^^^I put up curtains in my living room last night! I’m making a mental list of “adult” things, and buying a cordless drill is now on the list. also I basically destroyed my wall getting those curtains put up, so stay tuned to find out how much my apartment complex fines me when I move out lolol.
lately I’ve been feeling like I need to share. or at least that I have things to share. and it’s not even anything concrete—nothing that can be put into a list. but I feel like I need to talk about this stage of life— the “young professional, single, far away from anything that used to be familiar” stage of life. maybe not even because anyone needs to hear it (blogs are dead anyway, or something like that, right?), but maybe just because I need to write it for myself.
so this is the current state of life:
I graduated from college in April, majoring in Communications with an Advertising emphasis. I’m now working at an advertising agency in Kansas City, which is almost completely opposite from the city I expected to end up in. I love love love my job. I really like Kansas City. but it’s all been an adjustment. it’s been an interesting past (almost) 5 months navigating a completely new professional and geographic world, figuring out life on my own, and really figuring out who I am as an adult, single human.
it’s been 5 months of figuring out how the heck I’m going to get my sofa up the stairs, going to lots of things alone, wandering pretty city neighborhoods, taking so many wrong turns (where is my Utah grid system?), almost dying about 50 times with the tiny KC freeway onramps (and left onramps??? who do you think you are???), and discovering cool walls/buildings/rooftops/parking garages/hilltops/parks/towns.
it’s been 5 months of learning SO MUCH about everything, and I’m so grateful for all the opportunities and people that have been placed around me here.
so idk what I want to write, but I just want to document life these days. probably mostly for myself. I took this link off my instagram bio so I feel a little more free to write whatever instead of wondering what someone that randomly follows me and clicks the link thinks of all of this. maybe someday I’ll try to make more of it? but for now, it’s a creative outlet/journal/random online spot.
& also, a good quote I found the other day: “imagine what you could do if you started doing something about all you imagine. that’s all.” —Cleo Wade
^^^ Prospero’s bookstore the other night (a new favorite place in KC!)
things are interesting. it’s been weird not going back to school with everyone else that’s back in Utah. not as weird as I thought it was going to be, but still weird. sometimes I get major FOMO for all the cool things I hear about going on back in Provo.
it’s also weird being in a phase that, for the first time in my life, doesn’t really have a concrete end date. I don’t have an end date for living in Kansas City, I don’t have an end date for being an unmarried person, I don’t have an end date for…really anything. life feels different knowing that at this point any serious progression or movement is really up to me.
but! overwhelmingly, life is a good place to be. I really, really love it here. there are so many things for me to learn in every single section of my life, and I’m excited to see how everything plays out.
so I went to new york city back in September! I never blogged about it because I haven’t been much of one for blogging lately, but I feel like it needs to be written somewhere, so we’re doing it! I figure I can’t go to nyc and not say anything about it because I spend so much time talking about that place here on this blog. just giving the people what they want!
mostly this’ll probably be a photo dump for posterity’s sake. but still kinda fun!
[for context, I went with a bunch of kids and professors in my program here at school (advertising). we visited ad agencies, attended some industry-related panels, and also did a bunch of other random stuff in our free time. we were there for a week (the longest I’ve ever spent in the city), and it was glorious.]
a bunch of us girls got an airbnb in brooklyn that was conveniently a couple blocks away from the J train that we took every day into manhattan. the apartment had a great view of the rooftops of brooklyn, and I discovered at the start of the week that if you looked really hard into the distance there was one building that had “BELIEVE IT” graffitied onto the side of it. so rad. (hi, thank you new york gods!!)
some of the other best moments:
one night a few of us were wandering around the Village and stumbled into Washington Square Park. we’re walking around toward the fountain and the arch when I hear piano music coming from somewhere.
and not just any random piano music. classical piano music.
there’s a freaking grand piano sitting right in the middle of the park by the fountain. stopppp.
so we sit down and listen to the guy play “moonlight sonata” and a bunch of other good stuff. and just soak in alllll the vibessss.
but then! but then! it doesn’t stop there!
then a man and a woman (probs in their mid-20s?) get up by the piano and start dancing. gorgeous, ballet/acrobatic dancing.
and then!
then they get on top of the piano. and keep dancing on the piano.
tbh at that moment I was maybe 65% concerned that they were going to break the piano. or fall off. but they didn’t break it, and they didn’t fall off, and it was beautiful.
