Monday, December 19, 2016

She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility.


It is a time to refresh! There are many reasons to let go and relax a little bit right now, which always helps me to feel refreshed. While I'm not the biggest fan of change, as you know, endings and beginnings can be good and exciting. I've got three exciting and refreshing changes happening right now, so I wanted to share a little bit about them with you.

The semester is over

Another semester at the University of Iowa has come to an end. It's hard to believe that I've finished five semesters at Iowa and only have two left. Having only two semesters left technically makes me a senior, and I've got many mixed emotions about that.

This semester went by so fast, and it may have been my busiest semester yet. While I took fewer semester hours, I also had an internship this semester. Logging on and working during those set hours during the week meant there was less time during the day to do homework, which meant I was doing more of it at night. Overall, my internship was an amazing experience, and I'm so happy that I did it. It's hard to find internships to do during school, so being able to do it remotely worked out perfectly. I didn't post much of my work throughout the semester, so if you want to check out everything I wrote for Her Campus (nationals) during the semester, you can check out my author page.

My experiences with my classes this semester was also a little different than usual. It seemed like every single class was an experiment of some kind. A couple of them were newer classes, so my professors were kind of figuring out how they wanted to teach and assign work and such. It's not fun being the guinea pig; in fact, it can be pretty frustrating at times. But for the most part, I really liked most of the classes I took this semester, and I definitely learned a lot.

Winter break has begun

And obviously the best part about a semester ending is the break that comes after it! It's definitely hard to choose which break I like better, winter or summer. They each have their good and bad qualities. Though winter break is shorter, it's also the most wonderful time of the year. Of course I had to bring Christmas into this! It's the time of year we all look forward to: family, giving, goodies, lights, good cheer. What's not to love?

Break is always a good time to do some me-stuff that I don't necessarily have time for when I'm at school and busy with homework and studying and Her Campus and internship stuff. I haven't gotten to read a book for fun all semester. Sure, I got to read some pretty great stuff in my Adolescent Literature class, but it's just not the same when it's assigned versus when I get to read for fun. I've got a list of books that I want to read over break, so my goal is to make it through the whole thing.

Plus, there are tons of things I need to watch! Movies, television shows, and so on. I've got tons of recommendations that I want to look into.

But I'm most excited to just hang out with my family. I get homesick when I'm away at school, so the best thing I can do over break is just hang out and be with them. Whether we're eating dinner together or watching Christmas movies, my favorite memories are spent with my family.

sarahndipity has a new look

As you've probably already noticed, sarahndipity has a new look! I've been wanting to make some changes to this blog for a while, so I spent a couple of my first days of break designing and tweaking a few things. I'm super excited about the new look! Plus, I have some exciting projects and changes planned for sarahndipity in the new year, so stay tuned for even more fun changes!

What do you like to do with your time off? What makes you feel refreshed?

Lots of love,
Sarah

Kate Chopin, "The Awakening"