Category: Topic Tuesdays

Topic Tuesdays: Random

Congrats, Class of 2017! 🎓

liz

Congrats to everyone who has graduated already, will be graduating soon, and who are graduating this year! Specifically, congratulations to those who are graduating today at the College of Staten Island. Today is the moment you guys worked so hard to see, and now it’s time for celebration for your accomplishments, and I couldn’t be more proud of those who I personally know that are graduating today. I feel like a proud mama; last year I was the only one out of my friends who were graduating, so seeing them now have their time and feel the things I felt when I walked in my cap and gown is a bittersweet feeling.

 

The Great Lawn; June 2nd, 2016.

 

Without a cloud in the sky, the 67th Commencement Ceremony took place at The College of Staten Island with roughly 3,000 graduates getting their college degrees. I was receiving my Bachelor’s of Arts in English Writing and Honors within Sigma Tau Delta International English Honors Society. I was the first in my family to receive a college degree.

 

Professor Simon Reader leading the 2016 English Graduates.

 

Walking to The Great Lawn with my fellow English major graduates, I had this overwhelming feeling that I made it. Years of hard-work, dedication, and even thoughts of dropping out when things got too hard, I completed everything I needed to complete in four years. I didn’t cry, but the knot in my throat definitely was there while walking and taking our seats. Seeing everyone in their cap and gowns of all different ages and genders and nationalities was a beautiful sight to see. Although the big ceremony was boring and honestly useless and my parents didn’t get to see me in the departmental ceremony, the overall day was one I would want to relive over and over again.

 

Post-graduation 2016.

 

I can’t believe this was almost a year ago. It just comes to show how fast time flies. It feels like I just graduated, and now next year, I graduate with my Masters. Yep, a new dress, a new gown (with a fucking cape/hoodie) and a new degree. I’m excited to write about my own graduation in 2018 a year from now, and receive my second degree (which feels so fucking surreal to me still).

 

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Some of the Banners of the majors offered at the College of Staten Island.

 

But back to those who I personally know at graduation right now and are experiencing the feelings and moments of their graduation currently:

This is your day, and I hope no one takes it away from you. I know a few of you worked your asses off to graduate on time and be where you guys are today. All the hard work finally is paying off, and I hope that you guys end up in places where you are happy, inspired, and successful; wherever life takes you guys. Some of you will be teachers, others will be researchers, and others will be continuing their education for higher degrees, and I hope that the memories you had in college (whether good or bad) stay with you for lifetime. I know I met most of you during my last year of undergrad, and because of the great memories we made, you guys made my last year one that I’ll always remember. 

I love you guys, and mama is proud of you and your accomplishments! 

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Music

What I’m Currently Listening To! (Part 3!)

liz

A new month means new music that I’m currently obsessed with! Because I’m deciding to do this more frequently, I’m listening to new music more often and this post is gonna show a new side of music I actually enjoy listening to. Again, you can listen to these songs on my Spotify playlist if you’re interested in doing so! Anyway, without further ado, here is the third installation of my music favorites!

 

