If someone asked you the question, "what are your strengths," how would you respond?

A potential employer?

A leader of a club or organization?

A friend?

This summer, I gave this question a LOT of thought. I was required to the "Strengths Finder" on Strengths Quest before my trip to Cape Town. I really encourage anyone reading this to click the link and complete it yourself. My results and their descriptions...

Activator

“When can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to sit around waiting until all the lights have turned green.Besides, in your view, action and thinking are not opposites. In fact, guided by your Activator theme, you believe that action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn. This learning informs your next action and your next. How can you grow if you have nothing to react to? Well, you believe you can’t. You must put yourself out there. You must take the next step. It is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed. The bottom line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say, not by what you think, but by what you get done.This does not frighten you. It pleases you.

Futuristic

“Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or abetter world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choosey our words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.

Maximizer

Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps—all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.

Ideation

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound,because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

Input

You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls,or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather,to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing?At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable

Woo..I know...that was long! But cutting out any of it would not do it justice in showing you the capacity of which it reveals you...it goes into such depth, which is what makes it different from just any old personality test that you can find on the web. This is a tool that professionals use ALL THE TIME. I had my officer squad on the dance team that I coach complete the activity, and then we had a discussion about how each person is going to be able to bring something different to the table.

So, why am I telling you this?

I was in the kitchen with my sorority when one of our advisors started talking to us about strengths. She said to the whole room..."what are your strengths?" Because of this activity with Global LEAD, I feel like I was one of the only people in the room who could confidently tell her my 5 central strengths: I'm an Activator -- I take action. I'm Futuristic -- I have a vision. I'm a Maximizer -- I strive for excellence. I have Ideation -- I am energized and fueled by creativity and new ideas. I value Input -- I am a lifelong learner, and I archive information.

I knew how to respond to her question right away. But if I hadn't given this question some serious thought, I would have been like everyone else in the room and stared at her blankly. You see, strengths go far beyond being "organized" or "articulate" or however else you might describe yourself. They hold a different capacity than just any old adjective. They are powerful, they are what separates you from the crowd, and they are integral to who you are as an individual and what you will contribute to a group.

In the future...I will be prepared to present this to a future employer or to anyone who asks me this question.

Now, if those are my 5 strengths...what are my weaknesses?

I haven't quite figured this out yet. I need to think about this with a central theme in mind: what are things that I consistently struggle with? I know what I need to improve upon on the surface, though, and from that, I have created three goals for the upcoming school year:

1. I strive to be a better student. I want to get a 4.0 GPA this semester. Straight A's.
2. I am motivated to keep a clean room, bathroom, and closet.
3. I want to be better at correspondence.

These are three things that will really improve my life and make me a happier, more successful, and more organized person if I can use my strengths to give them an extra push, particularly my strength of "Activator," by staying focused, exercising better time management skills, and prioritizing.

Challenge: I encourage you to register for an account on Strengths Quest, complete the Strengths Finder, and read through your reports and assessments. I challenge you to choose three goals for the upcoming school year based on your weaknesses, and strategize how you will achieve those goals based on your strengths!

Have a POSITIVE and SUCCESSFUL weekend!!! I know I will!

xoxo,

Anna

Good morning and happy Tuesday!

If you're a student reading this, I hope your first day of classes went well yesterday! Mine was extremely long...class 9-5, sorority stuff 6-11, and a doctors appointment and a bunch of errands in between. Today I have most of the day off {with the exception of an English discussion and an Astronomy lab}, but I have a lot of laundry and organizing to do...so this post won't be too long. I just wanted to pop in and write it while it was fresh in my mind!

I'm going to join two different blog topics together and then tell you why it doesn't make sense to separate them.

First let's talk about a "growth experience." What does that mean, exactly? What can be considered a "growth experience?"

According to the dictionary, this is how "grow" can be defined: "To become better or improved in some way, to become more developed, to have an increasing influence."

With that definition in mind...my personal definition of growth experience would be: Something that allows a person to gain insight, change perspective, and develop new mindsets, all leading to personal and intellectual progress that affects the rest of his or her life. Those new thoughts, discoveries, ideas...they influence the way you think, the way you act, the way you express, the way you feel...and forever change you and what you will accomplish.

Now, for the "cosmic perspective" ... what am I talking about? How am I going to tie science into this hippie intellectual crap I'm trying to feed you?

I was sitting in my Astronomy class yesterday, listening to my teacher {who is quite possibly 95 years old} go on and on about the "cosmic perspective," which is essentially the understanding that our planet is merely a speck in a universe full of empty space, and the sun is just one of a hundred billion other stars in a compilation of possibly 100 billion galaxies. This makes you feel small, right?. But it should also enlighten you.

