- Being an editor is really what I want to do.
- Interns and assistants may have low pay and little experience but they hold so much power in publishing. SO. MUCH. POWER.
- People in children's publishing are generally so sweet and helpful and they really want to teach you the craft and work with you so you can do the best possible job.
- They're also big on sharing. Food. Books. Knowledge. Gossip. Keys. Sharing is caring.
- HR is not as hellish as it seems. In fact, it's way less hellish than college administration buildings.
- People work late but rarely complain because they love what they do, or at the very least care. Very few people ACTUALLY leave at 5 because they want to make sure as much gets done as possible.
- One of the most important qualities in editorial is that you've read a lot of books and you've lived. Seriously.
- Much phone calls. Many meetings. Such socializing.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
What I've Learned As An Intern (1)
(Why is this labelled part 1, you ask? Because there will hopefully be other parts based on other internships.)
Sunday, March 9, 2014
The Mental Health Balance
I am an introvert.
I can muddle along just fine and make casual conversation with strangers, but when given the choice, I'll wait over ten minutes for the next subway instead of the current crowded one. It takes a lot of mental and physical energy for me to want to go out and be social most of the time. Getting through two days of classes and one day of work is enough to make me crash pretty hard in the three or four days after. I won't go out, I'll just stay in bed, watching TV shows and movies and reading, unable to do anything else because I'm just so tired and I hate it because I have work to do and good friends to see and I live in New York City for crying out loud. But that's my reality and I came to accept that.
This past week, I had a couple of errands to run and my roommate had some stuff to do and we needed to go grocery shopping. So, on Thursday, we set out. My roommate I could handle doing it with because I'm obviously comfortable with her and we were going to familiar places. Bookstores, grocery store, nothing complicated.
Two books, a new tote bag, many groceries and a whole lot of wallet regret later, I returned home. Slept a lot that night and my weekend of alone time began...but I wasn't really tired.
I went to the post office and I grabbed some things I craved, but not everything, and I was able to do work. I had energy. I felt up to doing things. I spent most of Saturday sleeping too, and didn't even get dressed or make it to the mailbox, but I felt awake and alive and good. I was productive.
Today, I got myself up and went to church and took myself to my favorite bakery and came home, then went out again for a couple things I'd missed Thursday and I got more work done.
I've gotten very little sleep this weekend, but I've read a ton and I've been productive and I feel good. I feel better than I have the past couple of weekends after three or four days of mostly sitting at home. I feel relaxed.
Unfortunately, relaxation apparently comes after torture to my wallet. As importance as my mental health is to me, I just can't do this every weekend.
So, it's back to the drawing board on how to keep myself mentally and emotionally stable enough to get through school. After a weekend trip to my parents' to shop and get pampered on their dime. And a trip to a wedding mostly on their dime. And two weeks later a trip back to their house. And then two weeks after that, I'm on spring break...
Alright, maybe I won't be going back to the drawing board anytime soon. But, it's the thought that counts, right?
--Julie
I can muddle along just fine and make casual conversation with strangers, but when given the choice, I'll wait over ten minutes for the next subway instead of the current crowded one. It takes a lot of mental and physical energy for me to want to go out and be social most of the time. Getting through two days of classes and one day of work is enough to make me crash pretty hard in the three or four days after. I won't go out, I'll just stay in bed, watching TV shows and movies and reading, unable to do anything else because I'm just so tired and I hate it because I have work to do and good friends to see and I live in New York City for crying out loud. But that's my reality and I came to accept that.
This past week, I had a couple of errands to run and my roommate had some stuff to do and we needed to go grocery shopping. So, on Thursday, we set out. My roommate I could handle doing it with because I'm obviously comfortable with her and we were going to familiar places. Bookstores, grocery store, nothing complicated.
Two books, a new tote bag, many groceries and a whole lot of wallet regret later, I returned home. Slept a lot that night and my weekend of alone time began...but I wasn't really tired.
I went to the post office and I grabbed some things I craved, but not everything, and I was able to do work. I had energy. I felt up to doing things. I spent most of Saturday sleeping too, and didn't even get dressed or make it to the mailbox, but I felt awake and alive and good. I was productive.
Today, I got myself up and went to church and took myself to my favorite bakery and came home, then went out again for a couple things I'd missed Thursday and I got more work done.
