Things I Don’t Like

Last month, I forgot had absolutely no time to come up with creative posts relating to my job in student affairs, so instead I decided to tell you all about the things I was obsessed with at that very moment. A quick little update on those – “The Carrie Diaries” is on it’s summer hiatus (unless it was secretly cancelled like “Flash Forward” was two years ago), I haven’t gone on any Tumblr blogs in awhile (maybe I should since I’ve been in a perpetually bad mood), I’ve been too poor to eat shrimp from the fancy grocery stores and too scared to visit Walmart this month, that means I’ve also been too poor for a Spirit Jersey (I just found out how much those things cost WHAT?!), and I have a week to finish the current three seasons of Arrested Development before the glorious day that Season 4 arrives is upon us.

Back to the point. The other day, my friend was texting me ridiculous things all day. And I don’t mean ridiculous as in pictures of dogs wearing wigs, but she was asking me all sorts of questions. Maybe she was bored at work? Who knows?

This is what I send friends on a regular basis to cheer them up.

Anywho. So one of the questions read “what are things you don’t like?” Or so I thought. But instead of re-reading it, I started typing this epic list of things I don’t like on my iPad. When I went to trim it down and type it in a text message, I realized she asked me to name things I like. Because that makes sense. So I put my list aside and quickly typed up a list of things I like. HOWEVER since I saved that list, I thought another random post would be a great way to honor everything I can’t stand in life. Here we go, in no particular order.

Slow Drivers

There is nothing that pisses me off than people who CAN’T DRIVE. I swear, I don’t know how they got their licenses, but there are some people that can’t grasp basic concepts like using a blinker or getting out of the passing lane if you’re doing five under and there are a bunch of cars behind you. You don’t know me, you don’t know my life. Yeah, yeah, I just want to get to Target and back before the Grey’s Anatomy finale, BUT WHAT IF I WAS TRYING TO GET MY SICK DOG TO THE EMERGENCY VET? Move.

The Way Glitter Gets Everywhere

Yesterday at dinner, I kept seeing something shiny on my face out of the corner of my eye. When I finally went to the bathroom, I saw that there was glitter ALL OVER MY FACE. I know that can happen when one has an interaction with glitter, but the thing is, I did not see any glitter at all yesterday. No glittery make up, no glitter on anything in my purse…where did it come from?!

My iPhone’s Battery

All it does is die. Seriously. I charge it all day at work and by 8 or 9 pm I’m getting the 20% warning. One time I took a day trip to Manhattan. I made sure to charge the phone fully before leaving and used it minimally on the way there. Once I got there, I texted a few friends, maybe took a few pictures, and then put it back in my pocket. After lunch, it was under 30%, so I took thirty minutes and sat on the floor in the lobby of some random building in Manhattan to charge my phone. I do not live a very glamorous life.

Spiders

I know this is a dislike many individuals have. I routinely find creative ways to kill them while keeping myself as far from them as possible. In the past, these have included throwing a shoe at the wall and spraying them with Windex. However, the other day I faced a terrible dilemma. There was a spider crawling ON MY COMPUTER SCREEN. I can’t just throw a shoe at my computer or spray it with Windex. So, I went for the next logical solution – the vacuum. I used the vacuum tube to get rid of the intruder. Except. My vacuum thinks it’s fancy so it has a clear canister instead of a bag so you can see all the dirt and hair you just sucked off your floor. And it turns out that this spider did not die during his trip through the vacuum and was instead happily crawling around all the dirt and hair. There was no way I was emptying that into my trashcan, so I took the whole thing outside to the dumpster and said goodbye to Mr. Spider there. (I also tried calling three different people to see if they’d empty the canister for me – no luck.)

The Spell Checker On This Thing

Right now it’s telling me that I spelled “spiders” and “battery” wrong even though they are not underlined in this paragraph. It also keeps telling me that “texting” and “texted” aren’t real words, but let me assure you, THEY ARE.

