Beach Bound

I’m headed home this afternoon as soon as I get off work, and then tomorrow morning headed to Pensacola with the family!  I’ve been looking forward to this beach trip for awhile.  During exam week, all I could think about was getting to relax in the sunshine while listening to the waves crash on the shore.  It’s the best sound in the world.

I’m a beach girl, through and through.  My grandparents used to own a beach house down in Gulf Shores, AL and we went there every summer, Labor Day weekend, and sometimes we even went for Easter and Thanksgiving.  Some of my favorite memories are from Gulf Shores.  Even after they sold the beach house, I’ve gone down to the beach every summer, spring, or winter break for one reason or another (girls trip, swim meet, training trip…)

a picture I took in Panama City at a swim training trip

I love the sound of the waves and the seagulls.  I love the smell of salt on your skin.  I love the feel of the sand between my toes, and the weightlessness of my body when the waves rock me.  I’m going to live on a beach someday.

I’ll be back next week.  Until then, have a fabulous weekend everyone!

5 Tips for Finding a Job After College

You may have heard horror stories from your older friends or siblings, your parents, your professors, or maybe you just turned on your local news station.  But times are tough–especially for recent college grads looking for a job.  So what do you do?

I was very fortunate to be hired at small health clinic in my hometown before I graduated.  These are my tips for anyone who is currently or will soon be job hunting.

1. DO SOME RESEARCH

Seriously, do a little research.  In your “spare” time instead of checking your Facebook for the 10th time today, google some career interests.  I spent a lot of time googling career fields I was interested in and job openings in cities I thought might be nice to live in.  I read the bio’s of people that I thought had cool jobs.  One link leads to another, and you never know what opportunity you’ll stumble upon.

2. NETWORK

I was a communications/public relations major, and this is one of the messages they drilled into our heads.  Network, network, NETWORK!  This means meeting people, letting them know what you’re interested in, learning what they do, and following up with them.  I did this with people that worked at the hospital where my mom works.  I’d send them emails during the school year, asking about their careers.  I even interviewed some for class assignments.  Most people are always willing to give advice to a student in need.

3. JOB SHADOW FOR A DAY

I can actually credit this tip for the sole reason I landed my job.  During my spring break senior year, I made the choice to forego an expensive trip to Punta Cana with some friends, and instead went home to get some much needed relaxation, save some cash, and of course do some job shadowing.  I sent an email to my network contact at the health clinic, and she set me up to shadow someone at the clinic for half a day.  At the end, they asked me for a resume’, which leads to my next tip…

4. UPDATE YOUR RESUME’ AND TAKE IT EVERYWHERE

Boy, was I glad I came prepared to the job shadowing.  I carried a folder and had several copies of my newly updated resume’ on the off chance that they might ask for one.  I’ve always been taught to keep your resume’ to one page and neat looking.  Be sure to list any job/internship/leadership experience, academic or athletic awards, and community and campus involvement.

5. TAKE A BUSINESS ETIQUETTE COURSE

So this isn’t mandatory, but it sure did help me.  I took “Business Professionalism” as an elective my last semester, mainly because I knew it’d be an easy A.  But I learned a ton!  We had guest speakers that spoke about the importance of first impressions, a strong resume’, and gave tips on how to prepare for a job interview.  We learned manners for any situation–including business dinners (and yes, I had one!)  Even if your school doesn’t offer a class like this, or you’re already out of school, it wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your “charm school” basics by reading a book or looking for internet articles about business etiquette.

There are many proactive things you can do to aid you in your job hunt, but these are the 5 that I really felt worked for me.  Hopefully it’ll help some of you soon-to-be college grads out there!

Thanks, Mom

I know Mother’s Day was yesterday, but I really wanted to share this commercial.  It makes me tear up.  When I think of all the years I swam, my mom was always there.

She woke me up in the mornings–and then taught me how to wake myself up.  She woke up at 4:30 am to drive me to morning practice.  She made me a breakfast my stomach could handle.  She washed my towels and bought countless suits, goggles, and caps.  She got involved–she became president of our swim team’s board, and became a USA swimming official.  She spent her weekends cheering me on at 3 day long meets.  She held me when I cried during the rough times.  She hugged me when I triumphed.  She listened whenever I was discouraged.  She encouraged me to pursue my dream to swim at a Division I university.  She encouraged me to stick with it when times got rough.  She loved me the same after every swim, good or bad.  She believed in me.  I could not have done it without her.

