This word somehow manages to have 4 or 5 meanings to me. I think it's really easy to say you have strength physically, it's really easy to tell how much weight someone can bench or how much help a person needs when moving a table or desk. Physical strength has a progress that really anyone can see. Usually a person becomes more muscular or they become more toned. Anyway the cookie crumbles it's easier to tell when you have more physical strength. Then there's emotional strength which is esentially how you handle things, how you overcome obstacles in life and how you become a better person even when you are faced with the worst (like skydiving and finding out mid free fall that you have no parachute). Emotional strength is harder to see from the outside but when you are around a person with emotional strength enough you start to see it and realize. I have talked about emotional strength before so, if you'd like to read more after this post about that click here. 

However the type of strength that I have had on my mind recently is more or less knowing your strengths and your weaknesses and embracing the weaknesses to make it one of your strengths. I am not going to lie, I beat myself up sometimes on what I am not good at, I try to make it so I can be amazing at it and if I tend to be REALLY hard on myself. (I am occasionally way, way to hard on myself *not a drill*). I guess you could say for a while there I thought that if I wasn't good at something then I wouldn't be able to make friends, or get a job, or make a future for myself. (I am hard core kinda stressing over where my life is going right now). But that's kind of irrelevant (more on that at a later date). Anyways, I digress, recently I have been realizing how I can make my weaknesses my strengths. For example: Math and I are really not the best of friends, we didn't really get along when I was younger and I have to spend A LOT of time on math now to understand it, I have to teach it to someone and practice problems tons of times before it actually clicks. I was a business major when I started college and I realized I was going down a rocky road of being miserable, so I switched my major to political science/pre-law; then I realized that I didn't love that as much as I thought either, I was bored, I wasn't enjoying what I was doing and I didn't want to be stuck doing this for the rest of my life. I was at a loss of where I was going I was making list after list of what I was good at and what I wasn't so good at. I drafted TONS of pros and cons lists. I realized I wanted to go towards a concentration where I could still doing business but work with people on expanding their businesses and their lives. Which is what lead my to my concentration of organizational communications.

About two weeks ago I was faced with a question in an interview which was "why didn't you become a business major".  Being me and not knowing what to say back I said "I am not good at math, I really haven't been". Realizing I knew my weakness but I didn't make myself marketable I was kicking myself in the foot, because a week after that interview that I realized...I am pretty good at math it's just not something I enjoy. I realized that I can make myself a stronger person by making my weakness a strength. I may not be a math genius but that doesn't make me weak or stupid it makes me human. I am realizing now that it's okay that I am not a math whiz because with a ton of hard work I am able to solve equations and make the best out of something that I don't really enjoy. 

Just because I stink at math doesn't mean that I am unable to function, it doesn't make me any less of a person-- it just makes me, me. 

There are tons of other things that other people aren't good at but that doesn't make them stupid. Some people can't write as well as others, some people can't play video games, some people can't paint their nails, the list goes on and on. 

What I am trying to get at with this long rambling is that it doesn't matter how bad you are at something as long as you can find a way to make it a little easier for yourself. You can't get anywhere at life moping over the fact that you aren't good/amazing at something. 

What are some of your weaknesses turned into strengths???

Keep Calm and Carry On 

xoxo 

Melissa 

Hey there lovely people!
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! On Friday David and I will be heading to the BEACH! All praise, we both desperately need some sunshine and some ocean waves. While I hate...HATE packing you can guarantee I will be making a list about what to pack and then instagraming and tweeting my packing adventures.

So, moving on, I need some new beach reads, I am looking for some suggestions. So, if you happen to have some suggestions, comment, tweet, or email me them. I love your suggestions and I love hearing from everyone! (click those social media buttons kids, they do wonders!)

Some of my ideas are:

Hatching Twitter.
Divergent.
Wonder.

The list stops here since I haven't had tons of time to romp around my local used book store or a Barns and Noble.

So friends, let me know!

Keep Calm and Carry On
xoxo
Melissa

Okay kids, it's time for some real talk because I am feeling some type of way about fitness right about now. And my over all appearance. So, lets just talk about summer of 2013 I was a champion losing all the weight with a weight loss program I had lost over 20 pounds and I was confident in a bathing suit and I wanted nothing more than to wear tank tops and shorts while romping around with my friends. I was conscious about what I was putting into my body and I wasn't just eating anything and everything on the go. 

say hello to my magical robot arm ad slightly crazy room.

