One Love❤️💛💚💙💜

On Friday, June 10th, I left Orlando to visit my family back home for a little while. I just now returned to Orlando (6 days later) and I still cannot get over all of the horrific things that happened while I was gone. On Friday night, a young singer named Christina Grimmie was shot and killed after a performance here in Orlando. She was only 22 years old. She had her entire life and career in front of her and now it's gone. If that wasn't horrible enough, on Saturday night (technically early Sunday morning, June 12th, a gay night club called Pulse was attacked by what the news is calling a terrorist. This man committed what will now be known as the worst mass shooting in U.S. History! 49 lives were taken from this earth and 53 are still fighting for their lives as I write this. I have been to this club. Personally, I prefer LGBT friendly clubs because they are welcoming and as a woman, I never feel unsafe in clubs like this. It was a Saturday night, I could have very well been at that club that night. I could have been one of the 49 victims that didn't get to wake up the next morning. I can't even imagine the phone call to my parents. My mom would have probably just killed herself after hearing the news that I was shot to death. I have spent all week reading article after article. I have learned about the victims and the lives that were cut far to short for them. It makes me so emotional. Personally, I didn't know any of the people that were killed but they were human beings that were friends, daughters, mothers, sons, dads, wives, husbands, partners, and more. Most of them were in their 20s. They were going to school and just starting their lives! The fact that one man whom is so incapable of acceptance or even just tolerance of all people we share this earth with just blows my mind. My heart hurts for all the lives that were lost and all the families and friends that are mourning those losses right now. Moving to Orlando in 2013 changed my life. I would have never been exposed to all the cultures and groups of people that are here. I am from a town that is mostly white and I honestly never even knew of someone in the LGBT community before coming here. My world was finally opened up and I was able to meet and even become best of friends with such a variety of people. I really just had my eyes open to something that I would have never seen if I didn't take the leap and move out of my small little town. I wouldn't say I am a very religious person but I do believe in God and my take is that God creates all of us, he loves all of us. He made us the way we are so why do people have such a struggle with realizing that we are all equal. Our differences are just what make us special. I really just wanted to write this as a message to love eachother, love yourself, and be thankful for the people in your life. You never know when your last day will be or when theirs will be. ......also, I just want to take a moment to honor Lane Graves who also lost his life in Orlando this week. Lane was two years old and was attacked by an alligator near a Disney resort. Too many lives were taken this week. Be grateful for yours and your loved ones.

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful.
<3 Love, Lex

One year later....

Welcome back! It has been far too long and I simply decided that the only way to get back into blogging was to just do it! So here it goes, I'm ready to chat your ear off, I hope you have some snacks because I have a lot on my mind.

One year ago I had this life changing experience at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna beach. I attended this writers workshop that counted as a class towards my degree but it ended up being a time I'll never forget. You can read about the whole thing in my very last blog entry that I posted here a year ago. I sit here and reflect on my year and my goodness has there been some changes. I'd say that 2015-2016 was the time in my life that so much changed when I didn't even plan or expect it to! This time last year I was about to enter my final semester at UCF! In Fall of 2015, I took 18 credit hours!!!!! Everyone thought I was insane. I had a full time internship as well as managing Coldstone. I am basically super woman. So finally the time came, December 18th, 2015; I became a college graduate only three years after being a high school graduate. I started my internship at Corner Lake Middle School in a 6th grade class and I was completely unsure of what would happen. After my first internship, I felt discouraged and unsure of being a teacher all together. I planned on graduating with my bachelor's degree and going right on to my masters. But the world had other plans for me. I FELL IN LOVE with teaching. The students, the school, everything! In November, a month before I even graduated college, I was offered a teaching position at my school and I couldn't turn it down. I graduated and began my CAREER that I always dreamed of only three weeks later at only 22 years old! I was so scared at first but so determined and excited! I was thrown in with 8th graders and boy did they give me a challenge. These students were horrible to me. They had no discipline and lacked so many skills! It was so hard at first and I certainly wanted to give up in the beginning but they finally got used to me. They finally started to listen and do work and say hi to me in the hallways. And before I knew it, the school year came to the ending. Today was the last day of school for my 8th grade kiddos. They are headed off to high school! Even with all the ups and downs and the hard times they gave me I will NEVER forget this group of kids. They were my very first students! These kids allowed me to live my dream! I can't be a teacher without my students and I can say that I loved them all (even the bad ones). We came a long way in just 5 short months but we made it!