  • I went on a rave about this song Saturday night when I first saw the music video to Camila Cabello’s debut single, “Crying in the Club” off of her upcoming debut album, The Hurting. The Healing, The Loving. While I do enjoy the single, it lacks originality and it doesn’t feel like something she would’ve written herself. So, when I was watching the video of the song, the video starts off with another snippet of a song, “I Have Questions” by Camila Cabello. It was a song I instantly fell in love with because it speaks volumes. “I gave you all of me; my blood, my sweat, my heart, and my tears, Why don’t you care, why don’t you care? I was there, I was there when no one was; now you’re gone and I’m here.” Those lines and the emotion in her voice instantly broke me, and only a few songs in my lifetime had done that to me on the first listen. I honestly wish that she released this song as her first single instead of “Crying in the Club” because songs like “I Have Questions” hit people. It’s relatable in a way that CITC doesn’t. This song was released as a whole on May 21st, and I instantly had to put this song on my list for this month because it’s already a favorite of mine.
  • Another song from SweetSexySavage, “Distraction” by Kehlani. Initially, I wasn’t really crazy about this song because I felt like it was too slow for my liking. It wasn’t until I was hearing it at Obie’s house constantly on the radio that I started to dig it a lot more. I’m also really big on harmonies in songs, so she sold me as soon as she begins the song with “Do you, do you, do you, do you wanna be?” As I began to listen to the lyrics a lot more intently, I realized that the song was about vibing with someone that you really like, but they respect and knows that your passion and career comes first, so a relationship isn’t in the picture. I can honestly relate; I feel like because we are all so young and trying to put our marks into the world, relationships and all of that can wait – but it doesn’t mean that you can’t vibe and like someone and have mutual respect for one another. As long as you both know and respect each other’s feelings, there’s no problem wit leaving things where they are. I don’t think there’s another song out there that expresses that message, so I dig it.
  • So, it took me awhile to actually like Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like”.  Bruno Mars’ album just recently came out, and his single “24k Magic” was flooding the radio. After hearing this song and watching my friends dance along to it, I still wasn’t crazy about it. Fast forward about 6 months ago and Obie’s sister-in-law gushes over the fact that she’s been obsessed with Bruno Mars’ recent album, so she played it. This song played and I actually really liked it, and now it’s honestly one of my favorite songs at the moment. I constantly make Snapchat videos with this song playing in the background, I was sing along whenever it plays on the radio at Obie’s house, and it’s just a really obsess-worthy song.
  • Another song that was recently added to my playlist of favorites was Selena Gomez’s “Bad Liar”. I’m not the biggest Selena Gomez fan, but this song is a vibe. With the subtle bass sampled from Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”, she talk-sings her lyrics perfectly to fit the aesthetic of the song. I mean, the song is typically about a girl not being able to get a boy off her mind, which is a big cliche, but it’s not a bubble-gum pop-washed version that appeals to young girls experiencing puppy love in middle school. It’s a grown up version of that, the type of thoughts you get about a person that’s sexy, and lustful. Many of her fans who dig her dance-pop music will probably not like this side of Selena, but I feel like this side of her music fits her perfectly. If most of her upcoming music gives off this same vibe, I might actually become a Selena Gomez fan!
  • I’ve been unapologetically obsessed with this song because it’s a guilty pleasure. My guilty pleasures are songs that I wouldn’t normally gravitate towards to for either being too explicit and sexual or something I can’t bump into, so I was shocked when I instantly added Ty Dolla $ign’s “Zaddy” to my Spotify playlist. It’s a really sexual and explicit song, yet I found myself dancing and milly rocking to it whenever it played. I mean, from a personal standpoint, I absolutely hate when girls call their man Zaddy; I just don’t understand why or how , but I honestly understand, from this song, what makes girls replace their D’s from Z’s is completely reasonable! Anyway, yeah. This song is a guilty pleasure. Don’t read into it.
  • I feel like most of these songs have been obsessions of mine because of Obie, and I can honestly say yeah, they are. This song just became an obsession of mine because it reminds me of my childhood. For context: Obie teaches a dance group at a middle school, and he creates the music (or mix) that the group dances to. He’s done this for as long as I can remember, and I’ve listened to most of them since then. In this particular mix, he put in this song that sounded so familiar, and when I finally found the song, I nearly felt like I was 5-years-old again. This song was “Take Me There” from The Rugrats Movie Soundtrack. Moral of the story: it’s great to be a 90’s kid.

That’s it for what I’m currently listening to! I know that a lot of new music is going to be coming out this summer, and I’m very excited to hear it and most likely, you’ll see some on here in a month or so!

Happy listening!

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Random

First Year of Grad School: DONE!

liz

After 74 pages combined in four final research papers, 8 presentations, 8 novels, and a shitload of articles later, I finally completed my first year of grad school.

Here comes the wonderful summer break!

If you’d like to know how my first year went in depth, be sure you read my “What Grad School Taught Me” post; I feel like a lot of college students have this misconception about grad school and when they finally get into it, more students drop out of it more than they stay in – so I feel like that post could help people make the decision if grad school is for them or not.

Anyway, it’s just so surreal to be going into my second and final year of grad school in the Fall. My first year definitely came and went by so quickly, it still feels like something completely new for me. The experience I had this past year has been such a reality check for me, yet it’s been such an amazing journey thus far.

Going to grad school, especially at CSI, was never in my “5-Year Plan” when I had my life planned out when I was a sophomore in college. This time last year when I was getting ready to graduate with my bachelor’s, even then I couldn’t picture myself in grad school. A year later, I’m halfway through and the first year had unexpected encounters and moments I surprisingly didn’t think I’d get. For starters, I found myself a group of decent school friends who I’m going through the experience with. I’m not alone, and it’s good that this time around, I’m actually making friends with people within my department; I graduated last year not knowing anyone within my English department because I wasn’t so heavily involved in the program oddly enough. Now, I have a group of friends who plan to graduate with me on time in 2018, and I’m excited to be celebrating this accomplishment with actual school friends of mine.

Back to 2017 though: this semester alone has been one of the roughest semesters I’ve had solely because of insane professors, insecurity in my writing, and just overall anxiety from the courses. Even though it seemed like it sucked, this semester taught me a lot about being a writer and how to write, and my final paper for my literature class shows it.

Also, the end of the semester means that my friend, Tori, is going to be graduating in a couple of weeks. For the past year, she has been my ride to the bus stop after class, and yesterday was her last time doing so for me. I’m going to miss our car conversations about life, boyfriends, and school whenever we did link up, but I’m honestly so proud of her. She’s going to be an amazing English teacher; any student will be lucky to have her as one.

