December 2017

After moving to Washington DC with nothing more than a suitcase and a cactus, I quickly realized how important it is to have a community around you, whether it be in real life or online. For my first year and half in the city I survived off the support of my friends back home and online, and they are honestly the reason why I had the opportunity to be where I am today.

Social media may be our life, but it has never been an accurate reflection of our lives. My goal both in my blog and in real life is to connect women so that they can receive the support and encouragement they’re lacking in real life, on one of the platforms that leaves so many of us scrolling in envy.

#SurvivingOur20s is no longer a hashtag you can only use on Instagram, even though I love seeing all of your gorgeous photos. #SurvivingOur20s is the name of the new online community where you can connect with other confused millennials who are trying to make the best of what has been called the defining decade.

The group is still brand spanking new, which means all new members will have an impact on what our focus is, what the group evolves into, and how beneficial it can become.

Things to know:

• The group is private, so anyone outside the group cannot see what’s going on inside
• There will be discussions/resources shared by me, but you can ALWAYS start a new conversation
• No hate allowed, which means you can be 100% yourself with the guarantee that I will have your back

I cant wait to connect with you inside, and if you love it, feel free to share the link with other women who you feel would love it too.

xx Rubi

The only thing harder than trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for you boyfriend is trying to find the perfect gift for your boyfriend’s parents. Every girl wants their boyfriend’s parent to like her, whether they are a super close family or only see each other during the holidays. With all the stress of what you’ll wear to the holiday family party and whether or not you should bring something to dinner, save yourself the stress by choosing a gift for his parents that I’m sure they’ll love. After doing a little research as well as buying what I think were spot on presents last year, here are my recommendations of what to place under the Christmas tree to make you remembered as that nice girl who brought those awesome presents that one year. Fingers crossed we’re invited next year too!

Links for items shown above 

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

1. Robe: After buying my boyfriend a robe on a whim, and him completely falling in love with it, everyone this year is getting a big plush robe. Trust me, they’ll love it. 

2. Slippers: No one doesn’t like a fresh pair of slippers, especially in these cold winter months. These are a safe option in case you don’t know the family too well.  

3. Camera: Definitely don’t go this route if its your first year together, but if you’ve been around for a while this is a nice gift you can give to both parents that won’t cost you a fortune. 4. Something for their Hobby: Whether they are into bird watching or astrology, a book or accessory about their hobby is an awesome way to show you remember the small details about them.  5. Something for their Pet: Chances are they think of their pet as a part of the family, so show them you didn’t forget their four legged child by picking it up a simple gift. 

Links to items shown above

7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11

7. Book: Pay attention to their interest or ask for some extra help from your boyfriend and pick them up a book about the topic. I prefer to gift coffee style books instead of novels, simply because they’re easier to flip through and enjoy.

8. Passport Holder: Are they a family of travelers? Passport holders are a thing everyone would like but usually never actually buy for themselves.  

9. Crockpot: According to everyone at my job, crockpots are the future of cooking. And for a pretty low price, you can pick one up that will be a gift for everyone at home. 

10. Chocolate: You can never go wrong with chocolate, never.
11. Coffee Mug/Grains: Every family has a coffee lover. Whether they have a slight addiction or just have a job that requires them to be up early, coffee mugs or grains are an easy gift that most everyone will appreciate.

Are you visiting a significant other’s family over the holidays? What’s a gift you’ve given that they loved? Or maybe you can recommend something to never under any circumstances gift!

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The only thing harder than trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for you boyfriend is trying to find the perfect gift for your boyfriend’s parents. Every girl wants their boyfriend’s parent to like her, whether they are a super close family or only see each other during the holidays. With all the stress of what you’ll wear to the holiday family party and whether or not you should bring something to dinner, save yourself the stress by choosing a gift for his parents that I’m sure they’ll love. After doing a little research as well as buying what I think were spot on presents last year, here are my recommendations of what to place under the Christmas tree to make you remembered as that nice girl who brought those awesome presents that one year. Fingers crossed we’re invited next year too!

Links for items shown above 

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

1. Robe: After buying my boyfriend a robe on a whim, and him completely falling in love with it, everyone this year is getting a big plush robe. Trust me, they’ll love it. 

