Jordan's Bookcase

Do you have those friends that seem to know when you need a pick-me-up even if they're hundreds of miles away? Those are my favorite types of people. It makes my day when someone from school shoots me a text checking in or a long-winded squeaky voice snapchat video updating me on their day. (A personal favorite form of communication for my friend group) Going to school away from home means making friends from across the country and leaving them periodically throughout the year. It also means people eventually graduate and move away. But the best kinds of people are those who don't dwell on that and still check in every now and then. When I left for college my freshman year, I was confident that I would stay close with all of my high school best friends. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I keep in touch with many of them but am only close with a couple now, three years later. At first, I was upset by this and saddened that I was losing friends from that pa...

Popping in to share some things I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks! + My first Dance Performance since 2016. This semester I am performing in a jazz/hip-hop number with our school's new dance company and I am so excited! We have our showcase on Friday and I can't wait to get on stage again. A lot of my friends didn't even know that I used to dance for 16 years, so it will be really fun to share this part of my life with them. + Warmer Weather. It has snowed two times in the past three days in Louisville. It's just been a light dusting each night, but I still can't believe it. I'm ready for the 70 degrees days of February to return ASAP! + St. Patrick's Day. My Mom's side of the family is obsessed with St.Patrick's Day (Mostly because of my Grandpa Jim) so I can't wait to celebrate this weekend! A friend and I are planning on going out in the afternoon to avoid that craziness that goes on that night. + Meditating. ...

I had originally started writing this post with the title "rough days" but then that rough day I was having last week turned in to a rough 10 days. I know that this blog is still very new and there aren't many posts on it, but I think this post will help you get a much better look at who I really am. One of the biggest things that I am dealing with in my life right now is anxiety. I think a lot of times when people think of anxiety, they think of crippling anxiety that keeps you from leaving your room, public panic attacks, and skittish people. And sure, that might be anxiety for some people, but for me, it's like a flame. Think of your furnace in the winter. The pilot light is always on, but the furnace only goes on full blast every once in a while. That's what my anxiety is like. There are times throughout the day when I catch myself doing something or acting a certain way because I'm avoiding things that trigger my anxiety. Some days my anxiety is hard...

I mentioned in my introduction post that I would be back to explain the title of my blog a little bit more. I also mentioned in that post some of my previous blog names. At the time, I really liked those names, and even stuck with one for a long time. The biggest issue was that I outgrew it. I'm not primarily living on the North Shore of Chicago anymore (3 years later and that still feels so weird to say) and I'm years past my overtly preppy stage. North Shore Proper just didn't make sense anymore. Cut to summer of 2017 when I finally decided that I wanted to start blogging again. I was brainstorming ideas for blog titles. For someone starting out, it felt odd to name a site solely on my name, so that was out of the question for me. Then I started thinking about my favorite things. One of the most "sacred" things in my life is my morning cup of coffee. I want this blog to be a place where someone sits down with their cup of coffee (or tea) and feels like we...

Since I'm just starting out on this blog, I thought I would share 5 super random facts about me! You can learn more on my " about me " page, but I thought five random facts would be a fun way to introduce myself today. I'm a huge Chicago Blackhawks fan, and pride myself in being pretty knowledgable when it comes to Hockey as a sport. However, when it comes to other sports, I'd like to say I have a basic knowledge or understanding of the rules, but I may be giving myself too much credit in saying even that. The only country I've traveled to outside of the United States in Canada, but I love visiting there! I have family outside of Toronto, and have also visited Niagra Falls. It's one of my goals in the next few years to slowly explore more of the country with my family. In case you couldn't tell by my first two facts, my house is a total Winter Sport house (Can't wait for the Winter Olympics to begin next week!). We love to ski, snowm...

Although this is the first post on this blog, this is not my first blog post. From 2012 to 2016 I wrote a "fashion and lifestyle" blog which went by many names, but for the most part "North Shore Proper." That blog grew with me from my freshman year of high school, all the way through my freshman year of college, and even into the first few months of my sophomore year. I'm halfway through my junior year of college, and for that last few months, I've had this itch to start blogging again. I guess I should probably explain why I stopped blogging? The answer is, I don't know. I guess I wasn't finding joy in it anymore, I didn't have enough time to dedicate to it, the fashion blogging world had blown up into a virtually impossible space to thrive, and if we're being real... I got lazy. I can be a very driven person when I want to be, but if it is something I'm not very passionate about, I have trouble finding the motivation. I lost m...