20​17 Year in Review

January: went to the Dominican Republic/Haiti for a faith-based cultural immersion trip with my school’s campus ministry

This was one of the most inspiring and eye-opening trips I have had the pleasure of taking in my lifetime. I cannot say enough about it and I won’t here. If you want to know more about this trip, read my blog post about it from January 2017:)

February: went to LACMA for the first time (basically initiated into LA)

I feel like to be a true Los Angelan you have to go to all the big touristy places at least once and then like never again because then you’re just a tourist lol. Well, I have spent a fair amount of time in my life visiting Los Angeles and have done the big stuff but I had yet to go to LACMA, one of the most talked about and very Instagrammed museums in LA. So in February I finally made the trip and now I think I’ve done it all hehe

March: got my BIG

EXCITING FOR ANY SORORITY GIRL!!!! I got my Big, Makena, in my sorority during Big/Little Reveal week in March and was so elated! I had wanted Makena from the first date I went with her on and then on our second date she took me to the James Corden Show and we sat front row and I was hooked. I put her at the top of my list of wanted Bigs but then was so crushed when she posted an Instagram pic right before Big/Little Week with my GBig saying that she wasn’t getting a Little. I legit cried in my friend’s kitchen. Luckily, she was just messing with me and Big/Little Reveal night the curtain dropped and she was standing there in front of me!

April: went to the Lip Sync Battle Show and met the love of my life (aka Tom Holland)

So my sorority got this really cool opportunity to go to the Lip Sync Battle Show that’s hosted by LL Cool J and Chrissy Teigen and be in the audience. We watched two tapings and got to stand in the front row up against the stage for the second taping. The first taping was Bellamy Young from Scandal and Matt McGorry from How to Get Away With Murder which was amazing but the second show was Zendaya and Tom Holland who were promoting the new Spider-Man movie that came out in July! I was absolutely obsessed and because I got to stand front row, I got to high five Chrissy, Tom, and Zendaya when they first came out on stage as well as interact with Tom when he came over to our side of the stage to say hi. I even sang into his microphone with my sorority sisters when he pointed it at us during one of the commercial breaks when they did karaoke “Don’t Stop Believin”. I freakin died!! We also each got paid to be audience members so the money we earned went to our philanthropy. It was an amazing day!!! (Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics from it so instead here’s a pic of the beach)May: finished Freshman year of college

I wrapped up freshman year right at the beginning of May after taking my last finals and moving out of my dorm. What an accomplishment! Only 3 more years to go lol

June: saw Ed Sheeran in concert

I freakin love Ed Sheeran and had only seen him open for T-Swift before so I was so excited to see him at his own concert. I saw him in KC and went with one of my good friends also named Emily. It was such a good concert and someone even proposed at it during his song “Perfect” which was absolutely goals. I cried when he played “Photograph” which, fun fact, he finished writing that song at the hotel he was staying at last time he was in KC. Such a good time!

July: 19th Birthday!!!

Celebrated my 19th birthday on July 6. One more year and I beat teen pregnancy lol. I spent the day with my sister downtown at the Plaza doing some shopping and getting lunch and then went to middle of nowhere Missouri for the latter half of the day because I had to go see my little brother’s boy scout ceremony at his camp :/ Not the most exciting of birthdays but it was still nice and not horrible, plus at one point I was with the whole family at the camp so that was a plus.

August: visited Alaska, my beloved dance studio of 16 years closed, took a road trip from KC to LMU

Ok, for August I couldn’t pick just one thing because lots happened this month. To start the month, my family traveled to Alaska for the first time in my life. It was so beautiful and it’s truly unlike any other place in the states. My favorite activities were the glacier cruise that we took to get up close and personal with the ice glaciers as well as flying over the glaciers in a small bush plane. I got the most amazing pictures! I left this vacay a little early to head back home in KC in order to be there for the celebration of my childhood dance studio. I started dancing there when I was three and it was open 16 years before it closed its doors in August. While it was a sad occurrence, the occasion was very sweet and it brought back so many alums from over the years including me and many of my bestest friends. A few weeks after that it was time for me to pack up and head back to school for my sophomore year. Because I wanted my car out there this year in LA, my mom and I road tripped all the way from KC to LMU. It was a three-day road trip with a stop in the middle for an afternoon in the Grand Canyon which I hadn’t been to in like 12 years. I thought it was so fun to drive half-way across the country and it has been so much nicer this year to have my car in LA with me.

