2013: Year in Review

2013 was a hectic and yet a year I was truly grateful for. I spent the summer with sister, best friend, and his family. I spent the fall and winter season with my family and enjoyed shopping with my Mom in the spring. I got a job, revamped my business Fragrance Essence, started the Zobia Alvi Creative, and of course did my Photo 365 project throughout the year!

January: I geared up to enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, but was never able to finish my novel "Within the Bindings" in time to submit in my entry.

February: I had a great birthday weekend! I was treated to a birthday dinner by my best friend, I went bowling with my family, then came home to pizza, cake, and a family celebration waiting for me.

March: I really enjoyed doing the projects for my Music Theory class, went shopping a whole lot, took to really working on blog & business, and celebrated my little sister's birthday with a party early.

April: I finally registered TheEternityJournal.com on April 6th. I was a business teacher for a day while trading places with my favorite teacher at school. I took part in board of education's meetings and was able to pitch ideas to construct a better school curriculum. Plus, I was a featured blogger on Blog-Trends on April 22nd! I even updated and changed a lot of different aspects of my business, Fragrance Essence. I added new products, hung up flyers all over town, and created the Blossom Basket.

May: This month was a bit strange for me, I started selling a lot of my Fragrance Essence products. Had to deal with a lot of issues with eBay and my USPS. My Mom moved to another country. Plus, I also had a few Job Interviews and was glad that the third interview I did, I got the job!

June: This was the month I started to become obsessed with frozen yogurt and started the fast food craze which lasted the whole summer and became the reason why I gained at least twenty pounds. A week after school ended and summer vacation started, my little sister and father traveled oversees to our country and winded up staying there the whole summer. Home felt empty afterwards.

July: Marching Band practice started every week, I spent Fourth of July with my best friend for the first time, took a lot of trips to Starbucks, had more frozen yogurt, started putting my physical journal back in order, started doing lots of giveaways on my blog, took a trip to the movies with my best friend and his family to watch Man of Steel, and started watching How I Met Your Mother series on Netflix! I also had one of my quotes featured on QuotableLife and launched the Kickstarter campaign for my novel! Throughout the month, I started cooking quite a bit. I mostly mastered how to make pasta, macaroni, lasagna, pasta shells, and chicken alfredo.

August: August 1st was my first day at work! A few weeks after, I took off from work to start Marching Band Camp. This was the last band camp ever because it's my senior year. I took a few more trips to Starbucks and watched Despicable Me 2 with my best friend and his family. Went to a few good dinners with him and his family. Took a road trip to the beach on a rainy day with my best friend and his family. It was a fun experience. Then finally, my Kickstarter project ended without being fully funded at a decent $705 out of $2500!

September: My Dad and little sister came back home just in time for my other sister's her birthday. Then, school started as well as work. I began to enjoy leaving school in the middle of the day to work. Plus, my classes seemed pretty simple for the most part. I took to using my time wisely and had lunch with my best friend every other day in between school and work. I even made a new friend online through the Snail Mail Collective. Life was pretty good in September.

October: We celebrated my Dad's birthday. I became less involved with my friends and focused solely on my family. Lots of football games took place throughout the month where I performed as part of the Marching Band. I brought my best friend along with me to help out and the season went by quite smoothly. The very last game was Senior Night, my little sister and Dad came to the game and watched me performed and be honored for the day. Senior spirit week also took place and allowed me to not wear my uniform the whole week. I even dressed up as a witch for Halloween to stay involved at work. My Dad also took me a couple times to practice driving.

November: I took the SATs for the second time. Got my probationary driver's license on the 9th! I took a tour of Steven's Institute of Technology. I started the Zobia Alvi Collective. I did my first college interview and really became involved at work. It was a long and hard month at school, but I got through it.

December: Fragrance Essence officially became Fragrance Essence LLC. I even purchased business cards, redesigned our website and online social presence. We even have our own number and office phone. You can contact Fragrance Essence at (201) 293-0138! I had my last band Christmas concert, went Christmas shopping, received lots of presents, tried to make my family and best friend & his family happy, and finally finished putting together the Photo 365 project.

My favorite posts of 2013!

The Fine Line Between the Digital World & Reality

Why I Love & Hate the Daunting World of Business

Blogging VS. Freelance Writing

5 Steps to Creating a Blog + Tips

What I Love & Hate About the Blogosphere

SAT Test Taking Strategies and Tips 

Because I'm Perfect...(An Ironic Confession)

SAT Test Taking Strategies & Tips

This time of year seniors in high school as well as juniors feel overwhelmed with college applications and standardized tests such as the SATs. SAT stands for Scholastic Aptitude Test and colleges look at your SAT scores to determine whether you are college ready or not. So how do you achieve a score that your college choice would be pleased with?

I was not the student with a nearly perfect score on the test but, I have researched and experimented quite a lot while studying or even during the exam itself. There are several factors that come into action when trying to achieve a great score. My target score was a 1700 out of 2400 which is an above average score. This is the score my priority college Steven's Institute of Technology more or less requires.

I took the test twice so far and will be taking it a third time at the end of January. I have learned two major concepts when studying for this test:

1. The SAT measures how well you take the SAT and not as much as how knowledgeable you are in the subjects you will be tested on. 
2. It's okay to understand where you went wrong. 

These concepts may surprise you because you would normally think knowing every math formula and how to figure out the values of x and y will get you a high score in the SAT math section or being a fast and accurate reader will get you a high score in the SAT critical reading section or that being the top writer in your English class will not fail you in the SAT writing section, but you're wrong. All the material you've learned in school will definitely help you, but it takes more than knowledge to score high on the SATs. 

