Time Flies Like an Arrow

WOW! I can’t believe a) it’s been almost a month since I posted, b) almost a month ago I graduated b) everything that has happened in between!

For starters, graduation went as graduations do; I shook President Barker’s hand, proudly watched some of my closest friends do the same and got a little bit choked up during the singing of the alma mater. There was a monsoon following the ceremony so pictures had to be postponed until after lunch, which was fine because I was famished! I think they turned out pretty OK though…

Afterwards, I spent some time in Clemson dawdling around getting my life in order. During this time, I started doing contract work for a start-up website called Come Recommended. I am the Public and Media Relations Assistant. Come Recommended is a website that connects top internship and entry-level job candidates with top employers; it is free to sign up and all you have to do is register and get three recommendations (provided on the site) and then you are in and can have access to job alerts and can chat with employers you might be interested inworking with. If you haven’t signed up, I highly recommend that you do-if for no other reason than to recieve the good advice dished out by entry-level career expert Heather Huhman.

Earlier this past semester I was offered two unpaid internships down in Atlanta-not an ideal situation when  you are just graduating and are on  your own. Obviously I only took one and I am hoping I made the right decision. I have never worked for an not for profit before so I thought it would be good to get some experience other than agency work under my belt. HealthMPowers is a not for profit that provides health education services to elementary and middle schoolers in Georgia. They come into school, give presentations and work with the teachers on furthering education on healthy decisions once HealthMPowers has finished their time at the school. As you can see, the website needs a little updating- I will be working on that this summer along with drafting the annual report and of course writing lots of press releases. More to come on my adventures!

So this crazy thing happened, literally a week before moving to Atlanta while I am packing up my life, I get an email from a giant PR firm in Atlanta asking if anyone is interested in working with this B2B boutique firm over the summer, I jumped at the opportunity, nailed the interview which I had the day I moved down here and now I am working part time as well at Weaver Stephens Group! I am really excited to be working with them and I think if anything, I will learn a ton! So far, I have been busy pretty much every second I have been there which is always a really good sign.

I am really excited about this summer and all that will be happening. Coming up (hopefully within the next week or so): where I am living, how I like living on my own, and the crazy first week I had down in Atlanta.

It’s Finally Here

Tomorrow is the big day! I think I am still in denial about the whole thing-me? a college graduate? Nah!! But, it is going to happen whether I like it or not. I am really hoping to enjoy this weekend, although I know there will be much talk about what I will be doing; and mainly where I will be living come June 1st when I move to Georgia.

While I am really excited to start the next chapter in my life, I am also pretty apprehensive. I always thought that I would have an easy time finding a really great job fresh out of school with some big PR firm somewhere close enough to Clemson that I could come in for football weekends if I wanted, but far enough that I could build a new life without living too vicariously through my friends. Little did I know these ideas are the stuff of fairy tales and rarely happen. I do consider myself very lucky however, to have been offered a number of opportunities both paid and unpaid (although not so much full time).  This summer will definitely be one where I learn lots and lots and make myself the most marketable Rachel Doyle I can possibly be! Who wouldn’t want to turn down a girl with agency, start-up corporate, freelance and not for profit PR experience…because I will have all of this experience by the end of the summer!

I think the thing that makes me most apprehensive is the financial aspect of this whole endeavor. I did not work this semester and it is beginning to be clearly obvious that a) should have worked and b) should have been a little more honest with how much the cost of living in Clemson was. I have a bad tendency to feel really bad asking my parents for money and that leads me to asking for less money than I should, which was never a problem when I was working because I made up the difference. Now that I have not been working money has been going down the drain faster than the American auto industry (that was a bad joke; I apologize) and it is really coming to bite me in the ass that I didnt ask for more money when I had the chance. Now that I am moving to Georgia where the cost of living is higher, I know I will still be financially dependant on my parents at least through the summer and that kills me because I want so bad to not have to ask for money anymore! I just want a paycheck that I worked for that will cover my expenses. I know that in a way I am costing my parents less money by not moving back home and then attempting to fly down south constantly, but I still feel terrible that I am still reliant on them so much; I always thought that I would be able to support myself financially by graduation day.

Maybe the magical money fairy will swoop down and give me a winning lottery ticket….

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

A Little Spring in my Step

After the freak “blizzard” we had on Sunday, the weather has been steadily gotten better. As of right now it is 61 degrees with clear blue skies. This weekend it is supposed to be in the low to mid 70s! This makes me more than excited and as a result I have started making anticipatory lists of things I am excited about for spring and also things I want to do this spring/before graduation (roughly 63 days away…eek!)

Things I am Looking Forward To:

• Freeing my feet from closed toed shoes and socks (ick, I am not a fan of socks)
• Wearing skirts
• Wearing sundresses
• Getting sun kissed freckles
• Going for walks
• Going out on the lake
• Laying out
• Walking to get ice cream and eating it outside
• Eating Dinner on the deck
• Longer evenings
• Cookouts

Things To Do Spring 2009:

• Go camping
• Go hiking at Table Rock
• Play tennis at least twice a week
• Bring back Friday evening cookouts
• Spend at least one weekend relaxing on Lake Wylie
• Take a spontaneous roadtrip
• Enjoy every minute of the next 2 months
• Get excited about my future

Now, I am hoping that this warm weather trend sticks around because I will be awfully sad now that I have gotten all excited about spring. Speaking of which, Spring Break starts a week from today! I’m spending the first weekend of break in Atlanta with my best friend and our significant others and then am going on a road trip with my mom to Hilton Head for a few days! Hopefully I will get some sun and relaxation in!