Hey baby kitties. So, I want to first start off by just saying how important you are to someone and whenever you feel down don’t forget your worth. In our messed-up world, it is so easy to forget who you are and all the potential that you have to offer. Honestly, life is really hard. If anyone hasn’t told you this, you’re really doing good at the moment. We are all at the stage in our life where we are figuring everything out and there is no need to get down about the things you do to succeed in. I am always an easy-going person and typically go with the flow of life. The past few weeks have been really beating me up and I had many setbacks that brought me down. I had to use my inner strength to pull myself back up. This upcoming year I challenged myself and decided to run for VP PR for Kappa Delta because everyone knows I am obsessed with KD. I actually really wanted this position because I wanted to help represent the image of KD and get more practice on my own marketing skills. There’s so many visions that I had for all of our baby events and don’t get me started on the cute theme I wanted our Instagram to have. I also thought it would help motivate me to be more independent and become more responsible by being in charge of so much. We all know life is tough, but it is fair. I didn’t get the position and at first, I was disappointed in myself but then I realized that I shouldn’t trip about stuff that I can’t change. Think about it, should you really spend your valuable time dwelling on things that are completely out of your control? Absolutely not. 

Of course, this set back didn’t just knock me down, I used it as an opportunity to seek different options for me. I wanted to expand my Kappa Delta mindset and focus more on sororities and Greek life as a whole. After a little bit of encouragement from my president, I applied for Panhellenic executive council. I expressed what I had envisioned for the upcoming year and some ways that I wanted to establish the feminist values that sorority girls should believe in. While I was filling this application out, it asked what I thought about how women are treated like in the Greek community and how it is so different from men. It disgusts me how there is such a difference in standards for males and females. Sorority houses are required to be on sorority row, which is school owned property versus fraternities being able to reside off campus. With that in mind, women are not allowed to host parties or promote underage drinking, but it’s almost encouraged for frats to do this. Not saying that partying is encouraged in this phase of our lives, but I’m saying it would be so dope if Kappa Delta through the sickest party of the year. Fraternities receive more privilege and their actions are more tolerated than sororities. I don’t think you all understand how many rape cases there are from fraternities that get absolutely no justice. It is nasty how frat boys think it is just okay to try and get away with mistreating women. Colleges are so lenient on frats and continue to let them get away with everything. This is one of the main reasons why men feel so entitled because they are used to taking the easy way out. There are so many ways to revise old                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   traditions and universities should take a look to notice the disparities in fraternities and sororities’ prerogatives. Aside from this whole rant, I really wanted to have a say in the Panhellenic community, so I could have spoken about women equality and why it is so important for women to speak up for their injustices. 

This time I just accepted it, again there is no reason to stress about stuff out of your control. I was not given the opportunity to represent Kappa Delta in the Panhellenic community. Instead of crying and rolling around in the ground, I used this as a sign to focus on myself and prioritize what matters most in my life. Everyone knows how discouraging rejection is and how it makes you feel like you failed. After spending much needed time alone, I realized that I had to change my mindset and focus on all the positives in my life. Even if I do not have a huge new position or an added title to my name, doesn’t mean I’m still not able to be totally amazing. There is so much else to be thankful for and an abundance of positive attributes that I have. My health is doing good, I’m excelling in all my classes and I have family and friends that genuinely want the best for me. The past couple of weeks were pretty rough, but I had to constantly remind myself about all the amazing things I want to accomplish and that helped me keep me going. 

My mind is literally blown and liquified. Yesterday I saw Snoop with my best friends ever and I absolutely have to write about this experience, so I don’t forget this time in my life. I got to see a taste of how my dad was hanging out in the 90s and let me just tell you all that I would have fit right the heck in. Ever since I can remember my dad was always blasting NWA and my mom would be so mad that I was 7 years old knowing all the words to some bad freaking songs. I am so thankful that my parents never let me play my music because they really put me onto some insane bops. It is mindblowing how music can really bring people together. There were stupid kids like us, gangsters and just old people vibing to the same legendary beats. Before Snoop even came out, my eyes got to witness the Goodie Mob perform. Cell Therapy live was literally too much for me. Also, because it’s me, I was obsessed with the whole fit aesthetics of everyone. CeeLo Green rocked his legendary red sweat suit while everyone else coordinated in some sort of camo ensemble. This was before Snoop was supposed to perform and he literally was so wholesome just hanging out on stage, dancing to the music and of course smoking a FAT blunt. Snoop has literally been around since the beginning of time basically, so to me it was so beautiful to see all the tributes he played during his show. It all started with Nipsey Hussle, followed by the iconic Easy-E, then the Notorious Biggie Smalls and finally ended with 2Pac. To be honest, I was emo after this. I wasn’t expecting to listen to songs by iconic hip-hop legends, on top of seeing Snoop right in front of me. Easy-E was my dad’s favorite member of NWA and whenever Snoop blasted Boyz-N-The-Hood, I was in shock and sang my heart out. I actually got a little Hypnotized whenever I heard the sound of one of my favorite Biggie songs too. Thankful that he gave me the Ten Crack Commandments to live by. HAHA. Snoop was so iconic to honor his friends and vibe to some of his favorite songs by them. We’re not done with the 90s throwback though, whenever I heard the first beat of Gangster Party, I really would have cried if I wasn’t so dehydrated. Seriously though, Snoop singing this was so amazing. Tupac Shakur really is one of my favorite rappers of all time and I’m genuinely sad he’s not performing. Maybe I’m braindead but I’m positive he’s still alive just hanging out, he got tired of all the fame. Ya know.

