Sitting in the airport awaiting my 5’o’clock flight I was anxious, nervous, and totally unaware of the adventure about to take place. I arrived in Florence unsure. Unsure about what I was doing, unsure about spending 4 months in a foreign country without my closest people, unsure about my relationships and myself.  

It took me a while to realize I had this giant opportunity at my feet and it was up to me and me alone to make it either the greatest lesson of all time or a measly, elongated vacation. I chose the first.

Stumbling through cobble-stoned streets in my worn out converse under lines of laundry and open windows, I found myself.

I found a home in a dated apartment with 7 other girls all on the same journey. At nights, I planned my weekends away, filling my calendar with trips to places I had no idea would leave such an impact on me. I met the most wonderful people and experienced first-hand the most beautiful cultures. Strangers taught me more about life than my entire school curriculum ever has. (But I promise I still learned school things mom and dad.)

However, every day wasn’t picture perfect like it was portrayed via social media. I experienced some of my toughest battles while abroad, and being thousands of miles away from my support system was not ideal then. But that’s when I learned the most.

Time and conflict are not compatible. Life doesn’t throw you your toughest days when it’s convenient for you. It was then that I learned how strong I really am. I learned that I couldn’t control other people, but I could control how I let them affect me. So I refused to let the bad ones get to me, not when I was surrounded by so much beauty and opportunity.

I had the opportunity to waste my days abroad in a fumbled mess trying to put back the pieces of something so broken, but instead I chose to build something new.

I convinced myself that there was something so good to be seen in every single day, I just had to go find it. Whether it was something big like riding ATV’s along the coast of Santorini, or just eating a really awesome Panini, it was there, and it was important. My mind and my heart were stretched to new lengths. I found new wonders and treasures I will cherish forever, like my hideaway church on top of a lonely hill in Italy, or that hole in the wall restaurant where the owners know you by name.  So sitting here throwing out my worn out shoes, I’m actually proud. I’m so proud of the places they took me and the memories made in them.

It came and went faster than it should have. There were so many pictures taken and “storage too full notifications”, so many 40 euro flights I wasn’t convinced were going to ever reach the ground again, and so, so many new friends and new memories that would be showcased on social media, but would never actually reveal the true depth of the moment. Many feelings came to play throughout my months, but the one I found most consistent was gratitude. Every day, I thank my lucky stars that I had this opportunity to see the moon from a new side of the world, to fulfill a part of me that’s been missing for a while, I just had to go find it.

I’ll never truly be able to properly put into words how much this experience meant to me, but if I tried to sum it up I’d do it with my favorite over-used quote of the trip:

“This just doesn’t do it justice.”

(Written by Haley Greenberg)

For as long as I can remember (or since high school because my memory is not that great) I have always told myself to keep a blog, journal, some written record of my day-to-day life.

Having those little moments and feelings on paper (or online) forever seemed like the greatest idea in the world. How cool will it be when I am 30, 40, 50 years old to look back and see my sob-story about how the boy I had a crush on in school actually had a crush on someone else, the test I failed, the friend I fought and then made up with?

With the end of 2015 rapidly approaching I have found myself thinking a lot about what I want out of this upcoming year.

I am not going to be naive and say that I am making a list of resolutions that I will vow to keep because we all know that never actually ends up happening.

However, I still cannot shake this constant nagging in the back of my head to keep up with a journal/blog. Every once in a while I start off pretty strong, taking a few minutes at the end of the day to just write down what is going on. But that quickly ends, when classes, friends and life seem to just get in the way.

Today, while making a weak attempt at studying for the 2 finals I have left, a friend texted me about her high school boyfriend and we had a conversation about how different things are now, how much we’ve changed. This conversation made me wonder, why do I feel this constant urge to remember every little detail of my life?

Why is my desire to put things in writing taking away from me actually doing them?

Am I scared that my best years have already past? Of course not, there is so so much that lies ahead of me. Am I worried that things that once consumed my entire world will be forgotten? Maybe, but isn’t that what life is all about? Why should I spend so much time worrying about preserving the past instead of focusing on my present?

I thought I wanted to keep a journal to track these changes, and I still do, but is it really necessary to write down every single day, every little detail? It’s not. Yes I may forget what my friends and I stayed up talking about until 3 in the morning last night, but I will never forget the friends or the impacts they have made on my life.

Will I forget the name of every boy I kissed?

Yes I will, but will I forget how the relationships have taught me more about love and life than I could ever get from a blog? No.

Will my anxiety and distress over my finance grades fade to the very back of my consciousness? Yes, but why would I want to be constantly reminded of the stress I endured anyways?

I used to view blogging as a way to preserve my memories, but now I am beginning to realize that the important ones will always be there. If I am constantly so obsessed with remembering everything that is happening in my life I will forget to truly experience it.

So I guess I now have my “resolution”, for lack of a better word, to better appreciate my life as I am living it.

To take a second every now and then to think, wow this moment is so exciting, sad, stressful, pathetic, indescribable, what have you, because what is the point in preserving memories if you didn’t take the time to fully experience them?

(Written by Lauren Husney)

“Is there any way you can get your waist and hip measurements down? Then we’d love to have you.”

There is something very wrong with these words that are being said to many girls across the world. It’s not okay to make girls think that if they don’t have a 24-inch waist, they can’t walk the runway.

That they aren’t wanted. They aren’t beautiful. Because that’s definitely not true. People tell me all the time that at 5’11 I should be a model. But every time I get close to being sucked into the industry, I am sent back to reality and realize that I don’t want to support this industry.

I can’t be a part of something that makes others feel bad about themselves, even if it is something I enjoy.

Just because I have good genes means I get an opportunity that others can’t have? That’s not right. I love being in front of a camera and getting to dress up as a new person each time, and that’s something every girl deserves. Everyone deserves to feel beautiful, even more so than the Victoria’s Secret models.

Because there are so many girls out there who aren’t being recognized for their beauty both on the inside and outside. It’s easy to feel self-conscious about yourself, but just know – you aren’t alone. There isn’t a person in the world that doesn’t have insecurities about something. So recognize yourself. Be proud of yourself. Don’t let what you see in magazines and on TV discourage you, because under all of that professional hair and makeup, they’re normal people just like you and me.

Everyone can be beautiful, no matter if you wear a size 0 or 18.

So get out there – dance like nobody’s watching, sing like nobody’s listening, and enjoy life to the fullest – and capture it with your memory or camera. We all deserve to feel happy and beautiful. After all, we are just ordinary people capable of extraordinary things. Oh, and don’t forget to smile!