graduation

Job Searching is Work, NOT Luck.

October 12, 2017MaryLeave a comment

I walked across the stage at graduation with the knowledge that within the next month I would be starting a full-time job using the diploma they were about to hand me. I was told a multitude of phrases when I told people, family, close friends, and all of my mentors were very congratulatory, they knew how hard I had been working towards getting a job post-graduation. My roommates knew that I spent most of my free time applying for jobs and going on interviews that lead nowhere. On top of my school work (and work) applying for jobs was essentially a full-time gig for me.

Acquaintances, random people who felt obliged to ask me what I was doing post-graduation were less congratulatory and were far more likely to tell me how lucky I was. “You know not very many people graduate with a job lined up, you’re quite lucky,” was a response I got quite often. Let me tell you, luck had absolutely nothing to do with it. I had worked my butt off for 17 years in school, and I wanted something to show for it, more than a piece of paper. I worked extremely difficult to get a job- it wasn’t easy but you can do it.

Here are my tips for your job search:

Start sooner rather than later- it’s better to start early and know early then start late and no have anything lined up.
If it says 3-5 years experience and you’re just graduating college, apply anyway. Use your experience from school, internships, etc.
The worst that can happen is they say no. Trust me- you can get really far and they’ll say no and it’ll SUCK, but then you’ll get a different job and be fine. I know from experience.
Networking is important, knowing people helps, but at the end of the day, you need to sell yourself. Know your strengths and how you can help a company grow, that’s what will get you far.
Ask for help, see if your connections know of any places hiring or know of people that are top rated in your industry that can give you advice.

Work hard to work hard, but if you do something you love it’ll be worth it.

Late Night Blogging with Mary: Part 28

March 27, 2017MaryLeave a comment

I am sitting on our living room floor with about a million and five papers scattered around me along with a host of cold meds, decaf coffee, and some soy and dairy free chocolate. I keep staring at my very out-dated to-do list hoping it will give me answers that it’s not going to give me. I already took my evening dose of melatonin, so my apologies if this is a little scattered, I have to be up at 4:45 to babysit tomorrow morning so better safe than sorry with taking it early.

I have a second interview tomorrow, I’m not one for publicizing this type of information as I see it to be jinx worthy, however, I put everything here and maybe it’s jinx worthy to not ask for your best thoughts. Really, I’m afraid of jinxes no matter what so no matter what I do, if I don’t get this job I’m going to blame it as a jinx on something.

The job hunt in general, has been stressful. I have lost count of the number of jobs I’ve applied for. I’ve stopped applying to anything not on the east coast because I don’t think anybody wants to pay for me to relocate. If you do, ya know, let me know, I’ll move anywhere.

Other than jobs I have a crazy short time until graduation and I honestly can’t believe it. Although cliche, it does it feel like just yesterday that I started this blog in conjunction with my college career. While I’m so excited to be done school and get out of the classroom and maybe even out of my parents house (no offense, just looking for new), I’m not quite as ready for bills and whatever else real adults have to do. I want to do all the fun things and skip everything I might ever have to worry about. Generally, I’m more excited than not.

I’ve been working a lot this year to get to a point where I’m comfortable. I should’ve spent less but I’m considering this my last few months to be a little reckless. I babysit ALL the time, less now than earlier this year, but still a lot. I also work at the marketing department at my school, and as an intern. There might be other things I’m forgetting but, it’s been good. I think it’s been helping me prep for the future of being busy. If I could be a professional nanny, it’s definitely something I would consider. However, I did not go to college to do that, so I should really use the skills I’ve developed to please my parents and myself.

Anyway, here’s a little bit of my word vomit for everyone. How’s you job hunt going? Any tips for me? Anyone successfully freelancing and have some advice? Let me know!

Late Night Blogging with Mary: Part 27

March 20, 2017MaryLeave a comment

It has been quite sometime that I’ve ventured to this little corner of my blog, one of my previously most written in sections, I mean 27 posts is quite a few. Speaking of 27, Mary Fun Fact™ it’s my favorite number.

