Saturday, June 26, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Life is brilliant. No?
As some of you may or may not know, I am temporarily working at a local coffee shop here on the OBX. I am sorry to disappoint some of you who may otherwise have thought I was a completely unemployed college graduate. No. After about 4 months of being a 23 year old bum, I decided to join the service sector and begin working my butt off at The Front Porch Cafe (which has actually been quite a fun experience). I do still consider myself to be part of the millions of US citizens unemployed for a few reasons: 1) I am currently working a temporary job; 2) This job does not require a college degree (or a high school degree for that matter) and does not relate in any way to my college degree; and 3) There is no potential for advancing in this position. I have already moved from counter staff to barista within 3 weeks and am very close to becoming the best barista in the world. Look out fellow FPC employees.
I am sorry if I have let some of you down. In any case, I still consider myself unemployed and so should you.
While I was at work the other day, I was having a friendly conversation with a fellow co-worker and asked how his life was going. "My life is brilliant" he replied. I was surprised by this answer, brilliant? I had never in my life heard someone describe their life as brilliant. I am not sure if the fact that he is from Lithuania factored into his reply or if he feels his life really is brilliant, but I didn't say anything in return. I mulled over his comment for a second while I swept the cafe floor, but eventually had to inquire. "Brilliant, huh? I have never heard someone describe their life as brilliant." He explained using me as an example, "You graduate college, No? You pay no student loans. Your parents pay. You have new car. All of this is brilliant right?" I nodded my head in agreement, was the Lithuanian onto something? Could I really have been overlooking it this entire time, was life really brilliant? No. I could not let him get the best of me.
Being the person I am, I like to define things, so I went home and typed brilliant into a blank word document and selected Look Up. My modern aged dictionary came back with the following: 1. Extremely bright or radiant (brilliant sunshine; a brilliant smile). No, I wouldn't describe my life as bright or radiant. 2. Vivid (a brilliant shade of green). That doesn't quite apply. 3. Intelligent or talented (a brilliant mathematician). Neither does that. 4. Excellent (distinguished by excellence). My life is not necessarialy distiguished by excellence, either. And lastly, my favorite, 5. Splendid (imposingly splendid or magnificent). Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing.
Additionally, the U.K. uses brilliant to express great satisfaction with somebody or something. The Lithuanian was onto something! (And possibly knows how to use the English language in a more diverse way than I do.)
Regardless, I have been mulling over the brilliance in life for the past few days. Today, I went to the beach, looked at a perfectly brilliant blue sky and swam in crystal clear brilliant salt water. Tonight, I will sit in perfectly brilliant green grass with two dearly brilliant friends and drink ice cold beer, double brilliant! And now that I have written this word so many times that I am positive it is misspelled in one way or another, I am going to have a brilliant dinner with my parents and talk about homemade ice cream.
How can one sentence, one comment, 4 little words, make you reevaluate your perspective?
I am sorry if I have let some of you down. In any case, I still consider myself unemployed and so should you.
While I was at work the other day, I was having a friendly conversation with a fellow co-worker and asked how his life was going. "My life is brilliant" he replied. I was surprised by this answer, brilliant? I had never in my life heard someone describe their life as brilliant. I am not sure if the fact that he is from Lithuania factored into his reply or if he feels his life really is brilliant, but I didn't say anything in return. I mulled over his comment for a second while I swept the cafe floor, but eventually had to inquire. "Brilliant, huh? I have never heard someone describe their life as brilliant." He explained using me as an example, "You graduate college, No? You pay no student loans. Your parents pay. You have new car. All of this is brilliant right?" I nodded my head in agreement, was the Lithuanian onto something? Could I really have been overlooking it this entire time, was life really brilliant? No. I could not let him get the best of me.
Being the person I am, I like to define things, so I went home and typed brilliant into a blank word document and selected Look Up. My modern aged dictionary came back with the following: 1. Extremely bright or radiant (brilliant sunshine; a brilliant smile). No, I wouldn't describe my life as bright or radiant. 2. Vivid (a brilliant shade of green). That doesn't quite apply. 3. Intelligent or talented (a brilliant mathematician). Neither does that. 4. Excellent (distinguished by excellence). My life is not necessarialy distiguished by excellence, either. And lastly, my favorite, 5. Splendid (imposingly splendid or magnificent). Bing. Bing. Bing. Bing.
