There seems to be a national day for everything, but as a lefty myself, I can’t argue with National Left-Handed Day. Years ago there was a huge social stigma surrounding handedness. Left-handedness was associated with the devil and children were forced to use their non-dominant hand in school. Luckily now, being a lefty is just a little quirk. About 10% of the population is left-handed, so for the rest of you, here’s what’s it’s like to be a southpaw.

1.    We got to use the special scissors

In grade school when it came time for arts and crafts there were only a few pairs of left-handed scissors. Sure, I could’ve used the regular ones but when you’re five, using the left-handed pair put you in a pretty exclusive group. They also sell left-handed flasks but those are more for older kids. Like first graders.

2.     We always have ink on our hand

Take a look at a lefty’s hand after lecture and you’ll notice a big smudge from their pinky to their wrist. When we write, our hand drags over the page and leaves a big inky mess we call the “left-handed curse”. Being on urban dictionary makes it a real term right?

Read More »

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. Last month Charlotte tried to stop biting her nails. This month, Tiffany is going to attempt to conquer Outward Bound. Can she do it!? Could you?]

I’m starting to the get the hang of backpacking! It’s still not easy to carry 60 pounds on your back but it is becoming more bearable. I find that it is easier to carry the weight when I don’t focus all my energy on it. Instead, I try to talk to my crewmates (something I didn’t do before) and to sing songs in my head (surprisingly, I find that dirty rap songs motivate me best–I think it’s the beats, not the lyrics). But as I was told by my instructors, although Outward Bound has a way of making you feel comfortable, in an instant you can find yourself in your “stretch zone,” the area outside of your comfort zone, or even in your “panic zone”, which for me is hysterics and tears. I’ve already been in my stretch zone the whole time I’ve been of the trip but I can honestly say that white water canoeing and rock climbing have both put me into my panic zone. When I signed up for the trip I overlooked these two components of the trip. Now that I’m here I figure I’ll just have to deal with the challenges as they come.

Canoeing Day One: Today was definitely a challenge. We didn’t jump right into canoeing on rapids,  but we practiced rowing in pond since it’s still water. I had no idea that my fear of water was so great until today. I mean, I’ve been swimming in the ocean before so I’d say my swimming level is at knowing how not to drown without really knowing how to swim. But being confronted with having to go down rapids has really shaken me. It didn’t help that I was awful at being the person in stern, or back, of the boat. I definitely made my partner and I seasick since I couldn’t keep the boat straight. To add on to my terrible day, at the end of our lesson we had to flip our boat to stimulate what would happen if we flipped our boat on the river. This definitely put me in my panic zone and I cried before I did it. I mean, I knew I wouldn’t really drown but it was still daunting to fall into the water. I can say that I’m not looking forward to tomorrow.

Canoeing Day Two: After the disaster that was day one, I tried to come into today with an open mind since it was our first day on the river. But as soon as I saw the French Broad, I knew that I would have my work cut out for me. The river was flowing so quickly and there were rocks everywhere you turned, so I had to focus on keeping my partner and myself from hitting anything as it is the responsibility of the person in the bow (there was no way in hell that I was being the stern again). Before the canoeing really started we had to flip our boats again to stimulate what we would need to do to swim a rapid. But unlike yesterday we were actually in a real rapid–s!$t. Before my nerves got the better of me, I knew I had to flip my boat first. My heart was pounding louder than I’d ever heard it before but somehow I managed to flip the boat before I lost my teeny bit of courage. I struggled to get into rapid swimmer position since I was flailing around,  but I managed to make it down the rapid in one piece. I have never felt so relieved in my life! And honestly, it wasn’t that bad. After flipping, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders (as cliche as that sounds) and I was ready to enjoy the rest of my day, so I did! Logan, my partner, was great and we managed to go down all four of the days rapids without flipping our boat. I’m actually kind of pumped for tomorrow.

Canoeing Day Three: After a wonderful night’s sleep at a dude ranch directly next to the river (the only dude ranch in the southeast!), we woke up the next morning, hopped in our canoes, and paddled down the French Broad. Today, we stepped up our game as we went down level 3 rapids. It’s rare that a beginning canoer would be on level 3 rapids by the third day, but as I’ve mentioned before Outward Bound likes to challenge us on the regular. Level 3 rapids are a lot more technical, since they involve skilled canoeing in doing things like catching eddies (the slow water around the rapid) and being able to power through faster moving water. A lot of the rapids we went on today featured enormous rocks, waterfall style drops and a lot of hidden rocks–they were definitely not places you wanted to flip your boat. Being in the bow was definitely scarier than being in the stern, since I was the first to see what we were about to face. My partner also had to put trust in my that I would match the speed of the water with my paddling, since I gave the boat momentum. My heart was beating wildly with each rapid we came to but unlike the other two days, this time it was with adrenaline. I felt like I should be on the cover of some outdoor magazine as I leaned into rapids and dug in the water with my blade. I’ve never felt that strong or quick before. And thanks to Logan’s and mine’s teamwork we didn’t flip our boat the whole day!

White water canoeing really challenged me and I wanted to quit before I even started. Now, I can say that I’ve fallen in love with the sport. I definitely want to learn how to swim and to continue doing this in the future!

