Well, I'm Back.

It's been a while!

Well...school has been keeping me plenty busy. At first, it felt like it would be a breeze, but at the beginning of the 4th week of the semester now I'm not so sure about that! I'm taking Biology 2, Intro to the Teaching Profession, Theories and Practice Teaching ESOL, and... College Algebra. Honestly, my schedule isn't so bad. I have Bio on MWF and the lab on Fridays and my other 3 classes only meet once a week, all on Tuesday and no class on Thursday. What makes it difficult is the fact that College Algebra is uuber time consuming (and running my life). I'm actually in the middle of some homework right now and decided to take a break. (At least I found something semi-productive to do.) I have a service learning project in my Intro to Teaching class and I'm excited to get started. I get to volunteer in a local school and gain some classroom experience!

Lately, I've been thinking about what I want to do after graduation. I'm not so sure, yet. Grad school is definitely a possibility. I just don't know ho soon after graduation that can happen for me. It's crazy how time flies! I feel like I was just a Senior in high school not too long ago. I'm a Junior this year and I'm looking at an expected graduation date of Spring 2013. I'm glad that it's a goal that's actually in reach and very attainable. I just feel like everything is going good for me. Loving life right now!

I went to my first football game Saturday night. We played NC State and lost...but it was fun anyway!



~LaDai

Back to School...

I'm really just in the spirit of appreciating these last 2 weeks I have here at home before I have to go back to school. Spending time with my family and friends, just the summer in general has been pretty awesome! I really like being a student and I'm just ready to get the semester started. I'm taking 4 classes: Biology 2, Chemistry (which I am retaking lol), Introduction to the Teaching Profession, and Theory & Practice Teaching ESOL Students; all of which I'm pretty excited about taking! It should be a pretty interesting semester this fall.

Another thing to be excited about is the fact that I'll be getting new roommates this year! This go round, I have opted to live with 3 of my friends. For the last 2 years, I've had random roommate assignments and although they haven't turned out horrible, I just never really made a connection with any of the other girls. I'm looking forard to living with people I already know, actually will enjoy being around, and not coming home and heading straight to my bedroom.

The only thing I'm worried about is I know it can be a different situation living with friends. We're all cool girls with diffferent personalities and that's beneficial to our friendships together because we all bring different qualities to share with one another. As far as living together, I'm a little eager to see what the mix of our personalities will stir up. Regardless, relationships with other people never always consist of blue skies and sunny days, but I think we'll be able to handle living with eachother. It's going to get crazy at times, I know this lol...But I love my girls and I know we'll make it work!

~LaDai

Penny for your thoughts

This is just something that I've noticed. I've tried my hardest to ignore it, but the more I hear it, the more it bothers me...

What is up with some people being all over this light skin, yellow, redbone...etc...frenzy lately?? I know the thought has been around for ages, but it seems like it's more prevalent now or maybe I'm just taking notice. It seems like it's coming from everywhere, especially in the music...mainstream "hip-hop/rap" to be exact.

Women already have pressure to look a certain way because of images in the media. Now this particular genre of music is targeting black women by basically saying we have to have a certain skin tone to be attractive to our men. Whether you are fair skinned like Faith Evans or as dark skinned as Alek Wek, we are all beautiful! I just wish that more of our music and anything else in the media would portray that!!

Faith Evans

Alek Wek

Fortunately for myself, I grew up in a household where I was taught the difference. I know that even if my mother is a few shades lighter than me, I am no less beautiful. Same with anyone else. It's the little dark skin girls who have no one to tell them they're beautiful or no one to tell them they're gorgeous no matter what their skin tone is or what they see portrayed in the media that I worry about.

I've read alot about how the color complex came about, but what I don't understand is how it still exists as something that we as black people put on ourselves. We are all one as a people no matter what we look like...Why should it matter who's "light" or who's "dark"? We're all black people. We're all gorgeous.

*I don't own or claim the rights to any of the pictures I post if they're not of me or I haven't taken them myself*

~LaDai

I Know My Heart Will guide Me There

I got a new haircut yesterday! I haven't relaxed it in a while so I have lots of new growth! Like I said in a previous post, I'm ready for a fade. BUT I went to a new barber and he said he didn't want to cut it all off so I didn't let him lol...When you tell someone what you want for your hair and they tell you they don't want to do it, it most likely means they CAN'T lol! I wasn't in a babershop so I didn't sweat it. I'm just going to continue to not relax my hair and take good care of my new growth, which is feeling so lovely right now! I don't use my flat iron daily anymore, so I would say I'm making pretty good progress.

I'm using the Hydralicious conditioning shampoo and Organic's Olive Oil as a leave in conditioner while it's still wet. I've been letting it air dry for the most part lately and blow drying when I don't have the time. Nothing too complicated, I'm letting my hair do it's own thing!

