A Reflection of 2015 and the One Thing I’m Leaving Behind

The last few hours of a year are filled with people around the world reminiscing upon the variety of memories that took place over the previous twelve months.  On social media, I’ve seen many negative posts about how 2015 was the worst year that people experienced.  While I can almost relate to that sentiment (believe me, I have a list of things that happened in my life that I could add to the negative stigma surrounding 2015), I also have many blessings to be thankful for this year that I would like to reflect upon instead in an attempt to end 2015 on the most positive note as possible.

1. I got engaged.  That’s a pretty big deal.  I’m only 23 (22 at the time of the proposal) which I know some people will say is young, but that just gives me more time to spend with the love of my life.  I’m not giving up any freedom by getting married young (which, actually, we’re waiting until 2017 and I’ll be just shy of 25- which isn’t young in my opinion); instead, I’ll have more opportunities to experience new things with my best friend.  I’m truly thankful to have found someone so young that is always so wonderful to me.
2. I moved out (officially) of my parent’s house and am living in an apartment with my fiance.  Whenever I was young, I made a promise to my parents that once I moved out, I would only come back to visit-my siblings had a tendency to move out and move back in and I didn’t want to do the same thing as them.  So, I’ve been living in Pennsylvania unofficially since June of 2014 when I got a part-time job in PA after graduating college (it was the only place that would hire me).  I didn’t want to make the big jump of switching my license, insurance, and everything else until I received a full-time job.  I started full time at a job through a temp agency back in March, became full time through the company in June, and by June 30th, Kyle and I moved into our new apartment together and I am now a Pennsylvania resident.  I’m proud to say that (so far) I’ve fulfilled that promise I made when I was young.
3. I have always paid bills on time.  Bills suck.  I would give anything to be a child again to live carelessly and not worry so much about money.  However, since I’ve been on my own (in the sense of being independent from my parents), I’ve paid every bill I’ve had on time- sometimes even early- including student loans, which I can now say I’ve paid on time every month for a year as of this December.  Even though money is tight and sometimes I don’t get to do the things I want to do/spend it on a spending spree on desperately needed new clothes, I’m lucky to be able to say that I’ve always had enough money to put food on the table and pay my bills this year.
4. I got a full-time position at a well-respected defense law firm.  Before mid-March, I was working at a catering company as a server part time and wasn’t making very much money at all.  In March, I accepted a full-time position at a law firm as a transcriptionist.  Since then, I became full time through the law firm itself rather than the staffing agency that helped me find the position AND I was promoted as a legal secretary and am now doing twice the work I was before.  Law isn’t at all what I went to school for and it’s not exactly where I pictured myself, but I’m blessed with amazing coworkers who make me excited to go to work.  There are also days when I’m incredibly stressed out (there’s really no happy medium there- I’m either constantly busy or struggling to find work to do), but my coworkers are happy to listen to my concerns and usually help out in any way they can, which is always much appreciated.  All of this will make saying goodbye that much harder to do whenever I do get my dream job, or at least another job that will be a step in the right direction.
5. I rekindled old friendships and realized how important they are to me.  Childhood friends are forever.  Life gets in the way, and it’s tough to stay in contact/ to visit them sometimes, but they’ve seen you at your worst and your best and will always be there for you.  I was able to visit many old friends throughout the year to catch up with them.  I even walked around a quaint little town in West Virginia a few days ago for hours catching up with one of my best friends and just talking about life and how so much has happened this year.  Even though I don’t talk necessarily to them all day/every day, I know how much I mean to them and vice versa.

There are plenty of other great things that happened this year and plenty that I want to bring with me into 2016, but there’s one thing that I plan on leaving behind:

1. NEGATIVITY.  I wish I could explain why, but I have been overly negative over the past year, and I feel as though it has progressively gotten worse.  I’ve been negative about my career, certain people, money, my weight, and I’ve even been envious of other people’s lives.  However, we’re all in different places in our lives, and we all have things that are good and bad in them, so there’s no reason for me to compare myself to others.  My negativity about my career will just push me to strive toward my dream job even more. I will leave behind the people who I have negative feelings toward so as they don’t cloud my happiness.  Overall, my goal (and resolution, I suppose) is to be a better person.  I want to work on myself and become a better person in every aspect.  Though I didn’t have to wait for 2016 to start working on this, a new year is like a blank page in a notebook- you can start fresh and leave everything behind that you don’t want to include from the previous page(s).

I’m thankful to see another year, to see the ball drop on TV, to spend another night with the love of my life, and to have the best friends and family a girl could ask for.  Though there were a lot of bad/sad memories in 2015, I’m thankful for everything that happened because each event is shaping me into the person I am becoming.

With that being said, I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years, and I’ll post my resolutions next year (aka tomorrow)!  Happy (ALMOST) 2016!