I wasn't even sucking in folks! 

Anyways, I realized about two weeks ago that I am looking in the mirror and thinking dear god, I have been feeling down about my actual physical appearance and I have been really, really hard on myself about a lot of things. I am also eating one too many cupcakes. *whoops*. 

HOWEVER, this is not a complaining post this is a post to keep myself accountable this is a post for me to tell everyone and myself that I can get to my ideal weight again and I will be a freaking unicorn about it. 

Of course I have a list of the goals and what I am promising myself. 

-follow serving suggestions on foods

-work out at least two times a week for at least 45 mins of high intensity cardio 

-stop eating so much on the go, be more prepared and more organized about how I plan my meals. 

-convienent is not always good for you 

-more fruit and veggies

Luckily I have an amazing support system of friends and an amazing boyfriend who is on the weight loss/operation get healthy train. He is the absolute best. 

And my friends are awesome including my twin/bestfriend Rachael, and my mom is also amazing for backing me up on my new journey. 

Time to stop being so ashamed and embarrassed and time to start kicking butt and taking names.

This is from December right before Christmas and now I am making a lifestyle change and never going back on the count of three 

ONE! TWO! THREE!

Do you struggle with eating healthy and working out?? 

Keep Calm and Carry On

xoxo 

Melissa

Spring time is right around the corner and I could not be happier. These past two weekends have been absolutely phenomanol I honestly don't even know where to begin! I've decided to share my past two weekends since I was seriously missing in action last week! *whoops* 

so LAST Friday David and I went out to a Brazilian Steak House to celebrate his bonus that he got at work (I was so, so mezmorized by food that I forgot to take pictures of all of it!) Put it to you this way I ate more meat than I know what to do with! It was tons of fun and we got this amazing papya ice cream and it was beyond magical! Of course it was a wonderful bear date (little bear and bear take on the Brazilian Steak House!!)

Staged picture in front of a fireplace for the win!!

LAST Saturday I went out with some great people, we went to a local bar and real talk played cards against humanity while eating popcorn!! It was a great time and we were also celebrating my friends 21st birthday and of course we took all the pictures prior to going out!

These are some of my favorite people! 

SO, this weekend I totally failed at taking any pictures! I am such a bad blogger sometimes! 

Friday I went to this amazing BBQ place with David and his Dad and then we tried this ice cream place called Jennis and it was amazing and I want more....like now. 

Saturday I went for a three mile walk!!! *yayyy fitness* and real talk I planned on running but that didn't happen so I called it Walgging because I did run...downhill...like once. 

The rest of Saturday was spent studying econ and spending time with Leigh Anne dress shopping and she is honestly the best because she tutored me in econ and it was wonderful!! 

Then after we crammed all the econ in my brain I went to sushi with my friend Samantha (at the stylist's diaries!) and there was this lovely looking food dish (that I did NOT get) 

Is this not the creepiest thing  that could be sushi?

AND today was filled with sleeping and going to this class called barre3 if you haven't heard of it, it's a mix between yoga, Pilates, and ballet! It was an insane workout I shook and real talk almost passed out! Definatly can't wait to do more of it though because I feel amazing mind and body!! 

Now it's time for homework then going to watch Revenge! 

What were you up to this weekend!? 

Tell me all about it!

Keep Calm and Carry On 

xoxo 

Melissa

Hey all you lovely people! It's Monday (my Monday has been an adventure and it's only lunch time!) Usually Monday's mean Monday Madness (the top five things I am loving this week) *but* today there is only one thing that I am loving and that's my boyfriend *cue whatever reaction you have to this comment*. So, today it's a Boyfriend Blog takeover! So get ready to have some laughs and have your eyes opened to the "nerd" world, it's quite fantastic.

Hi there! My name is David Dudley and I am Melissas boyfriend! I helped Melissa create her new blog layout by showing her around the wonderful tool of Photoshop, and I also have written a wonderful article about bacon. I recommend you go do that if you haven’t already, because it's a pretty good piece. But unlike my last piece where I told you after my favorite delicacy, I'm here to help you this time. I want to show you the magical world of Pokemon and how it could help you become a better person. Now you may already have your opinion on Pokemon or video games in general, but I want you to suspend your prior experience and start a fresh perspective with me for a little bit.

