Career, Dreams, Grad School, Graduation, Health, Life, Money, Our Favorite Things, Politics, Relationships, Style, TravelAlly WillisDecember 28, 2017FeaturedComment

Today Is Our 3rd Blog Birthday (+ A Sale & Free Print)

Today is our 3rd blog birthday! To celebrate, we have some sentimental words + a sale & free print as our gift to you!

Career, Dreams, Grad School, Graduation, Health, Life, Money, Politics, Relationships, Style, Travel, Our Favorite ThingsAlly WillisDecember 18, 2017FeaturedComment

Ladders and Light: Finding Peace Within the Busy

If post-graduate life, and starting this internship, is like climbing a ladder, then I’m getting lightheaded. It’s a challenge, there’s some risk involved, but I took my chances: and now I’m tired. The up-and-down snatches my breath away and I need a moment of pause; need a reassuring smile from the one holding the ladder steady.

Life, Health, CareerIssy DaviesNovember 26, 2017FeaturedComment

Why You're Not Accomplishing Your Goals (and How to Start)

It’s the beginning of a new season in your life. You’re committed to getting more clients, making more money, having more of an impact in your community. You’re setting your goals, your intentions, making your “must accomplish” list.

Flash-forward: It’s the end of the month. It’s halfway through the year. It’s December 31. Those goals you set? Halfway done or never touched. No progress. What gives?

Career, DreamsTori DunlapNovember 8, 2017Comment

On Quitting Your Dream Job

But after a while, and in my classic twenty-something fashion, I began to feel restless. I wasn't sure exactly what it was I wanted anymore. Because my heart is similar to Augustus Gloop in that it's greedy. It wants to know all of the outcomes. It wants to know which path to take before I have to take a single step. It wants freedom. It wants travel. It wants stability. And more often than not, it wants chocolate.

Career, DreamsAlyssa VottoNovember 5, 2017FeaturedComment

The Bravery in Quitting

Refusing to quit has undoubtedly served me well in my 24-years. It is the reason I can sing now even though I was described as a tone-deaf child. It is responsible for the 60 pounds I have lost and kept off in the last three years. It has been the backbone of healing and strength and the two Whole 30s I have completed, but it has also been harmful. I become faithful to a fault, unable to walk away from things, like a sport I am not good at, because I have something to prove. Because I think it makes me weak to leave something instead of toughing it out.

Life, Health, Career, DreamsChelsey SatterleeOctober 3, 2017FeaturedComment

5 Tips for Preparing for Your First Job

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.

CareerHilary HorvatitsSeptember 26, 2017Comment

Dream Jobs Are Still Jobs

I 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.)

CareerAlissa SmithSeptember 14, 2017Featured Comment

The Reminder We All Need

As 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.

Career, Dreams, Life, RelationshipsEmily BlasikSeptember 3, 2017FeaturedComment

The Point of Birthdays

I 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.

Career, Dreams, Life, HealthAmanda BeadlescombAugust 13, 2017FeaturedComment

Choose Your Own Adventure: 4 Steps to Making A Choice

By 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.

Career, LifeAlexa JenkinsJuly 20, 2017FeaturedComment

6 Things That Make Me A Better Writer

Do 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.

Career, DreamsAlly WillisJuly 18, 2017FeaturedComment

Deciding Who I'll Be

Fast 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.

Dreams, CareerC. CarrollJuly 13, 2017FeaturedComment

3 Ways to Make Your Commute Not So Miserably Boring

In 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.

CareerAlly WillisJuly 6, 2017FeaturedComment

Digging In To Your Dreams

Most 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.

Dreams, CareerChelsey SatterleeJuly 2, 2017FeaturedComment

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