The Countdown Is On

One month from today, I will graduate from college.  I have been anxiously anticipating this day for basically my entire life, and it's exactly one month away.  As I prepare for the grueling 30 days of exams, papers, group projects, and interviews ahead of me, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the last four years.

In my humble (and maybe somewhat biased) opinion, Athens is essentially the perfect college town.  There is an endless supply of fun things to do and interesting people to interact with.  I came here knowing nobody, and am leaving with friends I'll know for the rest of my life.  Here are just a few of my favorite things from the last four years...

School Spirit.  I went to a very small, academically-oriented high school that had no sports.  Yes, you read that right.  If we wanted to participate in a sports team, we had to join the team at our district school (I ran track, but it wasn't the same as representing my own school).  That being said, my first football game was a UGA game, and I never imagined how awesome the experience would be.  Dressing up for the home games, taking road trips with friends to the away games, and cheering on the team for the last four years has been one of the highlights of my college experience.

UGA's traditions.  Athens is full of history and traditions, and I can't help but smile every time I walk past (not under) the Arch, and hear the victory bell ringing after a home victory.  Leaving these all behind will be very sad, but I know I'll always be able to come back to the same old Athens after I've graduated and moved on.

(For those of you who don't live in Athens, the Arch marks the entrance to campus from downtown and has become somewhat of a symbol of the University.  Legend has it that if you walk under the Arch as an undergraduate, you will not graduate on time.  Any time of day, you will find students going out of their way not to walk under the Arch.  In fact, the cement steps are worn down on the sides of the Arch from so many people bypassing it.)

Experiencing a new culture.  I never realized when I moved 8 hours north from my Sarasota home, that I would end up in the South.  While Florida is geographically in the South, culturally it certainly is not.  Sweet tea, pearls, and southern accents were all foreign to me, but they have all become dear to my heart over the last four years.

Downtown Athens.  It goes without saying that downtown, with its 100+ bars and music venues, is quite popular among students.  More than the bars though, I've come to love the unique little restaurants you can't find anywhere but downtown Athens.  Last Resort, East-West, Farm 255, Five Star Day, etc... these will always be some of my favorites.

That small town feel.  Although Athens has over 100,000 residents, it still manages to feel like a small town.  I rarely have to drive my car more than 5 miles each day, and after four years I feel like I know everyone.  I literally can't walk around town or across campus without running into a familiar face, and I absolutely love that.  

The list goes on and on, and I could probably write a whole book based on my amazing college experience.  But (not to be cliche), all good things must come to an end... One month from today, I will walk under the Arch for my first time proudly wearing my cap and gown and ready for life after Athens, but I'll always be a bulldog at heart.

Are College Towns Recession Proof?

I have always thought living in a college town like Athens is kind of like living in a bubble.  Being in the transition phase of college, where you're finally living on your own but can still turn to your parents to support, can feel like a dream.  You have all of the freedom you wanted in high school, but don't technically have the "real" responsibilities of adult life.  In all likelihood, everything you need is within a one mile radius of your apartment.  Life is basically perfect.

Sometimes I wonder if, for these reasons, it seems that college towns are immune to the bigger problems of "real" cities.  I realize that Athens is a real city and definitely has it's share of real problems (see my posts on my Anti-Poverty Campaign).  However, sometimes it's easy to feel like we don't have it as bad as everywhere else.  The unemployment rate is far lower than it is in other cities, generally because the University provides so many jobs to the community.  Unlike some of my friends in the "real world," all of my peers are students, so I'm not constantly hearing about co-workers being laid off.  Students can still turn to mom and dad to fund their expensive meals out and nights drinking downtown.  

Maybe it's this mentality of "living the dream" that will make it that much harder to graduate and leave this all behind.  Only once we start searching for jobs do some of us start to truly realize the gravity of the situation our country is facing.  I guess we all have to grow up some time, but as I said in my last post, for now I'm going to enjoy every minute of living in my little college bubble.  

Embracing the Great Unknown

For the first time in my entire life, I don't have a plan. Throughout high school, I always had a comfortable routine - a balance between school work, part-time jobs, riding my horse, and track practice.  By my junior year, I started looking at colleges and quickly decided I wanted to go to UGA.  I got accepted and finalized my enrollment by December of my senior year.  I knew where I would be after high school while many of my other friends continued to fill out applications and go on campus visits.

Aside from picking up a second degree, I have stuck with my original major that I declared in my freshman year of college.  While many of my friends have changed their majors and signed up for the "five year plan," I have done what I needed to do to graduate in four years with a dual major in Business Management and Public Relations.  I have spent my summers working, studying abroad and interning.  I have done everything I could over the last four years to prepare for the next step after college.

Now that I'm a little over a month from graduation, I have no idea what that next step will be.  Like the majority of my peers, I have no job lined up yet.  I haven't looked for apartments in the city I hope to move to.  I haven't figured out how I'm going to move my entire life to a new city.  This is a strange feeling for me... I'm used to having all the answers to such pressing questions, but for once, I don't.  

