30 Things to do before I’m 30

I know that this is super early to be thinking about anything so far away, but I know there are people who make these epic lists halfway through their 20’s and most never manage to finish them. So why not start at the age of 20 and give myself plenty of time to do everything fulfilling?

I’m not sure of everything I’d like to put on this list yet, but hopefully I will come back to this notion and add on as time goes by. I might not necessarily update my blog (no one reads it anyways, yay for being pretty much an online journal) but I’ll know that I have some sort of goal out there.

So here’s my starting point, awesome things to do within my next 10 years:

1. Complete a triathlon.
2. Be completely out of debt… that’s right, I’m already in it. Damn.
3. Skydive twice (so I don’t have to do a tandem dive at least once).
4. Go on a cruise.
5. Comfortably read the entirety of a French novel.
6. Donate blood.
7. Do the stereotypical “backpack across Europe” deal (become familiar with Hostels).
8. Be the driver while off roading.
9. Water ski.
10. Spend a luxurious week in Paris.
11. Visit Amsterdam and legally get high… frequently.
12. Jump off a high dive, then dive later.
13. Get two crazy piercings!
14. Learn to fly a plane.
15. Be an extra in a feature film.
16. Dye my hair. As crazy as this seems, I’m seriously afraid to change the way I look in a bigger way than I’m used to.
17. Go paint balling – not just on a small course that lasts a few minutes, but a whole scenario in the woods.
18. MY TOTALLY NOT SERIOUS, SOMEWHAT AMUSING FILLER UNTIL I REACH 30: Win an amateur night at a strip club and thus win an easy couple grand.

I’ll get to this later as more ideas come along. If anyone happens to read this and has suggestions or has a mini list of their own, let me know! I’m interested in the goals that you have as well as open to suggestions for other things for me to do… I DO intend to reach 30!

Friendship Loyalties?

Long time no type. Darn.

So I’ve recently had a pretty crazy weekend. I made fun decisions, bad decisions, but overall, no particularly important decisions (thankfully). One thing that I ended up doing, and I seriously regret for multiple reasons, was giving my ex boyfriend’s pledge brother a kiss. I really feel like I don’t need to get into the minor details, but I can honestly say on this blog that it was intended to be just a “wonder how this would be after being such good friends for awhile” sort of thing. It turned into a “pledge brothers side with each other in the most jerk ass ways possible” sort of thing.

When we all got back, my ex’s roommate/pledge brother let him know the skinny about his weekend. That included looking guilty and finally spitting out my mistake. Thanks a lot, jerk… not your business. Next time, try “you might want to talk to Sydney” before you go off and tell him I “made out” with his other pledge bro. “Making out” is a serious misconception. I mean, how did he know anything significant happened anyways? It was discreet and short. I see where my loyalties lay. Then, I later find that the person I made the mistake with was on his way to tell him what was up. Okay, seriously? You did it too, and the way you presented the information made me seem like the only person anyone should be angry at. After all these admittances and brotherly bonding, they continued to say everything I CONFIDED in them. That’s THE choice of words for what I did, because what I said to them was confident, from friend to friend. But the three of them pretty much asked why I would do that? They’re all closer in a weird bond than I could ever be with any of them. Sorry that I didn’t realize that when I was trying to talk, friend to friend, a year ago. So, they decided to share every little thing that made me sound like a bad person. With just the right tweaks, they managed to make me seem like a god awful person. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to talk with the ex last night to clarify a few things.

I’m just… appalled that people who I thought were my friends decided that anything could be shared with friends “higher up the chain”. What does secrecy mean to them? Maybe it’s… don’t tell anyone… unless you like them better than me. Knowing this, I really feel like I might have issues for a bit trusting anyone for awhile.

I’m really mad at the three of these guys right now. I wish I could have handled things on my own, especially considering how tiny the mistake was. I do not tell my best friends their problems or secrets even though I’ve heard a few. I try my BEST to stay genuine and trustworthy. I’m just really hurt and I wish that I didn’t hear the honest truth… that they don’t care about me enough to safeguard conversations during moments where I felt really sad and had to talk to someone. Forget them.

Teenage Angst

I can look back on my years in high school and easily summarize my “awkward teenage years” in three parts: 1. The shy, freakishly dorky moments of my freshman year; 2. The legit depression my sophomore year (nothing too extreme, though, I only met with a therapist less than a handful of times); 3. The crazy awesome years I experienced through my junior and senior moments of high school. My mom can agree to this, my sister acknowledges it, and my friends appreciated it: I wasn’t a dramatic little bitchy, whiny, gossipy high school kid. And thankfully, I’m out of that rut so I will never get planted with that title. However, having a sister still in high school and being an acquaintance of many a junior and senior this year, I’m aware that this plague is staying strong in others. Even seeing mere OMGZZZ from them on social sites made me want to gnaw my fingers off so I’d never be able to click on that site again.

And as a means of making myself feel a bit more relieved, I deleted these people from my myspace “friends list” instead of wasting time and energy continuing on with this blog. What proactive thing have YOU done today?

And, a giant thanks for the creator of yourscenesucks.com (Rob Dobi) for this well renowned image we all unfortunately get when we think of this misfortune of society.

I sure do want to be HER best friend.

Fake Bake

I’ve always been relatively uncomfortable with my skin tone – really fuckin pale. For while, I considered taking pretty gross measure to help remedy my (what I thought was a) problem. That typical solution? FAKE BAKING! Yay for the unnaturalness of tanning beds.

I’ve actually tried out a few trial periods prior to making any sort of committment with a tanning company. I went on a regular basis for a week only to show no results. What the fuck? I started realizing that my paleness is like a disease that won’t be cured. Then I figured… what if I just kept going? Shell out a few ten’s once a month for that bronzey glow? I mean, sure, I’d hate myself on the inside a little bit more for going against my gut and frying my skin, but isn’t it worth it to go against the naturalness of the winter skin color?

The sad thing is, I was willing to go along with that idea! However, I didn’t have money, and I’m glad I didn’t. In the winter… the majority of us are pale. It’s fucking cold outside! A majority of us will do whatever it takes to duck, cover, and run for the indoors! I don’t have the will to stay in the sun long enough with that much skin showing. And for those who actually have a strange, orangish tint to them in a winter… that just says way more than I’d hope for. I can look at a bronze girl and think “wow… was she really so insecure with herself that she had to risk a bit of skin cancer to go with this unnatural trend?” Why the fuck else would you do that to yourself, honestly? We’re all light skinned around this time, you can easily look the freak of the bunch with that lovely orange glow.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t find the precise words right now to convey the stupidity of this trend, so I’ll leave you with this.

Hot.

It Better be a HAPPY New Year

So, I pretty much suck. No, it’s okay you guys, no need to butter me up, I’m pretty aware that I SUCK at keeping promises to myself, to others, to anything I want to try. So, here’s my New Years Resolution list for the year 2008:

1. Obtain an internship
2. Learn how to do a round-off back hand spring
3. Find a place to try out trapeze and do so
4. Be on the Dean’s list at least once, I have 2 tries this year
5. Actually finish a lists of written tasks
6. Be able to run a mile in under 10 minutes
7. Attend every single class unless with liable cause to not do so
8. Have a regular study group
9. Learn to dance… something! Foxtrot, tango, I do not care.
10. Play a fearless audition (hahaha, this is THE least likely)

So, anything is bold is what I actually did. Well, that sucks. It’s just so… frikken EASY to give into temptation and sleep in or take a nap instead of going to class every once in awhile and I don’t do supplemental homework assignments to help get me Dean’s list. Thus, it has been decided that I will make more realistic goals to help me push myself toward those goals, because they’re still pretty awesome to have! AND HERE I DECREE MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS, TO KEEP UP WITH UNTIL 2010:

1. Do ALL homework that is suggested for me. No more of this “it’s optional” crap. The people who actually MAKE the Dean’s list frikken DO the homework, so don’t be so goddamn lazy, Sydney!
2. If I bought a planner, I’m pretty sure I should use it to it’s fullest. Don’t just write down dates for tests, get in quizzes, highlight them, DON’T MISS DEADLINES, don’t be dumb!
3. So apparently going to the gym is a great way to be less stressed. And, I mean, my friends and I keep telling each other we want to go in our free time… BUT WE DON’T. Hopefully we’ll find the motivation in us to actually GO and eventually, it’ll be something we look forward to.
4. Have a glass of soda once, maybe twice, a week. I already supplement water and juice, but I think I should a little bit more. And maybe I should be a little less reliant on the coffee…
5. Pull in my resources and regularly study – IN NEWMAN LIBRARY. Incidentally, that place is the SHIT.
6. For the love of God, keep studying regularly, and with other people. Cramming for exams suuuuuucks.
7. That internship is still sounding pretty juicy…
8. Save enough money to take a weekend to go on a fun trip to somewhere… at ANY time during the year. An epic trip NEEDS to be had.
9. Not failing isn’t enough – I want to freaking EXCEED and I have 5/8 left of my college career to make up for my mediocrity thus far. It WILL happen.
10. And finally, take my boyfriend along this crazy motivated journey. I don’t want to see him forced to change his major from something he loves to something he can just graduate with.

Hello?!?… Habitat for Humanity!!!

So for you few people who read this blog and don’t know this… I’m the fundraising chair for Tau Beta Sigma over here at Virginia Tech. Pretty much, I raise funds for both the sorority and different philanthropies and charities. My job also randomly entails other fun projects (such as making sure we’re active for Gold Rush, gathering groups for Acafestapella, etc…) but my primary focus in the fall is merchandise and SPIRIT WEEK.

It would actually be Spirit Week this week… oh the joys in creating different days, making sure the entirety of the Marching Virginians knows about the week, keeping track of competitive scores, and gathering money. Yeah, so that last part actually sucks… a lot. I mean, I found a FANTASTIC charity to which we can give this money. From the title of this blog, I hope you assumed that it’s “Habitat for Humanity”. Here’s the low down…

We actually have the opportunity to SPONSOR AN ENTIRE HOUSE. By giving a minimum (but quite large) donation to H4H, we have the opportunity to build a house on OUR field, have the crew members be OUR bandmates, and meet the people who will potentially live in this house. I really don’t want to seem selfish in the sense that I’m dying for credibility here, but I REALLY want the experience of building a house for a deserving family with people I’m really close to. HOWEVER, since this particular idea is not set in stone, we can’t exactly announce that Spirit Week will work in conjuction with this “MV H4H Fund” notion. We can only hope that the MV’s are gratutitous enough to donate money out of their pockets only to slowly help pay for yet another H4H house. But, after seeing the total of $7 donated after today I’m not remaining hopeful.

Man, I really want to scream this from the mountain tops.

P.S., I looooove (some people in) my section’s spirit and kind nature. Really, they’re some great people. Ha. Haha. Wow. Lying is fun.

Back In The Burg

There’s nothing much for me to say or vent about… I’m just stoked because I’m back in Blacksburg!!! And also… it’s been a few weeks since I last typed in this blog. Apparently, people actually read it so I may as well not let it die off like all of my other blogs.

So, band camp has officially started and the first people to sign up are percussionists! And even though I showed up to be helpful, like always, I had nothing to do when it came to actual registration. I unpacked new instruments and threw away boxes, met a few potential percussionists, and got my room key a few days earlier than I was supposed to! Yay on beating the crowds to move in!!! I can’t wait for the next couple of days, either. I was always the girl in high school who was uberhelpful when it came to running band and keeping things in order, so I’m ready to help people out and meet a few new potentials. Pretty much the ONLY thing I’m not looking foward to is my own audition. Son of a bitch, I hate auditions.

Hanging out off campus in Nic and Stephen’s apartment is awesome. This year will be great. I really have nothing much to say aside from irrelevant sentences. GO HOKIES. (:D)

Bear Builder

This summer I decided I absolutely needed a job. I feel as though I’m not far enough in my college education to have a position as an intern or do any sort of a desk job, or even be hired based off of my resume. I have definitely not worked at enough assorted places to look good on a resume. So, after roaming around the mall and asking for as many applications as I was willing to fill out, I turned in an application to Build-A-Bear Workshop. In all honesty, the only reason I got an application to that toy store was because my sister stressed how much she’s wanted to work there. I thought I might as well grab one, too. So, one group and a one-on-one interview later, my sister and I are the only people to be hired out of a 40 person pool. Honestly, I hardly thought that I wanted to work with kids. I personally got tired of them after babysitting for so many years and I would have rather dealt with any other sort of retail position. I thoroughly regret thinking that now.

Kids that go to Build-A-Bear Workshop are SO easy to please and always enjoy their trip to the store. BABW is the sort of place they look foward to as a treat, whether it’s a birthday present or a congratulations for getting honor roll. People collect these bears and clothes like crazy and some have so many I’m surprised there’s any room left in their bedrooms to hold them. However, most kids who count up to two handfuls of bears at home can easily recite to me the names and colors of each animal they still play with. A kid who has never been to the store always seems so amused and excited when I have them jump up and down and twirl around for their heart ceremony. They also never realized how many different kinds of clothes there are to dress up their new best friend and they can spend up to half an hour trying to find the perfect outfit. Although a lot of this may SEEM shallow on the kid’s end, they are really just trying to find something that works on their new favorite toy. Although it’s very fun and enjoyable to make the children’s experience in the store memorable, there are some things that happen when I help out families that leave an impression on me.

Take for example the couple of families who decided to get each child a new bear to replace all of their old stuffed animals. That were lost in a fire. They seemed pretty positive about the whole situation, but when I asked the girls about their old animals, they seemed pretty upset (I felt kinda bad). However, the whole premise behind the store is to have an experience. So, I was completely okay with helping the family off and on for half an hour trying to find the right animal for each person, stuffing it just right, and finding the perfect accessories. It was also fun to secretly help the mom find a great birthday present for her twins, one who shares a name with me! Other people came through in hopes to find something to help their dad whose in the hospital. Then, there were was a whole family who made a boy and girl bear, wearing wedding garments, ready to give to to their cousin and his new wife. A good tenth of the people who come in have a very scary or memorable event in mind while making a bear. It’s really heartwarming to see the kid be a little happy despite the event.

And, most of all, I love it when kids leave the store, but they first want to run up to me, give me a hug, and say thanks and bye, that they appreciated all the help I gave to them and their new best friend.

Hindsight Bias…

My sister just got her old information from a computer back, sent off 5 months ago, and I had the opportunity to go through a ton of old pictures of me, marching band, friends, stuff like that. While looking at the pictures I realized…

I miss high school marching band more than I should. There was just something about rehearsing the same song every Tuesday and Thursday night in the cool yet humid air of Virginia Beach. I also realized that we were pretty bad, I mean, I had the chance to see and hear a couple of videos and people just LOVE to crack notes while marching. But my sister took a LOT of pictures, starting with the first time we met our new band director (I’m sitting in the chairs in the auditorium, looking rather annoyed), through band camp, during shako practices, competitions, me out on field accepting awards, and colder practices. Even though we only practiced 3 times a week and had a competition on assorted Saturdays, those short months felt like they spanned for like a year. I also saw awkward band couples (I had the fortune, if you could call it that, if not having a weird hookup during marching band season) and remembered how much fun things were before something happened and people got dramatic. I can’t completely say that I regretted what happened in the end but things could have been happier. Damn life and the many courses it could take with the smallest actions…

I gave myself too hard of a time when it came to how I looked, acted, or just who I was in general. Like, I thought I was HIDEOUS all four years of high school. With some new and random light, my pictures show a fairly likable person. I can never actually say “wow, I’m hot” but I can definitely tell myself now I’m a litttttle cute and I always have been despite my awkwardness. I wish that I embraced that fact earlier so I wasn’t always hard on myself and could maybe take a compliment once in awhile, but me being stubborn, it took me a few years to realize. But, once again with the “life wouldn’t be different without it”, my personality may be a lot different if I thought earlier that people actually liked me for who I was. I became weird and interesting in a different sort of sense and I like that air about me. I might have just settled into one group because of my complacentness and never attempted to just get to know a few people in each little high school clique. I’m pretty well rounded and now I can understand where people can misinterpret impressions, and I’m also very empathetic because I know what it’s like to make a situation difficult and… I don’t know, at this point I’m rambling.

I miss my physics class. I mean, I only saw 4 pictures of it, but c’mon, there were SIX of us in it. That class was destined to be cool even though everyone in it knew exactly what they were doing, aside from me… Okay, maybe I had somewhat of a clue, but senioritis attacks in the most unfortunate ways . There’s not too much to say about them, except for yay for me, Taylor, Kevin, Michael, Xenia, Adam, and Hoots!

But most of all, I realized high school wasn’t as bad as I claim it is now. I really miss bits and pieces more than I expected. However, although I have the memories and sometimes wish I could have those moments back, I know I’ll be able to completely let go and accept the fact that I’m growing up and I’m in college now. And that no matter how much I loved high school memories, VT moments kick ass at least ten times harder.

Green Building… What?

Engineering Education 1024 can do things to people. By this I mean a huge variety of effects, such as create a new detest toward the EngE classes in general, learn to hate group projects that end up being mostly theoretical, and have a gratefulness for the curriculum on which it focuses; namely, sustainable energy! I actually ended up liking the class for the most part despite the complaints of my fellow classmates, mostly because our focus on sustainable energy and alternative solutions to our current power crisis. I’ve always been somewhat environmental and a bit “hippieish” (really, I can’t think of any word that suits it better) in the nature sense, so thinking of ways to kill fewer trees and burn up less gas would be fantastic. My inital decision to “do my part” consisted of using less electricity, recycling, and utilize transportation methods. Although these are fantastic steps, it’s not a bad thing to want to be more proactive, right?

So, I decided to rampage the nearest Borders in hopes to find something, ANYTHING, about ways of going green. Possibly a cookbook of just organic food, or how to create blends of chemical free cleaning supplies?After an hour and a half of searching on my own, on the in-store catalogue, and pestering a sales associate, I concluded that I wouldn’t find anything in there. Disappointed, I went back home to announce to my mom the entire reason for my trip there was completely nonexistant within the boundaries of the store, so she decided to google for a book. (For real, I know this word has been considered a verb for awhile, but I still find it hilarious.) The first result gave me the website for the Sierra Club. Apparently, they give weekly newsletters with ways to help improve the environment and different clubs and charities that are in effect. I thought this was pretty cool and actually had intentions upon paying a pretty hefty fee a joining it. Before I even printed out a copy of the application to join (for some reason, these things require an application despite the fact that they let everyone join, just call it a damned information sheet), I decided to add the Facebook App. It’s very much free. I very much like this . Especially since my mom distracted me with yet another group before I decided to shell out my money to the Sierra Club.

(WARNING: this paragraph might get a little boring to the majority of people.) Being part of an architecture firm, my mom is required to go to multiple seminars in hopes to report the newest innovations to those working above her. Recently, she went to a LEED seminar, which, she claimed, would be something I should consider. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rating system within the US Green Building Council. Being LEED certified pretty much means I paid for $300 information sessions and exam in the end to prove I know what it takes for a building to meet today’s standards on a sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Being LEED certified would be an amazing on my behalf because I’d know how to make things more effective, something that I REALLY want to do, plus it gives me a better chance on being hired as soon as I’m able to put this on my resume. I plan on doing this around my junior or senior year .

So, as a beginning step toward becoming green friendly, I joined HRGBC, which stands for Hampton Roads Green Building COUNCIL (I ALWAYS ALWAYS forget what that damned “C” stands for, so if I’ve ever mentioned to you this organization and left out the “C”, there ya go). I get a few e-mails and notifications of seminars. Also, along with visiting these seminars my parents flip over my NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES. Honestly, it’s not the main reason why I wanted to join but, hey, they’re right. So while I get to learn the technology of how a green building works instead of just the concept, I’ll have the opportunity to work my way into a company I could actually work with for a long period of time.

I’m so excited to actually be getting somewhere WHILE helping the environment… I’m a goober.