NEW YORK CITY, KIDS.
later that same night we discovered this little coffee shop called “the uncommons.” except it wasn’t just a coffee shop. it was one of those places where you can pay $5 in addition to your coffee (or hot chocolate, ha, mormon!) and they have their walls covered with board games that you can play for as long as you want to. which I guess is a thing now, provo? well we didn’t know it was a thing, so we all vowed to start a place like that in provo, because provo would eat that kind of thing up.
ha and then we got back to provo and legit 2 weeks later that random game place on center street pops up that is the exact same thing. (except decidedly lacking in the vibes department) ah well. logan, anyone?
fearless girl! advertisinggggg!!!!
near the end of the week we went to a yankees game, which was so. cool. I love baseball and the yankees and I fangirled a little about actually being there. (can you fangirl at a baseball game? does that count as fangirling? or is it just being a fan?)
random firsts (touristy places I’d actually never been to before) (this is a posterity blog post, remember?):
grand central station
chelsea market (too many food options in one place!)
the high line (this was actually so good. we went at night when it wasn’t very busy and just strolled (like a real, leisurely stroll) and caught the feelings of what it would be like to actually live there. and also had a semi-deep chat about how advertising is so good.
NY public library (didn’t go in, but hey! we took a picture on the steps! …on someone else’s phone, so sorry friends, I don’t have it, but it happened!)
Magnolia Bakery
aaaand here’s a dump of all the random photos that don’t have a real story associated with them!
(do I look like a new yorker yet?? ^^^)
(those last 2 were from the high line^^^)
nyc 2017 was killer. and now the blog knows all about it!
the end.
(also, if you care to read something kinda fun about my NY obsession, click this!)
reading all the new york city books i can get my hands on.
craving travel. europe sounds like a fantastic idea right about now. ukraine, anyone? and new york too {but that’s pretty much a given}.
also craving the mountains and the forest and nature. and trying to figure out how i find it enjoyable to swim in high mountain lakes created by snowmelt, but when our water heater stops working and i have to take a freezing cold shower i can barely bring myself to stick a toe in. {mini-story: then the plumber comes and fixes the water heater and all seems well in the world until your roommate comes home later and the whole apartment smells like gas, so there’s a slight concern that your house is going to explode (is that a thing?). and she calls management and they look at it and the pilot light has gone out but the plumber can’t come back until tomorrow so that means no hot water at least until tomorrow morning. and i haven’t washed my hair since sunday because dry shampoo is great and the low-maintenance life is the best, although it’s getting to the point where it really needs some shampoo. plan of action: go on a killer run in the morning, jump in the shower as soon as i get home so the cold water feels excellent. end of mini-story.}
watching this commercial over and over again. dang. NYC + style + mindblowing-ly profound copy. plus armani has all these other short film-esque commercials in this series that are so. good.
remembering just how much i love writing. and reading. and remembering that it’s so important to fill your days with what you love.
working on feeling adequate with independence. it’s hard when you live in a culture that is constantly pushing dating in your face, but for right now i think there’s something so great about being strong and confident and killing it at life because you love yourself. and Heavenly Father has it all worked out. :)
learning patience in all things. and contentment. and happiness in the details.
have a rad rest of your week! {photos taken on a roommate excursion up by aspen grove a couple weekends ago. utah rocks at nature.}
Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the mundane, in the typical and normal and very much regular that is all around. The same routines, the same classes, the same people, the same clothes, the same hair.
But then every once in a while, there’s a day like today, where goodness, the world is beautiful. So dang beautiful and refreshing and full of life. When you decide to walk a different way to class, and the trees are gorgeous, and so are the people, and then there are some new faces! And you notice the life and personality in everyone, just by walking past them.
