I haven't creeped into this little corner of the internet in a little while, but something about finals time always brings me back. Maybe it's the sheer procrastination kicking into overdrive, but this season of the semester always has me feeling reflective, inspired, and stressed.

Though I can't quite bring myself to justify working on the three post ideas that I have for this little space, I'm pulling myself away from my research revisions just long enough to update everyone on what the heck has been going on inside my little world. Side bar- does anyone remember when I used to do 'Monday Musings' every week to tell y'all what was going on in my week? Good times...

Life so far.

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Hello again, my sweet friends! 

It's been a hot, hot, *hot* minute since I've shared what I've been up to. It only seems fitting that as I procrastinate on multitudes of work, I take the opportunity now. 

Here's a peak at my life so far:

I'm an intern! For just a smidge over a month, I have had the opportunity to be a PR/Marketing Intern for The Borgen Project. The Borgen Project is a NPO that fights to pass legislation in order to change the lives of the world's poor. Working for this organization has taught me the importance of advocacy and using my privileges to benefit others. (I also am fundraising for my internship so if you're interested in donating to an organization that changes lives, please consider donating to my campaign!)

I'm traveling again! I am so excited to FINALLY announce that I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel Route 66 this July with a friend of mine. What a way to barrel into my 21st year! If you have any tips/must sees for traveling Route 66, please do let me know! (And don't worry, I'm takin' y'all with me on this adventure.)

I'm working on my best self.  For what seems like the better portion of my life, I have been working towards a "skinny" image of myself. I've always felt that I was on the heavier side of all my friends, but over the past months, this image has changed. I've been viewing my body as strong and capable and honestly incredible. Do I have big legs? Heck yes, but they also help me run and lift and hike and those things require my legs to be big. I'm not certain when my mentality switched from "skinny" to strong, but it has made all the difference. While there are still moments where I feel like I "have to" go to the gym, it's switched reasonings. I used to feel like I have to go to the gym to maintain a certain image, now I just feel like I have to go to the gym because I like to see what my body is capable of, and a good endorphin rush certainly never hurt anybody.

I'm missing my homies. As many of you may know, my best friend Court is off on a big adventure serving God this summer at SpringHill. She's been gone for (almost) two months, and it's been super weird not getting texts from her asking me to hang out or drive to see her at weird hours of the day (though now I get snaps of her asking me to drive to her camp site at 7am- a weird hour for me, who doesn't get up until 11 despite my best efforts). This week, my other homie is gone too. Han's hiking mountains in Utah, and I am so jealous of her travels. I can't wait for my two sweet friends to come home!

I'm learning to be quiet. In the last months, I have been feeling sort of out of sorts (wow what a phrasing of words, good job LJ). In my constant efforts to figure everything out like the true Type A in my heart, I've been forgetting to be quiet. I've been forgetting to spend time in a book or THE Book, and listening to God has been put on the back burner. This sounds so horrible to admit, but human nature makes us all flawed, and it's so so important to share these flaws. It's okay to admit them, it's okay to bring them to the light. But it's important to act on them, to make the situation better. So in the last few weeks I've been learning to be quiet again. I'm working on waking up earlier so I have some much needed quiet time with God, where I can journal my prayers and my thoughts and really spend time in the Word. It's making the difference in my heart, but I'm not perfect at it and I'm still learning to be intentional with my time.

Those are some of my major life updates. If you are interested or feel called to donate to my fundraising campaign, just click HERE and you will be directed automatically to my campaign.

While I'm not heading off on my big trip just yet, you won't want to miss out on all my posts from the road. Follow my shiny *new* blog instagram @laurenstateofmind and search #laurenstateoftravel to see my adventures as they happen!

The low down.

Wow. Long time hecka no talk. 

I miss this little corner of the internet. So much that I have five different posts and a whole series lined up. Currently, though, my mind thinks faster than I can type and lately I've been losing the words before I can commit them to a blank posts. 

So instead of trying to get the words right, I figured I'd just tell you what I'm up to...

I have almost completely stopped cursing and now I say frick every other second as a result

Aloe water is my newest addiction & also a huge turn off to half the population apparently 

Outside of school work I use Google calendar more than my paper planner and this is #sacrilege

Finally got myself to like sushi

I started a food review on my snapchat called finals or food critics (slide into my DMs if you want to follow my snapchat antics)

Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week because God and Midweek are so so so good

Got to watch La La Land finally and fell in love with the beauty of cinema again

Booked a trip to Orlando with my homies

Discovered I loath cognitive psychology, go figure...

Dubbed 2017 as the year of growth in all areas of my life 

Now, wasn't that a list as disorderly and chaotic as my life? 

I hope to be back to this little corner very soon. I'm working on a series of blogposts that have been placed on my heart, and I am really anxious to show you all of my writing. Until then...

Where's LJ? {A Life Update}

Hello, hello. 

Sorry I've just about dropped off the face of the Earth- let's catch up. 

In the event that you're wondering where I've been recently, the answer to that is: completely immersed in university housing staff training. Ahh, yes... that time of year again where RAs, APMs, Night Watch, Desk, and all the other staffs that keep a campus running come together, get trained, and prepare to welcome back resident life. 

At my university, this means a two week long, intense training process. We go to camp. We go through safety drills. We even come up with mock rocks. While it's a blast to be back together with some of my closest friends, lemme tell you- this stuff's draining. Going for over 12 hours on minimal sleep and my irregular nutrition (not to mention lack of exercise) has completely thrown me off balance.

While this summer I had little to no routine other than going to work at different times each day, having such a super structured routine has been like a culture shock once again. I love being busy, which I know is totally wrong because we shouldn't be glorifying "busy" in all reality, but having productive stuff to do calms me oddly. I live and breath by my planner, but after these two weeks, I feel lost. 

My mind is racing so fast I can't even make a to-do list. So while I've been absolutely dying to make some blog posts and feed you all some new content, it's unfortunately been pushed to the back burner. I do have to say though, exciting things are coming to this blog very very soon. 

Between my back to school outfits (there's many), and my crazy tips and stories, I've got some great ideas coming your way. All that's left on my end is some piece of mind to actually organize them. 

So be patient with me please. I promise I've got something great in store for you all. 

Hopefully that answers the question of "Where's LJ?"