2015 in Review + Epic Canon Camera Giveaway

So I'll be honest and say I really had no idea how to write this post, what to say, and how to even begin to explain even a glimpse of what went on this year. I spent hours contemplating whether this post would be something I want to be truly honest with or a post I would just recap my public blog posts on. I read other creative entrepreneurs' year in reviews and every single one I read was the most inspirational and well-written review of 2015. Every single one was better than the next. I couldn't see how my year in review could compete with theirs. Then I realized, I may have not accomplished as much as some of these creative entrepreneurs who traveled all over the globe and made bank in hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I did have one heck of a year (whether that's good or bad)!



What Worked this Year

Work
I left my part time job in retail within the first three days of the new year. Best decision ever! I worked at that soul-sucking landfill for 9 months and just had enough. Sure, there were some good times and even some good people I worked with, but it was most definitely not a place for me.

Events in NYC
I spent a whole lot of time in NYC this year - attending conferences, going to the Video Games Live concert at the Beacon Theater, touring WeWork, and going to the HerCampus Fashion Show. I had fun and really felt like I was making connections through every conference and networking event I went to. I met lots of interesting people who do awesome work and overall, I felt in my own element. I was among people who were smarter and more successful than me. That is just mind blowing to me! It really is true when they say:

"If You Are The Smartest Person In The Room, Then You Are In The Wrong Room."

Family
I'm not going to lie - my family has made lots of changes this year. I met my parents' new spouses and as I continue to grow up I see myself taking on a more parental role for my two siblings. I said that this post will be honest and raw so here it is. My family isn't typical and no where near normal. But we're working on it.

This year we've had lots of fun memories going out for dinner, catching a movie, and even taking a couple trips to Dave & Busters. I hope to make more time next year for these family events.

Fluffy
In March of 2015, I met a little male holland-lop bunny we named Fluffy. He quickly became my little other half. He's the sweetest and most unique bunny ever. I never saw myself as a pet person, but this little cutie changed my life. Follow the little guy along on Instagram or check out some Fluffy the Bunny merch.

Business
Launching Little Eternities in August was super rewarding. In about 3 months, I launched the business, recreated the original website, started branching off into creating a course sector where I'll be teaching my students how to start their own businesses, perfect their business plans, and become digital innovators, and not to mention, I grew my e-mail list from 0-300. Next year, I can't wait to launch my courses and help people become successful too!

What Didn't Work in 2015

Personal
For years, I've kept my other half a secret online from my family, my friends, and anyone I meet online. I'm simply tired of it. So from now on, I'll be mentioning him and writing more about him publicly. I'm done with hiding such a huge part of my life. In 2016, I'm going to be completely honest and open. His name is Anthony. He was referred to as my best friend in a lot of my old blog posts.

Other Projects
I didn't even look at the fiction novel I started writing back in 2013 titled Within the Bindings. Although, I do not feel ready to take it on in 2016, I at least want to go back and plan how to publish it.

Fragrance Essence took a seat on the back burner while I took my web design business to the next level so in 2016, I hope to expand my inventory and increase sales.

It's Technologic will definitely be launched in early 2016 as a tech and business blog focusing on startups and technologies. I'm also currently looking for guest-post writers to introduce their own startups or share tech hacks. If you're interested e-mail zobia@theeternityjournal.com. I totally abandoned this project in 2015, but its coming back!

Periscope
I love periscope! I started using it in August and love the platform so much! My only regret is not using it regularly to speak towards what I do and share some design and business tips. So in 2016, particularly from Jan 1st to Jan 12th, I'll be doing a series called #12DaysofBizPlanning where I'll share tips on planning your business and how to setup for success in 2016. Follow along on Periscope, Instagram, and Facebook to get all the awesome tips and talk business with me!

Work
I'm working my way into taking on my businesses completely full-time. 2016 might just be the year.

Financial Goals
My goal is to make $70K in revenue and my follow-up goal is to make $100K. Let's see where 2016 takes me.

Community
My e-mail list this year could not be more important. Honestly this year, I was unable to really hone in on offering value and raw material to my e-mail subscribers. I created some free content and quite a few opt-ins, but I didn't receive the response I was looking for. I have yet to engage my audience and in 2016, all of my subscribers will get loads of free valuable information and actionable content pushing them forward in their own business endeavors. I can't wait for it! Want to be in on the action? Sign up for my free e-mail course and build a better business in 7 days.

