Senioritis vs. the If/When Syndrome...

Senioritis, from the word senior plus the suffix -itis (which refers to inflammation but in colloquial speech is assumed to mean an illness), is a colloquial term used in the United States and Canada to describe the decreased motivationtoward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school, college and graduate school careers.


Here I am... six weeks shy of my last day of college. 18 school days, if I counted correctly. That's right... just eighteen. You think I'd be enthralled by the idea of never having to wake up and go to class again... and well, I guess you'd be right to a certain degree. I am so very excited to be through with college. I most certainly am. But I'm also catching myself lack in motivation. Maybe it's because I've spent the last 4 and a half years getting a degree that I'm not planning on using (I say that lightly, as I will use the degree, just not in it's intended purpose). I mean, I didn't know that for the longest.. in fact, I didn't know that until this summer/semester. But I'm not the type of person that powers through something for so long and quits just before the finish line.


It's hard to take things seriously like my portfolio or portfolio website when I doubt I'll be showing it to anyone. At least not for several years (if my passion to work in graphic design returns)... so everything will change. I'm blabbering on about nothing really... but it's been getting to me pretty hard the past two months. I don't want to just do something for the sake of getting it done. I want to be proud of it... why is that so hard for me right now?


Is it a serious case of Senioritis, or is it the If/When Syndrome? I constantly find myself saying "I'll be happy when I graduate." "When I graduate, then I'll be excited about designing." "If I can start up my business plan for my store, then I'll be happy".... This is such an unhealthy mentality! Yes.... I WILL be happy when I do those things... but what is making it so hard to be happy NOW?!


I have a difficult time going to a couple of my classes simply because there is someone in there who makes it seem like her life goal is to just spread negativity. She complains about things that have nothing to do with her, and I instantly feel my morale go down. I also have this problem at my job... it may only be 10 hours a week and it may be excellent pay... but I just feel miserable at times! 


It's hard to look at something you see as a future goal and know that you won't be there for a while... I keep having to remind myself that I need to enjoy the present so that I may enjoy the future.


Life is about the journey, not the destination.


I only have 18 days of school left... granted there's a whole heck of a lot of work that will go into those 18 days (this is where my procrastination becomes a serious problem), but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. But is there a light at the end of this mentality, too? Will my If/When syndrome go away once I graduate? Or will I find myself sitting in my studio day after day saying "I will be so happy if/when I get my store going... etc etc etc"


I dealt with Senioritis my senior year of high school.... I don't know how I did it, but I still managed to make all A's and graduate with Honors. I suppose I can't truly be blamed for feeling this way, as I have spent the past forever in this school, it seems. Not to mention I've spent the last 17 and a half years going to some sort of educational institution... If I had graduated on time (this past May), maybe I wouldn't have felt this way... and maybe I'm a little burnt out because I want to use the degree I started with (Fashion Design) and not necessarily the one I finished with (Graphic Design)...


What a web I have spun myself. 


I guess the moral of the story is: I'm excited/ready to graduate, and I hope that I can make it through these last few weeks. But I also hope that I can change my mentality for the better. I have so many exciting things written in my Little Book of Ideas... from handmade goods, blog tutorials, an entire blog redesign, and daily goals/to-do lists.... I'll have to share some of those soon.


Sorry for rambling on... this was such a text-heavy post and all I really did was clear my chest of things that have been bothering me. Maybe you can relate though. If so- Do you have any suggestions/tips on how to be productive with school work when it's the last thing I want to look at?


Either way, thanks for being amazing readers and following my little journey through life! Your comments and emails make everything seem so much easier. It's nice to know I have people who I can relate to, even if we may have never met.


With that being said, if you have something heavy on your heart or you just want to talk/introduce yourself, feel free to email me... I'm always willing to listen! kaelahbee (at) gmail (dot) com.


Also- I feel like I should end this by saying that I most likely will NOT have a "day job" (full time job) once I graduate. I have no real desire to find something like that... I may find a part-time job at a florist/bakery/independent shop of some sort, just to get my hands a bit dirty (and keep me from going crazy from cabin fever)... but I will most likely have my Mon-Fri free and only work 10 hours a week at the bar. This will allow me to fully see through my goals (I hope)... but it's still weird to me..

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Senioritis vs. the If/When Syndrome...

