Tag Archives: Writing

My Glazed Future (Yes, as in Doughnuts)

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Hello friends! Thank you so much for being interested in my life and what I have to say enough to come back for a second time. It sincerely means a lot. If you recall, last week I began to touch on the internship I have with Books & Such Literary Agency. I really want to explain to you what exactly I have been doing with them so future posts are easier to understand (heads up: this may be a bit longer of a post than usual…sorry about that!).

My first task consisted of creating a survey with about ten questions to send out to 394 Scripps humanities majors that graduated anywhere between 1973 and 2005. While I waited for responses, I began creating interview questions. The questions were similar to those in the survey, but aimed to receive a more in depth idea of their life since leaving Scripps. From the interview questions, I hoped to achieve three main goals:

           1) Figure out where the graduate first went professionally after graduating.
2) How they got from there to now and if they have any ideas for their future.
3) What advice they wish someone had given them along the way.

After a week was up, I went through the survey responses and during my next meeting with my supervisor and we selected 20 women to reach out to for a Skype interview. In order to make the selection, we looked for responses that stood out, whether it was because of a very affirmative answer, an unexpected profession, or even their mentioned desire to be interviewed.

Now, of course, you are all probably wondering, “Okay…so what was this all for…?” Well, it’s your lucky day, because I was just about to tell you!

For all of you interested in the humanities, you will have an incredible opportunity this fall. Books & Such Literary Agency will bring their many years of experience within the world of writing, marketing, editing, and publishing to Scripps students. In October, there will be three seminars that teach humanities students how they can become more practical about considering options.  They hope to make it clear that you have endless possibilities (contrary to the stereotypical image that all humanities majors will end up in coffee shops…) as long as you plan and evaluate each opportunity that comes your way. Using the graduates’ responses, you will see how the “real” world has treated humanities majors with a Scripps education.

The very first woman I interviewed- let’s call her Kate[1]– graduated in 2004 with an Honors degree in English. After getting her MA in Gender and Cultural Studies, her MLIS in Library and Information Science, and her PhD in English (ABD), she now works as a Reference and Interlibrary Loan Services Librarian (in addition to getting her PhD in Educational Leadership). I don’t know what y’all are thinking, but to me that’s a pretty intense resume. However, Kate was anything but intense during our interview. I was very nervous because it was my first interview, but right away she made me feel incredibly comfortable. With no hesitation, she told me about the strangest thing she ever had to look up for a student. A group of boys came up to her and asked her to help them come up with a harmless prank to pull on their friend. With her help, they were able to get glaze sheets (as in the kind that covers doughnuts) and put them under their friend’s bedding. As he slept that night, the glaze mixed with his sweat and when he woke up, he was glazed just like a doughnut!

Like I said in my previous post, I have always thought in my mind that I would end up writing. However, Kate was the first person to indirectly challenge that idea of mine. When I asked her whether she was currently in her dream job or if she thought something else lies in front of her, she said: “What you think you need is never going to be what you actually need.” I’ve always thought I wanted to be an author…so isn’t that what I need to do to truly become happy with my career? This statement made me (and still makes me) a bit queasy.

She told me that if she could have learned one thing along the way, she wished it were “not to worry too much about picking the degree that casts the widest net.” Kate majored in English because she thought it would give her more options than a Women and Gender Studies major would. She made the decision to potentially sacrifice happiness for the sake of a more “stable” future.

When the interview concluded, I sat down and thought about these two ideas of hers. I am majoring in what I love. Yes, there may be an other option that is “more practical” for me to major in, but I don’t want to spend my remaining three years studying something I am not passionate about. I want to look forward to papers (lol) and not dread going to class every day. If I want a practical option, maybe that will become my minor, or at least maybe I will take courses in that subject. With that in mind, I know that I am on the right path to my future. I may not know exactly what I need yet, but that is only because I don’t know where I will be in five, ten, fifteen years. However, I do know that if I have earned a degree in a subject I love, I will be better prepared to figure out what I need. I will have more options ahead of me and I will be able to grasp the answer tightly and use it to my advantage.

However, that’s just my take on her advice. What do you think of it? Have you ever dealt with need vs. want or struggled to choose between a dream and a practicality? I would love to read your comments below!

[1] For the privacy of the women, I will be keeping their names to myself throughout the course of the blog.

The Importance of Exploration (In Every Sense of the Word)

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  There have been quite a few moments in my life when I was truly breathless. The time I stood on stage at my first World Choir Games in front of hundreds of people, including seven incredibly intense judges. The moment I checked my email nonchalantly as I drove home from Tahoe and realized I got into Scripps. And, of course, the time I was at the movies watching Paper Towns (**Spoiler Alert**) when suddenly, my future husband Ansel Elgort made a surprise onscreen appearance. I jumped in my seat and got so excited that I actually hit my friend in the face with my flailing arms.                        