What to expect next year!

Next year (yet alone next semester) is going to be a rough one. This last year showed me just how hard it’s going to be handling two classes, so I can only imagine how tough it’s going to be when I have to take a Shakespeare class with possibly Shakespeare’s biggest fan as my professor, and an Independent Study with the professor who gave me a hard time this semester. It’s going to be hectic and I know my life is going to go down the drain once I go into this semester, but I know I am strong enough to go through these two tough courses and do what I gotta do.

In addition to that, I was granted the opportunity to do something insanely awesome next semester. So within my school, grad students in the English program have to write a 30-paged thesis paper prior to graduating. You pick a final paper you wrote in a class and expand on the ideas already in the paper; I’m currently working on a thesis discussing the disadvantages minority writers have in academia and the way they are the most oppressed group in writing classes. Because I plan on graduating on time next year, I will be focusing a lot more on my thesis and polish it up to submit to the graduate committee for grading. My writing professor at the time, Professor Carlo, is going to be the one consulting me with writing my MA Thesis. She’s possibly one of the coolest professors I’ve had at my school, so I knew that right away, she was going to be the professor I worked with.

Because I plan to do so, I received an email from her asking me if I was interested in being her Supplemental Instructor in a class she is teaching in the Fall semester: Autobiographical Writing. Now if you know me, this is straight up my damn alley. I live for writing about yourself and your own experiences; that’s what TNTH really is! But long story short, I’d be practically teaching her class, which is such a great honor and I hope I can proceed in doing so.

So yeah. An independent study + a really hard class + this SI Leader job = one stressed out Liz. But I know I’m able to do this.

But as of now, it’s time to wait for the final grades and then my summer vacation can finally begin!

What’s going on with TNTH now that school is over?

Because of grad school taking over my life this last couple of months, it’s been forever since I had time to myself to do the things that I’ve wanted to do for months, i.e actually put my everything into the blog. I have some amazing projects coming up (which I will be announcing soon on here), and some goals I want to hit during the summer.

Although usually, I’m over the summer after the Fourth of July, I’m excited to hang out more with my best friend, I’m excited to explore more places and take pictures, and I’m excited to officially start journaling again, specifically just summer journaling (I’ll be daily journaling again for the 2018 year).

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great month, whether or not you’re officially on vacation or not, make the most out of this beautiful Spring weather! Stay tuned for a great summer for TNTH!

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Random

Pros of Journaling.

liz

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For the entirety of 2016, I decided that I was going to journal write every single day until the end of the year. For the most part, I kept up worth it and the 300+ page journal I kept is now completely full of memories, moments, and simply just thoughts I had at the time. By the time the year was ended, I realize just how much journaling the entire year helped me shape into the person that I always wanted to be.

People dismiss journaling because people classify it being something that “emotional” people do to cope with their emotions. Where, yes, it’s a place where you most likely write your emotions down whenever you’re feeling them, but journaling could be s helpful when things get a little too much to handle. Nowadays, people keep bullet journals to help organize their life and make sure it keeps them on track, so it’s not always about writing to your therapist named “Diary”. I kept a daily journal for an entire year for one reason and one reason only: to make me feel better.

I came into 2016 from having such a rocky and terrifying 2015. I felt like I was slowly losing who I was and I needed to change it ASAP. I decided that I was going to keep a daily journal that would document the year 2016. 2016 was an important year for me because for the main reason that in June, I was graduating college. Who would’ve thought that there was so much more that I actually documented that are now life-long memories? It’s crazy how life works that way.

I don’t know why I stopped after 2016 was over, but I did. I noticed that towards the end of the year, my entries sounded a lot more like Facebook status updates instead of things worth documenting, but even after that – journaling really helped improve my mental health tremendously. I know everyone isn’t a writer and may not feel it be necessary to write in a notebook without a reason, but doing so helps you “talk it out” with yourself with words.

Sometimes, all you need to do is to talk out your thoughts to put them out in the world. Journaling does that while also keeping them confidential, just in case there are just some things you don’t want someone knowing like a family problem or health problem. Personally, I was going through a lot of family problems before I started writing in a journal. Although journaling didn’t help the problems go away, it did make it easier to cope and deal with my feelings in a way that didn’t make me lash out in anger.

I also wanted to start journaling to physically see the change in myself once I finished the book in a year. Although I haven’t had the time to read 365 pages of entries, I know I saw the change in just a few of the posts that I wrote. I began to write about the happy things in my life, as well as look at myself through an unbiased lens. It’s weird because I felt like journaling made me into a “real person” again because the journal had memories and moments told in my perspective, which meant I had to trust myself enough to believe these things happened the way they did.

 

Journals of the past.

