Tag: life

Self-Appreciation Saturdays

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (4/15/17)

liz

I hope everyone who is currently on Spring Break is having a lovely week off from school or work or whatever you are on vacation for; I definitely needed this time off to get all the week that I needed to get done GET DONE before the semester ends in a month. Again, this is what my Spring Break has been like for the last two years: just working on school stuff at home.

But now that we all had our week off and we all return to reality on Tuesday, it could be hard to transition from “lazy, unproductive self” to “did I forget to breathe during my long day of work?” self. We all got a taste of relaxation and days of sleeping in, and now we all have the Spring Break blues. 

So, how do you get rid of them before the break is actually over?

Continue reading “Self-Appreciation Saturday. (4/15/17)” →

Throwback Thursdays

#TBT: All About 2014.

liz

2014 was an amazing year for personal growth. The year before was a rough one; I was very much still dealing with lingering depression from high school, my freshman year of college wasn’t the greatest experience ever, and I was holding on to toxic friendships that were ruining the friendships that meant something real to me. Starting my sophomore year of college, I had a better head on my shoulders, and 2014 is still a year I very much look back at and hope to have another year like it.

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20-year-old Liz on her 20th Birthday.

Continue reading “#TBT: All About 2014.” →

Self-Appreciation Saturdays

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (4/8/17)

liz

So, you have bad habits. They suck, don’t they? I know my bad habits are bad habits for a reason and because they are habits, they are hard to break. Sometimes, these bad habits lead to poor life choices, and you all-around just feel shitty and lousy and no one likes feeling that way. 

In the last few weeks, I’ve been dealing with bad habits developing and coming back every once and awhile due to the excessive stress I’ve been going through because of grad school. Anyway, here are some ways to make your bad habits actually good habits!

Bad habit: Poor Time Management // Good Habit: Calendar Organizing

Listen, no matter who you are, I think everyone has experienced poor time management at least once in their life. We have deadlines coming up, bills have to get paid, and it seems like every now and then, we never have time to hang out with friends or see family that often. One great way that I try to organize my time is to have a dry-erase calendar board. It’s beneficial to me because if I ever decide I need more time to work on something or if something in my schedule changes, I can just erase it. Doing that on regular calendar make it look less organized and messier due to the cross-outs and rewrites.

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My life as a grad student currently. (Yes, I’m still alive.)

If you’re a stressed out student in school that feels like your assignments are eating you alive (like me), then it’s crucial that not only you write down the deadlines for these assignments, but also the days that you are planning to work on those assignments. Make sure you have different colored markers or pens to differentiate the assignments and classes you have to do the assignments for. (Of course, you can always color coordinate different things that pertain to you like appointments, bills that are due, or social events). I adapted this little technique during my first semester in grad school when I only had a month to literally write 30+ pages for two of my classes. I would color coordinate the assignments that I wanted to do on each day for whatever class it was for. I tell you not, I finished everything before the semester ended, and now I’m trying to get through this semester following the same technique. Whether this looks like it would be overwhelming or not, I assure you that you’ll get things done more efficiently when you plan ahead when to work on things instead of just waiting it out last minute.

Bad Habit: Too Much Junk Food // Good Habit: Portion Control

They always say that once you eat one chip out of the bag, it’s hard to stop. In my duration of being on WeightWatchers, I’ve hit this dead end where it’s been hard to lose more weight because I just really love junk food. Like seriously, that commercial where Oprah is practically screaming she loves chips makes me angry because I LOVE CHIPS AND YET THEY ARE STILL BAD FOR YOU. Anyway, cutting down on junk food is one of the hardest habits to break. One way to change it into a good habit is to possibly find an alternative to binge-eat on these bad foods. For example, if you really love potato chips, eat baked potato chips instead of the regular one. If you have a sweet tooth, make sure you eat sugary foods in moderation. Maybe half a donut, half a candy bar, half a brownie, whatever it is that you like. Of course, you don’t need to take it out of your life completely; take a day out of your week to treat yourself. I know that if I’m out with my best friend, we eat a lot. As long as you’re not eating junk food all day every day, then you’re helping to cut out some bad foods in your diet.