Now this may seem sad to you, but that’s also my point…I know my crazed love of things considered pre-teen and childlike is just a part of who I am. I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in an environment that challenged my personality. Being bullied throughout my childhood forced me to figure out who I am and to accept myself. I now embrace my cliché love for all things and every thing Disney. I go to bed no later than 10 on school nights— sometimes as early as 8:30— and drink tea religiously. I do this weird thing when I walk around the 5Cs where I pick up any huge branch I find, name it, drag it along with me, and then give it to someone as a present— whether it be a friend, stranger, or squirrel.

(Tbh, I’m super surprised a photo like this exists. It sums up my relationship with sticks quite accurately)

(Tbh, I’m super surprised a photo like this exists. It sums up my relationship with sticks quite accurately)

 

Now, while I spent the majority of high school figuring out who I am, I never thought I would need to spend the time evaluating my future. One of the main reasons I fell in love with Scripps was because of the amazing English program. I’ve known since I was a little girl that I want to be an author. As a kid, I would read so much that my mom would yell at me to stop. I never really understood this because I’m pretty dang sure reading is good for you. However, I also began to imagine myself as an editor or a publisher or a teacher. I have always thought that as long as I am doing some kind of job that involves books, I would be happy.

Throughout my life, my summers have been dedicated to exploring the greater world and its beautiful outdoors. However, as the past spring semester came to a close, I realized I wanted to go on a different kind of adventure over the summer. I wanted a temporary journey into the “real” world. I applied for internships and looked into jobs, hoping to try adulting for once (yes, yes, I know. Adulting is not a word. Calm down). When I was looking into different opportunities, I came across an internship at a company called Books & Such Literary Agency. After applying and having an interview with the agency’s head and founder Janet, I was lucky enough to get the position.

So how does this relate to my blog? Well, because of my internship I have had the amazing opportunity to interview about 20 Scripps graduates with a humanities major. From founders of nonprofits to radio hosts to teachers and so much more, I learned how the opportunities for a humanities major are truly endless. I knew that it would be such a waste if nobody else had the chance to learn from these empowered women.

EXPLORATION CHECKLIST:

–Self

-Outdoors

-Future

            My blog, like the majority of my life, will revolve around the idea of exploration. While I’ve always thought I knew where I wanted to go with my future, I honestly can say that now I have no clue where I will end up. Just like I had to take the time to figure out who I am and what I stand for, I now know I need to reevaluate what I want to do with my future. I hope, with you my dear readers, to use these graduates’ wisdom to have another one of my breathless “aha!!” moments and figure out what path I want to head down.

 

Brag About Your Blog

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Looking to add more to your resume or cover letter, but too busy for another job or internship? Why not start your own blog? 🙂

Simple to learn and free (or cheap) to manage, a blog provides a fun way to express yourself as well as gain some professional experience. This CP&R blog is only one example. See two of my personal blogs below for some ideas:

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A more personal blog, StraightEdgeRuler includes stories about substance-free living, as well as newly added interviews from others about their experiences with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, and college life. I write it as a sort of journal, as well as a representation of my values and interests in life.

This blog does not directly relate to my vocational pursuits, but it has certainly given me an edge when I apply for writing or media positions. Many of these jobs require or look for applicants with knowledge of WordPress, as well as general social media outlets.

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But what if you’re not much of a writer? No worries– you can express yourself in another way. How about art?

Online my art gallery blog, I include relatively few words as captions for the photographs I take. Instead of spending hours on my writing, I invest my time in photographing and editing. That being said, this can actually turn out quite time-consuming. But since I only update once a week, I still save more time on this than I would at a part-time job around campus.

Most importantly, I genuinely enjoy reaching out to an audience where my words will be digested and put to use. Writing is fun, and I hope to continue along this pathway for many years to come.

What are some of your favorite blogs to follow? What kind of topic would you like to write about in your own blog? Comment below.

Rejection and Opportunity: The Senior Struggle is Real

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For most of you it is February going on March. For anyone who is a senior, I’m sure you’ll agree when I say that it feels more like it’s February going on May. Every day feels like it’s the end, and yet you can’t help but revel in memories of when you encountered this day at Scripps for the first time four short years ago. It’s a beautiful schizophrenia we live in as seniors. I’m coming to learn, however, that spring of senior year in college feels a lot more bittersweet than it did in high school. Around this time in high school, we all knew that we had gotten into Scripps and choose to attend. We had planned next steps, and we could truly relax and enjoy our final moments in high school.

In college, however, I’m coming to find that senior spring can be one of the most stressful semesters of your college career. Yes, I am really excited about graduating and moving on to that next chapter in my life, but for some, including myself, just finding the title to this next chapter, let alone what its contents will be can be sickening. And let somebody ask me one more time about what I’m doing after graduation… I can’t even finish the thought.

We’re all either applying for jobs and fellowships, and hearing back, or in some cases, not hearing back. And it is this latter part that can really start to eat away at one’s self-confidence…especially if our peers are fairing far better in landing post grad opportunities.

