How to Beat the Long Distance Blues

If you never had your best friend say those dreaded words "I'm moving" to you as a kid, then you probably had a great childhood. Odds are we have all had to deal with a long distance relationship of some kind growing up, be that a friend, relative, or a significant other. We all run the risk of being far away from somebody with whom we are otherwise very connected. With summer break, more and more college students, like myself, are finding themselves far away from the friends and significant others they love. Or, on the flip side of that, some people are finally being reunited with people they've been away from all school year.

So today I wanted to take the opportunity to impart to you five ways long distance doesn't have to be the worst thing that ever happened to you!

We all spend an unbelievable amount of time on the internet and our smart phones anyway, so why not utilize these modern day technological wonders to do something we really want to do, like have a game night with that person we're really missing? So here I present to you the top ten ways to beat the long distance blues. 

1. Skype/Face Time

I cannot stress this one enough! The beautiful thing about being near the person we love is having a face to face conversation with them. Short of being able to hug the person you're missing (although you can clutch your electronic really close and pretend if you really want to) Skype and Face Time have you covered. There are many other apps/websites that do the same thing. The magic of the internet is that it can put you face to face with the person you've been wanting to see most. Take advantage of it! Instead of just sitting and texting that one somebody you really miss, ask them if they have the opportunity to get on a device that allows you to see them and hear their voice. I personally prefer this method of communication even more then phone calls, because we as people communicate so much with our facial expressions that gets left out in other forms of electronic communication. Now that being said...

2. Snapchat!

I understand not everybody has a smartphone, and not everybody has apps like this available to them. If you do though, why not use it to send funny faces to that person you've been missing. One of my best friends lives in Indiana, and sending her messages with Snapchat is our number one way of communicating. If you don't have a smartphone, like my boyfriend who I'm pretty far away from in the summer, don't sweat it! Sending goofy picture messages can be just as fun. Just find an opportunity to send them a silly face or a pic of something cool and brighten up their day. Pictures are definitely worth a thousand words, and sharing what you're up to in pictures can make that person feel like they're with you. 

3. Game Night

You know all those annoying game invitations blowing up your inbox that you really wish people would stop sending you? Well for once take advantage of all the cool multiplayer games online and set up a game night with somebody! Have a Words with Friends battle, or hope for the best when you try to guess what on earth three blue lines are supposed to be on Draw Something. Setting aside an hour to sit down one night and play games with the person you're missing brings back all the fun of being near each other because you're getting to do something together. It's especially fun if the games come with chat features, because that adds all the fun of smack talk. A virtual game night can seriously be one of the most fun adventures you have together, so give it a try.

4. Write A Letter...

... or send a card! You know those goofy sections in the card aisle at the grocery store that say "Just For Fun", "Romance", or "Flirting"? Yeah, take advantage of those! Pick out that one card that you know will make the recipient smile, and send it their way. Seriously, when was the last time you got anything that cool in the mail? Two summers ago my boyfriend and I did this all the time. I think people seriously underestimate how much fun it is to open up your mailbox and see something in there for you. The best part about cards and letters is that they can't get accidentally deleted, put them up somewhere safe and look back at them when you're really missing that person.

5. Make Plans!

This one seems simple but it's so true, knowing when you get to see this person next really helps you get through the time when you're not seeing them. Even if this only happens a few times a year, or once every couple of years, having a set plan to meet up and hang out in person like you got to when you were close really really helps. My friend in Indiana and I always get to see each other around Easter time, so we always make jokes about wanting it to be Easter. It doesn't matter when it is, as long as you know in your heart this distance is only a temporary thing, you will seriously be just fine. 

When Opportunity Knocks

With school officially out, everybody is preparing for the summertime. I have to admit I'm definitely jealous of all my friends who have already started their internships (stay tuned for when I can officially announce the details behind what I mean by that). Opportunity has been knocking on my door a lot recently, and this blog is a little bit about how to be prepared when opportunity for new jobs comes knocking.