I've gotten very little sleep this weekend, but I've read a ton and I've been productive and I feel good. I feel better than I have the past couple of weekends after three or four days of mostly sitting at home. I feel relaxed.
Unfortunately, relaxation apparently comes after torture to my wallet. As importance as my mental health is to me, I just can't do this every weekend.
So, it's back to the drawing board on how to keep myself mentally and emotionally stable enough to get through school. After a weekend trip to my parents' to shop and get pampered on their dime. And a trip to a wedding mostly on their dime. And two weeks later a trip back to their house. And then two weeks after that, I'm on spring break...
Alright, maybe I won't be going back to the drawing board anytime soon. But, it's the thought that counts, right?
--Julie
Monday, February 10, 2014
Deleting Things From Your Resume at 19
I got bored sitting in class and asked for people to ask questions and whatnot. Someone asked how I got around to doing all that I do. That's a rather complicated question since I've done...a lot. So, blog post!
I was 14 when I was first asked to join a book blog. I didn't take it very seriously at first, only writing a couple of reviews between the February when I was invited and the fall. It's been five years as of this month.
In November of that year, I was avoiding working on my NaNoWriMo book. I only had a few thousand words left and it was the second to last day of the month. I stumbled across a book blog - maybe on twitter? Maybe some other way? This part is fuzzy to me, but I found one. And through that blog, I found another, and so on and so forth. I realized this was something I already did, but I wanted to take it seriously. I wanted to be a blog with a bigger following and I wanted to be friends with all these people, and I wanted to be entering contests and getting ARCs through them, and eventually, on my own.
I took a day to finish my NaNo, then on December 1, talked with Lanna about setting up the blog as a serious thing, like all these others I'd found.
Over the next year, I did a lot of blogging and a lot of tweeting and a lot of fangirl-emailing authors. It was about seven months before I got my first ARC, and they haven't really stopped coming in. I started connecting with authors over my love of their books. Then I began learning more about books before they came out, before the ARCs, as early as book deals, and sometimes even earlier. Then I could connect with authors even more.
These connections with authors lead to some contacting me for beta reading. I'm now a regular reader for one author, I've read for two authors, and I've been trusted to read manuscript versions of several books by those authors.
But I always wanted to do more. I wasn't very social, I had very few friends and lived in an area where there wasn't much to do even if I was. And I wanted to help out authors more. So one day, I offered up being an author assistant. For a little while, I was a sounding board for swag ideas and helped with research.
A little while later, one author I'd connected with asked if I'd read her book. I read it and loved it, so she asked me to be her assistant in May 2012. I've been doing publicity types of things since then.
I started college in New York City in August 2012. I began frequently attending events, which allowed me to meet other bloggers, editors, publicists, and authors. I attended New York Comic Con, which gave me even more room to meet people in an environment not really about books. I continued meeting people and sporadically blogging and in November, made the decision to be a freelance editor. My friend, Brent, was one and there were going to be a couple of openings there, so I happily agreed to join. I kept it quiet for over a month, and it was officially announced early in January 2013.
That spring, I began applying to summer publishing internships. I only had one interview that didn't lead to anything, but as a freshman, it was still encouraging to have that interest.
In May, I went to Teen Author Carnival, but not just as an attendee. I finished moving into my first ever apartment, took a shower, then hustled down to the library to begin set up and prep. A quick dinner break, then we had to start looking after very early arrivals. I spent most of the night in the lobby, directing people to where they wanted to be.
The next day was BEA, my first conference. It was huge and massive and full of people I felt like I knew already. I had several best selling authors recognize me from my twitter picture or handle that I'd worn as a second badge. I'm still not quite over that high.
In August, I branched out from my original freelance editing company to start my own, True Blue Editorial, with another blogger, Tirzah.
I attended NYCC again this past fall, as well as several other events before and after. I began applying to spring internships, just to start getting my resume out there again. I only sent out one before realizing that it wouldn't actually work with my schedule, and I forgot about it. I turned nineteen and spent my first birthday without my family. I continued seeing friends that came to the city and friends that had moved to the city. I continued blogging sporadically and editing and going to school.
In December, I was asked to interview to the one company I applied for. It was an editorial internship at a couple of children's imprints. I interviewed in my last week of classes, returned to campus, and shuffled around my classes, just in case. They had seemed impressed with my freelance editing and my blogging experience, but I didn't get my hopes up. I wrapped up classes and most of my finals and left for my parents' house. I submitted my last assignments and, the next day, got the call offering me the internship and asking when I could start.
I've had to revise and update my resume several times in the past few months, and each time, I've had to delete things. Because 19 year old college sophomores cannot have a resume over one page. It's just too much, you know? But I could, if it wasn't so absurd.
Instead of having a social life or a steadily paying job, I made friends. You could call it "networking" if you wanted, but I really do consider myself friendly with many of these people. These friends are the real reason my resume is so full. They've trusted me - to read for them, to edit with them, to review them, to help publicize them. Blogging sparked a fire in me to help get books out in the world and into reader's hands, then helped me want to make them better. They just kept feeding the fire and making me more ambitious, more desiring of being able to do something.
It's February 10, I've been an intern for a month, and I'm already getting ready to apply for summer internships. They're way more competitive than semester internships, but I'm hoping that future possible employers will see this semester's internship and be as enthused by it as my current employer was by my freelancing. I've now been a freelancer for over a year, at my own company for almost 6 months. I continue helping out as an assistant, though not as efficiently as I used to. I blog sporadically, though I'm now reading a lot of my company's titles which I won't review while I work there. I'm almost halfway through college. And I've realized that I'm going to have to be VERY picky about how social I am to make sure house work and homework gets done. But that works for me because...I'm not really social, unless I'm talking with other publishing people.
So. There you go. That's been my publishing journey to date. Long and rather boring and spanning over five years. It's missing a lot of the little moments that really make this journey worthwhile for me because I could spend AGES on the details. Those are the fun parts, though. The parts that make me want to continue in this crazy ride.
--Julie
I was 14 when I was first asked to join a book blog. I didn't take it very seriously at first, only writing a couple of reviews between the February when I was invited and the fall. It's been five years as of this month.
In November of that year, I was avoiding working on my NaNoWriMo book. I only had a few thousand words left and it was the second to last day of the month. I stumbled across a book blog - maybe on twitter? Maybe some other way? This part is fuzzy to me, but I found one. And through that blog, I found another, and so on and so forth. I realized this was something I already did, but I wanted to take it seriously. I wanted to be a blog with a bigger following and I wanted to be friends with all these people, and I wanted to be entering contests and getting ARCs through them, and eventually, on my own.
I took a day to finish my NaNo, then on December 1, talked with Lanna about setting up the blog as a serious thing, like all these others I'd found.
Over the next year, I did a lot of blogging and a lot of tweeting and a lot of fangirl-emailing authors. It was about seven months before I got my first ARC, and they haven't really stopped coming in. I started connecting with authors over my love of their books. Then I began learning more about books before they came out, before the ARCs, as early as book deals, and sometimes even earlier. Then I could connect with authors even more.
These connections with authors lead to some contacting me for beta reading. I'm now a regular reader for one author, I've read for two authors, and I've been trusted to read manuscript versions of several books by those authors.
But I always wanted to do more. I wasn't very social, I had very few friends and lived in an area where there wasn't much to do even if I was. And I wanted to help out authors more. So one day, I offered up being an author assistant. For a little while, I was a sounding board for swag ideas and helped with research.
A little while later, one author I'd connected with asked if I'd read her book. I read it and loved it, so she asked me to be her assistant in May 2012. I've been doing publicity types of things since then.
I started college in New York City in August 2012. I began frequently attending events, which allowed me to meet other bloggers, editors, publicists, and authors. I attended New York Comic Con, which gave me even more room to meet people in an environment not really about books. I continued meeting people and sporadically blogging and in November, made the decision to be a freelance editor. My friend, Brent, was one and there were going to be a couple of openings there, so I happily agreed to join. I kept it quiet for over a month, and it was officially announced early in January 2013.
That spring, I began applying to summer publishing internships. I only had one interview that didn't lead to anything, but as a freshman, it was still encouraging to have that interest.
In May, I went to Teen Author Carnival, but not just as an attendee. I finished moving into my first ever apartment, took a shower, then hustled down to the library to begin set up and prep. A quick dinner break, then we had to start looking after very early arrivals. I spent most of the night in the lobby, directing people to where they wanted to be.