When USA Is Showing Something That Is NOT SVU

I’m not sure exactly what “type” of shows the USA channel shows, but 90% of the time I turn it on, they are in the midst of a Law and Order SVU marathon. These marathons usually have some sort of theme that sounds like it could be the title of a Jerry Springer/Maury Povich episode. I don’t even pay attention to the themes, I just sit back and watch six hours of my life disappear. But, during times of absolute SVU need (having the flu, going to the gym and getting the treadmill closest to the TV), I turn on ol’ faithful and find some other crap show on. SVU has taught me that exercising outside is bad for me – I will either find a dead body or I will become one. Hence why I like to watch it while running INDOORS.

When Pandora Goes On Some Weird Tangent

I have my go-to stations on Pandora that ALWAYS play good music. Except for moments like right now where they play eight songs in a row that sound like they could have been composed by my eleven-year-old-self playing with the keyboards in my music tech class. “WOOO ALL THE NOISES!!!”

 

That, my friends, is all for now. I assure you the list was originally much longer, but I also wasn’t putting paragraphs of back story with each item. I will save the rest for some other time.

TBT – Graduation

I was not looking forwards to my graduation from Undergrad U. At some point in February, someone made mention of there being 100 days until graduation, and it was like some switch flipped in my brain. Before then, graduation had been some distant event with little meaning. It seemed long enough away that by the time it eventually rolled around, I would have my life together. But once that countdown hit the double digits, I was panicking. I didn’t have a “grown up” job yet. I wasn’t “over” college yet. Heck, I had just started to enjoy myself! And so I spent the next 99 days dreading graduation.

I had no time to process the fact that I was a graduating senior. I literally went straight from taking an exam to listening to some CEO of some company tell me to go out there and make a difference in the world. No cushy senior send off event for me. If I thought that college went by too fast, it was nothing compared to how fast I went from enjoying mixers with my sisters and nights at the bar to packing my apartment up and moving back to my parents house. Speaking of my sisters, there were only two others that graduated when I did. TWO. We didn’t take cute-sy senior pictures or anything of the sort. Not only was I leaving with nothing exciting in my future – nobody was coming into the lonely world of adulthood with me!

As PDFM U gets ready for graduation, I can’t help but to think back on my own graduation and all those thoughts and feelings I had. I wonder how all my students feel – if they’re excited or sad or scared or all three. Are they going to look back fondly on these last few weeks of college or be like me and wish that they had “done more”?

How did I spend my last few weeks? I remember sleepovers in my sorority house’s living room. Late night Taco Bell runs. Driving all over creation with my friends as they looked for a house to rent the following year. Enjoying things at Undergrad U that I had never tried before (true story, I don’t think I used the gym at UU until my last month of college). Maybe I did do enough. Maybe I just wish that college was longer.

I’ve had a few talks with some of my students adjusting to the post-college world. At first I thought that it was just me, that I was the only person having some MAJOR transition issues to life after college. Part of the problem with having only a few sisters graduate was that I had nobody to talk to these things about. Now that all my friends have (finally) joined me in the real world, I see them going through the same struggles I went through. It turns out everything I felt was completely normal. It takes time to get used to not living twenty feet from your best friends and not having something to do every night.

The good news is, I was MUCH more excited about my graduation from Grad School State. All of my friends were graduating with me, we had plenty of adventures together in our last weeks of school, and while I still didn’t have a job, I had a Master’s degree and for some reason that made me feel much more important. It didn’t make me think I could change the world, but it did make me think that I could help somebody that someday might change the world.

I wish there were more resources for those transitioning out of college. For now, there’s a nice network of bloggers that you can count on.

Curly Girl Update

So back in January, I wrote about my deep dark secret of having naturally curly hair. I was (and still sort of am) at my wits end. Basically, I spent a big chunk of my life being told that curly hair isn’t okay – by teen movies, popular magazines, employers, and even my own friends. It’s gotten to the point where I like myself better with straight hair. While my curly hair is my “real” self, to me it also represents my former self. When I see myself with curly hair, I instantly think back to high school. Except. With all the damage I’ve done to my hair, my curls look NOTHING like they used to.

