Tag Archives: College Students

My Big Moment (Written for RCCblog)

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Yesterday I woke up and realized my undergrad was officially over. No more finals, my essays all handed in and my car was packed with a new mix CD (because mix tape’s don’t exist anymore). I was headed home with one realization: I’m officially done with Bridgewater State.

I’ve called BSU home for the past four years, it’s weird to pack up and leave knowing you won’t be  back come September. I have a feeling it won’t hit me until then anyway.

This past year has been a stressful one. I was promoted to Editor-in-Chief of this blog (which is why my posts have been far and few), had a career change of heart (of course that couldn’t have happened earlier in my college career), and this semester I stupidly took 6 classes while working at an internship and this job AND nannyed. But, I’m not going to lie, I enjoyed every second of it. My life can get a little hectic sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So back to graduating, and you know taking the huge plunge into real life. So looking forward to that..not.

I’m assuming most readers will be looking for some piece of wise wisdom that as a graduating senior I can bestow upon them, because I’ve had so many years to learn what not to do. And don’t worry, I promise I won’t disappoint, just keep reading.

Click over to rccblog to finish the post

Saying My Goodbye to BSU (and Michael Scott)

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All through your life you enter in and our of different phases, you have to say goodbye to people you love and move on. I’ve had to say a lot of tough goodbyes in my day, so you would think I would’ve gotten pretty good at it. But I suck.

Yesterday was my last day of class as an undergrad, true I still have finals, but my official last class ended at 3:15pm on thursday the 28th of May. I’m ready to cash out my credits and graduate. I’ve been ready for a while to move on from college. I just never expected it would be so hard.

Everyone will tell you that college was the best time of their life, and although I thoroughly have enjoyed the past four years…I’m not sure if I’m ready to give it that title. Instead of enjoying the usually college extracurriculars I’ve been participating in pre-professional groups, internships, flying off during summers, and staying up late at night to finish last-minute assignment. And I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve met some pretty fantastic people along the way who have made it all worth while.

I didn’t plan on my goodbye to be coinciding with Micheal Scott’s, and after watching that episode (if you didn’t cry you have no soul) I’m not ready to say it. I thought that I could handle saying goodbye to the people I’ve been working with, the people who have become like a happy little blogging family to me, but I’m not even ready to say goodbye to my version of Toby…although it will probably just be a quick email.

It’s saying goodbye to people I have been in constant contact with for a year and a half now. Reading and editing about their interpretations of different events, and all of our dinner meetings from last semester just seem so far away. Regardless D-day is coming may 4th, so I think I will just have issue handy..or at least keep a plastic bag for myself close by.

It’s hard to say goodbye to a phase in your life, no matter how long or short it was. And for the most part you don’t really get to choose when it is coming, well unless you are in school then you can kind of gage it. Even though I may be ready to graduate from college….it’s still going to suck when the goodbyes starting rolling in.

How to: Tweet

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Let’s Get Down To Business: How To Tweet

One thing I’ve found when talking to new tweeter’s is that they don’t know the art of a good tweet. They aren’t sure how casual it can be, or they over think their every tweet..and don’t end up tweeting anything!

So to help you newbies out I’ve come up with a few tips.

Tip 1: Figure out why you are joining twitter. Do you want to connect with people on a social or business level? Are you looking to find people in your field or just people in your area?

Tip 2: Don’t be afraid to speak your mind! But also you should know that you will be ignored if you tweet meaningles

s things ie. “omg I just lyke saw a dawg! haha lolz” So keep your tweets relevant to why you joined twitter. Just make sure you don’t lose you own voice!

Tip 3: A good way to jump into Twitter is by replying to people you admire or Re-tweeting them. Don’t get too scared, the worst thing that could happen is they don’t reply. And honestly, that is not bad, there are so many people you can be replying to, that you will probably forget to reply to some people yourself!

Tip 4: Set a goal for how many times you want to tweet a day. Maybe you can start off with 4 tweets a day? It’s a good idea to set a goal at first because it will be something you can 1.) put on your to do list and easily cross off  2.) it will seem more feasible, and 3.) by making a goal you are more likely to actually tweet!

Tip 5: Make sure to change your profile picture! I know it sounds a little bit silly, but a lot of people don’t follow back new users who still have the o_O icon as their picture. Most spam bots don’t change their icon so the 0_O is commonly associated with them, which means people won’t want to follow you. So add a new picture, maybe it’s your personal logo, a picture of you, or your favorite pair of shoes.

Key Terms:

In the twitterverse we use the @ sign in order to reply or mention people in our tweet. By doing so you are not only connecting with people you normally wouldn’t  but you are making a name for yourself. By replying to something a popular person in your career field said it is not only giving others a chance to see what you are saying (if it is re-tweeted or the person responds back) but you are making a connection with that person.

What are DM’s? DM stands for direct message, this is where you can message someone (using 140 characters or less) as long as you are both following each other you can message them. This is good for asking a private question or just taking a conversation off the timeline to avoid noise.

You hear me talk about noise a lot, and you are probably thinking what is this chick talking about, is there a song that plays in the background every time I log on? To answer your question, no. Noise is referred to your timeline, in specific it can refer to a certain person or a #chatgroup. Sometimes a conversation (via @reply/mentions) can get lost because of other people’s tweets, thus creating the noise type idea. (imagine you are at a library and it is very loud, but you are trying to talk to your professor that’s like twitter all day.)

So..what are you waiting for? Start tweeting!

