Feeling Nostalgic

              I get into a mood every once in a while, when I peruse Facebook and look up old high school classmates or community college classmates to see where they are in their lives (ahh the beauty of FB and its non-communicating communication abilities). It gets me thinking about the time in my life when I met them, when it seemed that I was around them every day and couldn’t remember what life was like before meeting them. It was my daily routine. Natural to me to see them and talk to them and to know little details of their lives. Now, it’s me looking at big happenings in their lives because it shows up on the newsfeed. I’ll admit it, I’m a curious Facebooker. I like to look into pictures. It makes me smile and happy to see people I once knew so well doing so well in their lives.

               Another component of looking at their lives now and wistfully looking back is to show myself how far I’ve come and what I’ve done over the last few years of my life. I know I’ve talked about this before, but I still can’t believe how much life has changed over the last 5 years. Five years ago, I was embarking on my last semester of high school. Oh my goodness. Now that feels like forever ago. That’s right, my five year reunion is technically this June. Do we need one? Hell no. Our generation is different from our parents in that if you have the tiniest desire to keep slightly in touch with high school classmates, you can, as I mentioned before. If our parents lost touch of a classmate, well then it’d take a miracle to find them again. Or Facebook if they’re tech savvy, which most of them are. My dad got on Facebook and promptly was found by at least 20 old high school classmates. I wish I could have been a fly on a wall in his high school days, and my moms. Just to see what they were like. If I was anything like them. I think I was like my mom. Bookish and sweet. Not  too many friends and not part of the in crowd but not a total wall flower either.

               Anyways I’m getting off track. I tend to do that with these posts. As I was saying, I’m nostalgic. High school nostalgic, community college nostalgic and even a little SJSU nostalgic. That part of my life was so recent and ended even more recent that I really haven’t had a chance to get nostalgic. Although this past summer definitely lends itself to that. I think it’s because the people I surrounded myself with over the summer are so far flung from me now. I Skyped this morning, while getting ready for work, with a friend in England, who is coming back to the states in two days to stay with his girlfriend, another friend we hung out with over summer. Another girl wrote on my wall saying she missed me. That’s what got me thinking. So thank you Kimmy & you’re beautiful too J. Then I started looking at old high school classmates. And most of my high school classmates were also my junior high and elementary school classmates. How strange that I don’t talk to really any of them. I see that a lot of them still do see each other often and it makes me wonder what life would be like if I had too.

              Oh well. Here’s to being nostalgic J. 

Life Changes In A Flash

12:30 p.m.

This time last week, I was walking out of an interview, with an internship offer floating in my mind, and my voice gleefully yelling into the phone, “MOM! I got an offer!!” More gleeful yelling commenced, as my mom was at work on her lunch break and all of her coworkers could hear and as they had been hoping I would get something soon, they cheered as well. It was a happy moment, mixed with the fear that I was going to get a ticket in San Francisco for leaving my car a minute too long in its street parking stall. Don’t worry I made it back to the car on time and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief and then screamed with happiness. Hey, I’m in SF, people do stranger things every day.

               Now, I am on my lunch break on my third day of aforementioned internship. I.Love.It.  Looooove it. The staff meeting on Monday completely opened my eyes and ears and I knew right then that this was going to be a good fit for me and a great opportunity. I am at an agency who deals with multiple clients and in the staff meeting, we went through all of them, providing updates and ideas for ongoing projects. The ease at which ideas flew around the room and the conversational tone of it all made me smile and think “oh yeah, I know this is where I’m supposed to be.” I think the words “I am with my people!” came to mind. I was busy that day, and yesterday and today. Busy little bee. Thank goodness, because two weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch at home running through a huge list of PR firms in the Bay Area and sending out resume after resume. That’s what I mean about life changes in a flash. It literally did. I got the offer on Wednesday and started the next Monday. That quick. In fact, Monday marked exactly one month since I graduated from SJSU.

               I know that I am lucky to have found something so fast. I have to pinch myself to make sure this is real and then stick it in my head to work my booty off to make sure that I deserve the luck that life has given me. At PR day, two months ago, our keynote speaker talked about how most of finding a job was luck. Yes, skills and connections helped, but timing…timing is everything. The luck of timing has been on my side for a long time. It started with getting into SJSU. I had already enrolled in a different school but unfortunately that school, which I steadfastly believed to be my dream school was about $30,000 above my budget. Per year. Yikes. So instead I took a semester off, worked two jobs and applied to CSU’s. SJSU was my top choice and I got in. I transferred mid-year and this is where timing was on my side. It was far easier to get in mid-year as a transfer than in the fall, first of all. Second, the following spring semester (Spring ’10) was shut down for any transfers. At all. My class was the last class to get in mid-year and to avoid the difficulty of everything being impacted. Whew. And now, timing is on my side. The market has absolutely been horrible for finding a job, but now it’s looking up and companies and agencies are hiring again. They want to hire the lowest billable possible but they’re hiring. Which gives hope my fellow graduates and me.

               So two years ago, I was just starting at SJSU, fresh-faced and alone in a new, strange city. A year ago, I was on the board for PRSSA, forging friendships and professional connections and continuing to find myself. Now, I’m a college grad and an intern at an amazing agency in a gorgeous city. Life changes in a flash.