Posts in Dreams
Fall
Fall

Ironically, change seems to be the only thing that’s truly constant right now, and I can’t put into words how strange this transition is to me, this confusion and this clarity, this first year. I find myself worrying as I look back and worrying as I look forward, never fully accepting the now because right now is the now and I can handle that just about as much as I handled the Friends finale (which I didn’t handle at all) ((“she got off the plane” … don’t even tell me you didn’t cry over that)).

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Life, Dreams, GraduationAlyssa VottoFeaturedComment
It Pays to be Scared
It Pays to be Scared

As a freshman college student I fit the standard for the normal, all-American girl.  I had a boyfriend whom I loved, a sorority I belonged to and a dear group of friends.  My parents were very supportive of my wishes and needs. 

However, as my college years went by I began to draw myself out of my comfort zone.  This is how I realized that the community I had surrounded myself with was not challenging me for the better.  This isn’t to say that I’m not thankful for the time that I had in my undergraduate years, but it is true that I’m most grateful for the instances that allowed me to escape my “bubble.” 

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Life, Travel, DreamsKelsey WorshamComment
Why I Write
Why I Write

I’m currently working at a restaurant while I try to sort everything out/update my resume with community service projects I did 12 years ago just to make it look more impressive/deny my life. And customers who – (I’m not sure if my persona just screams confused grad, or if they somehow already know) - ask me what I want to do or what I went to school for usually respond to my answer like so: with a sympathetic head tilt, quizzical nodding, an extra dollar in the tip jar, and then of course, there are those who straight out ask: “Why?”

So I shrug and offer my most self-deprecating smile when all I really want to say is: “Because I like to write, have you read anything by Fitzgerald lately, literature is great, and do you want French fries with that?”

But I just figure it’s easier to answer the first way.

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Dreams, CareerAlyssa VottoFeaturedComment
The Power of Saying "No"
The Power of Saying "No"

ll my life I have watched other people use this strange superpower that I just didn't possess.

I remember an instance when I was ten years old and had friends who wanted to go to the mall. But my family was going to lunch. It was such a dilemma that I cried! I literally stood there crying, unable to choose between the two. I couldn't bear the thought of having to tell either my friends or my family “no.” I didn't want to disappoint anyone.

Fast forward to my junior year of college: I was working three jobs, two of which I was commuting an hour for three times a week for minimal pay. I was exhausted.

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Life, Career, Dreams, RelationshipsMaddison GilcreaseComment
Making Dreams Happen
Making Dreams Happen

Welcome to being human. You aren’t expected to know every detail about your future. If you had it all figured out, when would you have time for the amazing unknown? Would you welcome love, even if it comes earlier than you expected? Would you feel restless because love is delayed four years? Would you take the job where you could excel quickly, or would you take the job where you’d have to learn new things?

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DreamsCynthia MunozComment
What's the Point?
What's the Point?

I've written three different posts this past week alone, all trying - and failing - to communicate what I've been experiencing this month. Every critique I've had from people has been this: You're rambling. What's the point?

So here's the point: I don't know my point anymore.

"What's your dream job?" a friend asked me on afternoon over half-priced margaritas.

I didn't have an answer for him.

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Career, Dreams, LifeAlly WillisFeaturedComment
The Golden Age of Adulthood
The Golden Age of Adulthood

I always imagined what it would be like to be 23 when I was younger. The Golden Age of Adulthood, you could call it.

I pictured myself living in a big city, in the heart of downtown, drinking lattes in little cafés on my Sunday mornings. I saw myself being kissed goodnight on a stoop next to a trash can that stayed on the sidewalk. I would walk through an office building made entirely of glass, Devil Wears Prada style, in my high heels and pencil skirt, on the brink of missing my morning meeting, if only because my morning cup of joe I drank on my building’s rooftop captured my heart for a little too long.

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Life, Career, DreamsKendall CherryFeatured, ArchiveComment
The Making of Milestones
The Making of Milestones

I cried in the backseat of an Uber the other night.

Somehow our conversation steered into the dangerously-open territory of life stories, wherein our driver shared with us that her husband of 21 years had just left her.

"Your 40s are the roughest," she explained.

"Our 20s don't seem much better," I responded. "What about your 30s?"

"You'll spend most of it sacrificing everything for your kids and husband who will later get bored of you and leave. It'll be somewhat happy."

So this is life, then?

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Career, Dreams, LifeAlly WillisFeatured, ArchiveComment
On Finding Your Calling
On Finding Your Calling

When I was in elementary school, I desperately wanted to be a teacher. For hours on end, I would stand in front of my four-legged whiteboard easel, writing out various math problems for my imaginary students to solve. When friends came over to play, they'd sit at my feet with a pile of coloring books and puzzles, ignoring my every attempt to teach them the vocabulary word of the day. To put it bluntly, I was a nerd. The kid who begged their parents for a pair of reading glasses and read the Children's Dictionary for fun. (I still remember the first word on Page 1—aardvark—because I was fascinated by its ridiculous double-A spelling. Why not just name it an ardvark?)

I might have been a bit eccentric as a kid, but by the time I was ten, I had found my calling.

At least, for a little while.

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Life, Career, DreamsEmily BlasikFeatured, ArchiveComment
And That Has Made All The Difference
And That Has Made All The Difference

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a poem that I have heard at several graduations and events as a motivational addition, often including the lines from the last stanza: “two roads diverged in a wood, and I / I took the one less traveled by / and that has made all the difference.”

When I first heard this poem, I was completely oblivious (like always) to the true meaning of it. I thought: “what an amazing message: you should choose to be different from everybody else, I like, totally get it!” It wasn’t until later that I realized that I’m an English major who can’t understand poetry, and it’s tragic.

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Life, DreamsAlyssa VottoFeatured, ArchiveComment
Rainy Day Revelations
Rainy Day Revelations

With the new Mumford and Sons album streaming through my ears (and still desperately wishing everyone was as passionate about this album as I am), I meandered through tree-shaded London streets, alone with my wandering thoughts in a city of seven million.

I returned to sit beneath a tree – my tree – on Primrose Hill, the city unchanged before me as the spring breeze carried shadows across the blooming city.

One year before, I had sat beneath this very same tree, the same skyline set within my eye line, wearily contemplating my “what’s next” after I returned home to the prospects of life post-graduation. Yet here I was - an entire year between that moment and this one - just as in the dark about what I’m doing with my life as I was then.

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Life, Career, Dreams, TravelAlly WillisFeatured, ArchiveComment
True to Your Heart
True to Your Heart

Why is it so hard to follow your heart? Is it just me? Surely not.

We hear people telling us all the time to follow our hearts. I mean, I grew up listening to the lyrics of 98 degrees and the great Stevie Wonder from the Disney classic Mulan.

The older I get, the more I realize that Stevie has left me with a difficult task.

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Graduation, Dreams, CareerKaitlyn BundrickComment
Murphy's Law: What Can Happen, Will Happen
Murphy's Law: What Can Happen, Will Happen

As a twenty-something who is moderately to severely active on (read: addicted to) social media, I’m overwhelmed daily as I scroll through infinite purportedly uplifting articles about my generation: “20 Reasons Why Your 20s are the Best Years of Your Life,” “37 Ways to Turn Into Beyoncé” or “12 Random Quotes by Taylor Swift with Accompanying Pictures That Will Make You Wish You Were Her BFFL.”

On the flipside, I’ve also seen blog posts claiming that your 20s are actually required to suck, like it’s some unwritten rite of passage. Like if those years don’t make you want to shave your head Britney-style, you aren’t doing them right.

C’mon.

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Life, Dreams, CareerChristina BergerFeatured, ArchiveComment
I Want to Live
I Want to Live

“How vain to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

My friend presented this Thoreau quote to me one evening as we sat at a sparsely-populated bar waiting for a band to go on, discussing life and the inevitable question of what exactly it is that we want to do with it.

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Dreams, Career, LifeAlly WillisComment