thebabyperks

Signing up for senior year classes is quickly approaching, January to be specific. I remember freshman year like it was yesterday and the fact that I'm almost finished with high school is exciting but nerve-racking at the same time.

I have been looking at Truman State for around a year or so. The September Showcase was yesterday, Saturday, and I had the opportunity to attend. I fell in love with Truman just looking at their website for the past year and finally being on campus secured my love. The campus fits me so well and I can tell even from only being there eight hours.

Inside the library

It's a smaller college, with around 6,000 undergrad students. I personally love that because the student to teacher ratio is smaller, on average 16:1. This means you can connect with your professors and peers and work toward a well-rounded education.

Violette Hall, where a lot of Business classes are held

Every person I talked to was wonderful, none of them were rude or negative. Truman is usually ignored by most people because of the "it's in the middle of no where and there is nothing to do" mentality. The college students I talked to said it is all about what you make of it. If you join organizations and get involved then it isn't going to be boring, if you just sit in your room and sulk about being in a small town, yes it is not going to be enjoyable. 

Some of the Quad

At one point during the day, the school had you divided out by the major you are thinking about and there was a seminar. I attended the School of Business "seminar" and there the professors talked and there was also a board of undergrad and grad students. From what they presented, I know that the Business school seems like a great fit for me. The professors have a good connection with their students because the class sizes are smaller. The professors are able to learn who the students are as people outside of the classroom. 

And some of the Residence Halls

As you can see from the pictures I took, the campus is beautiful. Truman has been able to preserve the older brick buildings while still keeping it modern and updated on the inside. The campus is so serene and everything is close by. I loved it so much.

There is so much more I could talk about but I will save it to this for now. 

Until next time,
Taylor xx

A few days ago fall was in the air. It was 55 in the morning and got up to the low 70s by 3 pm, and I could finally start wearing fall clothing. The past two days, however, it has been 84, EIGHTY-FOUR. Missouri is in an awkward transition between summer and fall, and it just needs to switch to fall already. I'm tired of the humidity and heat. So while fall was present I wore a cute outfit and thought I'd share it with you.

So apparently jean-on-jean is back in style and I'm ready to live out that trend. I decided to pair my dark skinny jeans/jeggings with a lighter blue jean jacket and blue muscle t-shirt. I wore this shirt to the One Direction concert and to my birthday, you can wear it with almost anything.

My face looks really shiny because it was really hot in my house and I hadn't reapplied my makeup, sorry

A beautiful photo of my jacket, I know. Jean Jacket and Blue Muscle Tee (Underneath): JC Penney

Black combat boots Blue Skinny Jeans/Jeggings: American Eagle

There wasn't too much to show but I thought it would be something different than me rambling. 

Until next time,
Taylor xx

One of my all time favorite television series is "The Biggest Loser". I have been watching the series ever since I can remember.

The basis of the show is that obese people come to the "ranch", where three personal trainers devote their time to help these people live a healthy lifestyle. The contestants of divided into teams by trainer and there is a weigh-in every week. The team who has the lowest percentage of weight loss takes the two people who lost the least amount of weight and they vote one of them off. By the end of the season it is narrowed down to the top three. There is a HUGE season finale where all the voted off contestants come to weigh-in to see how much weight they've lost. Then the top three weigh in, and whoever loses the highest percentile of weight wins $250,000 (there is also an at-home prize winner for the voted off contestant who loses the most). 

This season is different for many different reasons. One, Jillian is not returning. Jillian was one of my favorite trainers because she tells it how it is. She seems like the worst personal trainer but she is how she is because she wants to make a change in the contestants lives. That's the reason they are there, right, to lose weight? Due to Jillian's leaving, they've hired two new trainers to accompany Bob and Dolvett. When Jillian didn't return one season, ratings went down a lot and I'm afraid that is going to happen again. Jillian had so much experience and could really relate to the contestants and I'm afraid that the new trainers won't do as well. 

The biggest change is the type of contestants. All of the contestants this year are previous athletes. I haven't started watching the new season because I've been really busy but from what I've saw, there is a woman on the show who used to be the fourth best tennis player in the world, as well as Olympic athletes.

I don't know if I'll be able to sympathize with the contestants as much as I've done in the past. The past contestants have had some powerful stories and problems. The contestants this year HAD a great, healthy lifestyle and ruined it. I'm sure there are still going to be some powerful stories as to why they gained weight and ended up on the ranch but I know it is going to be way different.

So what do you think? Have you watched "The Biggest Loser" before, and did you like it? What do you think is going to happen this season? Leave it in the comments below.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

I have a journal where I write down quotes and random thought provoking ideas. This week is my first "layout" week, where the newspaper staff stays after school progressively longer until the newspaper is finished being put together Thursday night. Today we stayed after until 5:30. I should probably be doing some extra studying right now but I got what I had to accomplish done and I'm worn out.

My stress about school is what lead me to my post today. This is what I journaled about yesterday.

The thing that stresses me out the most is the future. Every little thing I do at 16 is going to affect me when I'm 25. Yes, one bad assignment might not ruin me, but an accumulation of disappointing assignments will. AP English is known for its difficulty but I try so hard in it. The decision lies in whether to push myself in the hard class or pass with flying colors in the easy class. The amount of pressure my grades put on me are outrageous. My parents aren't even the ones who put the pressure on me, I alone put enough pressure on myself. I took difficult classes because they interest me (intro to marketing, AP English). Do colleges actually look at my transcript or the GPA besides it. Do honors organizations care about the type of classes I'm taking or the numbers and decimals beside them. In a world full of "new" thinking, it seems we're consumed in image rather than quality. I'll go to bed with my grades scrolling through my head, keeping me up at night, but don't worry, our school is still one of the best in the state. I'll be graduating in a year and a countless amount of people have told me high school is the best time of your life. If people could only recognize how much more demanding school is now than it was six, ten years ago...

Until next time,
Taylor xx

Today was the day that I declared I was "cold". If you do not know, I live in Missouri (some call it misery), where two days ago it was 90 degree outside but today the high was 56...

It has only been one day of "cold", fall weather, but that was enough for me to break out my sweatshirts and yoga pants. Or for some, ordering their pumpkin spice lattes and breaking out the UGGs. 

I'm going homecoming dress shopping tomorrow with my mom so I think we will be getting our first Pumpkin Spice Lattes of the year from Starbucks.

I decided to jump on the pumpkin trend early on in the season and make pumpkin muffins.

I used Libby's pumpkin muffins recipe, here. 

Ingredients:
3 c. flour
1 Tbs. + 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
      **I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I used allspice. Allspice is really powerful so I used two teaspoons of it instead of one tablespoon and two teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice**
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt

I planned on posting this last week but life happened and I got busy. Last week was a 3 day week because we got Memorial Day off as well as the next day because the teachers had meetings. I made it my goal to dress nice for some of the week. See, I have a theory, or better a method to how I dress. I try to dress nicely during the beginning of the year so that as the year goes on I don't have to try. Then by the end of the year I'm wearing jean short and a t-shirt. Heck, I've already started doing this. 

 Close up of the design
 If you watched my "Back to School Haul" video on YouTube, I hauled this  (here). I got this jean jacket big, one because my shoulders are huge, and two because I like my clothes bigger and more roomy/cozy. 

Tank top: PacSun
Jean Jacket: JC Penney
Shorts: I believe Aeropostale around 2 years ago
 My jacket actually photographed well so that was nice