Sunday, November 27, 2011

Are You That Girl?

As my time at school comes to a close, I'm filled on a day to day basis with even more anxiety talk of my pending post-school plans. For someone who likes to have it all planned out, it turns out having a plan will only get you so far; reality, I've learned, has a mind of its own.


With the end of the semester, and my school life in general, looming, I've had a few opportunities recently to dive head first into my career "development"; getting out there in the world and preparing myself for the inevitable. In these last few weeks, I've had the opportunity to talk to some great industry professionals, alumni and leaders in my intended field and the one thing that scares me to death is something I've heard up and down, inside and out from every, single one of them. To be succesful, in our industry, you must be relocatable.

At first, this freaked me out. Mostly because, right now, at this point in my life I'm simply non-relocatable. My boyfriend made the decision to move to Philadelphia to be with me and begin his new life, and I certainly do not plan on being one half of another long distance relationship, ever again. I've championed the distance and made it out alive on the other side, but simply put that will never be the "only" option again. The problem, however, is when you say this out loud you're immediately that girl. The girl who won't think for herself, or won't do something without her boyfriend. And guess what, no one likes that girl.


After much soul searching, I've been able to see it differently. For me, being that girl is a testament in character. People's work life and relatioships are not one size fits all. Values are different, personal goals vary. In my relationship we don't keep score, but we have both made enormous sacrifices on the others' behalf. I was in Philadelphia continuing school, so he moved here. He's here now, so this is where I'll stay until he is done. If the right opportunity came along, I know a move wouldn't be out of the question, however, it'd be together.

For me, being that girl speaks to who I am, which may be different than you, or you or you. For me its knowing that my work and my personal life are two sepearte entities, two which must both be fuffilled for me to be the best, happiest verison of myself. For me, if push came to shove, I know where my sacrifices would lie.

Hopefully I'm forunate enough to find a great job locally, Lord knows I'm trying. But if not, I'm confident in my decisions, however popular or unpopular they are in the big, bad industry world.

Because if being that girl is really my biggest problem, things aren't looking so bad.  

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Bloggy Blues

How has it been almost a month since I've been here? My apologies, I truly feel as though I'm wiping away the dust on my keyboard as I type away.

My plan was to sit down and spew out my diarrhea of the keyboard (too much?) about why I haven't been here; I've been overworked, overtired, exhausted, grouchy, grumpy, sleepy, dopey, bashful...you get the idea. As I put on my best depressing monotone, I took a look back at my most recent posts: "What Goes Down Must Come Up", "Lacking and Slacking", "A Chilling Anniversary." I know what you're all thinking, someone get this girl a Prozac! 

While it has been a challenging semester to say the least, I thought that it was time to break the Bloggy Blues and put my time to better use. So instead, since its been nearly a month since we've last talked (never again, I promise), I decided to recap the not-so bluesy events that have occupied the last three weeks:

With one semester left to go (but whose counting right?) I have been a hot mess thinking about my job search that is still a solid 6 months away (does this really surprise you after the apartment search of 2011)? Anyways, I am proud to say I recently secured an internship for the spring at a company I'm very excited to work for. Consider it job radar material, you know because everyone is lining up for my resume. 

October has come and gone (good riddance), and to think I left you all high and dry when I'm sure you were all checking your computers anxiously for a Halloween post! C'mon, humor me. Personally, I hate Halloween. I'm cheap and not creative. But this year, I'm proud to say, a group of girls and I were a big hit as dominoes.  

And yes, we did the falling quite well:
 
October also marked another trip to NYC! Remember last time? While this one included slightly less food and rooftop bars (although no shortage of mooched bottle service), the best part was that I got to see all of my college roommates and one of my best friends from home. It was a much needed good time. I mean, they say a pictures is worth a thousand words, right?

 The mimosas didn't hurt either:
(Yes, that is a mason jar...just sayin'..)


Lastly, and arguably the biggest mood lifter, I was home last weekend and got to see not one, not two, but all of my siblings and my two nieces. Relaxing, eating and drinking like a queen and playing with babies..it was hard coming back. But the good news is all I have to do is wait two weeks to do it all again at Thanksgiving:
Although some I can't wait to see more than others, sorry guys: