Here goes

I've decided that I'm not going to do this big goodbye. So the posts I wrote to say goodbye to this blog, are just going straight to the new one. Instead, I'll post the links here for people to migrate over with.

I love you CollegeKaylee, you've been a good first blog.

Goodbye.


Post on new blog

02/26/2017

                                     

         

Obviously it's been a long time since my last post. Which really sucks cause I know I said I was trying to post a whole bunch more. And honestly, it's the same excuse it always is. Work and school and not feeling like it. I know how lame that is and how much I suck at things. However, I really, honestly haven't had the time. Every time a post came to mind, I was in the middle of responsibilities.

But now let's talk about what's happened in all the time that has passed.

Math Class
Mom and I have been in the class for about a month now. We had our first test at the beginning of this month, and I'm pretty happy with how I did, but I do wish my grade had been a bit higher. The homework is straight forward and mostly a clone of what she teaches us in class. But, I have noticed through my multiple math classes, that it's very common to see problems you've never encountered in class. And that can be super annoying, and it causes a whole bunch of anxiety.

Blog Changes
Right away you'll notice change. The background has been done up, and there's no title on posts from now on. Also the actual blog title has been changed. Instead, I'm going to be making these graphic things. I love them, plus they are super cute. There's more I'd like to do to jazz the blog up, but I don't think I'll be able to do it with Blogger. Which means, sometime in the future, we could end up moving blog sites. Probably to WordPress or maybe Wix. One of my favorite YouTubers has a blog, and that's where a lot of my inspiration for change is coming from (https://marziaslife.com/).

For so long I've been trying to figure out what to do with this blog. Do I make it a photography blog, a book blog, a mix of everything? Most of the time it just ends up being update posts because it's been so long since I posted. Marzia's blog is a good example of the kind of posts I would like to share on this blog. Just snippets of life, and what I've done that week. Definitely check her blog out! It's super cute and the pugs are the best.

Life
My birthday was last month! I turned 21 y'all! For my birthday weekend, my boyfriend and I stayed in a hotel in San Marcos for the PAX South convention. I'll post something about it at a later time because I have a lot to say and pictures to share.

I also saw him last weekend for a late Valentine's celebration. We had dinner at the same place we ate at last year. Just as good as before.

I thought I had more life update to share but most of my news was about the blog changes.
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Alright that's it!
Kaylee

New Year's Resolutions

Everyone does New Year Resolutions. I feel like it's just built into our psyche to choose something to strive for in the coming months of our new year. For myself, I have chosen a few things I'd like to accomplish/improve on.

1. Be happy.
2. Finish writing ONE book.
3. Improve photography skills.
4. Learn how to edit a video.
5. Seek professional help for my mental problems.
6. Publish one blog post a week.

Okay when I first started writing, there were only going to be three, but then I thought of more things I needed to do and work on for myself.

Now let's discuss why I've chosen each "resolution."

1. I need to be happy. I've spent so long being worried, stressed, and tormenting myself with my pessimistic thoughts. However I can only accomplish happiness, if I choose happiness. I honestly believe I am the only thing holding me back. Now, I do have quite a load of stuff that weighs on me and keeps me terrified of tomorrow. But, I can choose to look at these struggles as a challenge that propels me toward a brighter future. Paying bills on time makes me financially responsible. Going to school improves my mind. Being worried about money teaches me how to budget. All these struggles and problems in life are just lessons. I spend so much time being so scared of what could happen if I screw up, I've constantly got my eyes on the ground looking for the next hole I'm falling into. My goal is to be happy, to look forward to tomorrow, and to remember that though there are pretty crappy things I'm going through, I can make it.