 

The fact of the matter is that I was always a journal writer. I’ve kept journals since I was 9 years old, the difference between those journals and the daily one I kept was that these other journals spoke about things that happened because of other people. “Oh, this girl told a nasty rumor about me and I was so close to beating her ass at lunch today.” “Oh my god, my crush finally kissed me in the rain!” They were about moments that involved me, yeah, but these became impersonal because they never truly showcased any growing I did over the years. I actually just recently threw away a lot of my old journals because of this very reason. Why did I want to keep journals that never represented my journey?

Besides my middle school journal, the only other journal I kept was my 2016 journal.

Sometimes, journaling just shows you the journey that you forget about being on once you’ve already been there.

Because it’s already too late into 2017 to start a daily journal for the year, I’m planning to strictly keep a summer one. Because 2018 is going to be another big year for me, I might just start another daily journal then, to document that year’s accomplishments and big events that I can’t wait to actually go through.

Pick up a pen and book and start writing. Trust me, it doesn’t hurt to try. 😉

-Liz (:

 

Topic Tuesdays: Raw & Personal

Epilepsy through a 4th-Grader.

liz

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I was once a child with epilepsy, and it’s something a lot of people don’t know about me.

My epilepsy story is weird because it truly came out of nowhere with no explanation to this day. To be honest, because of it being a brain disorder, I don’t remember much about this time because this disorder had me feeling disorientated and forgetful most of the time. What I remember, though, is that it started around May 2003 and I was just about to finish the third grade. I don’t remember having seizures at this time, but my mother started to notice me doing this weird head moving, arms moving motion every once in awhile until it became more frequent. Every time she would ask me what was wrong, I told her I was fine because I truly thought that I was fine. The truth, though, is that I had no idea what I was doing. My mother took me to my doctor and recommended for me to see a neuro doctor. This was the start of my frequent visits to the hospital.

Continue reading “Epilepsy through a 4th-Grader.” →

Topic Tuesdays: Advice

What Grad School Taught Me.

liz

I’m the first one within my immediate friends’ group and family to be attending grad school. Ultimately, I didn’t plan on going to grad school for my Master’s because I thought four years of college were enough to last me for a lifetime. I knew I wanted to expand my studies in Cinema because I wanted to become a scriptwriter for awhile, and I needed more studies in film and television if I wanted to pursue that as a career. I applied in Fall 2015 to attend a film school in Fall 2016. I got rejected due to limited spots within the program, and by that point, I felt extremely discouraged and told myself that grad school was officially out of the picture.

Until CSI granted me the opportunity to continue my studies in their MA program for English. I felt blessed to have this handed to me without having a backup plan after the film school rejected me, so I decided to stay at my college and study English (again) as a grad student.

I am currently wrapping up my first official year of grad school. I will be graduating this time next year.

Boy how time flies.

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If you were to ask “22-year-old college senior Liz” what grad school would be like, I would tell you that it was going to be tedious, but nothing that I can’t handle. I still remember my last famous words being “I did 5 classes for two semesters straight; how hard could two classes be?”

Dear “22-year-old college senior Liz”, you played yourself.

Prior to attending grad school, I planned to do a lot of things with the spare time I thought I was going to have. I wanted to be more involved with my school’s drama club, I wanted to write a lot more scripts and potentially make them into short films or scenes, and I definitely wanted to finally get a job. After realizing that I had a project already due the first day of grad school, I realized just how intense grad school was going to be.

Grad school is definitely a different type of commitment you make than regular college. Nowadays, it’s ideal to go to college after high-school; most careers and jobs require a Bachelor’s degree. Going to grad school and getting your Master’s isn’t as common, hence why it’s more a commitment. The reality of it all is that you don’t have to go to grad school; you could be perfectly fine with life with just your Bachelor’s degree. So when you decide to pursue grad school and it becomes too much to handle, the question of “do I really need to do this?” definitely comes up. I know it did for me.

Grad school, especially studying English, requires a lot of research. You’re writing 20-page final papers, you’re putting on presentations for 4 different projects, and your vacation days and breaks that you have are strictly for doing work.

Grad school has definitely taught me a lot about my work ethic and how to properly handle my time management. My undergrad years I did my work very last minute, especially in classes that I really didn’t like. I went through many semesters not reading any of the books for my literature course and still managed to pass all of them with A’s and such. Grad school… a completely different ball game. The readings are longer, dense, and require a lot more of your time in order to engage in class discussions and most of all, you’ve made it this far. People don’t understand that at when in a grad-level class, everyone made it just as far as you. People are a lot more intellectual, and the people who may appear like they don’t do much in class are the same people who are honestly just low-key geniuses.

The truth of it all is that you have to physically prepare yourself for grad school and even then you’re not fully ready. People assume that grad school is just going to be a little bit harder than undergrad (or even easier) when really, two classes feel like two full-time jobs. Grading is different, attendance is different, the work is different, and yes – even the stress is different.