Recently, I have been very anxious again. I don’t know if it’s the boy stressing me out (yes of course he had to text me) or I drank too much this past weekend but I can’t shake it. It’s so annoying.

Besides the point, I have exactly two months until graduation. It’s absolutely insane. I cannot believe how quickly my time in college has gone. The past four years have flown by like no other. I remember when I finished middle school my mom was talking to my best friend and me about how quickly time was going to start going and I think about last year I realized how true that was. There’s a part of me who never wants to leave college, and then there’s a bigger part of me that’s very excited for the future.

This spring break was probably my most uneventful yet. I didn’t work, we had a snow day, and I went home for the weekend. However, other than my desire to be reading on a beach somewhere, I really appreciated all of the downtime I finally had. I probably should have done more school work than I did, but there’s a reason it’s a break.

I’m not sure what else really should be in here. I feel like there are a million things I have to say, yet nothing at the same time. I guess for now, this is my update.

What’s going on with everyone else?

Happy LNBM!

My Final Semester

January 16, 2017MaryLeave a comment

Tomorrow is my last first day of school. I might’ve said that last semester, but really this is the last one. I have never been so excited but so nervous for school to be over.

It’s weird because this is really the beginning of the end. Five months from now I’m going to be a “real” adult. No more walk-in meal under the lump sum of my meal plan, same with the apartment. Work will no longer be holding babies and doing random things for the marketing department (okay depending on how things work out that could still be a thing) but really, my life is about to really change over the next few months.

I cannot begin to describe how quickly the past four years have gone and how much I have changed. I really do feel like it was just yesterday I was dreading going back for another semester, and this year I was itching to get back. Reflecting on my time at Hood has been amazingly reassuring to me, as well as my future.

I’m not good at change, and I never have been, yet it’s something I’ve craved for as long as I can remember. Maybe it’s because of my major FOMO and I want to know what else the world can offer me, if it’s not that I don’t know what it could be. However, whenever I get to the new I end up afraid of missing what I left behind which is probably why I hated my freshman year of college.

I think the greatest lessons I learned during my time here so far, well those outside of class includes who to trust, how to get to that point, and not everyone changes/evolves at the same rate as you. College has allowed me to meet a lot of people and realize what I’m looking for not only in friends but mentors and bosses.

Majoring in “I Don’t Know What to Do”

February 17, 2016February 17, 2016Mary3 Comments

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how I don’t have a thing. There’s never been one thing that I’m really good at and just sticks with me. I haven’t found what a lot of people would call, their calling with what to do with the rest of their life. Here I am, obsessed with social media, but that’s not a calling, it’s just an interest. I’m not exceptionally good at social media by any means. Just above 200 followers on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, that’s not excelling, that’s about average, slightly more on Instagram, slightly less on Tumblr. Here I have the most, around the mid 400s but this hasn’t changed in nearly a year. I’m becoming stagnant.

I think in life I’ve always just wanted to have a “thing” something that I’m just really good at. I know that everyone doesn’t have a thing, I just wish that I did. I’m a Communication Arts major which means it’s something I would say is questioned more often than a lot of majors. I never ask a bio major why they’re a bio major, I just assume that they’ll do research or go to med school. And maybe because I don’t ask, I’m just assuming that they aren’t asked why they’re a bio major, but I’m constantly asked why I’m a communications major. I have a feeling it’s because no 5-year-old girl says that she wants to run IHOP’s Twitter.

When it comes to my answer, it’s often times not acceptable for people. I usually say, well I don’t want to teach, and I only want to learn about post Civil War, so I can’t be a history major. There’s just nothing that’s ever really stuck out to me, communications has offered the most options for me. For a while I was headed towards political science, however, I just find it so exhausting to argue. There’s just always been something wrong with everything else, so what it comes down to, is I’m a communications major because I don’t know what else to do.

I once told the career center that, they were not pleased. They suggested I change my major, which pushed me to never want to talk to them again about anything. I’m majoring in “I don’t know what to do” is that okay?