But wait! How do I know what my curly hair looks like if I never wear it curly? Well. For the past six weeks I HAVE been wearing it curly. It started when I was on vacation. I was doing something during the day where I got my hair wet and that night we were going to dinner and there was not enough time to straighten it in between. AND since I hadn’t packed for wearing my hair curly on the trip, I had absolutely no hair product to even try and tame my hair. *cue horror movie shriek here* I put tons of conditioner in, untangled it with my fingers, and prayed for the best. While the bottom layers LOOKED like they were going to dry into nice ringlets, the top layers were more relaxed and wavy. By the end of the night, the top was practically straight and the bottom looked like a frizzy pyramid. Not attractive. The next morning I went for my standard over-sized messy bun that I rocked all through high school, only to find that my hair was so thin that my bun looked like a tight little librarian bun. Also not attractive.

I was totally concerned about the state of my hair, but I also told myself that I was in a strange place with strange shampoo and NO HAIR PRODUCTS and that when I went back home and unearthed my hair products meant for my curly hair, I’d have no problem. Except. I had the same results at home. My hair was dead. The ten years of straightening and bleaching had killed it. The under layers of my hair (with proper product) do curl into the nice little ringlets I remember from high school. The top layers look like these weird beach-y waves and that would be okay if my whole head was like that, but with all the volume underneath, it looks terrible. Also, the bottom two inches of my hair are stick straight. I hate it more than I hate my “normal” curly hair.

Despite this, I decided to wear my hair curly until the end of the school year. It was rough. My curly hair is NOT predictable. Sometimes I can shower at night and it would be dry before bed. Other nights, I’d have to put it in a bun and try again the next morning. Some days it would look just perfect, other days it would manage to be flat and frizzy at the same time. HOW?!?! On top of all of this, I was on a new medicine that made me gain weight (something very few women want to do) and sent me on a mental health roller coaster. I was not okay. That’s really the only way to put it. Luckily, I got the medicine situation figured out (and lost four pounds) and closer to graduation, I was even starting to like my hair on some days. While there are definitely still dead parts, I was able to pull off the second day messy bun pretty well.

And then the school year ended. And I straightened my hair. Let me tell you, after six weeks of not doing my hair, it took FOREVER. The reason I had been able to cut my hair straightening time down was because of all the damage I had done. However, my hair feels thicker and healthier. Well, except the ends. Seeing myself with straight hair after six weeks reminded me of the first time I ever got my hair blown out. I was so happy!

So what have I decided to do? Well, for starters, I’m growing out my bangs. It’s really hard to wear your hair curly if you have bangs. Second, I’m not going to straighten my hair as much. I will straighten it for special occasions, but most of the time, I’m going to wear it curly. It takes less time, it’s healthier, and maybe the more I do it, the better I’ll feel about it. And lastly, I’m going to stop bleaching my hair. Yes that means I  have some nasty roots and it makes me feel worse, but once they get long enough to justify damaging my hair some more, I’m dying it to my natural color. My goal is to eventually get my long thick hair back, but I’m not sure how long that’s going to take or even if that will ever happen.

Moving Home

As a young adult, the idea of visiting home sounds wonderful. Family, friends, HBO that I’m not paying for, FREE MEALS…seriously. It’s like a vacation minus the hotel and airfare. When I was in college, I LOVED going home for weekends…maybe a little too much at first. Even now I try to make it home for big events and I still try to see as many people as possible in a short three day weekend.

However…the idea of MOVING HOME?? That had me running and screaming in the other direction. I had spent most of my life and most of college thinking that I’d finish college and move into my own apartment or at the very least an apartment with friends.

This seems like an accurate representation of what I thought my twenties would be like from the ages of…oh….ten to twenty-one.

Except…just like the “Friends” theme song…no one told me how life was going to be this way. Once I graduated college, I had a part time job lined up, but it wasn’t enough to cover rent my security deposit and I was completely SOL.

It actually started a few weeks before I graduated. My mom called. WAIT. No, no, no. This story starts MUCH further back than that.

