A Letter to the Future Class of Penn State

Dear Future Class of Penn State:

This letter is going to make me sound like a nostalgic old lady, but I don't care. My class has seen it all. 3 presidents, 3 football coaches, riots. You name it. We have faced countless people (metaphorically) spitting in our faces, telling us we aren't worth anything, and saying our institution should be burned to the ground. We were here for the firing and death of Joe Paterno, we have seen our team loose bowl eligibility, and we have seen incredibly brave human beings come forward saying they have been a victim of child sexual abuse. But.....we have also seen great things. Sure, we saw Joe Paterno's win restored, and yes, we received bowl eligibility again, but Penn State is so much more than just sports, or what the news says, or what Keith Olbermann says.

We have seen $49,431,129.85 raised in four years for pediatric cancer research, we have seen countless people support Blue Out to bring awareness to child sexual abuse, and we have received an entire community of support through these 4 years. There is a notion that BIG 10 schools are all about football and education does not matter. We just shove our football players into dumb classes, and professors just hand them grades to insure their football careers. You should know that this is not the case. Penn State athletes have a 89% graduation success rate. You should know that education is greatly emphasized at this school. You should know that John Urschel, who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens, graduated with both a bachelors and masters degree in mathematics, while playing football full time, and has co-authored a paper titled "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians."

Do not take to heart the things that people say about this school. There are some of the greatest professors in the country teaching behind those walls. We have the greatest college marching band that will get you pumped up for any occasion, and we have the greatest chant of any school out there.

Know that when you yell "We Are" or respond with "Penn State," you are yelling more than just a tagline. You are yelling an honor code. You are saying that you are part of a community. When it falls down, you will go and help it get up and get to where it's going. When someone attacks it, you will defend it with honor and pride. When someone shoves it to the ground and tell it it's worthless, you stand up for them without a second thought. "We Are Penn State" tell people exactly that. We Are Penn State. NOT I am Penn State, NOT He/She is Penn State. Remember that you are a family. You are a close knit network of people who have this one thing in common, if nothing else.

It's important to remember this. Be good to each other. If you see someone who needs a hand, lend them a hand. Be nice to the CATA bus drivers, especially late on a Saturday night. Don't leave your friend somewhere you wouldn't want to be left alone. Don't attack the Willard preacher (physically, verbally, etc.). Argue with him all you want, but don't attack him.

Be proud to be a Nittany Lion. Be proud to know that you are part of a unified student body, and be proud of THON, and be proud of Blue Out and the S-zone. Be proud to know that you will find the greatest ice cream in the world on this campus. Most importantly, be proud to be part of something greater than yourself. Know that many Nittany Lions have come before you and many more will come after you. Love this school and make the most of it. You may not think so now, but there will come a time when you will have to say goodbye to this terrifying, amazing great school, and you'll wonder where the time went. When that time comes, make sure that you can look back and say you have done everything you could have done to make the most of your time here. Most importantly, remember that its 2:20 a.m. and Michigan still sucks.

Love,
A graduating senior, class of 2015

To Hate, Or Not To Hate?: A Post About Body Image

There is a movement right now telling women that they need to love their bodies. Women are being told that if you do not fit the mold of what beautiful should be according to social media and the fashion industry, then who cares? You should embrace your bodies and love the way you look. However, by saying this, are we saying that people who are genetically stick thin, or can't gain weight, should all automatically love the way they look and have no body image issues? Just as fat shaming takes a toll on people's self esteem, thin shaming does just the same.

I think there is an assumption that nonplus-size people always love their bodies and don't criticize themselves. I can tell you, this is not true. Sometimes I hate my body. I am, in all truth, very much under the national average size of women (the average size of women in the US is a size 14, I'm a size 4).

I can hear some of you now. "I wish I could look like you!" "You're so thin!" But it's not about that. I don't think that body image is about literal body image, rather, your mentality about your body.  

For 22 years, social media and advertisements has told me if I'm not a size 2 and 6ft tall, than I'm not beautiful. Now, along with those same advertisements there is a movement saying that I have to love my body and if I don't, than something is wrong with me. Well, I'm human. I can't always love body and I can't always love the way I look.

It's a vicious cycle. We are constantly told that our bodies are not good enough, but then we turn around, something else tells that we should love our bodies. Being constantly bombarded with these mixed messages brings on a whirlwind of confusion. How do you interpret something like this? We can't just drop everything and go "Yup, I'm going to love my body from here on out!" It's just not that simple.

We have to chip away years of a socially constructed idea and social norms, that are now being attacked. Even while writing this post, while being conscious of this constructed idea of beauty and size, I have chosen photos that I like specifically because I think I look good or "thin" in them. It's uncomfortable to talk about. We, as a society, tend to shove away the uncomfortable things and focus on the pretty and sparkly things. However, since it is uncomfortable to talk about, doesn't that tell us it's something worth talking about?