Why to Tweet

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When I was a mere Junior, a year ago, I joined a  revolutionary site that would make communicating not only simple, but fun. My peers all mocked me for joining a site that was just “a bunch of status updates” but I, knowing I was right of course, told them it was more.

and it is so much more.

Benefits

Since joining Twitter I have  realize that I was/am right. Twitter is more than status updates from your friends. It’s a way to connect with professionals in your field, swap blog ideas, or even help you figure out a random question. It gets better, by using #hashtags (that’s what they look like) you can meet a million new people who share your similar interests..without the noise. For instance, I love to write so I use the hashtag #writers where I can talk to other authors about things such as overcoming writers block or just for a good discussion about annoyances within our work.

So I know what you’re thinking…Twitter is just professional blah blah blah I don’t want to be on it, I’m just a freshman. But that is where you are wrong! Not only will you gain further insight in to future careers, be able to shoot your professors message instantly (and get quicker replies), BUT (this is the kicker) you can talk to people online by following a hashtag of your favorite show while it is happening! It’s amazing, you can talk to millions of people about the Glee episode you are watching (and what Kurt was wearing, and why you were a little bit creeped out)

While we are on the subject of live Twitter feeds…remember what I said about #hashtags, well they are also used to house chats. I know one of Ed’s favorites is #sachat, which is a place where people in the student affairs industry (or people interested in it) come to chat at a specific time every week. This opens up opportunity for you to ask a multitude of people questions and get many replies. And unlike the random mentions in your tweets, these will get more replies back because you are clearly showing an interest and it is timely.

So now that you know why you should tweet..let’s talk about how to get you started.

Starting an Account

It’s important, that when making an account, you stick to your real name. By using your real name you can brand yourself in whatever career field or area you hope to further yourself in. This could be something in Fashion, Business, Music, Social Work, I don’t know is you are seeing a trend, but there are a lot of different topics/businesses on Twitter.  If your name is taken (because let’s face it, there are already over a million active users) add your middle initial, or a combination of your first name initial with your middle initial and last name. But try to avoid using “sexigurl212″ or “sexiboi305″  although I think those might be used already.

So to make it clear, we are using our names in order to self brand ourselves. Because as we’ve already learned Twitter is NOT a bunch of sta

tus updates, it’s a way to get your foot (or your whole self) in the door to a potential dream job.

(here’s the link, because I have a feeling you want to sign up)

(Feeling the urge to read about more twitter tips? No need to fret, look for next week’s post telling you all insider tips!)

Are you on twitter? If not, why? Do you think Twitter could be the new Facebook? Why or Why not?


Why I think I have Asperger’s

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Lately I’ve been feeling stressed out. I don’t know who to talk to, where to turn. And on top of it I’m caught up in major confrontation issues, which I hate dealing with.

Then I start rereading old Penelope Trunk posts, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to be tested for Asperger’s syndrome. So since I’m in Maine I confess to my sister that due to my intake in psychology courses I’ve started self-diagnosis (not uncommon in med students). But after a two sentence conversation she changes it. As per usual…we never seem to be able to have actual conversations just enough for her to think she really understands me. Then be blown off and go back to pretending we are close.

So now I’ve convinced myself that after “failing” two different diagnosis test that maybe I should talk to a real medical person and ask them to tell me what’s wrong.

But knowing me, I’m problem just finding something problematic to focus on so I can stop thinking about everything going on with school.

  • I’ve never been good with social situations. I usually freak out and hide when friends ask me to go to parties with them. I slowly shut down before being dragged off to a bar. I’ll put up a fight just so I won’t have to go through with meeting new people. Or if I can, I just find a reason to cancel and stay home to read.
  • It gets better, I can’t read nonverbal cues. If someone is bored with me I have no idea. And I can’t tell if I’ve upset someone. So sometimes I don’t talk at all because I don’t know if I should. And sometimes I can’t stop talking for fear I’ve already said something wrong so now I need to cover it up. And other times I won’t talk and I’ll just watch the entire group have a conversation, not understanding how they are able to keep the conversation funny…and oh was that a joke? After a while I just start spacing out wondering what my next post will be about.
  • I hate when people think I’m weird. I’m not weird. I just get lost in my thoughts, a lot. Writing is the only way I can really explain what happens, because when I start talking I can’t stop. But sometimes that happens in my writing too. I call it word vomit.
  • And I get really frustrated when people don’t tell me exactly what they want. I’m really bad with reading between the lines. By ignoring me you aren’t making me more interested, you’re actually making me so frustrated that I stop caring. And the only reason I continue to talk to you is because I genuinely just want to know why you stopped. Not for emotional reasons, but because I don’t understand why someone would stop wanting to talk to me. Well I have an idea, but I like exact reasons.

I don’t understand why people are just able to fall in line with dating rules/life rules. I find them so complicated and I’d rather not do any kind of dance, I’d rather someone just be blunt with me so I know exactly what they are thinking. Instead of having to worry about if I just said something wrong and by then you are already on another topic but I can’t focus on what you are saying because I am still trying to figure out if you are upset.

I’ve always felt like this, and I just never really thought anything of it until my abnormal psychology class/googling on a cloudy day led me to believe that I could be more different than I already am. But, Like I’ve said before, I’m a big over analyzer and I sometimes get so involved with what is going on I need to start searching for a cause of some abnormal behavior. That is, in all likely hood, completely normal but it just happens to be showing itself at an inconvenient time.

So I realize that I am just reading into behavior that is perfectly normal, and I also understand that because of certain things happening I am trying to focus on other things. But I still can’t help but think that maybe there is an explination for why I am the way I am.