What Royar Read: April

Loved this book! Really easy to read with great advice.

Loved this book so much. A really weird plot, but it says so much about humanity and about people as a whole.

Meh. It was interesting, but it was kind of boring.

I got this while I was in India and finally read it. It was interesting.

I liked the first few chapters but it got old and repetitive pretty quickly. Glad I read it though.

Just reading this to finish the series, and they're really good beach books!

Can't even talk about this book. I cried at the end of it, which has never happened before with a book. By far the best book I've ever read.

Currently Reading: Going after Cacciato and Ghost Wars

xx

Whole Wheat Pancakes

I've been making these for a few months or so and I can't believe I haven't shared them on my blog! I discovered these on Pinterest and finally tried them on Fat Tuesday and they were delicious! They don't even taste whole wheat and taste a lot like french toast!

Although I haven't figured the ins-and-outs of being able to download files, you should be able to right-click and save this recipe card!

xx

TFW

The two essential steps for success. I've done the first two a lot this year and now it's time for the third part!

xx

Camp

A few weeks ago, I made the really hard decision to not return to camp this summer. It was pretty unexpected for me, but with leaving for college, interning, and time this summer, it's really just easier for me to stay in Virginia this year.

I still love camp with my whole heart and it's killing me not being there right now for Junior Staff weekend. The best summers of my life were spent on the shores of South Carolina and the memories I made there will always be some of my favorites.

Right now I'm hoping to get back to the lake in July for a closing ceremony, but it's still going to be definitely weird not to start packing up my stuff in a few weeks to get ready to leave.

All good things must come to an end, and camp was definitely a good thing. I'll be a bunny till I die!

xx

Friday Five

1. As of today, I have 15 days left of high school. But I still have four AP exams standing in my way. Yucky.

2. The graduation dress is being ordered this week and I'm picking up my announcements from the bookstore today. The fact that I will be holding a diploma in 35 days terrifies me to no end.

3. I'm fine with bipolar weather in like February and March, but waking up to 50 degrees and rainy is getting a little ridiculous in April. I've been living in my Patagonia fleece and my rain coat at school, while reminiscing on the time the A/C broke in the library three weeks ago and we were all sweltering.

4. I nabbed these leggings from Targe last night before spin and they're amazing. They might be Wunder Under knockoffs, but for half the price, I don't exactly hate it.

5. I started writing my article for the May/June SGG and I'm literally so excited about my topic this month and cannot wait to see how it turns out! 

xx

The iPad: How I Learned To Love It

Now that I've had my iPad for about a year, I've finally learned how to actually use it in a way that doesn't just include reading on the Kindle app.

1. Pocket :: I installed this to use with Flipboard and I love this app so much. I never have time to read articles at night, so I can always save them to Pocket to read when I have time! It also formats them so there aren't any ads or anything and it's so easy to read. This is definitely one of my favorite apps from the store.

2. Flipboard :: I switched my google reader account to another email and took a bunch of blogs off that I had always skimmed, and installed it on flipboard to read at night. I also read Al-Jazeera, my LinkedIn feed, as well as BBC World News and The Drudge report on Flipboard. It's such a pretty app and I actually like reading blogs better on my iPad!

3. Mail :: Now that I get a lot of news emails from places like Politico and the New York Times, I like to read them on my iPad in the morning instead of trying to read them on my computer or phone.

4. Magazines :: One of my issues of Town and Country got skipped and I bought it for my iPad. While I missed the magazine feel, it was really easy to read, and I'm definitely considering switching all of my subscriptions to my iPad so I don't have to always switch addresses for college and such. It's also much easier to save something to Pinterest!

5. TED Talks :: I love these and have for a long time, but they're so much fun to watch on my iPad and I can be working on homework and have my iPad propped up so I can look at both screens. Same for Netflix.

How do you use your iPad?

xx

Spring in Photos

One of the cutest sophomores at my school and basically my preppy legacy for the next two years, Katy, and I dressed up a few weeks ago for Lilly!

The Whole Foods in my city has macarons. Nothing will ever be as good as Laduree, but this Salted Caramel one was pretty darn good.

We had sprit week last week and this was preppy day! I got lots of comments about how I didn't look any different, which wasn't surprising.

My sweet friend Megan came up last weekend to visit me in VA for the first time! She's basically the older version of me and I loved showing her around my city.

Since there are so few of us in my graduating class, everyone gets a spot on a poster board to decorate. It was so surreal drawing this!

