Reese's Spreads - My Newest Obsession!

      If you're obsessed with Nutella, then chances are you'll fall in love with this as well. If you like peanut butter, of course. This genuinely tastes like eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups out of a jar and I couldn't be happier. Nothing sounds better than that.
     This is great to pair with pretzels, apples, pita bread or pita chips, anything like that. Or get creative! I'm sure you can come up with wonderful recipes to bake your own goods too! (Share these recipes with me if you happen to try some out!) I am going to be devasted once my jar runs out but I am sure to buy more! Happy eating. :)

This product was sent to me to test and review by Influenster.

A Message To 21st Century Teens

 

     This is the time where I throw out my seemingly unpopular opinions of my own generation. This isn't as random as it seems. I have been wanting to write something/film a video about this topic for a while now but I've feared the feedback (let's just pretend I get feedback, okay?) Today in my choir class (again, random) we were discussing, long story short, how the current generation of teenagers functions.
     It's no secret that my generation doesn't seem to be able to function without technology/social media. I'm not going to lie, I am also guilty of this most of the time. However, I will slightly toot my own horn and say that I genuinely do not believe that I am as bad as the others. I look around at kids in my classes who are constantly on cell phones. I look at the teacher struggling to grasp the attention of the distracted teens, and it just breaks my heart. We are constantly searching for different realities, being oblivious and unfocused on what is actually around us. I have teachers who are retiring this year, or teachers that I have become close to over my high school years and I want to be able to hold onto the time with them as long as I can and listen to their countless, irrelevant to the class, stories while I still can.
     I have never seen so much disrespect to teachers since being in school, let alone high school. One would think that as we get older, we would get more mature, however in a lot of cases at my school, many kids make the opposite transitions. The things that I hear teens say nowadays in casual conversation would get me slapped when I was younger. The most heartbreaking thing is watching the sweetest teachers just stand there and take the disrespect.

     This post wasn't meant to be storytime of how much I don't understand teenagers. I want to target this post to all of the adolescents who hopefully will not beat me up for writing this.

Respect your teachers. They're just trying to help you. Let them do that to the best of their ability.

I understand being a teen is really hard. (Trust me. Spoiler alert: My next post will be about anxiety and panic attacks.) But taking all of your personal struggles out on other people WILL NOT SOLVE ANYTHING.

Getting massively drunk/high/insert other bad choices here at your cute little freshman parties doesn't make you look cool. It makes you look like an idiot.

You don't need 50 friends to be happy. If you have about 3, you're golden.

As difficult as it is, at least try your hardest to enjoy high school. Most people only get to experience it once.

Your teachers are a lot more fun when you're not mean to them. They're human beings with feelings too.  Once you get to know them, they're pretty cool people.

Step away from the Internet for a while. Pick up a book. Go out with friends or family. It does a lot for the anxiety levels. (I say this from personal experience. This is another look into my next post.)

Don't walk as slow as you can in the halls. You will make everyone around you hate you.

Also don't make out in the halls. You will make everyone around you hate you even more.

Don't try to grow up too fast. This is not your time to "make mistakes and do stupid things." It should never be your goal to make mistakes. You have your whole life in front of you and there's an entire world out there that most of us have not seen yet. I want all of us to get to experience it. Take things slow. So many beautiful, amazing, and terrible things will happen to each and every one of us in our lifetimes and I can't wait to witness every moment for myself.

I just want this to make an impact on one person. Because I know if I stood on a stage in front of my whole school and said all of these things (which would never ever happen) it would end in roaring laughter. But hey, I tried!

None of us are guaranteed tomorrow and it would be a shame to be told "you have one week to live" and know that there are some people who have no interest in seeing all of the wonderful things that life has to offer.

Maybe I've watched The Fault In Our Stars too many times, but it is a good life and it sucks that some people don't get to experience it for very long and the ones who do, don't appreciate it.

If this has put you in at least a mildly good mood, it would make me really happy if you could send it to someone and try and spread it around to reach as many (specifically teenagers, but really whomever) lives as possible.

Alright, have a nice night.

Ringing In The New Year

     Hello again! I hope you haven't forgotten about me. I surely have not forgotten about my blog. I apologize for the absences that I have taken from this blog. I definitely want to dedicate a lot more focus to my blog in 2015.
     2014 held many, many ups and downs in my life. If you would like me to post a "2014 events" post where I share a bunch of pictures with you, then I will but 1. I don't have the pictures prepared to share with you at this moment in time and 2. I'm getting tired. So, if you would like to see pictures/videos from my year then you can click here to watch a wrap up of my year.
     I'm not going to go into huge details of the 2014 contents because although I share a lot of my life on the Internet, there are some things that need to remain personal. But I will tell you this: believe it or not, after 4 long years, I saw 5 of my favorite people. In concert. With one of my best friends. And 5 Seconds Of Summer. Yes, I finally finally finally saw One Direction. Definitely one of the highlights of my life, let alone year.
     For some reason, the universe has given me 3 lovely (I use that word loosely) ladies who I am far too blessed to be able to call my best friends.
     I'm so excited for 2015. It's only 10 days in as I am writing this but I have already fallen in love with this year. I have 5 months left of my senior year of high school; 6 months until I am legally an adult (terrifying!) In October I shall be finally seeing my one true love, Taylor Swift, live. And in July...drum roll please....I'M GOING TO NEW YORK CITY! Yesyesyesyes, I'm not kidding. Very exciting things to come.