Bad Habit: Over-Tweezing & Nail Biting // Good Habit: Eyebrow Pencil & Nail Polish

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One personal bad habit I have is that I over-tweeze my eyebrows when they get a little stubby. Because of that, I haven’t had tails to my eyebrows in a really long time. They’ve gotten better over the years, but I still consider it a bad habit because I still over-tweeze. One good way I try to not do that is that I do have my eyebrows drawn on for most of the day, and yes, I sometimes fall asleep with them. I find myself tweezing them at night when I’m laying down, and my hands just gravitate towards my eyebrows. With my eyebrows drawn on, I don’t pick at them as much. The first time I did it, a lot of my eyebrow hair did grow back, and I’m currently doing the same thing to help them grow back again. It’s the same thing when you’re a nail biter; painting your nails will prevent you from biting them because then your nail job will get all chipped and nasty and nobody likes chippy nails.

There’s a lot of bad habits out there, and it honestly does take some thinking to make them as good habits. These are just a few, but I believe any reasonable bad habits could be turned into good ones.

-Liz (:

TNTH Related Stuff

Tomorrow’s the day!

liz

Hey, TNTH followers and TNTH readers!

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For the past week, I’ve been reminding everyone on my social media accounts that the live-streams for TNTH will begin TOMORROW, April 8th! They will all start at 12:55pm EST (so if you’re not from America or on the East Coast, check your time settings and see when that is for you).

Make sure that if you will like to be a part of these live-streams this next week that you are FOLLOWING ME ON INSTAGRAM! It isn’t public for many reasons, do you will need to request to follow me and I’ll accept!

Thank you guys for following and supporting TNTH! Look out for more updates on new content and because planning for the summer content of TNTH has commenced!

I will be explaining a new topic that will be coming to TNTH in the near future, so I’m excited to share that with you all as well.

See you guys tomorrow! 😀

-Liz (:

Important

Just a couple of minor thoughts.

liz

These posts seem to be written far too frequent, and I apologize that that’s the case.

I’ve just been feeling really out of place and under the weather for a couple of weeks for many reasons, and keeping up the blog has not been something I’ve personally been wanting to do with my free time. In all honesty, it’s one of the things that I’m starting to consider stressful, especially on top of my schoolwork and all that jazz.

Honestly, I feel like I’m slightly getting lost and slightly depressed. The last thing I would want to happen is if I completely lost myself because of everything currently going on around me.

I personally need some space.

I’m taking a break from TNTH these following two weeks, which means that no new posts will be published until then. I need time to plan out what I want to write, as well as have time to do what I have to do personally and just get myself out of this funk.

I just don’t feel like I’m currently in the right mind space to be writing blog posts about positivity and happiness when I’m personally not feeling that myself.

I definitely am still planning to do the Instagram Livestreams during Spring Break, so yes, TNTH will be back the week of Spring Break, starting Saturday, April 8th. 

Again, thank you guys for sticking around, whether you click on the links I share throughout my social media accounts, or find my blog posts on the WordPress Reader; I appreciate each and every one of you who read my stuff.

I apologize, again, for going on this hiatus from the blog. As much as I want to write and post and create for this blog, my mental health and schoolwork take priority in everything.

See you guys in two weeks.

-Liz (:

Self-Appreciation Saturdays

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (3/25/17)

liz

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The word “selfish” isn’t a bad thing to be.

People tend to think selfish people are these narcissistic people who only care about themselves and don’t have any regards to anyone else around them. Yeah, that’s what selfish people do, and it’s a shitty thing to be, but there is a way to be selfish without having the “selfish stigma” smacked on your back.

In other words, being selfish with yourself is not a bad thing.

Continue reading “Self-Appreciation Saturday. (3/25/17)” →

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 (:

Self-Appreciation Saturdays

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (3/18/17)

liz

Image result for interracial relationship goals

I grew up in a neighborhood where people of different races were happily together, and lived on with their lives like normal people because they were normal people. 

My father is a Hispanic man. My mother is a white woman. They came together and had me and my sister; Latina & White. But that seems to be a normality in society. Hispanic people and White people being together aren’t quickly looked at as weird because skin-color wise, they aren’t that far apart. 

My partner is a black man. I am a White Hispanic woman. We get our fair shares of stares whenever we are interacting together in public, especially around “Gentrification Brooklyn”. We’ve both notice the distaste glances that people give us, as if we are living in a world where black and white people can’t be in relationships.

There’s always this stigma that society has on interracial couples that it’s not necessarily “right-looking”. I had a conversation with my partner the other day about this one time we were on the G train together and he started to notice a lot of people staring at us sitting together. Now, I don’t normally notice these things because, you know, I’m too busy being blind, but I can understand why people would stare in the first place.

Interracial Couples

I would like to say that I don’t look and stare at interracial couples, but the truth is that I do. I would look at black men with white women and think “huh, you don’t see this much in public.” I would also look at black woman with white men and think the same thing. It should be a completely normal thing to see in today’s society. It baffles me; we don’t look twice at couples who are close in skin complexion, but why do we do that with interracial couples? The truth of the matter is, we’re somehow programmed to look at the “peculiar” or the unusual. In society, we assume that Asians are suppose to date other Asians, black people are suppose to date other black people, Mexicans are suppose to date other Mexicans and so on. When you see two people who physically look nothing like, people tend to stare (It happens also when a skinny person is dating a fat person; somehow people find that weird as well).

I’ve had people look at me twice and what they’re thinking is written all over their faces: why is she with a black man, *insert stereotype of black men in here*. I see people look at my partner with what they’re thinking all over their faces as well: what is he doing with a white woman, *insert stereotype of white women in here*. It gets annoying to always see at least one person staring at you weirdly and making you feel uncomfortable. I know that after awhile, it once made me think shit, maybe we are weird looking together or maybe I’m not right for him because of the way I look and I can say it happens to the opposite sex as well.

So, how do you prevent it?

Sadly, you can’t stop people from looking at you and you can’t stop people from thinking what they think; there’s no gray in a world where people always assume everything is black and white. While there will be people telling you that you and your partner look “weird together” or they widen their eyes when you introduce your partner to friends and family, there’s really no way to prevent it unless you guys have each other’s back when shit like that happens.

Lemme give you guys an example.

Although I am a Latina, I don’t usually see that side of my family where it’s remotely diverse in races and such. I’m closer to my mother’s side of the family, who in a way are not so diverse. In other words, my mother’s side of the family married within the same ethnicity; Italian (my mother was an exception). Like I said earlier, people don’t necessarily question a couple when their close in skin complexion, and my parents are pretty close in skin color. What my mother’s side of the family doesn’t really have are family members in interracial relationships. Technically, I’d be the first. So my partner and I haven’t met extended family yet because we just aren’t at that stage of things yet (we take things extremely slow). I know when the time comes where my partner is going to have to meet extended family as such, things are going to personally feel really awkward for me, because Italian personalities are just… extra. Without even acknowledging it, there’s a slight chance someone might say something that has racist undertones, and I personally don’t know how I will handle it because we, as a couple, never had to deal with something like that. What I do know, though, is that I’m going to stick up for my partner if something like that were to happen, because people love to fuck things up and watch it fall. 

The reality and truth of it all is that if people see gaps and spaces in something, they will try to poke in it and see how far they can intrude before it ultimately breaks. People will say white men and white women “could do better than dating a black man/woman” due to whatever nonsense they believe about black people. People will also say that black men and black women “should avoid dating outside their race because white people are ruining black men/women”. Whatever the nonsense may be, as an interracial couple you have to have your shit put together and stick together so well, that the people you interact with wouldn’t dare try to ruin things.

And it’s extremely important to be put together in today’s America.

In a world where racism rises more and more each day like it’s the fucking 1950’s all over again, you and your partner need to be there for each other. I am extremely protective of my partner in a sense where if someone tries to say some racist shit or spit out a stereotypical statement, I’m coming for you. Black people, specifically black men, have such a stigma forever stamped on their backs for being “thugs” or “troublemakers” that people will try to throw in your face to “look out for you” when really they’re just undeniably racist.

