Pinterest: My life in a Pinboard

Today I decided to look at my recent activity on Pinterest for the first time. For those of you who aren’t familiar with my favorite new social media platform, Pinterest allows users to “pin” things that they like onto their own “boards.” The pins contain everything from recipes, clothing, DIY ideas, to wedding planning ideas and pretty pictures of travel destinations. You can create your own custom pinboards and fit each pin into your own categories.

As I flipped through the pictures I pinned in the last week or so, I realized that my Pinterest page is a great reflection of who I am outside of my school and professional life. My Twitter page is pretty professional, my LinkedIn page is completely professional, and my Facebook page mostly covers my social life. Pinterest, on the other hand, shows a lot of my likes, for now and the future. You can tell that I’m interested in nail polish, traveling, cooking (or at least intending to), and organization. You can see my fashion sense and things that I think are cute or fun.

From a professional perspective, Pinterest lets potentials see a different side of me that isn’t displayed on my resume. It’s more personal, without being inappropriate. This is an awesome outlet for companies too. It lets companies display their personality a little more. Stores can obviously pin their products, but they can also reach out to different markets to show their interests and expand their expertise. A clothing store can pin furniture or makeup trends to show that their expertise reaches beyond their product line. What a cool opportunity to show a different side of the company to their audiences.

So, do you “pin”? If so, follow me! And I’ll follow you back! If not, I strongly encourage you to check it out. If nothing else, it’s another great tool for procrastination!

Networking: My New Favorite Thing

During a phone interview today I was asked why I wanted to be in PR. After an awesome conversation I had last night, my answer was simple: I LOVE to network and build new relationships.

This conversation last night was the best of my job search time so far. She recently decided to change jobs and had to go through the job search process all over again. During the phone call, she enthusiastically spoke about the several networking events she went to, the meetings she had with different people, and the entire process of weaving her networking web (hence the picture!). Unlike some other conversations I’ve had, she looked at these meetings as opportunities to learn, rather than just to get a job. This really struck me during the conversation.

Instead of saying “I’m looking for a job. Help me find one,” she would ask them to tell their stories, and then end the interview by asking if they knew anyone else who would be interested in sharing their story with her. Over the few months she was doing this, she stumbled upon awesome people with awesome stories, and began to build a solid network. While not all of the meetings led to interviews or jobs, she was learning more about what she wanted to do and fine-tuning her ideal job. Eventually, one contact led to another and she has a new job that she loves.

This conversation gave me a fresh perspective on interviewing. Rather than having my main focus be getting a job when I go into an interview, I like the idea of continuing to build relationships and just learning about people’s stories. If nothing else, I’ll be better prepared for future interviews and have a great group of people to contact with questions. As I told my students this morning, “Network your hearts out!” Every person has a story to tell, and you never know what connection will work out.

The Road Ahead

So, after another month, I’m back again. Once again, in order to procrastinate.

One of my favorite times to be on campus is alone at night, when the entire campus is lit up and it feels like you own the campus. Tonight was one of those perfect nights.

As I walked from Brown St. to St. Joe’s in the crisp, fresh air, I realized how much I’m going to miss this place. The buildings I lived, worked, and played in. The destruction of KU to the “greeeeeeeeeening” of campus (Anna Beyerle-that’s for you. Halloween 2010). But most of all, the people. Every person I’ve met at UD has made some sort of impact on my life, and I’m a little anxious that this is all coming to an end. Today was the day that it hit me: approximately 2 months and 2 weeks from now, I have NO idea where I’m going to be or what I’m going to be doing. But as much as that’s terrifying and sad, it’s also incredibly exciting.

Quill and I flew back from Florida today, and I chatted with the woman sitting next to me about if I have a job lined up, where I want to go, etc., etc. After the gloom and doom of not having a job and hearing the question about 10 times in the last few days, I mentioned how excited I am about this time in my life. She responded with “You literally have the entire world at your fingertips. The possibilities are endless.” How exciting is that?! For the first time in my life, I literally have no clue what’s next. I could be living in Chicago, or London, or Tahiti, or Australia in just 2 MONTHS! Okay, maybe not quite that far (besides Chicago), but you get the idea.

