Posts in Life
Nobody Told Me
Nobody Told Me

I didn’t necessarily expect the whole “adult” thing to be easy, but I also didn’t expect it to overwhelm me the way it did. Granted, I was also in a long-distance relationship that was quickly tanking, so that definitely didn’t help me navigate life in the aftermath of graduating. Along with having roommates with very different personalities than mine who brought a tense atmosphere to my home life, post-grad life dropped a whole new concept into my path: being intentional.

Graduating from college changes who you are—one moment you’re a student like you’ve always been, and the next moment you find that your identity has shifted. For me, the combination of a failing relationship, an uncomfortable home life and the loss of the built-in college community I’d had for 3.5 years made for a whirlwind season of life. If you’re not careful, all of a sudden you realize you haven’t seen your friends in two months and Netflix keeps asking you if you’re still watching your show because you fall asleep on the couch every night.

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Graduation, Life, RelationshipsBrittany PrescottFeaturedComment
Put It In Your Back Pocket and Other Lessons I Learned from My Grandmother
Put It In Your Back Pocket and Other Lessons I Learned from My Grandmother

Last summer, my beloved grandmother, Joyce, lost her short but very heartbreaking battle with brain cancer. She was my best friend, and to say that I miss her every day in an understatement; I’d give anything in the entire world to hear her voice or see her smile again. But the lessons I learned from her are what keep me moving forward on the days when all I want to do is fall apart.  

Here are a just few of my favorites.

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Life, RelationshipsMegan RauFeaturedComment
On Being Single on Valentine's Day and Being Way Too Sober
On Being Single on Valentine's Day and Being Way Too Sober

I gave up alcohol for Lent. But it turns out, I didn’t give up the reason I normally drink alcohol. This is, of course, due to the fact that my love life is akin to post-meltdown Chernobyl. Lent happened on Ash Wednesday, as Lent does, and I stopped drinking. No happy-hour Shiners, no Friday afternoon margaritas, nothin’. Just iced tea, water, and hot cocoa. Additionally, Ash Wednesday was the day I flew to Texas for a weekend wedding. Now if you know me at all, or even if you don’t, you know that I love my friends, and I love that they have found love, but I often do not love weddings. This is probably because I don’t like wearing dresses. It’s also because weddings are expensive. Especially for bridesmaids. Particularly for Maids of Honor. Groomsmen have it so damn easy: just a bunch of college buddies getting together for a weekend of debauchery, breweries and golf for the bachelor party and then a weekend of wearing a suit they may or may not already own on one Saturday. Groomsmen are the men that will marry you and bury you.

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Life, RelationshipsRachel MallisonFeatured, Archive 16Comment
The Road Paved with Disappointment
The Road Paved with Disappointment

About a month ago, I was driving to downtown Franklin, Tennessee with a friend and spilling my fearful, panicking guts from the passenger’s seat. I had just received news that I would not be getting a job I had spent three interviews preparing to accept. I was rundown and disappointed, feeling lost in the jungle of post-graduation.

“You should just drive across the country,” she said lightheartedly, and laughter ensued. Drive across the country, what an absurd idea. But then the joke got taken one step too far and all of a sudden we were plotting about who would pay my rent for a month and where I could stop to stay the night in Oklahoma and Arizona and California. Suddenly, I was calling my parents and asking if I would still be allowed to come home for Christmas if I made a rather (arguably) reckless decision and drove my tired, thirteen-year-old car across the country. (It took some negotiation but I am, indeed, still allowed to come home.) We sat in a coffee shop for an hour and hammered out the plan and concluded that there really wouldn’t be one, that sometimes you have to take a leap, whether or not it looks like a promising landing, and whether or not people are going to speculate about where your mind might have run off to.

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Dreams, Life, CareerChelsey SatterleeFeatured, Archive 16Comment
Now & Then: Advice to Your Past and Future Self
Now & Then: Advice to Your Past and Future Self

Because I’m still not over the fact that a new year has already fallen upon us (and I’m also not over the fact that it’s been almost a year since we graduated… NO),  I still can’t help but reflect on 2015 out of the pure shock that it’s behind us now. What a major year this was for me: I (somehow) graduated college, moved into an apartment, got a big-girl job and experienced infinite laughs, loves, let-downs and lessons. So like every other year before this one, I found myself mentally making a list of all of the things I wanted to change about myself after the ball dropped. Past resolutions include eating healthier, exercising more, volunteering more, everything you've already heard before and everything I never actually do, etc.