Have a great Tuesday!

xx

Netflix

A few months ago, I started using Netflix, after hearing such great things about it. At first I didn't really use it that much, until I really discovered how much they have online.

This fall I decided to try and watch some shows from start to finish. This fall I did Greek and Sex and the City, and I loved both of them. On Netflix, I've started and finished House of Cards, in an embarrassingly short amount of time, natch, and still rewatch it all the time.

I'm on season one now of Mad Men and The West Wing, and seasons three of The Hills and Gossip Girl. I just love how I don't ever have to change DVDs and how it holds places in the middle. So convenient! 

I've also watched some documentaries and definitely want more recommendations. So far I've watched two National Geographic documentaries: Camp Leatherneck and Inside North Korea. I definitely want to watch more because they're really interesting and make me feel better about watching TV!

Do you watch Netflix? What are your favorites?

xx

TFW

xx

YSP #10

I'm trying to decide a way to do these better than just doing them as a post...what do y'all think? YouTube or Spotify playlist?

Bon Jovi :: Because We Can

OneRepublic :: Burning Bridges (Acoustic)

Zedd :: Clarity (feat. Foxes)

Widespread Panic :: Climb to Safety

OneRepublic :: Counting Stars

Ra Ra Riot :: Dance With Me

Of Monsters & Men :: Dirty Paws

Zedd :: Follow You Down

The White Panda :: G.O.O.D.G.I.R.L.S.

Supertramp :: Goodbye Stranger

Foster The People :: Houdini (RAC Remix)

Of Monsters and Men :: King and Lionheart

OneRepublic :: Life In Color

Justin Timberlake :: Mirrors

Craig Morgan :: More Trucks Than Cars

Matt Hires  :: Restless Heart

Capital Cities :: Safe and Sound

Dustin Lynch :: She Cranks My Tractor

Zedd :: Spectrum (feat. Matthew Koma)

The Lumineers :: Stubborn Love

xx

Friday 5

1. This video/song. The song is amazing enough, but I am even more obsessed with the video.

2. I started Michelle Ocampo's Intentional Living class this week and it's amazing! Sign up here :: Sign Up

3. As of today, I have 19 days left of high school. Really. Can't even talk about it.

4. The Smart Girls Group won the $5k grant from Kenneth Cole! So exciting for us and it means we will hopefully be running a conference soon!

5. I had decided tomorrow was going to be the first lay out day of the summer, but it's supposed to be 50sish and rainy. Cool Virginia, way cool.

Happy Friday!

xx

India

Today it's been a year and two days since I woke up 4:30 in the morning to board a 6am flight to Chicago and fly off into the sunset of India and have my life changed. It's scary how fast a year has gone by! Time flies when you're having fun!

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Four flights and eleven time zones removed from my home in Virginia, I landed in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. From the moment I touched down in Delhi, I had known that India and I were going to get along quite well. I was immediately drawn to the sights and people in the airport, something that continued during my layover in Kolkata. As we drove out of the airport in Bhubaneswar, I was in awe of the scene around me. I was so excited when I saw my first cow, because that really meant I was in India, not in some weird part of America. Later that afternoon, we toured the Hi-Tech Medical College of Bhubaneswar, the place where we would be working. I was shocked at the conditions of the hospital, the stark white tiles, and the differences between the hospitals back home. By the end of my stay, I had grown to love the hospital and watched as it was filled with hope and beautiful smiling children. Our ride to the hospital was on a dirt path, with immense poverty on either side. By the end of second day, I had stopped seeing the poverty, and started seeing the hope.

Although I could write novels about my experience in India, there are three or four moments that I will never forget and have been ingrained into my mind forever.

I don't remember how I met Puja, but she always just seemed to be ‘there'. We made faces at each other, blew bubbles, and took silly pictures for hours, and I grew to expect her to run up behind me and hug me every morning. I learned through a translator and from speaking with our Electronic Medical Technician, Nancy, that she was ten years old, in Class 5, and living with her Uncle, who had broken his leg a month and half before and was still in the hospital. I will never forget hugging her goodbye on our final day and trying to explain to her that I had to go back to America. As I tried to say goodbye, she followed me out of the hospital and continued to hug me and tell me that she loved me. I will never forget her, and I think of her everyday.