Other changes include me finally retiring from Coldstone after 6 long years of dedicating my heart and soul into the company, I finally decided to move on. I stuck with it as long as I could but I was managing the store AND teaching full time and I couldn't continue to dedicate my time and energy into something that wasn't my students. They needed me more than Coldstone and I made my transition. It was hard coming to terms with but I finally did so and I feel happy with my decision.

And finally, one of the biggest and best changes of the year was my sister giving birth to the MOST HANDSOME BABY BOY I've ever laid my eyes on! Jayden Thomas Martino was born on April 15th and my life was changed forever. I am the most obsessed Auntie and I just cannot get enough of my nephew's cute little face! He is almost two months old and I already think he is growing up too fast!

I have certainly been blessed this year. The "adulting" has been real and it certainly is a struggle to accomplish but I am trying my hardest. Life is amazing and I am so happy to be alive to experience all of these journeys with the most incredible friends and family!

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!

Love, Lex <3

My Writing Workshop Experience

My time at this writing workshop at the Atlantic Center for the arts has been an absolutely amazing experience. I have grown as a professional, as a teacher, as a student, as an overall human being. I had no idea what to expect coming in. I got here and two of the ladies were talking about their children who were exactly my age. I felt like they were going to see me as a child. I was waiting for the "who brought their child to work day" comment. But that attitude certainly changed. The people in this workshop allowed me to open up and feel included. I felt comfortable sharing my thoughts and ideas and asking questions. I have learned so many things during this workshop. I feel like I have an entire group of people in my corner now. Teaching really is about networking. It's a community of lifelong learners. I didn't have any excitement for beginning my senior internship this fall until now. I feel so motivated and inspired to get into that classroom. I am still scared out of my living mind but I know the experience will only help me grow. Teaching really is a calling. I always knew that this is what I was meant to do. I want to make a difference in the world. I want to be a role model. I want to help students overcome challenges in the classroom and in their community. Every single student is special and they deserve a chance in education. They deserve the chance to show off their individuality to figure out what they were meant to be in this world. I feel so passionate for this profession.  I have felt so blessed and so honored and so inspired to spend these past 10 days around other teachers who had that same passion. It really makes me see that it's worth it. These teachers still have that drive to make a difference in the world of education and the world in general.  I don't think I can express enough gratitude for how I feel about getting this chance to attend this workshop. Alongside developing as a future teacher, being in this beautiful setting in New Smyrna Beach has also ignited a fire within me. At the beginning of 2015, I decided to make a change in my life. I decided that if I wanted to be a role model, I needed to overcome my own struggles. I have been embracing a new positive and optimistic outlook on life. During the two days of this workshop, when I got to stay on the grounds of ACA, my love and passion for dance and writing was rebirth. I'm sure there are obvious reasons for the spark in my writing, but the dance took me by surprise. Turns out there is an entire dance studio that went untouched during our entire workshop because only writers and artists have been here. On two separate occasions, I got to go into that dance studio all on my own and rediscover my passion. I got to express myself in a way that I didn't have to think. I felt free, confident, beautiful, strong, and empowered. It was like finding home again. And now that I found it, I don't want to lose it again. During my stay,  I also got the chance to watch the sunrise. I saw the birth of a new day, new opportunities, a new beginning, a fresh start, life. I grew up on the other coast of Florida where you can see the sunsets every day.  While sunsets are beautiful, it's kind of easy to see a sunset. If you just wait long enough, it will happen.  But a sunrise, you have to get out there and catch it. It happens so fast. And you have to wake up really early to see it. Think about it for moment. Would you rather just wait for things to happen in your life? Or go out there and catch the opportunities that are just waiting to be seen! Like a sunrise! The positivity, the love, the fire, the passion, the appreciation, the honor, the joy, the happiness, it's all burning inside of my soul! This has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my entire life. No blog post will ever be long enough to truly express my feelings. I can only hope that others will get a chance to experience something so powerful and moving in their lives. 

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful! 

Love, Lex <3 

Dance like no one is watching

I am currently in the second week of a writing workshop that is being held at the Atlantic Center of the Arts in New Smyrna Beach. This is a workshop that offers residency and I decided to stay here for two of the days to save the three hour drive round trip. I'll talk about my entire experience here in another post once I have completed the workshop. But I want to talk about something amazing that I got to do last night. The Atlantic Center of the Arts has galleries and studios for all genres of arts. I am here for writing but my first love in the arts was dance. I took dance lessons for twelve years from the time I was about two years old. I miss dancing every single day. I miss the confidence I felt while dancing and the beauty that came with every step. So yesterday I discovered the dance studio! I found it during my lunch break and could not stop thinking about it all day. I made sure to get a good sum of work done first but last night at 9 PM I unlocked the doors to the dance studio and turned on the lights to a place that seemed like home. The happiness that filled me is honestly indescribable. I planned to only dance for an hour but I ended up being in that studio for over an hour and a half. I never wanted to leave. I felt like I owned the world. I felt beautiful and confident and just amazing. Dancing was my first love and it still is. Even though I danced for all of those years, I never once had an entire dance studio to myself. It was so freeing and liberating. I often will dance in my bedroom for cardio but nothing beats a real studio. All of those mirrors are important. If you aren't a dancer you may not understand why. To me, at least, the mirrors are important because you are forced to watch yourself. You are forced to look yourself in the face. It is something that people all too often do not do. It is important to face yourself and watch yourself fail and/or accomplish something. The thing in, you are going to do both in life. You WILL fail but you will also succeed. You need to go through both in order to truly become whole. You can practice a move over and over again and actually see your progression. More often than not, people don't get to see their progress or acknowledge it. Being in that studio for that short time allowed me to express myself, I let out so many feelings and emotions and frustrations and stress. Everything. I took pictures of myself in the studio and I feel like you can see these emotions in my body. I originally took these photos for my fitness Instagram account because I wanted to show my body off in a positive and active way. Since April 20th I have been following the Fit Girls Guide (www.fitgirlsguide.com) which is an e-book that offers a "girly-girl's guide" to a healthy lifestyle. It gives you exact meal plans and exercises to complete during the course of a 28-day challenge. In the first challenge I lost 9 pounds! The unique thing about this is that there is an entire community on Instagram where you can follow and connect with thousands of other women who are following the challenge. I certainly have not been following this guide exactly as it is listed, however, it is a guide and I have been using it as so. I got an overwhelming amount of likes on the picture I posted and I realized that I wanted to share it with even more people because the experience was too good not to share. I am after a healthy and happy lifestyle. I talked all about this in my original post on this blog (http://lextravaganza.blogspot.com/2015/01/one-step-at-time.html). I want to truly develop into a woman that is a role model. I want to be strong, confident, beautiful, healthy, and happy with myself and my life. I wasted too many years feeling depressed and sorry for myself. I only have one life and I need to live it for me. The way I felt in that studio last night is how I want to feel every day of my life. I am determined to make that happen. Nothing happens overnight but I have been working so much on my positivity and happiness over the year so far and though there may be some downs, I strive for as many ups as I can get. I can't wait until tonight....you better believe I will be back in that dance studio!

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!
Love, Lex <3

I'm gonna live forever!

People grow up wanting to be older. Children can never wait until the next birthday and the next and the next; especially those milestone birthdays: 10, 16, 18, 21. This September I will be 22 years old. I have passed all of the childhood "milestones." It is at this point where the milestone birthdays are all those decades you hit, including 30, 40, 50, 60, and so on. The difference is that no one wants to rush to those birthdays. When you are a kid the time just seems to drag on and on. The school year is endless and the long summer days last a lifetime. Once you are near adulthood, you notice how time really does fly. Just when you get used to writing 5/day/year on your papers, it turns into 6/day/year and so on. It never seems to slow down. While growing up, my grandpa always called me his "Little Monster Baby" and told me to never grow up. I tried to listen but the months turned into years, the number of candles on my cake kept increasing, and I kept getting a little bit taller. This is life. It's funny how people speak of childhood and how the way you spend the first 18 years of your life will determine the type of person you will be for the rest of your life. I never wanted to grow up. I wasn't one of those children trying to rush through life. I have been rushing through college but that is only because I just want to be finished with all the schooling. At this point in my life I am nearing the beginning of my career as an educator and I am finding that my youth is a positive thing in many aspects, however, it certainly is a struggle at times. When I am among a classroom full of high school students I find it hard to be the adult in the room when these students, in reality, aren't much younger than me. There are way too many times when I have been reprimanded by other teachers for "not being where I am supposed to be" because they thought I was a student, it didn't matter how professionally dressed I was. The problem with being young these days is that people don't always take you as seriously as they would if you were older. I know that I am not experienced as an educator but I am still intelligent and have ideas and thoughts to offer. Today I began a two week class that is a writing workshop retreat. I am surrounded by beautiful nature and I am only minutes away from the beach, but I am also surrounded by women who are all years of experienced teachers and most of them older than my own mother. It is imitating to be the only student among these women and I feel as if they are all looking at me as if I am a friend of their own children. I am trying to keep a positive attitude during all of this, though. I am excited for this workshop and have been looking forward to it for months. Times like this I like to wish I was older but then I realize that my youth is to envy. When I am older I will regret all the days I didn't live to the fullest as a young woman. I work too hard and often never made time for fun. At the start of this year I decided to change that. I realized that I am still so young and that I have so much life ahead of me. I realized that if time is flying by as fast as it is right now, I can only image how much faster it will be as I get older. It is important to make time for yourself and time to do fun things. I love being able to spend time with my friends and have new adventures. Being young is glorious and very, very short lived. When people say to live life to the fullest, you really should! You never know what can happen within not only a day, but within minutes. You whole world can be turned upside down, or even put to an end in merely seconds. Never let something like age define you or hold you back. Just life your life day by day and don't try to rush things. But also remember, that you are as young as you feel. You should continue to be adventurous and try new things even as you age, especially as you age. People sometimes start to slow down because they get busy with life and they care for their families more than themselves. I believe that you should always care for your loved ones but you must never forget to love and care for yourself. All too often if you ask someone to name all the things they love, naming themselves will never make the list or will be way towards the end. I wish for people to begin loving themselves more and accepting their age for what it is. Don't rush it and never be ashamed of it. All of those women who celebrate their "29th birthday for 20 years in a row" are so scared of growing older because society makes it seem like the fun is going to end but it never has to and really never should. My great-grandma just turned 80 years old and when I was little she always used to tell me that "Life is short, eat dessert first." This simple little quote really are words to live by.

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!
Love, Lex <3

It's the Final Countdown!

This is the last blog post required for my class.

I was so happy to learn that part of this class will consist of blogging. I just started getting back into blogging this year. I used to do it before but didn't keep up with it. I love being able to write down my thoughts and get feedback on it from other people. Even if no one comments on the blog, I can see people have read it. And often time, people will text me and say something positive about how my blog has inspired them or how they were able to relate to me. That's all I can ask for. During my journey, if I can help others, I know it will be a success in the end. I know that I love writing and that I tend to procrastinate it when I never want to. Days just seem to go by so quickly. Look at us now, it's almost May already! 2015 is already slipping right through my fingers. I always wanted to have a class blog for my students and now that I have seen blogging in action I think I would want my students to have their own blogs as well. They will have to post a certain amount each semester and leave comments on the blogs of their peers. This will get students interacting in a positive way and allow them the chance to be creative and expressive. I think digital writing is the future and we shouldn't be afraid of it. Challenges when it comes to blogging always seems to be making the time for it. For me, I could blog every day. Sadly, however, I see other things as being more important than writing for myself and my own creative expression so I am forced to put blogging on the back burner. My success, however, is not letting this blog die. I may not be writing every day or even every week, but I am writing. That's all that matters.

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!
Love, Lex <3

There is Only One Life to Live

People dread Mondays because it is the start of a new week, it is the end of the weekend, you have to go back to work and/or school, usually people start a new diet or exercise plan on this day, and overall you are just back to the reality of the "daily routine." On a typical week, I tend to be busy every day from the moment I wake up, until the moment I get the chance to finally pass out in my bed. Just to highlight my typical week: I open on Monday from 11-5 PM and then I have class until 9 PM followed by homework until I fall asleep. On Tuesday, I have my internship from 7 AM until 2 PM followed by after school tutoring from 2-4 PM and finally work from 5 until 1 AM! On Wednesday I may have off from work but usually I end up there anyways to decorate cakes. Or I volunteer for my field experience hours and I always have homework to do. Every other week at 5 PM I have a meeting for my Educators Honors society followed by another class until 9 PM. Thursday is usually similar to Tuesday and Friday I work a double from 11 AM until 1 AM and Sunday I work as well. Usually, I manage to get Saturday off (but sometimes it ends up being Sunday). No matter which day it is, I try so hard to make sure that I do something fun! As you can see, my weeks are long and stressful and very busy. I don't even have time to do everything that I need to do and want to do. Such as working out and doing laundry, etc. But, that one day over the weekend, where I could just do homework and clean and do all that adult stuff that I should do, I almost never do it on my weekend day off. I am 21 years old. I don't drink or party or anything like that. I have been living on my own for almost two years and I just work and go to school. Once in a while I would do something with friends but it got to the point where I realized I wasn't having any fun. I just kept working more and my schedule kept getting busier and that's when I decided I needed to have one day for myself every week. Even if it is as simple as going to see a movie or even just having dinner with a friend, I make it something to look forward to. One of my friends, who is very busy like I am, asked me the other day about all this. I told him, how I do something fun one day a week almost every week. He didn't believe me. Knowing how busy I am, he couldn't believe that I could make time for such fun. That's when I took out my handy planner and backtracked on the weeks. Some of the things I have done included going to Busch Gardens, going to a Latin Dance social at UCF, going to a Break Dancing competition Downtown to support a friend who was competing, visiting home for one weekend after not having time to for over two months, The Central Florida Fair, the movies, mini golfing, and just yesterday I went to New Smyrna Beach with some great people! Also, every 3 weeks I have been getting my nails done. You may think that I should be saving money and not going out that much, but for me, I think it is important to live a little bit. At least once a week, you should try to do something fun, something that lets you not think about work or school or any other stresses in your life. I love saving money and I constantly worry about having enough money but I also realize that I don't want to be old and have saved a lot of money but missed out on a countless number of memories and experiences. I work way too hard to not allow myself some spending money. Of course, if I got to a week where I needed the extra study time or the extra time for cleaning or something productive, I will not go out and play. Obviously I have my priorities in order. I just feel like life is so short. growing up goes by so fast and everyone is always in a hurry. If I didn't get that one day to look forward to it would make the week that much worst. In my Monday class, my professor always starts the class off with us sharing "Sparks." This is just something that you are looking forward to that is going to get you through the week. Although some weeks seem more stressful then others, it really is important to have that "spark" that is going to get you through it. Even just having a morning where you get to sleep in. That is certainly something that can get you through the week if you want it badly enough. I just thought I'd share with you guys my ideas about all this. My Great-Grandma always told me, "Life is Short, Eat Dessert First." You never know what is going to happen tomorrow so you really should try to live each day or at least each week to the fullest. I look back and know that I have already missed out on a lot of things because I am goal orientated and wanted to let nothing get in the way of them. I have no regrets because I know you can't change the past, however, I am still on this journey to a happy and positive life and I know that I am, at the least, making the effort to change. You aren't going to remember the day that you worked a 14 hour shift and had to go home and write a paper afterwards. You are going to remember the happy moments and the fun memories that you make. That's why I realized that it is so important. I am finally at a point where I realize that I have a lot of people in my life that care about me. I actually have quite a few friends, more then I ever had before. It makes me so happy because friendship is something that means so much to me,yet, I always had such a struggle growing up with hanging on to the people that I formed relationships with. So if you get anything from this post, please remember that it is important to make time for yourself, time for things that are going to make you happy. Maybe you can't do it once a week but at the absolute least, once a month. It will make you feel better every day when you know you have something to look forward to. Thank you for reading this and please feel free to comment with some of your most recent happy moments or memories or even something that I coming up soon.

                                    Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!

Love, Lex ♥

You gotta have Faith

My blog assignment this week is an open post. I will be honest and say that this week hasn't been the best week. It really has been a difficult task to stay positive and hang on to my good attitude I've been practicing so far this year. However, instead of going on a rant and talking about something sad and upsetting I am going to use this blog post to talk about something good in my life. Or rather, someone. Technically, I am an only child. For the first five years of my life, I was spoiled to death being the baby of the family and all, but the one thing I always wanted was a sister. When I was about five years old, my wish was granted, My Mom met an incredible man who had a daughter named Faith, When our parents introduced us for the first time, we instantly became best friends. I don't have the best memory but I know we met at a park and I remember swinging on the swings together. Faith is exactly one year and one week older than me. Shortly after that, our  parents tied the knot and every year when they celebrate their anniversary, I celebrate an anniversary too. The day they got married is the day that I got a Dad and a big sister. Nothing in my life has topped that special day. Growing up, the term "step-sister" never meant anything to me. Faith is as real as a sister can be. I feel like the best part about my "step-family" is that they choose to be my family. The family you are born into are kind of stuck with you. Family that comes into your life and choose to love you and consider you as their own are really special people. I will admit, it was not all sunshine and happiness. Like I said, we became real sisters, so we fought like sisters at times. Also, we are both very different and I feel like it took us a while to appreciate each other's differences and finally understand each other. Now that I don't live at home anymore, I appreciate my sister more than ever before. She is my absolute best friend and I love her to death. She is so beautiful and has such an incredible heart. I know that she would do anything for me and would be here for me whenever I needed her. She is one of those people that just doesn't see how wonderfully amazing she truly is, but I can see it. She has been through so much in life and it takes a lot to stay strong and carry on. She does that, every single day. She mentioned to me that absents makes the heart grow fonder and we completely believe in that. Since we've been apart we have been closer than ever. I can't think of any one else I would have wanted to grow up with. And I can't wait to see where life takes us. I can't wait to share all those magical moments in life with each other. I want to see her get married someday and start a family and one day our kids can be best friends too! To end this post I want to share a quote that we believe describes us perfectly: "We weren't sisters at birth, but we knew from the start, fate brought us together to be sisters at heart."

Just in case no one has told you today, you are beautiful!

Love, Lex <3

Welcome to the Lextravaganza!

I never formally introduced myself on this new blog. And now that I have this blog linked up for one of my class requirements I am going to share a little about me. My name is Alexis, or Lex, and I was born and raised in a small town called New Port Richey, FL. My birth father left me and my mom when I was a baby and was never heard from again. All I have from him is my Spanish heritage which has been shadowed my whole life by the family I do know, my mom's Italian side. I wish that could be different but I didn't have control over it. When I was about five years old, my mom found a man to complete our family. With that, I gained a father and a big sister who is now my absolute best friend. I feel so blessed when I think about my family. I have a whole entire clan of people who choose to love me and be my family when they never had to. Growing up, I was a teacher's pet and a passionate dancer, for twelve years might I add. Things started getting rough for me and my family when I was in 7th grade. In that year, 3 family members passed away between my sister's family and my own. One of those people was my Grandpa who was my hero and role model. Losing him was the absolute worst thing that ever happened to me. In high school, school didn't come so easily to me anymore and I had to work extra hard at it. But as most high school teens experience, I got to start driving, I got my first boyfriend, and started my first job. My whole life revolved a lot around those things. Once I started working I knew I couldn't stop. I would always pick up shifts and go in early. I wanted to be the best at what I was doing. And I was utterly in love with my high school boyfriend and we wanted to spend every waking moment with each other. Eventually that ended and after I graduated high school and started college, I started dating one of my coworkers. For two years, we made each other happier than ever. Sadly, however, life happens and we decided to just be friends. My life in Orlando has taken a lot of time for me to fully adjust. But it has been a year and a half now and I really love it here. I love taking care of myself and being independent. I work full time and go to school full time but staying busy just keeps me productive so I don't be lazy. I am currently a senior at the University of Central Florida and I'm majoring in English Education with a minor in Creative Writing. Since my last break up, I have learned so much about myself. I have formed close friendships that I never thought would have happened for me, and I wake up every day and thank God for my beautiful life. The people in my life right now really make me happy. And more recently I have been trying to live life with a positive attitude. I went in detail about that in my first post if you want to go back and read that, here is the link: http://lextravaganza.blogspot.com/2015/01/one-step-at-time.html. My short term goals are to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in December of 2015 and to begin grad school right after that. I want to get my master's degree in higher education so I can teach at a state college in addition to a middle or high school classroom. Long term goals include getting married and having kids. I have always known my passion and calling is education and making a difference. But another thing I know I want is a family of my own. Being a mom is something I know I am meant to be. But I am not in a rush anymore. I know I used to be but things are different now. I just want to enjoy being young because I am realizing that time goes by way too quickly and I don't want to wake up one day and have regrets over chances and opportunities I missed out on. So I guess that's enough about me. Of course there is more I'm sure but this is already long enough. Please continue to follow me on my journey. Leave comments and subscribe!


Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!

Love, Lex ❤️

Don't let stress get the best of you!

This week was my first week back to school, as it was for many of us college students. On top of that I was scheduled to work over 65 hours this week between my full time job and my part time job. I am not going to lie, it has been rough. I am tired and starting to get a little stressed. However, I am still trying to stay positive. Even though I haven't have the time to do everything that I want to do everyday, I am proud of myself for the things I am doing. Sure, I haven't had the time to work out yet this week but I know I will get to it. Also, I have been practicing my Spanish, however, not as much as I wanted to be practicing. I believe my food choices haven't been too bad. The other night I wanted to go get fast food but instead I went to the grocery store and bought some healthy options to make instead. I planned out my whole week and knew how busy I was going to be. Normally I would say a lot of negative comments about how terrible my week is going to be and how tired I am but this week I approached it differently. I knew the week would be rough and I knew I would be tired but I made sure to look at the week simply as being a "productive week" ahead of me. And let me tell you, I have had a great week so far. I've been busy but it has been great. I started my new classes and I found out where my internship will be and I worked a lot. You just have to tell yourself that you will get through this. The week may seem stressful but just take it one day at a time. Or even, one activity at a time. Look, my week is already almost over! I just really wanted to share this with you because I feel everyone gets stressed and overwhelmed with the week that lies ahead but we make it through don't we? Everything always seems to work out. And with my experience this week, approaching the week with a positive attitude, I believe it truly made a difference in how my week played out. I feel happy and accomplished. Like I said, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to and I know what adjustments I want to try and make so I can have an even better week next week but I have to feel proud and accomplished for what I did do. You just have to realize that those are the things that matter. The things you didn't get to are irrelevant. You shouldn't waste your time beating yourself up over it. Just try to do better next week. Bottom line is that everyone gets stressed out. The key is to not let it overtake you. Do not let your stress run your life. Think about why you are stressed and decided how important it really is. Will this thing you are stressed about really matter? I mean, life can always be worst. So please, try your best to stress less. It will really make you feel so much better in life. Thank you for reading and please subscribe, share, and leave comments if you'd like.

Just in case no one has told you yet today, you are beautiful!

Love, Lex <3