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Outfit Post : Wednesday, October 6th + My Day

Just a couple quick outfit shots and then I have to dart off to meet Merissa in Grassland to go tour GS&F (a design agency in Green Hills). Then we have to rush back to O'More so we can get to the Student Government meeting (as she's the President and I'm the Membership Coordinator). Sounds fancy, but it's really not. Still! We have to get back to discuss important matters and we will undoubtedly be late. I wish we didn't go on "field trips" on the first Wednesday of the month! Our class runs right into, and through/over, our SGA meetings.  (Of course by the time you read this I will already be in the meeting! It's only 9:30am now... love the queue!)









dress: target ($26), tights: target ($12), flats: kmart ($13)


I bought this dress some random time last year and never wore it. Not once. Until these pictures were taken. I have the sister dress which is coral instead of blue (but the top is coral, not the "belt"). Either way, I've only worn that one once! Luckily they were cheap finds at Target. Still, they're cute so I should show them the light of day a bit more. 


Last night I surprised Mike when he got home at 10pm with a big candlelit dinner for our anniversary (just 10 months. Isn't that crazy?!). We had some yummy yummy Italian and watched Modern Family/Raising Hope. So romantic haha We have a busy couple of weeks coming up! I just realized I'm getting tattooed next Wednesday and I'm not the least bit prepared. Oh man. I need to get my act together! Off I go!

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Outfit Post : Wednesday, October 6th + My Day

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Outfit Post : Thursday, August 12

Last night Mike made a deeeeelish pasta dish [I'll share the recipe later tonight!] and I spent time in my studio a bit. Then we hit the hay. I had to get up at a crazy time of 7:30am [okay, thats probably late for some of you... but I like to sleep until 8:30 or 9.. c'mon!] and I rushed to get ready [didn't wash my hair... it needs it after that pool yesterday!] and Mike rushed out the door with me to take some outfit photos at the abandoned house down the road. I only have 3 decent [and by decent I really mean just 1 picture with very slight differences] photos so I'll only post 2 [one would just be lonely!].






{Outfit Details o8.12.1o}
{Dress: Urban Outfitters $68}
{Tights: c/o We Love Colors}
{Flats: Kmart $13}


At this very moment I am sitting in my first class of the semester [of my last semester of art school EVER!]. And by first class I mean Business for VisCom and there's only 5 of us in here. THIS is why I love O'More! The teacher is rad and I've enjoyed his teaching style in the past so I'm sure great things will result from here. I have a break after this class [which is supposed to end at 10:40am] until I have Literature at 1pm [I'm not looking forward to that... well, I adore the teacher, but I'm not a big lit-reader. Maybe that'll change!] Then I have a Skype date with the lovely ladies that I'm doing a Zine with! I hope you guys will snag one up when we launch it! More about that later!


Off to be a good student! Au revoir! 


xoxo

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Outfit Post : Thursday, August 12

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An Upfront Apology...

Here's to let you all know that this week may be kind of slow here at KaelahBee.com. It's finals week, as I've said probably countless times before (woe is me!) and while I have no actual classes left, I do have to present my Sweet Cheeks Bakery stuff tomorrow at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, print, photograph, trim, and pack my portfolio to drop off by 1pm on Thursday, and then cram for my final Art History exam EVER on Friday morning. Not to mention throwing in a few hours of getting my leg tattooed tomorrow night... Neither convenient on the time, nor money, front... but it has to be done so it shall! I'll be making flash cards to study for art history while I get tattooed. I'm a nerd... It's cool.


I don't mean to leave y'all hanging but I'm sure you understand! I bet more than a fair share of you are experiencing the same stressed out feeling of finals just like myself. And to think, just ONE more semester! I shall be a college graduate! Oh joy!


A lot of you have said you wish I would show my design work more so here you go. A logo and menu for my vegan bakery, Sweet Cheeks.


This is the logo for Sweet Cheeks. It still needs some tweaks but I'm much to physically & mentally exhausted to even think about dealing with it now. So it shall stay. Hmph.





The menu is a folding menu with a curved photo on the inside/end. A magnet falls down from the third panel. The top row is the inside of the menu, while the bottom row is the outside of the menu. All laid flat (obviously haha). (Click the image to view it larger)




Anywhoo, It's 11:30pm, I just dragged myself from school. I'm going to put on my jammies and settle into bed. Waking up bright and early so Mike can go to work and I can prepare for both my presentation and my tattoo appointment. Maybe I can churn out these flash cards tonight. Wish me luck!


xoxo

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This is Thursday.

