While most college students have returned to school this week, I go to a school with a January-Term and a break after, so I'm leaving in the morning. HUZZAH!
Well, not really. Since I'm pretty much the only one from my hometown who has break this week (that I know of and who I am also willing to hang out with), it will be a week mostly of dealing with a lot of reading and writing. For homework. (Not for pleasure, unfortunately). Also, internships. The stereotype, of course, is that a group of my college friends who live near me would gather and go party at the beach, but that's probably not going to happen either - if we do hang out, we'll be going downtown for a day or so because we're nerds and there's a lot of museums in our area.
Maybe that should be my spring break goal... go to a museum every day...
But, alas, HOMEWORK! GAH!
In reality, my college spring break, at least this year, is going to be fueled by getting stuff done - catching up on studying, practicing for choir tour, sending a few forms to various places, getting a haircut and stuff. So, in other words, attempting to be a responsible adult. It sounds horribly dull, I know. Maybe I should try and blog every day to make it more interesting.
There is also another thing that I might be doing in April: Camp NaNoWriMo. I haven't decided whether I want to do it yet - so far, my attempts to write novels during college have wound up falling flat, by a lot. Maybe I should do Camp Finish The Novel You Started Three Years Ago Because You're Still Only Halfway Done. Or Camp Finish Writing The Story You've Been Working On For Five Years But Don't Want To Stop Because The Character Means A Lot And You Want To Bring Closure To The Story.
Intrepid readers, what camp of your own invention would you attend? Right now, I'm attending Camp Allergy, and I'm not having a very good time.
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Friday, March 21, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
On Big Things
I recently had a cause to put together my resume, and I've noticed something about things like that: there is work experience and there is life experience.
I didn't have a real job for most of high school. So far in college, I've only been able to knit a few things for a sale. It's safe to say that I haven't had Official Work Experience since 2012, when I worked at a summer camp at my dojang. When I look at the Work Experience part of my resume, I feel kind of lame - one of my biggest fears is that I'm going to get trapped into a vicious cycle where my lack of work experience, especially in the field where I'm applying, prevents me from getting hired. Generally speaking, companies that need writer-type people don't hire people who are lifeguards, camp counselors, and/ or knitters. Even if those people are blogging novelists who can translate Homer. (I think I'm learning that translating Homer might not be the most important life skill I acquire in college).
At the same time, I've also noticed that there is another kind of experience - the kind that doesn't go onto your resume. What the hiring committee might not see is that I'm a second degree black belt, I know classical Greek, I can knit in two different directions (I'm assuming that the hiring committee might not even know that there are multiple ways to knit... but that's not the point), that I hiked to Machu Picchu and haggled at the Grand Bazaar in the same summer, or that I've been to seven different countries.
I don't think a resume says everything about a person - I don't know if it's supposed to. At the same time, I think there should be more room to provide more context for someone's abilities - maybe the reason I didn't work the summer of 2011 is because I was traveling to Europe, traveling to help people, and learning how to act. Work experience is important, yes, but so is life experience. Hopefully everyone gets the chance to go out of their hometown - and if they do, they should take it.
Do I wish that I had given up one summer of travel for a summer of building my resume or something similar? No. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stories. I also wouldn't have the following pictures.
I didn't have a real job for most of high school. So far in college, I've only been able to knit a few things for a sale. It's safe to say that I haven't had Official Work Experience since 2012, when I worked at a summer camp at my dojang. When I look at the Work Experience part of my resume, I feel kind of lame - one of my biggest fears is that I'm going to get trapped into a vicious cycle where my lack of work experience, especially in the field where I'm applying, prevents me from getting hired. Generally speaking, companies that need writer-type people don't hire people who are lifeguards, camp counselors, and/ or knitters. Even if those people are blogging novelists who can translate Homer. (I think I'm learning that translating Homer might not be the most important life skill I acquire in college).
At the same time, I've also noticed that there is another kind of experience - the kind that doesn't go onto your resume. What the hiring committee might not see is that I'm a second degree black belt, I know classical Greek, I can knit in two different directions (I'm assuming that the hiring committee might not even know that there are multiple ways to knit... but that's not the point), that I hiked to Machu Picchu and haggled at the Grand Bazaar in the same summer, or that I've been to seven different countries.