You see, instead of feeling small, you should feel an overwhelming sense of connection to immensity. You, a physically TINY living being in the universe, actually hold so much opportunity, and so do all of the billions of other beings around you. This should evoke a feeling of awareness, a big expanded view of little dots that represent people who are all doing great things but are smaller than microscopic. It's mysterious -- there is so much in the universe yet to be discovered. When you think about your everyday frustrations, your sorrows, and your joys, and you close your eyes and imagine zooming out and seeing the billions of people in the world having those same experiences and living their lives, you can start to understand their relationship with one another and all of the connectivity in the world that you've overlooked. It's easy to be narrow-minded, but incredibly powerful to change your perspective and see things differently, bigger.

That's exactly what "cosmic perspective" does: you go in thinking one thing, you come out thinking another. On a very large scale, might I add.

Now, if you're analyzing something in your life and thinking about considering it a "growth experience," ask yourself this question: can I relate it to the cosmic perspective? Did I go in thinking one thing and come out thinking another? And because of what I have learned and gained, is my world forever changed?

It doesn't make sense to have cosmic perspective without an understanding of growth experience, because then you'd be missing the bigger picture: the part where you come out thinking something different. It doesn't make sense to have an understanding of growth experience without considering the cosmic perspective, because then you're missing the point: a growth experience is not just a memory. It's something that changes the way you live the rest of your entire life. Something big. They are strangely, yet unequivocally, related.

...And I bet you thought I'd never teach you anything about science on Love All Things Britney.

I want to know: what is your BIGGEST growth experience?

xoxo,

Anna

Hi friends!

I meant to write this post this past week, and I'm sorry. I was preoccupied and it just escaped me. I'll be back to the blog more regularly now...promise.

Today I want to talk about the power of influence...ways that our thoughts and actions translate to others and encourage them to adopt the things that we do and say as their own. Every single one of us influences others in a huge variety of ways. This sounds really obvious, and it is, but there's a point to be made, I swear. Think about this for a second:

I could start by explaining how I've taken endless friends to go get their first Brazilian wax, to my hair salon to get their hair chopped off or drastically colored, to get birthday piercings time after time, or how I hooked a bunch of people on Flash Tattoos, Hoola bronzer, and coconut oil.

I could talk about how I helped most of my study abroad friends create blogs and websites of their own, how I inspired a lot of younger girls to become passionate about dancing, or how I encouraged friends and acquaintances to travel and get out of their comfort zones by the pictures I've posted on Facebook and Instagram and the stories that I've shared upon my return from those traveling experiences.

Essentially, influence is everywhere, big and small. I am a MAJOR influence. Every single person reading this is a MAJOR influence. That's YOU. Whether it's skin deep, superficial influences, or incredibly life-changing and passionate influences, we hold an incredible amount of power in the decisions that we make each and every day. Someone is listening, someone is watching, someone thinks you are so cool and wants to be just like you...in more ways than one. This conversation started for me a couple of months ago when I was, you guessed it, in Cape Town.

In class, we were given an assignment to write a paper about significant people in our lives, people who have influenced us (either positively or negatively) and impacted a particular aspect of our being...something we could pinpoint. The first person who came to mind was my dance coach from high school, Kara.

Miss Kara has been my idol since day one. Exuberant, beautiful, confident, intelligent, nurturing, talented...she embodies every quality that I would consider to create the perfect woman, and person, for that matter. I tell her how much I love her all the time, but I honestly really can never convey my admiration for her in words. She is just that cool to me.

While completing the assignment, I wrote about the mindsets that she's helped me establish that have made me well on my way to being a confident woman like herself. She has taught me so much about self-respect, good communication, positive ways to present myself...and because of this, it has reshaped a lot of the things I do and say to others in hopes that they will respect me and admire my personal self-respect. I owe all of the credit to her inspirational, sometimes silly, deep talks. She lays it on me how it is, and really gets me thinking. She has influenced me to want to grow up as a real woman and a total genuine badass.

I also wrote about a person in my life, who I won't name, who really let me down and disappointed me when she got into drugs, destroying herself, her family, her friends, and her career. I valued my friendship with this person so much and could never thank her enough for all that she taught me about a particular passion of mine, but I will never be able to salvage the friendship or continue partaking in an unhealthy and dishonest relationship of any kind. It's still very sad to me, and because of this person, I have been influenced to passionately hate drugs.

I leave you with this: I challenge you today to reflect on the influences in your life and what makes you, you. Thank the people who have served as a positive influence in your life and embrace all that they have taught you, and reflect on the negative influences in your life, as well, to gain a better insight as to why you feel the way you do about certain things of which you disapprove.

Have a great weekend :)

xoxo,

Anna

Whether you're buying one of Amy's awesome watercolors or exploring your state to the fullest, I hope you'll take a little piece of Maryland with you wherever you are!

