Maddison's Musings

Hello Everybody! I know it's been a really long time since I've blogged, but as I mentioned last time, I've been super busy, and you can probably tell why by the title. Yes, I have moved halfway across the country yet again. I say yet again because this isn't the first time I've moved between Texas and Washington. I guess we can never pick a state, but if it was up to me, I'd just move to Ireland already (If you don't know, I love all things Ireland/UK and I want to move to Ireland after college). Moving is super stressful, annoying, emotional, and so many more things. But I think the worse part about this move is that I didn't even get to go back to say goodbye to anyone. We were on vacation when we made the quick decision to move, so my mom, uncle, and older brother flew back and packed up all of our things, while my little brother and I stayed on our "extended vacation," as we had told everyone. So instead of being able to pack up all of my things (which I would have been absolutely no help anyways because I'm the worst packer in the world, which happens to be quite ironic, considering how many times we've moved), I had to stay here with my family for ten days until my mom returned. Even having to say goodbye to my older brother, who decided he didn't want to move again and decided to move in with some friends, was hard, as I never thought that he wouldn't move with us. To sum up this sob story quickly, let's just say that my life has been anything but easy the past while, and taking the month off of blogging helped eliminated some stress. I know that may sound weird, considering I doubt many people try to read every post of mine, but I didn't want to feel like putting up some crappy little entry every other week, just because I want to keep my blog updated.

Moving on, I appreciate everyone who understands and is okay with my blog becoming sub par recently. But I hope to change that soon, as I really do enjoy writing, and this blog is a nice way to help me feel better. Writing always has a calming effect on me, and that's why I started this blog in the first place. It's almost like therapy to me because I can start writing feeling horrible, and by the end I really do feel a weight lifted off my shoulders.

Now let's try to catch you up on my life, shall we? You didn't miss much, in fact, hardly anything. I mean, YouTube related things happened, and I made some really cool internet friends, but other than that, not a whole lot of exciting things have happened to me. Last week I went and got my new schedule for my new school here and I got most of the classes that I wanted. The only class I didn't get was AP World History (WHAP) and they didn't give it to me because AP classes have summer assignment, and the counselling man didn't think it was something I could do in a few days, since they were already starting to turn things in. Although I totally could have done the whole thing super fast and done amazing on it, I admitted defeat, and he gave me a multicultural studies class, which actually seems like a lot of fun, and it will probably benefit my future more because I want to travel to the world for a living. I'm thinking that I want to be a travel blogger, or somebody that gets to write about all their travels. I just really want to write and travel. But back to high school, my schedule is nice, except I got a map of the school, and after nearly every class, I have to go way across campus to get to my next class. I don't know how I'm going to make it to each class in time, but I get to go tomorrow and tour the school a little and find back ways and such. Also, tomorrow I have to go and get my permit transferred for this state, and find out if I can still get my license on time. That shall be "fun."

Other than getting my school stuff situated, the only other thing I've done is that we went and explored Seattle a little bit on Sunday. We took a ferry up, and that would have been a lot of fun if I 1. Didn't have an anxiety attack because there were so many people (I have really bad social anxiety) and 2. wore a jacket, because the front of the boat is extremely windy. Although it wasn't the most fun experience I've had, I did it enjoy it. Once we got to the city, I was overjoyed. There were so many new things and people to look at, and I couldn't wait to explore. We went down to the pier and I bought a really nice candle, and the guy who made it, went to UT (my dream school), so we talked about that for a while. After the pier, we went to Pike's Place Market, and I was done in .5 seconds. There were people everywhere I looked am I'm surprised I didn't have another attack. After Pike's Place, we went and saw the Space Needle and a cool fountain behind it. By the time we were done, we were exhausted, so we made our journey home. Exploring new places is so much fun, and I really hope I can do more of it soon!

I bet by now you're done with hearing about my life for now, and lucky for you I've run out of things to discuss. I really enjoy blogging, and hopefully I can get back into it now that I've moved and such. School is starting up next Wednesday, and since the schools aren't as academically challenging as schools back home, I most likely won't have all that much homework, allowing me more time to blog and do things that I love.

Stay Grand

~Maddison

Hello everybody! I'm finally back! It felt so weird not blogging the past month, but as I said in my last blog post, I've been extremely busy, and I was glad that I eliminated the stress of feeling like I had to put up a blog post every or every other week. So in the past month I've had to move halfway across the country and have to deal with all of that absolute crap, and I had way to many different feelings to write any blog posts, so that's why I haven't posted in the past month. But so much as happened.

I'm glad this blog is relevant again, in the sense that school's starting back up for most people again. Summer went by in the blink of an eye and I did hardly anything I wanted to accomplish before school started. Well, I've hardly done anything I've wanted to accomplish for 2014, but that's a different subject. Back onto the subject of school starting back up, I wanted to write a post giving a few back to school tips.

1. My first tip is the cheesiest, but it's super important. Whether you're starting a new school, or going back to your same old one, you should always remember to be yourself. Never change yourself for anyone. Changing yourself for other people just confuses you and everyone else. Soon enough, you don't know who you really are anymore. Staying true to yourself and who you are is a crucial part of surviving in this world.

2. Going along with my first tip, don't, under any circumstances, "dumb yourself down." Don't play dumb if you're truly a smart person. Take pride in your intelligence instead of trying to hide it.

3. When going back to school, starting getting your normal routine back the last little while of summer. Whether this is the last few weeks, last week, or last few days, it really does help when it comes time to wake up on the first day of school. To start out, you set your alarms at a reasonable time for the first try (if you usually wake up past noon on a typical summer day, don't try to get back on track by setting your alarm at 7am). I like to start around 10am the first time, and then each day take away a few minutes until I can finally wake up the time I usually would for school easily.

4. If you're in high school, and teachers don't give you a list, then I wouldn't recommend you do all of your back to school shopping until after the first day. Sometimes teachers are extremely picky, and it's best to wait until after the first day when they hand you a list to get everything you need. But, you do want to buy things while they're on sale before school starts, so make sure you get pens, pencils, erasers, calculators, paper, a plain binder or two, and some one subject notebooks before the first day. Then you don't need that many things after the first day when prices are back up to normal.

5. If you can, go to your school (or get a map) and find out where your classes are. The first day is so much easier when you know, or have a general idea, of where your classes are. If you're allowed to walk through your school, try to walk your schedule the same way you would during school.

6. If you tend to get really anxious, try to remember that most of the things that you worry about usually don't ever happen. If you have anxiety medicine, make sure you take it. Try to download some soothing music to your phone, or look at pictures of cute people/puppies/whatever else. Know that you can get through it.

So there are a few of my back to school tips! Hopefully some of them will help make the transition from summer back into school a little easier.

~Maddison