YouTube Recommendations

As you all know, YouTube has become a huge portion of my life. As my channel has grown (I have 83 subscribers, which is crazy in and of itself) I have also expanded my horizons on what I watch. I know I've given you all some YouTube recommendations before but here are some more. 

Ps: I'm going to try to bring up people I've never talked about before but I apologize if bring someone up that you know I've already mentioned.

Beauty Vloggers:
The YouTubers who talk about clothes, makeup, hair, etc.
    I love her overall personality, her haul videos, and honestly her and her boyfriend Will's relationship is my goal in life
    I love her empties videos and makeup reviews
I actually first heard about Jordan when Kylie Jenner showed a picture of her using her hair extensions. From then on I've LOVED Jordan's makeup tutorials. Plus her life story is inspirational and you definitely need to check her out.

Life Stuff:
For lack of a better term these are my favorite YouTubers who challenge social norms and have learned/are learning how to express who they truly are. These YouTubers also give great advice and cover a variety of really important topics
     He gives the best advice and talks about anything and everything on his channel. He finally moved out to LA and he just makes me happy
She's just super cool and her poetry is beautiful. She also moved to London for university, so she is basically living the dream

Topic-y:
Again, for a lack of a better term these are my favorite YouTubers that discuss a specific topic each week and are super creative and funny
Mikey is boyfriend goals. His videos are always unique and different from everyone else in the YouTube community. He's also adorable, and can make me laugh which is important.
I love his British vs. American comparison videos. I just recently found his channel but I have really enjoyed it
She's a pretty big YouTuber, mainly known for her "My Drunk Kitchen" videos, but I just love her and her personality. Her videos are always something I look forward to watching

Musicians:
His "Blue Neighborhood" three part music video series was incredible. I have loved seeing him grow his music.

Okay so those are all the YouTubers I am going to recommend for now. I have linked each YouTubers channels to their bolded name so you should just be able to click the name and it will send you to their channel. Be sure to let me know who some of your favorite YouTubers are so I can add them to my sub list. 

Until next time,
Taylor Perkins

I Quit SWIM!?!? *Life Updates*

I cannot believe it has been two weeks since I last blogged. Actually, if I'm being honest I can. My life has been super crazy these past two weeks and I've barely had time to breathe. 

Starting with two weeks ago...
It was layout week (*cue cheers*). I talk about layout week a lot on this blog and in life in general because newspaper is a huge part of my life. If you don't know what it is, once a month (respectively) the newspaper staff stays after school in increasing time increments so we can finish that issue of the paper. If you go to Timberland be sure to pick up a paper, we distributed them on Friday! On layout night we were only at school until 9:30 rather than 10:30 like last issue which was a positive. 

On top of that, though, we had our first of two large tournaments at the concession stands. Over 120 teams from around the Midwest (and I believe some Canadian teams, too) were playing last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I worked at the soccer stands, and then one of the smaller baseball stands so we honestly weren't crazy busy but adding layout on top of it all equals an exhausted me.

This week...
This was basically my attempt-to-catch-up but still fall behind week. Layout is stressful but it's also satisfying because you see your ideas come to life. However, I do this by justifying how I really don't need to study my English vocab or do a college algebra assignment after layout, which consequently makes me fall behind. Plus some other stressful decision making had to happen this week which left me in tears three separate times during this past school week.

Then, the second tournament this weekend at work is even bigger -- 150 teams are here. I worked last night 4:30-11:30, got up and took the ACT this morning at 8:00 and then work tonight from 4:30-11:30. I'm not upset by this at all because I really enjoy and love the concession stands, if anything I'm just very tired. 

But what you all really read this for...
Yes I quit swimming. I made an entire YouTube video about it and at the time I felt like I didn't say everything I needed to say. However, as I have watched it back and gotten feedback from it, I'm really happy with what I said. If you haven't watched the video click here

Here's the run down-
I am a people pleaser and I focus so much on making other people happy that I never make time for myself. I took on a little (okay a lot...) more than I thought I could handle this winter. As I tried explaining it to people, a lot of people who are close to me understood, while others did not. Swimming is not my future, yes it's been a huge part of my life but for right now my time is consumed with newspaper and advanced marketing stuff. I'm happy with that though because I want to major in Public Relations and Advertising so both of those classes/ extracurriculars will help me grow toward my future goals. When I started swimming freshman year, it was a stress relief. After January of this year, swim was more of a burden and worry than it was worth. Over the summer I didn't swim on a summer league for the first time since third or fourth grade, and I can truly say I didn't miss it. I am still a part of the HS Tri Club and I'm still training with them, but I can honestly say that I'm super excited to have this winter off. It'll be extremely nice to be able to actually enjoy the Christmas spirit and all the festivities instead of worrying about practice.

Okay so that was basically a long blurb of my thoughts. Definitely check out the video for a somewhat more organized version of all those thoughts, and I expand more on why I quit there.

I'm going to go try to do my College Algebra homework now.

As work winds down, and as I now have some time in the winter, I hope to blog more frequently now, so look out for more of my posts.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

World Mental Health Day

Today is World Mental Health Day, and if I'm being honest I didn't know until I saw John Green tweeting about it. While I didn't know the exact date, World Mental Health Day is extremely important. 

In America we try to shy away from discussing mental health. Our society fails to properly address mental health and how it affects people, especially young adults. America's mantra seems to go something like this- "keep going and even if you want to stop, don't", while this thinking has gotten us far, it has taken its toll. People don't have time to breathe, they work for hours on end and then get home and still feel the pressure of work, family, friends, etc. For me personally, I recognize the fact that, yes, I probably should talk to someone but at the same time I feel like I don't have enough time to take out of my day and talk to a professional. This thinking is wrong, I shouldn't feel guilty about taking the necessary steps to improve my sense of living. 


Tweets from John Green
Mental Health can be scary, there are so many unknowns and we are constantly finding out new information about the brain. The first step is acknowledgement. Research how you're feeling, and talk to someone. Maybe you can't speak to a professional but just talk to someone who is open and willing to listen to your problems. This could be anyone: a friend, a teacher, a counselor, a family friend. Just make sure it is someone who you are comfortable with and can honestly share how you feel. 

If you have time, go to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website and read about mental illness. I found this info graphic on mental illness and the here are some of the findings.
    - Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in youth ages 10-24
    - 50% of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14 and 75% are by age 24
    - There is a delay period of 8-10 years between the onset of symptoms and actual intervention

We can change the stigma surrounding mental illness, and World Mental Health Day has generated more initiative to recognizing the steps we all should take.

Until next time,
Taylor xx



Sources: 
-http://www.nami.org/getattachment/Learn-More/Mental-Health-by-the-Numbers/childrenmhfacts.pdf

- www.nimh.nih.gov