Part of the reason I didn’t want to move home after graduation was that my family was VERY strict. I distinctly remember my first only summer home during college. The summer actually started off easier than it ended. During dinner, I told my mom I was going to hang out with one of my friends after she got out of work. “Be home by eleven,” was her response. “But mom…she doesn’t get out of work until 10:30.” “Well, I guess you two won’t be seeing each other tonight then!” “Mom, I’m supposed to pick her up from work. She had someone drop her off because those were our plans.” My mom finally agreed that I could go get her (you know because we’re nice people and all) but that I couldn’t hang out afterwards. It was too late. This seemed absolutely archaic to me after nearly an entire year of not having to follow any rules. At school, we wouldn’t even LEAVE for some parties until after eleven. By the end of summer, my 11:00 pm curfew included the computer. I might have gotten in more trouble for calling my house Guantanamo Bay at one point…oops. By the time August rolled around, I was looking for any excuse to move back to school early. After that summer, I didn’t go home for anything longer that a four day break until graduation.

So…back to where I was. It was a few weeks before graduation. My mom called. “When are you moving home?” I laughed. Out loud. While on the phone. “Mom, I’m not moving home, I have a job here. I have an apartment I can stay at. By the way, can I have $1200?” It’s really hard to convince a parent that you are a grown up in the same sentence that you’re asking for money. And that is the story of how I wound up moving home. I was not happy about it. I was dreading the rules and the boredom. Back then there weren’t blogs or advice articles on how to handle this because my graduating class was the start of the wave of students moving home due the recession. My solution was to spend as much time as I could AWAY from home which didn’t exactly please my rule-loving mother. But, as you probably know from reading other posts here, I eventually found my way to grad school, moved out, and got a big girl job.

What can you do if you’re moving home?

Whether you are moving home for the summer or heading back after graduating, there are a few things you can do to make your life (and your parents’ lives) easier.

Have a nice, sit-down discussion about rules. What is a reasonable time that you should be home? Who might be allowed or NOT allowed to spend the night in your room? Do you need to call home with your plans? Certain families are much more relaxed than others. Also, your life situation might be MUCH different than when you last lived at home. Asking a parent if a significant other can stay over in your room while you’re in high school is laughable in most homes. (Granted, it’s still laughable in mine, but that’s another story) In college, your boyfriend or girlfriend might have spent the night with you loads of times. Your parents might tell you that he or she can’t stay in your room. Yes, it sucks, but you know what? I’m not even going to fight that one any more because I know they aren’t budging. I did eventually break my mom down on the curfew…after I graduated I had to come home “when the bars close”. Good thing I live on the border…2 am closing time on one side, 4 am on the other. Sorry not sorry.

Know what’s expected of you. Do you have to help with any chores around the house or baby sit for your younger siblings? Do your parents need help with the rent or paying any bills? Even if your parents tell you that they don’t want your money or your help, offer from time to time! Make dinner for the family one night or help out with raking the leaves. I bought my parents something they had wanted for awhile but didn’t really have the extra money for. Another time, I surprised them by paying their bill at a restaurant.

Find something to do. I had lost touch with my home friends so while I was home, I really had nothing to do. I wound up joining a gym and eventually creating a new friend group consisting of old and new friends. If you’ve been gone for awhile, it’s really like moving to a new city.

Lastly, come up with some sort of timeline. If you’re just moving home for the summer, that’s pretty simple. You’re going back to school. If you’re moving home with no end date in sight…that’s a different story. Once you have a job, set a goal for yourself! You will save $X per month so you can get your own place in Y months. Tell your parents this goal so they can help in any way they can, whether it’s looking for apartments, finding furniture, or even helping you move!

What advice do you have for those moving home?

Social Media Concerns

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have my job before the days of social media. While I enjoy it for personal use, it honestly can make some days turn into a major headache once I get complaints of students using Facebook or Twitter to bully one another or to post pictures of things that they shouldn’t have in their rooms or apartments (yes, we do see your party pictures). I imagine that before Facebook, students shared pictures the same way they shared them when I was in middle school – getting them developed and passing the envelope around. Also, I know that before I had a digital camera, I took WAYYYY less pictures because it was so expensive!