The next day was BEA, my first conference. It was huge and massive and full of people I felt like I knew already. I had several best selling authors recognize me from my twitter picture or handle that I'd worn as a second badge. I'm still not quite over that high.
In August, I branched out from my original freelance editing company to start my own, True Blue Editorial, with another blogger, Tirzah.
I attended NYCC again this past fall, as well as several other events before and after. I began applying to spring internships, just to start getting my resume out there again. I only sent out one before realizing that it wouldn't actually work with my schedule, and I forgot about it. I turned nineteen and spent my first birthday without my family. I continued seeing friends that came to the city and friends that had moved to the city. I continued blogging sporadically and editing and going to school.
In December, I was asked to interview to the one company I applied for. It was an editorial internship at a couple of children's imprints. I interviewed in my last week of classes, returned to campus, and shuffled around my classes, just in case. They had seemed impressed with my freelance editing and my blogging experience, but I didn't get my hopes up. I wrapped up classes and most of my finals and left for my parents' house. I submitted my last assignments and, the next day, got the call offering me the internship and asking when I could start.
I've had to revise and update my resume several times in the past few months, and each time, I've had to delete things. Because 19 year old college sophomores cannot have a resume over one page. It's just too much, you know? But I could, if it wasn't so absurd.
Instead of having a social life or a steadily paying job, I made friends. You could call it "networking" if you wanted, but I really do consider myself friendly with many of these people. These friends are the real reason my resume is so full. They've trusted me - to read for them, to edit with them, to review them, to help publicize them. Blogging sparked a fire in me to help get books out in the world and into reader's hands, then helped me want to make them better. They just kept feeding the fire and making me more ambitious, more desiring of being able to do something.
It's February 10, I've been an intern for a month, and I'm already getting ready to apply for summer internships. They're way more competitive than semester internships, but I'm hoping that future possible employers will see this semester's internship and be as enthused by it as my current employer was by my freelancing. I've now been a freelancer for over a year, at my own company for almost 6 months. I continue helping out as an assistant, though not as efficiently as I used to. I blog sporadically, though I'm now reading a lot of my company's titles which I won't review while I work there. I'm almost halfway through college. And I've realized that I'm going to have to be VERY picky about how social I am to make sure house work and homework gets done. But that works for me because...I'm not really social, unless I'm talking with other publishing people.
So. There you go. That's been my publishing journey to date. Long and rather boring and spanning over five years. It's missing a lot of the little moments that really make this journey worthwhile for me because I could spend AGES on the details. Those are the fun parts, though. The parts that make me want to continue in this crazy ride.
--Julie
Saturday, February 1, 2014
January Disappeared
Things went kind of crazy town in January.
I haven't been actively eating better, but I've generally been more active, since I never just sat at home. I've also unintentionally been eating better since my favorite lunch place at work is a sandwich shop where I can get grilled cheese or Eataly for fruit, and my favorite lunch place near school is a diner where I get a ton of vegetables with my meal. Going to school/lunch on campus also means walking up/down several flights of stairs or hills.
I've already pushed boundaries on my anxiety by going to ALAMW. Every single part of that trip was a new experience and I didn't break down or decide not to go through with it. I'd been able to come up with all kinds of reasons to go, but I do think at the heart of it, I wanted to prove to myself I could.
In the four weeks of my part time internship, I've worked...a lot. And I love it and still genuinely want to go in every day, even if that would mean waking up at 7 am. It gives me more confidence that I'm going after the right career and I'm in a really good office space with really good people.
I'm handling a really full schedule...decently. I need to work a little better at balancing sleep, but even this week, when I didn't get any time to recover from being really extroverted at a conference before starting classes and going back to work, I did decently. I found time to relax and still get some things done. I...crashed really, really, really hard today, but part of that was a headache every time I tried to get up. And you know, it's the first week at Schedule Full Throttle. It'll take some adjusting and I'm doing okay with that.
Despite it being a stressful time, I've still been in a good place mentally for a longer stretch of time than I can remember. And that's a wonderful feeling.
All of the things I've mentioned would probably be on my list of resolutions to handle, yet I've been handling them without actively trying. So, you can definitely say I'm looking forward to the rest of 2014 and what leaving teenage years behind will be like.