I once had a white friend tell me once that my partner wasn’t right for me for “reasons” after expressing my partner numerous time to this person. This friend didn’t need to say anything more when they automatically assumed something about my partner because of his skin color. Some people are just close-minded as fuck. 

Interracial couples are just always going to be that thing in the list of “peculiar things” because of the stigma that people believe about it. The only thing people will praise about it is the “biracial babies that look exotic and beautiful”. Girl, if you don’t go somewhere with that mess…

But I digress.

Interracial dating is a beautiful thing, and I can speak through experience. You begin to try new things and explore new places. I can definitely say that my partner has showed me a lot of music and genres of it that I didn’t know prior to him, and I think I can say the same thing for him. For other couples, it could be new exploration in culture, tradition, food, manners, religion – pretty much anything. Combining people of different backgrounds is always a great thing to experience, so why not do it with the person you love?

I know I am. ♥

-Liz (:

Topic Tuesdays: Raw & Personal

Being a “White-Hispanic” in Today’s Society.

liz

Image result for half italian half puerto rican flagsImage result for half italian half puerto rican flags

My skin is white, but half my blood is Latina.

The lack of knowing and speaking the language makes me “less” of a Latina. The lack of complete knowledge and embrace of my culture makes me “less” of a Latina. My skin, my voice, my style, makes me “less” of a Latina.

Society sometimes forgets that I am half Puerto Rican because I am not “Latina” enough, and because of that, people tend to classify me as being the part of the group of white people who are internally racist and arrogant without even knowing it because of their whiteness. You know, those “reverse racism exists, all lives matter, I don’t see color, I see humans” type of whiteness?

That part of whiteness is whiteness that I even I say white people are stupid as hell.

I will admit that because I am half white, I do have “white privilege” embedded in me. I’ve had friends in the past, of different ethnicity and race, in light of the Trayvon Martin case, tell me they feel safer around me because “they wouldn’t be suspicious and shoot down and kill a white girl.”

It saddens me to think that the beautifully diverse people I call my friends are targets in today’s society, but people will assume I don’t think like that because to the outside world, I am just “white.”

Continue reading “Being a “White-Hispanic” in Today’s Society.” →

Self-Appreciation Saturdays

Self-Appreciation Saturday. (3/11/17)

liz

Goals are the things that keep us going in life. They are typically used to better yourself and your habits, and to keep you moving forward with the things you want in life and want to achieve.

People will tell you time and time again that goals are easier said than done. It’s great to set goals because it’s honestly something that you want to change, but to sit down and finally change your lifestyle for these goals is probably the hardest part.

In other words, actually starting is what prevents us from actually achieving our goals.

Last year, I made a goal for myself to write in a daily journal every day for the entire year. Once I realized that I actually did what I wanted to do, 2017 became the year where I was going to set life-changing goals. I’m a person who lives in self-doubt because I sometimes feel like I set goals that are impossible to achieve because I just lack patience doing them. I realized that I’m a long-term goal maker, and sometimes I forget to set short ones that coincide with the overall goal I have.

I dedicated to set goals for myself this year and so far, they’ve been going pretty well. Here are some of my goals that I’ve set for myself and here’s how I’m keeping them.

Weight Loss

I’ve been wanting to lose weight for the past 4 years, and for awhile it was working. Of course, I got impatient to actually see results, and losing weight was beginning to get difficult for me because I wanted certain to eat certain food. After getting my gallbladder removed, it caused rapid weight gain in the course of 4 years and I started to notice it in my activity and my size in clothing. In 2015, I joined Weight-Watchers for 2 months and lost 15 pounds, but I didn’t stick to it because of the immense stress I was going through at the time. Since then, I’ve been discouraged about losing weight because I believed I wasn’t ever going to lose it. I realized that my weight was becoming one of my disadvantages in doing things, so I told myself that this was going to be the year that I was going to lose weight. I’ve been back on Weight-Watchers for two weeks, and although it’s been pretty hard, I’m still trying to adjust, and I lost my first 4 pounds.