I think loving your body does not start with a movement or bashing the fashion industry. I think loving your body starts with loving yourself. I think once you start embracing your person and your soul while trying to have a more positive outlook on life, everything else, including body image and loving your body, will fall into place. I can't say that I'm 100% there yet. Sometimes I think I'm too chubby, or I don't have enough curves, or my pores to too large, or no matter how much I eat healthy and exercise  nothing changes. But by loving myself and having faith in my person, maybe one day,  loving my body will be a part of loving myself.

Senior Year of College: HELP!

Hello there readers! Long time no talk.....sorry about that. School started, and as the title suggests, senior year of college is HARD!Yes: bold, italicized, underlined, capitalized, HARD! People say that senior year is suppose to be easy and that you can just relax and drink because all the hard stuff has already happened....well those people are either super geniuses, lying to your face, or I am just dumb. 

Between keeping up with school work, trying to find a job, and trying to enjoy senior year, how does one juggle all of that? When you're done with all your school work, do you have enough time to get online, look for a job, and apply to those jobs? And let's say you do have time to do all of these. In the end, the places you applied to e-mail you back with an automated e-mail letting you know that you are not at all qualified for the jobs that your applied for. Why did I spend four years at a university if it does not pay off at the end? Why are there no entry level positions for anything anywhere? Is this why seniors drink so much? Maybe. I don't have the answers to any of these questions. All I know is that this is frustrating. I know this is the time to suffer so that I don't have to suffer later, but between loans and the mountain of student debt I will be in after graduation, it makes me wonder if this will all be worth it in the end. 

Everyone around me has a direction they are headed after graduation. They have a job lined up, they know what field they are going to be in, they are going to law school, or graduate school. Everyone has a direction. They know where they're headed and where they want to end up. I don't know where I headed. I'm not going to grad school, or law school, I have no job lined up after graduation (as of yet), and I feel like I am staring into an abyss with a small speck in the distance of what I ideally want to do, with no idea how to get there (in case anyone cares, I would love to be a designer. Clothes, jewelry, shoes, make-up, whatever). 

This post has just turned into a rant about my frustrations about the system. Hopefully this week, since I'm on spring break, I will be posting my usual stuff about the things I like posting about (hauls, makeup, trends I'm loving right now).

Until then, thanks for reading!

Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes Waterproof Mascara vs. Maybelline The Falsies Mascara: Waterproof Formula

Hello readers! I recently went on vacation to the Outer Banks and whilst I was there, in an environment with both salt water and chlorine water, I thought it would be fun to try two different waterproof mascara and compare them. On one eye I applied two coats of Tarte's Lights, Camera, Splashes! Mascara and on the other eye, I applied Maybelline the Falsies Mascara in the waterproof formula. Both were in the color black, and both were tested in the ocean and the pool! Here are my thoughts:

This picture was taken right before going outside. On the left (right eye in real life but the camera flipped it around) I have on Maybelline the Falsies Mascara: waterproof formula, and on the right (left eye in real life but the camera flipped it around) I have on Tarte's Lights, Camera, Splashes! Both formulas are pretty wet so some mascara got on both my eye lids, but it wasn't anything a little eye make up remover couldn't fix. I put these on un-curled, dry lashes because I wanted to see how the mascara would hold up on it's own. The Maybelline the Falsies was more voluminous and more lengthening than the Tarte, which just coated your lashes with their formula and did not add length or volume. 

This photo was taken outside (hence my squinting a little) after a dip in the ocean. Both of my eyes were generally smear free. There was a little bit of black residue on the outer, bottom corners of my eyes, but my eye were, for the most part, black circle free. My lashes look pretty good after being completely wiped out by a wave, though, if I do say so myself. As you can see, compared to the first picture, my lashes are not clumped together and as full after the ocean. 

I forgot to take a picture of my lashes after the day was over, but the eye with the Maybelline mascara had a visible dark ring under the eye while the Tarte mascara eye did not. Both came off the same with eye make up remover and there was no residue left over on my lashes that night or the next morning. Which either means my makeup remover is amazing or both mascaras are pretty great in terms of removal. 

Here are some pictures of the Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes mascara. The brush is not my favorite. It's a little short, both the bristles and the wand itself. The formula itself is pretty wet but definitely waterproof. My favorite part about this is the packaging. It's BEAUTIFUL! The box it comes in is really nice as well. 

Here are some pictures of the Maybelline the Falsies Mascara: waterproof formula. While the packaging is not as pretty as the Tarte one, I like the brush much better. The curve allows for more length and volume, while being able to coat more lashes at a time. 

All in all, the Tarte Lights, Camera, Splashes is more waterproof than the Maybelline mascara. The Maybelline the falsies mascara provides more volume and length while being less waterproof. What I've been doing while being back from the beach is using both mascaras for more waterproof-ness and more length and volume. The Tarte mascara is about $20 and the Maybelline mascara is about $7.99(?). Would I spend $20 for this particular mascara? Probably not. But it is a good mascara is you're looking for just a waterproof mascara. 

