My two years of shared-bedrooms are over and gone. (Sharing isn’t natural for us only-children!) Over the summer, I took to Pinterest to plan out my own room in my new apartment. I hopped on the Chevron bandwagon and got some sunflowers & picture frames to brighten up the place. I wasn’t expecting so much space and white walls to fill though! My 4″x6″ pictures take up barely any space on the walls! So I plan on replacing them with some 8″x10″ pictures and adding these little frames to my nightstands. :) 

At the beginning of the week, I didn’t look forward to returning to my apartment. It was empty and quiet, it didn’t feel like mine, and I missed my home. Living by myself is not something that appeals to me, so even just a temporary few days was hard. Slowly over the week I got more comfortable, especially knowing that my roommates were coming soon and my parents would be back with the rest of my stuff.

Your living situation can affect your mood. If you come home to a place with bare walls, a dirty floor, dark lighting or no reminders of home then you can become sad and detached. Oppositely, a room that fills you with energy, reflects your personality and has a homey-quality with the addition of some personal accents can brighten your mood and make you feel more comfortable.

My room is reflective of the mood I want to be in: bright and happy. After a day of classes, cross country workouts and studying I want to be able to relax and feel comfortable. This apartment is an anti-stress zone: Sunflowers are gorgeous and candles smell amazing. Music is relaxing. We’ve got plenty of fruit, fresh air, good views of the pine trees, friends right next door. And Ellie, my stuffed elephant since 1993. :)

Third time around, we are professional at the whole moving-in process, and my room was set up pretty smoothly. Thanks to rubber-maid bins, 3M tape and command hooks :) Yesterday the student-athletes of our school worked 4-hour shifts at the freshman residence halls to unload cars and help any first-timer parents figure out how on-campus living works. Adding to the chaos was some on-and-off rain. Thanks Mama Nature!

After the madness of Freshman Move In Day  my teammates and I got together to cook dinner and check out the Welcome Back concert on one of the grassy lawns on campus.

I really only cared about seeing The Maine. I’ve seen them three times now…once in 2009 when they opened for Cobra Starship and Boys Like Girls. Then again last summer at a show they headlined in SoCal. Fun fact! The singer John’s little brother moved into our school yesterday!

The Maine Concert, 2012

It’s currently raining, has been since I woke up. I love it. We run rain or shine, so at 7am I threw on my white running hat and embraced the weather for our team long run. We headed out on some trails for a 12-miler, jumping over plenty of puddles until our shoes were so drenched we just ran through them.

Fortunately my new “happy healthy” home had a coffee pot waiting for me post-run. ;)