Courses & Investments
This year I invested a whole lot of money in my businesses. I invested in software, courses from other creative entrepreneurs, and equipment to start launching courses and provide more premium services for my web design clients. I invested roughly $8K this year. What didn't work for me here is that after investing in these courses, I didn't get through much of the content and I hope to really focus on it next year.

Blog
Honestly, my blog is so outdated that I could not believe my last post was in October. I stopped blogging and I am going to change that in 2016 with more useful posts sharing my experiences as an entrepreneur and helping you build a better business!

Now Let's Talk New Year's Resolutions

Every year, you set goals to accomplish - hoping that by some miracle you'd actually get them done without lifting a finger. I'm sure you know what goals I'm talking about. Losing weight. Saving money. Working less. Enjoying life more.

Those are goals, yes. But they aren't specific enough to achieve.

Everyone falls into this trap. (Guilty) You give yourself this one big goal that's super broad and you never get around to even taking the first step to achieving it.

Days roll by. Weeks. Months. And then December 31st comes around and your left wondering where you went wrong.

Let's do something different this year and not make these broad goals. Let's make goals we can actually achieve. Let's set really specific goals that we can actually achieve by next year.

I'll give you an example.

I'm no longer telling myself that I'm going to succeed with my businesses. That's a super vague goal and quite frankly the outcome of it being accomplished isn't exactly all in my hands.

This year my goals are:

Make $70K in revenue from my businesses then take it to level 2 and make $100K

AND

Have 2 Successful Course Launches in January and April

I don't want to set a traditional New Year's Resolution. Instead, I'm creating a theme for 2016. My theme for the year is Take Action. I'm not going to sit around trying to expand my businesses. I'm going to ACTUALLY do it.

I encourage you to do the same. Don't throw yourself into the New Year's Resolution Trap. Ditch the traditional resolutions, make a specific goal this year and create a theme for the year!

That's a wrap!

Before I ask you what your 2016 theme is, I want to also thank you. Thank you for your support, thank you for continuing to follow along, and thank you for sharing your experiences with me! I enjoyed connected with y'all and can't wait until your businesses flourish in 2016!

As a thank you, enter below for your chance to win an awesome photography package with everything you need in 2016 to take better photos for your blog and business! Enter below!

Take a second and share your 2016 theme with me. What do you want 2016 to be full of? Let's encourage each other to get started and keep going!

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Let's Get Workin'!

One of the things that is most important to me these days is finding an inspirational space to work. Between going to school full-time, working part-time, juggling my Fragrance business and web development business, creating e-courses to help entrepreneurs and bloggers start online businesses (more on that later) and of course blogging - it's extremely hard to find a quiet place to work that's inspiring and motivational.

It's extremely important for me too to be able to really sit down and feel relaxed while working because I'm constantly going from one place to another.

With that said, let me tell you about my current "workspace" at home. Let's just say it isn't the greatest. It's me in my room working with my laptop on my bedside table where I'm constantly distracted with my family around. It's not the greatest "workspace", but it's the only place I had within my reach to get some work done and unwind.





Enter WeWork.

I was approached by a WeWork community representative who spoke to me about discussing a particular message on my blog. She wanted me to talk about how workspaces should inspire you to not just create a living, but to create a life.

I was uber excited about this as this very message is close to my heart. Everyday, my whole motive behind my businesses and behind helping others create and develop businesses is to encourage myself and others to build a business and life they love.

The WeWork community representative gave me a chance to tour one of the WeWork coworking spaces to showcase how their company is making it possible for aspiring entrepreneurs, creatives, and innovators do what they do best in an environment that enables them to do so.






The beautiful 11 story building in Bryant Park, NYC is where I toured WeWork.

The whole building is designed to enable creative work flow and increase employee happiness. A few of the many things I loved about WeWork is that they offer private spaces for individuals and teams for rent as well as offer permanent office spaces, along with the perks and benefits of having your own space such as getting your mail delivered to their convenient Bryant Park address and discounts on dozens of business friendly services such as TriNet and Slack, and a snack bar so you can fuel up on coffee and fruit water.



My most favorite thing about WeWork, however, was the Motherhood room offered at this location. In a hallway between some spaces was a room dedicated to helping mothers work while taking care of their family at the same time. How cool is it that they added privacy just for Mothers to feel comfortable in their own work environment?!

Membership to a beautiful workspace like this also just starts at $45 a month. Inspirational workspace, co-working areas with entrepreneurs, businesses, and creatives, along with the added perks of having your own office for only $45 a month.




I loved my tour at WeWork and I was honored to work with the wonderful staff at this location. Everyone was friendly and helpful, I would definitely recommend joining WeWork!



