Maybe you can relate.

As an avid concert goer who's been to many shows in venues across the country,  I can tell you with confidence that my favorite venue in the world is right here in RVA, at The National. 

I like to think the reason why I'm so loyal to The National is because of the countless memories created here: meeting A$AP Ferg and Jay Pharoh, seeing what goes on behind the scenes by setting up an event for The Bobby Bones Show, and almost passing out from heat exhaustion before seeing 2 Chainz.
​
I've seen countless artists perform along with my best friends, and have had crazy moments caught on camera and forever framed in my memory. I've even had funny uber moments after shows, including running up a 90 dollar uber tab that I am low key too embarrassed to elaborate on.

Almost every day I'm feverishly looking on their website to see what new dates are added and I'm okay with paying an additional 11 dollars in "convenience" fees if it means I'll be seeing my favorite artist. At this point of my life, I'll pay any amount of money to go to a show. 

Recently, I finally worked up the courage to go to a show by myself and went to see Kevin Gates perform.  I was scared to go, even though I'm an extrovert, but doing some things by yourself for the first time can be scary, and I'm allowed to be nervous. Luckily I was smart enough to kill time with a few glasses of Bombay at Penny Lane Pub , and  had fun singing my favorite songs and dancing as crazy as I wanted. I even ended the night by indulging in some delicious Korean food from J Kogi around the corner. Check out my favorite picture from the show:

Once you start traveling  a lot, you come up with a set of rules you swear by every time you book a flight or a hotel room. Here's a list of 10 essential things I believe you must do every time you travel. 

1. Make friends with the people who serve you.

• Flight attendants and your waiters/waitresses are the people you want to be friends with. They're usually from different parts of the world, and since they meet people all over the world, they have excellent insight on things including but not limited to: how to not be a Boat Hoe, and if you're lucky enough, sometimes they'll sneak you free wine from your flight.

2.  If you're traveling with friends, put all of your names on the reservations you make.

• This isn't thought of when booking a room or flights, but if you and your friends are arriving in a city at different times, it can be extremely helpful. You don't want to wander around Miami at night with a bottle of sangria for 2 hours while you're waiting for a friend's flight to land. 

3. Rent bikes in a bike friendly town.

• This is a great way to get to know a city a  bit more personally while getting some great exercise. It may be a little daunting to get on a bike if you haven't rode one in years, but muscle memory is a wonderful thing. If you can't rent a bike, I suggest looking up a city bike tour.

4.  Ask bartenders to make you drinks the locals enjoy.

• This is especially  true out of the country. Just don't drink enough where your night becomes a blur, or do. 

5. Try new styles and looks.

• I always say that traveling is the best time to try things you've been to scared to do while at home. Have a dress you want to wear but don't have an occasion? Wear it to dinner in Los Angeles. Want to try that new lip color but are scared to wear it at work? Wear it with a smokey eye in a club in Istanbul. Whatever you want to wear, don't hold yourself back from it.

6.  Look  at the stars.

• We don't look at the sky often, but it is a sight to behold. Not only are you able to see new constellations from different parts of the world, but realizing your smallness in the universe in another country is a humbling experience.

7. If you know another language, talk to native speakers.

• ​Don't be afraid if you only know "hi" and "bye" in German. Often if you tell someone who speaks another language that you speak their language they'll help you. It might be difficult considering the language barrier, but it's fun finding that common ground with someone. We take speaking English for granted, so seeing how to handle it from the other side is a fun challenge to come across.

8. Appreciate those who go out of their way to travel with you.

• I like to find cute stationary so I can write my friends thank you letters if they've traveled with me. We may go through arguments, but at the end of the day, they didn't have to spend money to go on trips with you, and the fact that they did shows they care.

9. If there's nothing on tv, watch the news or ESPN.

• One of my favorite memories is when my friends and I stayed in the Dominican Republic and all of the channels except for ESPN were in Spanish so we kept the tv on that channel the entire time. In addition, if you're not into sports, BBC is always good to watch. It's important to keep up with current events and scores around the world because everyone watches them.

10. Rep your clique.

• If you're proud of where you're from, wear stuff to show it off! I love wearing hoodies and t-shirts from my alma mater, VCU. Everywhere I've been, I've met someone from there and it's fun to connect with VCU alumnae around the world. No matter the city, or university, bring something related to it and see how many people you know from there.

These are the rules I follow no matter where I go, what are some things you have to do when you travel?

I recently came back from vacation to the Bahamas and Key West, Florida to celebrate my mom's birthday. Both of these islands put me in a dreamy mood and gave me a feel of the island life I've always dreamed of. To be honest, the Bahamas was a little too touristy for me, but I appreciated the vibrancy of the colors. If I go back, I'll be sure to experience the natural way of life the locals. Key West on the other hand, was amazing. The laid back style, the intimacy of the island and the influx of chickens walking around were just some parts of the island that really struck me. I'd love to go back in the future, but for now, I'll live through the memories from the pictures I took.

Museums are my favorite places in the world. They're free (usually), and the wanderer in me loves to walk around the halls and get lost in the history of every piece that's curated and on display. I've been to a lot of museums, but here's a list of my three favorite that really left a mark on me that I hope I get the chance to go back to soon.

This was my first stop when I went overseas this summer and it had been on my list of museums to visit for a while. The British Museum is known as one of the best museums in the world, and that's not a lie. I spent a little over 2 hours  just browsing their Egyptian and Ancient Greece and Rome exhibits and fell in love with the pieces of art that I saw from the ancient cultures. 

There's a lot of controversy surrounding the artifacts in the British Museum, because there's claims that the artifacts were stolen and never returned to their home countries.. I believe it, but do you really think Great Britain will return the artifacts? Probably not, however maybe in the future things will change.

I paid 4 Euros on a rainy day in Amsterdam to see a stone dick, essentially. 

But really, the sex museum was really cool. It was 3 floors of dick, vagina, boobs and ass, all throughout the centuries, and housed a steep spiral staircase that I liked. I saw a lot of things that made me uncomfortable in a variety of mediums: video, sculpture, photo and much more, but it was fascinating  to see how past generations viewed sex and how freaky our ancestors were. 

I'm an Art Hoe™ and the VMFA is my favorite place to go when I'm around Richmond. First, it's beautiful architecturally, and second, there's so much art that I usually can't fit  everything I want to see in one visit. I love look at the different exhibits they have every month, and while I will never forgive myself for missing the Picasso exhibit in 2011, I'm looking forward to their Kehinde Wiley exhibit in June. Every time I go there I always find new works of art that I fall in love with, and I enjoy basking  in the creativity of artists from past, current and future generation. In addition, they have a fun happy hour on the weekends and a beautiful grassy area to hang out in. I like chill and write in my journal on warm evenings in the summer; it's a good place to find inner peace with myself.


This is just a short list of my favorite museums, and I could list many more, but I want to hear from you. What are some of your favorite museums you've visited and what do you like about them?

Considering that I don't have a full time job where I'm sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week, and my part time job gives me a lot of free time, in my spare time I like to do projects that  sharpen my PR skills. I figure nothing can be wrong with getting better at what you do, and the worst that can happen is someone would say no to me or in this day and age, no one will respond to an email. So ,in an effort to keep growing and pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I recently challenged myself to see if I can pitch a story to the media.

When the owner of The Faces of H.O.P.E., asked her staff to spread the news of the opening of their new location on Martin Luther King Jr. Day., I decided to lend a helping hand.  I've been noticing a growing trend of newscasters actively posting on their Facebook pages, so I threw out the idea of an email pitch, simply because emails can get lost in a clogged mailbox, and Facebook messages are usually answered quicker. After a little research, I decided that WRIC Anchor Amy Lacey had a background that could garner interest for The Faces of H.O.P.E. and replied to messages frequently and so I sent a pitch via Facebook Messenger.

I wasn't expecting anything in return, mainly because I know how busy reporters can be, but luckily, she responded back to me, and after a bit of chatting, I sent her some good quality pictures that were not only posted on her Facebook, but they were shown on the 5pm ABC News  broadcast on MLK Jr. Day. 

Not only was this featured on ABC news, CBS6 picked up the event and listed it on their website as well. So not only did I surprise myself by getting a company featured on the news, I got  two different networks to feature the story. On the same day no less! 

When I think about this new way of pitching stories to the media, it reminds me of a conversation my friend and I had recently, about how a lot of PR people don't take younger people in the profession seriously because of their age. I know a lot of people probably don't take me seriously when I say that I have 6 years of experience, but don't take it lightly. It doesn't take years of experience in this field to get results that you want, you have to apply the basic principles of public relations  over and over again.  It doesn't matter whether you're a 24 year old who freelances or a 60 year old APR with numerous awards from the PRSA. 

It's good to know that when you take a leap of faith you land safely as long as you take that first step. I'm looking forward to the new opportunities and challenges that I will face in my field in order to get ahead. When's the last time you took a leap of faith in your career and exceeded your expectations? Let me know your thoughts.

Cooking is one of my favorite hobbies because it's a fun creative outlet: if you throw the right amount of things together, it can create a delicious meal, however, if you season your food a tad too much, or if you leave your food in the oven for too long, it can produce disastrous results. I believe that cooking is sacred; it's a ritual in itself to spend so much time and energy for something to nourish you, and there's no better feeling than sitting down and enjoying something that tastes and makes you feel good.

I love the feeling of pretending like I'm on "Chopped" with ingredients I find in my kitchen to see what I can make out of them. This soup I created is a result of that. It's a blend of savory and spicy, and came about when I was searching for a recipe for tortilla soup on Pinterest. I instead added my own twist and with noodles and ginger for a kick. An avocado provides cooling relief from the pepper. This soup is perfect to throw together quickly if you're hungry and you want something filling. Add a slice of thick bakery bread and you'll be good to go for dinner!

2015 was a wild ride for me. I've experienced the highest of highs, and lowest of lows, literally and figuratively. Considering the amount of things I went through, I thought it would be fun to condense my thoughts and feelings on every month in the year in the only way my generation knows how to communicate: emojis and hashtags.

What emojis would you use to summarize your year?

Stoners, pack your bags and plan your vacation to one of these cities now.