In my bad habits turned to good ones’ post, I explain how I had to revamp my time management skills by pretty much using my calendar to write down even the days that I have to do work. Grad school work is nothing like undergrad; YOU CANNOT LEAVE IT FOR THE LAST MINUTE. It’s impossible, to say the least.

Last but certainly not least, you have to change your attitude towards school if you want to pass grad-level classes. Specifically, at my school, I have to keep at least a 3.0 GPA (in other words, a B) in order to graduate. My GPA right now is a 3.3, which honestly can change with just a simple bad grade in one course. The pressure that comes with exceeding in grad school literally wears you out, and if you don’t have tough skin to handle the ups and downs of grad school, then grad school isn’t the place for you.

It’s the honest truth.

Of course, grad school isn’t just this horrible place of negativity and anxiety. If anything, grad school has made me into a better writer and has been teaching me the reality of what it takes to be respected in academia. In the near future, I’ll be writing a post about the writing/rhetoric composition side of writing I learn in grad school that I never knew even existed; but that’s beside the point. As a grad student, you are granted this freedom that you don’t get as an undergrad. In grad school, you are allowed to have your own ideas and explore all these different things without having your professors tell you you’re off-topic or some shit (of course, some professors are just naturally one-sided). As a grad student, there is this certain respect you get from your peers that you don’t necessarily get from undergrad because the classes are just overly crowded on the undergrad level. You also get to connect with professors better when you’re on the grad-level (honestly, Professor Carlo has been such an inspiration for me while on this grad school journey, so thank you for making me a better writer).

All in all, grad school is a risk that you should take if you believe that you can do it. It’s okay if you know deep down inside you can’t handle it; it’s not for everyone. I didn’t know that it was essentially for me, and I’m still trying to cope with the new surroundings and identity being a grad student. Yes, at times I feel like the stress and anxiety do take over me, but personally, I feel like grad school has made me grow into myself and to perfect my craft as a writer.

So, if you’re thinking about grad school, I say go for it. There’s nothing wrong furthering your education. If you’re not thinking about grad school, don’t sweat it. Don’t do it because you have to, do it because you want to.

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Raw & Personal

First Tattoo: Story + Meaning.

liz

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On November 29th, 2014 around 3pm-ish, I got my very first tattoo.

I was a 20-year-old junior in college that was in love with everything television that involved crime drama. I watched almost anything that had a compelling story to it, and you can blame that slight obsession from the TV show, The Killing.

For those who never heard of the show, The Killing is a character-driven crime drama that involves one case a season (with the exception of the Rosie Larsen case being two seasons long). The main characters, Detective Sarah Linden and Detective Stephen Holder, learn how to work with each other and find themselves in shitty situations, doing whatever it takes to solve these cases. Linden, being crazy dedicated to her work, also has a dark past; once being too heavily involved in a case that caused her to go crazy, and just dealing with the demons of her past. Holder, a newbie in the Homicide division, is pretty much the only one that could identify with her because he’s not the most perfect person either. Throughout the series, you see their give and take towards each other and at the end of it, you understand just how much they do need each other in order to balance each other out. No, they don’t end up together like Mulder and Sully did in The X-Files, but Linden and Holder are possibly the definition of a perfectly platonic relationship. Ever.

Because of my love for The Killing, I realized that my first tattoo would be something that related to the show. The show doesn’t have any little symbols that correlate with it like Harry Potter has with symbols or something cute like that. Despite my love for it, the show is full of darkness and dealt with serious topics like runaways, crooked politics, sexual assault, missing homeless girls, drug abuse, and manslaughter of families. So when Season 4 of The Killing premiered, the last episode of the series was “Eden”, and years after Linden and Holder went their separate ways, they reunited 5 years later, back in Seattle, where it all started.

So, whatever – I’m crying my eyes out because it’s the last episode ever of The Killing, and Linden confesses to Holder how she never had a real home, and in the course of the three cases they worked on together, you know “in that stupid car, driving around and smoking cigarettes”…

She says: “I think maybe…

IT NEARLY KILLED ME. So fast forward a couple of months, and I really wanted to get a tattoo before the new year started. At this point, I’ve had ideas for tattoos stored in my little box of notes forever, and as soon as I saw this moment, I felt something. It was weird, because, for something as dark as The Killing, this little line had hope in it. Even if Linden’s home was her and Holder, my “home” that potentially saved my life back in 2013 when I had really nothing left to live her, was this show and the people who I got the pleasure in connecting with through the fandom on Twitter. These two best friends, Lauren and Melissa, welcomed me and thousands of fans into the fandom to help bring back the show for a fourth season after being canceled (twice) and communicated with us during the wait for season 4 in 2014. They even decided to create a series of books (which I had the pleasure of being a part of) for the showrunner, Veena Sud, and the two main actors: Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman.