Honestly,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         it was so cool to hear the music that started rap today. Me just being completely honest, I don’t like rap. Today’s rap isn’t my favorite and if I’m in the mood to get hype I would much rather listen to 90s hip-hop than today’s tunes. I think it’s just because this was the first rap music I was ever exposed to and I just appreciate the lyrics and beats so much more because I actually have a connection to that music. Rap back then was such a movement. It was good music that made people defy the normal rules of society and it changed the way society views the cops, drugs and gangsters. 

Snoop knew how much everyone wanted to see him and made sure to say that we crossed him off our bucket lists. I’ve been waiting to see Snoop Dogg ever since I was a kid chugging sun drop every day because Drop It Like It’s Hot was in the commercial. How ridiculous am I?? Nothing will ever compare to hearing “heyyyyeyyy smoke weed every day” live, straight from the mouth of THE Snoop Dogg. Not saying I even smoke weed at all, but IF I did it would be because Snoop told me to. LOLLL. I was with my best friends and it was so beautiful listening to all the music we love together. I still want to become besties with Snoop and I’m sad he didn’t invite us to join his entourage. Aww. However, this night has been the greatest experience in my life this far. I’m actually depressed he’s still not performing in front of me right now, but that’s okay. 

I want to start this off by encouraging everyone to be confident in yourself and I want to remind you to not forget who you are. I haven’t been blogging that much recently because I have been going through it and I needed to take time to be by myself for a second. This past week I noticed that I was always staying busy with school, Kappa Delta, and all the other fashion clubs I am in. (I’ll be making a little fit for a fashion show I have coming up, so stay tuned) I started to see myself becoming really stressed out over the smallest things and it made me start to go insane. 

Sometimes in life you have to step back and focus on the things that matter the most to you. Whenever you work on getting yourself better, everything in life will fall into place. This past week I tried to take time for myself to do things that make me happy. I went to a recycled book store and ended up getting 5 new records and have relaxed by listening to all my new music. I also planned two really cool events this past week and I’m glad it’s over and they turned out perfect. I planned a vision board making sisterhood event and had a Queen V collaging event mixer with It’s on Us. I really tried to call my mom more and she helped me get my sanity back. Sometimes self-care can just be connecting with your family and remembering your roots. This past weekend I took a much-needed break and spent some time with my family in Austin. My mind just needed to get away from school and my responsibilities pretty much. I love hanging out with my family because they’re always there to roast me and check up on me at the same time. I drove to Austin and it was so therapeutic for me to drive and blast my favorite songs. Before I left, I created just a random list of queued songs that I knew I would love. For some random reason, it was so excited for me to try and guess what song was coming up. My aunt lives in the mountains pretty much and it was so peaceful to drive through the winding roads, even though I was also terrified. 

Whenever people think about self-care everyone just assumes, we do a face mask and all your troubles fade away. This is true but there is so much more to loving yourself. During the past few days though, I have been really focusing on exfoliating and moisturizing my skin and prepping it for this upcoming frozen weather. Whenever the weather gets cold outside, my skin tends to get really dry and I’m stuck applying moisturizer much more often. Right now, I am focusing on exfoliating dry spots on my face, it typically tends to be around my nose. I am moisturizing my skin with morning sunscreen and nightly serums. My favorite serum at the moment is my vitamin C eye cream. I cannot emphasis how much this has actually helped my dark circles become less purple. One of my other favorites is my retinol plumping serum for anti-aging. It is never to early to start caring about your aging skin. I really recommend going to the ordinary, it is a skin care website and you can take a quiz to see which regiment is the best fit for your skin.  