Here's to all the Marylanders that moved away but still remember where they came from. Amy says, "Because you can take the kid out of Maryland, but you can't take the Maryland out of the kid."

xoxo,

Anna

When I started this blog, it was just a compilation of excerpts about my interests. I like Britney Spears, I like eating and cooking, I like exercising, I like makeup and hair products, yada yada yada. Cool to me, but basic B* stuff. I still want to write about those things; they are important to me, they are fun to me, I love them. But it's the intellectual side of me...the side of me that is embracing every bit of being in my twenties and striving to be a well-rounded person in general... that is energized by goals, experiences, conversations, and ideas. In the next year or so, this blog will be turned into something geared more towards people intrigued by personal growth and progress and less of a trashy magazine // Elite Daily basic B* crap. Hopefully it's always been something that has allowed you to understand who I am as a person based on my voice in my writing and the perspective that I try to translate to you through words, but if not, it will become more of that than ever. It's my goal to transition the stereotyped mindset of "young writers all talk about the same crap with the same perspective" into something more thought-provoking, complex, and personal.

And on that note...

Let's talk about being a twenty-something.

I've been obsessed with this for a while: the concept of what it means to be a "twenty-something." What's the point? What's the purpose? What makes it unique, special, worthy of exploration and thought? As a child and a teenager, my understanding of what it meant to be a twenty-something was deemed as: "mission find a husband and have a baby." Unequivocally. Immediately. I had absolutely no idea what it meant to be a twenty-something {especially in this generation} until about a month ago -- when I made my first big step into my twenty-something personal identity capital.

What is identity capital, you ask? Start by watching this short video, and then check back with me.

**If you're cheating and you didn't watch the video, I caught you. Scroll up and click it. Watch it in its entirety, or the rest of what I'm writing won't mean as much to you. Her voice is annoying, I know, but her words have value.

Now, identity capital. She says, "Forget about having an identity crisis, and get some identity capital." Do something that adds value to who you are, something that's an investment in who you might want to be next. This is what I've been trying to express in words about why I do all of the crazy things I do, and I haven't found a phrase for it until just now, when I saw this video. It's called identity capital. I was going through what I thought was an identity crisis. I was newly single, I lost a bunch of friends, I was dealing with anxiety and depression. I felt bored and lost, and I thought, "Who am I? What am I doing?"  But this internal motivation that I still had deep inside of me was begging to be energized. I needed to do something that would feed it and get me back on track -- and beyond. So I replied "yes" to a text message from a company asking me if I wanted to go on a study abroad trip to Africa, and I was committed within seven days.

I've written about what a milestone it was for me to go to college 900 miles away in a different region of the United States, I've written about how much my Africa trip impacted me, I've written about how my accomplishments with dance made me who I am...but I didn't have the words to explain to other people why I was doing all of it. I crave the thrill, the challenge, the passion, the adventure...that builds my identity capital. Whenever I've grown from an experience, I apply what I've used, I remember it, and I cherish it...and then I'm on to the next thing. I'm always searching for a way to build my identity capital, to do things that are good for my growth and progress. That drive within me is fiery and as alive as ever.

I get it now. My twenties are for molding me into a person with a strong foundation of emotional and intellectual identity capital that can be shared with someone else, when the time is right, to merge our identity capitals into one mutual understanding of how to raise our family. I am not that person yet. I have not reached a strong enough understanding of my own identity capital, and that is why I am single, childless, and passionate about exploring careers, education, and the world. I have a lot of "me" time to do, and it's not selfish. It's all so that this little family that I will build one day will have the best me that they can possibly have. And speaking of family...

Just because the point is to avoid husband-chasing does not mean that thought should be entirely ignored. She says something that totally, completely relates to every single college-aged girl reading this, and I know it: "grabbing whoever you're living with or sleeping with when everyone on Facebook starts walking down the aisle is not progress. The best time to work on your marriage is before you have one, and that means being as intentional with love as you are with work." Yes, twenties are for self-exploration. But there is a difference in self-exploration and over-indulgence. If you indulge to the point of "Oh S*, I'm 30, and I have nothing to show for it," you weren't exploring. You were procrastinating. You are the boss of your own dating life, and you can indulge as much as you want. But if you're holding it at a high regard and reminding yourself of its value...you're going to find that person much more successfully and happily than the girl who grabs the first hot billionaire {or 30-year-old pothead living in Mom's basement, whatever you're into} she can find.

SO, my two biggest takeaways from the video: 1) The wild things that I do that no one with too much sanity would dare to match are happening because of my desire to fuel my identity capital, and it's a good thing. And 2) Valuing love and marriage even when it is not present in my life is what will give me a happy and successful love and marriage.

When you put it like that, it makes sense, right?

If you know me, you know that I usually steer away from multi-author blog sites because of the lack of personal perspective and insight and the lack of creativity and originality in thought. But...I did find a "twenty-something" article this morning on one of those sites, and it's pertinent, so I'll share it with you:

When we start living with intention, taking control of our lives, building that identity capital and keeping the ball in our court...we are on the road to a cold beer at age 35 that will cheers to an "I did it." We've got time -- let's just use it wisely.

What's your identity capital?

xoxo,

Anna

If that really long title didn't grab your attention, I hope this picture did. Mary-Kate and Ashley, anyone? Yeah...I've loved them since the beginning of time. This post is inspired by the life of yours truly, but conceptually, I'm basing it off of New York Minute. And yes...I watched it recently. No shame.