All in all, it was a moment in my life where I felt like I belonged in a community and this show allowed me to love and be passionate about something that wasn’t always about me. I wanted to take this moment in my life and always remember the “home” I had with these people who seriously helped me turn my life around. It’s cheesy, but I wouldn’t be the person I am today if The Killing wasn’t introduced to me.

But anyway, I decided that at the end of November, I was going to get “home was us” as my first official tattoo. I went to Brooklyn Ink in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and was tattooed by Matt Huff (ironically enough he’s the brother of one of my sister’s old high-school friends). Nevertheless, the tattoo took about 10 minutes in total to complete and that day, with Obie as my plus one, I got my very first tattoo.

Side story: So, Obie and I walk into the tattoo parlor, and of course in this surrounding, Obie is like a little kid at a candy store. Obie is not about that piercing or tattoo life, so when Matt was setting up and getting ready at his station, Obie and I stood in the front and looked at all the artwork on the walls and shit. Obie looks at Alex, another tattoo artist at Brooklyn Ink, and asked him if the tattoos on his face “hurt”. I literally face palmed myself. But in all seriousness, Obie was definitely amused of the tattoo environment. It was cute.

The only downfall of this tattoo is that it’s not common, so it obviously is going to have a story or meaning behind it and when people ask, you gotta explain it. I’ve had people look at me sideways as soon as I mentioned the word “killing” in my explanation, but hey – I believe in getting meaningful tattoos, and this one tells a story way too long to tell for “small talk”.

But I digress.

Anyway, I’m planning to get at least one more small tattoo that will be a matching one with my sister. I don’t know what it is yet, but hopefully, we get it soon because after writing this, I can totally go for another tattoo experience.

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Music

What I’m Currently Listening To! (Part 2!)

liz

Hey, guys! Long time, no see. Welcome back to TNTH.

I decided to recycle a post that I did all the way back in January when the blog first launched, and after re-reading that, I realized that new music has come out since then, which I will like to share with you guys! Again, if you will like to see what’s always on my playlist (minus the Hector Lavoe and 2Pac; my father’s playlist is on my account), make sure to follow me on Spotify!

Without further ado, here are some songs that I’m currently obsessing over:

  • The feel-good song of the season: “Beautiful” by Betty Who (feat. Superfruit) There’s a funny story behind this song. I first heard the song, I was on my way to school a couple of weeks ago and me being the tweeter I am, I tweeted how beautiful the song was and tagged them in the post. 10 minutes later, my tweet had 300+ likes and about 72 RT’s. I thought I was hacked for a quick second until I realized Superfruit (which in case you didn’t know are Scott & Mitch from the a capella group, Pentatonix), retweeted my tweet! Screenshot 2017-03-28 at 6.44.01 PM.pngAnyway, the song itself has a Jess Glyme vibe to it; it’s very uplifting beat with an inspiring message that expresses the fact that no matter what, you are always beautiful. It’s definitely something to make you dance after a long, stressful day.
  • “Chained to the Rhythm” by Katy Perry is a song that I didn’t expect to like at first because I wasn’t the biggest fan of hers in the recent years, but there’s something about this song that’s just SO GOOD. On Spotify, you get this little thing on popular songs that tell you little insights of how that song was produced, inspired, as well as gives you the lyrics while it’s playing. This particular song is a political song disguised as a catchy pop song, which is honestly what I live for. It’s like a song Lily Allen would make because of the controversial, political, and sarcastic lyrics. If you didn’t like Katy Perry before, you might actually like this song.
  • “Undercover” by Kehlani has been my go-to song to listen to for the last two months. Don’t get me wrong, SweetSexySavage overall is a great album, but this song and the next one are the only songs I didn’t get sick of after 12,000 times of listening to it. Kehlani is one of those artists that can sing and rap, and this is one of the songs on the album that she mainly sings. Plus, the lyrics just describe me and how I feel: one way or another, ima love you.
  • Speaking of that other song on SweetSexySavage I was talking about was “In My Feelings” by Kehlani. This was the first song off the album that I gravitated towards to because of just the beginning rap. It took about 15,000 times to master the first rap verse of the song because Kehlani is just the master of not-breathing-while-rapping-for-45-seconds-straight type of rapping. You will find me milly rocking to this song all the time.
  • Last but certainly not least, “Lowlife” by That Poppy came onto my playlist in an interesting manner. Like everything else in life, YouTube was going crazy over this weird, young girl named Poppy, a girl with a YouTube channel who made weird videos that didn’t make sense and raised interest because of the odd behavior. People began to make conspiracy theories about her origin and the meaning behind the videos and her image. People began to link her through the Illuminati and began reversing her songs to see if any cult/satanic messages were in it (which in the line “And I get so lonely”  backward sounds a lot like “Hail my Lord, Satan”). Besides all of that, she is signed to Island Records and has an EP called Bubblebath, which features Lowlife on it. It’s catchy and it’s the definition of bubblegum pop. Plus, I really enjoy the chorus and the feel of the song; it kinda goes along with the whole “reggae” vibe that popular songs have in Top 40 hits.

