Hi everyone!

There are only a few days left of the semester (oh, how time flies!) and I’m well into my final papers along with getting ready for my final exams. In a week and a half, I’ll be headed back to New York once everything is done, and this is around the time I always feel super reflective about my semester. I tend to find myself looking back on some of my favorite moments before hopping on the plane home, so I figured I’d share those moments with you guys before I go home and tell my friends and family all about them too!

Getting Published

This HAS to be the most exciting part of my semester! This year, I was determined to start being published in magazines outside of the University of Iowa, and I’m proud to say that I’ve officially achieved that goal! This year, I have a piece published in Open Ceilings (a magazine that publishes out of UC Davis), and early next year, I have a fiction piece coming out in Litro magazine and a poem coming out in the upcoming issue of Moonbow magazine.

That being said, I still have so much love for the University of Iowa’s on-campus magazines and I’m happy to announce that I have a piece being published in the next issue of Fools magazine and two pieces being published in Wilder Things sometime in January of 2024. As an aspiring writer, these publications truly mean the world to me, and I’m excited to see where I go next year as I continue my journey to being published in more magazines across the country!

Moving into my First Apartment

Living in an apartment has been a whole new side of adulting that has had its ups and downs, but overall, I absolutely love it. My best friend, Sydney, and I killed it with living together this semester and our apartment has become such a fun place to stay, even if it can be unconventional at times. Whether it’s the time I couldn’t turn off the stoves, the time when the washer and dryer totally broke down on us, and even the time when we had to call the fire department to help us shut off the alarms in our building, living with Sydney has been an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to keep living with her for the next year and a half!

Traveling

This semester has been full to the brim with traveling. From Chicago to Omaha, to Breckenridge, I’ve gotten to see so much of the Midwest in just a couple of months. I’ll never forget watching Billie Eilish perform in front of a crowd of a hundred thousand people, the glowing jellyfish of the Henry Doorly Zoo, or the lush forests and towering mountains of Colorado. Every trip has been unique in its own way, and I hope to continue traveling in 2024 and exploring more places this country has to offer!

Seeing Brittany Broski LIVE

This is a bit niche, but I absolutely LOVED getting to see and hear Brittany Broski talk as one of our guest speakers for the semester. For those of you who don’t know, Brittany is a TikTok influencer, and she’s truly one of the funniest people I’ve ever seen live. Even though I ended up being in the very back of the room, I was belly laughing the entire show, and I know my friends and I had an amazing time seeing her talk.

Swae Lee’s Concert on the Pentacrest

In the same vein as seeing Brittany Broski, homecoming this year consisted of a concert with Swae Lee being the headliner! He absolutely rocked his performance, and me and my roommate were jumping up and down, singing, and laughing the whole show. It was incredible to hear the entire crowd of Hawkeyes singing “Sunflower” and I can honestly say that I’m a Swae Lee fan after seeing him perform in person.

Spending Quality Time with Friends

There isn’t an exact moment to pinpoint with my friends that I can say is a “top moment” for the semester because every minute with them is truly memorable. Even though they’re some of the busiest people I know, I love how often we prioritize getting together whether it’s just doing homework, celebrating birthdays, Halloween parties, or going to one another’s events, I’m so lucky to have friends that make the University of Iowa feel like home.

We still have a couple more semesters until we all graduate, and I can’t wait to see what we cook up in the next three semesters!

Celebrating my One-Year Anniversary with my Boyfriend

Speaking of meaningful relationships, this semester I officially celebrated my one-year anniversary with my boyfriend, Riley. We got dressed up, exchanged gifts, and got dinner at the Vue where we spent some much-needed quality time together and ate some delicious food! We’ve been through so much and it was a great night to be able to celebrate one another and how far we’ve both come in the past year.

I think those are my top seven moments this semester, and wow! They sure are memorable! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me in 2024 and don’t worry, I’ll be sure to take you all on that journey with me!

Thank you so much for reading my posts this year, and here’s to the new year! See you then!