Beyond that, I was so inspired by the atmosphere in this workspace that I sat down and wrote this blog post before I left the space! 

Summer Highlights

This week classes for the Fall semester have been in session. In which case my summer is over. In some sense, I feel that I have never really taken a vacation this summer. Don't get me wrong, I love working on my businesses, my blog, and of course freelancing, but I never got to take a break from my day job. This is mainly because I worked as much as I possibly could and didn't make the time to take a vacation.

In reality, I wouldn't know what a "vacation" is. What do "normal", "non-workaholics" do on vacations anyway?!

Even though I didn't take a "vacation" per say, I'd like to showcase some of my favorite moments of summer 2015.



The top left photo is a quick selfie taken after I completed one of my Periscopes. I love Periscope, it's my new obsession. If you don't know what Periscope is then you must live under a rock because this new social media outlet is AWESOME. I wrote about my experience with Periscope here. You might find this useful!

The top right photo of a MacBook Pro is me just showing off the first computer I have ever bought on my own.

Now moving on to the bottom right. This photo is for that time I took a beginner calligraphy class hosted by Scarlet & Gold (check them out, their beginner calligraphy class is FREE). It went pretty well!

Bottom right is just a photo of a greek gyro. Why? Because I ate out far too many times this summer than I can count and gyros are one of favorites.



If I told you that in the top left photo, I was trying to be silly, would you believe me? This photo was taken at the Smart Girl's Group conference this year (a conference I will review VERY soon). Again, it was a lot of fun.

The top right photo is of my mini lop bunny named Fluffy! He's the cutest and fuzziest little soul ever! I adore him and now you can too! Just follow Fluffy on Instagram! I have yet to formally introduce this little guy, but he will be introduced soon.

Bottom left - is a mini ad for my blog and web design and development company which I launched this summer! It's called Little Eternities and its selling like hotcakes. Are you or someone you love in need of a new blog or website design? Click on over here. 

Bottom right - Okay, for this to make sense, you must know that I am naturally a smiley and enthusiastic person even on my worst day. Although this is not my worst day, in this photo I'm just walking over to my office with a chai tea latte in my hand.

This summer has been focused on launching Little Eternities, working, and just making sure that all my business and blog stuff is in order so when the fall semester starts (which it has), I just sit back and accept new clients and orders.

What are some highlights from your summer? What's your ideal vacation? Comment and let's talk about it!

Reflections on Small Businesses and Corporate Franchises

I have taken quite a few entrepreneurship classes over the past year. In high school, I took a class that spoke towards all aspects of entrepreneurship and I loved it. I was set on becoming an entrepreneur. My first semester of college I took two different entrepreneurship courses. One class focused on the type of a person an entrepreneur must be and how to spark imagination and creativity and act upon it. It was awesome! It expanding my knowledge on what entrepreneurship really is. The other course took ideas and turned them into proven business concepts. These courses excited me and motivated me to become the entrepreneur I want to be.

The other day, I was grabbing a latte at a Dunkin' Donuts near the train station after work. I've stopped by this location several times and every day I see the same employees with a smile on their face while serving customers with respect and I see customers returning the positive gratitude as well.      

I frequent many coffee shops, but this one felt special. I realized how more often than not, those that work in retail, fast food chains, and corporate franchises, either put up a front to seem positive and courteous or stay within their company's means without going the extra mile for customers. I understand it though, each location no matter what the company sells probably gets thousands of customers a day and going the extra mile for every single one, every single time must be hard.

But, when I realized how well this coffee franchise was doing in this location, I reflected on corporate franchises. What inspires these employees to exude a love and respect for their job that leaves each customer genuinely happy? They seem to be working even harder than other franchises to make a brand that is not even theirs more memorable without a reward.

In the entrepreneurship course that explored topics between the type of person an entrepreneur must be, our class had a discussion on what it means to be autotelic. From it's dictionary definition, having an autotelic mindset means to find a purpose within itself.

It's a hard concept to grasp and implement in one's life. Like anything, it takes practice to master.

Putting yourself in the mindset to feel as if you are fulfilling a purpose in everything you do keeps you mentally positive and determined to generate outstanding results.

When you own a small business and need to play all roles within the business; customer service, salesman, marketer, promotor, and the face of the company, it is very challenging to find purpose in everything you have to do to keep your business up and running and your clientele genuinely satisfied.

You have to work hard and it won't pay off until the very end.

My point is sometimes we don't focus on the wonderful energy people put into starting a small business or running a corporate franchise. It's not easy to feel purposeful in such competitive industry.

The next time you are served with a genuine smile and great customer service, remember to thank them for doing a great job! 

You Know You're Becoming a (Young) Adult When...

Being a college student is sort of a weird thing. You aren't really an adult yet, but you are no longer a teenager. You begin to take some responsibility for your own mistakes, financial obligations, and your overall well-being. This is where everyone begins referring to you as a young adult. After going through my freshman year of college (it's almost over!), I have realized that THIS is more true than I thought it would be and here are several reasons why.

You realize you can't stay home watching the Kardashians because you have to work and it only hurts a little.

In your spare time, you check your bank accounts and only shed a few tears.

You decide not to get Starbucks coffee because although you love ordering a "Grande Vanilla Frappuchino", it's too expensive to buy everyday and you opt for a medium iced coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.

Shopping is not as fun as it used to be because you have so much going on in such a limited amount of time each week that you only shop when you need to buy something.

You take at least four naps on a work day and six on a day off (And think that you deserve it too)!

11 PM becomes too late. (I used to be able to stay up ALL night :(  )

Your to-do list is more extensive than "Upload New Profile Pic." Now you're crossing off things like "Do Laundry", "Buy new Towels", "Hand in Paper by 5PM."

You (begin to) realize celebrities are just people too... weird right, who thought that would happen?!

You're lucky enough to sleep for six hours, let alone trying to get eight.

You become more social than usual and for the first time, you have some type of "young adult" confidence that you have no idea how you got.

Eating at McDonald's or Burger King is no longer a treat, but torture because you have forced yourself to see the reality of it. It's just fast food. I love Wendy's by the way. Anyone else? :)

You now worry about filing taxes. You gotta do it on your own now. 

Everything over $10 becomes expensive.

You have a drawer of receipts just because you said you would limit your buying and spending, but since you didn't...you have to hide the evidence. (Or is that just me?)

You no longer have fun dressing up in the morning, it's now a chore to make sure you don't wear the same thing twice in a week. YIKES!

You don't hate the young adult road, but you do not love it either.

Whatever your reasoning might be to look at yourself as a young adult, you are supposed to grow up through this sometimes questionable journey and make the best of it and enjoy the ride.

Fill in the blank: "You Know You're Becoming a (Young) Adult When...."

P.S. There's still time to enter the $250 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway! Enter right here. 

Dreaming of Berlin

I was browsing through the study abroad program at Montclair State University and I found an economics program in Berlin, Germany. This happened last spring right before I was accepted into the university as a Computer Science and Business Administration with a concentration of Finance major along with being an Economics minor.

Let's rewind back a little more, almost four years ago in the summer, I discovered an app called Wunderlist and I loved the app's concept, the company's' beliefs on productivity, and the beautiful way they presented those concepts and beliefs. 

Although I was only fifteen at the time, I had saw a recruitment ad on their Facebook page stating that they were looking for either a website developer or UX (User Experience) Designer.

Having had experience in website development and a hunger for experience in graphic design, I jumped on the opportunity to find out about the position and even apply as an intern if I could.

I was completely qualified as a website developer as per their requirements at the time. Wunderlist (company branched under 6Wunderkinder) didn't have an age requirement listed. 

So why didn't I go for it? Their headquarters is located in Berlin.

I have written reviews about their products on my tech blog several times and adored their inner-workings from afar. 

Within these four years of college, I will go to Berlin, take on that study abroad trip and work at this wonderful company. It just feels right. 

Is there a city you have dreamed about visiting? Have you studied abroad? I would be happy to hear some experiences! 

10 Reasons I Look Forward to Daylight Savings

After spending this Saturday with my little sister at the mall, I realized I was pretty damn excited about no longer working at Kohl's. I remember leaving from that horrible dungeon of hell with high hopes that I will never settle for a part-time job or even a full-time job that barely pays anything and crushes any aspiring goals and dreams you might have. If you're not trying to get into retail, THIS is the definition of a dead-end job. I figured with all the time I have not having my soul pushed into a tiny tube called the cycle of consumption would allow me to find my way back into the person I want to be.

At the mall, we picked me up a White Chocolate Raspberry Latte, shopped a little and had dinner at Panera Bread. All I have been doing this week is studying for exams and in a sense it made me feel empty - I want to be the person who makes things happen for herself and breaks out of this daily routine life. The last two photos in this collage show me catching up on blog reading after a hectic week and dreaming about Berlin, Germany - the city I want to study abroad in.

