summer music

When people ask me what type of music I like, I just laugh. I have a very diversified taste in music I'd say. I enjoy my fair share of Frank Sinatra, The Black Keys, Luke Bryan, Pharrell Williams etc. So basically a little bit of everything, but when warm weather comes around, all I want to do is cruise around with the windows down and listen to country music.

I live on the NorthShore of Chicago (shameless plug for my fashion blog), so there's not a large country music culture up here, unless of course it's County Thunder (a local music festival) weekend, and in that case suddenly everyone is Blake Shelton's biggest fan. However, I actually enjoy certain country artists. Blake Shelton, Brad Paisley, and Luke Bryan are some of my favorites. But as much as I enjoy country music, I can only listen to it when the weather is nice and it's the end of the semester or summer time. I've made a connection in my head that country music = summertime, and it seems as though I can't listen to that type of music unless there's nice weather!

If you haven't already downloaded Spotify, you need to! Its a great solution to those times when you want to search up a song but down own it on iTunes!

Here is the link to my country playlis!

The Cost of Graduation

My senior year of High School is coming to a close. It's hard to believe, but there are only 51 days until graduation. Wow.

Background photo via

This year seemed to have revolved around money and finances. Paying for college, which of course includes paying for scholarships, calling financial aid offices across the country, filling out the FAFSA etc.

This year, I've tried to focus on saving money for college next year for me to spend, as well as trying to save my parents money because I know they're stressed out about paying for my education. I can deal with that. I don't mind saving some of my money because I know I can use it later, but the end of this year is getting VERY expensive very quickly.

Let's just do a quick cost break down of my second semester of Senior year:

AP Testing (I'm taking four tests): $364
Visting Colleges over Spring Break (lets include gas and a one night stay at a hotel): $160
Prom Bids (I'm paying for my date as they're coming from a different school): $140
Prom Dress: $90 (I'd say most peoples cost at least double this though. I found mine on sale)
Miscellaneous Prom expenses (sweatshirt, lakehouse rental, gas, boutonniere, etc.): $150
Graduation Dress (this isn't necessary, but I'm saving up for a specific one): $180
Senior Breakfast Ticket: $10
Grad Night Ticket: $45
Graduation Announcements: $70
Graduation Party (luncheon for the family with 20 people, $25 a person): $500
Graduation Presents for friends (lets say for 5 close friends): $100
College Freshman Orientation (Let's say two nights in a hotel and gas): $200

That comes to a grand total of......... drumroll please...............

$2,009

That is the cost of graduation. Of course things like Prom and a new graduation dress are optional, so with the necessary expenses of AP testing, college visits, graduation announcements, and a small grad party:
$1034

*Insert Crying Emoji Here*

So why is it that as we're preparing for the most expensive four years of our young adult lives, that we spend so much money? Some of these expenses are split between parents and students, but I would say that these are conservative estimates.
The average price of a Prom dress at our school most likely brushes $300, and if your college is in California, you have to add another $1000 for plane tickets.

I personally think that this is a bit silly to spend so much money on some pretty frivolous things as we're so stressed about maying for college, but that seems to be what our school system and community has instilled into our minds.

Spring

Spring has a feeling. Sure, there's a day when we officially say "it's Spring," but when it's really spring, you can feel it. It feels like a chilly breeze on your bare legs, the windows down, and eating on the patio without mosquitoes eating you alive. When we think of Spring, we always think of being outside and the weather and flowers. Why is that? When I think of winter, I usually think of Christmas and my Birthday. Fall? Jeans, vests, and boots. Summer? It's just plain hot.

So why is it that Spring is a time of year so associated with nature? I don't think I'll be able to answer that in the blog post, but I am good at rambling, so maybe I'll figure it out by the end.

The holiday I associate with Spring is Easter. When I think of Easter, besides Reese's peanut butter eggs of which I consume more than a safe amount each year, I think of bunnies and flowers and baby chickens. Why? Well that's what American's have associated with Easter. Easter is a Holiday centered around Christ (in the Catholic Religion at least) and his resurrection, so why the commercialized holiday seems to hone in on baby bunnies and chickens, I'm not sure.

What other widely celebrated holiday can you think of that in so whole centered on animals? I can't think of any.

Spring is a time of rebirth for so much of our world. For students, it can be grades, and in nature, flowers, grass and foods. Spring can also be a time of the year that is overlooked as it's spent recovering from a particularly brutal winter where weather jumps from -4 to 75 in what seems like a week (in Chicago this frequently happens). 

So as we go through this wet and muggy Spring make sure you appreciate it, because before you know it, you'll be complaining about the weather once again.