Friendly Friday: The shopping trip

“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”

– Marilyn Monroe

A week ago, when I received my first job offer and I accepted it, I was elated.  I couldn’t believe I would start making money and be working in an office every day with normal hours and even wearing cute business casual clothes every day!

And that’s when I hit a brick wall.  I had no idea what I would wear every day because of my limited closet filled with only semi appropriate attire for a law firm.  I’ve always complained about not having dress clothes (I’m trying to get better with complaining!), but my parents don’t have any extra money to spare and I sure don’t have any money either.  So this was definitely frustrating for me because I didn’t have any idea what to do.

Luckily, my boyfriend got into contact with his mom’s friend.  She often donates old clothes that she doesn’t want/those that don’t fit her to Goodwill, so when my boyfriend told her about my new job, she was happy to pick a few things out from her closet she would’ve given away anyway, just to see if they would fit.  Luckily when I went over earlier this week, they did!  Or most of them, anyway.

I was already excited for my new wardrobe!! But then my friend (and author) Tessa offered to take me to Salvation Army on Wednesday because it’s half off and that’s where she buys all of her clothes.  She also said it would be HER TREAT, because so many people who are in my position don’t have a lot of nice clothes to wear so they need someone to sort of help them a little bit.  She was in this situation when she got her first job, and given a bunch of variables in my life, she figured I would probably need the help, too.  So anything I found that I liked she would be willing to buy for me. Luckily I just kept an open mind and I ended up finding so many things! Dresses, suit jackets, nice blouses, and plenty of pencil skirts, not to mention SIX pairs of shoes!  Now I have a huge variety of things to wear and I have absolutely no idea what I’ll be wearing on my first day at work (which is such a nice thing because I always stuck to the same basic five outfits week after week at my internship just two summers ago).

Anyway, thank you so much Tessa for buying me clothes from the Salvation Army so now I have a great work wardrobe to start off with and that I can keep until I save up some money and have the ability to buy my own work clothes!  I’m definitely thankful that I have people like her and my boyfriend’s mom’s friend who are so selfless and are willing to help a poor college student find perfect clothes for work. 🙂

Monday Lit Circle: Heaven Has No Regrets

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great Monday, despite it being a Monday.  Anyway, today is lit circle day!  So now I’m going to talk about a book I actually just finished reading late last week which is the inspiration to my reconnection with writing/blogging.  The book is called Heaven Has No Regrets and it’s written by the amazing Tessa Shaffer!

It isn’t a well known novel…yet. Once she gets more publicity, I have no doubt in my mind that people across the country will be reading it.  It tells the coinciding stories of two best friends and cousins who are both battling diseases.  It’s a story about love, living life to its fullest and having no regrets.  It definitely has some religious aspects to it due to Tessa’s religious background.  The book is based on a heartbreaking but magnificent true story, one that I feel many people can relate to in some way.  If this sounds like something you would like to read (you definitely should!!), check out the website for the book, the amazon link where you can buy it and the book’s facebook, twitter, and instagram so you can stay up to date with Tessa and her book!

In case you can’t tell from what I said above, I actually know Tessa personally.  Even still, I stay true to my word about always being honest on what I actually think about a book.  Heaven Has No Regrets was incredibly hard to read because of some of the content (if you read it you’ll know what I mean).  But that doesn’t make it a terrible book; that just makes it much more honest.  Life isn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t for the characters Makenzie and Faith.  Not only could I relate to the characters in one way or another but I could basically feel their pain pouring through the open pages.  It discussed real issues that many people are affected by all around the world.

It was one of those books that you don’t know what to do with yourself once you’ve finished reading it.  I figured out what I should do after reading the acknowledgements, and that was to start writing.

In the acknowledgements at the ending, Tessa lists many people she knows personally who helped her not only write her book but also those who helped her get through one of the roughest parts of her life.  But in those acknowledgements she also says to “just write” no matter what it’s about or who it’s for or however long it is.  And that is exactly why I’m sitting in front of my computer right now at 10:22 PM on a Monday evening writing this.  I already told her personally, but thank you again, Tessa, (I know you’ll eventually read this…once I give you the link to my blog :P) for inspiring me to start writing again, since it’s the thing I love doing the most in this world.  And thank you again for sharing your story.  Your courage inspires me, and I hope to one day be as courageous as you.

Anyway, any of the few people out there who happen to somehow come across this and take the time to read it and are also bookworms, please go check out all of Tessa’s social media and please consider buying her book!

Until tomorrow!