Music : My Passion.

For me, music has always been a huge part of my life. My main passion. No, I'm not talking about the stuff that you hear on the radio these days. I'm talking about good ol' classical and instrumental music. Singing. Band instruments. Orchestra instruments. Yeah. That stuff.

From a young age, I knew I wanted to play the french horn and the cello. Oh, how badly I wanted to. In 6th grade, I signed up for trumpet. In the middle of 7th grade, my wish came true to play french horn. My senior year, I took private lessons and signed up for orchestra, but for viola instead of cello. Cue in world's smallest violin.

I signed up for choir and never looked back. I was in select choirs, show choir, Women's choirs, ensemble contest, and even was good enough to make the Iowa All-State choir my senior year. heck, I even did a year of college choir and landed a solo.

They say that if you play some sort of instrument, you have a better IQ and tend to do better in school. I don't know about that whole IQ thing, but I was still average in school. Bubble bursted. But I digress. Maybe I did better than I would've without the music trifecta. I do know that high school and middle school wouldn't be as wonderful for me if I decided not to play instead.

A lot of my classmates decoded not to join music until later in their career and deeply regretted not joining sooner. Seriously though, learning music is one of the greatest joy and best escapes. I don't know where I'd be today without playing and performing.

Even today, I still want to learn. At this point, I can sing, play the trumpet, french horn, mellophone, and viola. I'm teaching myself piano as we speak. I'm learning guitar when I can. I'm obsessed with learning how to play my ukelele. After I graduate, one of my presents I want to give myself is a cello. Mark my words, I will be a fantastic cellist someday.

At 21 years old, I still want to do things like this and learn things that I've always wanted to learn. Heck, my cute, little grandma is slowly learning how to play piano, too. Moral of this rambly story, it's never to late to learn. It's never too late to pursue a passion. It's never too late to learn a new coping mechanism and escape. Whether it be knitting, a sport, trying to write a book, go out and do it. Learning music is what I love. Go do what you love.

Sincerely,

             Kristina

P.S. what are some of your passions?

Graduation is near!

This is something that I am so incredibly excited for : GRADUATION. I have constantly been in school since my parents first enrolled me in Kindergarten, so that fact that graduation is creeping up is something I am overjoyed about.

December 18th of this year is when I finally graduate and become a Licensed Massage Therapist and can start working to become a Certified Pre-Natal and Labor Doula. Words cannot explain how excited I am to open my business and start doing even more good in this world.

These are things I have long since dreamed of dating back to when I was that little kid in Kindergarten. Helping and comforting people is what I love to do and I'm so happy that my dream is finally becoming a reality.

People. Stuff like this is possible. Hard work truly does pay off when you let it.

Sincerely,

            Kristina

Shower Routine and Tips... Seriously.

A while ago, I came across this post on Facebook about showering and honestly, it changed my shower game. Showering is actually something I've researched and shockingly enough, not a lot of people talk about it. Probably because it's showering. Out of my research, I found a decent amount of people asking Yahoo if there was a proper way of showering.

I did a lot of experimenting with this and am no sort of professional, but I don't think I'll be changing the way I am showering now and am glad that I've adopted these new techniques.

First off, use separate shampoo and conditioner. Especially if you are trying to grow out your hair. Conditioner clogs your pores and slows down hair growth. Focus your shampoo solely on your roots and not your ends because of breakage and focus your conditioner more on your ends. Who knew that they actually served separate purposes.

Do wash your face and your shower. The heat from the water opens up your pores more and makes the face wash more effective. BONUS: Use an exfoliating brush to help with the dead skin.

Showering for me in general takes 10-15 minutes and let me tell you, that time is wisely spent. I try to give everything enough time so I can have the benefits you are supposed to get from showering. The actual routine is:

• Put in shampoo
• Wash body with loofa
• Rinse out shampoo
• Put in conditioner
• Wash face
• Shave what needs to be shaved
• Rinse out face wash then conditioner

It took multiple showers for me to find a routine that I thought worked best. What shower tips do you have that works for you? Let me know!

              Kristina

5 Positive Things for Mondays | September Week 1

Mondays. Everyone seems to hate Mondays. Something I want to and will. I will guys, I will. Is to write down 5 positive things on Mondays to start the week off right. The positive things will consist of anything that makes me happy or things I'm looking forward to. Personally, I absolutely love Mondays. Monday is my favorite day of the week. So I guess we better get to it.

1. My dog, Carter.

Seriously, I love this dog. He is my first dog and the biggest sweetheart. Not only do I love him unconditionally, but today is his 13th birthday. Happy birthday, my beautiful boy. I love you.

2. My job. The new one.

Usually, my job kind of sucks. I work at a Hy-Vee in the gas station in my hometown before I move. A couple days ago while at work, I got a call from a Hy-Vee in Sioux Falls that I applied at so I could try to transfer. The scheduled an interview for today, September 1st. 15 minutes later, they called back and told me that I didn't have to come for the interview and they were just going to go ahead and hire me. I'm so thankful for not having to travel and having a job for when I move.

3. Living at home.

When I decided to move home from being in Ames, I was scared for how it was gonna go. I was sacrificing a lot of my freedom and it made me uncomfortable to do so. Now that I've been home for 3 months, I've come to appreciate a lot of things back home such as free food, free rent and utilities, and being around my family, childhood friends, and my family pets. I'm going to miss it all when I leave again.

4. My job. The older one.

I've worked at Hy-Vee for 3 years. I've worked at 2 stores: my home store and Ames #1 C-Store. Right now, I'm back at my home store since I'm currently living back home. I'm loving seeing all the familiar faces of my managers, coworkers, and fellow town folk. I'm definitely soaking it all up.

5. My hometown.

Growing up, I hated how small my hometown was. Not even kidding, I grew up in a town of less than 10,000 people with surrounding towns with much less people. It was beyond boring in my middle school to high school years not having much to do besides go to Wal*Mart and driving around since we were obviously "too mature for the park." Now, after living and travelling to much bigger places, I've come to appreciate the small-ness, the safeness, and the friendliness and the citizens. Hospitality is becoming much harder to come by and I'm glad to be living in a place where most people still have it.

So there you have it. Take a moment to think about 5 positive things in your life. I challenge you. Start your week off right.

Much love, laughter, and happiness,

            Kristina.