Hi, I'm Brianna

Since I’ve pretty much avoided this blog the entirely of the summer, about 6 months later I have decided to return. I’ve had plenty to say about anything and everything, but for whatever reason I never put thoughts to words. I have also decided to abandon my other blog for reasons, so that post was deleted. In other news, a lot has changed since June. Too much to write about, actually. What hasn’t changed, however, are things in the news. So instead of going on a wide spread Twitter rant, why not do it here?

As I sit in this coffee shop in West Harlem, I get a CNN app update on a mass shooting that has occurred in California. “One of two killers in the San Bernardino shooting, was apparently radicalized,” it says. After looking up the definition of what it means to be radicalized, I put this and all the other updates I have been receiving next to each other. Terrorist attack or work-related rage, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that this is the 352nd mass shooting of the year; reminder that there has only been 336 days so far this year. Last week there was another shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado. Thirty-two shootings have happened in the month of November alone. Yes, this is all tragic. Yes, send the victims’ families your thoughts and prayers. But guess what, that doesn’t do anything to prevent the next mass shooting. I say next because until something is done about gun control laws in the United States, it is going to keep happening.

This is something that I am genuinely concerned about because I constantly find myself wondering, “Will I be next?” These shootings occur everywhere. They happen at colleges. I go to college. They happen at shopping malls. I go to shopping malls. They happen at health facilities. I have medical needs. Before politicians start worrying about international terrorism and getting involved in war with ISIS, they need to consider the actual threat to America: gun violence. Each mass shooting should be looked at as domestic terrorism and there should be action taken to address these issues first.

I am not an activist, or even remotely knowledgeable in politics or anything else. I just pay attention to the world we live in. I am saying all of this as a concerned citizen. Gun control needs to happen NOW. I have no idea how many more shootings need to happen for people to realize this. It has gone on for way too long. If you’re just another ordinary citizen reading this, get your voice heard. It could be your loved one next.

Hello again. I suck at keeping up with this. It’s not that I forget it’s that I just don’t usually have something to write about. However today I will be ranting about something I have seen one too many times make headlines in recent days. Today I will be writing about the sexualization of young girls’ bodies. And by that I mean all this damn talk about dress codes.

“Her prom dress showed her shoulders and it distracted the male chaperones so she got kicked out of the dance.”

“Grade school girl gets sent home from school for spaghetti strap dress that her father let her pick out.”

“Girls must wear a non-white t-shirt over her bathing suit in order to attend end of the year pool party.”

“Office makes rude comment to girl for her ‘inappropriate’ outfit and upsets her so much she is sent home.”

What do all of these phrases have in common? We can start with saying they all are directed at women. We can then add that it is treating a woman’s body as an object of admiration instead of a human body. Why not throw in that someone is telling a woman what she can and can’t do based on her outfit. And lastly, it is shaming a woman’s body at quite a young age (in some cases).

These are just some of the many headlines I have read about. Most of the comments for a woman’s “inappropriate” outfit were excused by it having distracted the male student population. Yeah, I mean that bare shoulders or whatever body part it is being treated as a sexual object rather than a f**king body part–all for man’s sake.

Now let’s rant. First of all, and most importantly, these cases are happening to young teen girls. These girls are already struggling with accepting their bodies for what they are and all that fun stuff of growing up. Now they have the additional annoyance of having to to worry if their outfit will distract their male counterparts?!?!?!?!? Or at least that’s what they are being taught. Some are getting called out so much that they are being pulled out of class due to their OUTFITS. Their education is being disrupted because their (probable) teacher deems her outfit is too distracting. (To teacher: maybe if your CHILD student is distracting your teaching environment, you should remove yourself from your classroom and maybe consider a job where a young girl’s shoulders are not distracting to you, because that should not be happening in the first place.)

Where are dress codes for boys? Are the half-naked pictures of girls on a graphic tee not distracting? How about muscle tees? I’m not saying boys should be sexualized as well, I’m just trying to make a point. I do not think any child OR ANYONE should be looked at and judged as sexual objects. The headlines need to stop as well as adults putting down girls for their outfits. It genuinely pisses me off. Why do we need feminism? THIS IS WHY.

Rant over,

Brianna

P.S. Free the nipple.

