Category: Growing Up

Well I got sick

It is December, which officially means cold and flu season. I wash my hands, eat fairly well and drink a lot of water but every year I get a cold around this time. Some people never get sick, but I always do and I don’t even take public transportation.

This year is a special case. My boyfriend came home for Thanksgiving and since he hadn’t had a day off in a month and a half, doesn’t eat well and works outside in snow he couldn’t escape a nasty nasty cold. We’re talking bordering on flu. I’m not a doctor but seeing how miserable led me to that conclusion.

Of course he stayed with me and I eventually was taken by the sickness of the year. I’m especially upset because I even got a flu shot. Before you say anything, I know there are different strands of flu and that’s why the shot is so unreliable but you would think that inserting a sickness into my body would do more for than get me a sweet Band-Aid.

So here we are, day 7 of being sick and it isn’t fun. Remember when you were a kid and being sick meant watching TV all day and not going to school? Sure, you felt like hell but it was fun. Not to mention having a parent to bring you food or the remote. Being sick as an adult is the worst. You have to miss work, which means not getting paid that day unless you have sick days but even then you feel guilty you’re not at work.

Then you’re on your own and have to do all the cooking and cleaning yourself while also still feeling like hell. My boyfriend was here at the beginning of the mega-cold so he helped out a lot, but now it’s just me and I want curry. I want some delicious, warm chicken curry because cooking sounds terrible but it’s cold and I’m lazy. I understand these are all very minimal problems, I’m not a monster, but I am sick and I feel like whining.

Waiting

A few months ago I talked about the “No Response” from employers. This isn’t when you’re told you haven’t received a job, this is when you get no response at all after applying and interviewing. It’s a terrible limbo where you begin to imagine yourself working and excelling at the job, but you also can’t let yourself get too emotionally invested. That job is a cat and you are Schroedinger, at this point it doesn’t matter what happens you just need to know if you should be disposing of a dead cat.

The good and smart thing to do in this moment in time is to not think about the job. Just go about your business, eat, sleep, drink and buy a new cat, everything is normal. Keep applying so it feels like just another day. That is what the smart thing to do is. From reading these posts you should know by now I don’t always choose the smart option. Why did I buy a six-pack of Pumpkin Spice Blue Moon? Why do I go on Pet Finder and read all the sad stories when I know I can’t have an animal? Because I don’t like to make things easy for myself.

So instead of pretending like I didn’t have an interview two days ago and still haven’t heard anything, I start to imagine what I’ll need to wear to the new job and if it calls for a shopping trip. Is it in a new city or state? Then I’m probably thinking about how many boxes I’ll need to buy in the next few weeks. I even go over what I’m going to tell my current employers, and worry they’ll be mad. This is the unhealthy way to handle the waiting game, but by gum I can’t help but torture myself.

You see, I’m a planner, always have been always will. I’m the friend that texts you a week before we have plans to lock them down so I can mentally map out my week and make sure I’m prepared for everything. This is not a good quality for someone fresh out of college and mostly unemployed to have, but hey you work with the cards you’re dealt with. I can’t turn off my little planner voice that works overtime when there’s a potential life change on the horizon. So here I am, planning my imaginary and awesome new life at a job I don’t have yet.

The unknown is scary to everyone but especially someone that plans dinner a week in advance, thanks for these genes, mom. I’m just a high strung girl in a low strung world. Yeah I feel weird about that sentence too, but it’s staying in!

Getting healthy

I always ate really well as a kid. My parents were good at making sure I had the right amount of vegetables, protein and grains to keep my tiny bones growing. Granted I didn’t grow much, but I don’t think that can be blamed on the vegetables. I was never a super active child, I did some dance but I really liked band and choir and neither of those call for a lot of movement. So as far as health go I always got an A plus on diet but a D on exercise.

Growing up it didn’t seem like an issue because I was young and carefree and felt great. Then in college I started having stomach problems, which are complicated and boring so I’m not going to go into it but I started looking long and hard at my diet. There wasn’t really a pattern for what was making me feel sick beside really fatty or salty foods, so that was a bust.

My junior year I took a couple PE classes to round out my credits and I realized that I felt better the weeks I ran or swam. As much as it’s against my nature, I try to work out five times a week for 30 minutes and it really does make a difference. I’ve never been interested in losing weight or gaining muscle because I’m already a slim person, but I just feel so much better when I go for a short run.