This week I want to challenge everyone to do something that pushes you outside of your comfort zone and you set aside time to worry about yourself. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and blast it everywhere you go. Even though it is important to focus a lot on yourself but don’t forget to make sure your friends are doing good too. 

I’m excited to share with you all what new things I am doing and how life has been for me. So, recently I have partnered with Queen V and they started a campaign called join the re-vulva-loution. It is our fun approach on a topic that most women find confusing and embarrassing to talk about. I host events on my campus to promote the importance of women’s health and why it is okay for us to be more open about it. This opportunity has given me the ability to empower women to take control of their bodies and be confident in who they are. You all know how I am all about trying to make others feel confident, so this is just another way for me to support my girls.

For a few weeks now, I have been using Queen V products and I’m kind of in love. They have a range of products that help you Maintain, Enjoy and Heal you V. One of my new shower essentials is the V-bar and this is such a great product for everyone to try out first. It smells so clean and it leaves you feeling renewed. Everyday I have been taking their dd probiotics and I have more energy throughout the day. Plus, I feel better, my body is doing really good at the moment. Out of all the products that I tried out, my current favorite is the spritzer. It makes me feel so refreshed and it’s good to have for whenever you want a clean boost. One of my favorite daily routines is to care about myself in all ways, so I uplift myself by saying my daily mantra. The one thing I say to myself all the time is ‘I am’. This just means that have the power to do anything that I want to do. I can feel however I am actually feeling. By constantly reminding myself that I am whoever I want to be, it has helped me be more confident and be happy with myself.

I want to share what my days are like and how I have sort of changed my approach on things to help me be successful and less stressed. Notice how I say sort of because I am still a mess at times. School is really going pretty great right now. I became a much more organized student and I try to make to-do lists each day. After so many years of always having a planner, I finally decided to start using it regularly. It has helped me to always see when my stuff is due or what meeting I have coming up. My mom used to always tell me to use a planner but for some reason I just never did and it’s honestly really helped keep me sane. For most of my life, I was a really bad procrastinator and I waited until the last minute to do so much because I either forgot or was just lazy. Now that I actually plan out my days and see what work I have to do, it helps me get a little done each day so I don’t have to worry about it all at once. This has helped me become a better student because I am always staying on top of my assignments and looking over my notes each day to actually learn new things. Each day when I wake up, if I have time, I will make a list of all the things I have to accomplish that day and it really helps motivate me. Getting organized can really help you feel prepared each day and less stressed out in the long run.

I want to start this off by saying how my computer broke and why I wasn’t able to post last week. So, I’m getting onto my monster tall bed, not realizing my computer was on the very edge and it just fell 6 feet on the ground. At first I had no idea what fell until I was laying down about to watch Jane the Virgin and finally realized I don’t have a computer to do that. Moral of the story is that my computer screen broke and I didn’t have one for a week. But I’m back now to tell you about what’s new in the Real life of Alli.

This school year I set a goal for myself to get more involved in school and meet people through clubs. About 2 weeks ago, I went to a club called HerCampus and it’s basically a women empowerment club. They hosted an event called Pink Table Talk and we talked about different problems women face. Going to this event really opened my eyes to see how so many girlies relate to the same issues. It was really cool to be apart of an interactive discussion about several topics but the ones that I liked the most were abortion laws, women in the workplace and skin care. I just want to share my opinion on these issues because I feel that I have quite a bit to share.

Abortion laws are just so mind blowing. The thing that sets females apart of males is their beautiful ability to give life in to this world. It is a woman’s choice to decide if she wants to have kids or not. Personally, I really just hate kids and I wouldn’t mind not having them. Of course that’s not everyone’s choice, but it is a decision that needs to be respected by everyone, especially someone who does not have the ability to reproduce. An abortion is health care not a crime. There are still several states that have banned abortion beyond a certain point in time and there are are some states that have attempted to ban it in general. Each woman has a different story on why she wants to have an abortion or not. She should not have to explain her reasons to anyone and they should just accept it. Recently, someone shared their story with me and explained how she was pro-life but still had an abortion for herself. Everything happens for a reason and that’s just one thing people have to understand.

Another issue that really gets me fired up is women in the work place and how we are treated. It absolutely disgusts me how men can be such objectifying jerks. Women have fought so hard to get rid of the pay gap and to not only break the glass ceiling but crush it! I can’t wait until I’m finally working and able to contribute my thousand ideas. I still have no idea what I want to do exactly but I am getting more excited about digital retail and the internet marketplace. There are so many opportunites in this industry and I’m trying to learn as much as I can right now so I can always be one step ahead of any man. HAHA. Side note, not just in the workplace, but men in general can be really gross. I absolutely hate the fact that I have to take my pepper spray everywhere I go because I’m terrified of a guy coming to kill me. I love being a girl, but I just hate feeling scared sometimes because I am a girl. There are so many people in this world that have really messed up mentalities and it is sad that this is the reality we face.