Wednesday was a very very hectic day. This entire week has been. It's felt like finals for all of us here at O'More and I'll be happy when it's gone! My poor roommate, Kayla, sliced off part of her finger and ended up in the ER for 6 stitches. Most all of us have been there (last year I sliced off a hefty portion of my thumb at school). Phew.

I woke up pretty early on Wednesday.... and this is what I found in my floor...



I guess she had gotten so hot in the night she just passed out underneath the ceiling fan. hahaha She didn't even move as I got up to take her picture. HOW ADORABLE! Anywho...

My presentation of my book went really well on Wednesday. It was such a long presentation and only 4 of us went! I got a call from my new tattoo artist saying I could come in an hour early for my appointment. But between Mike picking me up at school, us grabbing lunch and then getting to the shop, we started tattooing around 3:45pm.

It was pretty excruciating at some points. Not going to lie. I was making faces and trying to entertain myself with trashy celebrity tabloid magazines. It worked for about the first two hours but the last hour was a lot harder. I started to get very very restless, and my leg started to tire. My elbows and shoulders were sore from resting my weight on them and shifting every now and again. My butt muscles were twitching randomly. I couldn't even start my last magazine. Instead I wrestled around and threw my face down on the table and just tried to lay there. I closed my eyes and tried to go to my happy place (Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but I'm not looking forward to the other session, or the other leg for that matter). But I'm very very happy with how it came out so... cool.

Here it is after I washed it off. It wept pretty bad for the first little while, but it's stayed completely clean today.


Mike drove me home and upon arriving, he lead me to the shed in the backyard and opened up the doors. Sitting in front of me was a huge and gorgeous new Tommy Bahama hammock! I had told him I wanted a hammock and we were thinking of maybe buying one this weekend, but I was so excited that he went out, bought it, brought it home and assembled it while I was in class! SO AWESOME! We laid in it last night and it is just SO dreamy with the twinklelights turned on!


After getting home, we needed to run out and do some errands so we went back to his car and much to our dismay, it wouldn't start. We don't know what is wrong with it but hopefully it's an easy fix. Sadly we were supposed to get Toby today or tomorrow, and with me having a tiny two seater convertible, it wasn't looking possible. Luckily, an 11pm phone call to my parents provided helpful. They've got 4 vehicles so lending us one wasn't a problem. The only problem was Mike having to drive an hour and a half down there to get it, and then an hour and a half home. We slept and said we'd deal with it in the morning.

This morning came and I needed to write a ridiculously long paper over Andy Warhol (due at 10am tomorrow) so I didn't go to Portfolio class. I need to email Jeff my progress though. We grabbed lunch at Panera and he brought me back home so he could drive to Hohenwald. This is my car with the two of us in it... Oh my stars, no room!


I stayed at home and worked on my Art History paper for the 4 hours he was gone. I took both blankets and 2 big pillows and climbed into the hammock and didn't get out until well after he returned home. I put on a big cozy hoodie and snuggled up with some Wikipedia.

Today was the TOMS One Day Without Shoes as most of you are aware, I'm sure. Mike and I both took part and here are a couple little pictures.



This was my cozy hammock workspace!


Baby G just hung out with me all day and chewed on stuff. Adorable as ever.




Tonight ended up being a little more dramatic than I had hoped (not with Mike and I, don't worry!) but I'm happy to report that all systems are a GO! and hopefully we will be seeing little Toby tomorrow :D

Tomorrow is my birthday picnic in Pinkerton so if you're around, come by! Pink and white balloons will lead the way!

That's all I really have for you today. No "Things I Love Thursday" post simply because I'm at a loss of time but maybe I'll catch up this weekend! I have some blog designs to work on for some people so I'll probably be keeping myself busy!

I hope you all have a marvelous Friday!

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This is Thursday.

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Tuesday's coming... Did you bring a coat?

Sunday night was topped off by cooking some DELICIOUS veggie stir-fry and watching both 2012 and Accidental Husband before bed. We throw our pillows and blanket up on the giant sectional in our room and cuddle up for movies every night. These two were brilliant! If you haven't seen 2012, I highly recommend it. And if you like sweet romantic comedies (and Uma Thurman!), Accidental Husband is for you! Two of my new faves!





