My Week Without Social Media

So remember in my last post how I said that I had a feeling that I'd have at least one day where I would have a really hard time with this experiment? Thursday, is that day. I don't know if it was hard because I had it in my head that it might happen, or if it was just a hard day.

It wasn't even Facebook or Instagram that was really the problem, although I do really miss both of those social medias, it was just one.

Vine.

It's a newer social media, and I just found it in June, but I am pretty much addicted. Which is sad.

Vine is where you post a 6 second video, and that's it. Sounds boring, but people get really creative and it's awesome, but sometimes I'm on Vine for a long, long time.

Thursday was hard, but I got through it, and today (Friday) has been much easier!

So hopefully I can make it through the next couple of days. :P

In all seriousness though, if I had to give up all social media forever, I could do it. I know it sounds like I have this dependency on social medias, but I don't. I think that it comes off that way because I've gone 5 days without it, and it is hard. But I do think it is good for me

❤ Katie

My Week Without Social Media: Wednesday

Wednesday, a day that is bittersweet.

It means that the weekend is coming, I've tackled half the week. It also means there are still two more days until the refuge of the weekend is mine. I can do this!

Still getting so much easier! I can't believe it! I even got to a point where I was actually enjoying that fact that I have no idea of what is happening in the lives of everyone I know. It's somehow, freeing. So nice, and so worth it actually!

So I was in my own for most of this evening, and unfortunately I didn't really do anything productive. BUT I did get three cookbooks from the library, so hopefully I can get started on those ASAP!

There was a lot less of the not knowing what do to with myself, and a lot more of just enjoying life, which is something I enjoy immensely.

Who knew giving up social medias for a week could have such a positive outcome? And there is still a few days left!!! I have this strange feeling though where I'll have a day that is extremely difficult. I guess I'll have to cope with it, if or when it comes.

I'm also incredibly proud of how disciplined I am through all this, haven't given in once. I didn't really think that I would give in though.

Well those are the most significant things that happened today.

I'm sure that tomorrow will bring more interesting discoveries, or maybe not.

Either way, I will keep you updated!

❤Katie

My Week Without Social Media: Tuesday

Tuesday was definitely easier than Monday.

Up until I got home from work at 6:30.

I get home, and my sister has prepared a meal of taco soup that was just so delicious. My sisters and I like to eat and talk about our day. A few of things they wanted to talk about had to do with Facebook or Instagram, and I had to ask them to please talk about something else. After a few times they started getting frustrated with me. Sorry! 😐

I also had more trouble with feeling like I didn't have anything to keep my mind busy, I'd be sitting there and just get that horrible itch to give up on this endeavor. 

So today, Wednesday, my goal is to find things to do, preferably productive things.

My sisters have youth group tonight, so I will be home by myself after I get home from work today.

What shall I do? I'll probably make something, like food, or tear up a magazine and make a collage.

I'll post a picture in my next post if there's anything worth seeing 😉

❤ Katie

My Week Without Social Media: Monday

My normal weekday schedule:

Wake up, go onto Facebook, Instagram, twitter, YouTube, Vine, Etc. takes me about an hour every morning to catch up on everything.

Breakfast, checking my phone every couple minutes WHILE I'm eating 😒

Shower, after my shower, I check everything on my phone AGAIN.

Lunch, same as breakfast

Work for five hours

Come home and go on Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Dinner, no phones allowed during dinner

Evening, watch movie or spend time with family, checking all social medias every once and a while.

And somehow before I go to sleep I spend another hour or more on my phone.

How??? 

Because this next week of my blog posts is going to be on my giving up social media, my daily schedule was more focused on my social media consumption. I do other things too, I'm not completely stuck on Facebook all day long 😉 but when I was making this schedule, I did see how much I actually do go on my phone to see what is happening in the world, too much. That's why on Sunday, September 15th, 2013 I decided to just not even touch it for a week. I also feel that God wants me to do it, give Him more attention, which when God tells you to give something up, you know that you might have a problem 😂 so this is my day-to-day experience on not having any kind of social media for a week. I find it quite funny that I won't be able to share these posts with friend until after the week is over.

Alright, Monday.

It's weird because it's not necessarily hard to go without the social medias, it's the fact that I have to stop myself from pushing that little icon. It's just out of habit! But since I've been stopping myself all day, it has become a lot easier.

I've felt like I have a lot of free time (in just the first day!). I have been kinda antsy to be honest, just like my mind needs to be numbed, and without social media its just running at a thousand miles an hour, it's weird. I feel like I have a tick or something 😂 withdrawal I guess.. So funny

Instead of going on my phone for an hour, I played my ukulele and piano for an hour! It made me extremely happy! I caught up on some letter writing. My Bible reading was a lot more mentally productive because I didn't have my phone distracting me every 5 minutes. So there have been a lot of good things coming out of this.