I already mentioned that students posting pictures of inappropriate activities can get them in trouble. I had friends get in trouble for this my first year at Undergrad U. They had been drinking one night in their room with a few friends and took some pictures and of course posted them on Facebook and I believe somebody reported them to a Residence Life Professional so then of course they got in trouble. I’ve had other instances of students or friends posting about things in their room (street signs, pets) and get in trouble for that as well.

A more recent phenomenon has been these “Confessions” pages. Undergrad U has had a pretty active page for a month or two now, usually filled with things like “I think my RA is hot” or “I had sex in the library/locker room/bathroom/etc”. Most of the time these are harmless, but other times students talk about hurting themselves or others and we have no way to find out who posted it.

Students definitely don’t understand the consequences of posting certain things online. With Facebook, the things you posted are most certainly linked with your real name. Trust me, it’s not fun to have to go through years of pictures and un-tag or delete inappropriate photos. It’s even worse when you have message people you haven’t talked to in ages asking them to take down their photos they may have posted of you. I didn’t have a Facebook until I was in college, but some of these students have had Facebook since they were thirteen…that’s going to be a LOT of Facebook digging their senior year!

Now, it’s not like I go creeping on the internet looking for my students’ Facebook and Twitter accounts trying to get them in trouble. Trust me, I don’t want to see this stuff. The less I know, the better! But if we are made aware of something, we have to chat with the student about it. I usually hear a lot of, “I had no idea you could see that!”

Another issue that has been happening with Residence Life (and it’s something that started happening while I was still a student) is that after receiving their roommate assignment, a student will go look up his or her new roomie on Facebook. Sometimes, the parent does this. And then all hell breaks loose. “My child cannot live with this heathen! They have PARTY pictures on Facebook!” While Facebook can be great for roommates and other incoming students to get to know each other, it becomes a problem when a student uses Facebook to “play up” one aspect of his or her life.

What are some issues that social media has created at your job? How do you work with students on addressing social media concerns?

We’re Pretty Lucky

Last week, I found myself with some extra time off and decided to take a long weekend and visit Grad School State. It was definitely a much deserved vacation.

I was happy to get off campus for once. It seems that even when I’m not on call, I tend to stick around (now that I’m making friends in the area) but as long as I’m in the city, I feel the need to be “on”. What’s that mean? Well, if something serious were to happen, if I’m on campus, I’m going to have to jump in. And if I’m around the city, I need to make sure I’m on my best behavior. During RA training, we talk about how RAs are role models to their residents. Who do you think act as role models for the RAs? Oh you know, the pro staff.

I was also glad to see all the people I knew from GSS. I had friends that were in lots of different departments and it was nice to see them after all this time and hear what they have been up to. Everybody in my program seems to like their jobs. I only know of two that are searching and it’s not so much that they don’t like their jobs, but rather they are relocating to be closer to a significant other. My friends from outside the program…that’s a different story. They always seem to be looking for something better or complaining about something. Part of me wants to smack them…”Oh, I’m sorry, your boss asked you to come in on a Saturday? I had to go to the hospital with a kid with alcohol poisoning at three am.” But then I realized we’re the lucky ones! We like our jobs! It must suck to get called into a job that you don’t like on a Saturday.

The moment that it really hit me, I was talking with someone who is looking for his next job and he just seemed really down and said, “Oh well, it’s not like you can get your dream job right out the gate or even ten years down the road.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but I did! Granted, I’ve always thought about “dream _____” in a much more reasonable way than others. I know that I can’t have some high level job right after graduation, so I kept my goals in the entry level arena. I also tell people that my dream car is a car that only costs about $40K which isn’t exactly unreasonable. Back to my original point…

People also keep telling me that they “admire that I’m doing what I love even though it means I’ll be poor for the rest of my life” (except sometimes it’s more eloquently said). Yes, I know that I have a masters and I know that my job requires more than the normal nine-to-five and I’m sure if you divided the amount I make by the hours I worked, we would find that I would have been better off as a stock room worker at a chain clothing store that sells overpriced jeans, but that’s not the point. I’m happy with my job. At the moment, I’m able to make ends meet. I’m not on the border of being starving and homeless. I guess what I want to say to those people is sorry I value my happiness over a paycheck (#notsorry). 

Sorry that went a bit towards the rant-y side. I’m not even mad, I’m just happy with my job. I do have friends that aren’t in student affairs that do like their jobs. I also have friends that are still looking for their dream jobs but are making sure they are taking on the “right” responsibilities and projects in their current job to help them attain that dream job one day.

If you’re not in your dream job yet, what is your dream job? What steps are you taking to get there?

My First Big Girl Vacation

I grew up in the sort of family where we went on one big vacation a year. It always happened coincide with my birthday, something I was NEVER a fan of. My mother would plan the whole thing and we’d get updates throughout the year at dinner. “We’re going to ___________.” A few weeks later…”We’re staying at _____________.” And so on. As we got closer, my mom would start mentioning all the “fun” things we could do in the area. “Oh look, a jazz ensemble will be performing!” While I enjoyed many of the places we went, I couldn’t wait to be the one in charge of planning a vacation where I could do all the things I wanted. (Granted, when I first had this thought I was maybe eight years old so my ideal vacation consisted of an indoor pool and mini golf.)

That time that I have eagerly awaited has finally arrived. I am planning my first REAL vacation. Now before this, I’ve traveled, but it’s been for conferences or I’ve roadtripped somewhere with friends and crashed on someone’s couch or floor. This is the real deal. I need to book flights and hotels and buy tickets for attractions. I’M SO EXCITED!!! I’m planning this vacation with my friends but the good news is that we’re basically all interested in the same things so agreeing on things to do on vacation will be easy.

I’m still using my mom for help…I don’t know how the woman does it but she finds the most ridiculous flight and hotel prices. I’ve never been in the room when she’s made the calls, so who knows, maybe she’s busting out the mafia princess card (if you knew her, you’d totally be laughing at this). And! For the first time, my mom and I actually agree that a non-stop flight makes the most sense. I’ve been saving money for this since around Christmas and thanks to my tax refund, I have enough money to book the trip! I’ll probably do that once I return from my next trip that involves me sleeping on a couch that may or may not have been found on the side of the road. Sigh.

Now that we’ve planned the main parts of the trip (where, when) we have to plan for the little details. We’re flying in from different corners of the country, so ideally our flights will arrive at the airport around the same time. I know that’s wishful thinking with delays and whatnot, but a girl can dream! Also, I need to watch my time off in the next few months so I’ll have enough for this trip. Luckily I know how be crafty with all my different types of leave (personal days, vacation, comp time…).

The best part is going to be sitting down and planning a rough itinerary! There are TONS of fun things to do where we’re going and we will be there during a holiday…tricky tricky!! But seriously, I can barely contain myself. I’m texting my friends about it right now. Not even sorry.

What sort of exciting things do you have for this upcoming year?

So You’re In Grad School – May

May is always a month that’s pretty easy to remember…LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, WOOOOO!!! But seriously. I know last month I dropped the ball on my “So You’re In Grad School” post because I couldn’t remember what I did in April during my first year of my program. Guess what? I’ve been thinking about it all month and I STILL don’t remember what I did in April. But, because May was the end of the year, I definitely remember what I did in May.

If you’re a first year student…

Hopefully you have your summer plans all set because now it’s time to plan for them! You might be staying right where you are, you might be traveling to the other side of the country! Orrr you might be in the unlucky position of “we’re closing your building, MOVE!”. Trust me, that’s no fun. Also, I’m over moving. Like seriously over moving. Anywho.