For those who haven't seen it, Ashley plays the 4.0 GPA, suit-wearing, pink-loving, healthy, germaphobic neat freak who LIVES through the pages of her planner. Mary-Kate plays the irresponsible, mischievous, spontaneous, messy, "peace and love" sister who consistently skips school and oversleeps in her black hole of a bedroom...not showering or even changing her t-shirt.

Now if you ask me...both are incredibly f*^%ing annoying. No one likes to be around someone with a stick up her ass who is constantly judging others for not living up to her personal OCD standards, and no one likes to be around someone who is an unreliable, completely disgusting pig. THIS is why, reflecting on the movie and on my own contradicting lifestyle, I've complied a list of a few things to help us keep the balance of these stereotypes at a healthy medium. Because, let's be honest, most of you reading this have already identified yourselves with one or the other already {I'm a Mary-Kate.} Each of us needs to work on the balance, no matter which sister to whom you most relate. We need a little bit of Ashley to keep ourselves on track, we need a little bit of Mary-Kate to let ourselves breathe.

1. Your Bedroom
I'm not a neat freak. Not even close. Ask my four roommates how my bedroom looks at school. Ask my mom how many times she has picked up my shoes/clothes/purse/entire box of belongings and put them on the stairs so that I'd take them up to my room. HOWEVER...there is NOTHING I enjoy like a clean room. A really clean room, with scrubbed counter tops, fresh flowers, and clean, warm sheets right out of the dryer. When I have a bad anxiety attack, my room becomes a mess, and I reach a point of no return. I don't even know where to start with cleaning it. I don't ENJOY living in a pig sty. It just gets like that. That being said...I need to put my bedroom higher on my priority list. I need to keep it clean for longer than half of a day so that I stop reaching the point of no return so often. Maybe if I didn't have a dusty ceiling fan I wouldn't be sick all the time. I don't mind rummaging through my closet and throwing clothes on the floor. I'm not anal-retentive about that, that doesn't bother me. But when I notice one ice cream bowl turn into a pile of ice cream bowls {thaaaaat's where all of our dishes went!} and flowers in a brown-watered vase that died 2 weeks ago...that's nasty. In this case...I'm a Mary-Kate, and I need to become more of an Ashley.

2. Your Punctuality
I'll admit, I am one of those psycho agenda book people. You can ask me what I'm doing on July 12, 2026 and I'll tell you I'm getting a pedicure at 3PM. I know what I'm doing, and with whom, as far in advance as possible. I am always on time for events. If I'm not on time, or if I have to depend on someone else to get me there on time, I completely have a panic attack, and I go insane. If you ask me to do something last minute, and you should have asked me a long time ago, it won't be happening. HOWEVER...I've gotten better about doing things on a whim. College taught me to be adventurous. I've always been wild and crazy, but I used to turn down opportunities for adventures if they weren't thought out enough. Now, I'm cool with the whole get-in-the-car-and-go thing. I like both. Planned trips give you something to look forward to and reinforce structure in your life, and spontaneous trips let you live a little and not be so uptight -- letting you make some unexpected amazing memories that you wouldn't have made if you didn't take the stick out of your ass and swallow your pride. Also...not having a job in Mississippi the way I always have had a job in Maryland has made me less dependent on my planner. It's not that I have less to do, but I have less places to be. I can do most of what I have to do {schoolwork, cleaning} right here in my house. Likewise, not having a car in Mississippi the way I always have in Maryland has helped me to work on my panic attacks about being on time. There is literally nothing I can do about it except trust. If you tell me to be at your house at 6:00, I'll be completely ready to go at 5:30. But, if I'm not my own transportation to your house, all I can do is breathe and get there when I get there. In this case...I'm an Ashley, but I've learned to become more of a Mary-Kate.

3. Your Schoolwork
This one is tough. You have the people who are really intelligent and work really hard, the people who are really intelligent but don't apply themselves, the people who are not that smart but try really hard, and the people who are just downright stupid and lazy. I am a huge blur of these, so much so that I really can't define myself as any of them. In some areas of school, I am really smart. Obviously, I love to write. I'd turn in 100 A+ English papers before I properly studied for any exam. It's just how I am. But... I can't do math or anything with numbers. I struggle to understand those concepts. I have classes where I will try hard and still not get an A, and I have classes where I'm perfectly capable of getting an A, but I didn't try hard, so I made a C. I have no consistency. I have also had huge organizational problems in the past. I love organization, but I haven't always been the best at it. It wasn't until recently that I found a system that works for me and stopped making a habit of loose worksheets in my backpack and pens with no ink. HOWEVER...you also have the people who will look back on college, and their best memories will be "remember all of those times we went to get frozen yogurt as a study break." Awesome. That sounds like a really fun time. If you can't hear my sarcasm, here's your cue: YOU'RE MISSING OUT. Your priorities, unlike mine, are absolutely in order. But don't deprive yourself of amazing college memories because you turned down a fraternity date party to study for a test that's in 2 weeks. That'll be your own fault. I have a lot of fun in college, and I am a whole semester ahead with credit hours, but I need to be a more disciplined student. In this case...I'm a Mary-Kate, and I need to become more of an Ashley.

