July 2025

When I was young I never imagined adulthood would mean I would start a life across the country in a city where I had no support system. Yet that’s exactly what it’s been like so far. Part of growing up means learning how to take care yourself, whether that means you make your own doctor’s appointments or attend those appointments alone. As someone who has spent the last six years apart from my mom, starting when I went to college away from home, I’ve learned how to cope with emergencies without the help from family members. And trust me, dealing with paperwork and catching the correct bus line is hard when you’re writhing in pain and wishing you could just curl up in bed and not deal with any of it. Dealing with being sick doesn’t have to feel like a chore just because you don’t have family or friends to lean on, even if that means you have to go to the emergency room. While I can’t promise the wait will be short or that the doctor’s will be courteous, I can help make the overall experience a little more bearable if you have to face the situation without a plus one. With minimal preparation beforehand, you should be able to survive a solo trip to the emergency room without feeling any worse than when you arrived.

Bring a charger. 

Emergency rooms may as well be synonymous with long waiting periods, cause you never know how it’s gonna be until you get there. And since most likely it’s an emergency, there’s no option to turn around and go grab that charger you forgot. Do yourself a monumental favor and bring a charger for any electronic you may be carrying.

Don’t forget your laptop. 

Sure, you can now watch Netflix on your phone, but you may want to save your phone battery for actual phone calls. If you can manage to bring your laptop along the time will pass by so much faster. Plus, most hospitals are now offering free WiFi, which is a total lifesaver when you wanna block out everything that’s going on around you.

Remember your headphones. 

Just because you have the option to watch your favorite sitcom in the ER doesn’t mean everyone else wants to. Be courteous and grab a pair of headphones to go along with whatever you’re streaming. This will also make it easier to Facetime with any friends or family that want an update.

Pack snacks. 

The past few times I visited the emergency room there was no cafeteria nearby, which meant I was left waiting for hours without anything to eat. If possible, stop by a store and quickly grab some snacks you can eat while waiting to be treated.

Prepare for the cold temperatures. 

I’m not sure why but hospitals are always so cold. Avoid having to curl up with your hospital gown and remember to bring a cardigan, regardless of how hot it is outside.

Be sure to grab all necessary documents. 

Nothing makes visiting a doctor harder than not having all your insurance or allergy information. To make things easier keep all of this in one folder that you can easily grab when an emergency comes up. At the very least you wont be scrambling looking for your insurance card while feeling like you rather lie down and stay down.

How do you manage coping with sickness on your own? Leave your tips and stories in the comments below!

Interviews have always been something I look forward to. I’m not sure if it’s because I was raised to believe I could do anything I set my mind to or my total confidence in my skills. Or my love of talking about myself. For whatever reason I am almost never nervous before an interview.

My recent move to Washington DC meant having to send out dozens of applications and receiving very few call backs. Rejection is something I can deal with it, because I know if they met me, they’d love me. While I cant shine through a resume or cover letter, an interview is the perfect way to say, “hey, I’ll be great to have in the office and I don’t expect to be paid very much.“

Last fall I had an interview so terrible, so embarrassingly tragic that I haven’t been able to write about it till now. I cried. Did the interviewer know I was crying, well, no. But the very fact that I was crying while answering the final assessment questions is traumatizing enough. The worst part is that my actual interview went great, it was the Spanish assessment that felt like I was stabbed in the brain then asked to recite the alphabet backwards. With my rollercoaster emotions though it’s not the most awkward space I’ve ever cried in. I will cry anywhere I please, because I’m not a robot and I’m aware I’ll probably never see those people ever again. Here are a few other awkward places I’ve decided to let the tears flow free. On the subway after a long day of work followed by an equally long day at school.

Inside a Burger King. While in line. After being stung by a bee for the first time. It was justified!

At my desk at work, for a variety of reasons. If you work somewhere long enough you will eventually cry there. On a party bus on the ride home from prom. My date was a terrible person, I just didn’t realize it at the time. Dave and Busters on graduation day. I was angry about how my graduation had went and that all of my friends had somehow moved on without me. Plus, they were taking forever to bring me my food and I was hangry. On an 8 hour plane ride from the London to New Jersey. Some people were uncomfortable but I was heartbroken, so they could deal with it.

Am I the only one who somehow just feels better after letting out an ugly cry? Where’s the most awkward place you’ve ever let yourself break down?

Blogging is this thing you either get or you don’t, kinda like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. When someone asks me how long I’ve been sharing my thoughts with strangers on the internet I have to pause and think about it for a moment, which to me signals that I’ve been doing it for much longer than I ever imagined I would.

Recently I’ve been focusing my energy on creating a community around me. You know the saying, “it take a village to raise a child.” Well I’m starting to think it takes a village to survive your twenties. My quest to form my ultimate squad means I spend my weekends with people I don’t know very well and who don’t know much about me, yet. Within just a few hours though they do notice one thing about me, I will go to extreme measure to take the perfect shot. I mean stand on my chair, lay on the ground, stand in traffic just to get the right angle and lighting for Instagram.

I’m not at all ashamed, and I’m also not alone. Instead of sitting at home behind our laptops like no one in the world will ever understand our struggle, can we all take a moment and enjoy the things only fellow bloggers will understand? Not understanding why our photos are always so dark, …or worse, yellow! The irritation that comes with trying to get the perfect flat lay. Spending hours on a post that get’s minimal page views while another blogger writes the same thing and has it go viral. Trying to explain to your friends why they can’t eat their food yet. Having a collection of half used notebooks. And an even bigger collection of post its, notepads and every pen in the Target One Spot section. The worry that comes with your boss finding your blog. The anxiety of the new guy you’re dating finding your blog.