I’m looking forward to the new music that should be coming out in the summer because there’s nothing like a good summer song (think Drake’s “One Dance” in 2016 or Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” in 2014). Lol, hope you guys enjoyed this little music update, and see you guys in the next one!

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Raw & Personal

Why “Find Our Girls” is So Important.

liz

Image result for #findourgirls

There are teenage girls, specifically black and latina teenage girls, who are going missing in Washington D.C. These missing reports are linked to the ongoing issue of human and sex trafficking. These girls who go missing are most likely being sold. Human beings are being sold as sex slaves. These young girls who still have so much life to live are being SOLD AS SEX SLAVES.

Why is there little to no media coverage on it?

Why do women get the short end of the stick when they’re in danger? Why does a social media platform such as Twitter help find a girl named Kennedi who has once been kidnapped a few weeks ago in Baltimore, but not when the missing person report is initially made? Why is social media the only place out there right now concerned about these missing girls?

Don’t you guys realized these are daughters of mothers, sisters of sisters, nieces of aunts, friends of friends. These girls are not just objects that aren’t real just because you can’t feel them yourself. What would you want to do if this was someone you knew?

In any given circumstance, a disappearance of a girl never seemed to be important to media unless she was a white girl. Think back at all the famous kidnapping cases you can think of: Elizabeth Smart, Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, Jaycee Dugard. They are notably all white teenage girls. Why don’t Black & Latina women get the coverage that they deserve?

The reality of it is that “things like this happen all the time to young women”. You know, because we love getting manipulated, raped, kidnapped, killed, and all the other possible things society thinks we love!

You don’t know how real it is until it hits you.

Last night while coming home from school, I got off at my usual bus stop to wait for another bus that takes me straight home. Usually, there are other people waiting for the same bus as me and we all carry on with our lives once the bus arrives. Note: the buses run every 30 minutes, so I’m usually left waiting for 30 minutes for a bus, or I end up getting in on time. Yesterday, the bus was 10 minutes away from the bus stop I was at.

When I got off the bus, I notice this man standing alone by himself at the bus stop. I usually never stand too close to people on bus stop because I respect personal space. Anyway, I stand a good 10 feet away from this man, until I see him turn in my direction, facing me. Usually, when people do that they are trying to ask for directions – so I took my headphones to hear what he had to say. Initially, I couldn’t tell if he knew any English until I heard him actually speak English, but he was slurring his words like crazy. Oh man, he’s drunk, isn’t he? I told myself as I was trying to comprehend what the hell he was trying to say. Once I actually understood what he was trying to say, I gave him the directions and proceeded on my night. Every time he tried talking to me, he got closer to me, asking me the same question over and over in a very particular way; every bus that came by he didn’t go on. He started to talk to me even louder but in a more aggressive tone as I try to mind my own business and pay no mind to him. By the time he was close enough to me so that I was able to smell the alcohol on him, I started to feel my gut telling me to do something.

I was in this constant thought of what I should do next: If I leave to go to another bus stop 5 blocks away I might miss the bus but if I stay here any longer he might get on the bus with me and I don’t want that happening– I honestly didn’t know what to do. I sent Obie an S.O.S text to call me immediately so that at least I have someone on the other end of the conversation. So I’m just trying to have a conversation with him, and this man gets even closer; he’s about a foot away from me now and he’s now looking at me with this certain look. He just kept staring at me with his aggressive, glossy look and talking under his breath, nodding his head at me and now I’m at a loss for words; I’m tensing up and this man can see it. Obie is trying to guide me out of it, and sooner or later, I say to Obie, “Hey, where are you?” Clearly, Obie is confused as fuck, not knowing what’s going on, and I just kept saying “Where are you? I’m about to meet up with you.”  Eventually, he caught on and when I was turning the corner to walk away from the bus stop, I finally told Obie that I got out of there and I was walking to a different bus stop. After what felt like forever, I got home and immediately just started crying.

The fact of the matter is, anything could’ve happened. He could’ve been aggressive to the point he pulled out a knife. He could’ve threatened me. He could’ve followed me when I walked away. Life just happens in unfortunate ways, and things could have gotten worse.

God forbid if I became just another statistic that no one spoke about.

I relate this to what’s happening in D.C. because situations like that aren’t so blatantly out there now, but they still happen all the time to young girls and women. They are in fake job offerings, drive-bys, they are in people who simply need help with directions. And nobody is taking it as seriously as it should be because “things like that happen every single day”.

Yeah, young girls getting kidnapped happen every single day. Young girls getting sexually assaulted happen every single day. Young girls running away or disappear happens every single day. BUT NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. 

Instead, hashtags are being made in order for top notch news platforms notice it and put it in their 10 o’clock news slot. Twitter and Facebook (as bad as social media can be for a person at times), remind everyone each and every day that these girls are still missing and are not backing down to help find them and bring them home. Instead, many women and young girls who’ve been sexually assaulted or harassed still remain silent because they know nobody cares to do them any justice. (Nah, instead people think we cry out “rape!” for the attention and want to humiliate ourselves.) Instead, many young girls and women end up dead within 72 hours because there’s simply no more we can do. Instead, we are put in the back-burner behind Kardashian/Jenner gossip, Donald Trump nonsense, and what new iPhone is coming out next.

There’s just simply no time for the safety of our girls, huh?

If only we mattered more. If only we “knew better.”

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Random

Happy First Day of Spring!

liz

Image result for spring typography

Goodbye cold winter and bare trees, hello warm Spring and green leaves!

It’s the season that people begin to smile more, go out more, and enjoy life just a little bit more. Seasonal Affective Disorder slowly goes away for the year and the warmer weather puts everyone in a great mood. That’s right, it’s MY favorite season – SPRING!

Spring is literally the rebirth of the earth. The leaves on the trees grow back, grass grows back, flowers bloom; the feeling of Spring is always a positive thing.

Clothing Changes

I personally like Spring because I like wearing light jackets. Like I mentioned in my January 2017 Favorites post, my denim jacket is like a holy grail of mine. I know that this entire Spring season, I am going to be wearing that denim jacket everywhere I go. I also like Spring because colors get reintroduced into my wardrobe. Because I had ombre in my hair for the past few years, I always wore colors that complimented blonde hair… most of the time it was black. I love wearing black for many reasons, and my wardrobe consists of a lot of black clothes, but I started to realize that once I dyed my hair black, all my dark colored clothes were too close to my hair color, which began to wash me out.

The Spring is always a great way to experience with brighter and more vibrant colors. I always like to wear bright, pastel colors that represent the season, as well as wear floral patterns or any sort of Spring-like pattern. Spring is the best time to experiment new fashion styles because it’s not too hot and not too cold to try it. This Spring, I am looking to extend my clothing style to be a bit more bright and vibrant, like me. 😀

Hair Color Changes

Last year on March 23rd, 2016, I said goodbye to my infamous ombre hair and transitioned to have all black hair. I never wanted to dye my hair all black because I know how much of a bitch it would be to get the color out of my hair, but at the time I wanted to transition to black hair because it would get my hair healthy again and I was tired of having to maintain the ombre. At first, it was an amazing change and an amazing way to transition (how many times can I use that word in this paragraph) into the Spring season. I loved it, people loved it, and I was happy how it looked. Of course, everything gets old after awhile, and I’m on a mission to change my hair color once again. This is what happens to a lot of people during a season change because it’s honestly the best time to change something. Although I have a long way to go to take the black out of my hair (I mean, I could bleach it, but I really don’t want to put bleach on my hair now that it’s healthy), I know eventually that I want to lighten my hair to the point where it’s brown. Plus-size model Denise Bidot has been on my radar for inspiration and style for about a year and a half now, and her short brown hair has literally been goals for me since I discovered her back when I used to shop at Forever 21.

Denise Bidot for Forever 21.

Spring Break!

I think every student at any level is always excited to have some time off during the Spring, even if you don’t have “Spring Break festivities” planned ahead. I was never a person who went on vacation during Spring Break, but Spring Break to me always meant that the end of the semester was coming, and that summer was on its way. The downside of Spring Break is that sometimes, professors think that because we have all this time to ourselves, it means we want to actually spend our time away from school doing school work… I am still traumatized by the amount of work I had to do last year during Spring Break.

Last year, Spring Break was at the end of April, and once we returned to school, we were pretty much wrapping up the semester and I still had a ton of work to do before graduating. Not only did I have to read two entire books for my Literature final, I had to do three chapters of Linguistics homework to study for the final, and I had to read about 15 student stories for my Fiction class. Oh, and I had to go out and see a play to write a paper on it for my Acting II class. Let’s just say it felt like I was in school for my entire Spring Break. I have a funny feeling that it’s pretty much going to be the same thing this year as well, especially because it’s grad school and professors love to say that we can handle anything. Let’s just hope I don’t die with the workload this year.

More Adventures

Once the weather gets warmer, people are outside enjoying themselves in front of their houses, in their backyards, at parks, etc. Personally, I like to walk and explore all over NYC, and now that I have a little camera, I definitely would like to take beautiful nature photos of the city. Even at the beginning of the month, although some days were really chilly and cold, the sun just shined brighter than usual and it makes anyone ready for the warmer weather. It’s even better when flowers and leaves begin to show up, which makes the outdoors look more beautiful and appealing. I know I’m excited to people hanging out outside, birds chirping in the morning, and the sun beaming on my face during my daily walks.

Spring is here, and I can’t wait to see what it offers!

-Liz (: