Short Story About College Dating

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. Today's post is a bit different than anything I've posted before. I want to write a book and I wanted to share what I have so far. Any and all feedback would be appreciated, so please leave a comment below if you read it!

Abbie stood in line nervously at Starbucks, lost in a sea of suits, waiting to order her drink. The barista was a boy. An attractive one. She had nothing against male baristas. They just made her nervous. She seemed to mess her order up more frequently when it was a male. Plus, she was not her most confident self that afternoon. Her morning had been frantic and she hadn't had time to apply even a drop of makeup.

The line dwindled quickly and suddenly she was face to face with her fear: the hot barista.
"Hi." He said, smiling through dazzling white teeth. "What can I get you?"
"Can I please get a light mocha-frap?"
"Sure, we'll get that started for you." The barista said as she slid her card.
"Oh wait. I actually have a free drink. Can I use that please?" She asked, feeling guilty at messing up her order and making the baristas life harder.
"Sure, I just have to ring it up again,"
"I'm sorry." Abbie guiltily tucked a chunk of hair behind her ear.
"Don't even worry about it." He stopped paying attention to the register and started paying attention to her. He gazed at her with piercing blue eyes, amusement dancing behind them. "That is like the least ridiculous thing I've had to deal with all day."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm really sorry people feel the need to make your job harder."
"Thanks. So, your free drink, is it a birthday drink?"
"Yes." Abbie nodded slightly. "My birthday was last Friday. I turned nineteen."
"Well Happy Birthday!"
She couldn't decide if he was flirting with her, but she knew how to find out. He was definitely giving her extra attention, which gave her the confidence to stick her chest out and flip her hair back,
"Thanks. You know who didn't wish me a happy birthday? My boyfriend. He forgot, then dumped me over text." Abbie laughed. As if it was a fun story. As if she hadn't spent all weekend crying. As if she hadn't liked him as much as she did. As if anything felt okay.

She realized that in some part of the story she had looked down and was staring at her shoes. She lifted her chin to look at his face. His mouth was ajar, and he looked shocked at her story. Good, she thought, a boy with a soul. Or at least more soul than the last one.
"Are you serious?" He asked.
All she could do was mutter a meek "yeah."
Anymore of a response than that and she may reveal how sad she really was. The tears could not flow. Not here, not now.
"That's not right. You deserve to be treated to a proper birthday. If you want to hangout sometime, I'd love to be the guy to do it. Can I get your number?" He handed her a piece of receipt paper and scribbled down her number.
"Aren't baristas not supposed to hit on people? Can't you get fired for this?"
"I'm not a barista. I'm a person who works as a barista. I can do what I want."
Abbie laughed and handed him the paper. Then, with her frappuccino  in her hand and a sense that everything would finally be okay in her heart, she walked out of the store.

She walked straight home to her apartment that she shared with two roommates and was warmly welcomed home by Giselle. At least, she got as warm a welcome as Giselle gives anyone.

"Boys are like purses!" Giselle snorted from the couch, where she lay sprawled out, without any pants or a bra.  She had an almost overflowing glass of champagne in her hand. She was watching reruns of The Hills. Even though The Hills had been cancelled long ago Giselle still insisted on having a marathon of old episodes at least a couple times a month. She said it was because Lauren Conrad was her role model and an infinite pool of wisdom, yet everyone knew it was really to mock Conrad's alleged wisdom and wallow about not getting a publishing deal.
"What? You disagree?" Abbie asked, laying down on the couch next to Giselle and preparing herself for whatever rant was about to wash over the apartment.
"Boys are nothing like purses! Purses are dependable, expensive, and necessary for life. Boys are unreliable and irrelevant. Boys are like eggs and toilet paper, cheaper by the dozen, easily ruined and even easier to replace."
Abbie chocked on her own glass of champagne. Despite her anger, Giselle was hilarious when she went on these tangents. Her cynical attitude was concerning, yet comforting after Abbie's breakup. It was nice to be reminded that everyone felt the same way,
"Giselle! For fuck's sake you're only twenty! Don't you think that's a bit young to be this negative?"
"What can I say? I've always been an early bloomer."
Abbie chocked again, remembering how true this was. Giselle had rocked a 34DD Freshman year of High School. Boys took notice, especially Adam Bower. He had been Giselle's first pit stop on her journey of bad boyfriends, if you could even call him that. Adam seduced her, then took her virginity (along with her faith in men) and humiliated her a year later, when he dumped her. Toward the start of their relationship  she had made him a seductive video of her performing a striptease in the boys locker room. He ended things by posting it to his FaceBook wall, along with the very tasteful slogan "I'm done with this slut." Giselle then became the laughing stock of the school. Things got so bad she even went to the school counselor and begged for help. The awful counselor suspended her for filming the video on school property, and Adam got off scar free.
The video went viral, which ultimately landed Giselle a modeling career. She had been the face for multiple lingerie campaigns and guest-starred in a few sitcoms. Her modeling career had gone well, her writing career not so much.
"Today at my photo shoot the photographer asked me out."
"Well? Are you going to go?" Abbie asked hopefully.
"No."
"Giselle, I get that you're jaded, but you aren't helping yourself by saying no to every guy."
"He was sixty-five."
"Oh. Okay you're allowed to say no if a sixty-five year old asks you out." Abbie said with a nod.
"What about a sixty-four year old?" Giselle asked the sarcastically.
"Only fi he has money." Abbie said firmly yet jokingly. The two laughed so hard they collapsed on top of each other and spilled their champagne. They didn't care. As long as they had each other they didn't care about spilled milk, spilled champagne, or mean boys. As long as they had each other, like they always had each other, everything would be okay.

Tips for Working with Kids

I have always loved kids. I am currently working on earning my early childhood education degree so I can be an elementary school teacher. My first job was being a nanny. Many people are exhausted by their energy and annoyed by their disobedience, but I love their energy and can feed off of it and have a high level of patience (at least with people under 12). This summer, I took an internship at my church. My tasks included writing the Sunday school lessons, helping to teach these lessons every Sunday, and helping out at the 2 camps they put on for kids. Through this experience and having such a wonderful and talented supervisor I learned many beneficial ways to handle and teach kids. Today, I’m sharing my best tips with you guys, in case any of you are thinking about going into the same career path as me. These tips also will be helpful if you get roped into babysitting often.

1.      Layout your rules and expectations immediately. I used to think laying out the rules was unnecessary and made the teacher seem too stern. I now know what a vital part of earning their respect this is. Kids are young, naïve, and easily confused (much like us college students). They like being told what to do and knowing the boundaries. They like structure. With rules being laid out they are more likely to behave, and if there is any behavior issues it is much easier and faster to stop the lesson or activity to say a quick reminder of the rules, rather than having to stop to shout out a whole list of rules.

2.      Experiment with what tone you use when trying to be most authoritative. Many people think they have to yell to get the children to listen. As somebody who is not a yeller, and who just doesn’t like yelling at kids, I was very happy to find out this was not true. Sometimes, pulling a kid aside while kneeling down and whispering to them with perfect eye contact is all the kid needs to get them to settle down. Another way is to sing to them rather than yell. Kids are used to be yelled at, but not used to being sung to, so this grabs their attention very quickly. An example of this is singing “I am talking so you are not,” or something of that nature whenever you want their attention. There are many different tones you can use to gain attention and respect, so never resort to yelling just out of desperation and frustration.

3.      Play around with your tones. Once you’ve found a favorite tone it does make sense to use that the most, but don’t be afraid to mix it up with a different tone on occasion. Variety is the spice of life, and switching tones can be a good way to keep the children’s attention. They will be drawn to you just to see why you changed your tone.

4.      If you are trying to teach a kid something, break the lesson up and ask questions. How many times have you been sitting in a class and been wondering when you are ever going to use this lesson in life? What is the point of this lesson? If you want the kids to remember the lesson, making the point clear is very important. Stop frequently to ask them if they have experienced anything like what is being taught in the lesson, and make questions very specific with lots of examples of possible answers to the question. Make sure you have an answer to your question or an example of how the lesson applies to real life, just so there is no awkward moment if none of the kids can think of anything.

5.      Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Sometimes, as the youngest people in the office, we college interns procrastinate asking for help because we are so desperate to prove ourselves. If you don’t ask advice from the older workers, you are missing out on gaining some insight and information that could teach you valuable skills and make you infinitely better at your job. You took an internship to learn and sometimes we can’t learn everything we need to know by ourselves.

 

DIY Notebook/Scrapbook

Have you ever wanted to start writing a journal, but been overwhelmed by the large blank page? Have you ever wanted to start scrapbooking, but then been faced with the same problem? Well this is the perfect DIY for you! It is like starting a small scrapbook or journal and a perfect way to store all your memories. It would also be an awesome gift for a friend who is going away for school or just for the summer.

To start you need scissors, a pen, glue, notecards and a mini expanding file folder. Target sometimes has super cute file folders in the dollar section, which is where I got mine. You also need pretty paper, a picture and whatever else you want to decorate the notecard. This could include glitter glue or nail polish, washi tape or whatever else you want.

Start by covering the front of the notecard with paper and decorations. Glue the picture on the front as well. On the back write about the day the picture was taken. This can be a detailed account of what happened, just a few sentences, some funny quotes from the day or whatever you see fit. When you finish the craft you can file it away in the expanding file folder as an easy way to store your memories. This DIY is so simple I almost feel silly making a post about it, but I hope you guys enjoyed it! Here are some examples of how mine turned out.

Back to School Studying and Organization Tips

Back to school can be a very stressful time. After months of not doing school work it can be extremely difficult to get back on that studying grind. Fear not, here are my favorite studying tips that help me academically succeed.

First things first, in order to do well on an assignment you have to remember to actually do it. This means writing it down somewhere you can look to see what homework you have to finish for class tomorrow. Many people buy pricey agendas, but I prefer cheap notebooks. A way to stretch your dollar even farther is to not write your to do list on the actual page. Instead, you can write your assignments on scrap pieces of paper and then tape them to a page with washi tape. If you use separate smaller paper scraps instead of one large one you can easily remove the tasks as you complete them, or move a task higher on the page if it becomes a more urgent priority. You can also reuse the same page and washi tape for several days. This is good not only for your wallet but the environment, because the slower you fill the pages the longer you can keep your notebook and the less waste you are creating. If you need added incentive, you can also write a reward on the back of each task that you get once you complete it.

Personally, just reading through notes has never been a good way to help me memorize them. Instead, I write things down 10 times to help me remember them. This is very time consuming, but the results are worth it considering how hard it is to forget something after you’ve written it down this many times.

This next tip is very basic, but very effect. Take your notes in as many different colors as possible. This makes studying and note taking a bit more fun. It can also be a trick to trigger your memory. If you need information on a test, sometimes closing your eyes and remembering yourself writing it in whatever unique color you used can be all you need to help yourself retrieve it.

Drinking tea is another simple yet effective tip. I have the strict belief that everything is better with a cup of tea, even studying for your most boring class. I like mine with a splash of almond milk and lots of honey. It's nice to have something to keep you warm while studying, but sometimes you don't always want something with caffeine. No matter how much you love coffee (I love it like I love life itself) tea sometimes is a good alternative.

If you enjoyed this post remember to check back tomorrow for a super cute DIY journal/scrapbook alternative.

Get To Know Me

Hi guys! My name is Audrey and I am a new blogger. I am currently nineteen and a sophomore in college. Since my first post yesterday wasn’t one where you got to know me, I thought I should do that today. This is a post about 20 random facts about me.

1.      I drink coffee every day like my life depends on it because I honestly think it does.

2.      I have never travelled outside of the United States.

3.      My favorite color is mint green.

4.      One Tree Hill will always be my favorite show. I watch a few episodes whenever I’m sad, especially the ones from their senior year.

5.      Dating apps are my guilty pleasure. You can expect to hear some stories and tips about them on here soon.

6.      I hardly ever wear what society considers “real” pants. Leggings are all a girl needs.

7.      I think Hollister sells wildly underrated bras, and Victoria’s Secret sells wildly overrated ones.

8.      My favorite condiments are nutella and peanut butter. No, I cannot narrow it down to just one.

9.      Getting frozen yogurt beats getting ice cream any day. Mostly because it makes for a prettier instagram picture.

10.  I’m very short, barely 5’2” on a good day.

11.  Hilary Duff making a comeback is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

12.  I can’t whistle or snap.

13.  I meet way better people on the internet than I do in person, so definitely down to be blogger friends.

14.  I go to church almost every Sunday to teach Sunday school.

15.  This fall I will be working on my school’s activity board.

16.  I live in Seattle Washington.

17.  This blog will be about college life, fashion, beauty, dating, and general lifestyle tips.

18.  Tobi, Forever21 and H&M are my favorite places to shop at.

19.  I don’t like tomatoes.

20.  Currently, my only piercing is one in each ear, but I am planning on changing that very soon.

Check back here tomorrow for the start of my going back to school series. Tomorrows post will be on study tips. 

What I Learned My Freshman Year: Dating Advice

I’ll be the first to admit it: I don’t have very good taste in guys. I always go for the unemployed and unambitious. I go for the cheaters, compulsive liars, and the ones who forget your birthday. I go for the guys who most girls run away from screaming. That’s basically my type in a nutshell.

There were some pretty heart shattering moments that happened during my freshman year because of this, but I also believe that these guys are pretty great (when they’re not screwing girls over) and loved me to the best of their ability at this time in their life. I made some pretty awesome memories with these guys, and also learned some pretty important lessons.

1.      Wear a condom.

2.      If you are too shy to ask him to put on a condom, you should not be having sex with him.

3.      If you are too shy to ask him for enough foreplay or whatever else you need to finish and fully enjoy the moment, you should not be having sex with him.

4.      If he doesn’t respect you enough to bother learning your full name and your birthday, you should not be having sex with him.

5.      If he cheated before don’t be surprised if he cheats again.

6.      No guy is worth compromising any of your morals or beliefs for.

7.      There’s nothing wrong with dating multiple guys at once, as long as you haven’t agreed to be exclusive with any of them yet.

8.      There’s no shame in having sex as long as you are taking care of yourself and your partner-just be safe and respectful.

9.      There are different kinds of love and respect, just because it isn’t being shown in the way you want it to, doesn’t mean it’s not there. That being said, if it isn’t being shown in the way you want it to don’t be afraid to tell your partner, or he may just not be the guy for you.

10.  Don’t try and be friends with your ex. Hanging out with them will just make you want to get back together or remind you how annoying they really are.

11.  Sometimes hanging out with your ex can be healthy, because it will remind you how annoying they are and how lucky you are that you moved on.

The biggest thing I learned dating freshman year:

Girls date bad boys because when a bad boy hurts you, you can’t be too surprised or hurt. He’s a bad boy, so in a way you knew he was going to hurt you. When you’re with a nice boy and something happens, your entire world is turned upside down. You have lost hope that any boys are nice guys and you feel like there must be something deeply wrong with you if a nice boy would cast you aside and hurt you. When you’re with a bad boy you always win. Either he hurts you and you get the joy of being proven right, or he proves you wrong and you get the joy of being the girl who was great enough to change his bad boy ways.