I'm going to go ahead and contradict myself again by saying this: you are fine just the way you are. If someone wants to obsessively clean the kitchen in unnecessary ways and make you feel bad about it, that's a personal problem. If someone wants to hold it against you that you like to study as much as you can, that's a personal problem. If someone wants to make you feel guilty for having a messy room, that's a personal problem. If someone wants to make fun of you for always needing to be on time or early, that's a personal problem. Having your shit together, or not, is personal. Unless you're a complete train wreck, or unless you're a psycho bitch to everyone around you, it's your personal business if you want to be a Mary-Kate or if you want to be an Ashley. If you choose to change yourself for the right reasons, that's great. But no one should have the audacity to try to change you.

When I was taking my finals the other day, I got some great results and I got some terrible results. I thought to myself, "I've always been this way. Done well in some things and not in others. I'm consistent in being inconsistent." When I cleaned my room today, I thought to myself, "I've always been this way. Living in a total black hole before I realize it's incredibly embarrassing and unlivable, and then I clean my room until it's spotless. I'm consistent in being inconsistent." I'm full of contradictions. Two of my favorite foods are McDonald's and kale. I have Buddha tapestries and statues all over my room, but I'm Catholic {and a practicing one at that.} I'm firmly Conservative, and I know the importance of working hard to earn money, but I can also blow money like a Valley Girl. The thing is, no matter how much you try to change yourself and improve yourself and make yourself into one type of person whose thoughts and actions make perfect sense, who you've always been will still be there. It's who you are. Why would you want to be one predictable, unoriginal stereotype? Be a bunch of them, combined. Surprise people, surprise yourself. Because really, a square peg will never fit into a circle hole. It doesn't mean you can't make a few changes, but overall, you are who you are. You can round your edges if you want to, but you'll still be a square. Embrace who you are and who you're not. Cut yourself some slack for being exactly who you are. It's okay.

At the end of the day, sometimes I'm a Mary-Kate, and sometimes I'm an Ashley, but really, I'm always just an Anna Michelle. A little bit of both, a little bit of neither, a little bit of everything.

xoxo,

Anna

Happy Monday!

{Disclaimer: For those of you who are wondering why I'm writing about not being in school on a Monday morning, I actually don't have class on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays. I'm not skipping!}

As the end of the school year approaches, I've been reflecting on what I've learned my sophomore year and how thankful I am to have grown so much as a person in this short amount of time. I want to share it with you, and I also want to share with you some of the inspiration I've found to help you with finals and with wrapping up your year :)

After my freshman year, I made a list of 101 things I'd learned in college at that point in time as a graduation gift for two of my younger girls on the dance team, Lauren and Kaila, who were heading off to college. Those lessons still apply, but what I've realized from doubling my time in college since then is that the lessons will continue and continue. They never end; we are always learning, and we are always growing.

So, here it is:

{Things I've Learned my Sophomore Year of College...a PG preview}

1. Memorize phone numbers. Nothing like being stranded and alone with a dead phone.
2. Carry a phone charger in your purse. Charging in class or at the bar? Who cares.
3. Carry cash.
4. Be friends with the people who you don't have to question.
5. You may lose touch with your friends from freshman year. It happens, it's fine.
6. Take care of your things.
7. Take care of other people's things.
8. NEVER leave anything expensive, or anything at all, at a boy's house. You will never get it back.
9. If they're "not interested in a relationship right now" they will never be interested in a relationship with you.
10. That is fine: college boys are not datable.
11. Be in friendships and relationships with people that you don't have to change.
12. You can't change friends and you can't change boys.
13. Keep Gatorade, saltine crackers, and BC powder within reach of your bed.
14. Wash your sheets. All the time.
15. Don't slack on your laundry.
16. Get really good at doing your laundry.
17. You may think living with 4 other people is easier than living with 1 other person. You are wrong.
18. If you don't help out in the house your roommates will actually hate you. Help out.
19. "It's not you, it's me" is a lie. It is you. They don't like you. Sorry. Move on.
20. If you don't exercise you will gain ten million pounds. If you think I'm exaggerating then be my guest and put it to the test. You'll be sorry.
21. Make friends with bouncers.
22. Make friends with bartenders.
23. Memorize the information on your ID to a T.
24. Ask around for good professors. It matters.
25. Love the hell out of your school. People will hate it and try to take you down. Have so much pride in it that people can't even stand you.
26. Just because you met them, you know them, or you've always known them doesn't make them your real friends.
27. Don't trust people easily.
28. Pay attention to people's intentions.
29. Not going to class is the ultimate downward spiral.
30. Don't forget your house keys. There's no RA to let you in.

The PG-13 and R versions of this list will have to remain off the internet. Lauren and Kaila, lunch date ASAP so I can give you your "congratulations for finishing freshman year" present.

