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.