Yoga

      Happy Friday! I am so incredibly happy that it's the weekend because I've never had a longer week in my life. On Tuesday of this week I started a second job, which proved to be far more challenging than I initially believed. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, my schedule is work at Summer at Pembroke Hill from 7:30-12:45, grab lunch, then at 1:15 I go to the house of the family I work for to get their (extremely nice) car to pick up their kids from their Downtown office day care, and we go to the pool or something until their parents come home at 5:30. I'm not going to lie, I've never been so exhausted in my entire life. Waking up at 6 and not coming home until 6 gets really old really fast. I need the money, but it's hard to maintain my sanity when I hardly have a second to myself (especially since I had to do something almost every evening this week).
      Yesterday, my mom and I decided to do a yoga class together. We'd never done yoga before, but I've always found it very interesting. The class started at 6, so I had to go straight there once I finished nannying. I'd never been to the yoga studio before, so I put the address in the GPS on my phone. However, the GPS took me to the completely wrong place (surprise, surprise) and it was already 6:00 and I still had to change my clothes and I was so tired and hungry and I almost decided to just give up and go home. I finally figured out the directions, I walked in at 6:08, and went right to the bathroom to change my clothes when I just started to cry. I know I can't really convey this via the internet since anyone who reads this probably doesn't know me, but I truly almost never cry. I just don't. So I even surprised myself as I was sitting on the floor of the bathroom in this yoga studio I'd never been to before, crying my eyes out. I think I had been going, going, going, for so long without ever really doing anything for myself that I couldn't take it anymore. I was tired, frustrated, and stressed out. And these three months are supposed to be the last stress-free period for quite a while (maybe even until I retire)! I managed to wipe away my tears and walk into the room with dignity. There was only one other person there besides my mom and me, and the instructor was definitely your stereotypical mellow "one with yourself" yoga instructor.
      My bad mood had me very skeptical about yoga in general at the beginning of the class, but the more I focused on my breathing, movements, and "feeling" rather than "thinking," I actually felt a difference in my mental and emotional state. Toward the end of the class, we were just lying on our backs on our mats while breathing deeply, and the instructor read a passage to us from a book about meditation and love. I don't think I've ever felt so truly relaxed in my entire life. The class was exactly what I needed in order to take care of myself, and I'll definitely be going back next week. I'm so glad I didn't just go home when I was lost.


Carpe Diem,
Brooke

Roxie :)

      Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great Father's Day weekend! My life has been absolutely insane for the past few days. On Saturday night we got the cutest little 6-week-old Boxer puppy! She's a flashing reverse brindle, which is very rare in Boxers. We named her Roxie as the female version of Rocky, as in Rocky Balboa (also a "boxer"). We have two other dogs, Jack, a Jack Russell terrier who's 12, and Maggie, a three-year-old Boxer, who is named after Hilary Swank's character in Million Dollar Baby, which is why we stuck with the famous boxer theme in naming Roxie. Since they're both purebred Boxers, they get to be members of the American Kennel Club, so they get "special names." Maggie was named Sugar Lips Hot Legs Maggie May, which are all names of Rod Stewart songs, and Roxie's is Roxanne Be My Girl after songs by The Police.

      She's pretty adorable :)

Carpe Diem,

Brooke

In a Rut

      Happy Wednesday! Oh my God I can't believe it's only Wednesday. Each week this summer has felt so incredibly long. Waking up before 9 a.m. (and most certainly at 6 a.m.) should be illegal. I honestly have even started to enjoy my job (four summers into it...) but I just hate waking up at 6. When I get off work at 12:45, I go home to eat lunch and chill out for awhile. However, for the past few weeks nearly every spare moment has been dedicated to all things involving rush, which I will be going through at KU in the fall. I've been asking people to write rec letters for me, writing resumes and cover letters, and planning my outfits (tbh I loved that part). I'm so excited but also pretty nervous! I can't wait to be a member of a sorority.
      Lately, I feel like I've been lacking inspiration or something. I can't really identify it, but something's definitely felt off. To help feel more inspired, I've been reading more, I'm finally going to start running again this evening, and I'm going to take Maggie on more walks (so yes, lots of exercise). I think reading and enjoying nature while exercising are healthy and cost-effective ways to distract you from reality (rather than eating or binge-watching your favorite show on Netflix) and get back on track.

Carpe Diem,
Brooke

Healthy Eating and Fitness Regimen

      Happy Thursday! I'm so glad there's only one more day left this week because I am so tired of working in the office. I keep telling myself every day that I'm going to work out when I get home but I'm always just too tired to do anything other than lie on the couch and watch Netflix (namely: Parks and Recreation). However, starting today, I am determined to start running again and start eating healthier, and I thought I would share what my new regimen is with you guys!

Breakfast:
Peanut butter on whole grain toast
Milk
Green tea

Midmorning Snack:
Granola bar (because that's what they have in the office at work...)

Lunch:
Sandwich on whole grain bread
Carrots
Apple
Water

Dinner:
Whatever my mom since I'll only have a few more months of her cooking dinner for me :)

Dessert:
Small portion of whatever I like.

Workout:
30 minutes of running on the treadmill 5 days a week

Obviously, my menu is subject to change depending on what my mom buys at the grocery store, but this is just a kind of guideline. Hopefully this works out because I've been eating way too much junk food!

