It's been some year, right? Right. I can't believe it's over already though. Overall it's been a great year. It had it's good moments, and it's bad moments, and a lot of in-between moments. I graduated, I interviewed, I traveled, and more. In some ways I'm glad it's over and in some ways I'm not ready for 2014. A year ago I rang in the new year with good friends in Connecticut. This year I really don't even feel like ringing in the new year. Guess I'm getting old.
Jar full of great moments of 2013. Time to crack this open and share some of the highlights.
Looking Back: 2013
Presented at a conference! I enjoyed the experience and met some cool people! Learned a lot from that conference too.
Graduated with my master's! My family came down to celebrate my birthday and my graduation. It was great to show them Pensacola and to introduce them to crawfish at the Pensacola Crawfish Festival!
Ran my first 5k. The Pensacola Sunset Run, 40:37.
Got to travel to Vermont for a campus interview at a very unique college. Enjoyed the experience and the change in scenery.
Interviewed at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Enjoyed traveling to Hawaii, enjoyed meeting great people at UH Manoa, and got to spend a day visiting Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona memorial. Amazing experience.
Interviewed at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (the very same week I interviewed in Hawaii). Incredible place and some awesome people too. I also got to reconnect with a FIT friend and have some wonderful boring adventures in Fairbanks.
Went back to work at Panera and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Got to experience a wonderful wedding in St. Augustine Beach. Very happy for my friends and I was glad I got to share the day with them.
Got a job with Housing and Residence Life at UWF. It was a journey going through my job search process. I wanted to get out of Florida, but in the end I'm happy to have stayed in Pensacola.
Got to reconnect with a sister who was visiting Pensacola for work.
Had a great FIT alumna moment when I met with the director of the new extended studies site. Enjoyed making a new connection.
Adopted my adorable cat Bailey (who I think is plotting to take over the world).
Started playing in a kickball league. Met some great people and had a blast! Can't wait for the next season.
Ran my 2nd 5k. I was sick but still ran it in 38:04, a new PR for me.
Learned how to curl with a couple of awesome FIT friends. Great times with great friends.
Took some chances that didn't really work out, but the things I've learned made it worth it.
Started to bake a lot more and try some new baking adventures, and overall increased my love for baking.
Met a lot of great people this year. Said goodbye to some friends. Made some new friends.
Cut 13 inches off my hair last December, and it's getting close to it's original length.
Looking Forward: 2014
I'm not one to make resolutions. I think last year I gave up on giving up things. Maybe? I don't know. I never was one to make realistic resolutions that I could stick to. Well it's about to be a new year, so a new beginning, perhaps? Here's what I'm hoping to do this year.
Spend less, save more. (Though now a lot of my spending goes to loans, so that may be tough...)
Eat healthier. I'm toying with the idea of going vegan, but easing into it. So I'm cutting back the dairy. I want at least 3 dinners a week to be vegan.
Cook more and bake more (but make it healthy)
No more soda. I haven't been drinking much of it anyway, so it's time for it to go.
More working out. More running, but also mixing up my workouts. Pilates, maybe some yoga, considering swimming. Just wanting to be more active and reach some fitness goals.
More time for me. Sounds selfish, but I just want to focus on doing some things that I've been wanting to do for a while. This includes vacation and traveling. I'm hoping this year to make it to one of these places: Washington state, Salt Lake City, or Maine.
Unclutter (declutter? unclutter?) my life.
Blog more. [laughter]. See what I mean about unrealistic? Thought I'd throw that one in for kicks.
So I'm quite exhausted today. I didn't get much sleep last night, and when I actually was asleep it wasn't a very good sleep. So needless to say I'm a bit tired today. Which from my experiences from the last 4 years as an undergrad is something I should be used to. As an undergrad sleep was a luxury I came across every few days. I was well known for my lack of sleep. At times it worked for me, and other times not so much. Ironically, now that I'm in grad school I actually get much more sleep so I've kind of gotten accustomed to it. So nights of little sleep kind of throw me off a bit. Now that I get more sleep most of the time these days I find that I feel more motivated, and obviously more energetic (although I'm usually not lacking energy no matter how much sleep I get). It's that motivation that's important. I get more done, and I usually get better work done.
So in honor of how exhausted (and not motivated) I am today, here's a talk about sleep. Arianna Huffington talks about how sleep makes us succeed. Seemed fitting for the day. So watch and enjoy while I go fuel up on caffeine before my 4pm meeting.
Now go enjoy the rest of your day, and get plenty of sleep tonight!!
Alrighty. So yesterday I said I'd look for something a bit more serious than tying your shoes correctly, and maybe a little funny. At least I think I said that, and I'm just running with it anyway... So I did just that. Today's talk by Richard St. John is about the secrets to success. It's another short one, but he very quickly lays out the 8 secrets to success. I think he points out very good characteristics that people often forget about. We all want to be successful in life so this is relevant to us all. It related to my day a bit too, but I'll bore you with that after you watch the video.
Okay. So I hope you liked that. It was short, but informative. I personally found this one fitting for me, especially today. I am in grad school and in less than two years will be entering the professional world so I hope to be successful. I hope to be successful in school and in my career. This is really relevant to me today specifically because i just got back from a meeting where I got to talk with people in various areas and stages of student affairs. It gave me an idea on what they've done to be successful and they were able to give me advice on how to be successful. A lot of what they told me are things that are mentioned in this talk.
One thing with these TED talks that I want to mention is that it's important to reflect on the knowledge we take in. We learn a lot through reflection; reflection on our lives, our mistakes, our achievements, our work, etc. So it's important to take in what the speaker tells us, but to also relate it to our lives. Take these 8 secrets to success and reflect on whether or not you're using those secrets. I know that I have passion, I work hard, I certainly persist, I have ideas. I do serve and do some good, but I could probably serve more and do some more good. I could definitely push myself a bit more and focus a little harder. I could brainstorm for ideas a whole lot more than I do. I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses and I try to work on making my weaknesses not so weak. People sometimes focus only on what they're good at, but it will make you far more successful if you maintain your strengths while improving your weaknesses.
So that's my bit of knowledge for today. Also, I learned today that October is apparently National Careers in Student Affairs Month (CSAM). So if you're interested in Student Affairs as a career, or have no idea what it is then you can check out the website about CSAM which will tell you all about Student Affairs and how to become a part of it. Or ask me some questions and I'll answer what I can. :)