I've been going through phases where I panic, start looking for more jobs and internships to apply for, look at apartments on craigslist, and research moving companies.  But I've realized there's really no use.  I have leads with several companies, and all I can do is wait for their responses.  I can't rush my future, I just have to know that things will fall into place.  So I'm waiting patiently, enjoying the last few weeks of college, and embracing my unknown future for the first time in my life.

Advice on Preparing for Graduation & The Job Search

Last week, I posted about differentiating yourself in the tight job market.  After writing that post, I contributed to a podcast produced by Peppercom to give advice to my fellow seniors and job seekers.  The podcast is an open discussion moderated by Ted Birkhahn, Steve Cody, and Alicia Wells.  A few current Peppercom interns (Tom Showalter, Elle Kross and Amelia Denson) participated, as well as seniors Meredith Hutchins (College of Charleston) and Katie Green (Syracuse University).  

I really enjoyed participating in the podcast.  It was great hearing advice from students in the same position as I am, and hopefully I was able to provide some insight as well.  Click here for a link to the podcast.

Shock Value: Is it Really Worth it?

Walking to class today, I was confronted with some disturbing images.  Despite the warning I had already gotten (via Twitter) to avoid the Tate Plaza today, I basically had to walk through there to get to my class in the SLC (I refuse to start calling it the 'MLC'... it just doesn't sound right).  For those of you who don't go to UGA, the Tate Plaza is basically an open forum on campus where various interest groups usually congregate and try to get out whatever message they are passionate about (and the SLC/'MLC' is our Student Learning Center, recently renamed the 'Miller Learning Center' after a former Georgia Governor).

So as I came down the stairs into Tate, I was bombarded with horrifying images of aborted fetuses.  Not just horrifying, but HUGE - the billboards must have been 20 feet tall (where do you even go to print something like that?).  There was a tiny sign in front of the display that said something to the effect of "Caution: Disturbing Images Ahead," but by that point there was no way you hadn't already seen the images.  There were posters with all kinds of facts about abortion, and a man preaching to passersby about why abortion is wrong.  

Abortion is a controversial issue, and I'm not going to get into my own views on it.  However, no matter what your views are, this display got your attention.  I understand what the protestors were going for - hoping to shock people into thinking abortion is wrong.  But how effective is that really?  The display definitely got people thinking and talking about the issue, but could it really change someone's mind?  When it comes down to beliefs about such personal issues, can something as simple (albeit shocking) affect their decision?

The main reason I'm so curious about this is that these exact abortion displays came up in our focus group for my Campaigns class.  We were discussing how to really get the attention of UGA students when it comes to the anti-poverty effort in Athens-Clarke County.  One student brought up graphic images like the ones in the anti-abortion displays.  Students agreed when something is so big and staring you right in the face, you can't ignore it, which I agree with.  However, it's one thing to create buzz and get people thinking about an issue, and it's another thing entirely to get them to act on these thoughts.  Would oversized posters with images of impoverished children and statistics about dropout and pregnancy rates in Athens get attention on campus?  Sure.  But the real question is, would these posters actually drive people to join the anti-poverty effort?

Epting Update

I realized over the weekend that it's been awhile since I posted anything about my internship at Epting Events, so now seemed like a good time for an update!

We're getting very close to being done with the wedding style book, and I'm so excited to see how it turns out.  It has taken a little bit longer than expected because a few of the girls stopped working on the project, so we had to re-assign the themes.  I'm now working on Beach Casual, Global Chic, Nature Inspired, and part of Contemporary.  We also changed the layouts of our divider pages so they would look more like the inspiration boards on popular wedding websites like The Knot and Style Me Pretty.  Here are a few of my new dividers:

We should be finishing everything up in the next few weeks, which will give us time to run everything by our bosses and order the book before I graduate! We've come a long way on this project and it will be so cool to see the finished product.

On a side note, Epting Events just started a blog so check that out for more wedding pictures and information.

At Least They're Getting Social Media Right

As someone who is planning to move to NYC in the near future, I've been trying to follow the MTA fare hike votes as closely as those already living in the city.  Yesterday, the plan was approved to raise single rides from $2 to $2.50, and monthly MetroCard passes from $81 to $103.  These changes will go into effect on May 31st, and the Metro-North Railroad and L.I.R.R. will also see rate increases starting June 1st.  There will also be service cuts, which 

will likely cause even more crowding on busses and subways (is that possible?).  

According to the New York Times, these will be the most sweeping service cuts since the city’s fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s. Only once before in the 105-year history of the subway have fares risen two years in a row (fares last increased in March 2008).  These higher fees and service cutbacks are intended to help MTA with the $1.2 billion deficit it is currently facing. 

After reading a few articles on the topic, I posted this comment to Twitter:

Within 30 seconds, I had an email in my inbox notifying me that "NYC MTA Alerts" is now following me on Twitter.  Wow.  Upon further investigation, I realized the Twitter feed provides up-to-the-minute service updates, and never actually mentioned anything about the fare hikes.  However, I was still impressed with how quickly my tweet was detected (maybe it's automated? is there even a way to do that?).  

Well, slightly impressed.  Not enough to make up for the extra $22 I'll be spending every month to get around town.