If you do have to travel a long distance for your summer internship, make sure you have a reliable way of getting there. What’s that mean? Well, if you plan on driving to your internship, whether it’s a daily commute or driving ten hours twice the entire summer, take your car for a tune up. You don’t want to have to tell your supervisor that you are going to be late because your car broke down. If you are flying to get where you’re going, make sure you have a ride from the airport to campus and make sure you know how you’re going to get around during the summer. Does the city you’re going to be living in have a good public transportation system? Check it out ahead of time! Do you plan on renting a car for weekend trips? Look into the car rental service closest to where you’ll be living and see if there are any special restrictions. I rented a car the WEEK before I turned twenty five and had to pay an extra ten dollars a day. Other places might have a higher fee or might not rent to you, depending on your age.

Try to find out as much as you can before you leave for your internship. What are the details of where you’ll be living? Will you be housed in an apartment? Will you have roommates? One of my classmates got housed in a dorm room for his summer internship! It was a NICE dorm room…but he never thought he’d be back in one of those! Are there any special summer trips or retreats that you are expected to go on? What is the weather like in the summer where you are going? What are you supposed to wear in the office?

If you do your homework from the above two paragraphs, you will have a better grasp on what to pack and what not to pack for your summer internship. If you are flying, you might want to look into shipping a box or two ahead of time so you’re not paying a fee to check extra suitcases. At the end of the day (I can’t believe I’m about to say this) every town in America has a laundromat, so always pack less clothes. Always.

If you’re a second year student…

Congratulations. You’ve survived grad school. You better celebrate now because you’re about to start working full time and you will continue to do so for the next fifty years or so. I just sucked the fun right out of it, didn’t I?

Hopefully you have a job offer. Heck, maybe you’ve even accepted a job and have a start date and all that jazz! If so, that’s exciting and you might want to actually read some of what I wrote to the first year students as you plan to pack and move to wherever it is life takes you. Especially that part about bringing your car in for a tune up. You do not want to be stuck on the side of the road with your fully packed car. It’s no fun.

You might have multiple job offers at once. Whatever you do, DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS TO OTHER PEOPLE. There are plenty of people out there that are currently employed and you will not earn their sympathy. If you have a few select friends that have their job situation figured out, talk to them about it or chat with a professor. But seriously, do not just complain to the whole class. Every program has that one kid that does it and nobody likes them.

So. Yes. You might have multiple job offers. And you might have a hard time choosing between them. There will be pros and cons about all of the schools, the positions, the locations. One job will pay more than the other. It’s not an easy decision to make. You need to think long and hard about it and honestly, you need to go with your gut feeling. I know most people fresh out of grad school will want to go with the highest salary (you’ve gotta pay those loans somehow!) but that might not be the best job to take. In a perfect world, the job with the best description and best location would also be the highest paying, but it NEVER works out that way. I wish you the best of luck with your decision. (Also, if you do need someone to complain to, I have a job, you can whine to me. Or wine to me. Whichever.)

You might not have a job offer yet. That’s okay. As people are accepting (or declining) job offers, more positions are opening up. Some schools don’t have their budgets set for next year yet and once they figure those details out, they will know if they can add that position or not. If you don’t have a job offer yet, put your stuff in storage, keep looking for jobs, but more importantly, ENJOY YOUR TIME OFF. Once your friends with jobs get settled in, go visit them. See new parts of the country. Go to the beach. Once you get a job offer (which you will), you will not have time to do any of those things.

 

Whether you’ve finished your first year, your whole program, or just finished college and are about to start your Student Affairs adventure, congratulations on finishing another year!

2013 Goal Updates – April

Be More Organized

I think I need to use my calendar more. I know I’m already a calendar/planner FREAK, but this past month I managed to fall behind on some projects. Not cool. However, I did have this random day where I went on a cleaning spree and completely re-organized one closet AND found items to donate. I’m actually really eager for students to leave so I have time to really tackle my office.

Read More

I think the only reading I have done this month is my inbox which always seems to be bursting at the seams with new messages. Seriously. If I have fifteen free minutes at work, I go through and sort my emails only for five more to come rolling in. The end of the year is approaching FAST and my students are getting antsy. “There’s a vacant space in my room for next year, are you going to assign someone to it?” (Yes.) “Can I leave my things in my apartment for the summer?” (No.) “Is it too late to apply to be an RA for next year?” (Dies.) I’d like to say I plan on doing more reading next month…but the new season of Arrested Development is getting posted on Netflix at the end of the month…so honestly, I might spend a good chunk of time re-watching seasons one, two, and three. Oops. I’m not even sorry.

