The Life of a Post-Grad...

So, I'm a college graduate. Everyone keeps saying "Congratulations" but, what is so exciting when you are leaving your friends, not coming back to a place where you are comfortable, and jobless?

Today I moved the last of my junk from my apartment. Sure, it was bittersweet, but, it was also a sense of closure. This year was not the fantastic senior year that I had hoped for. It was actually a trainwreck from day one. I can't say I'm surprised that when I ended up with a concussion on the first day of mentor training, the year would be a load of poo. It was honestly not even just one specific thing. The new apartment that I was ecstatic about was no comparison to the older Concord that I lived in last year. There were just small  things that were different that I knew I would never grow to like. My classes were NO fun. I thought senior semesters were supposed to be a breeze. HA. I have never struggled so much in school, but still managed to come out on top. 

So, back to moving out, I can't say I was too heartbroken about it. I kept myself busy by packing non-stop, and waiting until last minute to do so. I closed my door, locked it, and didn't look back. I guess that closing the apartment door was the closure I needed to know that even though this year was not great, the future would be. 

I can't say that I have a career yet, but I am employed full time -- job searching is a full time job. I've had interviews months ago that still haven't gotten back to me, I'm still deciding on a grad school, and I'm not settling for anything less that what I want. 

It's only day one...

Spring Break '12

I found out that I would be going on a trip to NYC three days before spring break actually began. I was ecstatic to find out that my boyfriend's parents were sending us on a trip to New York for the weekend as an early graduation present. My boyfriend and I are both heavily involved in theater, so taking a trip to the big apple was right up our alley!

We took an 8 hour megabus ride to the city. (A megabus is fairly cheap transportation to and from NYC on a coach-type bus) Though the ride was long and greuling, we finally arrived, and checked into our hotel which was right in Times Square :-)

That night we saw our favorite show on Broadway, "Phantom of the Opera" ... It was everything we imagined it would be!

The next day we took the subway and shopped ALL DAY. We were literally out from 10am-7pm shopping. It was a very fun day, except for I had a very bad cold and we had to walk 25 blocks back to our hotel! Talk about a work out!

We cleaned up a bit, then headed to a swanky little burger place in Times Square. We both got bacon cheeseburgers, and to my surprise, they were delicious! I am not much of a burger person but these were great!

The next day we took the subway to Central Park and from there we walked to a giant candy store called Dylan's Candy Bar. They had every candy you could ever imagine! It was heaven!!!

That was our last stop, before waiting in the cold for the bus that was an HOUR late.
That was probably the most frustrating, being cold, tired, and knowing we had a very long trip ahead.
We arrived in Pittsburgh around 1:30 am and we were EXHAUSTED.

The trip was so much fun, and I am so glad I actually got to spend spring break out of town for a bit!!

Blog 3

1.) I mostly visit my friend's blogs because I am mainly interested in what they have to say. I always wanted to get started blogging, but, I never really tried. Now, that I am blogging for this class, it does encourage me to start blogging personally as well. I also read a lot of food blogs with recipe ideas. I am not the best cook, but, I love reading other people's recipes and how good/not good their dished turned out to be. Also, I am the blogger for my internship. I blog about the up and coming things that are happening within the Human Resource company. 

2.) These blogs are obviously less reliable than mainstream news distributors. They really aren't real forms of news other than social purposes.

3.)If my blog became an opinion leader blog, I would probably build a buzz for the product without revealing that I was being paid to praise the product because I do not think that I would need to disclose that information to my readers. 

4.) I learned that when taking these photographs, I need to de-clutter the subject in the frame, and mostly be eye to eye level with my subject to not make them feel superior, or disrespect them. I also learned that when writing photo captions, it is important to include the 5W's in order to make a short and concise point to the reader that is viewing my photo.

Feature Stories: Blog 2

a.) When we were first assigned the task of feature story writing, I have to admit, I was a little confused about how to even begin the process. However, with the help of Professor Houser and Dr. Jabro's template, I feel that I am better prepared for my future feature story writing. I think that coming up with interview questions on the spot, then mock interviewing Dr. Jabro was an excellent exercise. I learned so much about how to properly conduct an interview and feel that I am more than ready to conduct my other interviews.

b.) I think that I will be able to interview my committee members exceptionally well. I enjoy public speaking and I enjoy talking with others, so I feel that I will be most comfortable with asking questions and having them flow easily. I have no doubts that I will gain enough information to complete a compelling feature story that will give these committee members the recognition that they deserve.

c.) I am concerned that when I actually sit down with my pages of copious notes, I will have no idea how to even begin the story. Though I have templates and examples, I believe that I am afraid of not actually creating an interesting story. However, I know that once I get past the initial writers block, I have no doubt that I will be able to take what I learned in class and apply it to this project.

d.) We participated in the video promo shoot in the Rogal Chapel and I have to say I was a little disappointed at how low key it was. I did not notice much of anything happening around me. We were told to act natural and actively listen, and we did just that. It took no more than ten minutes and then it was over. I feel that it was a great opportunity for our class to be featured in this video, however, it would have been interesting to learn the process of editing the video footage after he left  the filming site.

January 30 Class -- Feature Stories

a.) What I actually know about the practice of PR is very minimum. I feel as if my past classes I have not learned nearly as much as I have learned in this class, and it has only been four weeks. I hope to learn so much more this semester and apply what I learn to the PR world. Ideally, I would love to be a practitioner in the entertainment world, specifically the theatre world. I would love being an event planner for cast parties of Broadway shows.
b.) What I learned in Monday's class was invaluable to writing the feature stories. I had no idea all of the components that go into a successful feature story. Professor Houser was knowledgeable and interesting with his stories of how he creates his feature stories. I think it is very beneficial to have examples of notes from an interview, and seeing the final feature story from those notes. I think that I will be more successful in creating my feature stories from learning what Professor Houser had to offer to us. 
c.) Our team is absolutely on point so far. We have our specific meeting time set up for every Monday 5-6 before class, however, this week we felt that we needed an extra meeting time to prep for the upcoming endeavors. As a group, everyone was flexible and we decided to meet for an hour on Friday which was very exciting to me because many students just want it to be the weekend as soon as midnight Friday comes. I think this says a lot for our group and our work ethic. We want to be successful, and we will meet whenever, however, and do whatever in order to combine our thoughts and be the best possible team we can be.
d.) I believe that I have grown as a practitioner so much in these past four weeks, as I stated above, more than I have in four years. I am learning so many new things that I was not exposed to in other classes, and honestly, I was terrified about coming into this class feeling so clueless. However, this is all a learning process, and what better way to learn and gain experience but to actually work on a project with real clients and real team objectives.