Pokemon was released a little over 18 years ago by the game studio Game Freak. They had made a few games before this, but this was their big breakout. After this, they haven’t done much besides make Pokemon games, because why would you? When your game becomes a cultural icon, you don't stop. 18 years later, and new generations are getting into the game with the latest edition called Pokemon X or Pokemon Y, depending on what version you take. It seems that after 18 years, they've run out of colors to use, and now have moved on to letters. Over 200 million copies of Pokemon have been sold throughout the years, and the game has spawned a cartoon, a trading card game, and all other sorts of paraphernalia for everyone to enjoy

So, why should you care about any of this? Well the first reason is because they are cute. Do you remember having Tamagotchis as a kid? Well now imagine having 6 of them. And you get to choose them, instead of having that lame excuse of a creature that resembles who knows what. The best part is that there's over 650 Pokemon to choose from,  so you have plenty to choose from. And if cute isn't your cup of tea, then there’s plenty of Pokemon that range from the embodiment of evil to a turtle with water cannons on his back.

Another reason is that you can play however you want. Pokemon X/Y does a brilliant job of conveying the idea that there’s more to Pokemon than just battling. You have a good of friends that you quest  In the first edition it was pretty much all you could do, but now there’s so much more. You can enter your Pokemon in beauty contests, feed them cupcakes, or just show them off to friends. And of course, there’s the quest to be the best, which takes time and hard work, but it can be done, and I have faith in you.

Pokemon can also help you manage your living space and be better prepared in your everyday life and help the world. Now, bear with me on this, but I’m going to send you to one of my favorite TED talks. Jane McGonigal is one of my favorite talkers, and if you have never heard her, I highly recommend you go and look her videos, but the video I’m going to highlight is this one:

It’s an amazing video, and it highlights all the awesome aspects of gaming and how it can help you in your everyday life. Pokemon helps you prepare: “Do I have enough Potions and Pokeballs to make it to the next town?” It gives you determination:”That last battle was really rough, I’d better level up my Pokemon some more before the next Gym Leader.”, which by the way, boosts your willpower. And of course, you have the cuteness of the Pokemon, which boosts your emotional resilience.

One last thing Pokemon can do is expand your social circle. There is a huge community of Pokemon fans who enjoy playing the game. It’s not just kids anymore, the average age of a person who is playing Pokemon today is 19.5, and there’s lots of opportunities to find your own community to play, and make new friends. And you can make new friends on the bus or in class by playing your games and chatting with other people who are playing. Gamers usually love to talk about their games, so this’ll help you make new friends.

As for how to go about playing Pokemon, I highly recommend getting a Nintendo 3DS and getting Pokemon X or Y. The new fairy type of Pokemon and the fact that this version has 650 means you’re bound to find the perfect team for you. However, if you’re skeptical, and you don’t want to shell out big money, go find a used DS Lite (they’re around $40), and get a copy of either Heart Gold or Pokemon Diamond. These both are great starters, and will help get you on your way through the realm of Pokemon.

That’s all from me. Thanks for taking the time to read this! I have a Twitch channel where I stream all sorts of video games at twitch.tv/comehaveabagel and if you follow me, then you will always know when I stream. I stream all sorts of things, and play all sorts of cool music as well so check me out! And if you have any cool friends who play World of Warcraft, or you want to see a toned-down version of Pokemon, I’m doing a Giveaway March 8th at noon, where I’m giving away cool card loot. I’m hoping it works out, because if it does, I’ll start adding cool stuff like plush things. Thanks again for reading!
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Also! There's a new fun addition to my side bar! You should all go say hey to Pam at Hodge Podge Moments! Pam's blog is about love, friends, life and more! Pam loves going to Olive Garden and eating all the breadsticks (who doesn't)! Later on this year Pam is moving across the country to move in with her boyfriend, their love story is on her blog in segments and I highly recommend that you go check it out! Pam is also a teacher with tons of fun fashion posts on how to dress affordable as a teacher! Go check out Hodge Podge Moments and enjoy!

Keep Calm and Carry On
xoxo
Melissa