On the first day I was in Bhubaneswar, we spent our morning on the third floor of the hospital playing with the children before they went to screening, where they would be photographed, given speech evaluations, and seen by pediatricians and anesthesiologists to determine whether they would receive surgery or not. It was there that I met Mina. She took to coloring right away, and was taken down early for screening. Until her surgery on Wednesday, I would see her around the hospital nearly everyday, and she always had a huge smile for me and a wave. Tuesday night, we had one of our longest days, and didn't leave the hospital until nearly eight. She and I had so much fun making silly faces at each other, and playing patty cake for hours.

While waiting in our Child Life room, I learned from her anxious mother that she had had two previous surgeries, and that there were complications during the first, and she was very worried. Since she had already had two surgeries, she was only having a lip scar revision, and I returned on our last day to see her smiling and ready to go home. I will never forget her sweet family, and her calm, strong mother. What trust and faith these parents had, to come from far away to put their child's life in doctors and foreigners hands. Although we did not share a common language, we all communicated on a deeper level, one that did not require words, but simply hugs and smiles. It was so hard to say goodbye to her, knowing that I would never see again. Before she left, she and her mother gave me two hard candies, probably a luxury to them, and something that most wouldn't think anything of. I still have them sitting on my dresser, a daily reminder of the little girl who changed my life.

My time spent in India not only altered my life significantly, but also changed the way I look at the world. As Mark Twain once said, "India is, for lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the world combined." I would not change a single moment of my mission, and I am forever thankful to Operation Smile for giving me this opportunity.

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Operation Smile Mission to Bhubaneswar, India! from hrloflin on Vimeo.

xx

For Boston

There is so much to be said for yesterday. Praying for the victims and their families, the brave First Responders, Boston, and America today.

xx

Adam Scott Wins It!

What a great Green Jacket Sunday yesterday was! For the past three years I have sat in the same exact spot and watched as I've done my homework and it was funny yesterday to think about how I was doing AP Euro two years ago and now I'm doing AP Comp and studying the same kind of thing!

It was such a good day for Freddie Couples, Thorbjorn Olesen and Brandt Snedeker, but it was so exciting to see Angel Cabrera and Adam Scott (my favorite for the tourney!!!) to pull away in the final few holes to head to a playoff. 

The playoffs - dare I say it - were better than last year! It was so exciting to see Adam use the long putter to win it!

Congrats to Adam Scott - the green jacket has never looked SO good!

xx

TFW + Background

I made this a few weeks ago for my desktop and I ended up really liking it, so I thought I would share! It's a good reminder when you're flipping through things on your computer!

Happy Saturday!

xx

Friday Five

1. Help The Smart Girls Group win a $5k grant from Kenneth Cole and Compass Partners! Click HERE and comment #5 for SGG!

2. Last night I went to spin class for the first time post surgery and I ran 2/2.5 on Tuesday/Wednesday. It's safe to say I'm finally back! 

3. I'm having girls night with my two faves tonight. I honestly can't wait. 

4. I will be parked infront of the TV this weekend watching golf all weekend. Have you watched The Masters at all?

5. I wore wedges to school for the first time ever yesterday! I nabbed the Target Marguerite wedges last week and finally took 'em for a spin yesterday.

All of my friends got a kick out of how tall I was! I can't wait to wear them more!

Happy Friday!

xx

College Thursday: Advice From Alumni

This week I'm so excited to have one of my favorite teachers from middle school post! She is such an amazing teacher and woman, and I was so lucky to be in her class!

College Tips from a former Virginia co-ed:

I’m approaching my ten year reunion this June and waxing nostalgic about how much I loved college life. Here are the tips I would give myself if I could write a letter and send it back in time:

1.       Make good friends, but keep the old. It’s easier than ever to stay in touch with your high school friends as you all move away, but make the extra effort to hand-write notes and make good, old-fashioned phone calls.

2.       Don’t lose yourself in your new life. When you arrive in a new environment, it’s easy to become what you think others want you to be. Change your style, change the way you talk, change what you believe. So much of college is about discovering who you are, but don’t lose sight of who you were and the values you hold dear.

3.       Leap at every opportunity! You have (hopefully) four years to explore different career paths and dreams of the future. Take advantage! Go to career fairs, volunteer, join a sorority, join a debate club, dance, sing, do whatever interests you! Get involved! Can’t find a club that’s right for you? Start one.

4.       You can be happy anywhere. I truly believe this. Some guys and girls go to college feeling disappointed because they didn’t get in somewhere else. Never waste a moment of your experience on that kind of helpless regret. You are in an environment with literally thousands of other people your own age. How can you possibly NOT have a good time?

