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Two Degrees Down, One To Go

posted 9th December 2009    Written by: Andrea    CATEGORY: All Posts, Andrea, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 1

Graduation CapsThat’s what my adviser said as he handed me my Master of Arts diploma in 2007. “Two down, one to go.” It took me a minute to realize what he was talking about, but eventually my blond head understood.

He was giving me the go ahead to pursue my dream of obtaining a Ph.D. He was giving me confidence and his support.

From reading this blog you know I have many goals in life, but this one is a biggie.

Probably one of the biggest right up there next to getting married. They are on par, as far as seriousness and grown-upness goes.

Both are incredibly time consuming, expensive and they both change your name. One day, I could be Dr. Andrea Michnik. (Until I do get married, if and when that happens, and then my name will change AGAIN…. it’s so weird to think about!)

I am applying to become a Ed.D candidate for the Fall of 2010 and so excited at the possibility of going back to school! I’m not insanely book smart, or obsessed with research, but I do love school. A whole lot.  Someday I’d like to teach and help students discover how to get the most out of their college years.

In a few weeks I will take the MAT (instead of the GRE) and prepare my personal statement for my application. I am having some trouble deciding what to write that will express the most about me. I need to impress people I have never met in 800 words or less. I have to convince them that I am thrilled to become a student and that this program is a good match for me.

I want them to know about my quirks, my serious side, my interest in journalism, media and technology. I want them to see that even though I have no formal background in education, I have always acted as a mentor or teaching in some form throughout much of my semi-adult life. I want them to know I am different than most doctoral candidates; I’m not pursing this degree to inflate my ego.

The program I am apply for is under the department of Education, focusing on Curriculum and Instruction. However, like I said, I don’t have a education degree. I’ve never even taken a class on education or instruction. My background is in journalism, media, marketing and public relations.

How do you promote yourself on paper in less that 800 words?

Its a tough challenge and I’m not sure how to go about starting something like this task. I haven’t a clue how to do it. I’ve spent hours one rainy night at Borders looking up ‘Personal Statement’ examples in college prep books. I even started making a list of topics I could write about. It’s hard.

This personal statement could make or break my acceptance into the program. Its very stressful!

As a writer, I want to make sure this piece is perfect and explains who I am and my goals clearly. Every time I try to write it though, my computer screen just stares back at me. I’ve hit a mental road block.

So this is where you, the Stratejoy Tribe, come into play.  I need your help!  Seriously.

What do you do when you don’t know where to begin?

All tips and suggestions are welcome!

Andrea (new) bio.

photo credit : m00by

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Taking Time Out for Other People

posted 8th December 2009    Written by: Kendra    CATEGORY: All Posts, Kendra, Life Lesson, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 1

heart on your handThe makers of the anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drug Lexapro have a handy online guide for depression screening.

I took the quiz twice.

The first time I answered the questions in the physical and mental space I was at the beginning of this month. The second time I took the quiz I as I’m feeling now.

A month ago, in their opinion I was severely, severely depressed. And now? I am currently mildly depressed. This, my friends, is what we call progress.

I am, mostly, feeling better. Nothing in my life has really changed, but I am doing much better at handling the curve balls and mood swings. I’m settling into myself, this new self that is not the naïf I was two years ago, but is not the jaded cynic I was two months ago.

I’m not happy, but I can see myself getting there.

With this newfound sense of perspective, I found myself last night for the first time in a long time thinking of someone other than myself as I said my evening prayers.

Yes, I pray before bedtime… you never know when you just might not wake up.

Anyway as I lay in bed chatting with my maker about my day, my hopes, my dreams I found myself less concerned with…myself and more concerned with other people. I found myself praying for the sorta friend who’d recently lost a parent; the vague acquaintance that I recently learned has been unemployed for six months with the awful burden of raising a family to boot, and the friend who has been unemployed for over a year.

A lot of people, people I know even… are suffering.

I think one of the upsides of the QLC – that it forces some serious soul searching – is also one of its downsides. We can get a little too caught up in our head, and that ladies and gents is a recipe both for narcissism and some serious crazy making.