One of my favorite topics is skincare. I can talk forever about proper skin health and some of my favorite tricks that keep my skin looking youthful. Moisturizing is the most import thing you can do for your skin. This prevents wrinkles from forming and keeps your skin glowing and soft. My go-to moisturizer is the Mario Badescu hydro moisturizer with vitamin C. This moisturizer has sunscreen in it and I can not emphasis how important it is to protect your skin and apply sunscreen every morning. Vitamin C is vital to ensure you have the correct amount of antioxidants for your skin, as well as preventing and treating UV damage. I try to stay out of the sun as much as possible because I do not want to get wrinkles from the harmful UV rays. I always have super dark purple under eyes despite the amount of sleep I get. I started using a vitamin C eye cream and I have noticed how my dark circles have gradually gotten lighter. Soon, I’ll do a whole skin care routine and you can all see how I treat my skin on the daily.

Let me share with you all what my life was like this weekend. My best friend in the entire world came to visit me and we saw our favorite artist. In a nutshell, it was the most beautiful weekend I have ever had, thus far. This might sound kind of weird but I live each day with the mindset that it’s the best day of my life. I just think that you’re never going to know whenever your last day is going to be so might as well really live life. Aside from my life perspective, Kennedy, my literal soul mate came to see me. Kenny and I had the experience of our lives whenever we went to go see Daniel Caesar. Let me remind you just how much I love him and how I really just love music in general. Personally, I feel that I would be a completely different person if I didn’t listen to music and didn’t have any angelic sounds to get through my days. So naturally you all should know that me and Benns waited 7 hours outside just to be front row for our poetic king. Looking back now, I don’t remember it being that long of a time. I feel as if it was like 10 minutes because the whole time I was just hanging out with my bestie listening to good music, so it was pretty chill.
Now to talk about the concert, it was the most beautiful thing ever. Every event that happened that night ended up working out and turning into the greatest memory. We’re inside the venue for a max 10 minutes and Kennedy literally passes out. No joke she dropped to the ground but some how she managed get approved from the medics and got escorted all the way back through the crowd to get to the front with me. She also saved me from dehydration and rescued me with water. This all occurred in perfect timing right before the opening act came out. Koffee was a new artist that I never heard before and their Jamaican inspired music had me feeling so good and in a super chill mood to see one of my favorite artists. I added my favorite song by Koffee down below if anyone wants to hear it. You can also follow my Spotify if you ever want to listen to the same music as me.

I wish that I had words that could even describe how this concert made me feel. Daniel sounded like something that could never be played from my headphones. His voices sounds so angelic live and I could see him performing by giving his heart to us through his music. Once the show began I was completely speechless. There was a backdrop of draped fabric that had a light shinned perfectly on it so we could his band playing their instruments in the shadows. You can see how cool it looks with him singing. Everyone in the whole entire room was so mellow and were really all just hanging out and watching him sing to us. I really loved the visuals that he had playing during a few of his songs. During Get You, he had a video of Kali Uchis dancing behind him. I appreciate whenever an artist performs a song that features someone else because they find cool ways to incorporate them in. He also performed TOO DEEP TO TURN BACK and let me tell you all that I am completely shook. His backup singers, who were all completely beautiful, sang the beat to the song as a beautiful video played behind them all. Most of the duration of this concert, I really was just admiring and listening to Daniel Caesar sing the songs that I listen to almost everyday to me. It was absolutely worth the wait outside for almost half of my day, because I was able to stand front and center to see one of my favorite artist sing with my best friend by my side. I actually cried a lot during the show because it was absolutely beautiful. Right as I could feel the concert was about to be over, I actually got really sad because he didn’t play Japanese Denim which was my favorite song by him for the absolute longest time. Daniel Caesar has left the stage at this point and the whole crowd starts shouting Japanese Denim and I start crying because I know he HAS to come out and sing. Of course, the first beat of the song dropped and I am shaking because it was a life changing experience to see this being sang right in front of me. I knew that once this song was over, I would have been fulfilled by seeing Daniel Caesar live. Just so you all could experience the same beauty I did, you can all watch some of the videos I added down below.

This song on its own is amazing, but adding the backup vocals and the video just makes it a true work of art.

Whenever Daniel performed Open Up, my jaw literally dropped to the ground. His vocals are absolutely amazing. He sounded so much better live because you could hear the emotion in his voice. This song is a different tune from the original song at some parts and I personally think it sounds so pure.