Schedule More Me Time

About that…While I definitely set aside some time for non-work-related things, they were also things that NEEDED to get done. I want to do things like spoil myself with a pedicure or a massage but those things cost MONEY and I really haven’t had that much lately. Maybe I’ll do those things after the students move out to reward myself for surviving year one.

Keep In Touch

This month I did manage to travel and see some friends! I took one trip to Grad School State and another trip home. When I was home, I had dinner with my (recently engaged!) best friend. After dinner, we chatted about her wedding…she’s done so much planning! She has a date, a venue, colors, a dress…she just needs bridesmaids…and that’s where I come in! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have my first bridesmaid gig. Now let’s just hope I don’t become that chick from “27 Dresses” any time soon…

Be a Grown Up

The most grown up thing I did this month was pay my taxes. A whopping $45. Woooo. I also paid one doctor’s bill and I need to pay another. Actually! I’m planning a big vacation, but I think I’m going to do a separate post about that. It seems kind of grown up. Other than those things (notice they all require money), I’ve felt like a frustrated toddler this month. Ugh.

Hopefully my life will get back on track next month. Just as I get this school year routine down, it’s back to summer. Sigh.

A Review of My Internships

Technically, I had three internships during grad school. All three were in VERY different areas of student affairs, but one really just felt like an extension of my assistantship, so I tend to not count it.

One of my internships was with an office at a college that provided services to people with a range of…I’m going to say needs because I dislike the term “disabilities”…including test-taking accommodations (extended time, readers or writers, etc), note takers, physical accommodations (arranging for a private bathroom or ground level room), and many other things. I loved the work that the office did…the only thing was that I didn’t do enough of it! Shortly before I came on board, the director of the office left, so there were some transitional issues in the office. I don’t think the interim supervisor was ready to take on an intern and as a result, there really weren’t too many projects for me to work on. A lot of the time, I would just assist in whatever area needed help. One day I wrote someone’s test answers because the student had broken their arm in a snowboarding accident. I took on a LOT of tasks meant for student workers. I also did not have much interaction with students…something I really wanted seeing as I was going into student affairs!

Luckily, I wasn’t the only student in my program with internship issues. I think a lot of us didn’t realize that since these internships were meant for us to learn something, we could ask our supervisor to assign us tasks that would help us grow and develop the skills we wanted. As I went looking for my third internship, I thought about what I didn’t like about the past two…and yes I’m saying two because I really didn’t like that my not-really-an-internship didn’t teach me anything that I wasn’t taught due to my assistantship. Also, it was getting closer to graduation and I was beginning to think of what sort of job I wanted after graduation. I made sure to look for things that I knew were going to help me out.

This last internship was in a student activities office. I focused mostly on the “fun” stuff, like events and Greek life. There were multiple professionals working in the office, so even though I had one direct supervisor, I got to work with a lot of people! It was completely the opposite of my previous experience. The very first day I was there, one of the office workers walked me around campus, both to give me a tour and to introduce me to other campus administrators. The nature of my work had me interacting with students more frequently, but to provide even more chances for interaction, I wound up moving my “office” location so students could pass by and say hi. I was a much happier person at this internship!

Some tips when you are looking for an internship…

Ask your potential supervisor what type of projects he or she has in mind for you! You don’t want to be viewed as just an office assistant that is going to make copies and file things.

Tell your potential supervisor about some things that you would like experience with. Some might be projects you can do on your own, others might be things you’d assist with. Is he or she open to helping you get these experiences?

What are some things that you will NOT do? One of my internships (guess which one) was something that I absolutely did not want to do. I took it just to have something to do. I’m sure if I had tried harder, I could have found something else. OR I could have spoken to my supervisor about what I wanted to get out of it. While I didn’t want to be an RD for the summer, I could have thought of some projects that I was interested in.

How have your internships gone? What are the most valuable things you’ve learned from them?