Now for some inspiration to get you through finals and inspire you to make the most of your last few weeks!

I hope everyone has a fun and successful last few weeks of school! You are almost there :)

xoxo,

Anna

Ok...the dream-chaser might not necessarily eat kale, and she might not be into Bikram (yoga), either. But most people who think that dreaming is for the birds associate these kinds of people with granola, meditation, and "jobs that aren't real." Am I right? The list goes on. I'm a big believer in dreams, I always have been, and I'm here to talk about why the people who make fun of dream-chasers are kidding themselves.

Most likely...it's because their own dreams failed. That could be because they didn't have, or seek out, the resources they needed to make them happen, or maybe there was some kind of devastating turn for the worse that led them to a point of no return. Maybe they had a change of heart and didn't know how to pursue their new dreams. Maybe they never had dreams to begin with because they weren't surrounded by creative people and innovative experiences growing up. The bottom line is that there are two types of people in this world: People who support your dreams (either because they pursued their own dreams and they want you to feel that same success, or because they didn't achieve their dreams and they don't want you to make the same mistakes--they want better for you) and people who don't support your dreams because they are jealous. Jealous of your creativity, your drive, your determination, and your passion. The creativity, drive, determination, and passion that they lacked and can't get back in time to start over. These people are poison. Closed-minded, negative haters will never fuel your dreams...but don't let that put out your fire.

1. Dreaming brings you to places you never would've imagined.
Today I came across old lists from college preparation days. I had a lengthy list of schools I planned on applying to and visiting, and guess what? Ole Miss wasn't one of them. Here I am, at the school that I didn't know was the place I'd dreamed of when I closed my eyes. The place that I figured out, piece by piece, was the perfect fit for me. I'd always thought that my study abroad experience would be in Europe, and aside from that, the two top places on my bucket list are Thailand and Morocco. But where did I choose to spend my upcoming summer? Cape Town, South Africa. Let your dreams take the wheel. They'll take you to places you didn't expect to go, which makes you realize that the world is so much bigger than what you ever thought it was, and can offer you so much more knowledge and experience than you ever knew could be possible to obtain.

2. The places your dreams take you to make you worldly.
Looking back, there was no greater blessing than not being accepted into The University of Maryland. Granted, I was accepted to Towson University and Salisbury University, but none of these schools would have been able to give me the worldly realizations that I've gained by being in a different region of the United States than where I grew up and where I've lived all my life. This was the time to go out and explore something completely different. I understand and perceive things now in a way that my peers who stayed at home simply do not grasp. I see fashion, money, upbringings, food, dialect, and culture in general on such a different, more broad scale than I ever did before. There's a lot more out there than just the way I was raised, the food I grew up eating, the clothes I grew up wearing, the money my parents have, the things I say, the culture I've known all my life. The South taught me different ways of life. I'm eternally grateful for the opportunity to experience this firsthand.

3. Dreamers serve more of a positive purpose and presence in others' lives.
Who likes hanging out with people filled with negativity, envy, and dullness? That's exhausting, annoying, and dragging. On the other hand: who likes hanging out with people who are good listeners, who are encouraging of your passions, supportive of your goals, and say positive and uplifting things to make you feel like you can do this and you are worthy of doing this? Dreamers don't just understand other dreamers, dreamers want to understand everyone. It's non-dreamers who drag. Dreamers will be there for you to make you feel good about yourself and push you to accomplish whatever you want to accomplish. Those are the people that appreciate life...their own, yours, and the rest of the world's. The world needs more of them. More great people would have the confidence and the support to do more great things.

4. Dreamers serve more of a positive purpose in their own lives.
You get one shot at this life. You get one brain, one heart, one body, and one soul. If you support, encourage, and appreciate yourself the way you do for others, your ability to accomplish great things will skyrocket. Willpower: it's real. It exists, it's important, it's everything. Without it, you have nothing. Your dreams remain dreams. And dreamers won't take that for an answer. They'll treat themselves with the respect and positivity that they need to make the most of their shot at life, in their wholehearted attempt to do it right.

5. Dreamers are always growing as people.
When I moved 904 miles away from home, I knew no one. When I heard about a study abroad trip to Africa, I was committed within ten days. By dreaming, I've learned to take a leap of faith. Life is too short to obsess over perfection, details, and cautious predictability. I've learned that maybe my planner is not the Bible of my life. There's a lot to explore, and the more chances and risks I take, the more I have the desire to take on those explorations. I've learned to just jump in the car and go. To see the world at any chance I can get. Non-dreamers are too conventional and practical to take a chance. Their lives are boring. They don't know any different. They don't grow, as people, at nearly the rate as the dreamer does. They aren't learning through adventure and experience. They spend their time thinking that their cookie-cutter, "this is what I'm supposed to be doing." lives are fulfilling them, when really, they have no idea what they're missing by turning their noses to the adventurers.