Hey party people I am back. I am reporting live, at 11:39PM from my bed with a lovely face mask on after a long day at work. I just learned how to schedule posts so even though I am writing this 5/13, you will be reading this 5/14. Because this is my blog and I can. Anyways, I am officially  a college sophomore and am now facing how to budget my money to be able to have a fun summer but also not go broke next semester. So here’s my problem…

Chronicles of a Broke Girl Who Likes to Go on Adventures: Part 1

So as you all know (if not please read earlier entries) I will be attending Firefly in June. So that is about a month away. With approximately $27 in my bank account I am nowhere near financially ready to go. On top of that I have no bathing suits and no summer clothes and it is approaching summer here in lovely New Jersey. Also I like to go to New York a lot. Also Mumford and Sons is having a stop over festival at Seaside. Also I have to put gas in my car in order to survive. If I do the math correctly, I cannot afford any of this. I mean, I work a lot but not enough to live my adventurous life… jk. Maybe I just need to manage my money better. Maybe I need to prioritize my options. Maybe I should just live a boring summer and just spend my days working. But here’s the thing: I suck at managing money, prioritizing, and who wants to have a boring summer? See my dilemma? I know I suck.

~

Moving on, I haven’t even been home a week yet, but so far so good. I am happy to be home and happy to (hopefully) be able to blog more about my (hopefully exciting) adventures. My face mask is now drying and I cannot move my face so with that I will say goodnight,

HAPPY THURSDAY.

I have (almost) finished my freshman year of college. Wait, what? Wasn’t I just in high school freaking out about where I was going to school? Or wasn’t it just summer where I was packing my entire room into boxes to be shipped off to Chicago? I could have sworn I just moved in and said goodbye to my dad in my newly furnished dorm room like last month. It’s absolutely crazy how quickly time has passed in college. It was always a struggle to make it from Monday to Friday every week and to make sure Friday night and Saturday lasted forever. Then came getting my life together on Sunday and do it all over again. From hours spent in class to days spent doing whatever to weeks wasted away to now months.Time really sneaks up on you. Especially when in just a matter of days I will be leaving people I care about so much.

So as I’ve previously said, I will be transferring schools and finally get to my dream of going to college in New York City. And for that I am truly excited. Through this whole journey, I always got the question,”why didn’t you just go to school in New York in the first place?” My usual answer would be, “I wish.” However, sitting here at the usual table in the dining area of my job, I’m glad I experienced my first year here. Granted I was beyond miserable a majority of my fall semester, I wouldn’t go back and change anything if give the opportunity. Chicago has given me and taught me so much about everything. I would be completely lying if I said I was the same person in August that I am here at the end of April.

I learned how to be alone and be okay with it. Fall semester wasn’t the greatest for me; I felt alone a lot of the time. Matter of fact, I was alone a lot. But I learned there is nothing wrong with that. I’d like to thank Chicago for that.

I learned it’s okay to say no. If you’re trying to alter yourself or personality in order to make friends or “fit in,” say no. I guarantee no one is special enough to change who you are. Those people aren’t meant to be your friends, and that’s okay. I promise another group of awesome people will come along.

I learned how to admit things and deal. This one was most important for me because when I found myself hating school I ignored that feeling. Isn’t everyone supposed to love college? Why is everyone having fun except me? I learned how to admit things. I admitted that maybe I picked the wrong school and that that was okay. I learned there were options and that I didn’t have to be miserable all the time. And I dealt and did something about it.

Most importantly Chicago taught me friendship. Yes, I’ve had friends and best friends and still do, but this is different. My friends here are people I hope will be at my wedding someday. They’re homies for life. It saddens me beyond belief that they won’t be with me for the next few years as I continue college. Not only is it sad, but it actually sucks. It’s become an unwritten rule to not speak about it and just treasure the last few days we all have together. Yeah, I’ll come back to visit, but it’s not the same. I’d be lying if I wasn’t tearing up while writing this. I’ll miss them all dearly. Shout out to the Felice’s crew. ❤

So yeah, Chicago was cool. I learned a lot. Too much to put into this blog; these are just some samples. But I’m also really ready for New York; I’ll know I’ll be happier and maybe more successful than I was here in Chicago. Who knows? So this whole post was a huge thank you to Chicago and everything it gave/taught me.

This is my last post in Chicago. Catch me in NJ/NYC this summer.

HAPPY FINALS,

Brianna

Hi, I’m back. I haven’t really had much to write about lately, so I haven’t. But in those days of having thoughtless thoughts, I was pondering a topic that holds dear to my heart: health. Mental and physical health are something that are really important to me, and I’ve found that they go hand in hand. I’m not talking about having colds and allergies, because face it, it’s April and I haven’t stopped sneezing since April 1st. I’m talking about being in shape and taking care of your body because after all, you only have one.

