October 🤍✨

October kicks off an exciting time for most people. Yes, of course, October is known for Halloween, all it’s spooky traditions and slightly colder weather (if us Floridians get lucky enough). But for me, October is officially the start of the holiday season!  Those “spooky” movies and treats turn into thanksgiving decorations and overstuffing ourselves with turkey, which  turns into the smell of pine and ends in traditional holiday celebrations with those you love. It’s just three consecutive months filled with love, celebrating old memories while simultaneously making new ones, and the most delicious food!  As a true South Floridian, born, raised (and still never left) it takes more of an effort to really get into the holiday spirit. The calendar is the sole reason we know a season is changing and a holiday is coming, our year-round warm weather gives us zero indication of a seasonal change. 

Growing up during the inventions of what are now the biggest and most important social media platforms, my life revolved around those apps. A middle schooler’s instagram page in 2011 was equivalent to a Harvard graduate-turned CEO’s resume. Now that I am getting older, I feel that I have outgrown that NEED for social media. The importance of these platforms (in my life, at least) has significantly lessened to the point where it is almost unimportant. The world is a much better place when you don’t live and breathe Instagram. When you don’t have to worry about what you should post. or what shirt you’re going to wear to school because you posted it on Instagram last weekend so you can’t wear it for another week. Or the insecurity of not receiving enough likes. It has been awhile sine I’ve felt the social media pressures, and I am grateful for that!  Now, social media exists as a place for me to show my family and friends what I’m up to. Its a place to communicate with my friends and see what my favorite celebrities are doing. It’s a place to stay up with the constantly evolving trends. My feeds are now curated to what my personal interests are and not what I need to eat in a day to model for Victorias Secret. Instead of using these apps to just post the best looking photos of myself for others, my pages are now used to keep the distant (location wise) people in my life close. To allow them to stay updated with my life when I am not with them. But, its also for me, to look back on memories of my favorite moments with my favorite people. 

Since last October, I lowered the pressures from Social Media even more by posting my monthly memories (aka photo dumps for all the Gen Z’s and Millennial’s reading this)! So I’ve decided that to keep up with the honesty and casualness of my blogs, I should do what I do best on my social media profiles and recap my months. Whether its me learning something new, going through a change, or venting about the world, I would like to keep the memories of what I do on my weekday evenings and weekends alive. 

In October’s case, I did do something new. The month was not too exciting until the end, but nevertheless. October started with the usual hanging out with my boyfriend, friends, family, and my kitties. I caught up with people visiting from Arkansas, attended a Panthers Hockey game, and spent a few nights out in the town with my best friends!

The something new I did was experience a true New England fall season. This past weekend, I flew to  Connecticut for a wedding in Matthew’s family. All I have to say is…The breeze. The crisp morning the air. The smell of leaves and cold air. The leaves. The colors. The moments the sun shines through the orange and yellow trees. The history. The mansions on acres. All of it… together.

Now that I’ve experienced it once, I hope to experience New England fall every year! We drove through the outside of Yale, I tried America’s first-ever Burger restaurant (meat on a patty melt with NO condiments), I ate an apple I picked right off the tree, and I ran through piles of fallen leaves every chance I had. I stared out the window every drive, enjoying the view and allowing the cold air to hit my face. I got back late on a Sunday night and worked Monday morning, attempting to show my Halloween spirit with a skeleton crewneck.