adulting – Rosie Culture

Accepting The Past

I feel like I have been through so many versions of myself. I was once shy, cold, and moody in high school. I was a push-over and boyfriend obsessed my first half of college. I was reckless and couldn’t be caught when I graduated college. And now I am settled, finding new parts of myself, and trying to fit in the old parts.

But the old parts make me cringe. Parts of my life that I used to be so fond of now seem so embarrassing. I have a hard time accepting my past, so I try to just repress the memories. Some of them were good, some were bad, but my over-thinking self really only remembers the times when I felt the worst.

Accepting the past is hard because dwelling on mistakes is easy. Even though I’ve moved on in life and those experiences got me to where I was, I still kind of wish they never happened.

I drank too much sometimes, kissed the wrong guys in the wrong places at the wrong time. I turned down opportunities to make other people happy. I held on to friends who were never good to me. And it all still hurts like fresh wounds when I let the thoughts creep back.

How do I accept the past when the bad times simply blind me? I want to enjoy the life I’ve lived, not regret it.

Capture — Photo by: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifeel_infinite/

PostGrad

The Hookup On: 2k Q&A!

Thank you all for asking me amazing questions and celebrating my 2,000 WordPress followers with me. Below are the answers to your questions! 🙂

1. Has your blog followed the path that you wanted it to take or has the content you published changed? What’s been the biggest influence of that change?

So my blog has definitely taken the path I wanted it to take, but the content has really changed. It started out as a relationship blog called Hookup Culture, but as I evolved and grew (this blog is three years old as of the end of October) I changed it to Rosie Culture and made it more personal. The biggest influence of that change was graduating college and then ultimately leaving behind the single life and entering the relationship I’m currently in.

2. What’s your favorite blog post that you’ve done?

I really love the series I did on being better off without my exes. You can start here and go backwards.

3. Least favorite?

Anything I wrote when I was first starting out lol. I really had to dig deep for this one, a very dry post about Tinder.

4. What sort of influence does your blog have on your real life (or vice versa)?

When I was in college, it was almost kind of a negative impact because boys would ask me if I was writing about them and it just created like this weird vibe when I was dating people. Now, it has been super helpful to me mostly because of the advice I’m offered and I have an avenue that I’m not judged on.

5. What do you like most about the U.K?

While it’s on my list of places to go, I’ve never been to the UK! I have to say my favorite thing that I know about the country though is the awesome accents and slang! 🙂

6. How long have you been blogging, and what are some of your favorites to follow?

At the end of this month, it will be three years! Here are some blogs that I really love 🙂

7. A question for my boyfriend: Do you read Rosie’s blog? Is it helpful to your relationship to read her insights or do you feel awkward knowing certain posts are about you that random bloggers are reading?

I do read Rosie’s blog! I check it almost every day, and I actually read it occasionally when it crossed my path in college, back in the Hookup Culture days.

I think it’s super helpful to read it. Sometimes it’s a little weird to know things are about me and strangers are reading them, but I’m comfortable enough with myself and with us that it doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I think that in relationships, the most important things are honesty and communication. And it’s not always easy to be honest about the tough things, or figure out a way to express how you’re feeling. The blog really helps me understand where Rosie’s head is at on things – how she’s feeling, what she’s feeling, what works, what doesn’t – and it even gives me insight into how things have made her feel previously. Our relationship is successful partly because of this blog and the WordPress community because both provide her with an outlet to clear her head and get her thoughts out there. Plus, she literally puts checklists of what she wants to do each season up, which is like handing me date ideas on a silver platter.

8. How do you balance blogging, work, social calendar and the other things life throws your way?

I think it’s a little easier for me because social media and writing come very naturally to me. Usually I write my blog posts during my lunch break or while I’m walking on the treadmill then schedule them. I also have a content calendar for my Instagram. I just kind of consider it a second job that always needs my attention!

9. What makes you more excited on your own blog?

Sometimes I ramble when I write, so I get pretty excited when people leave comments and actually understand what I’m saying lol.

10. What makes your readers get connected to your blog?

I don’t really know. I know my break up and dating posts help a lot of people because it’s not something widely talked about and I always try to be as honest as possible.

11. Have you ever regretted a post that you’ve written?

No, but I do feel bad about how hard I was on some people I wrote about.

12. Do you ever struggle with how much of your life you want to share on your blog? Are there any topics/issues that are off limits?

I do struggle sometimes with how much I feel like I can really put out there because of my professional life. I limit my cursing and anything inappropriate. One thing I almost never talk about anywhere is politics.

Thanks everyone for reading! xoxo

Rosie

The Hookup On...

The Hookup On: 2,000 WordPress Followers and Q&A

I’m so excited to announce that after many months of being on my list of goals, I finally reached 2,000 followers here on WordPress!

I don’t think I thank this community enough for being such an amazing platform that offers me different points of view, advice, and even agrees with me when I’m not sure if what I’m saying is agreeable. Thank you all so much.

To all my new and old followers, I’d love to do a little Q&A for you to get to know me better. You can always check out my about me or this old Q&A I did a while ago. But I want to give everyone the opportunity to ask any questions that might pop up when they’re reading my blog.

Please drop a question below and I will write a post in the next week with all of my answers ☺️

Relationships

Your Relationship Will Always Require Work

I grew up reading romances and pawning over Nicholas Sparks movies. It seemed to me that love was hard at first, but then you would get over the initial battle and everything would be like a fairy tale.

But I think we all learn the hard way that relationships are hard, even when you’ve found the right one.

Emotions are emotions. They are unreliable and powerful, and love may be the most volatile of them all. Even if you’ve met the one, your relationship will always require work.

You’ll always find something to fight about whether it’s over getting enough attention or putting the cap back on the toothpaste.

It requires constant effort. You can’t just buy flowers during the honeymoon stage then sit back and relax for the next 50 years. What kind of life or relationship would that be?

But the effort and the work and the bickering is all worth it for the person you love and want to be with. There will be trials and tests, big and little problems. Life isn’t a fairy tale, but a little work in a relationship goes a long way towards your happy ending.

PostGrad

Rethink Your Anger

I wrote this last weekend before the tragedy in Las Vegas and I think it rings even truer now.

I was at the gym this weekend when I heard a guy scolding a woman for taking his yoga mat in the free weights area. She thought it was unoccupied because people often just leave the mats all over the floor and she apologized.

He began telling her to shut up and was just being extremely rude while she explained that it was unneccessary. She said that they are both humans so there is no need to get angry over a mistake. He kept being rude, then she called him an asshole – and I don’t blame her lol.

The whole thing just made me wonder why you would waste your energy getting angry over something so little when there are so many huge problems in the world.

And there is so much hate in the world. To spread it even further over someone taking your mat at the gym is laughable. Why keep spreading the opposite of what the world needs?

Choose to ignore the little things. Accept apologies. Be kind.

The Hookup On...

The Hookup On: Blog Posts You Missed

I have been a super busy bee lately, so I decided to link you all to some of my pretty old blog posts that you probably missed but I still love!

Check out the posts below and feel free to leave any of your favorite posts in the comments for me to check out 🙂

You could have met your future spouse before you even turned 16 ?!!?

Be your own #1 fan

Do you like him or do you like the attention?

Can you date someone with the same name as your ex?

Being alone was the most important thing I learned in college

You’re not the exception

Worst online dating pick up lines

And my absolute favorite, the I’m Glad We Didn’t Work Out series. All 6 of the blogs for this series are linked here.

The Hookup On...

The Hookup On: My Social Media

I’ve gotten some new followers lately so this is for them (and the old followers who have yet to click the links :p) – if you like my blog check out my social media! While I’m super active on Instagram, I’ve been stepping up my Facebook and Twitter game! Please drop your social media links in the comments so we can all check you out! 🙂

Instagram: @rosieculture

Facebook: facebook.com/rosieculture

Twitter: @rosieculture