People tend to think of losing weight being their primary goal of dieting, which really isn’t a goal, it’s a motive to diet. Once you understand that “dieting” is a lifestyle change, then you’ll start to think of it as starting a new habit. The reason why most diets don’t succeed is that you can’t restrict your body for wanting something that you’re not giving it. By restricting yourself from food your body is used to having, you’re just causing it to crave it more. I believe that Weight-Watchers helps me with that, in all honesty. It’s all about measurements and portions, and the points really do help me keep on track what I’ve been eating. Yeah, I sometimes go over my daily points, but the program allows you points throughout the week that you’re allowed to have because the fact of the matter is that it’s not the most realistic thing to constantly be within your limit every day. You should always try to, but don’t feel bad if you do go over your limit. Just know that you’re capable of changing the little things everyday, and always remember that losing weight doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re looking to lose a good amount of weight like I am, you have to tell yourself that it’s going to take some time to reach your weight goal. Personally for me, I would like to lose at least 30 pounds by the summertime, whether it be the start of it or the end of it. If I keep my mind focused and positive on the lifestyle change instead of the pounds, than I believe I could achieve my goal.

Finishing Grad School & Staring Life in 2018

I am currently in my second semester of grad school, and this time next year, I will be most likely getting ready to graduate in the upcoming months. As of now, I’m doing pretty good for a first-year grad student, but I’ve heard some horrendous stories of people taking up to 4 years on their Master’s because of the amount of work is needed to graduate. School has always been an easy thing to maintain, but for those who find it hard to balance out school and life, I say to always organize your workload. with grad school being a lot more intense with work, organizing your time management and assignments will help you succeed without the never-ending stress and doubt of not completing school.

Of course, the biggest concern of mine has to do with the fact that I have absolutely no idea how to transition my life from being a student to being a functional adult with a real job in the real world. I also going through this almost quarter life-crisis where I have set goals to do something with my life, but don’t have the necessary resources to do what I want to do. Where yes, it will be harder to get in the field that I want to be with my MA degree, I just have to really start working on my craft and hopefully get in my field without actually getting a degree on it.

Working on my Craft

Eventually, I want to be a scriptwriter, whether it be for the big screen, silver screen, or the stage. I applied to get my MFA in Screenwriting in a film school, and when I got rejected from it because of it being overly competitive, I decided to continue my education at CSI and just get my MA in English. Although I told myself that this will be a solid Plan B if everything else fails, I am beginning to realize that because of it being extremely demanding, I am not writing creatively as much as I want to.

One of the things I’m doing now is as I begin to use TNTH as a platform I can write creatively, I still want to incorporate my script writing into my blog, and eventually start working on a bigger project. I say if anyone is in a place where they want to do something creatively and don’t have the time to do it, you should make the time to do what you love doing. My friend, Tori, is currently a student teacher at a high-school and taking three classes on top of that, and she still finds a way to draw and paint; something she has a passion for. The time people are spending just watching TV or watching YouTube videos (like me), you could be working on a creative project that you’ve been holding off for awhile. Live my the most basic cliche: practice makes perfect.

Personal Growth

Besides my weight and academics, one of my main goals every year is to experience some self-growth. That could mean anything between drinking more water, letting my hair breathe and grow, reevaluating my values, maintaining friendships and relationships, and just keeping positive vibes and happiness in my mind.

Personal growth is just as time-consuming as physical growth, because life happens and it leaves you in unfortunate situations. Your job as a person is to remind yourself that you are doing this for yourself, and not for anyone else. When you take good care of your mind and stay positive, you start feeling good about yourself and your decisions will be more influenced instead of being impulses to make life better.

Goals are all about perseverance, determination, and consistency. Anything can be turned into a habit, whether it be good or bad. Of course, we want good habits to develop, and they can happen if you keep it up. Try to make your goals an actual reality, and see just how proud it will make you feel.

-Liz (: