With my time at home, I’ve been able to prepare for starting my job and moving cities. This has helped me ease the angst I have about beginning a new job and also allows me to ensure a smooth transition (going from having no responsibility to having a ton of responsibility won’t be easy!). Here are a few things I’ve considered and researched to prepare for the start of my career.
Read MoreI thought my dream job would mean covering crimes happening next door, not my desk-neighbor’s missing hot sauce and the ensuing bitter retorts tossed about the room. I thought it would mean focusing on the world around me, not Spyin’ Bryan two desks down that liked to write down and track every move I made. (He would then send that info to my boss, as if my bathroom break was going to ruin the whole operation.)
Read MoreAs confident as I had been in my decision at the time, walking away from my glamorous magazine job—and along with it, my lifelong “dream” career—left an emotional scar that refused to heal, no matter how many times I told myself it was for the best. A year later, I was still feeling an incredible amount of doubt. Perhaps, even, a tinge of regret. And because I was scared of what people would think, I refrained from talking (or writing) about it.
Read MoreI turned 24 on Tuesday.
My first instinct was to look at the people around me. The ones posting on social media.
They’d written books, were writing articles for magazines I still only dream will send me an acceptance letter one day. They’d started podcasts. Spent two years living in Asia. Found the loves of their lives. Wore diamond rings on the fourth finger of their left hands. Spoke at the United Nations. Worked in refugee camps around the world.
Read MoreBy not making any decisions, I had made my decision. Life was happening all around me, it was happening to me, but I had no role in it. Weeks passed, and I decided I didn’t want to be a bystander in my own story. I wanted to do. I wanted to choose.
Read MoreDo you write? Hi, me too, and many of That First Year’s readers moonlight (or daylight—power to those with the full-time writing gig!) as writers. So I thought it might be helpful to make a list of 6 things that have helped me in my writing endeavors.
Read MoreFast forward seven years: I sit in an English classroom as a young, impressionable seventh grader, soaking up every word from my teacher. After years of devouring books, read alouds, scripts, and writing poetry on love (which I knew so much about) and stories of an adventurous squirrel (which entertained my entire family), I made another career choice: I would be a seventh grade English teacher.
Read MoreIn an effort to change my attitude toward the roughly one hour a day I spend staring at a road, I’ve decided to mix my morning commute up instead of just listening to the same 10 albums on repeat. Here are 3 ways I'm trying to make my morning commute not so miserably boring.
Read MoreMost people would say that I lack follow-through, but I would say that I lack digging in. I can dream about the garden I want to plant. I know what kinds of flowers and vegetables I will watch sprout out of the dirt. I have done all the research, made all of the to-do lists, drawn up the blueprints. I am excited and ready and nobody can tell me that this garden cannot be planted. But then fear pops into my head.
Read MoreNot only am I the youngest manager, I am the youngest person period. I still contend with—and now embrace—those “she’s so young” jokes (one of my now-closest work friends called me “‘90s” for my first two months.) Daily, I learn something new about corporate culture, marketing or life.
Read MoreI have craved attention from dating apps and from boys I meet in bars. I have craved attention from social media followers on a picture I like of myself. If it didn’t get enough attention I didn’t like the photo anymore. I have craved the attention of employers reading my resume and of readers of my blog.
Read MoreI now sit at my computer, post-work, with the clock counting down to my next obligation. Once again, I ask myself to curate some kind of wisdom in my schedule. Instead of sitting, I feel as though I am constantly going. I must be on at all times and my head spins until it finally hits the pillow, if I am lucky. I have gone from sitting to standing to running and, still, I have trouble figuring out what exactly I am learning from it all.
Read MoreWhen I was growing up, my mom often quoted her favorite movie. “When the Lord closes a door,” she said, channeling Maria Von Trapp, “somewhere he opens a window.” Though I’m not one to live my life based on corny lines from The Sound of Music, I do think that there’s something wise about this particular platitude.
Read MoreIt was the phone call I'd been daydreaming about for months. The one that would justify the four years I'd spent getting my undergraduate degree and—to be honest—the one I was beginning to doubt I'd ever get. When my new boss told me I'd gotten the job as marketing and social media coordinator for Ramada hotels, I just about fell over. It took all my self control not to squeal or sob into the phone; this was what I'd been waiting for. This was the light at the end of a long tunnel.
Read More“Hopefully you won’t still be doing this by then.”
The “this” he was referring to is my weekend job: I work in hospitality at a music venue. I did this for about six months part-time after I graduated college before I landed my first “real job.” When I moved on from that first “real job” a year later and started my current full-time job at a non-profit, I returned to this backstage hospitality job on the weekends (because Americorps basically pays you in loose change).
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