SATs are about strategy. The scoring is strange and without familiarizing yourself with this test, you might find yourself to be lost. This test is different, so let's not consider it a test. Let's consider it a game. Using your knowledge in math, reading, and writing, you need to develop a strategy to score your best! 

When studying for the SAT...

*I strongly suggest you buy an SAT practice book. The book I used was from the Princeton Review and it was about $25. For that price, I received a book full of strategies, practice tests, and a grading scale. It helped me plan out my own strategy for the score I was aiming for.  

*Create a little SAT notebook with tips from the book or from the internet, sample questions, and your SAT strategy. I also took the liberty to write myself motivational notes (notice my How I Met Your Mother humor?) and used colorful highlighters to make studying a little more fun! 

*Consider taking an SAT class offered at your high school or online through CollegeBoard. They will help you understand the strategies you could use when taking the test, although could be a bit pricey. Luckily, my high school offered SAT classes for $25.

The day of the SATs...

*Eat/drink what you usually do for breakfast. Do not eat too much if you usually have a small breakfast. Changing your natural morning routine could make you feel less comfortable when taking the SATs.

*Dress in whatever you feel is most comfortable.

*Bring a healthy snack along with you. Fruit, granola bars, fruit snacks, trail mix, or even dry cereal. 

*Be sure to bring a bottle of water. 

When taking the SATs...

*Remember for every answer you get right, you get one point and for every answer you get wrong, you get 0.25 points off. So for every four answers you get wrong, one point gets taken away. 

*DO NOT GET NERVOUS! Your nerves WILL get in the way of your thinking process and slow you down and confuse you. Stay calm, if you do not know an answer or the question confuses you, circle it and move on. You can come back to it before time is called for the section you are working on.

*Whatever you do, do not change your pace. Start taking the test at a steady pace you are comfortable with. Do not slow down and DO NOT speed up.

*Try to keep track of time so you could pace yourself accordingly.

*Pay attention to how you are marking your answer sheet, do not mark in your answers in the wrong grid. 

Using these simple tips and strategies, you can do your best!

A Holiday Season Post...

This holiday season my whole family's holiday list is up to me. I organized and planned all our stuff for gift-giving. My family really does not celebrate Christmas. We used to celebrate my parents' wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve by going to Rockefeller Center in NYC to see the beautiful Christmas tree. Only until my parents' got divorced did we do this, now we're not sure what to do. So I figured I'd buy everyone in my family presents and before Christmas, we'd open all our presents together. This way we celebrate a new kind of tradition.

To start off on December 13th, my little munchkin and I put together a gift list of everyone we are shopping for this year, we found a cool holiday printable online and decided to use it to keep track of everything. Then we started writing holiday greeting cards. Of course they were cute and all glittery, what holiday card isn't?

Then we shared candy canes and wrapped presents in the awesome candy cane wrapper I picked out! My friends, family, and co-workers are going to love them!

A week later, December 20th we decided to start our winter break from school by opening all our presents. We probably won't have receive any more presents afterwards. So this was perfect! All the presents I received were so thoughtful and sweet, I did not realize how appreciated I was until I opened them all. They were all so generous.

My sweet co-workers even signed an office card together for me. My first office card! One of my band mates even quoted How I Met Your Mother to me. Each card on each bag of kettle corn completes that one phrase Barney Stinson played by Neil Patrick Harris in HIMYM I love most. "Legen...Wait for it...Dary!"

Christmas Eve or Day I am hoping my family will just go out for dinner. I have been craving a seafood buffet lately.

Happy Holidays! 

For the Traveler: ModCloth Challenge

Last week, I was contacted by ModCloth to participate in the Uniquely You style challenge. Although I don't blog about style and fashion, I was really excited to divert my blog's content just a little. ModCloth sent me this dress to create a styled outfit around. The dress is called the Staple of Your Style Dress. The polka-dots on this dress reminded me of vintage travel photos and so I thought I'd design a style that I would wear when traveling. I paired up this pretty and comfortable dress with "perfect-for-travel" shoes and accessories then added a convenient handbag to finish it off.

For the Traveler- ModCloth Uniquely You by zobia featuring flat shoes

Because I'm Perfect...(An Ironic Confession)

Often times if I am asked to do something. I am all over it! I'll stay up until who knows how long, work on the assignment as much as I possibly can, and make it good enough for MY standards. Why? Because I'm Perfect!

That is my way of doing projects, assignments, and anything else in school, work, or at home that allows me to share some creativity.

More often than not, I am beating myself up all the time because I am a perfectionist, controlling, and very demanding.

Can you blame me? I just like things to be the way I think it should be. Doesn't the perfectionist in all of us want that?

I have been digging deeper into the person I am these past few weeks. I am not sure if that is because of the personal college essays I am currently writing or the enormous amount of personal conflicts that have arisen in my family, or the fact that I would like to write from a deeper perspective in my novel. Whatever the reason may be for me wanting to find deeper meaning, it's been happening.

After talking to a few people I trust dearly, I have come to a conclusion. Although, I have always been a controlling and demanding-perfectionist, I am still a person. (How's that for finding deeper meaning?)

I am a person who needs to learn and grow just like everyone else. I am a person who needs to draw lines between the business/tech enthusiast side of me and the down to earth non-controlling person I would like to be more often.

If there's anyone out there who feels the same way I do, please do share!