2. Okay, to be quite honest, this is a little ambitious for me. I have only finished one book ever. It was approximately 30 pages long on the computer, and it was AWFUL. But I am going to try so hard to make this resolution actually come true. I have three stories I am even kind of working on, so one of those is what I'm hoping to finish. Oh! Speaking of, you can totally read the first couple parts of one of those stories on my Wattpad: Summer by the Sea. Please don't judge it by the summary. I'm so bad at those, but I tried! Anyway, that story, and two other ones I have are the stories I'm currently working at, and I really hope one of them will be finished by December 31st.

3. So, due to some financial problems, I likely will not be taking my photography class this semester. I'd rather not go into it, so I'll just say how I'm going to work on it myself. The biggest goal for photography is to intern this summer. There are two really great photographers based out of Austin that I would like to work with. Unfortunately, my only portfolio is pictures I've taken and edited on my phone, I have no recommendations. But I'm hoping they'll be impressed enough with what I can do on my own one of them will hire me to the cause. I say "hire," but I don't care if they pay me. I'll be transferring for the summer with my current job, so I won't need money from them, just the experience and knowledge they can provide. I'd also like to get a nice editing software for photos so I can work on my editing skills, and add that to my resume.

4. This is pretty personal. I'd love to be able to start up my YouTube channel this year, but I need to learn how to edit videos. First and foremost. I won't let myself do YouTube unless I have some basic understanding of how to make a video interesting.

5. You guys know my problems. Those are what I'm seeking help for.

6. This one is simple. I'm awful at blogging. But writing is a passion. And the best way to improve my writing, is to - wow - WRITE. The blog means a lot to me, it's helped me vent a lot, about a bunch of stuff. So I need to repay it by writing on the freaking thing.

Alright, well those are my New Year's Resolutions. I realize that this is a few days late, however, in my defense, I started it on the 1st. But then I got bored and gave up.

That's going to be it for now. I'd love to hear what resolutions you guys have for this year! Comments is always open and hungry.

Stay fresh till next week. Buh-bye!
Kaylee

Finals are Over

I'm so happy! I passed everything this semester. To most people, that's probably not that exciting because they do that every semester without a problem. But for me, and the last year and a half wild ride my mind has been on, this is an extraordinary thing. I haven't passed every single course I'm taking since the first semester of my freshman year at SFA.

It honestly has me reinvigorated and ready for next semester to begin. I'll be taking college algebra, intro to theatre, and photography. The photography class isn't a credit course, but I'm taking it for me. I love photography, I've always been interested, but over the last year it's become a huge passion of mine. It's going to be fun to see how much I can learn, and how much my photography can grow from this class. I may even take the Photography II class in the fall, but I'm not sure.

So let's talk about grades. The most exciting grade is my Biology lab final grade... A 100!!!! I was so surprised. I kept telling my mom he had to have made a mistake somewhere. But that grade is still up there! And the other exciting one is my Texas Government final grade, which is a 92. How exciting is that too?? I felt so happy and so proud of myself for making those grades.

That's all I have to share right now. Now that the semester is over, I wanted to share my good news about the grades and mention a bit about my positive attitude for next semester. I guess that's kind of some good news from my front!

Kaylee

Last Night's Crazy Events

I was trying really hard to get this written and up before 7 tonight, but my phone was refusing to work for me. So I had to wait until I got home. Anyway, here's my harrowing story.

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On Thursday, December 1st, around 9 PM, I started the trek toward San Marcos. For the past few months, I've been having some serious problems with my front passenger tire. Before I saw Jonathan for our anniversary I had the tire looked at and it turned out there was a screw in it. That explained why it kept going low on me. So we had it patched, had my ties aired up, and I left. Well, when I got back home, we noticed that my tire just kept getting low again. Mom bought a can of fix-a-flat and it's been fine since, not even losing much air over the last two weeks.

Well besides the tire continuing to get low, my car has been shaking pretty bad, as well as pulling to the right really hard. Jonathan wasn't comfortable driving it when I was here in November, that's how bad the pulling was. But the shaking and wobbling was what was really getting to me. I couldn't go a hair past 70 MPH without the car feeling like it was going to fall apart. Mom and I figured a new tire and a possible realignment would fix these things. But we were needing to wait until we had the money for those things.

