If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram, you probably followed my journey to the Her Campus Intercollegiate Conference or better titled, #HerConference, which was the hash-tag the attendees used all weekend.

I have to say I have been so excited for this conference ever since signing up for it and even though I was slightly nervous heading into Manhattan by myself on Saturday, I could not hide the happiness I felt.

I want to start off by saying this was something I have never done before; I had never done networking events, been to a journalism or blogging conference, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was completely inspirational and put me in the right frame of mind before heading off to senior year.

After sitting through speakers and panels and hearing these successful people I feel more prepared than ever for the professional world. Just because I feel prepared does not mean that I am not scared because I think I might be more scared than ever.

There was a plethora of information and inspiring words of wisdom bestowed on us this weekend so I think I'll spread it out over a variety of posts. I got a lot of different ideas for blog posts during the conference so I won't overwhelm you with information.

This post will basically be a summary of the Saturday portion of the conference and then I'll do a separate one for Sunday. Then, I'll do other blog posts focused on lessons and tips I learned throughout the two days. There was a lot and I think it's important to share with you if you couldn't be there to hear it all.

Enough with the introduction, here's a break down of the day.

Saturday, July 27th

The entire conference was shaped for women by women. You could tell in the air, through the sponsors, it was so women friendly and it was wonderful. When you first walked in there was a BCBGeneration Sample Sale which had incredible prices and a beauty bar where I got my hair curled with Amika hair products (I scored some free samples and got to check out some other products that I've never heard of.

The conference was sponsored by Intel so scattered around the foyer area there were Intel Ultrabooks, laptops, and two in one tablets that we were allowed to play around with. I am an Apple lady but seeing the awesome features and variety of products that Intel had made me wish I could have one.

When I first got there, I registered with the lovely Her Campus women, got my free goodie bag (more on that later), got some breakfast, and chatted with some of the girls. I met some great ladies there and stuck with them the entire conference since I went solo on Saturday.

After about a half hour we went to the opening of the conference and the morning keynote. It was so wonderful meeting Windsor, Stephanie, and Annie, the co-founders of HerCampus and hearing them speak. They are gorgeous, intelligent, ambitious women and truly an inspiration.

They introduced the morning keynote speaker(s) Josie Natori and Jacqui Lividini ; Josie is the founder of Natouri Designs, a lingerie and fashion line. Lividini is the CEO and Founder of Lividini & Co, who revived the Lord and Taylor brand. The keynote focused mostly on Natori. She was a true inspiration and had such amazing advice to offer us young women who have dreams and aspirations. Like I said, I will go through my notes and give you more specific information on each speaker so this post doesn't go on forever.

After the keynote, we were able to pick one of the four panels in the panel block. I chose to go to "Does the Devil Actually Wear Prada: Life as an Entry Level Editorial Assistant" which is ultimately my dream job. Listening to the intelligent, smart women on this panel was incredible and really helped me get a better insight into what I want to do.

Side note: all the people on these panels were from incredible publications such as Glamour, Women's Health, Self, Seventeen, and other great magazines! It truly was a journalism, magazine conference so I was in my element.

When the first panel was over, I networked a bit with the women and then headed to the second panel. The second panel was called How to Make Your Startup a Success. Levo was there!! WOO! That was exciting, listening to co-founder Amanda talk about Levo League. It was so inspiring listening to these women talk about their passion projects and what it takes to be successful.

We then were given lunch by Chiptole which sponsored the conference and goodness, it was delicious! After lunch, there was a lunch keynote who was Fran Hauser, the President of Digital at Time Warner. She was such an inspiration and really instilled some great lessons for careers.

The next block of panels were focused on building up your HerCampus chapter. I don't have one on my campus and don't necessarily have the time to start one but it was still interesting to see all the work that goes into it. 

Afterwards we heard another keynote, this time it was a representative, Nikki Nash, from Intel. Hearing her story from how she majored in Journalism and ended up at a tech company such as Intel was really wonderful. 

After she spoke, HerCampus gave one lucky girl an Intel Ultra-book (which I was SO jealous of) and then we watched a screening of "Girl Rising". There will definitely be a larger post on "Girl Rising" or maybe I'll write a SLM post on it!

All the cool door prizes were given away after the movie, which included scooters, books, bags, t-shirts, and other cool stuff!

I have to say, I was exhausted by the time it was ready to leave on Saturday but part of me didn't want it to end. That's why I was totally thrilled that I was headed back on Sunday. Sunday was just as amazing and I had one of my best friends from home with me, which lessen my anxiety. There will be another post on Sunday's portion of the conference.

This summer has been quite the busy one for me. I barely have time to relax or any time to see my friends at home. It has been a whirlwind summer, so many exciting things have been happening and it delights me to the fullest.

Even though it's been an incredible few months, I can't help but feel overwhelmed by everything that has been happening. So much has happened and changed for me since I came home from my junior year in May, I wonder how things will change even further once I enter senior year. 

This was my last summer, the last summer vacation I ever had and I spent it working my butt off. I don't regret that in the slightest though, even if it was tough at first.

Between interning, working a part time job, running the blog, and a few other side projects, I haven't had a moment to breathe. I am awesome at time management and great at juggling a bunch of different hats, during the school year. I've never had to deal with this much on my plate during the down time that is supposed to be summer vacation so it was definitely an adjustment. 

The first few weeks were the toughest and I found my feet and was able to handle everything. I figured out a routine and even though I haven't had much time to hang out with my friends and go out, enjoying summer time, I am happy doing what I'm doing this summer. When I go back to school in three weeks, I will fully embrace my senior year and have fun. For now, I will work.

I will be better off in the long run, I know I will. Because I worked so hard this summer, achieving so many goals and milestones, it will help me achieve my biggest dreams. I have to believe that.

It all comes down to work-life balance. Working at Levo this summer has taught me SO much about the career life women want, deserve, and have. One of the biggest challenges women all over, from every industry face is the challenge of work-life balance.

Balancing your work life and your personal life is something no one will ever get right. I've heard from so many career experts and mentors on Levo say that work-life balance does not exist. We cannot achieve this balance we all crave. 

What we should start to think of balance as is integration. Your career is not some separate part of your life, it is not imaginary. Your work and career IS your life, you have to think of personal and professional as one, not separate.  Keep one calendar for personal and professional engagements, don't schedule work over personal plans that you have already in place. There are so many tips and tricks to achieving work-life integration. 

Applying those tips and advice to my own life this summer has helped SO much and it's something I will carry with me forever.

I have an addiction to buying books, like a true and utter addiction because even when I have two or three books queued up on my Kindle and Nook, about four print books ready to be cracked open, I need to find more books to add to the collection.

I made a trip to Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago for no particular reason and bought 'Girls in White Dresses' and 'Paris In Love'. I talked about White Dresses a few posts back and I just finished Paris In Love about two weeks ago.

It took me a little longer to get through this book than White Dresses because it was more autobiographical.

The premise of Paris In Love is that author, Eloisa James, who had written several books before Paris, up and moves her family to Paris for a year. 

She was diagnosed with cancer, unhappy with life, and needed a change. Thankfully she had a willingly and accepting family that allowed the move to Paris with just some kicking and screaming from Eloisa's two young children.

The story is beautiful and gives great imagery of a picture perfect Paris. Hearing about Eloisa's journey through Paris, learning how to live like a Parisian was so interesting. It was also such an easy read and easy to follow along with.

It really is such a different life across the Atlantic, whether you're in Spain, England, Ireland, or Paris, life seems so simple over there. It instills a sense of wanderlust in me like nothing else. I so desperately want to drop everything like Eloisa and move to Paris or preferably London.

European living is something that I've always dreamed of; I've even looked up jobs in London for post-grad (I wouldn't last that long without my family and friends). 

I would love to move to Europe some day and I think reading Paris In Love and reading about how Ms. James' journey just made that more apparent. You can have a successful happy life no matter where you are, just as long as you have the people who matter most with you.

If you have any curiosity as to what it's like to actually build a life abroad, read Paris In Love, it's worth the read; you'll feel like you're living in Paris right alongside Eloisa James.