Help! I'm Lost in Nature!

Best thing about part-time employment is having time to adventure with friends like Abbie It turns out, finding temporary jobs was actually pretty easy thanks to my awesome support system. Between January and now, I might not have had a job, but I definitely had a lot going on! In each of my 7 jobs/tasks/things to keep me busy, I learned something about what I want and who I am. Job 1: M&J Frank + Family Jobs Once it was official that I was out of a job, my family was there ready to support me. Uncle Andy, who owns a restaurant supply store, found a task for me to do, inputting price data into their database. While that part of the job was pretty dull, it was awesome seeing the contrast of a successful small business model in contrast to everything I had seen thus far. For the first time, I felt like maybe the business world isn't that bad if I can find or start a good one. Job 2: ACT Tutor My W&L family was also there ready to support me. I emailed the amazing...

View from the road to my interview at the Discovery School. I'd like to say its one of the roads less travelled on.  Although I do have 27 diary entries of what each day of job searching was like, I am going to spare you the details (you're welcome) and give the quick run down. I am going to limit my blog to ONE post on job searching because it isn't super natury, but it is a segue to nature. However, if you want more on my job searching experience I do believe I learned a lot and would love to help fellow job seekers who aren't quite sure which path to take. Here is the game of job searching: Objective : Find the best job for you.  # Players : Unknown, but probably too many.  Ages : 16+ with work experience.  Prizes : Anywhere from experience by an unpaid internship to happy and meaningful career that pays the big bucks until retirement. Rules*: None specified. You create them as you go and can follow some of my hot tips below. And like wit...

Once I decided I want to quit, I didn't wait another moment. I spent hours composing an email to my boss explaining how increasingly challenging it was for me to do my job and that my heart was no longer in it. The email itself was no longer than a paragraph, but it conveyed the message: I want out, and I want to do it in whatever way is best for the organization. I still cared deeply for the campaigns PIRG was running and I wanted to leave on good terms and would stay as long as it took for that to happen. Need inspiration on whether or not to quit? Click here for the podcast that inspired me! Apparently as long as it took was a day and a half. I finished my last day of work around 12:00 on a Wednesday and quickly proceeded to watch Inception, eat chocolate, and then watch more television. When I looked at the clock and realized it was already 6:00 and I did absolutely nothing I felt good. I felt release. I felt like I needed this day of unstructured nothingness. I al...

To leave or not to leave.   That was my question. Every day for two months I struggled with this question. They say the first day of campus organizer training: "every single day you will have to make the decision to stay here." For me, that could not have been more true. The most I got to see of Denver at trainings was my hotel balcony First, a little background: what does it mean to be employed as a TPIN (The Public Interest Network) campus organizer? Luckily, TPIN is all about messaging. We know that you cannot tell a compelling story that gets someone to act unless you have a prepared and perfected elevator pitch on everything you stand for. So, since one of the things campus organizers stand for is building and recruiting more campus organizers, we have the messaging down about what it was that we did. Elevator pitch I would give to a senior student intern about what it is I did: "As a campus organizer, I help students at universities fight for the so...

Boyfriend and me on graduation day The day I graduated college I wrote the following message in my diary: "Today I graduated. College. Which means that I am 21 with a summer job, a future job, a boyfriend I am deeply in love with, and friends and family who love and support me. I am equipped with all the materials for the real world. And so for some weird reason, I feel ready. I feel like I don't want another year of college, like I am ready to actually get a job and not be a drain on society. That doesn't mean I'm not nostalgic. I have so many memories here, even moments of perfection.  In these moments: hiking through the Shenandoah valley, watching the stars above Lee Chapel, perching atop the rocks of Woods Creek, and running back campus and to Boxerwood with friends, I found perfection. However, I know the moments will keep coming after college and I am ready." Me in hospital room about a month later Now, about 9 months later I can...