But then I started wondering; if I could go back, to 2015 or 2014 or 2011 or 2006, what would I tell myself then?

In the end, would I have done it any different?

So I decided to put my senior-year newspaper class experience to the test and use my hard-hitting journalism skills (just pretend…) to ask the same question to those around me: What would you tell your past self?

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Life, Dreams, GraduationAlyssa VottoFeaturedComment
An Open Letter to the Man Who Kicked Me Out of A Bar
An Open Letter to the Man Who Kicked Me Out of A Bar

My friends and I were having a lovely time. Laughing and dancing with passion only Usher’s songs can inspire, we were savoring our last night together. I don’t remember the DJ’s name (forgive me, friend), but I do remember that he provided my requested track ("Confessions Part II").

You left your lonely grouping of empty cocktail glasses and sleek liquor bottles to approach us.

“Who are you?” you demanded, assuming the classic position of a member of the “good 'ole boys club" - the power stance.

“Who are you?” I countered, less-than-amused at your question and tone which surpassed Eliza Dolittle’s false superiority upon her first entrance into high society.

“My family owns the Cowboys,” was your response to the question, but to me it felt like the punchline to a lackluster joke.

With all of the defiance I could muster, I countered, “And what do you do?”

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LifeLaurel DicusFeatured, Archive 16 Comment
A Winter Without Spring Break
A Winter Without Spring Break

The saddest I’ve felt since graduating is realizing I have no more set spring break. No more specifically set aside time to rush home from that last, ever-so-eternal-seeming class before freedom. No more frantic packing and driving all night to Florida and watching the sun come up over the Atlantic. If I wanted a spring break now, I would have to make it for myself, and that thought was daunting. How am I supposed to get through a spring breakless winter? Summer is too far off, too unreachable, so in the meantime, I’ve tried to do a few small things on my days off from work to beat back that winter idleness.

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Life, Travel, HealthAnna SpleanFeaturedComment
The Year of No
The Year of No

Shonda Rhimes wrote a book called The Year of Yes and while she is my spirit animal, and I agree with the motivation behind the book, I want 2016 to be my year of no.

Why, you ask? Because I've always said yes. To everything that I don't want to say yes to, I've said yes. I have done so much damage to myself from saying yes to appease everyone in my life that it actually feels good to say no.

In early December I had a series of interviews for a job I didn't actually want; I just wanted a full time job. When it got to the point where they wanted me to talk to the HR department, I said no. The job wasn't a good fit for me, and I didn't want to put myself in a position where I'd have to move and not know anyone and be miserable at a job that wasn't right for me. I am not opposed to moving to the other side of the country - heck I'm not opposed to moving out of the country - but for a job that wasn't going to be a good fit for me? It wouldn't be worth it.

Saying no felt great.

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Career, Life, RelationshipsJackie MundryComment
The Lessons of Living in Community
The Lessons of Living in Community

Since August I’ve been living in intentional community with five other individuals. Through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps we were all placed in various schools and agencies across Tucson, AZ. We are provided a communal budget each month for rent, utilities, food and personal stipends. We do almost everything together; eat dinner at the table nearly every night, ride our bikes to the grocery store, attend street fairs and play vicious games of UNO. 

When applying to this program I thought I was this incredibly self-aware individual who might potentially be able to grow from this experience. I knew myself and was sure of what I wanted. I also knew I didn't need others to be happy. I could do that all by myself, thank you very much. Needing others was a sign of weakness. It made you vulnerable. But the more time I spend in this house, the more I’ve realized it is okay to be needy.

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Life, RelationshipsOlivia LandryFeaturedComment
Learning How to Rest
Learning How to Rest

I’ve been battling exhaustion for a few months now.

I know everyone has. Something about the “new school year” – even if you’re not in school or your work/life isn’t impacted by the academic calendar, it’s just so hard to get back into the swing of things post-summer and everything just gets crazy busy.

After a long hard day, Tyler’s and my favorite way to rest is to curl up on our upstairs couch and binge-watch a Netflix show. Lately it’s been “Suits.” We’ve been so tired and run ragged by daily life, we’ve been throwing ourselves on the couch more and more to turn off our brains and escape the day by immersing ourselves into Harvey, Mike and the latest plot twist.

Recently, I’ve heard a few comments from friends who got rid of their TV. Insert immediate feelings of shame.

DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME I NEED TO GET RID OF MY TV.

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LifeHanna SeymourFeaturedComment
On Surviving Storms
On Surviving Storms

As you may or may not know, the East Coast was recently the victim of a righteous beating. Winter storm Jonas (controversial because many folks dispute the practice of naming winter storms), came in with a vengeance last Friday and left many eastern cities crippled in its wake. As one who has never dealt with true winter (Texas represent!), I was beyond nervous about the impending storm; after all, I only recently got snow boots and I'm not even sure how to use them.

I am a weak human; I am made for temperate climates. Jonas' upcoming arrival forced me to face my anxieties and come up with a plan and incidentally made me evaluate how I encounter obstacles in all areas of my life, beyond large shifts in the weather. Spoiler alert: I made it through the storm, and I learned some lessons that can apply to the storms of life as well as storms on the East Coast.

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LifeRachel MallisonFeaturedComment
30 Lessons After Graduation
30 Lessons After Graduation

1. After a hard day, there’s nothing better than lighting a fancy candle and taking a hot bath. Indulge in a little luxury.

2. Assume that everyone in your yoga class feels just as vulnerable as you do.

3. Keep going to yoga. (Or your chosen equivalent.)

4. If you want something badly, tell someone about it. Your best friend, your mom, the cashier at the grocery store. You’ll be ten times more likely to reach for that goal if someone else is quietly rooting for you. Bonus points if that someone calls you out on your excuses.

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Graduation, Life, RelationshipsKristen HartsfieldFeaturedComment
We Are Not Trained to Stand Still
We Are Not Trained to Stand Still

If 17 was one of my favorite years so far, 22 was its sorrowful counterpart. That year was a year of distance for me, distance between who I was and who I wanted to be. It was the year I moved 3,000 miles for love, leaving behind nearly every place and person I ever knew. I went into this year with a bachelor’s degree and no plan other than taking six months off from even thinking about what my next step should be.

Even though I needed that time, it was the year my life stood still.

In retrospect, I know things happened during that year. I know the world didn’t stop. But it sure felt like it did. Days blended together, weeks stretched out into months, and eventually the year came to an end. 

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Dreams, Life, CareerNicole BoozFeaturedComment
How to Dwell
How to Dwell

You could say I’ve been carrying the word “dwell” around in my pocket for a little while now.

Once upon a time, I thought dwell was a peculiar word. Had I been asked to prescribe a physical form to it, I might have chosen a dark and sporous mold. I was under the impression that it meant to live as a hermit. And not the Boo Radley, kind and courageous type of hermit, but more of the long finger-nailed kind. While my apartment is a tad eccentric and also filled with sweets, please don't start referring to it as they did to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory (“nobody ever goes in ... and nobody ever comes out.”)  So before you think that my 2016 resolution is to become a recluse, allow me to explain.

If given the proper chance, dwell is actually a marvelous word. At its core, it is a fairly neutral word, devoid of offensive meaning. And thus begins my two-part New Year’s Resolution.

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Life, RelationshipsLaurel DicusFeaturedComment
It's Okay
It's Okay

I’ve cried more in the past few months than I probably ever have in my entire life, throughout this huge blur of confusion and aimless direction and anxiety. And although I was extremely fortunate to find a job soon after we graduated, it was far from what I wanted to be doing in the long run. It was a temp position, and that’s all I ever wanted it to be: temporary.

I have this tendency to be self-doubtful, to over-analyze every little thing to every little core, pick it apart, over-analyze it some more. And I have no idea why. So from when I first sat down at my desk up until now, I constantly apologized for all of the countless (countless…) mistakes I made, the appointments that I booked incorrectly, the money I added wrong; the list goes on.

“I’m sorry,” I would shriek. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

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Dreams, Career, LifeAlyssa VottoFeatured, Archive 16Comment