 

Why I’ll Donate Money to My Alma Mater, Even If I’m in Debt Because of It

Remember the first letter you receive from your college after you graduate?  Yeah, you know the one.  They say congratulations, and then only a short time later, they’re asking for donations.  “Why should I?“ you probably thought whenever you read it.  I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think that at first, too.  But after reflecting on my four years at my small liberal arts college hidden within the hills of West Virginia, I changed my mind and attitude about donating, and gained a whole new perspective and appreciation of my Alma Mater.

Thankful Tuesday: My Parents

I’ve always been thankful for my parents.  However, a couple of recent events in the lives of people who I’m close to realized how truly lucky I really am.  My parents are not even close to being perfect.  They’ve made their fair share of mistakes, just like every other parent and person on this Earth.  But they’ve done plenty of things for me and my siblings that I’m realizing not every other parent in this world does.  And for these reasons, I’m extremely thankful.

1. Paid my way through college:  I graduated almost a year ago from a small, private, liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere, West Virginia.  I was accepted into two out of three of the schools where I applied, and this private college was more pricey than the other one that I was accepted into.  My parents told me to not let the prices affect my decision and that I should go wherever I wanted to and we would figure out the financial decisions after.  One specific college offered me a $9,000 merit scholarship each year, on top of several other grants and another in state scholarship special to West Virginia.  Those lowered the cost of tuition by more than half, so we covered the last half with loans and some help from my parents.  Now my parents didn’t have to help me pay for school, but they did, even on top of paying for my sister’s loans that they took out to help pay.  During school, I met many people who didn’t have the luxury of having any help from their parents, or just a slim amount, and that’s when I realized I’m so lucky to have parents who are willing to help out as much as they possibly can.
2. My dad took out his retirement money to help me: Continuing on with the topic of money, my mom quit her job the summer before my senior year at college.  She was mistreated and overworked, and the job was practically killing her anyway, so it’s both a good and bad thing that she’s not working there any longer.  She didn’t have a job lined up when she quit, nor did she ever find one, so that made it tough on my dad who made twice as less than my mom made.  She was the breadwinner of the family, and my dad had to somehow figure out how to support our family on barely a $30,000-$40,000 income.  Before my final semester at my college, we received a letter about how much money I owed the school, and how I would need to pay it before I was allowed to start my spring semester classes.  I freaked out.  I didn’t want money to be the reason I couldn’t finish college, especially when I only had a semester left.  We thought there was something we could do with financial aid, since my situation had changed (aka my mom losing her job when she was the breadwinner of the family and my dad somehow trying to figure out how to pay my tuition on top of paying the bills and buying food in order to survive), but since we had already turned in the financial aid application, there was nothing they could do.  We even tried to get my dad’s dad to cosign on a loan with me, but that fell through as well because he wouldn’t sign anything electronically and that was the only way it would work.  My dad, being as selfless and amazing as he is, decided to take out his retirement money to pay off my final semester.  He didn’t have to, but he did, because he wanted me to be able to pursue my dreams, which unfortunately can only be done with a college degree nowadays.  I don’t know many other people who would give up their retirement money just to help out their kid, but I’m so fortunate for my dad to do that for me so I could continue on working toward my dreams.
3. They’re always there for me: I know several people who can’t count on their parents for anything, and I’m lucky to have ones that will always have my back.  There was a time in December when I lost faith in ever finding a job.  I was beginning to think that I would be stuck at a catering company/part-time job for the rest of my life, barely making enough money to pay my loans, let alone bills that I still haven’t taken on (but will need to once I start making a set salary at my new job).  I called my parents hysterically crying, ranting about everything that was setting me back from my dreams, and my dad just kept telling me that these were little roadblocks and that things would start looking up if I just stayed positive.  He explained that it’s difficult to stay positive in these times, especially because he knows that I need the money and they can’t do anything to help since they’re barely scraping by, but eventually something would come around and I’d be right back up on my feet again.  He also said that taking a full-time job that wasn’t in my field isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  It’ll give me experience and more money to live comfortably.  I can also keep looking for my dream job while I work at a full-time job so I don’t give up on my dreams.  He explained that I’m only 22, so just because I’m not where I want to be yet doesn’t mean I won’t get there and that I still have the rest of my life ahead of me.  All of this was difficult to understand because he ended up getting stuck at a job where he still is after 25 years and he hates it, but he told me that as long as I keep pushing toward my dreams, I’ll get there.  I wouldn’t have calmed down without his advice, and I wouldn’t have taken a job at a law firm without it, either, because I would still be close-minded to jobs only in my field.  It might take me a while to get to my dream job, but at least I’ll be making money in the process of getting there.  But anyway, I know that whenever I need to talk to my parents, they’ll always be there to listen to me and I’m very thankful for that.
4. They’re helping me move:  Basically, I moved up to Pennsylvania a while ago, but I didn’t want to change my address and everything until I got a full-time job in the state.  Because I have that full-time job now, I need to change my address, get a new ID, get my license plate changed, get my car inspected, etc. etc. etc.  I never realized how much of a pain it was to move, and now I’m slowly realizing that it’s a lot of work.  In order to get my car inspected, I have to get new tires because they’re so dull that they wouldn’t pass inspection.  My parents are in the process of selling their house and in order to close on that house but until it closes, they have still been paying the mortgage.  They offered after it closes and they get some money, they would be willing to help pay for any fees I may encounter while switching everything over and also to help pay for new tires.  I have some friends whose parents leave them up to figure everything out on their own, so I’m especially thankful that my parents still offer to help until I start making a good salary so I can pay for everything on my own.

