Life Before School

 Hello, everyone! It's been sometime since my last post. I've been occupied with preparing for school, finding a job, and meeting new people. As I've mentioned before, I am not from the Tampa area, so I'm still exploring the place. In particular, I've been navigating my way on the USF campus. I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last post, but, I am officially a Bull at the University of South Florida!! I began my first week on the 25th of August, and it was hectic. Specifically, seeing the thousands of students who are also attending USF. I came from a state college, so coming to a university is a lot scarier than I anticipated. Good thing I explored the campus more, prior to the start of classes. My goal was to make sure that I CONFIDENTALLY knew where to go every day, and that paid off greatly. I took some pictures along the way and I've been playing with my camera to get a feel of editing my photos, as I'm also doing photography as a hobby. However, what I want to talk about particularly are the few days prior to starting school at USF.

So, my sister works at a pilates studio and because of that, she has access to free events. She decided that it would be a fun experience for her and I to go to an event held in the Tampa Bay area. The event is called the Social Wellness Club in Tampa, and I had the best time there. This was an event that brought in instructors of various professions in health. From pilates instructors to HIIT instructors. They also had various booths selling their sparkling waters and energy drinks. This was an event that had everything from cold plunges to massages. My sister and I, along with a good friend of hers, took a mini yoga class that I would rate an 8/10. The workout wasn't difficult to do, but since there was a live instructor teaching us, I couldn't hear much from her, even with the mic on. Another situation was that it was raining a little that day. However, that didn't stop us from enjoying our time together. As I mentioned, there were cold plunge areas for people to try. I've set that into my bucket list to challenge myself -- and I ENJOYED IT!! It was extremely cold, but as someone who loves a good old challenge, I decided to see how long I could stay in there for. My record was 3 minutes. I was both shocked and proud of myself for achieving that goal. The first time that I went in, it was just me and my sister's friend. The second time (yes...I did this a second time), her friend, and I had to convince her to try it out. It took some time, but we got her in and...... she DIDN'T love it. However, I found this as a great opportunity to go through, and I would definitely try that again, just not in my workout gear. We also tried out leg compressors, which I loved (9/10), and these muscle massagers. I don't remember exactly what the name of that massage technique is called, but it was a skill under the profession of a chiropractor. I found the feeling of it to be okay, but the aftermath wasn't great. A few days later, from my neck to my shoulders, I was in pain. It was a sharp pain whenever I would turn my head, and I did not enjoy that. So, I would rank this a 3/10. There are some people who may enjoy spending their money and free time on a chiropractor, but personally, my sister and I would never do this again. That day, was fairly long, but amazing!

Day's later, my sister and I went back to Midtown Tampa to try out a place that my sister loves! It's called "William Dean Chocolates." I would say that I'm very sensitive with the sweetness of chocolates, so I was fearful of all of these flavors surrounding me. So, I decided to get a mousse cake. The first time that I ever saw a mousse cake was from a mukbang creator (Fun fact, I love mukbang videos), and ever since then, I've been searching for a bakery that sells them. Fortunately, there was one left, so I took it. The chocolates that I had contained a fruity filling inside, which made it a lot sweeter. I had two milk chocolates with a mango and coconut fill to it. I'd rank this a 6/10 only because I have a very low tolerance to sweets, and I always fear a heart attack approaching. For the mousse cake, I'd rate it an 8/10. It was sweet as well, with it's creamy filling, but wasn't as sweet as the chocolates. The decor of the chocolates in that place were beautiful and creative. I didn't know that you could do so much with making chocolate. I don't know if any of you know this movie, but I told my sister that the chocolates reminded me of a scene from the Barbie movie, "Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia," where these three mer-fairies had these adorable designed goodies for Bibble.

My social view on it all that weekend, was decent. I was nervous walking into the fitness event, so socializing then was a little rough for me. I don't know if many of you go through this situation, but whenever someone talks to me or I force a conversation, I end up jumbling my words. I get SO embarrassed afterwards because I still, at times, struggle to further converge in a conversation. Additionally, parts of me did feel excluded at times because I didn't know my sister's friend. So, they had more to talk about rather than her and I. I'm the type of person not willing to push a conversation time and time again if there's nothing to talk about. Also, I'm 20 years old, so, I SHOULD be talking to people around my age, but that can be difficult at times because I see them as an adult, but don't see myself as one yet. I've struggled with this since the day I turned eighteen and headed off to college. There are a lot of things that college students do that I get anxious to do myself. However, I've been pushing myself out there to meet new people, and it has been going well for me. Focusing on my academics is important in college, but my goal after graduating high school was to be more involved on my campus and socialize.

A few days later, I'd finally received my A.A. degree from my previous college. So, it felt official that I was becoming an adult. Throughout all of July and August, I've been reading a true crime novel called "Art Thief" by Michael Finkel. If you're someone who enjoys true crime or just interested in art, I would highly suggest reading this book. For me, I enjoy both, so I found this to be a great fit. What's great about this book is that the criminal actually get's interviewed in this novel. So, I was able to actual information from the original source. I used to read books regularly in high school, but then college came and I was solely focused on my academics and couldn't find the time to read because of the stress. During my break, however, I decided to get back into it. I still struggle with my consistency, but I try to remember to read whenever I can. Since I finished my first book, I've recently been reading this psychological novel called "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" by Philip Zimbardo. Now, this book is very graphic, as it explains some of the most disturbing crimes in history. So, if you can't handle that, I would not advise you to read this. It can get very emotional as well, so be prepared if you DO read it. However, it's a great book, and the author worked extremely hard, to get the information that he needed. So, it was hard on him as you can imagine. It's weird, I truly have no idea what got me into wanting to read true crime and psychological novels. I mean, I do enjoy true crime, but only on tv. So, reading it was slightly different, but enjoyable. I'd rate "The Art Thief" a 10/10. I'm slightly shocked by my own rating because I was going to rate a 9/10 because the main character in that novel ticked me off so much towards the end, but that made me love reading it even more. Since, I haven't the entire novel of  "The Lucifer Effect...", as of right now, I would rate it a 6/10 only because I would sometimes get lost during my reading hours because I struggle to maintain my focus when reading at times. So, I was only able to catch so much. Also, the fact that I haven't read the entire novel, my rating will remain this, but it is a good book as of right now.

In late of August, school started. So, I've just been busy with meeting my professors, doing some assignments, and joining clubs & organizations. So, this has been my life so far. I do hope to explore more on and off campus, like going to football games (which I plan on doing this semester), so that I can show you all more of my life here in the beautiful Tampa area. 

Bye you guys, and I'll talk to you all later!! The name I'm gonna call you guys is Blossoms.

So, bye my Blossoms! Grow within yourself and others (All of these pictures are photographed by me)!