I’ve been unemployed since I graduated in December. A lot of employers want experience and I don’t have that yet. Some of us are lucky enough to find jobs before we graduate, others of us have to wait a bit longer. And waiting can be hard. You start lying awake at night wondering if anyone will want to hire you. When that happens, you just have to take a few deep breaths and tell yourself that everything will be fine. Lie if necessary. Because unemployment is so difficult, I’d like to share a few tips on how to deal with it.

• Apply for jobs regularly. This one is fairly obvious, but I’m just going to say it anyway. Even if the company you’re applying to doesn’t respond, you’ll feel better for having done something. Indeed.com, Monster.com, simplyhired.com, craigslist, and loggerjobs are all good sites to check when you’re looking for employment.
• Don’t turn into a mole person. By that I mean, leave the house. If nothing else, you need the fresh air. Take it from me.
• Find an activity or activities you like and do it. I started assistant teaching at a karate school down the road. One of my best moments as a teacher was when a yoga ball we were throwing went passed me and knocked over a cup of water. I started to say sh** but then paused and said talking mushrooms instead. The older sister does this in Spy Kids One to avoid swearing in front of her brother.
• Do something to keep up your skills. I majored in English with an emphasis in creative writing. To keep myself fresh, I started writing a couple of short stories. One of which is about a nerd romance or, as I like to call it, a nerdmance.
• When all else fails eat ice cream. You’re going to get rejected a lot during this process and when you do it will feel like sh**…talking mushrooms. So you should eat ice cream to reward yourself for trying.

Good luck and don’t forget the chocolate sauce.

It’s a thing. Students can be caught in the Puget Sound bubble, and it’s definitely where I’ve been, it’s already WEEK SEVEN OF THIS SEMESTER, like that’s crazy! Spring break starts next Friday! Midterms! Half a semester gone! I would say I don’t know where it went but when I look back, I totally do.

The spring semester is always more busy, harder classes (building upon material often learned in the fall), more life (because spring so people want to do more things), and looking forward to summer break (how can you not?). For Greeks, the semester starts off with a bang with formal recruitment which is a long but exciting process and then you get your new members and are thrilled to get to know them and go on coffee dates and then you get littles (or grand littles, or great grand littles, whereever you are in the familial line)! And while you’re caught up in all that excitement you still have your classes and extracurriculars! The first exams and papers due came and went and since all classes are on different schedules than there is likely no more free weeks, every week there’s some discussion, paper, lab write-up, proposal, draft, quiz, exam or something going on that you keep preparing for before moving on to the next one! Often you’re so busy trying to do those things and preparing for the next thing that you don’t have much time to yourself to think big picture-do I like my classes, should I explore this weekend, where I am I going with my major and life? It’s not to say that we as students don’t go out and party, or watch netflix or go out to eat because we do, but its often slipped in between everything else that we don’t notice the time passing by.

It’s crazy for me to look back on now, I’ve accomplished so much this semester and there’s still so much to go! April is literally the busiest month of the year for students, no one would refute that! And sometimes I wish I could go back and take a break, and think about how blessed I am to be able to have this busy life and a superb education that will hopefully guide me into the future. But for now, I have to get back to work on revising this proposal! xP