Carpe Diem,
Brooke

Summer Job

      Happy Wednesday! Yesterday I began my fourth summer of working as a camp assistant at Pembroke Hill's summer program and I'm already exhausted. I prefer to get work over with early in the day, so I asked for the 7:30-12:45 shift. However, this means that I have to wake up at 6 every morning and I'm already sick of it after two days. Thankfully I'm working from 11:30-3:45 next week, so I'll get a little break from waking up so early. I'm just working in the office this week, which isn't very exciting but it's a nice transition from the school year to the summer.
      I do need to work on managing my time; all I've been doing the past few days is writing and addressing thank you notes from everything I got for graduating. I want to start doing everything on my Summer Bucket List like running, going to the pool, and just being more social in general. I'm ready for Summer 2014!

Carpe Diem,
Brooke

First Post as an Alumna of Pembroke Hill

      Happy Sunday! Last night I graduated from high school and I can't believe how quickly the night past. Yesterday, I woke up, helped my mom decorate the house (so many balloons, red and blue m&ms, and pictures of yours truly), went to brunch with my advisory, had my graduation party at my house with the family (Oklahoma Joe's for dinner was the best), opened up some presents (typing this post on my brand new MacBook Air as we speak!), and went to graduation! I was so worried that it would rain and we would have to have the ceremony in the gym, which doesn't have air conditioning and therefore would have been miserable. Fortunately, it was a beautiful night and everything went smoothly.
       After we tossed our caps and took a ton of pictures, my whole class loaded up on some buses and  went to Power Play, which I wasn't too excited about when I discovered that's where our after-grad party was, but it was actually so much fun playing laser tag and racing around in go-carts. We stayed there until about 1:30 a.m., the buses drove us back to school, and some friends and I went to my friend Brittany's house. We hung out in the hot tub, listened to music, and reminisced on our high school years. Around 4 I went downstairs to go to sleep but I couldn't fall asleep so I went back upstairs around 5:30, and we just watched the sunrise. It was the perfect start to our first day as rising college freshmen :)

Carpe Diem,
Brooke

A Letter to Pembroke Hill

      Happy Friday! Last night was our Commencement Dinner which took place at the InterContinental Hotel and it's basically a dinner that celebrates the graduating class and welcomes the juniors as rising seniors. My favorite teacher was one of the speakers elected by the class of 2014, and his speech was perfect. We opened up an envelope that was at our seat at dinner and it was a little questionnaire that we filled out in fifth grade describing what our lives were like, what our favorite things were, etc. Obviously, I was the weirdest and most embarrassing fifth grader ever and for the picture that we drew of doing "something we love in 2014," 2007 Brooke drew a picture of herself modeling. Yeah. So I was basically crying from laughter at how weird I was. Anyway, I'm graduating tomorrow night (oh my god) and I wanted to write a letter to Pembroke Hill (just for my own sentimental purposes, I obviously won't be sending it to anyone), the school I've attended since 1998.

Dear Pembroke Hill School,
      Firstly, I want to thank you so much for molding me into the person I've become. Because of your teachers and rigorous schoolwork, I've become a self-disciplined and considerate person who won't let anything or anyone stand in her way.
      I would like to address, however, a few flaws in the school which I feel can be fixed. I understand that we're a "college preparatory school," and therefore we must be competitive in academics and extracurricular activities, but the hyper-preparation has, in my opinion, gotten out of hand. Was it really necessary to start having final exams in sixth grade? Just so we could be extra prepared for final exams in high school? Finals may not have had the same effect on everyone that they did on me, but I will always remember crying every night for weeks before any finals week, due to the amount of pressure you put on me to do well.
      When students (including myself) become depressed due to their feeling of helplessness and extreme stress, there's something wrong. When students have frequent breakdowns, require therapy and medication, and even attempt suicide because of the emotionally destructive environment at school, there's something wrong. I'm not saying that Pembroke Hill is the only school with this issue, because it's not. However, I strongly recommend that changes need to be made. I've grown up my entire life firmly believing that my grades were significantly more important than my happiness, and there will always be a part of me that resents Pembroke Hill for drilling that idea into my brain for sixteen years.
      We need to make it clear to students that their education is more highly valued than their grades, because students will do whatever it takes to pass when they feel like they are incapable of understanding the material. The amount of homework assigned does not determine the ultimate success of the student in a class, rather, how well the teacher teaches and insures a firm grasp on the concept from each of his or her students.
      I don't want anyone to think that I don't realize how incredibly lucky I am to have gone to Pembroke Hill, and I will always take pride in saying that I'm a Raider. I'm just trying to say that I wish Pembroke Hill hadn't stolen several years of my childhood in order to prepare me for "the real world." I wasn't in the real world and I wasn't supposed to be treated like I was. When we were given extra math lessons rather than recess and more homework rather than time to enjoy our youth, those were the things that I won't miss about Pembroke Hill.
      However, the things I will miss about Pembroke Hill include the first day of school, the BBQ football game, new classes and teachers, Extended Day, Homecoming, the room in the library, choir concerts, May Day, cheering for football games, going to the school where my mom works and brother attends, going out to lunch with my friends, Blue Koi, the bond between the students in a really hard class, all my English classes and teachers, Mr. Laible's jokes, Mr. Young's jokes, Prom, the musical, costumes for the musical, the nervous excitement for the opening show, striking the set, cast parties, Showcase, Friday til 4, advisory, the beautiful campuses, winning the two-lap warmups basically every day in middle school gym, "partners" in younger/older grades, JanTerm, Hawaii, Chicago, New York, birthdays in the Lower School, Ms. Rodes, Mrs. Smith, fellow lifers, my amazing friends, and everything in between. Despite any criticisms I have for Pembroke Hill, I could not have asked for a better school to have spent the first quarter of my life to grow up in. I am so grateful for everything the school has given me, and graduation will definitely be bittersweet. I'll definitely be back to visit and I'll always have my Raider Pride t-shirt. Thank you for these wonderful 16 years which I will always cherish and never forget.

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

Carpe Diem,
Brooke