Trust me.

Today in the mail a friend sent me a necklace with the word ‘believe’ on it. She said she saw it and instantly thought of me.

I cried.

While it’s important to take some time out for self, it’s important also I think to take time out for others. To remind people, even people we don’t know so well, even people we don’t really like, that they matter.

Because they do. And so do you.

kendra-bio1

photo credit : wolfsoul

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A Restless Generation

posted 7th December 2009    Written by: Robyn    CATEGORY: All Posts, Job/Career/Work, Quarterlife Crisis, Robyn, Season 1

Older Generation at WorkHas our generation been set up to be disappointed?

Lately I have been thinking about how restless I have been, and the majority of my friends in their twenties all seem to be in the same boat. Many aren’t happy with their current careers. Many are clueless as to what the future holds and how they can have any say in it.

I’m convinced that we are all restless as a result of how our generation was raised.

If you think about it, our grandparents and parents grew up in times when you worked to make a living; you didn’t work to “be happy.” My grandparents acquired skilled trades. They worked because they had to feed their families. My dad found a mentor after high school and decided to learn the sales business. He started working immediately because he wanted to marry my mom and buy a house. My mom went to college to be a teacher so she would have a work schedule that would make it easy to have kids.

Historically, generations before us have worked jobs in order to live. Our generation is different, because we not only want to work to live, but we want to work to be happy and enjoy our profession. This makes us a very picky generation that finds it hard to settle for just any unfulfilling, routine job.

We think we deserve exactly what we want.

We expect to have jobs that are interesting, exciting, and well-paid. When our jobs prove to be anything but these….we are left restless, attempting to figure out how to make things right.

Growing up, we were told: “You can be anything you want to be,” “Follow your passions,” “Do what makes you happy,” etc. Of course these are pretty sayings that people want to believe, and I’m trying not to be too bitter or cynical here, but these sayings just aren’t realistic. I wish I had been told that making a living is not always going to be fun. It’s going to be hard work that isn’t always interesting, exciting, and well-paid.

Because we weren’t told this, many of us in the midst of a Quarterlife Crisis are stuck trying to figure out where we went wrong. The thing is…we didn’t go wrong. We simply finished college and went through the job application process, expecting exactly what we were told—that we could be anything we wanted to be and use our major in any way we wanted to and that we could make a living doing anything that makes us happy.

Now we need to realize that our generation was raised with false pretenses. We have grown up to expect the unrealistic.

I’m still beyond thrilled that I gave up my corporate job from hell, but I’m slightly anxious about what my future holds. I am constantly trying to make a plan for myself—one year down the road, five years down the road—just struggling to create some kind of direction for myself and my career.

I continually remind myself that I need to change my way of thinking when it comes to a career. I can’t expect something that thrills me each and every day, but I can expect something that is interesting and allows me to use the skills I enjoy using the most.

robyn-bio1

photo credit : pjern

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Gratitude is an Attitude

posted 4th December 2009    Written by: Molly Mahar    CATEGORY: All Posts, Inspiration, Life Lesson, Molly, Tips & Tools

Be GratefulSeriously?  That title totally cracks me up.  How much more of a dork could I be?

Yet, I believe it.

Gratitude isn’t something that should just be practiced during the Thanksgiving season.  It’s a way of living, an attitude of appreciation for the amazing world we inhabit.

The Big Man and I got in the habit of consciously practicing gratitude when we were traveling the globe.  When I’d start whining about something ridiculous (What?  No free peanuts with my beer at this sidewalk bar in Phnom Penh? Seriously?), he’d kick me and ask, “Did you practice your gratefuls today?”

“Practicing our gratefuls” was a daily exercise that included a distinct breathing pattern, a long walk, and an emerging spiral of gratitude.  I’d imagine all the things I was thankful for starting very close to my own life and ending very wide with thankfulness for the incredible Universe.