Old at 22

I had an epiphany last night.  I was out with friends and we started talking about things we were excited about.  One of my oldest friends that I swam with back in high school is turning 21 in a couple of weeks, so we were excited about that.  Everyone will be starting their senior year of college in the fall, so we were excited about that.  Everyone, that is, but me.

Now, the rest of the group is already 21–some will be turning 22 in the fall.  However, I’ll be 23 in the middle of June.  So these friends are not that much younger than me–most of them about a year younger, they are just farther behind me in their school work.  So why do I feel so dadgum OLD??

This is something I’ve been thinking about for a few months now.  But last night, it really got me thinking.  One of my friends was depressed about her 22nd birthday coming up, and to console her another friend joked, “Hey–22 is the new 21.”  It was then that they remembered I’d be 23 soon so one of them said, “And 23 is the new 22…sorry SB!”  It was all in good fun–just friends acknowledging that we’re growing up QUICKLY.  But it bothered me.

I didn’t feel old last year, when I was 21 and a senior in college.  I didn’t feel immediately old when I turned 22, and I definitely didn’t feel old when I got my first big kid job in the real world in August.  In fact, I felt like a BABY!  I was the youngest in the office by a good 5 years.  So why now, am I feeling so old, when it’s only been a year since I got my undergrad degree and my first semester of grad school?  I came up with some theories.

1.  Turning 21 is a catch-22.  When you’re under 21, you feel young.  You’re too young to legally drink, get into certain bars and casinos, and hang out at the club with all your legal friends.  The iconic “Big 2-1″ is something you count down to, and being 21 is awesome.  You go to all the places you could never go before, and you finally don’t feel like a little kid.  You feel cool.

getting carded on my 21st birthday

But then, you turn 22 and it pales in comparison.  The celebration isn’t as huge, you can’t do anything different than you did before.  You’re just simply 22.  You’re not a new adult, really.  You’ve already been an adult for a year.  There’s this feeling that it’s just not quite right to be as immature/carefree/young as you were before.  Which is just a part of growing up, but you really feel it here.

2.  The dreaded timeline is something I hate, but we all have one.  Whether it’s a timeline for your career, your schooling, relationship status, when you want to have kids, whatever…you probably have an internal timeline of some kind.  I graduated from college, turned 22, and suddenly I felt pressure.  Pressure to be a really mature adult that knew what I wanted to do in life and knew how to make it happen.  People have this fantasy of graduating and finding a dream job that pays good money, a serious relationship status, and a cool place of your own to live.  I felt all of these pressures.  But here was my reality.  I had an entry level job that paid well, but was far from my dream job.  I had just ended the horrible back-and-forth relationship I had been in my entire senior year, so was still emotionally hurting.  I moved back into my mom’s house (who ironically ended up remarrying and moving out, anyway…but that’s another story.)

3.  I’m a grad student. I just have a lot of friends that haven’t finished their undergrad.  Many of my friends are fifth-year seniors, and we are exactly the same age, some are even older than me.  But there’s this weird stigma with grad school–it’s associated with being older and mature.  And its true–you need to be fairly mature to handle grad school.  But there is no rational reason I should feel older than my friends who are actually older than me, just further behind in school.

4. I have a lot of younger friends.  In high school, and in college I had friends of all ages.  Some were 5 years older than me, some 4 years younger than me.  A lot of this had to do with swimming–we all had a common goal and were part of the same team–your age didn’t really matter.  Your dedication did.  Many of my high school swimming friends didn’t swim in college, and many of them are here at my new university.  Which is fabulous–I get to hang out with them and we’re having a blast!  I didn’t feel old around them back in high school when we were swimming together.  But now that the swimming factor is out of the equation, age is a little more prominent.  Just a fact of life.

my swimming friends from high school. I am 17 here. The age ranges in this picture are from 14-19. Does it look like anyone cares? Because we don’t.

I have decided that I’m going to dedicate a section of this blog to life after college.  I know so many people who feel that the good life “ends” after college, or that “it’s all downhill after 21.”  People are scared and don’t know what to expect from the future.  I’m going to write about it—about everything from grad school, the working world, and just life after college.  I hope you enjoy the struggles, triumphs, advice, and tips I share with you, as I add this new section to my blog.  :)