5.23.23 Hello Summer

5.23.23

• Dyeing my Hair;The End of an Era

The summer before my senior year of high school I dyed my whole head of hair blue and purple. And I kept up with it for six years. It was almost a defining trait, it was how my friends and family found me when I wandered off in public, it was the thing I got the most compliments on, it was honestly a really big part of my life. And I just re-dyed it black. Not quite my natural color but pretty damn close. 

It feels a little weird to look in the mirror and not see myself with blue hair, but I actually really like it. It feels different, it definitely looks different, but it looks amazing. For the last few months, I have been ready for it. It honestly looks right and as much as I loved the blue I think it was time. Not because I’m “grown up,” I totally would have kept it, but I think it was time for a change. Everyone jokes about a girl cutting her hair after a break up and graduating kind of feels like breaking up with my school in a way. 

I’ve started experimenting a bit with my style and what clothes I like more and more and I think this new hair is helping me settle into my style/aesthetic.

• Graduation 

Honestly graduation wasn’t all that great. It wasn’t bad but I don’t feel like it was all it was being hyped up to be either. But I did it! I walked the stage, I shook the college president's hand, and accepted my diploma holder. I mostly committed to going in hopes that I would get one last chance to have coffee with my older advisor. I did get to have coffee with him and he encouraged me to either start making videos about my travels and the places I go or to start a blog. I did not tell him that I already have a blog… Maybe once I start posting more study content and adventures overseas I’ll send him a link to this. But

considering I have put thought into starting a youtube channel and this is like the fourth person (whose opinion I value) to encourage this, I think that I’m going to start planning things out for a channel. 

Anyway, graduation happened. It was mid at best. I didn’t have the best time but I didn’t have a bad time. Honestly, the best part was eating out all weekend. We went to this Peruvian restaurant, picture to the left, and oh my god- it was so good. I had a fish meal as my main and had tres leches for dessert. We also got an appetizer that was made out of Yucca and that was delicious as well.

• Internships 

As for (most of) my summer I will be working as much as I can to try to save up some money. In an attempt to avoid working retail again, as I have for the last three years, I applied to nine paid internships. A few of them were in areas that I don’t have direct experience with, but that I felt confident in my ability to adapt to quickly and that would be beneficial to me. 

At the time I am starting to write this post (May 18th), I have received six responses. Five of them have been rejections and one of them was technically a rejection but also noted that no application was being accepted due to some restructuring that was happening internally. That internship was in a horticultural aspect of a historic park near where I live. The person who responded to my application material actually directed me to an opportunity to learn about archaeology, but unfortunately I don’t have the money at the moment to commit to that. I would have to pay to participate and it’s three days a week, 9am to 3pm, and regardless of if I work an internship or retail I wouldn't be able to commit to it.

I am still reaching out to the few that I haven't heard from but I am very quickly starting to feel discouraged and frustrated.

• Packing for Europe

I woke up the day after graduation (I accidentally slept for thirteen hours) to see that I had less than

nineteen days until my summer tripI have a graduation trip booked that will tour through the United Kingdom and I still had a bunch of things

I needed to get done. So yesterday I went to both of my banks, set up travel alerts and ordered foreign

currency. I went to Target to get a couple clothing items and a book for the plane. I also ended up getting a

second book because it’s been on my TBR for a little while now and I figured why not. I also went to

Walgreens to grab some travel sized items and a new umbrella and portable battery for my phone.

The only thing I  need now is an adapter for charging cords. I’m super excited and I have outfits planned

out with pieces that I can wear multiple ways. I’m planning on packing a checked bag and taking a

backpack as well.

As for making friends and meeting new people, I’m actually feeling pretty optimistic about it. Most of us are fairly active in an instagram groupchat and have been talking pretty frequently. We’ve been tossing out things that we might want to do in our free time as well as going back and forth on recommendations for packing. I am not actually the best at making friends, especially going into situations where I don’t know anyone, so this group chat has been really helpful. The only really solid plan that I have for a free day is for the day I have in London. A few of us are going to the British Museum and I am really looking forward to it. General admission tickets are free, you just have to book one so that they can keep track of how many people are coming and going. 

 

I think in an upcoming post I might try a lecture/lesson style and talk about a topic that interests me. Most likely this will be an adapted version of my senior paper. Just to try it out and get a feel for sharing information in this kind of format. You'll be able to look forward to learning about the Wars of the Roses. I am also planning on talking about my summer trip and doing some research on the places I go to s there's probably going to be a few posts relating to each other later on.

Until then, keep learning and exploring!

- Anne