Past Me

Very, very occasionally, I do really clever things. Sometimes I think about my future self and think "Future Me, I think you need a helping hand, so I'm going to do something that will benefit my slightly older, hopefully wiser self". I often make meals in advance (Future Me loves leftovers), or buy ingredients for recipes while I'm in the grocery store just in case (Future Me likes not having to walk 30 minutes to the grocery store because there's an ingredient missing), and sometimes, just sometimes, Past Me decides to take extra blog photos, just in case Future Me is too busy but still wants to blog. Thank you, Past Me. See, today it's 100 degrees outside (according to my iPhone of course. I haven't set foot outside of the house yet), it's my day off and all I really want to do is laze around and read my kindle. But I also really, really wanted to blog. Thankfully, Past Me, while killing time for two weeks before coming to America, was smart and took extra outfit photos (I think I have another three outfits to post) so I don't have to go fry in the sun today. Yay!

This was actually the dress I was planning on photographing today, but with slightly less banana-ry shoes. Don't get me wrong, I love my banana shoes, but I've started to prefer this dress with sandals. I've been wearing this dress a lot lately, mainly because I only brought a few dresses with me and I've been wearing the same two on rotation for about a month, so I thought I'd mix it up and bring this one into the rotation so people don't think I only own two dresses (yeah, like anyone would ever think that...). Anyway, I have been receiving a crazy amount of compliments on it! Mainly from absolute complete strangers. It is an absolutely gorgeous dress and perfect for the hot, humid summer here in New Jersey. The material is light and loose (it's actually a tad too big for me. I'm an only child, so if I want something I WANT IT NOW. And they didn't have a size 8, so I asked for a 10 instead. I do this quite a lot. I have a lot of slightly-too-big clothes as a result of my impatience), and I love the bird print and mullet hem cut. I didn't bring this pink denim jacket with me (it's a really tricky colour and doesn't work with many things), but I love it with this dress, so I am glad I took these photos so you can see a more layered look, compared to a look consisting of a dress, sandals and me glistening with sweat. Lovely.

dress- c/o Glamorousshoes- Primarknecklace- Forever 21jacket- c/o Republic

Waaaah my legs are waaaaay more tanned than this now!

I'm happy to say that I am in a really, really great place right now. I've been here for almost 6 weeks now and I'm feeling really great. The people here are awesome and I've made some great friends, and I'm feeling really comfortable with who I am. I love coming home, making dinner and reading my Kindle in bed. I don't need to go out to parties and drink and get up exhausted for work the next day. I'm also feeling really proud of myself and my decisions. I don't really give myself enough credit for my achievements, but I've been feeling really great lately. I did this big, scary thing moving here on my own. I didn't know anybody, I didn't know where I was going. I did all the program applications, visa applications, I booked flights, I prepared documents, I took four different kinds of transport to get to where I needed to be. I've travelled and I've done things. I'm going on a trip in a few weeks across America. I won't know anybody in my tour group. I'll be travelling to 12 states, 10 which I haven't been to. By the end of this summer, I will have been to a total of 18 states. I will have lived in America twice, in two different States. That's quite an achievement. I'm feeling good about things at work too. I had a bit of a confidence crisis last week. I didn't think I could retrieve the brick again, I didn't think I could work on the deep water (if you work on the deep water you have a high chance of having a rescue), and I definitely didn't think I could rescue someone. I got the brick first time, and I've worked on the deep water twice. I haven't had a rescue yet, but I'm ready. I know when that moment comes I can do it. And I feel confident that I can jump in and save somebody's life. I'm also just loving having such independence and being a grown up. I know, I've lived away from home since I was 18, but as much as I hate spending all my paycheck on rent and food, this is life. If I don't do my laundry, my clothes are dirty, if I don't buy food, I don't eat, if I don't go to work, I have no money. I just need to get a grown up job when I get home now. Now that's going to be exciting! But right now I'm living in the moment. Living for new experiences and just having an awesome time. Because pretty soon I'll be back in England and this will all be a memory. And I want the memories to be as wonderful as possible.

Well I'm off to continue enjoying my day off, and by that I mean do nothing,

Have a lovely day guys!

Oh and PS. If you haven't entered Shabby Apple giveaway yet, today is the last chance to enter. I'll be picking a winner tomorrow!

Charlotte x