I had stopped by hell to use some Kohl's cash I had and didn't want to go to waste (by the way, if you shop at Kohl's and your Kohl's cash expires, you can still redeem it a few months after it expires if you ask. I've even seen people redeem Kohl's cash from 6 months prior. Literally, a customer had $90 in Kohl's cash from May of 2014 and redeemed it November 2014. You can get away with anything if you ask). One of my ex-coworkers had asked "Don't you miss it here?" as she rang up my purchase and to which I without hesitation replied "NO! NOT AT ALL!" 

I came home to checking through e-mails and browsing blogs to come to the realization that it's time. It's time to finally push the envelope I've been trying so hard to push for so long. 

So I'm wrote this post at 3 AM, right after Daylight Savings changed the time from 1:59 AM to 3 AM because I'm excited for these 10 reasons:

1. The Days are Longer! Just thinking about how awesome it would be to have the sun out while I'm commuting home from college is overwhelming! 

2. The Winter is ALMOST over. Hasn't this winter just been horrible? 

3. Spring is coming! This means trips to the park, light jackets (bringing out my favorite leather jacket again - that makes me happy), and allergies! (Wait, allergies aren't something to be excited about...who cares? It's spring!) 

4. More Iced Coffee. 

5. Ballerina flats instead of boots.

6. Soon I won't have to use the excuse "Its too cold/dark too go out."

7. More time to do things I want and be that person I want to be. April 3rd is going to be my official launch date for my web design business, Little Eternities. This is the date I chose and I'm sticking to it! 

8. Here's something you might be excited for, more giveaways for all my loyal readers and newbie followers too! Because hey, why not?

Today I am giving away this cute iPhone 5/5S case from icing. Enter to win at the end of this post!

9. 85 percent less of a chance of waking up on any given day and feeling sluggish. Soon, the sun will almost be up before 6 AM, I'll be thrilled to get up every morning! 

10. Daylight Savings has been one of the factors today that led me to pull out my iPad and just start to write.

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Are you excited about get the days being longer? Are you ready for Spring? I know I am! 

Getting Back Into the Game...

I haven't blogged since August of last year and trust me I feel pretty guilty about abandoning this hobby of mine. I feel even worse knowing that for some reason I still gained new followers and that I wasn't able to give them anything new or interesting to come back to.

Since August, I have no idea where the time flew or how I just was not able to utilize any time I had and put it into updating my blog every now and then.

This Summer, my retail job was a pain. I hated every second of it. In short (because I could pretty much write a book as to why NO ONE should have to work a job that pays minimum wage and puts you in the gut-wrenching front of the world of consumerism), it was not a good use of my time and it was the most stressful part of my day. Not a single bone in my body wanted to be anywhere near this place and when I resigned, there was not a second that I miss that place (Okay, maybe I should write this book).

I just started college last Fall, picked up a second part-time job, and commuted via a bus, a light rail train, and two trains traveling to and from home which totaled for nearly four hours a day. I struggled in school, but frankly I still maintained a GPA high enough to be on the dean's list. I hated working at my retail job and since I no longer work there, I can tell you that working for Kohl's Department Stores was like accidentally sticking gum into your hair every morning and cutting off a giant chunk of your hair every night (I'm sure Kohl's is a big enough corporation that they track what is said about them online so I won't go into detail or slander the place- or in truth slander the place as badly as I want to).

It seems as if all I was doing was work, commuting, and getting homework done. My days started as early as 5am and ended as late as 12am leaving me five hours to prepare for the next day, have dinner, and sleep.

It was exhausting...

I was able to get through each day functioning just fine and with a smile on my face, but I was never rested. Never rested enough.

Which would explain why when the holiday season came around and the semester ended, I had two days off and not even a million dollars (or my Mother yelling at me) could get me out of my bed. I didn't even realize I had done nothing this New Year's and I didn't even mind. I woke up at three in the afternoon, had brunch, worked on some of my website design stuff, watched TV with my family, fell asleep and woke up just in time to see the ball drop. That is literally how I rang in the new year.

Right after taking my last final on the last day of my first semester, I had promised myself that I would get back into what I enjoyed doing and restart my projects up again.

And I am struggling to do so, but I NEED to get back in the game and I WANT to get back in the game.

In honor of that, I am going to recap the rest of 2014 that I was unable to post monthly highlights of and get a "Links I've Stumbled Upon" post in as well as a few others that I planned to post, but never did.

You can also expect a new blog design in the upcoming months.

I love blogging and I have missed so much, hope its not too late to jump back in!