I know I go back and forth on topics like this all the time. It’s just that recently I think I’m seeing more and more people fall into their place in life and I just seem to not be able to find that spot for myself. Like yes, I’m excited that I’ll be able to get a job essentially anywhere after college, I just keep questioning if it’s something I want to be doing. I guess it is since I can’t picture myself doing anything else.

I just feel like I’m in a worldly limbo of almost being finished with my major, but not quite ready to face the world with the choices I’ve made. I still have a year until graduation but I feel like I need more time.

I don’t know. I just needed to get these thoughts out. In a week I’m sure I’ll be back to being thrilled with my choice to be a Communication Arts major, however, today I just wish I had more options. I just don’t know what I would want those options to be.

Anyone else feel the same way? Please tell me I’m not alone.

Being Lost

November 26, 2014November 26, 2014Mary2 Comments

After five hours in the car I came home to catch up on some YouTube and I watched this video. To be honest, I can’t tell you how I stumbled upon Will Darbyshire, he must’ve come up on my recommended one day or something but he has some of the best videos I’ve ever seen to be honest. He’s one of those people where I watch his videos and I just feel like if I eve met him we would be fast friends, I don’t know why I think that, that’s just what I think when I watch his videos. This is all besides the point though.

This video is about feeling lost and even though I’ve declared my major and made some other decisions I still feel unsure about a lot. Today someone came into my health class from the Heartly House, a local source for domestic and sexual abuse and it made me question my decision to be a communications major. While I love writing things like this, I hate doing news articles. I find them boring and frustrating but I don’t know what else I would do. This talk made me want to help people but how can you realistically help people and make money to accomplish everything I personally want to accomplish? I know that sounds really bad and selfish but I feel like the age I’m at, this is the only time I have to be selfish. I don’t have my own family (like a husband and kids) to worry about for quite some time and this is Mary Time but I still want to figure out how to help people and make a difference.

What does a communication major do to help people? Write about it? That doesn’t seem very useful to anyone. I’m sure there are resources and websites that are specifically for communication majors to help people and that’s definitely something I have to look into for post graduation, which I have PLENTY of time until then. I’m not sure. There’s just a lot of stress on the future in my head and I have this tendency to freak out about the fact that I don’t have a plan other than wanting to volunteer in an orphanage in China after graduation which seems really random and I have no idea where the idea came from it just is something I want to do.

I honestly think this existential crisis will continue until I have a solid life plan where I actually like something rather than it’s just tolerable. Blogging isn’t really a life career for me, it’s a great side hobby but I highly doubt it something that I could make a future out of. I have this idea in my head that one day I’m just going to fall into something and it’s just going to work out. I can’t plan my life like that though, that’s not how life actually works, as much as I wish it did, it’s not.

What are your life plans? Give me ideas.

Determination.

June 9, 2014June 9, 2014MaryLeave a comment

It is 12:17 and this is my third blog post of the night, I guess you could say I am determined to get a good post up tonight- do you get my pun, do you get it? Anyway, determination. I try to picture myself as a determined type of person, I try to get what I want, well what I want within reason and I can control myself. I will never purposefully compromise someone else’s happiness to try to achieve what I want out of life.

In my life I am determined to do good in this messed up world. I am determined to make my life something worth living. Twenty years from now I don’t want to see that I did what I was supposed to do. By that I mean, get a boyfriend, get engaged, graduate college, get a job, get married, have kids, and before I know it I’m nearly forty with my house, kids, and husband, but having none of my dreams accomplished. I think that’s what makes my plan a little bit different, well maybe not different for a lot of you, but where I am, it’s really different. That’s what people do here and I think I’ll be really disappointed in myself if that’s how I go about my life.

After college I want to volunteer, explore the world, see places that I would never even begin to imagine, and I’m determined to make it happen. I’m not going to be one of those girls that ends up in Lancaster the rest of my life, I honestly don’t think there’s anything I would regret more. I want to make a positive impact on the lives of others and I’m not going to do that from the comfort of two neighborhoods over from where I currently live. I have greater aspirations than that. Right now I have to save up money, figure out how to change lives, but it’s something that I’m going to do. I’m taking on the challenge.