Additionally, the U.K. uses brilliant to express great satisfaction with somebody or something. The Lithuanian was onto something! (And possibly knows how to use the English language in a more diverse way than I do.)
Regardless, I have been mulling over the brilliance in life for the past few days. Today, I went to the beach, looked at a perfectly brilliant blue sky and swam in crystal clear brilliant salt water. Tonight, I will sit in perfectly brilliant green grass with two dearly brilliant friends and drink ice cold beer, double brilliant! And now that I have written this word so many times that I am positive it is misspelled in one way or another, I am going to have a brilliant dinner with my parents and talk about homemade ice cream.
How can one sentence, one comment, 4 little words, make you reevaluate your perspective?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Happy first day of summer!
Today is my day off. Oh Joy! Oh wonderment! The sun shines its peppy head in my window, bouncing off the open blinds casting images on the wall. I sleep in late, though my sleep is disturbed by my internal clock. It yells 'Get up lazy.' I hit the snooze button and my dreams combine the dancing sun streaked images on my wall with wondering ideas and brain waves.
Today is going to be a wonderful day: early morning job searches, then I have the afternoon free for the beach and an ocean swim. I might even try to get back on my feet and run. How wonderful it feels to not have to stand on your sore feet and legs for 6 plus hours, to think about work, to talk to customers, to put on a sweet facade.
Enough here though, I cannot waste any more of my day off. It is already passing too quickly and today is the longest day of the year. How did I get to be so lucky to have off on the longest day of the year? Oh sweet celebration. Oh sweet, sweet summer, you have finally begun.
Today is going to be a wonderful day: early morning job searches, then I have the afternoon free for the beach and an ocean swim. I might even try to get back on my feet and run. How wonderful it feels to not have to stand on your sore feet and legs for 6 plus hours, to think about work, to talk to customers, to put on a sweet facade.
Enough here though, I cannot waste any more of my day off. It is already passing too quickly and today is the longest day of the year. How did I get to be so lucky to have off on the longest day of the year? Oh sweet celebration. Oh sweet, sweet summer, you have finally begun.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Unfamiliarly familiar. Day 196.
I never realized how much I missed the companionship of my college town, the ability to walk down the road and recognize the faces of strangers. I use to hide inside of the thick cement walls of my dorm room, and in later years, the drafty cardboard box I called my apartment. I would hide myself beneath layers of blankets, in unreserved comfort. I would snuggle down and cover my head beneath the sheets filling my cocoon with hot breath and emotions. I would lose myself in my cocoon, sometimes even crying myself to sleep, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the day, after lunch. It never mattered when. After, I would peel off each layer, not fast like a band-aid, but slow and painful, like torture, but each time I was renewed. Willing to face the outside world again, willing to see the eyes of the passing strangers.
I never realized, even as I was running from it, how consoling it felt to have someone pass you on the street each day. Since I have moved, I think about those people often. What if I had said hello or offered to buy them a cup of coffee on a snowy day? What if I had somehow changed the norm and asked that familiar stranger their name? What if I had offered the guy with all those books, a hand? Or maybe if I had just said 'hey, we're heading in the same direction, would you like to walk a ways together?'.
I live 7 hours away from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, my college town, the place that I have called home for the past 5 1/2 years, and all of the faces that oddly enough became recognizable. I think this is why I could never live in a large town. I'd miss seeing the unfamiliarly familiar.
It's a lonely place. It's not something you realize when you are surrounded by peers who are in a similar place as yourself. I know, it's hard to believe, you think you're different. You think no one else could feel like you, think like you, search for answers to questions like you. But in reality, we are all searching. And if we're all searching, why are we all so lonely?
I'm lonely here, surrounded by my parents who have raised me, cared for me, nursed me. How can you be lonely when you are surrounded by the two people that love you the most? But I am. Each night, I crawl beneath my covers and make my cocoon. Each morning, I come out new again, ready to face the day. But I'm not new enough. I haven't changed enough. And each night I search for something more.