I am not by any means into fitness but I’ve learned how to make it a part of my day and I can definitely notice a difference on off days. The real reason I’m writing this post is to keep myself honest. I am the queen of making excuses and justifying things to myself so it’s easy to skip days. My theory is that if I write it out for two people in the world to read I’ll stick to my weekly goal! Here’s to a healthier November!

Applications

When I was applying to my first job eight years ago I drove around town and filled out paper applications at any place that would have me. I didn’t have a resume or job experience, I just went in and asked for an application.

This is pretty out of character for me seeing as I get nervous calling to order a pizza, luckily the guys down the street know my order so I don’t have to say much, but it’s just what you did in 2006. It was nice to sit down and talk to store owners and see what they were looking for and make a case for myself in person.

These days everything is digital, which I as an introvert really appreciate but it makes applying so tedious and boring. Attaching resume and cover letter and checking boxes to confirm that I’m a white female citizen. It gets really exciting when even though you’ve uploaded a cover letter they ask you to manually fill in a form. Call me crazy but you would think that in 2014 we would have the technology to pull information from a document and plug it into a form online, but hey what do I know?

So here I go, plugging in the same information I already wrote, edited and formatted in a word document you can access online. Yes I realize I can copy and paste things but that isn’t easy or efficient either.

The worst part is thinking about the position while you’re plugging in all the details of your life. I aways go over everything in my head and start to imagine myself doing the work and loving it. This of course leads to thinking that I shouldn’t get excited about it because I probably won’t be chosen anyway and I’ll just be disappointed. Then comes the mini pep talk to remind myself that I’m worth it and deserve any job I could want. So after that emotional roller coaster the application is submitted and I need a snack.

I’m nostalgic for the days when I could walk into the local pizza store with no experience or education and talk about my love of toppings and cheese and get awarded the job.

Cover Letters

When I see “please attach or copy and paste a cover letter” I read “tell me why you’re better than the 100 other people who applied for this position in 500 words or less, no pressure.” It’s terrifying, and I hate it.

You would think I would love cover letters because I’m a writer and should enjoy writing about myself. Well you would be wrong. I guess that’s it’s nice to send more than a resume and explain why you only worked somewhere for three months, and I guess it’s nice to explain what you really did at a job. So it can be a good way to set yourself apart from everyone else who has the exact same qualifications as you.

But I still hate it. I get it but I hate it.

It’s incredibly nerve-wracking, but you have to do it. I have one stock cover letter that has my basic job experience outlined but I end up going back through and changing everything for each open position anyway, so each application ends up taking 15 or 20 minutes. I always get excited when I see an application that only asks for a resume but that makes me nervous at the same time because a resume is easier to overlook.

It’s a vicious cycle that is seemingly never ending, but there isn’t really a better way to do things. Basically I just have to suck it up and do it but I would rather write a post complaining about how much I hate cover letters than actually write a cover letter. I guess I can’t avoid it for long seeing as I’m getting to the end of this post. Ugh, okay I’ll get back to applying.

Quarter-Life Crisis

Lately a lot of my friends have used the phrase “quarter-life crisis” to describe how it feels to graduate college and be further away from knowing what you want to do than when you started college. The phrase started as a joke, but it seems to be something my friends are taking more seriously.

Though it seems dramatic and entitled, there isn’t a term for exactly what we’re experiencing post-college. We don’t yet have a name for this feeling. As I talked about in my post about millenials, people my age are in a unique situation. A college degree doesn’t guarantee you a career immediately after graduation. So a lot of us are finding us graduated and confused, thus the quarter-life crisis.

I’ve heard it from friends who have full-time jobs, friends who are still looking for work and even my most “put-together” friend. Maybe this comes from the fact that there aren’t any jobs out there so we have to find work in fields we don’t like. Maybe it’s because we have too many options and can’t find something to commit to.

Whatever the reason, it’s clear that no one really has a plan anymore. So what does this mean? Is my generation going to be working multiple part-time jobs our entire lives, or are we going to create new and interesting careers out of things we’re good at? I am sincerely hoping for the latter seeing as I am smack dab in the middle of my own quarter-life crisis.