I get push notifications from Facebook and twitter, which to my surprise, I have been really good at ignoring when I open my phone, but it was difficult because I kept getting notifications from Twitter and I NEVER get notifications from Twitter. So I'm looking forward to see what that was all about on Sunday! You're probably thinking, why don't you just turn off the push notifications? Because, I don't feel like messing with it, I think as the week goes by, the less activity there will be. Hopefully anyway.

Well that is my experience with day one!

Thank you for reading!

❤ Katie

A Spread From Vogue April 2013

Haven't loved a spread this much in a while, so refreshing and it makes me want to watch Rear Window.

Lifeguards

My church is held at a community center because we don't have a building, so if I have free time, I like to sit and watch people swim in the pool. I don't know if that's weird or not, but I love to people-watch.
Just this last time I went to the pool, I noticed the lifeguards. They just stand there, alone, occasionally mouthing the rules to some rowdy munchkins, but of the most part, they are alone to their thoughts. To me, I don't know if I'd go insane, or it'd be a good job for me. I am an introvert, so being alone is very beneficial for me mentally, but just watching and doing nothing might be hard at times. I DO need social interaction.
When I go swimming, which is very rare, especially in the winter, I like to gather enough courage to talk to the lifeguards, just so they aren't so bored. Maybe they're not bored, I just feel like I'd be bored if I was a lifeguard.
I really romanticize people who are more reserved, probably because I can relate to them. And not all lifeguards are introverts like me. I'm weird because I will put personalities to people based on the few minutes that I see them interact with the world.
That lifeguard? Oh, he just has this job until he's out of college, he hopes to get a job as an architect. He thinks of how the community center was made, the blueprints, what went through the builder's minds when they decided to add onto the community center.
The other lifeguard? She is happily married, despite looking pretty young. Her husband has a good, sustaining job, and she works as lifeguard because she loves the water, she's also saving some money for a trip to California.
I don't know these people, but I give them these wonderful and beautiful lives, this is how I think.
Well, this was random, if you've made it all the way through this post, I salute you
Love,
Katie

Winter is beautiful...

...it really is.
And I'm so happy when it begins.
But as the season goes on, I start getting depressed, like really depressed. Not to a point where I'd hurt myself, been there, done that, never going back, but I feel really trapped.
It happens every single year, I think I'll be fine but it sneaks up on me and before I know it, I'm just so sad, all the time.
It seems like everything that I've worried about individually, becomes one big worry that I can't stop thinking of.
The biggest worry this year has been, what are you going to do with your life?
What are you going to do with your life...
What are you going to do with your life...??
Every person on the planet is asking me this question and I feel stupid because I don't know. I've been considering not going to college, and I don't dare tell anyone because I would imagine judgment, I already do and I haven't even told anyone! But I feel certain people can sense it, from the way I shy away from college talk.
Depression stinks because every little thing gets to you, even things you wouldn't think twice about.
Like the fact that I am 18 years old and I just opened a checking account at the bank, and the fact that I completely blanked on my social security number when opening the account. That shouldn't bother me, but it does for some reason.
During the middle of winter, I crave to travel.
Right now I want more than anything to go to disney world, by myself. Not with friends or family, just by myself, but I'm too much of a chicken to go by myself. And I don't have enough money.
I feel really lonely, in the sense if a significant other. I feel extremely lonely in that area of my life, but then I dislike myself for not being able to let God be that for me, I know He's trying. I also dislike myself for not enjoying my life as a single, young person.
I had to miss a retreat for the college students at my church because I had already asked for a week and a half off from work, I can hear my dad saying... If you really wanted to go, you could have made it happen. Yes i could have, I was basically an extra person at work that week, a couple extra days wouldn't have made too much of a difference. It's over now, and there's nothing I can do about it. I really needed it too, although they did go skiing for a good chunk of the trip and me+skiing= not good. For the most part I love skiing, but I swear I was born cold-blooded, I would freeze within the first 15 minutes. I am not exaggerating, the last time I went skiing, the front halves of my feet were completely numb, not fun.
I know this is a kind of really sad post, but the upside is that I am going to not one but TWO concerts within the next couple months! I NEVER go to concerts and I love them! So I'm really excited that I get to be away from life, even if its for a few hours.
Another thing I'm happy about is that I really like my job, if I didn't like my job, who knows what I would be feeling right now.
There is a silver lining, and it is called "springtime". Just kidding, it's really called "I need to figure out what God wants me to do, and do it, and look to Him when I'm lonely" hehe it's really late...
This secret from postsecret.com inspired this post, because its partly what I am feeling right now