As I sit here writing my last blog as a college student it is hard to imagine that the end has come already. It seems like it was just a few months ago that my parents were dropping me off at Witmer to start college. Although there were definitely times that were tough for me, most of my time here has been terrific and I am glad God gave me the confidence to come here. Through finals, tennis seasons, and just other crazy times in the semester I persevered. I am so excited to say that I am a college graduate, but of course it is a little sentimental too. After spending so much time in one place for four years I think it is inevitable that you will feel a little sad. So it is time to go say my goodbyes as a student (of course I will be back to visit) and pack up my car and leave confidently knowing that I am an alumni! of Messiah College

Ah! I don’t know what my problem is!! I guess the blog a day thing slipped my mind yet again.

Anyways…a quick post for today.

Today is Monday which means the last week of classes, which also means my last week of classes ever!! And only a few more days to go after that until I am done.

It feels great!

Today at work I realized just how much I have been slacking on the blogging. Because of that, I have decided that I will write a post everyday leading up to my final day of my college career, documenting it along the way. Today I am feeling excited. I am so ready to finish out the next two weeks strong and be finished with college. It really is a challenge and completing that challenge is something to be proud of!

I am still keeping up the job search. Not a lot new has happened. I have been able to speak with some contacts and learn about possible opportunities. I am trying to concentrate on all the possibilities. It is really hard though, especially since every time I tell someone I am graduating from college in two weeks gives me the same look and says “oh, it’s not a very good time to be graduating.” Ah well, I must keep the faith and believe everything will come at its own time.

On a side note, you know what goes along with graduating? A lot of doctors appointments. Another good reason while proper scheduling is essential. For instance, today in a span of 8 hours I was examined, pricked, dropped, and picking out new glasses. Really I was all over Dauphin and Cumberland county today getting appointments in while I still can.

And another side note. For my final graphic design project I am working on a pretty cool piece using environmental typography. I am not sure how well mine will turn out, but I am excited to see how it goes. A 20 page book with 10 layouts…pretty daunting, but what isn’t these days.

Until tomorrow…

maybe i should try one of these ideas for finding a job:

The Creative Job Hunt

Sorry it has been awhile. Somewhere between all of the craziness I forgot the cardinal rule of blogging—update regularly. I even talked about this in a presentation to a professional client starting a blog. Guess I didn’t follow my own directions.

Last week and this weekend were great breaks from the absolute craziness of my last semester. It was so nice to just take a little break and not feel super rushed to get everything done. Now this week…that’s a different story. I think sometime during my junior year I became a bit of a procratinator. I don’t know how it happened and I know it is not like me at all, but I am finding it hard to get the motivation to start things early.

The one thing I do know is that I am not procrastinating with the job search. Since early September I have been submitting resumes and cover letters and online applications…blah. It is all a bit overwhelming. So far all I have gotten is “we are considering other candidates.” This is frustrating. Super frustrating.

I am keeping my head up though because I started early. Now with only a few weeks of school left it doesn’t seem early enough, but at least I started a little early.

So far I have learned:
1. submitting an online application for employment feels a bit like tossing your resume into the atlantic ocean, hoping it washing up on shore and somebody finds it and wants to hire you
2. even if you think you have experience somebody definitely has more (even if it is entry-level)
3. high quality resume paper is kind of expensive, but supposedly well worth it.
4. it is essential to just keep sending and try not to get too discouraged.

This week I am applying for a few more jobs, hopefully with better results. If anybody wants a well qualified Public Relations candidate….I think I could help you find one!

Dear Monday,

Thanks for bringing me a day of quizzes, spanish oral examinations, job fairs,work and meetings. It is always nice to come back from a lovely weekend to be bombarded by others things to do. I particularly like the way that you always fill yourself up so there is never a quiet moment. You must anticipate that Thursday would be upset if the beginning of the week wasn’t crazy. I think that you should appreciate how popular you are. Everyone is always talking about Monday…”I’ve got a case of the Mondays” “It’s Monday” etc. Sincerely though thank you for making me feel like there is an extra hour in the day since our time was just adjusted. It makes me feel like I can get a lot more accomplished. Time to go to class Monday. See you next week!

phewwwwwwww. It is Wednesday which means another week of my college career under my belt. It is right about this time each week where I find myself needing to take a minute and breathe Between all the things going on with classes and trying to look for jobs I sometimes feel headed towards insanity. This countdown probably doesn’t help much either!

Time left: 1 month, 19 days

Fall break was a nice time to relax, but more and more I find myself thinking there is never enough time.

I am looking forward to spending another fall weekend here on campus. Through all of my four years fall is definitely my favorite season at Messiah. Thinking about it brings back happy memories and opportunities to make new ones. I am thankful to see different seasons. I am thankful that even in all the craziness I came to Messiah. Now it is just time to hope that God gives me a glimpse of my next life move.

It is fall break. I am so happy. I can’t wait to be home. That’s all for today. Be back Monday.

It is raining and really cold…and it has been for the past couple of days, but you know what? I am going to try and stick with an optimistic attitude through this dreary spell we are having. Because…at least it isn’t snowing. If I were home then I would have been greeted with a freshly fallen blanket of snow in my yard. Thankfully though being a little further south has saved me from that! Now if it will only clear up for fall break next week I would be very grateful.

This weekend is homecoming at Messiah. Tonight Jeff Allen will be performing and I am going to help sell merchandise at the show, so that is pretty exciting. I was looking foward to enjoying all the homecoming festivities since this is my last one as a student, but unfortunately the rain is bringing down my enthusiasm level a bit. I am trying to adapt though. I want to go to the soccer game, see my friends that graduated last year and most importantly enjoy the presence of a lot of people on campus.

I love fall so much. I would love it better this year if I could get a chance to see the beautiful leaves. So let’s pray for some sunshine. Next week is fall break already! That means half-way done with my last semester of college. weird.

Have a spectacular weekend.

I was reading an article on Yahoo! when my thoughts turned to careers. My question of the day is “can you imagine being Kanye West’s publicist?!?!?” I can’t even begin to think about the stress level that that job would entail. I don’t think you could really ever get a decent night’s sleep without worrying what your next “statement” would be. So the Taylor Swift incident was pretty crazy…saying a generalist statement about George Bush crazy too. Kanye and Lady Gaga were supposed to be touring together this fall and winter. With an announcement made less than a month ago, the tour is canceled already. And do you know what that tour was supposed to be called? Duhdudaaaaaaa! Fame Kills. Maybe for Kanye fame kills his reputation. Maybe he is just a good actor and maybe he has an amazing publicist who collaborates with him to pick just the “right” moments to spark a fury with his name in the middle.
All this being said, I had to write a vocational reflection for my senior seminar class that all Communication students are required to take where the theme centered on our upcoming job search. Although I don’t know exactly what I want to do after the graduation that is soon approaching, I have learned one major thing during my studies of public relations: I do not want to EVER be a celebrity publicist. I think it would be really hard to practice ethical communications in the Hollywood world. So many questionable things happening…
This is probably about the most cliché phrase you could use about Kanye but really how could you be so heartless?