There are plenty of other reasons why I’m thankful for my parents, but these are the big ones that are currently prevalent in my life.  I hope that anyone who reads this will appreciate their parents for everything that they’ve done for you.  And if your parents haven’t done anything for you, I hope that you’re thankful for someone in your life who has at least helped you find your footing to get set on the right path.

Thankful Tuesday: My job

My first Thankful Tuesday post was incredibly easy for me to come up with.  Over the past eight months, I’ve worked at a catering company as a server…definitely not the job I wanted coming out of college with a Communications degree.  But nonetheless, they were the first company who reached out to me after sending them my resume, so I figured I’d give it a shot until I found something better.  This job was only supposed to be temporary, but I found out that finding a job in my field was a lot harder than I previously thought.  I soon began taking a Ron Swanson view on life, as seen below:

I tried to stay positive and did everything I could to find something, even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do. I sent my resume to numerous people, only to be ignored or denied by all of them because of one crucial thing I lacked: experience

How am I supposed to gain experience if no one will hire me?  I can’t be hired because I don’t have experience but in order to get experience I have to get hired.  It’s a catch-22. I spent many days trying to figure out a new approach.  I actually found an internship with a company that was all online, along with freelance writing.  Now I did both of those for two months or more, and I figured they would help me land some jobs in my career.

I was definitely wrong again.  So then I discussed with family members and other people that I’m close to about some different approaches I could take now that my second idea wasn’t working.  They helped me realize that maybe going through a staffing agency to find work would be a better idea, and to keep an open mind with any position that may come up.

A few days after I applied for the staffing agency, I interviewed with them and they took me on as a client.  Only a few days later did I find my dream job.  Communications coordinator.  I thought I had a great shot at this position, despite being so young and only having my experience from school to represent my abilities.  Unfortunately, I found out that they chose someone else for the position after I felt like I had a very successful interview with them.

David Tennant is me. I am David Tennant. Or I was when I found out the news about not getting the communications coordinator job.  I just felt like I would’ve been perfect for said job, but my lack of experience is what killed my chances.  But the staffing agency continued to call me about jobs while I was waiting to hear back and actually the day before hearing that I didn’t get the communications coordinator job, I went on an interview at a law firm for a transcriptionist position.  So basically my job will be typing.

But at least it’s at a law firm, right?  I’ve heard that graduates with law degrees can’t even get into law firms.  Plus I’ve always been interested in law; I’ve just never practiced it/took classes (except for one) for it because I’ve always loved Communications more.  Regardless, went to my interview looking pretty snazzy and feeling confident in my abilities to type and work well with others, and apparently I nailed it!  The very next day I got offered the position.

So once again, it isn’t exactly where I want to be and it’s not the greatest salary in the world, but it’s definitely over minimum wage and I’ll be able to save up money by working there.  Also after 3 months I have a good opportunity to get a raise because the first three months I’m technically working under the staffing agency and if the law firm likes me/I do everything well, I’ll get hired officially and probably get a pay raise.  (Companies only pay staffing agencies so much for clients so the law firm will most likely pay me more once they hire me directly under them in 3 months…which they already said they would do.)  I liked the people who I met with and I’m sure I’ll get along with everyone else in the law firm.  I’m very excited and thankful for this opportunity.  I’ll have normal working hours (as opposed to the catering job) that will help me structure my days better and get the most done.  Also I’m kind of excited to just dress up every day!

But lately I’ve been thinking about how things could’ve been much worse during these past several months of trying to find a job suited for me.  I’m thankful to even have had a job, which is more than what some college graduates can say.  I’m also thankful that I saved up enough money while working at the catering company to be comfortable in paying off my student loans since December and never having to ask my parents for money.  I’m very thankful for being able to get everyone in my family and my boyfriend’s immediate family Christmas gifts, especially since this was the first year I was able to do that.  And now I’m thankful for getting a new opportunity at a great law firm where I’ll be able to save even more money and not have to live paycheck to paycheck.

It can only go up from here.