Senior Tribute

This video was shown last week in my sorority chaper meeting. While I have been a little burned out of the whole sorority thing for pretty much this whole year, watching this video made me very nostalgic about the fact that all those things they say about the girls you meed through a sorority. The girls I have met through Theta really are some of my closest friends, and although there is a significant chance I would have met a handful of them some way or another; I am blessed to call them my sisters as well. It has been a great 4 years being a sister of Kappa Alpha Theta and I look forward to continuing my journey of being a Theta for life…maybe longer.

I Don’t Remember the Last Time I was This Jealous

Yesterday the last week of classes started. When I say I am floored at how quickly the past four years have flown by, it is an extreme understatement. I remember before I started my freshman year of high school (!) and someone telling me that high school went by fast! High school was NOTHING compared to college and how quickly time flew. The past few days I have been thinking about where I was four years ago and where I am today. Location-wise I am 542 miles from where I was four years ago, but mentally and emotionally sometimes it feels like lightyears. My baby brother is in the exact same shoes I was in four years ago: he has committed to a college and is biding his time until graduation, trying not to skip school too often and relishing his time left in the little bubble of Oakton High School. I remember the time well. I will never forget bursting into tears in Senior Seminar with 2 of my closest friends because we were not sure if our high school boyfriends would last through college (they didn’t and I’m not terribly sad). I remember having major reservations about going to school where I knew no one and would be at least 4 hours from most of the people I had grown up with. I worried about a lot of unnecessary things (even more unnecessary than having to eat alone or being to lazy to get to know my neighbors). I say that they were unnecessary now because I made it through more than alive, I flourished! I have loved (almost) every minute of my time at Clemson and I am so envious of my brother who is headed off to college in the fall. I thought that just like high school the end of college would be bittersweet and I would be ready to leave, it is not! While I have not burst into tears in class yet, I cannot help but think back on my worries about college and truly wish that they were the only things I had to worry about. I suppose if to this day the only thing I had to worry about was whether or not I got into a good sorority and being homesick, that would indicate that I haven’t  made very much progress in my life. And I suppose with any new change comes reservations. I know I am doing the right thing by not moving home and trying to gain more experience in PR before starting full time, but I still can’t help but wonder if there is a way to conveniantly have to do the whole thing over again? I think I feel an urge to become a microbiologist….(anyone who knows me would know that would be the worst career choice possible)

Stay tuned for a retrospective of the past 4 years, but until then here is a teaser:

A Time When I Thought Times Couldn't Get Any Better-July 2005

What basking in the best 4 years Thus Far Looks Like-April 2009

PR is a Process

While perusing through my blogs of choice today, the latest post on The Bad Pitch Blog really resonated with me. It was entitled “Why PR Doesn’t Happen Overnight” and it basically stated something that everybody knows but sometimes forgets: PR IS A PROCESS!!! You cannot expect that everyone you pitch to is going to immediately be talking about what you pitched the next day. PR is about starting a conversation about what you are pitching. If you do land a story after one pitch or catchy release you can’t expect that the whole story to be there because the story that you are trying to tell comes out over time. There is no silver bullet.

I started thinking about this idea of PR being a process and I started seeing connections between this PR process and my current job search in the PR industry. I am realizing that finding a job in PR is a process as well. I met with former colleague Tara Healy from Jeff Dezen Public Relations yesterday at the Clemson Career Launch Day and she had some very helpful and refreshing advice regarding finding a job. She, like BPB described the best and most important part of PR is the conversations and the relationships you foster. In terms of interviewing, she said there is no silver bullet that will get you the job. It is all about the conversation in the interview; if you can carry on a conversation with your employer and ask them questions that stretch their brains just as much as you are stretching theirs, you are on the right track. There is a good chance that you will land the job after many conversations because one conversation is just not enough, the same way just one pitch is just not enough. Finding a job and pitching a story is also all about reaching out and making contact. There is no shame in asking someone to put in a good word for you or to put you in contact with someone they know. Hey, why do you think LinkedIn is so popular-it is just that: a virtual good word! While I may not be an expert at anything I am talking about I am loving learning all that I can in hopes that it eventually lands me in the right place. Now, if only I were better at practicing what I preach…

In other news: the Clemson Spring Game is on Saturday! I am excited/sad that it holds the potential of being my last Clemson game for a very long time. Also, there are only 11 days of class left…so much to do!