I am writing this post from my room in my new/first apartment. Crazy right?

I cannot begin to say how guilty I feel for not keeping up with L&RL over the summer, but my absence wasn’t due to lounging on the shores of Jersey or binge-watching FRIENDS again. And while I may have spent a week soaking up the rays on South Carolina beaches, this summer was the absolute most busy, most stressful, most rewarding, certainly most adult summer of my entire life. And here’s why.....

When I came home after an extremely loaded semester of study, work, and play, I gave myself a week off. Just a week. I slept in, I ate Taco Bell, I watched every episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (very underrated and available to all Amazon prime members), but after a week I knew I needed to get out of my funk. So I took to LinkedIn and decided I was going to get myself an internship. Little late to the game, but I held onto the hope that there would be something out there for me. I went on interviews with fashion design companies, technology startups, and even a few fellow bloggers that were looking for freelance work. Nothing was panning out. 

I finally found a position available for a production intern at an Art Magazine in SoHo. And other than the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about art, it seemed like the perfect fit, and let me tell you, it was perfect. 

I learned so much in the short, few months that I spent in the SoHo Building. I got to explore all my graphic design abilities. I got to speak with clients and learn to negotiate. I got to see a publication go through every step from start to finish. I got to see my name in print. Working in New York, has always been a dream of mine and fingers crossed, I got to take a peak at my future this summer. 

But there are dreams and then there are pipe dreams. The dreams that for most live quietly in the back of your mind, the ones your day dreams are about. When I was sixteen, I was given an amazing opportunity to join a team of songwriters and musicians to create my own demo. And for that year that I spent in studios and writing sessions, I created a pipe dream of being able to share my music. But as life usually does, it came knocking. At 17, I chose college instead of music and I thought that was the end of my music career. It took me a while to come to terms with that fact, but I eventually did. I got into a great school, I packed up my life and moved from my hometown, just a few steps away from my favorite city in the word, to Pennsylvania. It wasn’t easy, and at times it felt like it was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But dreams, even pipe dreams find you eventually. A friend of mine from back in the musical days of 2014, called me and reminded me of my dream. The NASH Next music competition happens every year and, he thought that this year, I should enter it. After explaining to him that I had been away from the music scene for far too long to get back into any studio, he sent my my demo and the contest rules. There was really no reason that I shouldn’t enter, so I did. I made it past the initial judging to fan voting, then past fan voting to the national judges. If those judges decide that my song isn't for them, then that’s okay with me. But I got a chance to explore this pipe dream of mine for a little while. And it was fun. That’s all I can ask of life. 

I have so many more dreams and if this summer has taught me one thing, it’s that the only thing keeping me from achieving them, is me. Life is far too short to be anything but busy. There are so many things I want to do in the short time that I have in this college, in New York, in my twenties, on this Earth. And you probably already know, but I’m going to be doing them 

(Oh before I go, here’s a little peak at what else I did this summer LOL...)