I used to be a little chub in elementary school. I always ate the school lunches and just ate a lot in general. I never thought anything was wrong with that because after all I was only like, ten. Society wasn’t shoving what their depiction of beautiful was down my throat yet. However, middle school came along and (unfortunately) I started to be exposed to media and all these models who were thin and the words “beautiful,” and “how to lose ten pounds in a week,” were put next to each other in beauty headlines. Skinny meant beautiful and twelve year old Brianna wanted to be beautiful.

I have always been an advocate for loving your body. I don’t care about being a size two and being the skinniest thing out there because I know my body isn’t made for that. Back in middle school I used to eat as little as possible so I could “be skinny.” I know now how horrible that was. Ever since, I’ve been a huge gym rat. I used to go 5 times a week for two hours. I learned how to appreciate my body for what it is and not what is pictured in Victoria’s Secret catalogues. I learned that my hips weren’t made to fit into size 0 jeans and eventually learned how uncomfortable jeans are and that leggings were the greatest thing since sliced bread.That’s irrelevant to what I’m trying to say. (But it’s true.)

I used to be the world’s pickiest eater in middle school, so I tried to eat healthy but that just ended up meaning to stop eating cookies for lunch. As I got older I started replacing mac and cheese with salads (RIP) and chips with fruit. Keeping up with my gym regime and eating healthier and healthier, I saw my baby fat shedding. Not only did I start looking better to myself, I started to feel better about myself. Working out relieved my stress and I started loving myself and being comfortable with myself a lot more. Let’s face it, in the middle/high school years, every girl is self conscious. But I wasn’t as bad as I could have been. I was generally a happy person. Therefore I concluded that physical health reflected your mental health. I noticed when I didn’t go to the gym or ate an unhealthy meal that I didn’t need to eat, I felt gross. Healthy Brianna was a happy Brianna.

Cool, that was years ago, why am I bringing it up now? GLAD YOU ASKED, INTERNET. College food sucks. Like really. You can either get fries and a burger, a sandwich, or gross looking lettuce with grosser dressing. Or you can go out and spend money on Chinese food. And it’s all processed and gross and absolutely nothing like home cooked food (yes you will miss home cooked food in college). After spring break, I realized how much I neglected the gym and my body by putting gross food inside me. So yeah, getting pizza at 2am after a night out wasn’t the greatest choice I’ve made. Therefore I gained a few extra pounds and realized how gross I felt; physically and mentally. These past few weeks I have made efforts to go back to my old eating and gym habits before I started school and I feel about 10x more confident than I did in January.

If you’re feeling stressed or unhappy with yourself, go to the gym. It is my go to stress reliever (especially with finals in two weeks) and it’s just a positive place to be. Also maybe substitute those fries for a side salad. Processed foods make you feel gross too.

Then again I am no nutritionist or personal trainer so this might all be bullshit. But hey, it works for me why not pass it along.

I’m gonna go stop procrastinating my Power Point now.

Today you can find me laying in bed because it’s gross and rainy outside and also my classes got cancelled today. Actually it’s not raining, just really cloudy and humid. I just checked the weather. So i got almost 100 hits on my blog earlier this week and it made me really happy. The fact that 100 people took time out of their day to read about mine is like, weird. But also incredibly awesome too. So thank you for that.

Now let’s talk about last night. I’ve previously mentioned (multiple times, probably) how much live music means to me. And I’ve also mentioned how I’ve been feeling really meh lately. BUT AFTER SEEING BLEACHERS LAST NIGHT I AM FEELING REALLY GOOD AND HAPPY. First of all, I went alone. Here’s why I like going to concerts alone. First of all, you are forced to make friends, which is cool. I met another lone concert goer and this nice couple. We played stupid games to pass time before the show started because for some reason they let people in like and hour and a half before the show started. The Night Terrors of 1927 opened, and they killed it. Then Joywave came on, and killed it some more. I highly recommend these two bands.

And then Bleachers came on. WOW. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a band play with such passion. Like literally I cannot even put my thoughts into words. The crowd was so alive and the energy radiated off the band. My face kind of hurts from smiling and screaming the lyrics all night. My feet hurt from dancing all night. I’m really glad I went.Never underestimate the power of music.

Ok this was pointless I hope you care enough to read this. Have a great Easter weekend if you celebrate.