Yesterday was nice because I didn't have to report to Print 2 class... In light of an unfortunate occurrence, we were granted the day off to work on our books and print pieces to be shown on Wednesday. I woke up, catered to a sickly boyfriend, packed my shark backpack and set out for the coffee shop. With a tall house-brew in hand, I sat and worked tirelessly on my project... or did I? It's pretty safe to say I actually spent my time accommodating a huge influx of Formspring questions and watching people get their cheeks pierced via YouTube (I'm still toying with the idea.) Then I spent hours researching all the things that could go wrong, just to be prepared. I headed back home before too long and just hung around with Mike and Georgia for most of the day. We had the windows open, the back door open... Yesterday was THE most beautiful day of the year thus far. We made cookies for dessert after we made quesadillas for dinner and we ended the night by watching Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (It ended before we knew it began....) and Super Size Me (interesting...). Then it was cuddles and snuggles and sleepy good times.


I sat my alarm for 9:30am and I woke up in a wonderful mood. I had a feeling today's weather would play a major part in my overall spirit for the day... Sure enough, it did. Glorious! I put on a white sundress with pearl buttons and a black cardigan, packed my stuff and headed to class. It was a good day at school. We just went over our current projects in Portfolio class. I like that class because everyone is doing a different project at the same time. It's nice to have the distinct differences. My new campaign is an advertising campaign for Happy Tales Humane Society and I'm running them like old school newspaper personal ads with goofy animals and super-imposed props (think: wigs, pipes, bowties, etc). It should be fun!


Some Georgia:


All cuddled up. D'awwww!:




After class I came back home to check on Mike because Panera was packed. I opted to do homework here instead. We made runs to Michael's for crafty stuff and I proceeded to spend a few hours hunched over my computer at this very desk churning out a design for an email blast, oversized postcard, and a book for a $2.3 million dollar house's real estate listing. We made some yummy veggies, rice and quesadillas for dinner and we're going to pop some popcorn and settle in to watch Pretty Woman. I haven't seen this movie in SO long. It was one of my favorites when I was little (it's still tied with Clueless and Grease as my favorite movie EVER). Silly that it's about a prostitute but I love Julia Roberts!



Tomorrow I have to go to school early, get printing estimates for the presentation, mount all of my spreads and then give an award-winning presentation speech to knock 'em dead!


Just gotta get through 3 classes this week and I'm home free for Spring Break! You can bet I'm looking forward to going to work this weekend because money is nice. I'm hoping a friend of mine can swing by a few apartments in NYC for me and check them out so I dont have to fly up there and find them myself. So far a place in Williamsburg Brooklyn is looking promising. Maybe being out of Manhattan will help me reign in my spending! Eep! I'll probably go visit my parents for a day or two during break and I can't wait to see their progress on remodling the house! It'll be nice to just kick it and relax for a bit.


Off to watch our movie! Hope you're all having a fabulous Tuesday!


XO

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well.... that sucks...

sorry i've been a wee bit MIA... i had every intention of updating yesterday with photos, stories,THINGS I LOVE THURSDAY!!!, etc etc etc... but that didnt quite pan out because i went to Border's for a few hours to work on things while sipping hot house coffee with soy [thats the ONLY coffee i like at Seattle's Best.. meh]. mike eventually got out of bed since he was feeling a bit better and joined me. then we ran to Whole Foods, the post office, and places like that. well upon returning home, we got in his car and headed to his house in West Nashville... we pulled up in his driveway and i noticed his front door was completely open... all the way into his house... he ran inside [i stayed in the car scared that someone with a gun was in there], saw that his place was ransacked and i eventually went in.

Someone broke through his back door which is on the side of his house, went through his entire house, ran off with his 42" plasma tv, MY dvd player [it wasnt even that expensive but a;ldfjkasd;ljf! that was mine!]. his [somewhat busted at the moment] macbook was left in his room, which leads me to have my speculations as to who it was that did it [but i think it bothers mike when i express that]. another sucky part is that they left both doors WIDE open with the heat on. grr. we had to wait [in the freezing cold house] for 2 hours for the freaking Metro Police to show up. lucikly the cop that came was very nice. there were clues around the house to suggest that whoever broke in did so overnight the prior evening [Wednesday night/early Thursday morning]. regardless, its quite the sucky situation. luckily mike has homeowner's insurance so that should reimburse him for the lost possessions.

today i had to wake up and go to art history 2. FML. i hate that class. this is one class i cannot make myself be positive for haha its ridiculously hard to be a 2 credit hour course. he will NOT make it easy. so so so so so sucky. afterwards i came home and we went to the mall [i didnt buy anything! yay!] and he took me to Blue Coast for a veggie burrito because i was being a cranky butt. we got home and he convinced me to lay down with him for a minute and the next thing you know i wake up from a 45 minute nap. bleh! he's with his dad now having dinner and discussing things. i should be doing etsy stuff and getting ready for work tonight.

man oh man i hope i make some moneyyyyyy! i need it haha

also, a big thanks to everyone who has already submitted stuff for my book! sadly im getting TONNNNSS of questions like "what is 300 dpi?" etc etc etc and i dont have time to explain it to everyone :( hopefully i get enough submissions to make it work, if not, i'll do something slightly different. luckily i've basically got 4 weeks to see how it pans out before i need to start working on it.

if you reblogged about it, please let me know if i can repay you in any way! :D i really appreciate all the help that i get!

happy friday!
xo

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well.... that sucks...