I don't think a resume says everything about a person - I don't know if it's supposed to. At the same time, I think there should be more room to provide more context for someone's abilities - maybe the reason I didn't work the summer of 2011 is because I was traveling to Europe, traveling to help people, and learning how to act. Work experience is important, yes, but so is life experience. Hopefully everyone gets the chance to go out of their hometown - and if they do, they should take it.
Do I wish that I had given up one summer of travel for a summer of building my resume or something similar? No. Otherwise, I wouldn't have stories. I also wouldn't have the following pictures.
Monday, February 3, 2014
On textbooks and time passing
I'm back in my hometown for a week on Jterm break - that little time between Jterm and spring semester when we can regain sanity, overcome jet lag, and drop many hundreds of dollars on spring semester books. (and also have time for the books to ship). I think the important thing to remember about college textbooks (and also being an English major) is that while you may save a fortune online (almost all my books, with shipping, were less than the used price listed for the campus bookstore), you're still going to be spending a lot of money. My history class and my literature class, for example: none of the books were over $15 with shipping, but there were 17 books between the two classes. In other words, they're cheap, but they're plentiful. It's an interesting juxtaposition: my science-major friends drop $200 each on a few textbooks, but I pay a little more for the 21 books I have to buy. Perks of being an English major?
Anyway, to address part two of the title: the passing of time.
As I already stated, I'm back home for a week. I went to my high school's production of Les Miserables (and, I might add, I am extremely jealous that they got to do that production, even if it is the 'school version'), and there were a few things that I noticed.
First was how much some of the people have grown up. The guy who played Javert grew up around the corner from me - I was good friends with his sister when we were kids. He's still short, but now he can sing "Stars" with no strain on his voice and sound absolutely fantastic. All these people that I had no memory of being particularly good singers were suddenly really good (except for Fantine; she's always been fantastic). Voices have changed, too - when I was in choir with Cosette, she sang alto, but she managed Cosette's ridiculous jumps easily. Enjolras, unfortunately, has had a little recession in voice quality, but he's still good.
The second thing I noticed was that people have had mixed reactions about my coming back. I saw this a little in church, too - the reactions were mixed between "OMG YOU'RE BACK YAY!" to "lovely to see you, but aren't you supposed to be in school?" (the last bit of that sentence was only implied, but still). I'm getting to that point in my college career where the freshmen and sophomores are now juniors and seniors; I can address fewer and fewer people by name. Home is changing, but I am, too. I can finally drive on my own, which is something I've never actually done before.
I guess the lesson is that time goes on, tuition gets paid, lessons are learned, and people grow and change. Home changes, people change, and all that sort of thing. In time, I guess, I'll get to the point where all my high school friends are going to graduate and leave, and hopefully I'll be emotionally prepared for it.
Anyway, to address part two of the title: the passing of time.
As I already stated, I'm back home for a week. I went to my high school's production of Les Miserables (and, I might add, I am extremely jealous that they got to do that production, even if it is the 'school version'), and there were a few things that I noticed.
First was how much some of the people have grown up. The guy who played Javert grew up around the corner from me - I was good friends with his sister when we were kids. He's still short, but now he can sing "Stars" with no strain on his voice and sound absolutely fantastic. All these people that I had no memory of being particularly good singers were suddenly really good (except for Fantine; she's always been fantastic). Voices have changed, too - when I was in choir with Cosette, she sang alto, but she managed Cosette's ridiculous jumps easily. Enjolras, unfortunately, has had a little recession in voice quality, but he's still good.
The second thing I noticed was that people have had mixed reactions about my coming back. I saw this a little in church, too - the reactions were mixed between "OMG YOU'RE BACK YAY!" to "lovely to see you, but aren't you supposed to be in school?" (the last bit of that sentence was only implied, but still). I'm getting to that point in my college career where the freshmen and sophomores are now juniors and seniors; I can address fewer and fewer people by name. Home is changing, but I am, too. I can finally drive on my own, which is something I've never actually done before.
I guess the lesson is that time goes on, tuition gets paid, lessons are learned, and people grow and change. Home changes, people change, and all that sort of thing. In time, I guess, I'll get to the point where all my high school friends are going to graduate and leave, and hopefully I'll be emotionally prepared for it.
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