What is a Millennial?

Millennial is a buzz word. Technically it means anyone 18-35, but it has different meanings for different people. For some it is an annoying teenager who doesn’t know how to interact in the real world. For others it is a huge group of people to advertise to with hash tags and jump cuts. But for me and my friends, it’s us. I am a millennial in the technical sense of the word and the stereotypical. I love social media and Apple products. I watch a lot of Netflix and YouTube and I have been out of college for a year and am still working two part time jobs.

I’m not saying this is true of all millennials. I have many friends who have high-paid full-time jobs. Who are working at the careers they went to school for and want to stay in. However, for most of us, that isn’t a reality. This isn’t just my inside experience, it has been talked about. It’s more okay for millennials to live with their parents or work shitty part time jobs to make rent. It’s not that we don’t want to be successful, it’s that we have different dreams than past generations.

My parents went to school to be teachers. When they graduated they got teaching jobs. They didn’t have an “off year” where they watched court shows and job searched. They did what everyone else did, worked hard in college and started their careers. It isn’t that easy anymore for a few reasons.

It started with the economic crash. Employers were cutting back right when millennials started to enter the “real world.” It wasn’t just that people weren’t hiring, but people older than us who were laid off from a career during the crash were not reentering the job market. For the first time in a long time we weren’t only competing against our peers but also our parents and siblings and aunts and uncles. There are less jobs and way more competition.

But that didn’t crush the hopes of millennials because we are such a hopeful generation. We created other jobs from bloggers, to YouTubers, to social media consultants. Fresh out of college, it became clear that our options were more limited than when our parents entered the working world, so we started to find our own way. The biggest trick with manufacturing a career from nothing is waiting to get paid for what we’re created. So we end up living back at home or working at Target while we try to take our passions and skills and turn them into careers.

At the end of the day, millennials are in a pretty rough situation but we’re making the most of it. You better believe we’re not going to settle.

Thoughts on turning 24

I’m sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, I was busy turning 24 and reflecting on my life choices, as you do. 24 is a strange age. You can already vote, drink and Taylor Swift hasn’t written a song about it, but you can’t rent a car (you scoff, but I would love to be able to move myself across town in a UHaul.)

I’ve never been worried about aging because I look 16, and my mom looks like she’s 35. I’m not going to disclose her actual age, but trust me, she doesn’t look it. Seriously, not a wrinkle on that woman. I wouldn’t say I’m worried about aging now, but I think about it more than I ever did.

Younger me had ideas about where I would be when I was 21, 25 and 30. So far it doesn’t look like I’m going to be a rock star or own ten cats and 18 dogs, and I’m not married to Jonathan Taylor Thomas, yet. In fact, my life has taken a completely different turn than I was expecting. Though that could be a scary or discouraging thing, it’s a scary and freeing thing. Never before in my life have I felt so confused and in control at the same time.

I’m not going to be a rock star, but I will kick ass at whatever I end up doing. And last I heard JTT is unmarried, so I’m not closing that door yet.

WHAT IS A CREDIT CARD?

A couple weeks ago, I received a credit card in the mail. I was confused because I already have a credit card. The new one looks exactly like the old one and has the same number. I thought it was strange so I put it in my desk and forgot about it.

Last week, I got a mysterious letter from my bank saying I have been upgraded from a “College Card” to a “Free Cash Something Awesome Rainbow Card.” The note said my card was upgraded because I’ve been doing a good job maintaining my credit.

I was flattered, and then suddenly suspicious (as I always am with compliments) so I read further. It said I didn’t have to do any work to make the change and my limit is doubled. I started to look for a catch, and realized I had no idea what a credit card catch would look like because I have no idea what a credit card is.

I got one when I went to Mexico for a summer in case I lost all my cash and debit card, but no one really briefed me on what they do. I understand credit cards caused a lot of problems in 2012. I know they look deceivingly like debit cards but aren’t. I also know they can’t actually crack a lock but do a decent job of scraping frost off a car window. That pretty much wraps it up. I’ve been pretending to be knowledgeable about credit so long that I feel like it’s too late to ask about it.

So here I stand with two credit cards and no understanding of what that really means. I suppose I’ll do what I’ve been doing for two years, only use the new one for groceries and pay it off the next day.