I never realized, even as I was running from it, how consoling it felt to have someone pass you on the street each day. Since I have moved, I think about those people often. What if I had said hello or offered to buy them a cup of coffee on a snowy day? What if I had somehow changed the norm and asked that familiar stranger their name? What if I had offered the guy with all those books, a hand? Or maybe if I had just said 'hey, we're heading in the same direction, would you like to walk a ways together?'.
I live 7 hours away from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, my college town, the place that I have called home for the past 5 1/2 years, and all of the faces that oddly enough became recognizable. I think this is why I could never live in a large town. I'd miss seeing the unfamiliarly familiar.
It's a lonely place. It's not something you realize when you are surrounded by peers who are in a similar place as yourself. I know, it's hard to believe, you think you're different. You think no one else could feel like you, think like you, search for answers to questions like you. But in reality, we are all searching. And if we're all searching, why are we all so lonely?
I'm lonely here, surrounded by my parents who have raised me, cared for me, nursed me. How can you be lonely when you are surrounded by the two people that love you the most? But I am. Each night, I crawl beneath my covers and make my cocoon. Each morning, I come out new again, ready to face the day. But I'm not new enough. I haven't changed enough. And each night I search for something more.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Laughter is the best medicine and nudity is always funny.
As I was perusing a friends profile page on facebook today, I ran across this wonderful image. I'm not the type that normally gets caught up in searching/posting funny pictures and YouTube videos, but this picture caught me off guard. I actually fell out of my chair laughing.
They say laughter is the best medicine (and eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away). I've recently been trying to live by these two idioms.
So laugh out loud. It's good for you.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Congratulations graduates, welcome to unemployment.
It is graduation time. It has been graduation time for the past month. Just as college graduation ended, high school graduation began. Local shops advertise congratulations to high school graduates. People at the coffee shop talk about their kids preschool graduations. Elementary aged kids tromp around the neighborhood with a new sense of accomplishment mirrored with summer freedom. Newspapers announce scholarship accolades and write articles called: Advice for grads. While classified ads lack the dedication.
31,055 Bachelors degrees were conferred during 2008-2009 in North Carolina alone. The unemployment rate in NC soared to a whopping 10.8 % during April, a percentage higher than the national unemployment rate (Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm). Realistically, for new graduates the unemployment rate is estimated to be around 15%, putting approximately 4,600 hopeful North Carolina graduates jobless. This group consists of mostly twenty-something year olds or what has been termed by the general public as "young adults". These young adults are increasingly relying on their parents for support as the economy continues to decline. The age range of young adults and adults in transition between school and permanent full time employment is widening. This again can be contributed to the recession. So what are these twenty-something year olds doing?
About 2/3 are living in debt from student loans averaging $23,200 (Project on Student Debt). If you are in debt, find out how much you owe and figure out a way to manage it before it grows to be too big to handle. Check out: http://www.nslds.ed.gov/.
Others, are living with their parents and working in restaurant and other service oriented temporary jobs, like me. We are still looking for alternatives.
It's nice to read during such a tough time that people are still graduating, people are still getting degrees and people are still looking to the future.
But I won't lie, the echo of graduation haunts me.
31,055 Bachelors degrees were conferred during 2008-2009 in North Carolina alone. The unemployment rate in NC soared to a whopping 10.8 % during April, a percentage higher than the national unemployment rate (Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm). Realistically, for new graduates the unemployment rate is estimated to be around 15%, putting approximately 4,600 hopeful North Carolina graduates jobless. This group consists of mostly twenty-something year olds or what has been termed by the general public as "young adults". These young adults are increasingly relying on their parents for support as the economy continues to decline. The age range of young adults and adults in transition between school and permanent full time employment is widening. This again can be contributed to the recession. So what are these twenty-something year olds doing?
About 2/3 are living in debt from student loans averaging $23,200 (Project on Student Debt). If you are in debt, find out how much you owe and figure out a way to manage it before it grows to be too big to handle. Check out: http://www.nslds.ed.gov/.
Others, are living with their parents and working in restaurant and other service oriented temporary jobs, like me. We are still looking for alternatives.
It's nice to read during such a tough time that people are still graduating, people are still getting degrees and people are still looking to the future.
But I won't lie, the echo of graduation haunts me.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Day 186.
Today I got called for an interview. This will be interview number three.