Or worse, your ex reading your blog, post breakup!

Looking at a folder full of drafts but still having nothing to post. Never being fully satisfied with your blog design. Pretending like you totally understand StumbleUpon. Your most ordinary post pulling in all the page views, and you have no clue why! The stress of feeling like you need to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and whatever new social media is cool that month. Posting your contact info and waiting for the sponsorship opportunities to start rolling in…*total silence* The embarrassment that comes with using the same stock photo the same week as a blogger you follow. Never knowing what to say in your About Me. Watching a new blogger get really popular and sitting at home wondering why. The whole niche versus no niche argument. Having read dozens of WordPress versus Blogger posts. And being strongly on one side of the debate. Just wanting to find an Instagram aesthetic you can stick to, and enjoy! The feeling of a post you worked really hard on getting genuine comments.

What’s one thing your non-blogger friends just don’t understand??

Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays you either love or hate, like New Year’s Eve. But if we’re being honest, the only people who hate either one of those holidays are the same people who pay for a yearlong subscription to Netflix in advance, because they know they won’t be making any plans any time soon.
I actually love Valentine’s Day the same way I love all holidays. Presents, color coded candy, decorations, and best of all, it all jumps to 40% off the next day at Target! Valentine’s Day sends single people into a slump with the mention of love at every drugstore in town, so while I understand the unhappiness of all the reminders that you are single, there are just some things that no person should do on this particular holiday.

With social media being all around us, people have come to believe it’s okay to share some of the most unnecessary information about their days. I’m talking to you Twitter. Save yourself the embarrassment when you wake up on the 15th and make sure to not post any of these things on single awareness day Valentine’s Day.

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1. DON’T be the person who rants about how Valentine’s Day was just created by card companies to sell chocolates and other useless junk.

» Everybody knows yet nobody cares. » This argument is so overused it’s become meaningless, like YOLO. » Last time I checked all those presents under the tree are not the true meaning of Christmas. You can’t support consumerism for one holiday and not another.

» I like chocolate dammit, whether it’s a man with a beard or a naked baby!

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2. DON’T hate on happy couples. 

Why does everybody think it’s okay to be mean to happy people on Valentine’s Day, especially that new 2 month relationship where both partners still think they’re going to get married and have yet to have a real fight? Let them be ignorant and in love!

Very few couples abstain from celebrating Valentine’s Day, so more likely than not, if you were in a relationship you’d be Instagramming the roses your partner sent you too! Like the freaking photo and keep scrolling!

3. DON’T man bash.  While you should never do this, you should especially not do this on Valentine’s Day. There’s only two rules to being single in February: » Don’t ask someone out before the 14th » And never go on a first date on Valentine’s Day

Because of these two rules, any guy that was remotely interested in asking you out once the chocolate hearts go on sale will definitely rethink it once he sees you post about how “strong-of-an-independent-woman-you-are-and-how-happy-you-are-to-be-single-since-these-are-the-years-you-need-to-live-your-life-and-any-guy-would-just-hold-you-back-anyways.”

Don’t be this girl, this girl stereotypes half of the world’s population, plus, nobody likes this girl.

4. DON’T under any circumstance fish for plans. 

I’m not sure how to explain this point besides giving an example that constantly pops up on my Facebook news feed. The post always comes up no earlier than 10 PM. It says something along the lines of “What’s going on tonight?/What’s good?/Who’s trying to do something?” The worse part is almost always no…one…ever…replies.

Which leaves me uncomfortably looking at a post by someone begging for someone to hang out with. If you feel a desperate need to make plans, text your close friends. Private message people. Travel back to 2006 and use your phone to call someone! Just don’t be the person that asks 500+ people what’s going on that night and then doesn’t get a single response. Unless a ‘like’ from your mom the next day counts as a reply in your book?

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5. DON’T share things no one wants to be reminded of. 

Relationship articles are this weird addiction I have, even though I am in no way in a relationship. (Unless you count the love affair with pizza. We’re trying to end it.) Websites like Buzzfeed, Her Campus and College Candy publish daily listsicles about why it’s better to be single on Valentine’s Day, why you shouldn’t be in a relationship in your twenties and how to have a singles only party. And even though I read these articles on a daily basis, I’m not buying it. I still would much rather prefer to spend this pink coated holiday with someone who loves me. I can’t be alone in this, right?

While we all enjoy reading about how great it is being single, the reality is it’s even better to have someone to call your own. So save the Thought Catalog articles for topics that are less sensitive, or wait for a week when everyone isn’t desperately hoping a stranger will admit their undying love for them.

6. DON’T post anything about an ex.

While you should commit to this rule suggestion year long, make an extra effort to hold back from referencing your former partner on Valentine’s Day. Any likes you receive will be from pity, plus any chance of the person thinking you are in any way sane will fly out the window.

Unless you’re a writer who can create a post that mentions them in an interesting/ambiguous way, steer clear of talking about exes on the day of love. Focus on yourself on this holiday, or at least on people who haven’t hurt you in the past 

7. DON’T post your feelings.

I too have a lot of feelings, so many that I at times rather just grunt rather than express myself with actual words. What I don’t do is go on Facebook, click the little smiley face, choose a feeling, then hit post. With no explanation!! Go bake yourself a cake of rainbows and smiles and eat it until all you can feel is FULL.