Thanks so much to my teacher, Charlotte Zito for this post!

xx

The Masters

It's that time of year again!

It's such a beautiful course and a historic event - I will attend someday!  Even the website gets me a little teary, I just adore this tournament so much!  I can't link to any on here, but I would highly recommend watching some of the videos on the Official Masters Website, where you can also follow the players and rounds each day.

Last year when I was on the way to Athens, Mummy and I stopped in and saw the gates! So gorgeous!

Without further ado, my picks for this year! I will be announcing my favorite to win on Thursday via Twitter!

Bubba Watson

Adam Scott (Fondly referred to as Adam HOT)

Rory McIlroy

And as always, I have to cheer on the family favorites...

Ben Crenshaw

 

Tom Watson

Phil Mickelson

Will you be watching this year? Who is your pick to win?

xoxo,

Royar

{The Young Southern Prep}

Two Great Women

She was the barefoot Queen of pink and green. 

On Sunday, we all really lost a little bit of ourselves with the passing of Lilly Pulitzer. She made our lives a little brighter, a lot more colorful, and way more beautiful. It really truly began with a juice stand, and I definitely wouldn't be who I am today without her. 

The Iron Lady. My role model, what else can I say? The woman who led the way for women in Britain, changed the world, and was best friends with Nancy and Ronnie. 

These were two great women who did everything their way, and didn't take no for an answer.  They definitely left their mark on the world!

xx

Monday Musings

Super quick blog post this morning...

1. Tradesy: I haven't sold my two jackets yet, but that was expected, but I have had interest in a Louis Vuitton coin purse I listed. Exciting and so much easier than eBay!

2. The new issue of the Smart Girls Guide was published yesterday! Read it HERE. It really is our best issue yet. As I told our "CEO" yesterday, it's not that the previous issues have been bad, it's just that this one is really good.

3. I'm going to do a post about this next week, but I'm still really confused about how I've gotten this far with my iPhone/iPad/Mac relationship without Flipboard and Pocket. Seriously life changing apps for me.

4. Last night I started to send out sorority recommendation packets and our college poster went up on Friday where we decorate a small spot on poster board and it's used around the school/college counseling department for the next year or so. It's starting to get real now.

5. I'm posting about this later this week, but IT'S MASTERS WEEK 2013!!!! I can't wait!

xx

Friday Five

Things I've learned this week:

1. Nice girls don't get what they want. Be assertive. You have to ask for some things in life, and that's okay.

2. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. Spoken by my very wise college counselor. 

3. If you leap, the net will appear. 

4. There is so so so so so much I don't know about certain things. Luckily for me I get to spend a summer learning about them.

5. You actually do have to risk it to get the Chick Fil A Chicken biscuit

And a sixth because it is pretty important:

6. Grades are great and all, but what you learn from the things you learn about is what matters in the end.

Happy Friday y'all!

xx

College Thursday: The Little Things

So now that I've picked out my room, I still need to register for orientation (scary), and I'm going to pick out my bedding pretty soon. Going to camp has prepared me well to live in a tiny space and pack efficiently, but there are so many "littles" that I'm scared to forget.

Laptop case

Tide Pods

Towel Wrap
Crocs
Air purifier
3m command strips

What else did you take/wish you had taken to college?

xx

This & That & Rabbit Rabbit

One time I got my wisdom teeth out. Insanity ensued.

Five days, six kale smoothies from Tropical Smoothie, four cheese enchiladas, and two seasons of The Hills later, I have emerged from the cave that is my room, still a little chubby cheeked, and incredibly relieved. It wasn't that it was painful, it was just that my face got really really really fat. No bueno for this girl. There's a reason I was never into the whole Fatbooth app, and I was not ready to start this weekend.

I missed Easter and the chocolate that accompanies it, so now I have awoken to spring and white jeans and Lilly. Sadly, Virginia weather hasn't gotten the memo. But I got a new pair of wedges that are just begging to be worn and I can't wait to finally wear my jacks!

In other scary, terrifying news, I picked my dorm room last night, which means I'm officially going to Alabama! As much I loved Georgia, and was SO excited to be accepted, my heart is in Alabama.

So now it's back to planning for Alabama, and making lots of lists and checking them twice, while wearing my Lilly again!

Happy Wednesday!

xx