AHHH! Overwhelmed!!!

So, wow. I am two and half weeks into my summer classes and summer internship. I think I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew. Two classes and an internship that consists of 100 hours worth of work in addition to extra supervision hours. Good grief! Did I say that all of this had to be done in 7 weeks? Awesome!

I feel like I'm the little engine that could right now. I just keep telling myself that I can get through it! Stay positive, right? Right! Thank goodness for the love and support that my family and friends give me! Not to mention all of my fellow students' support who are going through the same thing.

Even though I am very overwhelmed, I am absolutely loving my internship. I can only say so much about it because of confidentiality reasons; however, I can say that I am learning tons and that I am finding the entire experience very rewarding. It is so nice to be putting the things we've been learning in class into practice....This makes it feel like all of this is actually worth it.

Now, back to studying for me! Two tests this week! Whew! Thank goodness for the Fourth of July weekend coming up. Yay for some rest and relaxation.

5 years. 5 lessons.

Today marks the five year anniversay of my brother Stephen's death. Wow. Hard enough to believe it ever happened. Now, it is even harder to believe that it has been five years. To those of you who knew Stephen, you all know how blessed you are to have known him. He truly made the world a better place, and he always put a smile on the face of anyone he ever met. If you knew him, I am obviously not telling you anything you didn't already know. If you didn't know Stephen, I hope you are lucky enough to meet someone in this world like him.

Stephen's outlook on life and his personality taught me many things. I also think many others learned from him as well. Among these many lessons, I will share five of my favorite with you. These are the important things that everyone should know if they don't already. Unfortunately, it takes losing something to really recognize the lessons that were being taught.

5.) Laughter makes everything better. Stephen laughed at everything, and usually in a good way. He always joked around, giggled, chuckled, snickered. This is something I have no problem doing. I laugh at so many things, and my sweet niece Abigail is the same. As Stephen believed and practiced, laughter truly makes everything better. So laugh!

4.) Seize the day. Take advantage of every opportunity you are given. Afterall, some opportunities only come around once. Do the things you love, even if you think you don't have time. Make time.

3.) Let loyalty be one of your defining characteristics. Stephen was always loyal. He would never say something he didn't mean or make a promise he couldn't stick to. He was such a role model in this aspect.

2.) Friendship makes the world go around. Stephen was friends with EVERYONE. Let's just say he never met a stranger. He never judged, and he always saw the good in people, which is definitely something I try to do.

1.) Live your life for you. Sometimes it is so easy to please others all the time in scarificing your happiness for others to be happy. Stephen struggled with this. He seemed to always want to please others, even though he knew he should do some things for himself. Because this was something Stephen struggled with, I try hard to do it. I fail at this often, but I still do try...for Stephen.

Ode to Woodlands 307

On Sunday, my mom and I went to Athens to check on my now vacant college apartment that is listed on the market. I lived there for a total of three years, which really made it a home for me. Sarah Ary lived there for four years, so I know she also called it home. During that three and a half hour drive there, I was incredibly anxious about how I would feel seeing this apartment completely empty. To me, there is sometimes nothing more depressing than a house that's vacant because, then, the house is nothing but walls, a floor, a roof, and the memories left behind.

Walking in, I was hit with that apartment's familiar smell. Every house has it's own unique smell. If you didn't know this before, you know it now. From my house in Albany to the apartment in Columbus to any of my friends' houses, all the smells differ and are all characteristic in their own way.  This smell triggered a flood of fantastic memories of good times (maybe a few bad) in that apartment. A lot happens in three years, so, of course, a lot happened here.

Birthdays, a bachelorette party, late night talks, movie marathons, and food network cooking experiments are events and celebrations that only skim the surface of what happened in apartment 307. My friends and I grew closer there, and I also gained a new, very close friend there (I call her Moogie). All of us grew in our own unique ways. This is the place where we studied and got those nerve-wracking test scores and grades back. This is where we made and broke relationships. This is the place where we made the important decisions about our futures. This truly was our home away from home. To see it empty was a harsh reality that we have all moved on- to grad school, to NYC, to medical school, to an accounting firm, to ATL, to whereever we had planned to go.

You know how so many people say you don't know what you have until it's gone? Well, this is definitely one of those cases. While we still have all of those memories and recollections, our undergraduate years are gone. Now, I'm a firm believer in that this doesn't not mean we have grown up. Growing up comes much, much later. We all have simply closed one chapter, and we have all adventured off from Woodlands 307 to start new ones. Good luck to all of my lovely ladies on all of their ventures, escapades, and shenanigans. I love you all, but don't ever forget to remember when...

This is when we moved my mattress in the living room for a major 2 day movie marathon.

More mattress movie madness!

Kelly's Bachelorette Party

One roomie pic

Another rommie pic- The original rommies

Another group of roomies