Here I Go Again!

Fact: I have been working on cover letters and resumes for the past 8 hours. Okay, slight lie, I did take a little time off to go shopping at Charming Charlie’s. Anyway, for those of you who have not had to apply for jobs in a while or are still in school and don’t need to just yet, let me tell you, it is not a fast process. But, if you want to know something else, I kind of enjoy it.

Since it is J-Term here at school, I have had two days of Erica time. Actually, this translates to “there is no one on campus, all of my roommates are still gone, and there is nothing to do.” When Jessie and I pulled into campus Sunday night, it was half empty. Most students are on academic trips or doing internships. Since I had Monday and Tuesday basically all alone, I thought it would be a good time to start applying for full time positions. I already had some ideas and leads, so Monday (after waking up at noon; who am I?), I put together a binder organized very specifically according to city/region according to major (elementary education or communication studies). Haha, I can’t help it that I am a communication studies major, okay?

Today, I realized that there was nothing left to organize and that I have procrastinated enough. I woke up early, and after a couple of attempts of trying to get stuff done while in my workout shorts and sweatshirt, I kept trying to watch a movie or stalk someone else on Facebook. It was time to get serious. I took a shower, got ready, and put on jeans and a nice sweater to make myself feel more professional and deserving of these jobs that I was about to apply for. And then it was like I hit a home run; things were getting done. Thank goodness when Christen finally came back to the apartment today. It seemed as if I had had little human interaction the past 48 hours and was going certifiably insane.

Tonight, when I got up to get a drink of my cranapple juice (and, after drinking a glass full of it and wondering why it tasted like cardboard and barbecue sauce mixed together and then realizing that I was drinking Christen’s nasty ‘light cranberry juice’ instead of my delicious fattening crap) it hit me that tomorrow morning I no longer will be cooped up in my apartment! Tomorrow I start a new internship. And suddenly, I felt pretty confident in my resume sending techniques.

Tomorrow, I begin my January Term internship at Floyd and Partners in Fort Wayne (http://www.floydandpartners.com/). It is a public relations and advertising agency and I am super pumped to be able to gain a new experience. It is sort of funny how it came about because I called them asked if they by chance would get an intern for the month of January and unbeknown to me, they had been looking for one until May! They asked for my resume and cover letter, I sent them to them that day, they called me back that day, scheduled an interview for the next day, went in, and got the call three days later that I would be interning with them! This goes to show that if you can take some initiative, you never know where you will end up.

And I am sure glad I did, because beginning tomorrow I will be on board for a whole new adventure. I like to think of new experiences as adventures because you never know what will happen or where they will lead. There is something exciting about diving into the unknown and being a little unsure and having to give something all you got. Whenever I come to the point where a new adventure is around the corner, I always like to listen to the song “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake. I first heard the song my freshman year of college on a packed, smelly and rusted old bus in Mexico. In between all of these Spanish songs, came this one, and sure enough all of the Americans on the bus were singing along. I will always remember listening to it as we drove through the Mexican terrain and headed to the ocean. Mexico then was another adventure to me, and hearing the lyrics from the song are inspiring. The song makes you feel like, “Yeah, I can do this!” and that is what is so great about it. You hear it and even though you may not know exactly where the adventure will take you, you are independent and headed in a new direction carrying your past experiences with you and looking for some new ones.

So, folks, here I go again!

[P.S. If you wonder why I chose that picture of me from three years ago, I did so because I think it describes the feeling of being free and on a whole new adventure!]