So, I have a new perspective and I’ve decided I’m sticking to it. I’m making the most of my last couple of months at UD. Yes, I’ll continue to do school work, handle my teaching responsibilities, and continue to search for a job. But instead of stressing about those things, I’m going to enjoy the ride. This is “the time of my life,” according to just about everyone, so I’ve decided to have faith and know that everything will be okay.

Here’s to a new and exciting adventure, and a chance to really “explore, dream, discover.”

The View From Here

So after a loooooong hiatus from blogging, I’m back!

As I was cleaning up dishes from dinner and thinking about the work I have to do tonight, I did what every communication major would do to procrastinate and got on social media! This time, a blog, and hopefully something that will actually be productive.

First step for my blog, I thought, is to create a new one. I’ve been considering starting a new, more professional blog for a while now, and wanted to do something that would be consistent and relevant across time. My first thought was I love to paint my nails in new ways, but I thought that was not exactly the direction I wanted to go. My second idea was that I almost always wear my glasses (if I’m smart and decide I want to see for the day). So glasses… seeing… perspective…Got it! “The View From Here.” The world from the “lenses” of an almost graduate. Perfect, I thought. A quick Google search, however, returned a plethora of “View from Here” blogs or websites, so I decided to stick to the foundation of my last blog, a Mark Twain quote.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

I’m graduating in almost exactly 3 months and have a whole new world to explore and discover; a brand new start and another chance to “throw off the bowlines”. This continuation of my previous blog will take a bit of a different direction, seeing as I’m not traveling the world. It will be more about my everyday life as a TA, student, intern, job seeker, and PR enthusiast. I’ll try to post a few times a week, and have even started a brief blogging calendar with the hopes that it will keep me on track. All these posts will be from my perspective, and hopefully will help my readers to get an idea of the world from my perspective.

Until next time, here’s to procrastination!

Last night in Paris and a long trip home

All of us on the top of the Eiffel Tower!

We spent our last night in Paris (July 21, 2011) climbing the Eiffel Tower, which was a great end to the trip. We climbed up to the second level, which was about 640 steps. Overall, I think Anna and I climbed close to 2000 steps. By the time we hit the second level, Anna was feeling kind of weary because of the height and not being completely enclosed as we climbed to the top. The view was incredible, and it was a pretty clear night so we could see a lot. We wanted to make the last metro train back to the hostel, so we left and headed back to the hostel. We all got our last internet card and headed to bed.

A view of Iceland from the plane!

Steve left the hostel around 8, and Anna, Jacob and I left around 11. Anna and I headed to the train station to get tickets to take the metro to the airport and had a little bit of an adventure. Most of the machines in Paris only take coins, and it was over 9 euros to get to the airport. We had enough for one ticket, but not for another. We went to a couple different desks and information before finally finding a desk that took cash. We found out the night before that I had to go to terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle and Anna had to go to terminal 2. Easy enough right? Wrong. I got off the train when the signs said terminals 1 and 3, then told Anna to get off at the same place because there were a bunch of signs to terminal 2. So she ended up getting off the train too, but had to walk for a REALLY long time to find the right place. We both ended up finding the right spot and getting on our planes, so all was well. I had a brief stop in Iceland, which was kind of fun. Iceland is really pretty, and it was an easy airport to get around which was fantastic. I caught my connection to JFK and was supposed to meet up with Anna there to fly to Cincinnati. I landed at JFK and turned on my phone and I had a text from Maggie saying our flight to Cincinnati was canceled, and one from Anna saying she got tickets on a flight to Columbus and to meet up with her in the American Airlines terminal. So, I got on a shuttle from my terminal after going through customs and met up with Anna. Turns out they canceled our flight because of “weather,” but a really nice American Airlines employee gave Anna a ticket for the Columbus flight. Somehow she printed out mine too. We’re kind of unsure how that was okay since I wasn’t there, but whatever. We made it on the flight and got safely to Columbus, where Maggie’s parents picked us up and brought as back to her house.