~Dai

♥ Five Things About Me ♥

Five things you will find if you open my bag:
(hmmm...let's open it)
1. Lip Gloss
2. Eyeshadow -- Just in case lol..
3. iPod
4. Planner
5. VS Pink with a Splash in Fresh & Clean -- small lotion and body mist

Five things in my bedroom:
1. Books
2. Teddy Bear
3. Soft Blue Throw
4. Laptop
5. Big comfyyy bed !

Five things I’ve always wanted to do in my life:
1. Finish school
2. Smile everyday !
3. Teach good children lol
4. Get married and have lots of babiessss
5. Looooove everyone ♥♥♥

Five things that make me very happy:
1. Sunshiiiine
2. Laughing
3. Being around the people who make me feel good -- Fam and/or friends
4. Cosmooo Mag
5. Food

Five things I’m currently into:
1. Sudoku
2. Anything Natural
3. Twitter
4. Blogging
5. Cuban sandwiches

Five things on my to-do list:
1. Study more, spend more time in the library
2. Get in shape
3. Keep up with my blog
4. Laugh more
5. Find more things I'm good at or just enjoy doing

Five things some people may or may not know about me:
1. I'm a total bookworm! I LOVE to read!
2. I'm more girly now than I've ever been before
3. I'm kind of artsy...I have some art related talents :)
4. I have 7 piercings and 1 tattoo.
5.

May have to come back to this...I have to do more thinking lol...

~Dai

Baby Mom -- Baby Dad

...As in a mother/father who is basically still a baby, too young for a baby. I'm watching TV right now and I feel compelled to blog about the issue.

With teen pregnancy on the rise and no longer such a taboo issue as it has been in the past, it's kind of hard to ignore; especially with it plastered all over the media with shows like Teen Mom on MTV and we all know about Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin. It's hard to imagine anyone who doesn't have an opinion on the issue.

I can applaud teens for owning up to their actions and taking complete responsibility, but when they don't, where does it stop? You have some girls and guys out there who aren't 20 yet and have 3 or 4 kids already. Who takes the blame? Who's responsibility is it? Is it society's fault or are we going to pin it on the parents? Why aren't we faulting these kids, these baby moms and dads? I know one thing, we can't blame the media for this problem, or any other problem in our society.

What completely blows me away is the fact that people want to place blame in the media. I've heard people say that watching Teen Mom makes teens want to go out there and have babies. Stop depending on the TV to raise your kids! Frankly, watching this show makes me gag. This shows does not inspire me to want to go have a baby or be anything related to the nature of a mother. Anyone who says they do after watching, is clearly missing out on reality. I think this show does a good job of depicting how hard it is to be a parent at such a young age. Some of these girls in the beginning have the idea that they're still going to hang out and party or have anything resembling a social life. LIE. These girls figure out pretty quick that everything they do or associate with has to revolve around their baby. Anything that isn''t going to help them be a good mother has to be let go. Seeing the difference in these girls between Season 1 and Season 2, it's pretty obvious the lessons they've learned. It's unbelievable how much they've been forced to grow up in such a short amount of time as a consequence of their actions. But that's what happens when you don't use condoms,kids.

Yes, of course, we can have better sex education courses in schools or less sex depicted in the media, and blah, blah, blah. SURE. The most important thing is that parents need to do the parenting; not the media, not school, not their peers. anything kids learn, parents need to be the first teacher.

Please watch Teen Mom with adult supervision and use condoms when necessary.

~LaDai

I'm Ready!

I know it's been a while! It's been a busy summer so far. I have finished my job at a school in the area and I'm just winding down, getting back to my own routine. I posted a blog about it: (http://www.misshaywood.blogspot.com) Even though I'm still working, I have a lot of time on my hands to ponder things of the world. Well, more personally...I've been thinking (and thinking) about going natural.

As you may (or may not) know, I've been horribly procrastinating cutting my hair. I still want to do it, though! What I've been doing in the mean time, is finding other ways to be natural. I'm transitioning on using all natural soaps. I've found a Whole Foods Market in the area and I picked up some natural skin care items. I found a Vitamin E soap, chammomile, and a combination goat's milk/lavender soap. I'm working on finishing my Victoria's Secret washes, then I'm fully using all natural soaps. It's just better for your skin in general. If I could find a great natural shampoo/conditioner I'd be great! Whole Foods is a little expensive. I have to save my pennies!

I watched the Good Hair doc/movie by Chris Rock and I'm really inspired to go natural even more. Watching the part where he talks about relaxers, I couldn't believe that this is something we put in our hair! It's disturbing, to be honest. So whenever I happen to just feel it, I'm going to put all hesitation aside and go for it! Can't say when! But it's going to happen...VERY SOON!

So stay tuned! I'll be around these parts more often!

~LaDai