Two Weeks

Buenos.

So, as of today it has officially been 4 weeks since my interview in New York... That means I should be finding out about my status with the program sometime within the next two weeks. Scary. I'll be sure to update as soon as I find out.

Aside from that, my sister's bridal shower is tomorrow. I've been planning it for the last 5 weeks or so and it's finally here. I think it should be a pretty good turn out, although, I'm feeling pretty nervous because I'm hosting it and am pretty much in charge of making sure that it's fun and what not. If it sucks, it's my fault, and that's pretty stressful, heh. But I'm ready. I think I'll actually be kind of sad when it's all over because planning this shower has actually given me something to do over the past month, aside from just work. It's kept me from becoming a complete bum.

Speaking of being a bum, I think a couple posts ago, I promised updates on new endeavors I'm looking into. Well I was actually offered an opportunity to volunteer my time to write a newsletter for a non-profit organization! It's really awesome because not only can I put that on a resume as something relevant to what I want to do, but I have complete freedom with it for the most part. I design the layout, I write the articles, I can come up with topics to feature in the newsletter, and I edit it. The person who offered me the opportunity also edits it after me of course, because its very difficult to catch all of your own mistakes, but it's great because it's basically giving me real world experience in a large quantity of things in my field. I just finished my first issue, and I'm thinking I'm going to write it as a bi-weekly newsletter. So not too often, but not too few and far between.

I'm glad to have a project to work on. It helps me to be less of a bum when I actually put my mind to work on something, because to be honest, as time has gone by where the only thing in my life that I've had to do is wait tables, I've become more and more of a lazy bum. I don't like being a bum, it really takes a lot of excitement out of life, and the longer you spend being a bum, the harder it is to pull out of it. So thank goodness I'm getting out before I've really sunk in :)

Anyway, that is all.

Until next time.

My Stomach and I are Not Friends

I hate heartburn.

It is so painful that I literally can not sleep :/

Does this happen to anyone else? It's like constant, intense pain that starts from the center of my body and radiates out my chest and back.

The worst part is I'm not even 100 percent sure what causes it, ( although I'm pretty sure it's dairy). Last year, I was getting sick around about once a month. It was awful. It seriously made me hate my life. Then one day, when I was sick, I was talking to my dad about what I'd eaten that day, and he suggested that maybe I was sensitive to dairy. Impossible! I thought, because I eat so much dairy everyday! But then I thought about it and decided maybe it is dairy, maybe that's why I get sick so often. Now, the way I get sick from heartburn is not the normal way most people do. For me, it's like an outbreak that'll last for days until I finish a full treatment on the acid reducer. Then it goes away until I eat something that causes it again.

So I thought about it. Whenever I was sick, if I ate anything dairy, the heartburn would instantly flare up and become excruciatingly painful. Maybe its not caused just by eating dairy, maybe it's once I eat a certain amount, my stomach just can't take it anymore and it explodes.

So I tried it. I cut dairy out of my diet and within just a couple of days I was better without even using the acid reducer. So, I continued to leave the dairy out of my diet. After two months went by with no new outbreaks, I was convinced. But, I missed my dairy. So, I introduced it back into my diet in small amounts. Still no milk, no yogurt and only sour cream every now and then. I started eating cheese pretty much everyday, and a few other things every now and then.

Seven months went by, and I still hadn't gotten sick. It was definitely the dairy, (which I'm sure we all agree is really odd).

Then I got sick again one day after I ate way more food than my stomach could probably hold. I knew it wasn't from dairy because I hadn't eaten any dairy that day. So now I'm like okay, great, I can't just stuff my face till I'm about to explode every now and then. That sucks, but fine.
That was two months ago, and here I am, sick again. I'm not sure what may have caused it today. I did eat a lot, but not that much more than normal, and for some reason, today it's especially painful. So much so that I can't even sleep. Normally I'm able to fall asleep and then by morning I feel better. But right now, I just can't sleep no matter how hard I try. I'm just way too uncomfortable.