It Happened...I Graduated

Graduating high school may not be such a big accomplishment to many people since hey, it's just high school and all you really have to do is graduate with a sub-par grade point average, just enough school credits, and a decent attendance record. If you ask me, it's really not a hard thing to do. I am not celebrating the fact I graduated in this blog post. I am celebrating the fact that I was able to push through the finish line these past four years, did what I needed to do (regardless of what was going on around me), performed better than most academically, and was able to learn and grow beyond what what was being taught in school.

These past four years I was a member of our school Marching Band, member of the Future Business Leaders of America and then eventually President, someone acknowledged by teachers and faculty as a student with outstanding potential, and most importantly known as a well-rounded person. Graduating high school isn't an accomplishment to me, but that is. 

I am very grateful to have found myself in various instances in which I was tested to see if my true character would advance. It really is a great feeling knowing that instead of simply graduating and leaving high school, I left behind a little trail where I hope many of the people who I have come to know through those years will one day follow and celebrate even bigger achievements with me that I hope to have accomplished by then.

Here's to a new stage to advance from or in my best friend's gaming language, a new level to clear. 

May Highlights

May has been a month full of milestones, achievements, and events. This month I landed a new job in retail, I performed my last band concert, changed my hairstyle, and of course the biggest event this month was my senior Prom! This month was nothing short of awesome! The selected photos showcase my favorite highlights according to my Instagram account, @ZobiaAlvi.

1. The first two weeks of May called for hair trials my sister did for me to prepare for Prom. Basically, most of May, I could be spotted with curly hair. 

2. After being in band since elementary school, I finally performed my last band concert and my little sister and my best friend were there to support me!

3. May called for many days where I was unable to perform my very best without some tea or coffee. Hence many trips to Starbucks!

4. This Mother's Day I actually bought my Mother a present for the first time with my own hard-earned money. That was another milestone as well! 

5 & 6. Prom photos! My senior prom was great and I was so happy to take my best friend with me! I will be posting more details soon, I promise!

7. Celebratory Iced Coffee Coolatta and a doughnut for successfully completing my AP Italian exam.

8 & 9. New hairstyle, short hair. Enough said. 

Next month is going to be even better! Graduation, new job, and summer begins! 

April Highlights

So April 2014 too has come and gone. This month was solely based upon having fun with my family and well...adjusting to the weird (warm one day, windy and cold the next) weather lately. Here is some of what April had to offer (based on my Instagram account which you can request to follow @ZobiaAlvi).

1. How I Met Your Mother came to an end on the first day of April, I found myself crushed and writing a lengthy blog post on my thoughts on the finale.

2. Although, I'm still on a healthy diet (so I may fit flawlessly into Prom dress next month), it's Iced Coffee season again!

3. Random trips out for breakfast and a little shopping were a great way to start my weekends this month. :)

4. My little munchkin turned ten years old this month! So I took her out for a movie, just the two of us!

5. Then, the following morning my Mother and my other sister took her out to IHOP.

6. And after that, I took her to Build-A-Bear Workshop to help her create her new best friend, Abby.

7. More Spring shopping! My new polka-dot tote bag really makes me happy. Not sure why, but it does. Perhaps, it reminds me of summer. :)

8. My best friend asked me to PROM! Now, I seriously can't wait for prom in May. He may not be much of a best friend, after all. ;)

9. It's spring and you know what that means...more frozen yogurt!

May is going to be a big month! Preparing for my last high school exams, PROM, my last spring band concert, and my last full month of school and work. Things are changing. Everything is in gear for graduation in June!

March Highlights

1. My new bracelet and scarf simply just make me happy. My best friend is awesome for getting me this! :)

2. Since, I work at a pre-school, I dressed up as the Cat in the Hat for Read Across America Day. Afterwards, I walked all over town with my cat make-up on. 

3. 4 years in Marching Band, 8 years in band finally paid off! Graduating as an athlete! 

4. Finally, warmer weather means frozen yogurt season. 

5. My little home-office got a bulletin board. Boy, will I have fun with this. 

6. I won a pair of shoes for prom from Chinese Laundry. They are perfect! 

7. Last year, I participated in Trading Places at school and was able to be my favorite teacher for the day. This year, I decided to be another one of my teachers who I have grown fond of and it was awesome! I was boss. 

8. I decided to take some time one day and take my little sister out to watch a play at school. She loved it and I was so happy to see her little face light up with joy.

9. Off my Special K Challenge, but still eating healthy. 

This month was a bit strange. My Father has been out of the country for most of this month and college decisions seem to be on the rise. My Mother has been very supportive on the behalf of both of them...but, as for myself...more business ideas and ventures to roll out soon. Work keeps me busy and makes me the happiest (success is my true soul mate) and this month I think I balanced work and family quite better despite the family changes. 