I am not getting my hopes up. I am not thinking this is the one. I am not thinking that I can put in my two weeks notice at my temporary job. I am not thinking any of this. At least, I'm trying not to.
I am thinking, I have two weeks til my interview, plenty of time to start preparing. I am thinking, I'm gonna blow their socks off. I am thinking, any job is better than my current job. I am thinking, I hope this is the one.
I am not getting my hopes up. I am not thinking this is the one. I am not thinking that I can put in my two weeks notice at my temporary job. I am not thinking any of this. At least, I'm trying not to.
I am thinking, I have two weeks til my interview, plenty of time to start preparing. I am thinking, I'm gonna blow their socks off. I am thinking, any job is better than my current job. I am thinking, I hope this is the one.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Uncle Earl Visits
Tonight, I had dinner with my 87 year old grandmother and her 85 year old brother. They are from a generation that grew up during the great depression, eating Hostess cupcakes costing 5 cents. They were teenagers and young adults when World War II drafted their older siblings. They are the generation that gave birth to the baby boom. They are called by Tom Brokaw "The Greatest Generation" for their desire to do the right thing. They grew up in a time that will never be compared to another, despite recent associations of our current economic state with those in the 1930s and 40s.
My grandmother's brother, Earl Edmondson, has a certain charismatic way about him. When he speaks he seems to take center stage, enticing and relating his story to everyone at the table, and simultaneously making it seem as if he was speaking just and only to you. He raised his glass and toasted: "To family." Expressing his old school ideals and moralities. "And to Dana, with good luck in finding a job."
He was a businessman before retirement and speaks often of his success and also of not so successful business ventures. Tonight, he spoke mainly of his son, who took over his meat distribution business and is doing fairly well as he expands into catering. He also mentioned a start up business that lasted for only a short while in the eighties. It was focused on energy efficiency and renewability and he mentioned a technique he used to heat water. This technique was even used in oceanfront hotels in Virgina Beach. This post is not about Uncle Earl's successes and failures as a businessman, but rather about Uncle Earl himself, his ability to chase his dreams and succeed. Behind his tired Edmondson blue eyes, I saw the motivation and energy that I at 23 year old have lacked the past few months.
Uncle Earl is only in town for one short night, but he has left with me the motivation and sense that I can be whatever I'd like to be. When he asked me of my future, he asked me in a way different from others with that similar question. He asked me what I wanted to do, not what my degree was in, or what jobs I've been applying for, but basically what I wanted my future to hold. And he made it seem like it could hold anything.
Uncle Earl was an entrepreneur in his younger years, with spunk and knowledge and desire. Though I am very different from Uncle Earl, I hope my life will be as fulfilling and joyful as his, with surprises and opportunity and possibly even some entrepreneurship.
My grandmother's brother, Earl Edmondson, has a certain charismatic way about him. When he speaks he seems to take center stage, enticing and relating his story to everyone at the table, and simultaneously making it seem as if he was speaking just and only to you. He raised his glass and toasted: "To family." Expressing his old school ideals and moralities. "And to Dana, with good luck in finding a job."
He was a businessman before retirement and speaks often of his success and also of not so successful business ventures. Tonight, he spoke mainly of his son, who took over his meat distribution business and is doing fairly well as he expands into catering. He also mentioned a start up business that lasted for only a short while in the eighties. It was focused on energy efficiency and renewability and he mentioned a technique he used to heat water. This technique was even used in oceanfront hotels in Virgina Beach. This post is not about Uncle Earl's successes and failures as a businessman, but rather about Uncle Earl himself, his ability to chase his dreams and succeed. Behind his tired Edmondson blue eyes, I saw the motivation and energy that I at 23 year old have lacked the past few months.
Uncle Earl is only in town for one short night, but he has left with me the motivation and sense that I can be whatever I'd like to be. When he asked me of my future, he asked me in a way different from others with that similar question. He asked me what I wanted to do, not what my degree was in, or what jobs I've been applying for, but basically what I wanted my future to hold. And he made it seem like it could hold anything.
Uncle Earl was an entrepreneur in his younger years, with spunk and knowledge and desire. Though I am very different from Uncle Earl, I hope my life will be as fulfilling and joyful as his, with surprises and opportunity and possibly even some entrepreneurship.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Alternatives to life after college
Day 182.
