Hey everyone! It’s been awhile since I’ve given updates on my life or blog. I do monthly updates but that’s mostly about what’s happened just that month, not long-term events or plans for the future in my life. I just do blog updates whenever I think it’s necessary.

Starting with blog updates, the first change has been my layout! I updated to a newer version of the layout I was using before. I don’t feel that it really fits my blog anymore, but I haven’t found a new theme that I like either so I’m sticking with this for now. I might also change my banner for my page, but we’ll see!

Next, I’m announcing a change in one of my regular monthly posts. At the end of every month I have four posts that I continue and they change based on what I did that month. The one that is changing is the “My Riding Life” posts which will now be called “My Lively Life”. This post will now be about all my hobbies as a whole. The main reason for this is because I am no longer riding, but more on that later.

Lastly, but most importantly, thank you for 150 followers! I really appreciate each and every one of you following! While I don’t write a blog for the numbers it is nice to reach these milestones. Thank you!

Now for some life updates. First up, since I already brought this up, I am no longer riding and will be focusing on other things. I didn’t stop riding because I don’t like it or anything like that, on the contrary, I was loving it! But the instructor I had acted very unprofessionally at our last lesson, which I wrote about in my riding post for February, and I just never went back. I did make a good effort into finding a new barn, I reached out to one that I found online that I thought I would like but they never emailed me back and then I got sick so I wasn’t able to put any more effort into the search for a new barn. For now, I am going to stop riding but I plan to go back to it in the future.

In lieu of riding I had been planning to start swimming. I was a pretty good swimmer in high school, I had worked my way up to the Varsity team and was Team Captain my Senior year, but wasn’t able to continue because the college I picked didn’t have a swim team. I briefly looked into community teams but the only teams I could really find were USA Masters programs with schedules that didn’t really fit mine. For now I am going to table this idea as well but I do plan to look for some sort of physical activity to continue my road to a healthy lifestyle.

Enough of what I’m not going to do! As for what I am going to do? I’m going to apply to graduate school! At the time of writing this post I was out all morning at an information session regarding graduate programs at my alma mater, Elmhurst College. I have looked high and low for a program that is affordable, flexible with their schedule, reputable, and does not require a GMAT. EC has been the only school so far that meets all my criteria and makes me excited to want to attend! I have to write a statement of purpose, get three letters of recommendation, interview for the program, and face the dreaded FAFSA again but it’s been four years since I graduated school already (I graduated early) so I think I’ve had enough time off.

I don’t particularly think I’m at the point in my career where I need an MBA but I have found a place in the travel industry, and I know if I continue in my current place of employment, I’ll eventually be traveling for work and I don’t want to have to miss class because I’m working. My current job is dependable office hours with no overtime so I know that I have time to dedicate to my studies and I’m excited to do it! Of course, I have to be accepted first!

I think that I rejection will be a possibility because of my lack of experience. Most of my work experience is in the customer service field, a field that I have zero interest in. In fact, my current job is customer service, officially. Unofficially I’m doing a lot more than that, but my job description doesn’t reflect that. The reason for this is because my department is very, very small and new in the company. We’re given enough freedom to experiment but that hasn’t reached to job titles or descriptions, which still reflect the rest of the company. But that being said, I don’t have anyone that works directly under me and I’m the least senior in my position in my department, although I am the most highly educated. But like I said, I work in an industry that will eventually ask for more of my time, so I do want to get my MBA ASAP!

I also think that acceptance is a good possibility though. I know the school and know I’ll do well in the program. I’m a great student so I know the work won’t drag me down but rather make me work harder. I have the time and energy to dedicate to my studies and the resources to make sure that I can afford it. Plus I also know that it will help me in the future so I have that motivation as well. And when I graduate I won’t let it be 3 years before I finally buy a frame for the degree!

This program is a two year program, with courses in the evening or online, and I even get the first class free for having attended EC as an undergraduate student! The program director is one of my former undergraduate professors so I know it’s quality education, having gone through it before. In fact, I even had some classes with graduate students as an undergrad, although they were doing much more rigorous work of course. This is the first program I’ve come across honestly that has made getting an MBA sound appealing.

As a result of this decision to apply to school and go if I am accepted I am going to cut back on all expenses. That means no more hauls, or buying beauty products I don’t need (although I’ll miss my Sephora shopping sprees), and all my books will be coming from the library (except for a very select few and they mostly do anyway so it’s not a huge change I guess). Now my most expensive hobby will just be my tickets to musicals. I have already bought a season ticket for Broadway in Chicago and a bunch of other shows and have two more shows that I plan on buying tickets for when they go on sale. However I am going to be much more selective on which shows I go see and I will not be renewing my subscription for the upcoming season. If a really fantastic season comes up I’ll make an effort to purchase it but my school fees will come first.

I want as little debt as possible and I’ll be attempting to pay as much up front than with loans. Otherwise I am going to really cut back on what I spend on and will try to pay my student loans even while they are in deferment as well.

Since I am going to be saving as much money as possible I am going to focus on my hobbies that have little to no expenses for me now. If you’ve followed me for a while you’ll know I am a writer, so I plan to outline a book this year and perhaps write it for NaNoWriMo, depending on my school workload. NaNoWriMo is a yearly competition where participants try to write a 50,000 word page novel in the month of November. I want to start school in the fall so we’ll see how that goes! But I do have a few ideas that I really need to get out of my head and into a Google Doc!

Other hobbies will of course still be reading, perhaps running, and I have a ton of supplies that I bought over the years when I go through “I want to be a painter/drawing master/photographer” and so on. I am going to try to use that instead of going out and paying for lessons on something. I also still have my flute that I used to play so I might dig that up and hopefully it still works.

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Phew that was a lot! If you’re still reading thank you for sticking through it! If you’re one of my followers, then a super special thank you to you! So let me know, what’s something that’s going on in your life or a change you’re making to your blog? I really want to know I’m not the only one making changes here! 🙂

Thanks for reading!