#ambersghost

Experts say that you should separate your work and sleep space, but for some that’s closer to a pipe dream than reality. Sometimes the only space people have for work is their bedroom. Please Note: This list may help some more than others.

1. Keep Things Clean 

This eliminates the stress of clutter and will also allow for much more efficient movement than a cluttered floor would. Because unless you’re training to be a ninja, being able to soundlessly leap over those dirty clothes piles will do nothing for you. Add shelves, get rid of those old markers that you haven’t used since the first grade, de-clutter and get organized, trust me when I say you’ll thank yourself later.

2. Add Color with Structure

Color could be distracting but if it’s added slowly and with structure, meaning in patterns or cohesiveness, then is could elevate your work space to a new level as well as make it your own. Good thing it’s Spring, there are plenty of pastels and bright colors to choose from! A little guide: Bright colors help get creative juices flowing (hello right brain) while cooler colors (blue and green) relax you. 

3. NO PHONES

Your phone, as important as it may be, could in fact ruin your productivity. This is nothing new, but eliminating that distraction could mean the difference between finishing your to do list and having to move tasks over to the next day. When you’re working, lock it up, put it away, do whatever you have to do to prevent yourself from looking at it.

4. Inspiration Comes with Life (Even if That Life is Fake AF)

Keeping plants on or by my desk has been one of the best things I’ve done for my creativity and my anxiety. Even if you aren’t a green thumb, fake plants can add the right amount of color and variety to your bedroom to make it feel more open, light, and alive. Currently I have an aloe vera plant and two cacti that live in my room and they add color texture, and shape that is otherwise missing from something like my bedroom.

5. Light and Sound Play a Huge Role in your Productivity and Sleep

Different lighting has different effects on the brain, especially if you sleep in complete darkness. During the day, make it clear to your brain that light = work and dark = sleep, this way you can stay alert at your desk and make the most out of both parts of your room. Sound is even less complicated than that. Studies have shown that music without lyrics, music of any genre, can be beneficial to productivity and learning, but people should steer clear of music with lyrics if they’re trying to write or do math.

Tumblrs will talk about stress and how to make the most in the midst of a bad day, but the health precautions are what we all should be, for lack of a better word, worried about. Stress can bring more acne, make you physically sick (i.e throwing up, not being able to eat, abdominal cramps), ladies, your period may stop (and your hormones will got nuts!), and you may lose out on productivity. Oh, and heart conditions? Stress can cause those too. 

Here’s what you can do:

- eat a healthy breakfast, lots of protein and antioxidants

- keep your areas clean, this may just be me, but jesus, if it’s messy I can’t do a diddly darn thing.

- Sleep a full eight hours, you can’t run on no sleep, not efficiently anyways.

- go for a run, exercise releases endorphins and helps with relaxation and productivity.

- study with your pet, I have a small dog who will sleep beside me and while I’m studying I’ll talk to her and pet her. It’s good for both of y’all.

- plant a garden, it’s relaxing and easy. Gardening provides a small, less time consuming outlet. You can do it wherever! An old fish bowl, a wooden box, whatever.

Do what makes you happy, find what works for you. Take care of yourself.

Here’s the thing about college, it’s almost impossible to get a decent job without one and the way we’re going it’s equally difficult to get a job with one, so the question is, what’s the point? The way I see it you’re slightly less damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. I’ve been raised to take college as a must and here’s why, a college degree is quickly becoming the only way that you can get ahead in the US. With technology growing and taking over jobs that humans originally did, human labor forces are becoming increasingly less valuable. Why pay a human more for what a machine can do cheaper and faster, right? 

Data is now showing that Millennials are worse off than their Baby Boomer parents because they entered the work force in a melting economy (aka. 2008). Millennials are starting at lower wages than their Baby Boomer counterparts and to make matters worse they’re in more debt because college is more expensive and the cost of living going up while wages stay constant which is part of why so many end up moving back home. 

Let’s get one thing straight, college is extremely valuable, it is a ladder that you can use to climb through the ranks of wherever you go. You just have to  be extremely careful. Take Dual Credit courses when available, take the AP test, do what you have to do to get as much cheap college credit as humanly possible. 

I plan to graduate high school as a sophomore in college because I’m going to a community college over the summer and taking care of as much of my BofS as I can before I go somewhere like UT or Texas A&M and sell off myself and my firstborn child for a college degree. I also do all AP and Dual, even if it’s not my best subject. 

Just remember, no matter what you do, how large your load is, whatever happens, you are no less valuable, you are still loved, and you can bounce back. 

Take care of yourselves my friends. 

Love, @ambersghost

Met Anna’s State,

Ruling rage, and frustration

Get to from the Board Walk and just watch

Chose weird lips, just say

 La Anden

The miracle that would join us to

the sea Two could meet Eyes could meet, and a window to the soul She'd watch his mouth When he speaks, lingering on the words he wouldn't say Before She would watch her Keep the demons at bay Because they don't fit "Love is all we need" She'd say to her To keep her smiling like a little dove The lights Just come out Matilda She used to love to dance in the lights Get onto the board walk Get onto a boat Sail home, sail to another world That's not as bitter as this one "Anna, she's so young

She's got the whole world ahead of her"

***

Awaken alone, in the shadow of morning In your underwear, I see Doesn't matter, no one's here No one at all Just the sheets, a tv sunscreen and some green curtains A lonely hue hangs in your head You sleep in your make-up "Hey, you never know" Therapy is 5 miles away from here, and he's not next to you in this full sized bed You're saving up for a King The mist of your breath intrigues you it's your soul trying to escape you He comes in with the gentle prick of the shoulder "There's a letter here for 'A____ ____' " he says and waits for a reply "Matilda? What are you going to do?" He waits She takes the letter Opens and reads She looks at him with tears tumbling down "It wasn't far enough"

***

She came from the south Looking for someone But all she found was a ghost lingering around being some kind of marvelous phantom A horse whisperer Trying to find someone who would listen, who could listen Who would at least hear her voice long enough, before running away and listen to the end of her story Before they find out What truly did happen   She was pushed in from the East Looking for the wind Trying to find some ease Some comfort from the days of the flesh She would watch the kites flying high above The children and their faces And the joy that is evident in these places What if you held on to the tail of the kite and it could carry you away from here Carry you on to find your lost sister That’s hiding from your ghost   From the North you could see the whole world Amber driving south trying to find herself again She wants new days An umbrella to shelter herself from your reign Anna will not let her go She needs her to carry on her ways But Amber She burned Annas things, and now she’s just ash in the dirt In this earth “This is my landscape, This is my territory Just move on and find yourself another place that can sustain you better than I”   She was thrown from the west Propelled and exiled The ending to a bittersweet story The beginning to Ambers’ story

***