Check out last week’s adventure right here

Dressing like a Vera Wang princess

A video guide on taking your outfit from day to night

The pros and cons of Henna hair dye

Where you can find a cute necklace like Mila Kunis’ from ‘Friends With Benefits’

Dressing smart vs. dressing pretty

Headphones that complete any outfit

Recreate Selena’s gorgeous hairstyles from Teen Choice Awards

Ohemgee, Frye has a new Soho store

Wrap bracelets: two pieces of jewelry in one

Get Anne Hathaway’s premier look

5 new fall lip collections to lust after

The scent of sexy is actually quite simple

Fashion week is offering free bikes

Emma Stone’s beauty secrets from ‘The Help’

4 wheels + 3 friends + 2 many drinks + 1 destination = a killer weekend you’ll never forget. It’s that point in the summer when you’re starting to get fed up with your hometown, but aren’t quite ready to get back into the grind of fall semester.  The best compromise is to escape for a little while and hop on the road.  Allow me to play trip adviser and direct you on how to make the best of your summer vacay:

Pick the Right Crew:

Ideally, your car should be a few friends of both sexes. Take it from an all-girls school alum- too much estrogen in a tight space can end in bitch-outs, tears and way too many bathroom breaks. That being said, be careful not to pick people you think might turn the trip sour. Vacation hookups turn especially awkward if you have to drive six hours home with the dude. Read More »

Happy Saturday everyone! My pick this week was chosen solely because of the wild praise it received on Amazon. Even though I’m a former book snob, I’ve learned that a book with plenty of good reviews is unlikely to let me down. The book lovers of the world came through for me again and helped me land a winner with “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” by Steve Earle.

This novel is set in the time shortly before and long after the assassination of JFK, in San Antonio. The main character, known mainly as Doc, is a former MD who has lost his license to practice. He’s also acquired a nasty drug habit and now works out of a decrepit boarding house, mostly performing illegal abortions to pay the rent and satiate himself. Not only is he haunted by drugs, but as the alleged last person to see Hank Williams alive (yes, as in Hank Williams, the country singer), Doc is haunted by his ghost. Throw in Doc’s latest patient, an illegal immigrant by the name of Graciela, who ends up possessing strange, healing powers and a whole cast of quirky cameos and you’ve got the basic plotline.

Read More »

[This post and contest come hot off the Internet presses from our friends at CollegeFashion!]

By now, if you’ve been following our latest dorm room series, you’ve learned how to organize your room around a color scheme and create a dorm room layout. These are important basic steps for creating your dream dorm, but so far they’ve centered around visualization – and now it’s time to get to the fun part: shopping!

Today, we’re going to tackle the task of shopping for dorm room bedding! In this article, you will learn how to figure out what your bed essentials are and how to go out shopping for them on a college student’s budget, while picking up some useful tips and advice for when to splurge or save.

Let’s get started by heading over to CollegeFashion!

We all know that when our parents text, things sometimes go awry. My mom, in particular, loves to create her own abbreviations. We’ll be in the midst of a hilarious conversation and then she’ll send me a message that says LSHRN. Me: “what does that mean, mom?” Her: “Laughing so hard right now.” Like as if she’s too good for LOL and LMAO? Turns out, I’m not the only one whose parents provide pure comedy via text message.

Authors Lauren Kaelin and Sophia Fraioli have taken it upon themselves to document the hilariousness with their website WhenParentsText.com, and now with their book When Parents Text. Check out some of these funny convos between parents and their kids. Now we know what happens when parents text. Can’t wait to read “when parents are on facebook”!

HAY: Because we like “hay” with our hangover food, apparently.

Read More »

Would you wear a perfume from Snooki?

The hottest historical movie characters

History of the retro-inspired swimwear

Why we tend to like guys who don’t like us

There’s such a thing as a baguette vending machine!

Kristen Stewart looks pretty good…photoshopped

Guess who got a lapdance from Britney Spears!

Whooo another season of True Blood!

Is Brit Brit banned from owning a cell phone

Lesson #35 – Girl Talk can kill your dating life

Sometimes as a single girl in college it feels like your dating life is split in two halves—one spent actually dating guys and the other spent in coffee shops with your girlfriends talking about dating said guys. So if half of our dating world is actually spent dating, what exactly is the other half spent on? I’d say probably too many lattes and not enough sensible advice. I’m as guilty as the next girl. I say I don’t want to talk about something and sure enough 20 minutes later, my friends have pulled it out of me and now I’ve somehow connected something as minute as my guy not noticing my new slingbacks to his daddy issues that I’ve now taken the liberty of convincing myself he has, even though he clearly doesn’t. So girls analyze their love lives, what’s new, right?

Read More »

Four months is a lot of time to spend doing nothing, which is why more often than not college students find themselves with a lap full of summer resolutions. Now we’re in the last month of summer and some of us, no doubt, have given up on forgotten about those promises we made to ourselves, but it’s not too late to get back on the horse. Here’s a few ways you can still achieve those summer resolutions.

1. Getting a head-start on classes

Okay, maybe you were getting a little ahead of yourself when you bought all your textbooks early and vowed to have at least the first couple chapters read by the end of the summer. Now you have an unhappy stack of overpriced textbooks that are being used as a doorstop. Luckily, there’s still a way to get ahead of the game without even cracking open a textbook. Email the professors of the courses you’re taking and ask for last year’s syllabus. It’s easy for a prof to just attach the file to an email, and then you can use the syllabus to plan an effective study schedule so you’ll be prepared for classes even if you haven’t forced yourself through fifty pages of molecular biology.

Read More »