January & February Highlights

  
  

1. I finally finalized last year's Photo 365 project. That was a mess! Never doing that again!
2. I traded in my old iPhone 4 for the beautiful Nokia Lumia 1020!
3. Took the SATs one last time. Practicing for a third time wasn't fun at all.
4. I finally turned eighteen and decided to create a list of things to do. Being eighteen is so exciting!
5. Started planning and scheduling in this AWESOME new business agenda.
6. Then, I started the Special K Challenge. Will post results and my experience soon!

These past couple of months have been great start to this new year so far!

Finding You...

We're all trying to find a place in the world. It is hard trying to find a place where you belong and it's even harder to try to belong where you already are.

Your place in this world is the position or contribution to the world. Basically it is your purpose. Everyone has something to offer...the questions are where will you make your contribution? how will you impact others? and when will it happen?

The simple answer to all these questions is this: One day you'll be someone great and impact the world in a beautiful way.

The long and complicated answer everyone is looking for really doesn't exist. We are all trying to find a place in this world and well, if you haven't found it yet...you'll find it soon.

I just entered the world of adulthood and yet, it all seems familiar to me and I seem to welcome it more so than my peers and even my best friend. However, I haven't found that place of mine yet, I don't know what my contribution is, and I do not know even what I am capable of.

Granted, I have chosen a career path (becoming an entrepreneur of my own tech/software company), but as for my place in the world...I am looking too.

On a completely unrelated note, I am undergoing day four of the Special K Challenge I decided to do. Let's see if this challenge teaches me to monitor my eating habits and drop a few pounds before prom and graduation. As Barney from How I Met Your Mother would say..."Challenge Accepted."

Eighteen

This weekend, I celebrated my eighteenth birthday! I have been waiting to turn eighteen since, I realized that so many of the projects I want to start require me to be this age. I wanted to publish my book without the help of my parents, be a member of the business I co-started with my father, manage financial accounts, monetize my work, and attend blogging/business conferences I could not before! I have a lot I want to do, and well now nothing can stop me!

The small birthday gathering I had was oodles (yes, oodles) of fun and I was glad to have my friends and my sisters all the in the same room talking, laughing, and taking pictures. It was great!

From Left to Right: Melissa, Jennifer, Tabeer, Me, Joselyn

From Left to Right: Jennifer, Joselyn, Me, Abeer, Tabeer, and Melissa

From Left to Right: Jennifer, Joselyn, Abeer, Me, Melissa, and Joanne

  
Of course, this blog post would not be complete without a photo of my Dad and sisters alone. They managed to put this get together for me and deal with me without getting too frustrated and I appreciate it so much! I love them all very much!

How awesome are my friends?!

Beyond that, on a personal note...somehow I feel that I have been eighteen for quite a while now. Just now I have an official ID to match. Is it just me or did age really become just a number?

Choosing a Prom Dress!

One of the exciting events that take place your senior year of high school is your high school prom! I have been anticipating this event since I was a freshman. Some people believe that prom is not all what it is advertised to be and others believe (mainly girls) that it would be one of the best days of their high school journey. I happen to be tremendously excited, however, I wonder what it would actually turn out to be.

Although prom is still months away, I think that it's never too early to find and start saving up for a dress. The color that I want to wear is a champagne/light gold shade that I hope to stand out in. I want my dress to be conservative and pretty enough to compete with everyone else's dresses. These are a couple of dresses I loved, but neither one of these is THE dress I will be wearing.

The color of both of these dresses is perfect. However, the first one looks more like a dress of my style. I do not have to make a choice yet, but once I do I know it'll be great. I am still looking for the dress that I absolutely cannot refuse. Yet, the journey to finding the perfect prom outfit will still not be over because well...I have not even started looking for the perfect pair of shoes. That will be probably be a harder decision then the dress!

What's your ideal prom dress? 

Making College Decisions...

At this time as I am preparing for yet another SAT test and applying to colleges. I am having various thoughts and feelings about the decisions I have to make in order to keep going along with the college process. Truth is, the college process is told to be quite simple...you research, you visit these colleges, find out what majors they have, apply while complying with their general requirements (SAT scores, recommendation letters, transcripts, and college essays), then wait for a response. Then why do high school seniors make out the college process to be a little overwhelming? The answer is the requirements that you cannot find by simply researching the school itself.

