I'm A College Graduate!

Happy almost New Year's! I hope you've had a relaxing holiday season. It's crazy that it'll be 2020 tomorrow. As you may know, I've been in college for the past three years and finally graduated this fall semester! I'm so happy to be done and can't wait to move onto my post-grad life. College was good overall but not entirely what I expected. It still felt too similar to high school and didn't entirely line up with my career plans. I did learn a lot, especially about how I want to live my life and be as a person. It's an awesome feeling to know that I'm completely done with school now.

My whole life is in a state of disarray at the moment, so bear with me as I get settled. I'll be moving, starting my full-time job, and hopefully buying my first home all at the start of the new year. I'm planning on keeping the blog going at least, though I'm not sure about YouTube. One other place I'd like to be more active on is Instagram, which I know I've been saying forever. If I don't end up coming back to YouTube, IG will probably be the main place where I end up selling my gear. I'm definitely going to be getting rid of a large chunk of gear at some point, since I don't use the majority of it.

Now that I'm in a new stage of life, I've got some much needed changes I'd like to make to my EDC. I feel like I was in a rut with my carry since I was a student for so long. Stay tuned for posts on my EDC changes, along with the usual collection/reading updates, gear thoughts, and other random posts. Graduating college was a great way to end 2019, and I'm looking forward to 2020! Thanks for sticking around and for all of the support over the years!

My Top 5 EDC Flashlights

These days, I find myself reaching for my flashlights more than my knives. If it's pitch black out, there's no way to create light yourself if you lack a light source. I've accumulated a lot of flashlights over the years but find myself only reaching for a small handful of them. In this post, I thought it'd be fun to share what my top five favorite EDC flashlights are. If you're looking for a good light to carry, these are all great options!

Starting from left to right: Nitecore Tube, Olight i3E, FourSevens Classic Preon P1, FourSevens Updated Preon P1, and Lumintop Tool AA. As you can tell, I love my colorful gear! You can't beat these awesome green, blues, and purples. These don't boast some of the highest lumens in the world, but I love their designs and have never had any problems with them not being bright enough. They're very affordable too, with none of them being over $30. 

With the Nitecore Tube, you get a USB rechargeable keychain light that's very easy to use. It's super lightweight and a killer deal at $10. It only puts out 45 lumens on high, though that's fine for having on a keychain. I love the fact I can easily recharge when it's dead and that it's infinitely variable. If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on it, here's a link to the blog post I did.

Next up, the Olight i3E is another great keychain option. It has one mode of 90 lumens that again is more than bright enough for a keychain or even as your main option. At first I didn't think I'd like the simplicity of only having one mode, but it definitely makes the light easier to use. It's a twisty, so it may not be as easy to use one-handed compared to a clicky. Still, with it being a AAA light, there's plenty to grab onto. I also did a blog post on this one, linked here.

The FourSevens Preon P1s were probably the first perfect EDC flashlights I found. I absolutely love their simple designs and all the colors they came in. They both put out around 100 lumens on high and have a few other modes as well. They're AAA lights which helps keep them on the slimmer side for everyday carry. One huge downside is that they were discontinued, making them hard to find. However, Prometheus bought FourSevens a few years ago and has a newer Mark III version available. Here's a link to my thoughts on the Classic and the Updated version.

Lastly, the Lumintop Tool AA is an awesome AA/14500 light. With the 14500 battery, you greatly improve the output to a max of 550 lumens. It's the brightest flashlight in my collection and has a nice floody beam. I love all the knurling and the green tailcap. They're very affordable too, at just $20 on Amazon. I still need to write an in-depth thoughts post on it, so hopefully I get around to that in 2020. It hasn't left my EDC pouch in the past year or so.

That's about it for this post! If you're looking for a good EDC light, you can't go wrong with any of these! They're all perfect lights in my eyes and ones that I highly recommend! Thanks for looking!