The trip was amazing overall. It’s weird that it’s over and feels like I’ve been gone for forever and also that I never left. London and Italy were phenomenal, Paris was okay, and China was just an adventure. I’m not really sure which was my favorite. They are all really different places and have very different things to offer. I am really happy to be home and settled for a week, but I start another traveling adventure on August 1! I’ll be going to Dayton, Chicago, Old Forge, and Tennessee over the next few weeks, and moving back into UD on August 15. What a whirlwind of a summer!

#parisproblems

We got to the train station around 5 and did some shopping at the Olympic store and a bookstore. Steve and I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which means that we all now have HP7 in our possession. It’s a perfect book to read while traveling because it’s so long, so we’re all happy with our decision. We got on the train around 7 and spent the trip watching TV and sleeping. We got to Paris around 10 local time, and headed straight to the hostel to check in. The hostel is SUPER nice compared to some of the other places we’ve stayed, but I still have a soft spot for the Rome hostel with Star Wars paintings on the walls, a great internet connection, and a bar on the first floor. Also, the toilet in our hostel makes sounds like the Chamber of Secrets. We’re pretty sure the snake is making it’s way out of our toilet. One of us might be dragged in to defeat Tom Riddle soon. For those of you who are unfamiliar, a link to the Wikipedia page: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Chamber_of_Secrets.

Us in front of Notre Dame

We spent the morning sleeping and planning for the day. It was cold and rainy in Paris today so we weren’t really in the mood to go walking all around the city. We went to Notre Dame and spent a while there and then headed back to the hostel to check in, rest, and go online. We waited for Jacob at the hostel until about 11 p.m. and then went out to see the Eiffel Tower at night. It finally cleared up and the Eiffel Tower looked awesome. It took until that moment to realize that we were actually in Paris. We walked around for a while, had dinner at midnight, and then took a cab back to the hostel since we missed the last metro trains.

Yesterday we went to the Louvre in the morning, then had lunch, and walked down the Champ Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. It didn’t rain too much so our impression of Paris improved. We came back to the hostel, took a nap, and went to dinner. After dinner we walked up to the highest point in Paris, Sacre Cour. It was awesome. The building was all lit up and the view of the city was really cool. It was rainy though, so a little hard to make everything out, but it was still fun.

Me below the Eiffel Tower!!

Today we went to the Moulin Rouge and walked around that area. It was a little shocking to see all the sex shops and everything. And weird that there were restaurants and shops in between two sex shops or stripper clubs. And small children should not be allowed there. We tried to go to the Saint Chapelle this afternoon, but they close at 5 if you don’t have tickets, which of course we didn’t. So we took a pointless train ride and won’t be able to see Saint Chapelle since we have to leave around 11 tomorrow for the airport. We’re headed back to the Eiffel Tower tonight to have dinner and enjoy our last night in Paris.

Overall, this trip has been amazing. I LOVE Rome and Florence and can’t wait to go back there. Anna and I are convinced that Italy is the most romantic, beautiful place and will definitely be honeymooning there. London is also AMAZING and for sure on my list of top cities. My mom has been talking about how much she loves it for a really long time, and I can finally appreciate her love for it. As soon as we walked off the train I knew I liked London, and traveling around just made it better. Paris is good so far, but we’re all worn out from site seeing so much and traveling. 6 weeks of site seeing is a long time, and I’m starting to be ready to get home and relax for a while. We’re also really excited for Erin and Charlie’s wedding on Saturday! And I’m excited for Theresa and Zainub to come and visit on Monday!!

“I LOVE LONDON” Continued

This is really delayed, but Steve was a great tour guide that kept us really busy in London, and we didn’t have free wifi. So here is the update of what we’ve done since the night of July 14! Enjoy!

Anna, Steve, and I at the Harry Potter 7 Part 2 opening night!

