Tag Archives: motivation

Keep Calm and Carry On

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Like all Scripps students I received a  “Life After Scripps” flyer in my mailbox a few weeks ago. Some events, such as the personal branding and personal statement writing workshops, looked particularly interesting and I was excited to join them and get some veteran insight. I find that the information presented at these events is incredibly useful, and because these workshops and panels are all on campus I try to drop in for at least an hour or two after class. Nevertheless, I find that it’s still hard to fit career planning into my schedule; its bullet point in my planner will always be an interminable task because there is never truly an endpoint and, really, where do I even begin? Last week began with an “almost-all-nighter” in Honnold for a Core paper and ended with a late night drive back to campus from Orange County. I actually missed all of the “Life after Scripps” events I had planned to attend save for Tea. Do I at least get a gold star for trying?

Although Seal Court was more crowded than usual last Wednesday I felt inexplicably calmer than I had all week, even as students gingerly tried to push around me. For a small fragment of time, just fifteen minutes, I worried about nothing other than the minute sadness that there wasn’t enough whipped cream on my pound cake slice. I used a corner of the cake to scrape what was left of the whipped cream off a serving spoon, and then I drizzled fluorescent red strawberry syrup on top of my fluffy, crumbling white mound. I know we’re all feeling an increasing amount of tension and stress due to impending midterms. I find myself spending less time at the gym and even skimming class readings during the ten minute breaks between classes. Between school and work I hardly have any time for myself these days!

What motivates me to stay on top of important deadlines for alternative spring breaks and summer internships is simple. I don’t use the traditional rewards systems in which you “treat yourself” to a new pair of jeans or a little knickknack whenever you finish a paper; rather, I motivate myself by envisioning a future, a future perhaps in a different city or even a different country. I tell myself that this summer will be even better than the last. I’ll be given meaningful projects and be further convinced that I chose the right field of work. Maybe I’ll meet someone who will be my mentor or maybe someone will ask me about my experience blogging for CP&R. Sometimes, I also envision a quiet summer in the suburbs watching Grey’s Anatomy reruns. I then grimace at the thought of halfheartedly ordering an extra thin Margerita pizza and drinking grapefruit juice straight from the carton. But then I go back to my vision of a summer leading writing workshops in Baltimore. I think of all the wonderful people I have yet to meet and all the experiences I have yet to have in one of the brightly colored rowhouses that line the streets of Charles Village… and then everything is worth it.

Keep Calm and Watch Sherlock

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I never have a good feeling about a week when my planner’s lines are too thick to squeeze in all my obligations, even when I use 0.5 mm lead in my mechanical pencil instead of 0.7.

This week was one of those weeks. Actually, now that I mention it, last week was one of those weeks. And I’m pretty darn certain that every week until blissful summer arrives is going to be one of those weeks.

While professors are demanding essays now, suggesting you think about your next essay due in a week, oh yeah, and don’t forget to start studying for the final – it can be hard on your nerves. My time management wasn’t helped by the fact that my friend introduced me to Sherlock just as my extra time was dissipating.

I found the motivation within me to postpone Sherlock until my commitments have been met, but it seems like every time I turn around a new commitment sneaks up behind me.

“Boo!” the commitment cackles. “I know you were planning on spending Friday afternoon with your boyfriend, but come in for a job interview instead!”

And, as my nerves knot up just a little bit tighter, I smile and reply, “Sure!”

Why? Because I genuinely want to be doing all that I’m doing. I’m not in a class I don’t like, and I want every job I’m applying for. But my refusal to say no to opportunities can sometimes lead to my planner getting so jumbled up that I can’t keep up with them all.

Case in point: I am in the middle of a six-day period in which I have three job interviews. Wednesday morning, I have a phone interview for a summer internship. (I’d hoped I would have summer plans nailed down by now!) Last Friday, I interviewed for a tutoring job on campus for next school year. And this Thursday, I’m interviewing for another on-campus position.

Even at this moment my nerves are screaming at me to spend more time preparing for my interviews instead of writing this. “You’ve never had a phone interview before!” they’re warning me. “You won’t have any visuals to distract from the number of times you say ‘uh’ in a sentence!”

But, because my nerves have screamed some variation of this at me before every job interview I’ve ever had, I know I’ll be okay. And I know that sometimes all my nerves need is a little distraction.

So, mimicking the professional and collected tone I’ll use on the phone tomorrow, I confidently reply to my nerves, “Keep calm and watch a Sherlock.”

And that is exactly what I plan to do.

Resisting the Pool

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Sounds of splashing and giggles and blasting Lady Gaga drift in through my window, tempting me to venture out into the ideal California sunshine. It’s rather difficult to force myself to stay in my desk chair when my dorm room has a view of the field house pool, tantalizing me with the promise of bikinis and boys and beautiful palm trees.

