Blowin' in the wind

As I began my junior year at Ohio University, I thought I was completely adjusted to college. I was so excited to move back to Athens into an apartment with three of my best friends, to start classes and my new internship. I could handle anything.

Wrong. I was not prepared for cooking, cleaning, rent, utilities, and basically being an adult. I mean, how on earth do people have full-time jobs and still have time to do the laundry and throw something together for dinner and pay the bills? It floored me how difficult growing up can be.

Change is always difficult, even if it’s for the best. That has taken me a long time to figure out. I am so thankful for friends and family, and have realized what things are truly important in my life.

I try to look at new things in my life as adventures. There is always an opportunity to learn something, even if things don’t work out the way you want them to. Every experience I have had, personal or career-related, good or bad, has made me who I am, and I don’t regret any of it.

I also would not be able to advance in my career without my mentors. The amount of knowledge I receive simply from talking to them is something I will be forever indebted to them. I am so lucky to have them as my backbone, supporting me in all I do. I hope one day I will be able to offer the experience and advice that my mentors have so graciously given me.

I have to admit, I’m still afraid of growing up. It is inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less scary. Even with my doubts, I’m excited about what the future holds. I love PR more and more every day, and I’m happy to have found something I am so passionate about. This year is going to be extremely busy, but I’m already loving every minute of it.

My summer internship experience

I have successfully completed over 200 hours interning at CAMC Marketing and Public Affairs. As I sit here thinking about the past three months, I have nothing but good memories from my summer internship. Not only did I gain more experience than I could have imagined, but I made a lot of great friends (who also happen to be my new mentors!)

I got tons of experience; more than I ever could have imagined. I wrote, edited, observed, assisted with social media research, sat in on meetings, and helped develop advertising campaigns. I even got to head up my own design project!

Something that really stood out to me this summer was how close the marketing team is and how well they work together. I’ve been spoiled working with them and I know it will be difficult to find another team like this one.

I can’t wait to start this school year and all my activities and I will take everything I learned this summer with me.

Let the sunshine in

This whole summer I’ve been going non-stop. Since the day I got home from Athens, I’ve had two days off. Monday through Thursday I intern at CAMC Marketing and Public Affairs. Friday through Sunday I work at Cracker Barrel. Throw in a few hours of babysitting every other week and you have one busy summer.

While I love my internship and the added bonus that it’s teaching me to be a morning person and I like the paycheck I get from the restaurant, I realized how much I’ve missed having time to simply do nothing.

This week I’m on vacation with my family and it’s the first time in a long time that there isn’t anything that I have to do. I can sleep as late as I want, lie on the beach the whole day and soak up the sun.

On the island we’re staying on there is limited cell phone service. While this of course disappointed me at first as I am an avid text messager and like to be connected at all times, I think it’s been good for me. I’ve been forced to simply forget about everything else and focus on the here and now.

I think this is a lesson I need to take back to West Virginia after the week is over. I seem to always be on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail or texting and there isn’t a minute in my day where I sit and do nothing. While there is so much pressure from the fast-paced society to go, go, go, I think there is value in taking time to kick back, relax and enjoy life. Maybe if I do that, the rest of the summer won’t fly by so fast.