My First Post

Hi, everyone! This is my first blog post - I'm not really sure what to expect of the experience. My name is Alina, and I'm a university student of the chemical engineering realm that is currently home due to some medical concerns. I don't have all that much to do beyond getting better, so I guess that is why I am starting this. I genuinely do love the degree that I am doing, and I am quite sad to not be studying right now. I have loved school since I was a little eight year old.

Beyond loving school, I'm very abnormal for being a nerdy science and math girl. For instance, I am quite into beauty, which is an expensive hobby, I must say. I noticed that after being in a school with a 3:1 male/female ratio, I turned into a lot more of a girly-girl, much to my own dismay - perhaps that was a natural reaction to the huge amount of boys on campus. I was a little into beauty in high school, but not that much. I wanted to look nice, but I didn't have the time - I had a lot of homework, and I cared about my grades! I didn't care that I had horribly dry skin on my body or that I broke out a lot on my face. I did wear powder on my face, some eyeshadow, and a black pencil eyeliner, but that pretty much all I owned in the beauty world. Thank goodness my mother bugged me to moisturize my body, otherwise I might have eczema by now.

As a result of getting into beauty, I also really started getting into skincare. Also expensive. My face was an absolute mess - I had loads of breakouts, it was patchy, blah blah blah. Long story short, after not owning a cleanser until ten months ago, I now have a cleanser, a spot treatment, and a Clarisonic. I really do believe in good skin and not covering everything with a ton of makeup, and I try to go makeup-free as much as possible.

Besides beauty, I am a HUGE figure skating fan. By huge, I mean humongous to the point where I will get up at 2 AM the night before a huge exam just to watch a live stream from Japan or Russia. I'll probably talk a lot about that obsession as well.

I also love to write and read. This is really unusual for an engineering student - most of us HATE to write, and reading that is not related to the field is as bad to most as getting rid of wisdom teeth. But I really enjoy both, and I am considering a career in law after I earn my engineering degree because I really do love technical writing.

I am currently on a mission to lose weight. Due to my illnesses/the medications I have been put on, my body - which used to be able to tolerate literally anything I stuffed into it - has started actually putting on weight. Before I knew where I was, I had gained 25 pounds. I am currently about 25.5 on the BMI scale - very barely outside the "normal" range - but I don't look good, and above all, I don't feel good. So, I think I may as well talk about my weight loss journey on here as well.

I don't know if anybody will be interested in my blog, but if anybody is, my posts will probably be very sporadic, especially after I return to school. I am usually a fairly busy person.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy my random thoughts.