Then there’s the best hour-long break yet this year, where every attractive man in the entire universe seems to be in the Wilk. And there’s music playing, and then Chick-Fil-A with Mikelle and then, oh hi, there’s my attracive TA {Caroline and I are currently fighting over who gets to marry him}, and just LIFE.
Then special relativity madness in class for an hour, where my mind is blown but it’s the greatest thing ever. No chance of switching majors, but the basic concept is quite interesting.
And Pandora Radio, you are my best friend. Forever and always.
And then this evening I had the greatest walk home from campus. There’s a definite difference between the before-class-walk, and the between-class-walk, and the after-class-walk, I’ve decided. I love my evening walks home. Lately I seem to be doing a lot of going home around 5:00ish, when the sun is barely starting to set, and the way the light streams through the trees and filters into pools on the ground is just glorious. Campus is relatively quiet, so I can really hear myself think without worrying about navigating around the masses of people that are everywhere during the middle of the day. My route home takes me to the southwest corner of campus, which is fairly brimming with trees and other similar nature, plus there’s the Maeser Building, which is beautiful and stately all on its own. Anyway, all of those lovely bits of the world were present on my walk home, and it was so good. I’m determined that when I leave Provo someday, I will have a plethora of soaked-up life moments stored in my memory, and also here on this blog, of my days in this little corner of the world.
On another note, because this is going to be a post that is, once again, full of the random, here are some various thoughts on life lately…
Latest observation: I love passionate people – people that are so obsessed with what they do, that love their major {and the rest of their life, too?} with all their heart and get so excited whenever they talk about it. Fingers crossed that I get into the ad program, and then I’ll feel like I have full license to freak out over all the cool stuff I get to do. I’m kind of at that point right now, but then there’s that nagging voice in the back of my head, ‘um, what if you don’t get in? then you’ll seem a tad bit lame getting so excited over consumer insights and branding and such?’ But then, heck yes I’m going to work my tail off to get in, so hopefully I’ll kill it per personal determination and all will be well in the world. Enthusiasm is the best.
The best thing was talking about copywriting in my ad class last night, with that other voice in my head saying, ‘yes yes yes I am a writer and I can make pretty words happen and life is great!’ Although I’m still thinking more brand strategy than straight copywriting, but it feels good to know that I can also maybe do the copywriter thing. And we were talking about this kid who is a copywriter and apparently reads 5 books a week and that helps him be so good, and that gave me the itch to read books again. So new life goal: READ! I think that people that are well-read are rad. They’re pretty much my favorite. I love the idea of being able to talk about random interesting topics all the time. Yes, life goals.
Also, I’m turning hipster. At least mentally. My current wardrobe isn’t letting me, since everything that I currently own fits under the category of “classy classy classy.” So we’ll see how creative I get. But the hipster mental inclinations are there, so thanks Provo. And I’ve decided that advertising is a hipster major. I don’t know how, but somehow the majority of the ad majors are hipsters. Hipster seems to be like a disease – you immerse yourself in that culture {*cough* Provo} and then you catch the bug.
On the subject of drastic appearance change, I want to dye my hair, which is a big deal. I think the whole dark-roots-light-blonde-on-the-rest look is the coolest. But then I take a look in the mirror and heck no way am I giving up the hair that’s on my head right now, because I actually really love my natural hair color, but then again, a hair change would be kinda fun. Give me a few years and then maybe I’ll finally convince myself. Or maybe after I get married? So not for a few years then haha?
But Provo is so great. I love living in a place where everyone dresses nice, and everyone is ridiculously friendly to the whole world. And then the thing about passionate people – Provo is chock-full of enthusiastic people, and I love it.
And lastly, for your viewing pleasure, being a pre-ad major has helped me develop a love of great commercials, so y’all can check out my personal favorites, if you feel so inclined.
^^^these North Face ones make me want to go have an adventure in the wilderness right. now.
^^^just lovely.
^^^dying. So funny. “I’ve already had like four babies…” ahahaha…
{love, Tessa Brynn}
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Other places to find me (a.k.a. let’s be friends!):
T E S S 