1. Dress For Success

One of the biggest things I have learned through job interviews and opportunities, is that regardless of how casual the interview situation seems, your appearance says a lot about you. Think seriously about how many times throughout the day, and I'm speaking to ladies especially, that you take note of another person's outfit. What you like about it, what you don't like about it, even wondering where you can get specific pieces. We as people get our first impressions off of what the person we are interacting with is wearing. A girl in a pencil skirt and heels I would almost immediately perceive as professional and successful, a girl in a flowing skirt I might perceive as a laid back and sunny personality.

When dressing for an interview think about what your clothes are saying about you, and try to dress appropriately. Your interviewer doesn't know about your wonderful secret cookie baking ability or your three years in high school where you had a bad hair cut. All the interviewer knows of you is what they can infer from the outfit in front of them. Make sure it is representing you properly.

There are tons of options for ideas, some blogs are dedicated entirely to this, and Pinterest is loaded with ideas. There are also apps for the iPhone and Android that will mix and match your outfits for you.

2. Be Prepared

Always, and I do mean always, have an up to date version of your resume handy. The last thing you want is to go to print a resume a half hour before the interview and discover there are tons of new skills and job experiences that you haven't listed. For one thing it's going to stress you out right before your interview and it is also going to do you no favors if you're scrambling to remember all the wonderful experiences you wanted to add to your resume.

Think of your resume as a one size fits all self advertisement. You get one page to pack with as much experience and self marketing as possible. My advice would be, when you know you're going to apply for a certain job, tweak your resume so that points of interest to that employer are front and center. For instance, my clerical work at my university isn't of extreme interest to an interviewer for a factory job, but my experiences lifting things and building them in a scene shop might be.

Note: NEVER  lie on your resume! Just because you moved something around to bring up more marketable points to that employer does not make it okay to lie on your resume. Do not make up experience, odds are you are going to get caught, and then it's not going to be pretty.

3. Arrive Early

There is an old saying from my marching band director that I'm sure he didn't originate, but he definitely is the one that made it resonate. It is put as follows-

"If you are early, you are on time. If you are on time, you are late. If you are late, don't bother."

Try to make this your personal goal when it comes to arriving for an interview. The general rule of thumb is no more than 15 minutes early, otherwise you'll seem too eager.

4. Relax, But Not Too Much 

You need to relax and realize that your interviewer is on your side. Something I have learned from theatre is that people who are trying to employ you want you to succeed, because they want to find somebody wonderful who is going to do the job right. There is no reason that somebody couldn't be you, so smile and remember to talk yourself up. They want you to do well.

However, a word to the wise would definitely be to not get too casual. Regardless of how your interviewer is behaving, you need to remain professional. You are the one who needs to impress the employer, not the other way around.

5. Know Your Stuff

Odds are if you have applied for this job, you are at the very least interested in the field. However, you need to know the company themselves. What are they about, what are their goals, what is their mission statement? Most of these can be found online and they can make you come off so much more prepared, and when it boils down to decision making that could be the key.

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A very famous saying that I am a huge fan of is....

SO next time opportunity comes knocking, be prepared! You never know where it will take you!

Note: Credit for image to lord of visions .com and google images.

An Evening With Jenna Marbles and Nail Art

So I am kind of a perpetual procrastinator, this evening in the world of procrastinating I've been watching Jenna Marbles videos for literally hours. However, on the productive side of things I decided to try a new set of nail art. I've done some pretty cool stuff before like lady bugs, and butterfly wings. Tonight though I want to show you guys how to do music, in honor of my end of the semester showcase tomorrow!

What You'll Need:

1. Your Favorite Nail Polish, This can be literally anything as long as white will show up on it. I chose Revlon Cherry Berry.
2. Nail Art Pens! (Unless you're super crazy talented...in which case use black and white nail polish, and good on you because I am just not that skilled.) Anyway mine are Sally Hensen.