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and so it is Wednesday...

i feel so BLAH because i dont have any photos to bring to the table for this entry. text only? boring! oh well. i'll do it anyway. i allowed myself to sleep in until 10:30am this morning as i turned off my alarm at 9. thats what i do! luckily i dont have class on mondays or wednesdays until 1pm so it was no big deal. but i got up, got ready, and got to campus at noon. i had to organize things to show my portfolio professor so we could choose 6-7 projects for me to work on through the semester. print design 2 started at 1pm and we talked about our first project... a how-to book. keeping with normal tradition, i love to design with an overload of femininity. lace, pinks, blues, browns and cremes. bring it on! i was thinking about designing a book about vegan baking or maybe crafty things... but i dont know. suggestions, anyone?! class concluded fairly early and my portfolio review wasnt until 3pm so i sat around, talked with elle and ashlea and merissa, and finally made my way into jeff's office. i was in there for half an hour and we had a fairly easy time choosing what all i'd redo. lets just say my portfolio is going to very... diverse. :) i'll share my progress.

after that i headed out and went to grab something to eat. it was 3:45 by the time i got out of school and i hadn't eaten a bite. i ran by kroger to get some staples like soup and OJ for the sickly beau back home, grabbed some chips & salsa from our favorite mexcian restaurant, Garcia's, and saw our oh-so-super-sweet and very favorite waitress, Alma. she's SUCH a doll! you jsut don't even understand. she greeted me with a big big hug and the most inviting smile! ah i just love her! we talked for about 10 minutes or so and i promised to bring her one of my tulle & lace bows next time because she was admiring it :D i headed home and lazed around with mike for the better part of the night. [here it is 10:30pm and we havent done much... it still feels like break!] i dont have class at all tomorrow luckily so i'm going to laze around a bit more, try to do some tutorial videos and finally go get my keys to my new PO Box.


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BY THE WAY.... [please read! super important to me!]


thats another thing i wanted to share with you guys... and open you up to... in my Print 2 class we have to make a designer coffee table book. well... if we really like what we design, we have the opportunity to actually print/publish it ourselves. i'd really love to make this happen because it'd really REALLY be awesome to take on portfolio reviews. well the whole theme [i still dont have a name for it] is "THINGS THAT MAKE YOUR HEART FLUTTER"... so it could be a polaroid of a place or person you adore, a picture of you as a child, you and your family, a drawing that your little cousin did for you, or maybe a picture of something you've created, built, or written. maybe a note from an exboyfriend or current boyfriend, or a birthday card that means a lot to you! anything at all! but along with it you will hand write on a white piece of paper your name, your age, your location [city, state] and WHY THIS MAKES YOUR HEART FLUTTER. feel free to include your blog link or your website if you wish. free publicity! but i also need a signature stating that you are OKAY with this being published! [the book probably will not be mass produced or anything.. i mean.. hey, i'd be okay with it! but this is really just a project i'd love to do for fun].

you can either send it in an envelope addressed to my new PO BOX or you can do a Hi-Resolution Scan [AT LEAST 300 dpi] and burn it on a disc and mail it to me [or you can attempt to email it, too.. though that tends to not be the best method]. i understand if you dont want to part with a legitimate photo or polaroid or note, etc. so i DO accept scans! i dotn know how many pages the book will be yet, but i'd really really reallyyyyyyyyy love it to be AT LEAST 50 pages! so please please please help spread the word! i'm going to design a flier so if you'd be willing to post it on your blogs, myspaces, etc, i'd be eternally grateful!

i'll post back tomorrow with my PO Box address and we can go from there! i'd really love to hear if any of you are willing to participate! :D


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tonight we laid up in bed after cooking vegan banana waffles [SO GOOD!] and watched a few episodes of GLEE [so love that show!]. now we're just gonna kick it for a bit and that'll be that! yay! happy wednesday!

xo

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and so it is Wednesday...

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