Moments like these are what make me bitter about internship applications. Why should I spend hours working on applications, hoping they’ll earn me a chance to do more work, hoping that work may help me find better work later? And by better work, I mean work that actually pays. But alas, this is the twisted world of the job market.

I don’t want to be brainstorming more snazzy synonyms of “hardworking.” I don’t want to spend an hour reformatting my resume into a new, attention-grabbing design, only to decide it looked cleaner the first way. I don’t want to debate if some of my high school achievements are impressive, or just juvenile. That is not how I want to spend my Friday.

But I do it anyways. Why do I do it anyways? Why do I work so I can work so I can work more? In what world is that what I want?

Strangely enough, it’s this world.

To remind me of that strange fact, I reach for the binder of clippings on my bookshelf. Inside is every article I’ve written for my high school paper, the Los Altos Town Crier, where I interned last summer, and The Student Life here in Claremont. That binder is proof that what I’m working for isn’t just the opportunity to work more – I’m working for the right to create, for the joy of creating, for the rush of knowing people read what I write.

I work every day for the special days, the days when the story I wrote about my Grandma’s stroke gets published and she and all her friends in her rehab facility know that their story was told. I work for those days when my writing makes someone’s life even just a little bit better.

Because, at the end of the day, all lounging at the pool would get me is painfully sunburned shoulders. (No, I don’t tan.) If I stay inside, work only interrupted by the few times I lean too far back in my desk chair and am temporarily certain I’m about to fall to my death, I may not have as much fun. But the feeling of printing out something I’ve written – whether an obscenely edited resume or this very blog post – well, that feeling beats poolside fun any day. That pride, that sense of accomplishment, that sense of purpose – that is what I work for. I work to work to work because in working, and in writing, I am reminded that I am here for a reason.

So, for today, here at my desk is exactly where I want to be. Tomorrow? Tomorrow I’ll go to the pool.

 

Writing a Novel… well, Trying…

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Monday, Nov. 1—exactly a week ago at the time of writing—I sat down with my laptop, a vague idea and outline for a novel, and began to type.

I wasn’t alone in doing so.

If you haven’t heard of it before, November is National Novel Writing Month. Started in 1999 with a small group of friends, the program has expanded into, well, a national event and organization, and has inspired thousands of people across the country, who in turn host workshops, events, and share their experiences on the NaNoWriMo website. The basic requirements are pretty simple: 50,000 words of one novel, all written in the month of November—you can’t start before Nov. 1, and you can’t still be working on it after midnight on Nov. 30.

I first heard of NaNoWriMo last year, when a fellow Scrippsie asked me if I was doing it. (I must just give off that writer vibe, or something. It was a little random.) I wasn’t, but I did make a mental note to try again this year. Over the summer, I even signed up and made an account on the official website, where you can do such things like upload your text, explain the plot of your novel, and chat with other writers.

It sounds simple—sure, 50,000 words is intimidating, but it’s only 1,667 words a day, which is about three pages single-space which is a chunk of writing, but also really not that hard… right?

Of course, after about two days, I found it a little hard to continue. I think I have near 4,000 words right now, which is a shame because I have found myself having the urge to write often, but needing to do homework or go to work instead. This is something I’ve experienced often; once I start myself practicing creative writing, I really enjoy it and want to continue…but then my other responsibilities get in the way. I’m still hoping to get close to the 50,000 words, even though I’m sorely off-track.

Even if I don’t complete NaNoWriMo this year, it has already served as inspiration and motivation to write more than I usually do (even if it’s only 4,000 words more), and has pushed me to think creatively past short stories to something more challenging. I’ve never even come close to writing 50,000 words before in my life, but if I want to be a writer… well, I’ll probably have to some day.

Writing this much, and finding the motivation to do so amid a (very) busy college schedule involving classes, a part time job, an internship, writing for two publications, and being editor of a campus magazine, is something I need to learn to do more on my own. This ties into the theme of many of my posts this semester, that have to do with me looking towards my future and figuring out what could help me get to where I want to—even if it’s something little that I can’t necessarily put in a resume. A knowledge of book critics, their work, and the overall contemporary fiction is necessary for book reviewing; being familiar with the publishing world will probably help me in publishing;… along those lines, writing a lot, even if it’s just rough words on paper, and making the time to do so is necessary for being a writer. Although my personal aspirations are quite specific, I hope that other students reading these posts—no matter what field they want to go into—will be inspired to look towards what goals they have and figure out the small changes they can do to help give them succeed, and succeed well.

P.S. Wish me luck!