I recently asked my friends and followers on facebook suggestions for life after college and alternatives to full-time employment. Here are some of their suggestions:
"stay in college so you don't have to pull long crappy hours"- Sierra, Classmate Fuquay-Varina Senior High School
"Master's, the PhD, stay in as long as you can!!" - Jamie, Western Carolina Alumni
"WWOOF. Americorps. Teach English Abroad. get outta here for a while." - Halley, Appalachian State Alumni
"AT" -Brother-in-law
"There's nothing more adventurous then moving back in with the rents. Rent, laundry, internet, cable, food, we should be so lucky. You're not missing much elsewhere. Like now, I'm in americorps doing backcountry trail work on the Toiyabe Crest Trail by Austin NV. You could get a better description of it here: http://www.austinnevada.com/wilderness.html One word: Boring" -Dan, Appalachian State Alumni
"i agree with Dan, move back in with the parents. Oregon is no fun either, there are huge snow capped mountains blocking my view all the time and these lakes and rivers are always in my way." -Derek, Appalachian State Alumni
I don't know if anyone is out there, but if you are: let's hear your suggestions!
I recently asked my friends and followers on facebook suggestions for life after college and alternatives to full-time employment. Here are some of their suggestions:
"stay in college so you don't have to pull long crappy hours"- Sierra, Classmate Fuquay-Varina Senior High School
"Master's, the PhD, stay in as long as you can!!" - Jamie, Western Carolina Alumni
"WWOOF. Americorps. Teach English Abroad. get outta here for a while." - Halley, Appalachian State Alumni
"AT" -Brother-in-law
"There's nothing more adventurous then moving back in with the rents. Rent, laundry, internet, cable, food, we should be so lucky. You're not missing much elsewhere. Like now, I'm in americorps doing backcountry trail work on the Toiyabe Crest Trail by Austin NV. You could get a better description of it here: http://www.austinnevada.com/wilderness.html One word: Boring" -Dan, Appalachian State Alumni
"i agree with Dan, move back in with the parents. Oregon is no fun either, there are huge snow capped mountains blocking my view all the time and these lakes and rivers are always in my way." -Derek, Appalachian State Alumni
I don't know if anyone is out there, but if you are: let's hear your suggestions!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Facing the Startling Facts of Unemployment
It has been 181 days since I graduated from college. I have applied to 464 jobs, interviewed with 2 companies, and received 25 rejection letters. I have been through 4 reams of paper, 4.5 books of stamps, 149 envelopes, 7 ink cartridges and 2 "how to find a job" help books. I am 23 years old, I live with my parents, and I am unemployed.
I've had this idea for quite some time, to create a blog in which to share my opinions everyday from the day I graduated from college until I have full-time permanent employment. Of course, I never started this when I graduated, but when visiting Raleigh this weekend I decided to go for it. I was having a really rough weekend and was especially frustrated about still being unemployed. Up until this moment I had been really nonchalant about it all, thinking it'll happen when it happens, but finally, after 6 1/2 months, it hit me. My wall crumbled into a pile at my feet and I was buried. I actually burst out into tears in the middle of my sister's birthday party when confronted with a question about the progress of my job search. That's when I decided that I had to do this blog. This is a blog for everyone out there who’s unemployed. You’re not alone.
Today, the unemployment rate is at 9.7 %. Let us just soak that startling figure in.
I've had this idea for quite some time, to create a blog in which to share my opinions everyday from the day I graduated from college until I have full-time permanent employment. Of course, I never started this when I graduated, but when visiting Raleigh this weekend I decided to go for it. I was having a really rough weekend and was especially frustrated about still being unemployed. Up until this moment I had been really nonchalant about it all, thinking it'll happen when it happens, but finally, after 6 1/2 months, it hit me. My wall crumbled into a pile at my feet and I was buried. I actually burst out into tears in the middle of my sister's birthday party when confronted with a question about the progress of my job search. That's when I decided that I had to do this blog. This is a blog for everyone out there who’s unemployed. You’re not alone.
Today, the unemployment rate is at 9.7 %. Let us just soak that startling figure in.
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