Okay so the first step is to paint your nails the solid base color, I put a clear coat under my reds because it takes forever for them to come off. When you're done your nails should be something like this.

Now if you are not artsy, if you are not fancy, and if you aren't fairly ambidextrous you can stop right there because your nails look just fine like this. If you're feeling slightly more daring, continue on to step two.

STEP 2

Take the white nail pen and draw four lines fairly close together on each nail, which will look a little something like this.

Now you could also stop here, and rock the rad candy cane looking thing if your base coat was red. If not go to step three.

Paint little music notes in between the lines, do the clefs if you're extra adventurous or you need to procrastinate extra long.

Look it's base clef! So there you go guys. Hope you enjoy, go give it a try, nail art is not impossible and it definitely doesn't have to be perfect.

Don't Let Your Work Be An Accident

The title of this post was the parting knowledge my theatre teacher had for me today as we ended the semester on a high note. This statement got me thinking about young theatre professionals today and how unfortunately, so many of them don't do the work they need to in this business.

It happens all the time, young talented students who have never had to work hard for their talent so they don't. When I was in band in high school, a highly competitive OMEA ranked band I might add, I once beat out a senior for a 3rd chair position. She was furious with me and feeling beyond confused I went to my director and asked what I had done to make her so mad. He told me this.

What a novel idea that is! I had never thought of it before. When it comes to the things I do in school I have never been most talented. I have however, in every single new thing I have ever decided to try in my life been awarded with most improved. It dawned on me that sometimes I succeed at things because I work hard on them, not necessarily because it always comes easy to me.

That's why my professor's parting advice resonated with me so much as a student, I need to remember to not just expect my talent to carry me. That is advice I would put out to every artist regardless of your medium, do not let your talent carry you. It is so important to work, and to practice, and to be the best you can be. Do not let your work be an accident. You seriously never know what you can achieve. I mean think about it, if you're doing good with almost no preparation how amazing could you be if you decided to really buckle down and put forth the effort.

So to every young struggling artist out there, who is saying how can I be better, how can I be best? My one piece of advice is to not let your work be an accident, you are worth so much more than that.

How to Punch Stress In The Throat

Nobody Panic! But I may have just stolen a rolling chair...well borrowed...see this is what happens when we all decide it's a better idea to mess around than to study.

I promise all my  blogs are not about procrastination, but while we are on this beautiful subject, if you want more out of life than just money, I now have a story of how procrastination can lead to adventure. It will be a relatively short lived story considering I have a 9:30 class I need to wake up for, but a good story none the less.

Stress gets to all of us in more ways than one, and it's no good. I'm not saying that in hopes of being adorable. People need to know that stress is real, it is all consuming, and yes it is terrifying. Being a woman who deals with anxiety issues, as do some of my friends, you need to know that stress can take over your life.

Tonight, I would like to provide you with my 5 steps  to punching stress in the throat. If only for a few moments.

1. Be chilling with good company, friends and boyfriends are welcome to be part of this company. Small close knit groups work best.
2. Lobby furniture (1st floor is applicable). By lobby furniture I just so happen to mean those desk chairs with the wheels on them.
3. A big open building, my dorm for instance used to be a nursing home, plenty of room!
4. Steal said lobby chairs and propel yourselves via sitting in the chairs and pushing with your feet wherever you can go. If you get bored on the first floor pour yourselves into the elevators. There are new places waiting everywhere for you to discover. (It is highly suggested you RETURN said furniture eventually)
5. Remember that every day is a gift, just being here with our friends and loved ones is a blessing. For goodness sake enjoy it!

One Hundred Dollars: Why Procrastination Can Be A Good Thing

With finals week rapidly approaching it will come as no surprise to anyone that procrastination is the name of the game on my college campus, and every college campus in America for that matter. We as students make a habit out of procrastinating, I'm doing it quite successfully at this very moment. While teachers want to impose upon you the importance of doing assignments early, and getting a head start, we all know when push comes to shove we are not going to bother with doing what we really ought to.