6. Dreamers are on-board the never-ending dream train.
Next stop: another dream. Next stop: another dream. Next stop: yet another dream. One dream leads to the next. It never ends. The more you expose yourself to, the more you submerge yourself in a whole new world, the more you will learn and the more people you will meet. People who don't dream don't discover. They don't discover what they could be really good at, who they could really love, where they might want to call home. They stick to what they know. By acting on all of my dreams, I have discovered new passions and talents that have inspired me to brew up whole new dreams. This never ends. It keeps my racing, colorful mind fresh with new and exciting thoughts all the time. Talk about inspiring. I never want to stop feeling this way.

7. Dreamers appreciate their past because of where their dreams will take them in the future.
You don't know a good thing till it's gone. You also don't know a bad thing till you find a better thing. This is how I felt by coming to college far away. I discovered a whole new life, and it put into perspective how good some of the things I left behind were and how bad some of the things I left behind were. Had I never followed my dreams, picked up, and left, I wouldn't have gained that kind of insight. Perspective. You can't get any until you see your past paths from a different light and a different angle. It'll inspire you to take some whole new paths, and to take a walk down the paths from your past that played a positive part in bringing you to your current path.

If you're looking for a sign to pursue your dreams, here it is. I might be a kale-eating, natural beauty remedy loving, incense-lighting weirdo, but I am completely capable of having a down-to-earth normal conversation about following dreams. I am the person to chat with if you need one:)

What are your dreams? I would love to hear them.

xoxo,

Anna

You may have noticed...this website is called "Love All Things Britney." Well...for those of you who don't know me, or even if you do, it's time for a long overdue post to explain my reasons for completely idolizing this person...so much so that I named my website after her.

Let's see...it all started in 1998. Her first single, ...Baby One More Time, was released in the fall. I was 4 years old. The album came out in January of 1999...less than 3 weeks before my 5th birthday. My mom took my sister (14 at the time) and me to Walmart to pick up that blue album with the flower. And that's when... my closet became full of crop tops, I didn't go anywhere without a boom box and a CD case, and I couldn't choreograph dances in my bedroom without a headset microphone. That's when it started.

My first concert happened to be a Britney Spears concert. It was actually in my hometown of Howard County, not even in Baltimore or DC. The date was June 20, 2000, and we didn't even have pavilion seats - we were on the lawn. It was the very beginning of the Oops...I Did It Again! tour. I'll never forget seeing Britney walk out and sing Don't Let Me Be the Last To Know, live (yes, she sings this one live in every show, she doesn't lip-synch it). She was wearing a big, beautiful dress, and as a starstruck 6-year-old, I thought she was breathtaking. To this day, it's still one of my favorite Britney songs. (Maybe also because she and Shania Twain worked on it together as co-writers, fun fact). Of course she didn't see me, I was way in the back on the lawn, but I swore to my sister and my cousins that "she waved to me." I remember going to bed that night and saying to my mom as she tucked me in, "this was the best day of my life."

I own each of these CDs tangibly and digitally AND had them pre-ordered (of course) to be sent to me as soon as humanly possible. Duh.

I know every word to every song and can actually name you each song from each album by track number. Kind of creepy, right? I also have all of the bonus tracks...this picture ring a bell? (Such a great song, even though I drink Coke, not Pepsi)

I've seen her in concert three times: the Oops...I Did it Again! tour (2000), the Circus tour (2009), and the Femme Fatale tour (2011). For my 21st birthday in January, I'll be seeing her VIP in Las Vegas for her residency and...get ready... MEETING HER!!! It's going to be, without a doubt, the best day of my life. Missing her other tours (3 including ...Baby One More Time. The others being Dream Within A Dream and Onyx Hotel) is my biggest regret.

I was an avid watcher of Britney and Kevin: Chaotic. I re-watch her interviews, performances, and documentaries religiously. I own her books and the magazines with her on the cover. My rooms (at home AND at school) are decorated with lots of Britney posters (and vanilla candles...her favorite, obviously). I used to have my neighbors pay money to watch me perform my choreography to her music on my front porch. Recently, I thought about changing my voicemail to "Hey what's up this is Anna and I'm not in right now so do yo thing!" (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not a super-fan). I know all of the music video dances by heart, and I'm not afraid to perform them in public along with an incredibly impressive lip-synching imitation if I do say so myself. I've been her for Halloween multiple times...this year I was the Oops costume (me on the left, Brit on the right)...and yes...I often make collages of the two of us side-by-side thinking that we look alike. just check out my Instagram).

So...I've explained my obsession to you...and now your question is WHY? Why Britney Spears? Why an obsession THIS extreme? To any Britney haters reading this, keep reading. I guarantee you I'll change at least one of your opinions in some way, shape or form about the greatness of this Pop Princess. If you're a Britney fan, you keep reading, too. Share this post on your Facebook walls to promote BRITNEY love here, there, and everywhere. Let's loveallthingsbritney, y'all. Are ya ready? Let's go.