All colleges generally tell you what is required, but different things are required as per major and sometimes you'll have to do things you aren't prepared to in order to even be eligible to apply for the college of your choice. As of right now, for one particular college that I consider my dream school (Steven's Institute of Technology), I have to take the SATs for a slightly higher score, and take a Pre-Calculus class either during the Spring or Summer semester and do my very best in all the college level classes I am taking right now in order to transfer my credits successfully. Yes, this is the overwhelming part of the college application process.

More than anything, this is the college I would love to go to. The institute is known for innovation and technology, both of the major things I am looking for. I know it might have been a bad thing to put all my marbles on one college, but I did and therefore, I aim to go to school there. 

#7ThingsProject: Getting Started

Sometime in July of 2013 while I was working on launching my Kickstarter campaign for my novel, I mentioned another project I was working on called the #7ThingsProject. This project is sort of like a bucket list. You list 7 things you want to do. Then, whenever you complete anything on your list, you write a blog post on it. Once you're all done with all the 7 things you set out to do, celebrate with another blog post and link up all your achievements! This project has no set time frame, start whenever you want and end once you achieve all 7 things! I'll be curating a list of all the blogs participating in the project on the 7 Things Project page and constantly sharing all your achievements through social media! This project is all about doing the things that make you happy, so I'm starting this project today!

#7Things

1. Score at least a 1600 on my SATs. 

2. Host a little imaginary party with my little sister that makes her happy. 

3. Upload a video on my YouTube channel and start doing some V-logging.

4. Create Open When... letters for people with significant meaning in my life.

 5. Spend a whole weekend with my family without using the internet once.

6. Save up enough money to buy my sister her own laptop or tablet.

7. Speak confidently in front of a large group of people. 

Join me and do the things that make you happy, sign up for the #7ThingsProject!

Why my Photo 365 Project Last Year Failed...

Last year, my New Year's resolution was to complete a Photo 365 Project. I saw several pretty Photo 365 Projects done on photography and lifestyle blogs and was convinced that I should try it. It started out going pretty well, all I had to do was take one photo each day to accumulate a collage of 365 photos in total. However, after life started becoming hard to manage, I started to skip days of photos and kept track of the days I missed so I can take extra pictures and pretend I never skipped. That was wrong and sort of defeated the purpose of this project because once the day was I gone, I could not get that picture I was missing. So instead of Photo 365 Project it became a collection of photos from each month (while missing some days) and so I created the "Catching Up on Photo 365" series. It was a fun project, however, I was able to take photos that I was really proud of.

1. My birthday dinner outfit. First outfit post of the year.

2. My little sister's birthday!

3. Designing mugs together!

4. Focusing on my blog with an Iced Coffee. This was the year I registered TheEternityJournal.com.

5. I also took to baking last year and my favorite thing to bake were cinnamon buns.

6. Decorating our home was fun. Putting family photos together in this frame made me happy.

7. Last year, I was obsessed with frozen yogurt and here's the first cup.

8. Can you say "20 items or less?" 

9. I also liked curling my hair to look like beachy waves and this was my photo showcasing it. 

This year, I decided no Photo 365 and so far I have caught myself taking random pictures. Although, I am not doing this project this year, I will probably still take lots of random photos from day to day or pull together photos from my Instagram every month and create a special monthly post.

Happy New Year! + New Ideas for 2014

Happy New Year! Hope you have all been keeping your new year's resolutions so far! Lately, I have been wondering about starting a YouTube channel as a new project in 2014. I have had a YouTube channel for years, I have a video or two of my little sister and a few music videos I created and that's about it. I have more than hundred subscribers and I would like to finally contribute something.I am thinking of creating how-to tutorials, product reviews/unboxing, funny and random videos, and I have always wanted to start an advice column! Does that sound like something I should do or something you would like to watch?



Beyond that, I had a great New Year's Eve! My family and I just started the day off our usual way and we decided to get dressed up after ordering Pizza Hut for dinner. We took lots of pictures and watched the ball dropped on television. I even put together a video of all our accumulated photos through 2013 and shared it with my family minutes before 2014! My family and I have a tradition of sipping Coca-Cola in wine glasses the second the ball drops, but this year we also decided to throw confetti (A mess that took hours to clean afterwards and yet, there's still confetti in the living room today).



My idea of an active YouTube channel is still in the making, but one thing I have been doing is using this awesome blog planner, created by Erica from Confessions of a Home-Schooler. I downloaded and printed her free blog planner, then took it to Staples to get it spiral-bound. I love this planner and I am hoping to use it to guide my blog into the direction I would like it to go!