Here’s what it might have looked like on any given day:

Sounds like a complicated process, I know, but I’m fairly certain we copped it from a Tony Robbin’s audio book…

Point is– practicing your gratefuls is incredible way to look at each and every day. What do you do to appreciate all that you are?  All that you have?

And in that spirit:

Today, specifically, I am grateful for how easily found I found a parking spot downtown, for a coffee meeting with a new coaching client who is warm, talented and gutsy, for my lunchtime chicken and pesto sandwich, for Derek at 20SB, for the strong legs and lungs that walked up hills, for Herkimer Coffee in Greenwood, for my Sister and all her awesome roommates, for my Dad’s sweet email, for my SPUN cowlneck tunic that is keeping me cozy and chic, for the man with the adorable beagle puppies who put up with my dog squeezing and kissing routine on the sidewalk, for the inspiration that is Gwen Bell, for Christmas lights, and for the waiting-to-be-watched episode of Glee that’s at home for me.

It’s a good day, eh?

And honestly, most days are when you break down all the goodness and reasons to be thankful.

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And also, I’m Grateful for Cranberries

posted 3rd December 2009    Written by: Marisa    CATEGORY: All Posts, Marisa, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 1

Cranberry loveMy gratitude for life is never ending.

Whether or not I voice it depends on the day, the time, the mood and where I am.  I’m most certainly grateful for everything.  I subscribe to the practice of secular humanism, which means I put a lot of responsibility on us as human beings and how we live our lives socially and personally.

So we must be grateful, for everything, because this is all we got, people.

Gratitude is befitting for this time of year.  I will not be able to see my family this holiday season and haven’t for the past three holiday seasons, therefore I make it a point to always tell them every time we talk that I appreciate them, I love them and I miss them.

When my Uncle Walter died last October, I flew down to San Antonio a couple of weeks before his death and saw what life was like again being surrounded by those I love.  I am grateful that I was able to say goodbye to him.  It wasn’t just the frailty of his sick and chemo ravaged body that made me cry every time I sat down in his room, but it was the love that I saw and felt once we gathered to eat and spend time together.  It was something that I hadn’t experienced in a long time, since I was a child in fact, and to see everyone together, to see how we could help and support our loss and love, was incredible.

I was grateful for it all and haven’t forgotten it since.

In sticking with the theme of the blog, this is when I say I’m grateful for my Quarterlife Crisis.  I am grateful for it. It shook me awake. It’s made me be more aware of everything these days.  My life light bulb turned on, switched on by the need to feel more, see more and do more.

After arriving back from San Antonio that October, I felt changed and I’m sure that’s when my QLC began.  I realized that I wasn’t happy with my life, in pretty much all aspects, and it took my Uncle’s death to really start my introspective journey.  The journey was additionally jolted by my unemployment in March.  Luckily, this QLC has changed my life and for the better.

I’m grateful for this city I’m in love with, I’m grateful for (believe it or not) my food allergies because now I eat healthy to stay alive and I will always have to.   I’m grateful for my family, my friends, my cat Sophie who always seems to understand everything even though I’m pretty sure she lazily agrees in order to be fed, and I’m grateful for cranberries.

Yes, I have a very odd obsession with them and even though most people don’t understand it, I could love anything and make everything with cranberries.  Just don’t question it.  It’s food love.

And finally, I’m grateful for myself.  I’ve learned to appreciate myself for who I am physically and emotionally and guess what, I AM AWESOME.  How can you be happy without loving and appreciating yourself first and foremost?  Previously I didn’t understand that living a life for others and their expectations would make me a shell of something, a ghost of who I am and what I could be.

Let me tell you, it’s no way to live and no way to love yourself.

So be grateful for your QLC.  For the good, the bad, the ugly and especially all the shit that you think you can’t survive.  Because you can.  Almost assuredly, without a doubt, those things will only make you stronger.  It’s how you define it and interpret it so you can mold and shape it to better your world.

Appreciate this life, appreciate those moments you ignored before and be grateful you have many, many possibilities to be happy and to actually LIVE.

marisa-bio1

photo credit : muffet

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