thebabyperks

As I wrapped up the spring semester I was overwhelmed to say the least. These past two weeks, though, I've had time off to relax and it was honestly the best thing that could have happened to me. I've been able to read (5 books already!), write, and workout.

During times of complete stress it is easy to go through the motions of what needs to be done. For me, I can feel like there is no purpose besides getting to the end goal. Breaks like summer and winter break are a great way to reevaluate my purpose.

What do I think my purpose is? There could be a lot of answers, but my focus now is finding balance. I want to find balance within school, work, health, and family/friends. Towards the end of last semester I was so stressed that I sometimes neglected healthy eating and spending time with people.


Tomorrow I start my internship! I'm so excited, but I know that I could get overwhelmed. My goal is to breathe, embrace my role as an intern, and find that balance. I hope that this will prepare me for going back to school in August. I'll immediately jump into spirit week, executing pre-recruitment events and then sorority recruitment itself. That entire 2-3 week process combined with starting school is always stressful, but I know that if I mentally prepare I can handle it.

I'm so excited to go into my junior year of college at Drury. I'm also excited to live life with purpose-- seeking balance.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

There are a lot of problems that are worse than what I'm about to talk about, but my skin has impacted my life and I wanted to talk about it. It's hard because this isn't a "please pity me" post, it's a post that I want to share to document a challenging time, and hopefully be able to look at later thankful that it ended.

It's not just the redness that bothers me, I'm constantly itching. Like all. of. the. time. I even will wake up to me itching my body in my sleep. It's just so frustrating because over the past few months I have done so much research without any answers.
I was able to see my primary care physician two days ago and he said to cut out dairy for 3-4 weeks and see if that helps. He also did blood work to check my thyroid and scan for other autoimmune diseases. I'm hoping that the blood work will come in soon and I'll finally have some answers. As much as I don't want anything to come back wrong, I hope it does so at least I know what's happening with my body. I have a dermatologist appointment coming up this week so I'm hoping they will also help me find some answers.

Obviously my skin problems aren't the worst thing in the world, but they destroy my confidence. I hate constantly having to itch and feel like people are looking at me because of my skin. I want to be able to reclaim my confidence and solving my skin problems would help that so much.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

It's wild because it feels like just yesterday I was shuffling to class in the 0 degree weather, but today I ran outside and it was 82 (honestly I'm sure that could happen... I do live in Missouri).

This week is going to be a huge transitional time in my life. First, Kappa Delta had our alumnae ceremony and brunch this morning. While all of the senior class members have impacted me, I'm especially sad to see Shaylyn and Allyson Penner go. Shaylyn has been the best grandbig a girl could ask for and I'm so excited she'll be at Drury for another year. Allyson, there are no words to accurately describe just how much you mean to me, but I know you know without me saying them. 

My finals week is this week, but last week was when everything was due: I had a presentation every day, a 32 page Organizational Crisis and Change paper, a 24 page accounting paper, my entire week was absolute insanity. However, I now only have to go to 2 finals but it's only to listen to other people present projects. 


At the end of the week I'm driving home to O'Fallon and then coming back to Springfield with my mom to watch David and my friends graduate. As much as David says he hates crying, I've already cried a lot and anticipate on crying more at graduation.

Okay, now that I've caught everyone up on where I am in life, I thought I'd recap some of my biggest accomplishments this semester. I don't normally do this, but I've worked on a lot of projects that I've poured my heart and soul into.

VP PR for Kappa Delta
While this obviously was not a school project I have loved being able to serve as the Vice President of Public Relations for Kappa Delta. I've been working hard all semester to develop a solid social media plan going into the summer/pre-recruitment. I love what I do and love what my chain of command has been able to accomplish so far (and I know it'll only get better next fall)!

SecondAthlete
I'd be surprised if you didn't know because I've talked about it a lot on Facebook, but I finally launched my website, SecondAthlete. It was probably one of my biggest stressors just because I wanted it to live up to my ideas from the beginning. I presented my website to a panel of Springfield professionals on Tuesday and they all loved my site and my content. It made everything this semester worth it.

Comprehensive Crisis Communication Plan
In my Organizational Crisis and Change class, the first half was dedicated to creating a crisis communication plan for a Springfield nonprofit. My group worked with Isabel's House and were able to present our final plan to their community liaison. 

#MeToo Movement Paper
During the second half of my crisis and change class we looked at sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement. I spent the second half of my semester looking into sexual harassment in journalism. Then I wrote that 32 page paper I mentioned above about Matt Lauer and the actions NBC needs to take to handle sexual harassment. I have been a loyal fan of the Today Show, but looking into NBC's culture, it was startling.

Internship
If you didn't read from one of my blog posts a bit ago, I got an internship! It's with Charter Spectrum Communication and I'll be working as an Internal Communications intern. I am so, so, so excited. I don't know a lot of details yet but I'm ready to continue learning and be a part of a great organization.

So there's a {long} recap of my semester! I'm sure I'll update you all again after graduation!

Until next time,
Taylor xx