September: participated in Lip Sync with my sorority (2nd place baby!!!!)

So at the beginning of the semester every fall, every sorority, and fraternity on campus gets the chance to compete in a Lip Sync Battle and it gets very intense. The winning sorority and fraternity gets money towards their philanthropy and also the creds of winning lol. You basically put together a 5 or 6-minute routine with an assortment of songs to lip sync and dance too with a storyline that follows the theme. This years theme was superheroes versus villains so my sorority did a Family Feud between the superheroes and villains themed lip sync with songs that included “24k”, “7/11” and “No Problem”. It was a very stressful first week back to school with late night rehearsals but it was worth it because my sorority ended up winning 2nd place!

October: visited two childhood friends in Chicago for fall break

LMU takes a “fall break” every year which is really just an extra Friday off from school but I used it to travel to Chicago to visit two of my childhood friends from dance. They both live they’re now together, one as a freelance dancer and the other in school at Columbia College. I also wrote a whole blog post on this and my adventures there for the weekend which you can go read:) The craziest part for me was that it combined my two worlds together. The two friends were friends that I had grown up with dancing at the studio every day after school but we all went to different high schools and then we all grew up and went on to different career paths. Some of my friends have been dancing professionally and some of my friends like me have gone off to different colleges. We all meet up like once every 6 months because our lives are all so busy and crazy so it was cool to be visiting two friends from this friend group that lives in the exact same place now but still doing different things.

November: visited the set of Modern Family with my parents and met fellow Kansas Citian Eric Stonestreet

This was a very cool experience. Basically what happened is that every summer in KC there is this event that happens in partnership with the hospital my mom works at where celebs like Paul Rudd, Eric Stonestreet, Jason Sudeikis, etc. who are all from KC originally come together and raise money for the hospital. There’s usually a celeb baseball game and then there’s always the auction night. Well, my parents go to this every year and this past year they auctioned on a package that Eric Stonestreet (Cam on Modern Family) does where you get a trip to visit the set of Modern Family and meet the cast and they won! Because I’m already out there in LA for school, my parents asked if I could come along on that day and luckily for me, they said yes! We got to go the Fox Studios the morning of and watch Eric as well as Jesse Tyler Ferguson film some scenes and tour all the set houses before heading over to another building and watching the whole cast do a table read for their 200th episode over lunch. Everyone from Sofia Vergara to Julie Bowen to Sarah Hyland was there which was really cool to see them and the episode that they were reading was hilarious. It’s going to be on ABC on January 10th! After lunch, we went back to the set and watched some more filming before the day was done and we got pics with Jesse and Eric. They were both so nice and Eric even got us dinner reservations at this vegan restaurant in LA called Crossroads which was absolutely delicious.

December: closed out the year on the high seas on a Disney cruise!

As I type this, I am currently on the Disney Fantasy, one of its 4 cruise ships. We are sailing to the Eastern Caribbean and tonight we will ring in the new year with a firework show on the ship! I am so excited! My family has cruised before but never over the winter holidays so I’m super excited to be closing out my year this way!

All my goals for 2018 are pretty much the same as 2017 but I sorta accomplished them from last year sorta didn’t so I just wanna keep going strong.

1. Stick to a workout regime of some sort: I did really really well :)over the summer with this. I legit worked out almost every single morning and at least 5 out of the 7 days a week and felt really good. But then school came around again in the fall and I fell behind and became lazy/busy. But next semester will be even crazier I think for me, however, I want to stay focused and committed to a schedule of working out that I can reasonable live by while at school. Fingers crossed!!
2. Get better at photography and videography: This was also a goal for 2017 but it involved getting new equipment for my cameras and that just didn’t happen until this Christmas lol. So now that Christmas has happened and I’ve gotten some pretty cool stuff, I can hopefully improve my hobby of photography and videography. 2018 is going to have some pretty exciting travels for me including a semester abroad so my plan is to film all that and release some sweet videos.
3. Keep blogging!!!!: I am so proud of myself for starting this blog at the beginning of this year and following through with it. While I didn’t blog all the time and definitely took a few months off, I still kept at it pretty well and finally got it going after so many years of talking about it and not doing it. But I’ve found some motivation again for doing it and have some awesome ideas for content. With study abroad and other travels this upcoming year, I plan to do some travel blogs. Also, I’ve made some more awesome friends this year who also blog so I have them to motivate as well as inspire me to post:)