July 14, 2011 we went to Harry Potter at midnight. We saw a double feature, so we got to the theatre around 9:30 (after an obligatory McDonald’s dinner-we’re aiming to go to one in every country) and were there until 2:30ish. It was awesome. On the way to the theatre, we started going into what we thought was McDonald’s, but ended up being McDonald’s headquarters in East Finchley. The security guy gave us a funny look and we realized we weren’t allowed in there. Anyways, after the movie we got back to the hostel around 3:30, after only minor struggles trying to find a cab back from the suburbs. We went to bed and woke up early to check out of our first hostel and move to the second one. The first was basically in the suburbs, and the second was in Piccadilly Square, so we were excited for the better location after spending so much time on the Tube.

July 15, 2011 we moved to Piccadilly Backpackers. Steve, Anna and I spent the day wandering the city. We were going to climb St. Paul’s Cathedral to see the view from the top, but Anna had some sort of allergy/pink eye/contact problem and we ended up deciding against it to find some allergy medicine and eye drops. It took us about an hour to do that, so we went back to the hostel and relaxed for a little before Tim and Quill arrived. We had dinner with a couple girls from UD who went to London with Steve when he studied abroad here. It was really fun and good to see more UD people.  Tim and Quill got to the Piccadilly station around 11:30 p.m. and all of us but Anna went to a bar near by. It was a really cool pub that reminded us of Tim’s, but a little classier. We headed back to the hostel and were supposed to wake up early to do some site seeing, but ended up getting started a little later than expected.

Us in front of Buckingham Palace!

We started the day (July 16, 2011) doing all the typical touristy things in the pouring rain. We walked to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures before walking to Big Ben and Parliament and Westminster Abby. The line was really long and we decided we didn’t want to wait to go in, so we ended up going to a little church near by. It was still really pretty and good to escape the rain for a little bit.

Us (and a random photobomb) at O'Neills

After the Abby we went to St. Paul’s to do the climb to the top. It has more stairs than the Duomo, and Anna and I had to rally to make our legs feel ready to climb more after climbing so much already. By the end of climbing the Cathedral we were up to over 1000 steps. The view was amazing though and the walk was totally worth it. After that we went to have dinner with one of my family’s friends and his friends in Covent Garden. It finally stopped raining and we had a really great time.  We watched a street performer after we finished dinner so that was fun, and then we headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out. We went to the same bar as the first night and Anna came out with us too!

Us (minus Tim) on the London Eye. Big Ben is kind of in the background.

Sunday we went to the London Eye in the morning. It poured again and we all were really happy when we got out of line and into the car thing. We took a lot of really cool pictures, and it was nice to see things that we’d seen from the ground in the air. It helped place things better because you kind of get twisted around when you take the Tube. We had a late lunch at The Anchor, the restaurant we went to on the first night, and headed to Kings Cross to see Platform 9 and ¾ from Harry Potter. We got to the train station and started to follow the signs leading to Platform 9. We ended up getting to a point where you had to have a ticket to get in, so Tim went to ask how to get to the platform. Turns out that Platform 9 and ¾ isn’t actually between platform 9 and 10 anymore. In fact, it’s now a plastic looking fake brick poster stuck to a tile wall at the front of the station. We were all a little disappointed, but took pictures and then went back to the hostel for another night out. Anna and I crashed from being really tired while the boys went to try to watch the Women’s World Cup final at a pub. They ended up just hanging out because the game wasn’t on anywhere, and then came back to the hostel to meet up with Anna and I. Anna took a death nap (one where you’re more exhausted than when you went to sleep) and ended up staying in. The guys and I were going to some bar called Rumba. It was a little sketchy, but we had a good time and it was a fun adventure.

Us in front of the Olympic Countdown Clock in Trafalgar Square.

Monday morning we woke up and checked out of the hostel. Then we all went to Trafalgar Square in the morning to look at the Olympic countdown clock and take some pictures. After we went to Abbey Road, which was really cool and kind of crowded. Trying to get a picture of us crossing the street was really funny since it’s an actual cross walk. We’re pretty sure people who live in the area must hate it there. We headed back to the Tube station and said goodbye to Tim and Quill before they went to the airport and Anna, Steve and I went to Harrods. We spent about 5 minutes in Harrods before realizing that everything was really expensive and getting kind of overwhelmed. We went back to a pub near the hostel and had a beer and some snack food before going to the train station.