Why The Legendary Miss Britney Spears Rules All

Let's first talk about a major debate here. A lot of people will argue with me and say "Britney doesn't really sing!" or even, "Britney can't sing." Let's debacle those silly statements.

Number 1: if you were dancing like this, would you be singing?...

That's what I thought.

Number 2: She DOES, in fact, sing at her shows! Of course, not every song, it wouldn't be possible to sing and dance that crazy for hours. She does sing her ballads, at least some of them, and I've heard them live. They're beautiful. And you think she can't sing?...

Wrong again :)

(She didn't win, but isn't she so cute?!)

Now for Number 3...the argument I'm going to make here is one that I feel really defines Britney's career.  There are many types of singers in this world. There are musicians (you could call them artists), there are entertainers (you could call them performers), and then there are people who fit both. Britney is absolutely primarily an entertainer. Her job is to be a badass dancer wearing badass costumes and putting on a badass show for you to enjoy. That being said...she really is also a musician, even if it's not her number one component to being the Pop Star that she is. She's co-written (and written) many songs, she's been a singer since childhood, and her heart is really into her music. Watch I Am Britney Jean: The Documentary if you're lost with that last part. Or you can join the fan club, like me, and get letters and tidbits from her all the time. One of my favorite songs that she's written (that got pretty much no publicity)...

If you ask me, that was beautiful art. Yes, I just called Britney Spears "art," you heard me correctly. It's written about her pregnancy with her first son, Sean Preston. But hey, that's my opinion.

Now for a few of the most notable awards and honors this superstar has received...

Grammy Nomination for... Best New Artist in 2000, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (...Baby One More Time) in 2000, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Oops...I Did It Again!) in 2001, Best Pop Vocal Album (Oops...I Did It Again!) in 2001, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (Overprotected) in 2003,  Best Pop Vocal Album (Britney) in 2003, Best Dance Recording (Womanizer) in 2010.

Won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording  (Toxic) in 2005.

She was the youngest person to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She is the best selling artist of the 2000s (and one of the best selling artists of all time).

She has 6 MTV Music Awards an 9 Billboard Music Awards.

She was the youngest person to ever win a VMA... (nominated 30 times and won 6 times).

She is HILARIOUS (just watch Chaotic and you'll see what I mean), totally Southern (she was born in Mississippi...I live in Mississippi...and I've been to her hometown in Louisiana), and she considers herself shy. She says that who she is on-stage is her alter-ego. Her story of becoming famous is like that of a fairytale. A small-town girl with a lot of talent and not a lot of anything else moves to the city and makes it big time. She is one of the wealthiest and most successful people in the world.

Being a dancer just about my whole life, I saw this girl on my TV and I was mesmerized by the way she moved. It's incredibly inspiring to me how talented of a dancer she is and how passionate she is about dancing. It's inspiring to me how she just puts herself out there, stays true to herself, and doesn't care what anybody thinks of it. Love her, hate her, say what you want about her...you know the rest of that sentence.

Not to mention, she's beautiful...just look at her...

I'm so proud to be a Britney fan, and I'll be one until the day that I die. She revolutionized Pop music and created an era of amazing dance jams for my generation. Just think about how boring our lives would be without her. Let's not forget her iconic Super Bowl performance, her incredibly awesome dance with a python on live television, and all of those hit-clips we had like...Stronger and (You Drive Me) Crazy. You can admit it or you can deny it, but the girl changed music for the world, even for you and your world.

So tell me...if I said Britney Spears was my favorite celebrity of all time...would you hold it against me?

xoxo,

Anna

Spring is here! Hopefully it's warm for good. Today is so beautiful in Oxford -- 75 degrees and sunny! I have so many awesome things planned for this month :) I have visitors coming to see me at school, I'm going on a road-trip, I'm flying home...the list goes on! Today's Jesus Calling reading is an awesome way to kick off the month! Let me share it with you:

April 1

I am calling you to a life of constant communication with me. Basic training includes learning to live above your circumstances, even while interacting on that cluttered plane of life. You yearn for a simplified lifestyle, so that your communication with me can be uninterrupted. But I challenge you to relinquish the fantasy of an uncluttered world. Accept each day just as it comes, and find me in the Midst of it all.

Talk with me about every aspect of your day, including your feelings. Remember that your ultimate goal is not to control or fix everything around you; it is to keep communing with Me. A successful day is one in which you have stayed in touch with Me, even if many things remain undone at the end of the day. Do not let your to-do list (written or mental) become an idol directing your life. Instead, ask My Spirit to guide you moment by moment. He will keep you close to Me.

1 Thessalonians 5:17
Proverbs 3:6

One of my new favorite spring activities is hiking. Amber and I have been going on walks on these cool trails that I didn't even know existed (which I've already blogged about). We got lost yesterday and it was hilarious! We found our way back, but we got a lot of extra exercise and Vitamin D :) I also love baseball (Ole Miss baseball and Orioles baseball) and eating crawfish. Still waiting on pool season...it should be here before we know it!

What are your favorite things to do in the spring?

Happy April!

xoxo,

Anna