Unfortunately, rejection is a part of life that we’re not trained how to handle well. So for this week’s blog post, I wanted to help students think about alternative ways to view and handle this daunting new chapter ahead. This is dedicated to all my seniors in the struggle.

It was January 28th around 3pm that I got the email. I could have opened it the minute I saw it, but my finger just lingered over my phone screen, paralyzed with fear.  If this email did not have what I wanted to see, what I had planned so hard to see, then the perfect two year plan that I had devised for myself was about to become the next four months of chaos.

Dear Daysha,

We regret to inform you…

Ah. The infamous “We-regret-to-inform-you” speech, the equivalent of the other wildly unpopular “we-need-to-talk” speech in dating (but for professional opportunities), was staring me back in the face like that dreaded text message from your soon-to-be ex.

It was a hard blow to take to my ego but, interestingly enough, I was not angry that I did not receive a Fulbright. It actually felt weird knowing how ok I was. That’s not to say that I did not want it, but as Michelle Bauman, a CMC alumna who was also the keynote speaker for the Women and Leadership Alliance conference last Friday, would say, maybe this rejection was delivered to me as a gift.

In her speech, Bauman, executive turned motivational coach, dared us to rethink the purpose behind the rejections we receive in life. “If the challenge were here for you, not against you,” she asked, “a gift brought here only for the purpose of serving you, what is the opportunity? What is the gift to grow?”

Applying Bauman’s question to my own life, I think that I was not meant to get the Fulbright because I think I am actually meant to take the next year off to devote to my writing. It was an idea that I had been toying around with prior to hearing back from Fulbright, but I was terrified of actually doing it. As Scripps students, I think that it can feel daunting to go a non-traditional route after graduation when we’re constantly bombarded with pressure from our families and society to get a “real” job.

However, as Bauman so eloquently stated in her speech, “we have to look for the opportunities where we fold up like a pretzel… and use it as an opportunity for growth; an opportunity for transformation.” For me that came in the form of a playwriting competition, which I can proudly say I won, and has only reinforced my decision to do a self-designed writing fellowship (self-designing…such a Scrippsie, right?) So I would say if there’s something that you’ve been pondering about doing post-graduation, but it scares you. It forces you to step outside yourself and take a risk, then do it. If you’re wildly successful at it, you’ll be forever grateful that you took the risk. But if it doesn’t go as planned, remember that there is a gift there for you begging to be opened and put to use.

Writing Tips for Study Abroad Applications

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Happy October, everyone! I’m so glad to share that I have officially submitted my study abroad application (the real one, not just the petition) and am now in a sort-of-resting phase while I wait to hear back from the folks at Boston University. Many thanks to two lovely career consultants at CP&R, Laurie and Janine, for their constructive feedback. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the process of applying to study abroad, the application usually involves some sort of written statement.

The Boston University London Internship Program’s prompt was this:

“In a clear, thoughtful, and carefully prepared one-page essay (1 page, double or 1.5 spacing), describe your academic, career, and personal goals, and how your participation in this program will help you achieve those goals. Explain how you plan to take advantage of the cultural and educational resources available through this program. Describe the kind of internship assignment you would like, emphasizing the type of work rather than a specific organization.”

I’ll be honest, reading the prompt was a little like applying to college all over again. I felt torn between being interesting and unique, but naturally so; writing with my voice, but not like I’d talk to my friends; giving the reader a sense of who I am, but the best possible version of me, etc.

If you’re having trouble starting your application:

  1. Open a Word document.
  2. Name it.
  3. Paste the prompt at the top.
  4. Let the icon sit on your desktop (not buried at the end of some convoluted file path) while you marinate ideas. For me, having this receptacle easily accessible instead of trying to work within some online portal was essential. It meant that I wouldn’t open Firefox with the intention of accessing the BU application portal, decide to check my Facebook news feed, and end up Googling pictures of Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott. #sorrynotsorry
  5. Ask your friends, “If you could go anywhere/do anything and have time and money not be an issue, what would you do? Why?” Some of the responses you get will be silly, but others might make you reconsider what you find fulfilling.
  6. Talk out your ideas with a professor. Professors are an excellent sounding board, because they’ve all had experience writing recommendation letters. They know what previous students have done and what project ideas will be compelling to a reviewer.

And when you’re cleaning up your first round of drafts, here’s the advice that ultimately got me through the worst of it:

  1. Make sure you’re answering the question. When Janine helped edit my statement, she marked “academic”, “career”, “personal”, “cultural”, and “work” in the margins to show me where she thought my most effective sentences were. I ended up with orange highlighter (the good parts) only at the end of each paragraph, so I did my best to cut the unnecessary areas.
  2. Cutting unnecessary parts is difficult; find a fresh pair of eyes in a friend, in CP&R, or at the Writing Center, whichever suits your needs.
  3. Try and make each sentence something only you could have written. (Laurie says she got this gem from Professor Simeroth, who will be leading a writing workshop during Life After Scripps on Friday—see the online schedule for details)
  4. Be efficient in what you’re trying to communicate. Don’t make the reader work.