About Me

My name is Natalie Jacobs and I am currently a junior studying Advertising/Public Relations at Loyola University of Chicago. I am an Illinois transplant born and raised in San Diego, California. I chose to come to Chicago to experience college in a big city. I wanted the opportunity to discover myself in a place where no one knew who I was. I think that is the only true way to become who you are meant to be...if you start over with a clean slate.

So I left and I never looked back (okay that's not completely true...I get a little nostalgic every year when the first frost hits as I imagine my family and friends still lying on a warm, sunny beach in the middle of January…this is hardly an exaggeration my mom said it was 70 degrees yesterday…but that could be because of climate change…but I digress). The friends I have made here have become my family. I think it is necessary, when so far from home, to create such tight bonds with people because otherwise the loneliness would be too much to bear. Through three years of living and learning on my own in the big city, I have become the person I think I was always meant to be. Cheesy at it is, it is more true than anything I have ever known.

This semester I am working to balance fifteen credit hours in school, a three-day-a-week, 8-hour-a-day internship, roommates, and a boyfriend. And I just turned 21 so making time to drink is pretty much a requirement (I can say that now and not be worried about it because I’m legal…finally…but I suppose I still run the risk of sounding like an alcoholic…but I’m not, I promise). So that leaves little time to sleep and less time to sit down and relax. But I like to be busy; it forces me to be more productive.

As far as any other biographical insights I can offer…I draw a blank. I don’t have any burning passions to ramble on about. I love fashion, but I’m too poor to afford all the beautiful things I see people wear around the city so talking about it like it’s my one true love is more than a little depressing. I love art, but I’m not good enough to make it and don’t have enough time in my day to appreciate it (except as I scurry through the streets and occasionally get a glimpse of a beautiful new building or a naked tree perfectly positioned against the skyline as the sunsets). I would like to travel, but again, I’m too poor for that at the moment (and I suspect by the time I can afford it I will be so consumed by my 9 to 5 that I won’t be able to escape to enjoy an exotic vacation). The only one thing I can say I positively love more than anything in life is a loud, uninhibited, genuine laugh that comes straight from deep inside and doesn’t stop until you can’t breathe. That’s the only way to know you are truly alive.