What’s something you’re determined to do? It could be anything, it could even be the traditional life that I don’t really want. Let me know in the comments!

XOXO,

Mary.

Defining Moments.

February 26, 2014MaryLeave a comment

First of all I would just like to thank everyone for their support with my idea yesterday, and the more I think about it and the more people I talk to the more support I get. The only thing I would really like is a partner of some sort, if you would be interested in that at all please email me at marysaverageadventures@gmail.com with a reason why you would be interested in helping me and if you have enough time to devote to helping me. If you have no idea what I’m talking about here is a link to yesterday’s post https://marysaverageadventures.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/im-so-excited-blogger-convention-idea-please-help-me/ so you can find out. I think I’m going to start putting information for this event in my Sunday updates so be on the look out for that.

So since I didn’t like my February month series thing, I’ve decided on writing about some huge defining moments in my life. So if you read my post on my family or when I reviewed 2013, you probably saw some of my many defining moments in life, but not all of them. I would put pictures in but a lot of them are on my family computer back home so I’m just going to write them. This is also partially because I’m lazy.

Obviously my first defining moment in life was my birth. If it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t be here today. Thanks for that mom and dad. I was also baptized as an infant which let me into the church and really helped shaped my life, which I would say is a defining moment.
In the second grade I made my First Communion, which let me get more involved in the Mass, which was a defining moment, at the time because I felt like a princess, now because it’s a really important part of my faith.
In the third or fourth grade, I found my first passion, acting. I joined the acting club and I went back every year to do stage work and managing until the my sophomore year when it was sadly put to an end. Even though I never got involved at a higher level I always consider this a defining moment because these were some of my happiest years, I felt like I was doing something that mattered.
At the age of 14 I made my Confirmation which allowed me to be a full member of the church, which to me personally was a very defining moment.
In the 8th grade one of my favorite teachers at the time advised me to join Model UN. Something that I ended up being pretty good at. This leads to the defining moment of getting three awards my sophomore year, that weren’t just participation awards, but an award I actually worked for.
I would have to say the biggest defining moment of my life was the invitation to go to Europe. At the time I had no idea what an impact it would have on my life, but it has left a lasting impression. This is not only something that I will remember my whole life but it is something that brought me two of my best friends.
My graduation obviously was a defining moment in my life, however, it was and even better moment for me because I not only helped plan it, and read off the names of my closest friends, but I had the amazing opportunity to be a commencement speaker. This was just a big moment for me and something I always wanted to do so to have the opportunity to it was amazing.
Finally my last defining moment, and probably a huge thing was leaving for college. I mean even though I go home regularly (mostly because I’m not a fan of it here) to pack up my life and put it into boxes and start living in another state was a defining moment in my life. It was a big deal to me, something I had never done before.

Okay so those are just some major defining moments in my life, what are some of yours? Again if anyone is interested in my blogger convention, please let me know! On a completely unrelated note I have some very exciting things to come in the upcoming days/weeks/months and I can’t wait to share it all with you guys! Thanks for reading!

XOXO,

Mary.

A Year in Review: 2013

December 31, 2013Mary2 Comments

So I wanted to something to conclude the year, which I already wrote but it got deleted, so I’m currently crying. Anywho this post may be rather shitty compared to the first one where I went month by month and I think I’m just going to an overview because I’m tired and I want to edit a video before I go to bed too. I’m going to try and tell the story of my year through pictures with captions, wish me luck!

One of the major things of my year are unable to be pictured and that would be this blog. I am so glad that I started this blog, and I’m so thankful for all of you who read this. I would also like to give a special thanks to The College Misfit, and whether she knows it or not, if it wasn’t for her I don’t know if I would’ve kept up with the blog, she really inspired me. I really hope the new year brings good changes for her, she deserves it. So through the ups and downs of 2013, the downs aren’t really pictured, but trust me they were there, I can only hope that 2014 will bring great things and the guidance of what to do with my life. Once again I’d like to thank all of you followers who read every day/week/month, I never would have imagined having almost 60 followers in less than four months, so thank you so much. Enjoy the story of my year!

XOXO,

Mary