Starting early this week, I noticed my front driver tire was starting to get low, but I ignored it. Mom told me before I left for classes Thursday afternoon (where I would start my trip from) that I needed to get it aired up. I stopped by QT (which have free air by the way) and put some air in my tire, and I also checked my left one. Everything seemed fine.

And it was. Just the usual amount of shaking and wobbling and uncomfortable grinding.

Then it happened.

Right before 11 PM, on the outskirts of north Waco, I felt a tire go out.

If anyone doesn't know, last summer, the summer of 2015, I was driving down to San Marcos to live with Jonathan for the summer. I ended up hitting something and blowing out two tires on my old car. Luckily I was only an hour out of town and my mom and brother were able to come to rescue. Three hours later, I was able to be back on my way.

Well, I was not just an hour away from home, and it was the middle of the night. I immediately burst into hysterics, trying calmly and slowly to pull my car onto the very small shoulder right by an exit. I called my mom and started crying and screaming, in total disbelief that this could be happening to me again. I said I didn't know which tire it was, maybe both. She told me to pull onto the access road.

I made my way down the ramp slowly, constantly screaming the mantra, "How is this happening to me again?" All the while my mom is talking in my ear, trying to calm me down.

Luckily there was an old gas station right off the access road with a paved driveway I could pull into. I was able to calm down a bit once I was off the highway, but I was still freaking out because I had no idea what I was going to do. When I got out of the car, I found that it was the front driver tire that had blown, the one that had just recently shown signs of having a problem.

It was then I remembered I have a spare, under the trunk of my car. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to get it down.

Now for the upswing!

That part of I-35 has a lot of construction, so they've had cop cars out there, not sure why, but I'm definitely never questioning it again. I told my mom there was a cop right across from me, sitting with his lights on. She told me to go talk to him.

Thank the heavens above, he was able to come over and help me. He also called for back up, so next thing I knew, two other cops pulled up, unloading jacks and equipment to get the tire off and put the spare on. During all of this, I'm still on the phone with my mom, narrating what's happening and speculating what could've happened. She suggested I ran over something or that I over filled the tire with air.

The three officers didn't talk to me much, besides asking questions and making sure I was watching to see how to get the spare down. But I didn't mind because I had my mom. But also because it was so much more relaxing for me to hear them bantering and joking than it would've been if they were constantly checking on me. I was able to laugh and enjoy some company, erasing the bad memory and filling it in with an example of good cops.

After the new tire was on, I was told I needed to fill it with air. They also told me it had blown out. I hadn't run over anything, I didn't overfill, the tire had just run its course in life. I shook hands with the original officer and gave my thanks, trying to hold back from hugging him.

While still talking with my mom, I made my way to a gas station where I filled the tire and then started back on my way to the highway.

It wasn't until I was back on the highway that I noticed the difference.

There was no shaking, no wobbling, grinding, or pulling. It was driving like a whole new car. When I exclaimed to my mother what was happening, she questioned if there had been a bump on my old tire. Then I remembered looking at the blown out tire, before it was loaded into my trunk, and feeling what looked to be a sizable raised hump.

More than likely, I had hit a curb during the summer and put a bubble into my tire, which then caused the problems I had been blaming on the passenger tire. This blow out resulted in a fixed car. For the most part. I still need to get new tires, now more than ever.

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That's my crazy, horrible night. I got so very lucky that there were officers nearby who were willing to help me out. I also discovered the problem with my car. While it was a pretty terrible time, so much good came from it. Hopefully I have better car luck in the future.

Thank you to my mom for staying on the phone with me while this all happened.
And thank you to the three police officers from McLennan County who helped me out. You'll never know how grateful I am to you.

Alright folks, that's a wrap. Keep your tires fresh people.
Kaylee