2. Slippers: No one doesn’t like a fresh pair of slippers, especially in these cold winter months. These are a safe option in case you don’t know the family too well.  

3. Camera: Definitely don’t go this route if its your first year together, but if you’ve been around for a while this is a nice gift you can give to both parents that won’t cost you a fortune. 4. Something for their Hobby: Whether they are into bird watching or astrology, a book or accessory about their hobby is an awesome way to show you remember the small details about them.  5. Something for their Pet: Chances are they think of their pet as a part of the family, so show them you didn’t forget their four legged child by picking it up a simple gift. 

Links to items shown above

7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11

7. Book: Pay attention to their interest or ask for some extra help from your boyfriend and pick them up a book about the topic. I prefer to gift coffee style books instead of novels, simply because they’re easier to flip through and enjoy.

8. Passport Holder: Are they a family of travelers? Passport holders are a thing everyone would like but usually never actually buy for themselves.  

9. Crockpot: According to everyone at my job, crockpots are the future of cooking. And for a pretty low price, you can pick one up that will be a gift for everyone at home. 

10. Chocolate: You can never go wrong with chocolate, never.
11. Coffee Mug/Grains: Every family has a coffee lover. Whether they have a slight addiction or just have a job that requires them to be up early, coffee mugs or grains are an easy gift that most everyone will appreciate.

Are you visiting a significant other’s family over the holidays? What’s a gift you’ve given that they loved? Or maybe you can recommend something to never under any circumstances gift!

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The only thing harder than trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for you boyfriend is trying to find the perfect gift for your boyfriend’s parents. Every girl wants their boyfriend’s parent to like her, whether they are a super close family or only see each other during the holidays. With all the stress of what you’ll wear to the holiday family party and whether or not you should bring something to dinner, save yourself the stress by choosing a gift for his parents that I’m sure they’ll love. After doing a little research as well as buying what I think were spot on presents last year, here are my recommendations of what to place under the Christmas tree to make you remembered as that nice girl who brought those awesome presents that one year. Fingers crossed we’re invited next year too!

Links for items shown above 

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6

1. Robe: After buying my boyfriend a robe on a whim, and him completely falling in love with it, everyone this year is getting a big plush robe. Trust me, they’ll love it. 

2. Slippers: No one doesn’t like a fresh pair of slippers, especially in these cold winter months. These are a safe option in case you don’t know the family too well.  

3. Camera: Definitely don’t go this route if its your first year together, but if you’ve been around for a while this is a nice gift you can give to both parents that won’t cost you a fortune. 4. Something for their Hobby: Whether they are into bird watching or astrology, a book or accessory about their hobby is an awesome way to show you remember the small details about them.  5. Something for their Pet: Chances are they think of their pet as a part of the family, so show them you didn’t forget their four legged child by picking it up a simple gift. 

Links to items shown above

7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11

7. Book: Pay attention to their interest or ask for some extra help from your boyfriend and pick them up a book about the topic. I prefer to gift coffee style books instead of novels, simply because they’re easier to flip through and enjoy.

8. Passport Holder: Are they a family of travelers? Passport holders are a thing everyone would like but usually never actually buy for themselves.  

9. Crockpot: According to everyone at my job, crockpots are the future of cooking. And for a pretty low price, you can pick one up that will be a gift for everyone at home. 

10. Chocolate: You can never go wrong with chocolate, never.
11. Coffee Mug/Grains: Every family has a coffee lover. Whether they have a slight addiction or just have a job that requires them to be up early, coffee mugs or grains are an easy gift that most everyone will appreciate.

Are you visiting a significant other’s family over the holidays? What’s a gift you’ve given that they loved? Or maybe you can recommend something to never under any circumstances gift!

