In early high school, I had a blog of my own. I had an alias and kept the blog a secret from my friends but open to the internet as a sort of online diary. I talked about school, books that I was reading, and what (in general) was on my mind. It’s unpublished now, so you won’t be able to find it. 😉

After a year or so, I discontinued blogging and went back to good old paper and pencil writing and continued with poetry as well as journaling fiction to produce the same reflective or cathartic effect.

When I entered college, I didn’t expect to go back to blogging. However, when I was looking at positions on campus on Handshake, and I saw that a position to blog was open for the Career Planning & Services center was available and began to think about starting to blog again. I emailed to ask some initial questions about post content and time commitment and was happy with the answers that I received. So, I submitted an application — the process was straightforward — and here I am today.

First semester and for part of this semester I blogged weekly, but now I am blogging bi-weekly. I’ve been happy with the flexibility of my blogging schedule, and I’ve been able to get a week or two off if I had big deadlines as well.

I haven’t had much time to write or read independent from school work this semester. I’ve barely touched a book I’ve been reading for ages except for over breaks, and I feel bad about not updating my stories on Wattpad for more than a month…

However, blogging forces me to set aside time for me to have the reflection time that I need. Thorough blogging, I create space for myself to take some time to consider some of the things going on with academics or careers and synthesize them in a way that is hopefully helpful and productive to readers as well as myself.

Blogging for CP&R has made me more comfortable going in to ask questions about my resume or cover letters during drop in hours and to check out other services. I’m happy to have been able to be part of the blogger team at CP&R my first year, and I’d recommend it to anyone hoping to set aside time reflect and to think about what she/he/ze wants to do moving forward.