September Goals and Expectations

The month of August has flown by, and September is knocking on the door, bringing fall, college and new responsibilities my way...

but I have to embrace them and evolve, because that's just how life goes. New challenges come to defy us; friends come and go. It scares me and excites me, I go from feeling fascinated with the idea of going to college and building my own life, to sinking in the deepest funk, feeling lost and worthless.

However, I know where I want to go. I shall renew my strength and carry on, working towards my dream, God's plan for me.

So I decided to write down some goals and expectations for September:

1. To organize myself
2. To stay positive
3. To finish driver's theory
4. To be able to manage my timetable
5. To have fun with my friends until college starts, and after that, to stay in touch
6. To be consistent with the Blog-tember Challenge, a link-up hosted by Bailey Jean from Brave Love. Hopefully it will allow me to put a little bit more of myself in this blog!

Well, let's see how this goes!

What are your goals and expectations for this month?

love,

Mariana

Roadtrip to Italy, Part Three

This post describes my favourite part of the journey: getting to know more of Tuscany than traveling magazines show!

the city council of S. Gimignano

The main advantage of roadtripping is that you aren't confined to one place or city: you are free to get on your car and explore the region!
That's what we chose to do in this part of our trip. We visited four other amazing cities of Tuscany: S. Gimignano, Siena. Lucca and Pisa.

All Bodies Are Great Bodies

This post may be somehow different from my usual posts, but I feel like it's a positive message I need to share!

Through my teenage years, I was never confident about my body. I used to look at some of my friends from middle school and think: 'Why are they so skinny? Why don't they have big thighs or large breasts like me? How come they can eat so many chocolate bars and stay thin as sticks?'

Roadtrip to Italy, Part Two

After driving through the south of France, we finally got to Italy, a country that I had never visited before!

the leaning tower of Bologne

Roadtrip to Italy, Part One

On the 7th August, my parents, my sister and I embarked on a journey we will never forget: a roadtrip from Portugal to Italy!

We woke up pretty early, put our bags in the trunk of the car, and drove away from our beloved hometown in direction to Italy. No words can describe how excited I felt for this trip!

On Coming Back

After almost three amazing weeks that I spent traveling, it's time for me to come back home and pick up my everyday life from where I'd left it!

beach in Fonte dei Marmi, Italy

It's kind of hard to leave the exciting and unpredictable traveling life and to return to the same old routine, especially when most of my friends and my boyfriend are gone on holidays. I must admit it makes me pretty anxious to make plans right now - I don't know if that's good or bad.

However, it's an amazing time for me to organize myself, a month away from starting college! That involves some shopping, working more in this blog, renewing my wardrobe (!!!) and restoring my old bike, and probably kind of a makeover... because everything is changing and so am I.

Change makes me feel extremely anxious and excited at the same time. I know I'm one step closer to my dream of becoming a doctor and saving people's lives; but, on the other hand, it means I'm about to step out of my safe bubble, my comfort zone where I kept myself throughout high school. It means that I'm going to start working harder than I ever had, being the only one responsible for myself.

I've been reading many, many blog posts and searching Pinterest for tips on surviving my first year of college, and if any of you can give me any help, please feel free to do so :)

In the next few days I will post pictures and stories of the many places I've been to!

love,

Mariana

Stuff I'm Thankful For #3

After the first week of my 3-week holiday, I can say there's just so many things I'm thankful for!

Cerveira was absolutely beautiful and as soon as I got to that little house in the middle of the mountains I just felt like God had brought me to that place for a reason! I was in awe with the greatness of nature and the beauty of that place.

Tomorrow I leave in my roadtrip to Italy, and I'm super excited about it!

So, this week I'm thankful for:

- my amazing boyfriend who I will miss so much while we're both on holidays. I am so lucky to have him in my life!

- as I have mentioned before, getting to spend a week in such a beautiful, peaceful village. I will post more stories and pictures when I'm officially back!

- my loving family

- my sister, aka my best friend in the world. I'm so thankful for getting to spend so much time with her! I will introduce her to this blog soon...

- the beach and the pool, because I feel like water is my natural element!

love,

Mariana