There is no real point to this post. Sometimes focusing on something makes me feel better, so i figured I'd write in my blog while simultaneously being able to complain about it, which also makes me feel better sometimes. Anyway, I guess I'll try to ignore the pain and go to sleep. And after today, I'll monitor my dairy intake even more strictly, and I'll make sure never to eat more than what makes me no longer hungry. As much as I love stuffing my face every now and then, it's just not worth the pain I suffer afterwards.

Goodnight all.

Disappointment

Sighs...

Disappointment. I went to volunteer on Saturday and it was totally sketchy, so I bailed without even getting out of my car.

But I'm looking into new opportunities :)

I'll update later!

Reaching for My Goals.

So I decided the other day that I am going to be proactive in making progress with my career goals. You know what they say, "things don't just fall in your lap, you have to actively work towards earning what you want."
So... I e-mailed a couple local magazines asking if they needed any volunteers, just so I could get some kind of experience. Amazingly, I got a bite.

They e-mailed me about a casting that they are having this Saturday -- as in tomorrow -- and said they could use some extra help. They sent me a flyer with the exact time and location, and I guess I'm just going to blindly go out there and volunteer myself to whatever they need help with. I'm kind of excited... but also really nervous. While I have no idea what to expect or who I even need to talk to when I get there, I'm still just going to go and see what happens -- I'm gonna wing it.

Then, I'll add that volunteer experience to my resume and hopefully, it will help make me more noticable as a worthy candidate for any kind of entry level position in the publishing world. Who knows, I might even make some connections while I'm at it.

I will update about how it goes later. For now, I have to continue my life as a waitress chasing the dream, and get ready for work.

Options

I went to an information session yesterday for a 4 week graduate course in publishing. It's at a school in Colorado that only accepts 96 students per term and only has one term a year. On top of that, it's really expensive...

Aside from all that, it seems like a pretty smart option. The girl who hosted the information session is a USF graduate who went to the institute the summer after she graduated. She now works in the publishing industry and says that she wouldn't be where she is today without having gone to the institute. That's where she made her connections and learned everything she knows about the publishing industry. That's where she got the recommendations she needed to get the internship in New York that brought her to the career she is in now. A career in publishing.

It all sounds pretty amazing to me and I would certainly love the opportunity to attend such a program. I think at the very least, I'll apply and see if I get accepted.

Keeping my options open, that's what I'm going to do. I think that's the best way to eventually get where I want to be.

A Little Birdy Told Me...

I just read probably one of the most discouraging things I could have read about getting a job in the publishing industry, and how freaking difficult it can be.

Lets see. It mentioned something about assuming that all of my competition for any job I would apply to is a well read, 4.0 Harvard graduate, with all the money and connections they could possibly need to get an in for a great job with a great company... It also said that getting a job by just sending out resumes it highly unlikely. That you have to exploit and use till they're dry, any and all connections that you have in the industry; be it your cousin's-friend's-brother's-uncle, or someone you lived next door to when you were six. It said, if you don't have contacts, find contacts. It couldn't have stressed any more, how important contacts are...

I might have a few... I would have to dig deep and talk to people who are complete strangers, but I suppose it's better than nothing. Of course, my 3.16 from USF is nothing compared to Sally So-n-so's 4.0 from Harvard... Here it is already. I just graduated and I'm already thinking, why didn't I work harder? Why didn't I actually try? Why didn't I do better?

There is a glimmer of hope. It said that you have to really want it. And I do. I've been talking about getting into publishing for about 3 years now. I have to really want it, and I just have to figure out what it is about me that makes me different from every one else, what I have that they don't have. I have to figure out what makes me better, and I have to flaunt it.

So here is what I did / am going to do. I took notes on what I have to do. I'm going to make an attempt to do all those things. I'm going to make my resume immaculate and I am going to figure out how to win someone over, first in a cover letter, then in an interview. I am going to keep my options open and do what I can, but I am going to work as hard as possible toward getting the career that I want. That's it.