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Nobody enjoys studying and anyone who says they enjoy sitting in front of an overpriced book is a liar. Don’t trust them. Just like laundry, you have to get around to it eventually, unless you like paying for a class you’re going to have to take again. Oh, and you’ll be paying for that retake of course. I graduated from college just over a year ago and I swear my last paper as a senior was written the day before it was due. Am I proud of this? Maybe a little, but I don’t recommend it. Instead of pushing down your throat how you should study the entire semester and color code your notes, I’m going to give you the 10 ways I managed to get an A in every course, except economics because it sucked and it was right around the time I had an addiction to Fruit Ninja. Studying doesn’t have to be this thing you worry about all semester. As long as you go to class on a regular basis and actually try on your assignments, these 10 methods should help you get a good grade on your exam without you needing to spend every night in the library all semester long. I’m not advocating leaving your studying for the last minute, but let’s be honest, you’re going to. So for all my expert procrastinators out there, here’s how to do it without losing your mind. Dorm rooms are loud, especially when your roommate has all take home exams. (Stares at with jealousy.) With most people flocking to the library for the first time all semester come finals time, you cant even count on that space to be quiet. Study groups, people eating Doritos, people listening to Taylor Swift on their headphones way too loud (me) are all reasons why you need your headphones with you always. Plus, nothing is more motivating than a Taylor, Beyonce, Nicki playlist. Trust me, you’ll love it. I’m definitely guilty of getting sucked into skipping song after song, wasting way too much time trying to find the perfect playlist and next thing I know an hour has passed and my study playlist may be perfect but I haven’t actually studied. Both Spotify and Pandora have great radio/playlist options to help you avoid wasting any time. My favorite excuse to get out of studying is needing to go buy food, because hello, you can’t study on an empty stomach! Don’t fall for your own lies, buy food and snacks ahead of time so that you don’t have a reason to make a quick run to 7 Eleven. Plus, you can use these same snacks as a reward when you finish reviewing those long chapters. Listen, I totally get it, office hours are the worst. Professors and teaching assistants basically beg you to show up, promising that you can just stop by to chat or ask a quick question. But what happens the moment you do show up? Awkward silence and/or you have to stand outside and wait because some other student has never heard of this thing called the syllabus. Even though it feels weird, go! Take the time to write down every question you have and just ask them, if you’re lucky there will already be a group of people there to make the one on one interaction less likely.

Related Post: 23 Signs You’re a College Senior

My only goal the first week of class is to form a relationship with one other person, just one! Why? Because there will come a day when I sleep in or need to be in line somewhere for free tickets, and on that day I will need to have the notes of whatever I missed. Having a friend in the class will give you a person to reach out to when you have a quick question plus someone to remind you that the paper was pushed to another due date.

You might also like: For more tips on how to survive your college years, follow my >SURVIVING COLLEGE< board on Pinterest for tips on studying, internships, and all things college related!!

Students at my university were super into sending mass emails to everyone in the class in order to share Google Docs or a location of where everyone would be meeting to study. It feels weird at first to write an email that 300+ people are going to read but just do it! Why waste time finding the answers to all the study guide questions when you can just split that work up into pieces? Let’s be honest for a moment, 99% of us don’t open the book until it’s exam time, which means aint nobody got time to be catching up on all that reading. I’m not here to judge you, props to you for even buying the book! If you don’t have time to read every freaking sentence, take time to read the chapter summary, then focus on the points mentioned there. If it was important enough to be mentioned in the synopsis, chances are there will be a question on it. You can’t study if you don’t have all your notes in one place, haven’t seen your book in weeks and lack the basic essentials like highlighters. Spend an hour getting all your supplies together so once you start you don’t have to stop everything to find that handout from week two. Nothing is worse than being one of those students that asks a question that could be easily answered had they looked at the syllabus. Besides exam dates and book requirements, your syllabus most likely outlines what will be covered each day of class. If your professor spent three lectures on abc but only one on day lecturing on xyz, chances are they are more likely to ask you questions on abc. Your syllabus is an outline of the most important points to cover, so take advantage of it! Some people have the skills necessary to be able to put down their phone and get down to business, then there’s the rest of us. I swear I think I almost failed economics because I was determined to get a high score on Fruit Ninja, but don’t be like me. Take advantage of apps like StayFocusd that lock you out of your Facebook account and other social media websites.

Is there anything you do to help you focus while you study? I’d love to hear your #1 distraction or motivator in the comments below.

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