Fortunately friends, Romans, coffee drinkers; I'm here today to tell you a little story about why procrastination is a good thing.

It all started when I was born...

No I'm totally kidding, but I will say I've been a procrastinator from the start (just ask my mom I was a little more than a day late and a dollar short when it came to my 11 hour, one week late birth). That is a story for another time, this story is about how procrastination won me $100 of cold hard cash.

It started last semester in my creative writing class, our first drafts of our first full length short stories were due by class time the next day. It was a simple assignment, write something, anything, and email it to your Prof. What should have been simple enough assignment was a real pain in the neck for me because unlike most people, I can't just write on a whim. I need time, inspiration, something that makes a story or a character speak to me before I can do some good old fashioned pounding of the keys on a word doc.

Now this left me in a bit of a predicament, and by a bit of a predicament I mean it saw me at midnight whining about how I didn't want to do the assignment with my head on my boyfriend's shoulder. Finally we decided nothing productive was getting done that evening, and I was just about to head up to bed when all of a sudden an idea hit me out of thin air. I flipped my computer back open, wrote the hell out of a first draft, and express emailed it to my professor with a note saying "Sorry this took me so long, and it's like a random story that hit me at midnight, but it's something, so here you go." The assignment was done and I went to bed without thinking another think on the subject.

What I couldn't have anticipated was that this story that I had waited up until the last minute to write and turn in would be such a smash in class the next day, one girl even noted that it was her favorite of the semester. I couldn't focus on what was happening much, see I was still exhausted from staying up to write the dang thing! I had been hoping for a good grade but I certainly wasn't going to turn praise away from my doorstep, especially when it's dressed so nicely in my favorite shade of flattery.

Editing that story was a bear. You would think I would have diligently worked at it on repeat until I got every word just right, but true to my nature that was so not the case. Exhausted from staying up the night before, I turned in my final edits of the paper to my teacher, and crossed my fingers for a high mark.

It was right about then that they were taking submissions for our on campus literary magazine, one of the girls in my class really wanted me to submit my work. I kept saying I would but I really didn't think I had written anything worthy of noting, certainly not something that should be taking up space when people who had worked really hard wanted a chance to be published. So I did what anyone would do, I politely nodded and smiled and said I'd consider it. Then I got an email from my professor saying there was no reason I couldn't submit something to the lit mag and that I'd done outstanding work that semester.

Once again I shrugged it off, with everything else I had going on I am sorry to say that this was so not on my radar. Lucky for me, I was on theirs. The girl from my class who helps run the magazine reminded me the day of that submissions were due. Unfortunately my computer was broken, the only version I had was the unedited one I had sent to my professor. When there were about twenty minutes left until they stopped taking submissions I emailed it to the girl, because I didn't know where it was supposed to go, and said that I was sorry it wasn't my edited version but if they wanted it they were welcome to use it.

So they did, and there I was in plain black and white ink on a page. Which was pretty exciting stuff considering the fact that I couldn't even submit the decent version of my opinion.

Now you could look at all of that right there and say wow, somehow her wacko procrastination paid off. What a lucky little geek, but I'm not done with the story yet, because see what happens next is actually pretty cool.

I got an email about two weeks later asking me to attend our symposium for scholarship and creativity because I was being honored with an award. I assumed that it was something in the theatre department, because at the time that was my only major. I wrote and told them I could not attend because of a show choir commitment, and they said it was fine they would get the award to me at another time. Which was fine by me because I figured it was from our department anyway.

When I got the email with the awards ceremony program I about flipped a lid, my little story, the one I had procrastinated on until the very last minute to write praying for some shred of inspiration, had won me first place in prose in the entirety of the English department at the university.

I'd love to say that was the end of the story, but then I'd be a day early and $100 short. Turns out first place was worth a lot more (monetarily) than a fancy certificate.

Moral here kids: do what you need to do, at the pace that feels right for you. Sometimes taking your time and letting things happen quite literally pays off!