Midterms, oh Midterms

Although it literally feels like just last week I was getting ready to start Spring semester, I am now having to face the reality of preparing for midterms next week! I am beginning to feel quite overwhelmed at the moment, as I am looking through the syllabi for all of my courses and realizing that there is not a ton of time left to do a LOT of work!

Along with studying for midterms, I have a book review, multiple projects, and a fifteen page paper to think about...yes, FIFTEEN pages about urban policy. At least the instructor allowed us to choose our topic, and there is a TON of information about social welfare policy, so hopefully it won't be too much of a struggle to crank out that paper. I might, however, just stop midway through due to my hands cramping up from typing that much, but I guess time will tell soon enough how awful this assignment will be.

As I am sitting here writing this post, I am shuffling through pretty much every other assignment that I have to do to put off studying for my midterm next Thursday as long as possible. I know that I should start studying now, but honestly, I just don't even know where to start! Wish me luck!!!!

Car Troubles...

With my car only being two years old, I usually don't anticipate having car troubles like people with older cars would on a more regular basis. But oh, how foolish I am to have thought that way.

This weekend, we had a youth sing at my church, where hundreds of people come to sing and catch up with old friends. It is always a busy weekend filled with singing, singing, and more singing! Saturday started off just fine, I made it to church on time for practice, and met new people, caught up with old friends, and didn't have any concerns. That is, until my friend got into my car after church as we were going to head over to another friend's house to hang out. As soon as I got in the driver's seat, I hear from the backseat "Kenzie, why isn't your door closing?" Confused as to what my friend was talking about, I got out, came over to her side of the car, slammed the door, and watched it swing back open. Time after time again, all of my friends and I attempted to slam the door shut enough to get it to latch and stay shut. Nothing worked. Realizing that I couldn't drive anywhere without fear of my back door flying open on the freeway, I called my dad, hoping that I wouldn't have to be stuck in the church parking lot for too long. (By this time, it was 10:30 at night and everyone else had pretty much left.)

Luckily, my sister and a few guys were still at church, so with their quick thinking, they drove to Walmart, bought a ratchet strap and tied my two back doors together from the inside so I could at least drive to the dealership without fear of my one door flying open! Thankfully, they were able to fix my car today, but that was definitely NOT the way I anticipated spending my three day weekend!

Thank Goodness for Netflix

It is never a good thing when you wake up with the stomach flu and have to call in sick to your boss at your internship. I've been so sad that I've had to miss an entire day! However, because I had to call out sick, I had most of the day to catch up on school work and catch up on Netflix as well. And all I can say is, thank goodness for Netflix because it sure acts as a good distraction from thinking about how miserable I've been feeling all day! I don't know what it is about this strain of the flu, but it is quite awful, and somehow worse than the "normal" flu! I am pretty sure I have watched close to ten episodes of Friends, but I still have a long way to go, seeing as how I'm only in season two and I think there are ten seasons total! Although I do love watching Friends, and catching up on other shows on Netflix, I so hope that this is just a short-lived thing, so I can resume my bustling, busy life soon.

 Here's to hoping this is just a twenty four hour thing and I will be back to feeling normal tomorrow, because I am pretty positive that I can only be this lazy and sleep this much for one day without going crazy.

Job Search Strategies Webinar

For my first Career Services event, I "attended" a webinar titled "Job Search Strategies". Since my schedule is so packed and I commute over an hour each way both to school and my internship, I am thankful that these webinars are available to us! I really wanted to watch the webinar about Linkedin strategies, but even with my volume all the way up, I was barely able to hear the speaker! So, instead I learned about job search strategies.

Some helpful things that I took from this webinar include:

1. Google yourself to make sure nothing inappropriate comes up; most employers research your name, even before they interview or call you. If there are inappropriate things on any social media pages, it could come back to haunt you.

2. Utilize Linkedin and Indeed.com to search for current openings. Linkedin is an especially great site to connect with potential employers and jobs that you may not have thought about before.

3. Constantly and consistently look for jobs/internships. It will not be helpful to you in the long run if you only search for a job for a day or two, and then give up. New job openings are often posted daily and it is important to jump on these openings when they are newly posted.

Overall, this webinar provided some helpful links for job searches, but I knew most of the information already from previous sessions that I was required to attend my freshman year at ASU.

Pet Peeves & Blessings

Throughout my working career, I have never really had a long commute to my job. Thirty minutes max. But for this internship, I commute over an hour each way from my home to the office! I have definitely learned a lot about myself as a driver in these long daily treks. Pet peeves of mine have been accentuated on the daily, but also blessings that I would not have noticed before appear right before my eyes.

The Pet Peeves:

1. Drivers who do not know how to merge!!! (Especially from the 51 onto the 101 at the bridge, but the construction of that in itself is probably another pet peeve)
2. When I can visibly see an individual who is driving, pull out his phone, and take a picture of the sunset WHILE he is merging on said bridge!
3. Semi-trucks who drive in the farthest left lane...I'm sorry, how am I supposed to pass you on the right when the left side is the "passing side" and the right is "suicide"???

The Blessings:

1. My drive to work is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! For as much as I hate dealing with other people on the road, and as much as I dislike driving, the mountains and the desert landscape is particularly gorgeous along my path to work. 
2. Time to get caught up on current events. An hour to and from gives me plenty of time to listen to NPR and be fully prepared to engage in discussions relating to current events in my public policy classes when we are analyzing how the topic at hand is applicable to every day life.
3. Time to think and to clear my head. Two hours alone in the car everyday gives me an opportunity to have some "me" time and hash through most anything that has been bugging me.

A Typical Day...

Have I mentioned before that I am SO incredibly blessed to intern with probably THE most amazing organization EVER?! Well, I am! I can now say that I have made it through my first week of my internship, and I am even more excited for this semester than I was three weeks ago when it started!

This first week was a bit crazy with getting settled into a routine and everything, but a typical day in the Learning and Development department at Make-A-Wish looks something like this:

1. Check my email & calendar and take note of all the meetings I have that day.

2. Make a list of all the training modules, emails, meetings, and tasks that I need to complete that day. (I have slight OCD tendencies, so I like to write everything down and cross off tasks as they are completed)

3. Sit at the computer and prepare for the upcoming annual conference. I just found out on Friday that I get to head up the planning for this conference, and people in my department will be reporting back to me! It's a huge responsibility, but I am so excited for this opportunity to learn and grow my skill set for the future! 

4. Attend meetings (some are only 15 minutes long while others take up a good two hours). I think I will grow to love meetings, because they sure make the day go by fast! 

I honestly don't think I will ever tire of this job; every day brings something new and in the Learning and Development department especially, there are always new opportunities to learn and gain more knowledge! Here's to a semester full of opportunity and a bright outlook!