Mini ROSS Haul

I recently when on a mini shopping trip to ROSS and got some goodies. ROSS is a chain of off-price department stores. While the clothes are extremely discounted, some of their stuff is very trendy, in season, and all together cute.  Sometimes, they have extremely discounted prices on brands that one would have to spend a fortune on. Some brands include Jones New York, Calvin Klein, and Adidas. The clothes I got on the particular shopping trip are all off-brand, but cute nonetheless.


The first thing I got was a black maxi-skirt with colorful Aztec print. Usually when it comes to bottoms, I'm a small, however, I got this skirt in large. Why? Because the small and medium were a little too tight around my bum and it was basically see-through. I would wear this with a black tank top or t-shirt tucked in, or tight crop-top in any color. I would also wear this as just a bathing suit cover up (for just the bottom).

The next item of clothing I got was this crop top. It's a light pink, flowy crop-top with a scalloped edge on the bottom and cut-out, lace detailing on the shirt itself. I like this with jeans or high-waisted shorts. I would, however, advise wearing a bandeau with something like this, because it is very sheer, and the underarm area is cut pretty low.





The next top I got is also a crop top. I'm sure you'll be able to tell I am all about the crop tops right now. This one is a mint-green color with the end of the arms and the bottom of the top scrunched. I think this gives a "Princess Jasmine" look to the shirt. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to wear this yet, but I'm thinking with the previously mentioned maxi-skirt, tucked in.

 The last thing I got is a dark turquoise dress that is 3/4 sleeves, cinches in at the waist and at the end of the arms, and flows out. This dress is great for both spring and summer since its 3/4 sleeves, but it's light weight enough that I don't feel hot or heavy while wearing it. I would put a long beaded necklace with this and nude wedges, or a cute pair of brown sandals if I'm going more casual. This dress is great for almost anything, whether it's a nice dinner, a graduation, a wedding. You can dress it up or down. It's all-in-all a very versatile dress and it may be my favorite thing that I got, and I actually wore this to my cousin's U.S Naval Academy graduation!

Outfit of the Night

Tonight I'm going out with a friend I havnt seen in a long time. One of the many downsides of going to school far from each other. But, we decides to dress up! So here's what I wore: 

The dress is from Ross I got about a year ago. It's a stretch material so it's form fitting, but it's not a bodycon dress so I can move around and sit comfortably. The jean jacket is from American Eagle I got about three years ago. The jacket is probably not necessary since it's nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but I brought it in case it's cold in the resteraunt. 

My bed sheets aside, my necklace is from JewelMint.com atleast 5 years ago, so it's probably no longer in stock. But the necklace itself is hold with cool geometric accents in primary colors no thought it would be a nice addition to the simplicity of the dress. 

My shoes are from American Eagle as well. They're a gladiator style silver, braided sandal. I prefer these to heel for a couple reasons. I don't like driving in heels and I prefer flats to heels on a normal day anyways. 

My makeup is my normal everyday/ Zoella impaired make up look I made a blogpost on early on. I don't have a lip color today and my hair is just up in a bun since hot and sticky outside. 

I'll hopefully have some more material to come this summer!! 

'Till next time,

SK

REVIEW: Rimmel London Show Off Lip Lacquer

HAPPY NEE YEAR EVERYONE!! I know it's February now, but better late than never! I'm going to be reviewing the Rimmel London Show Offs :) 

As the name suggests, it's a lip lacquer. So, it has the consistency of a thick lip gloss, but the pigmentation of a lipstick. It sets as a stain so it will stay on through everything: food, drinks, kisses ;). I got two colors: Aurora and Big Bang. 

Aurora is a dusty pink color, however a little less neutral than you would expect a dusty pink to be. On, it looks like a "true pink" color (on left of hand). It's a good everyday color if you dab it on your lips and spread it out with your finger. It could also be an evening/ bold everyday look if you apply it straight with the applicator. I'm also a little partial to this color because Aurora is one of my favorite Dosney princesses:) 

Big Bang is a true red color (shown on the right of my hand). There is no way that this could be mistaken for a neutral. It's very 1950's movie star glam red. I like this better than any of the red lipsticks I have. The feel of it (as well as Aurora) is amazing and it applies smoothly. It doesn't dry out your lips too much as some lacquers/ stains tend to do, but it helps if you apply lip balm before applying the lacquer. Some people pull off the everyday red lip flawlessly, and if you are one of those people, I envy you greatly. Since I can't pull that off, I like this as my "classic red lip for going out, particularly if I'm feeling a little bit more glam than usual" color. 

All-in-all, I'm really happy with these lacquers and I will be looking for more colors!