Stay tuned xx

#ClearProof Acne System Review

 

      It seems like, lately, my acne has been uncontrollable. Or so it seemed. The skin clearing products that I had been using for months just did not appear to be doing anything for my skin. I constantly had spots appearing, specifically around my jawline area. I eventually went back to using my Neutrogena Wave, which seemed to help slightly, but not to my hopes. The ClearProof acne system, however, has surpassed my expectations and I honestly look forward to washing my face every night.

     The clarifying cleansing gel is the first step to my skin routine. I use this as my face wash when I am in the shower. Am I the only one who washes their face in the shower? I just like to give the cleanser a chance to set into my skin before I move onto the other steps of my skin care routine. This stuff does a great job at getting deep into the skin and removing any extra dirt or makeup that makeup removers tend to neglect.

   
     The blemish control toner is the first product that I use once I am out of the shower. I put a small amount of this on a cotton pad and pat it all over my face, focusing on problem areas. In my opinion, this is the product that seems to do the most work for me. When I put it on acne areas, I can feel my face start to tingle, which is normal. This is an acne medication, so it starts working the second it reaches spots. It has done wonders for that area on my jawline, though, that I mentioned earlier.

     I use this acne treatment gel as a spot treatment. I use a very, very small amount of this product, yet it has still helped tremendously. It has definitely reduced the size and visibility of my spots and, hopefully (since I can't predict the future,) will prevent the return of these spots. A little bit surely goes a long way with this.

     The last product in this line that I use is the oil-free moisturizer. I actually use this product in the morning before applying my makeup and I have been really pleased with it thus far. It is not a heavy moisturizer by any means so those of you who struggle with oily skin, this is definitely for you! This is definitely the best moisturizer I have ever tried and I use a small amount of this as well so it should last me a long time (lucky me!) Not only does it moisturize the skin, but it also allows foundation and concealer to go on smoother and blend quicker.

     This is by far the best skin care line of products that I have ever tried and I recommend it to anyone who has similar problems that I mentioned above (having those stubborn spots that seem like they just will not go away!) If you wish to try out these products, here is a link where you will find a trial set of smaller products. http://www.marykay.com/en-US/Clear-Proof-Acne-System-The-Go-Set/10058968.partId Good luck, and goodbye acne!

These products were sent to me for consideration and feedback. All opinions are my own. :)

Feeling Grateful...

     I've been thinking about a lot of things recently that I believe are so important and I think all of you should be aware of. There are so many teenagers, adults even, that take so many things for granted. I am 110% guilty of this. There are a list of such simple yet such important things that I take for granted on a daily basis and I'm sure that my readers do this too. It's so important to be aware of everything that we're blessed with because there are so many people on this Earth that are not as lucky. A lot of discussions in my classes this week have been reflecting on this subject and it just inspired me to write about it. I'm not going to apologize for this blog post being so long because that's exactly the point. It needs to be long. I'm thankful for so many things. When I came up with the idea to write this post, I thought about waiting to post it until Thanksgiving, I'm sure you understand why, but I can't wait. We're not guaranteed tomorrow and these are things that need to be said.

My family has been with me through everything and I know that they are always my biggest support system no matter what.

I am convinced that I have some of the best friends in the entire world. They've put up with me for years and I still don't really understand why, but I'm so thankful for that. They've all been with me through a lot, we've laughed together and cried together and I have so many amazing memories with each of them. We're each other's therapists and I love them so much.

Music is something that I use as an escape, a hobby, and something that is definitely very important in my life. It astonishes me that somehow songwriters can paint pictures of every emotion imaginable in lyrics. It's beautiful. I'm so thankful for the concerts that I've been to and the ones that I'm going to in the future. Concerts are very hectic and stressful but they are also amazing experiences. I love seeing thousands of people coming together for a few hours singing along to their favorite songs together and supporting an artist that they all love.

I'm grateful for John Green's works that have had such a huge impact on me. No other author's books that I have read have had the impact on me that John's has had. His stories have truly changed the way that I look at life and I'm so happy for that. He is also part of the reason that I'm writing this post. And the reason that I hope to make an impact on people with the stories that I hope to write.

Of course there's the little things that I take for granted on a daily basis. I'm grateful that I wake up every day with a roof over my head and food to eat. I'm lucky to have a closet full of clothes to be able to wear. I'm grateful for the days when it gets chilly in Florida and the days when the leaves are on the ground. I'm thankful for Christmas time, staying inside with hot chocolate and Elf on repeat. I'm thankful for summer time when I can relax and don't worry about school work. I'm thankful for the teachers that I will never be able to forget as long as I live. I'm thankful for my YouTube subscribers and blog readers that never cease in making me smile. I'm thankful that I've woken up every single day for 17 years whether the days are good or bad, I'm thankful that I have the privilege to live them.