorite thing to do. It’s hard for me to go 3 days without running. It is my stress reliever, and I love being able to keep up with the sound of the music on my iPod. Not to mention, I like seeing the effects of it on my body. I stand up straighter and have more confidence because of it. 

Now now, I’m not here to encourage you guys to run. But I do have some advice for those who have considered it, or recently gave it a thought:

1. You can run anywhere. Run downtown, run the nature trail, run in the place you love. It helps you feel more alive. 

2. Buy a decent pair of running shoes. Seriously. My personal recommendations are Nike Frees and Sauconys (what I run in now). And, if you are a current runner, remember to update your shoes! If you’re like me and have joint problems, I really have to buy a new pair every 3-4 months because of the mileage I do. (20-30/week)

3. Make a playlist if music motivates you! 

4. Start out easy. Do what is comfortable for you. And don’t push yourself too hard!

5. If you want suggestions for running shorts, I go Nike norts all the way. They have shorts built within them, so they are not uncomfortable to run in.

If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask me here or on my personal blog!

Hugs and kisses, 

Sydney

(…Yes, that is my natural hair, hahaha.)

Hey y’all, my name is Sydney! Also known as gothistory.tumblr.com.I was born, raised, and continue to live in the South. I love everything southern, historic and preppy. I’m 19 years old (January, baby!), and studying to the best of my abilities. I’m a Historic Preservation major with a minor in Archaeology. I care about the past more than you’ll ever know, and my dream job is to work for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Every moment I’m not busy with schoolwork, I’m sleeping, eating, or tumbling. I run about 25-30 miles a week, and play tennis. I’m a huge activist for Falling Whistles, Livestrong, and cancer research. I lost my Dad and half-sister to cancer both within 3 years of each other. You won’t see me without my whistle or bracelets supporting both. The following are dear to my heart: driving with the music turned up with the windows down, my Ray-Bans, my neon norts, my fabulous best friends at home and at school, my family, meeting president Jimmy Carter when I was 10, all my historic site visits, history camp, Harry Potter, bracelets, my whistles, and having the perfect blazer.

I’m so excited to be apart of the Carolina Girls and I hope y’all have a beautiful week! Feel free to explore my personal blog and ask me questions.

Love love love,

Sydney