--Julie
- I picked up three freelance jobs, one for January, one for next month, one for April.
- I started my internship and I love it and frankly want to spend all of my time there.
- My mom had surgery and everything's going really well and she's already taught herself to drive with one arm. I haven't checked in since my last visit home, but I'm betting she's planning to be back at work soon, if she's not already.
- This past week, I started up my classes again. I'm only taking 4 classes and going to campus twice a week, but I spend 7 hours on campus one of those days and 9 hours on campus the other. This week, two of my classes were cancelled on the shorter day and learned one of my classes is only happening on my shorter day, so I still haven't REALLY experienced a full week.
- I took a spontaneous trip to Philadelphia for ALAMW. I'd never been on a trip without my parents before, nor had I ever been to Philadelphia, nor had I ever taken a bus that wasn't school related. I also don't do spontaneous very well. But I booked my bus ticket Friday afternoon, took a bus Saturday morning, and decided by Saturday afternoon to stay overnight and came back Sunday.
I haven't been actively eating better, but I've generally been more active, since I never just sat at home. I've also unintentionally been eating better since my favorite lunch place at work is a sandwich shop where I can get grilled cheese or Eataly for fruit, and my favorite lunch place near school is a diner where I get a ton of vegetables with my meal. Going to school/lunch on campus also means walking up/down several flights of stairs or hills.
I've already pushed boundaries on my anxiety by going to ALAMW. Every single part of that trip was a new experience and I didn't break down or decide not to go through with it. I'd been able to come up with all kinds of reasons to go, but I do think at the heart of it, I wanted to prove to myself I could.
In the four weeks of my part time internship, I've worked...a lot. And I love it and still genuinely want to go in every day, even if that would mean waking up at 7 am. It gives me more confidence that I'm going after the right career and I'm in a really good office space with really good people.
I'm handling a really full schedule...decently. I need to work a little better at balancing sleep, but even this week, when I didn't get any time to recover from being really extroverted at a conference before starting classes and going back to work, I did decently. I found time to relax and still get some things done. I...crashed really, really, really hard today, but part of that was a headache every time I tried to get up. And you know, it's the first week at Schedule Full Throttle. It'll take some adjusting and I'm doing okay with that.
Despite it being a stressful time, I've still been in a good place mentally for a longer stretch of time than I can remember. And that's a wonderful feeling.
All of the things I've mentioned would probably be on my list of resolutions to handle, yet I've been handling them without actively trying. So, you can definitely say I'm looking forward to the rest of 2014 and what leaving teenage years behind will be like.
--Julie
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
The 2013 Listing
The Firsts:
--Julie
- First Concert - Marianas Trench
- First Apartment - Acquired keys May 17
- First Job - Freelance editing
- First Company Founded - True Blue editorial
- First Job Interview - Didn't get the job
- First Job Offer - Only took a second interview
- First Scheduled Author Meeting - Coffee date with Jodi Meadows
- First Media Screening - The Book Thief in the Fox News Building
- First Broadway Show as a NYC Resident - The Heiress
- First Broadway Musical as a NYC Resident - First Date
- First BEA - Holy Crap
- First Birthday Away from Family - One of the greatest I can remember
- First Smartphone - iPhone 5
- Reign
- Downton Abbey
- Scandal
- Sleepy Hollow
- The Voice
- Doctor Who
- Sister Wives
- Glee
- The Daily Show
- The Colbert Report
- How I Met Your Mother
- Call the Midwife (finished)
- Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 (finished)
- Game of Thrones
- Veronica Mars (finished)
- Warm Bodies
- City of Bones
- Catching Fire x2
- Thor 2 x2
- Despicable Me 2
- Austenland
- Will Champlin
- Imagine Dragons
- Escalating P!nk love
- Katy Perry? Maybe?
- Caroline Pennell
- About 5 other people from The Voice
- First Date soundtrack
- Once soundtrack
- BEA
- NYCC
- None. Because I think I'm on to something and just want to keep that going.
--Julie
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Bring on 2014
2013 has been a tricky year. My first full year as a semi-adult, living away from home. The first year I've really tried tackling inner demons. I've seen a few phrases tossed around to explain it. A Learning Year. The Character Development Year.
I don't really care what it's called. It sucked.
I still haven't done a lot of what I want to in life, like finishing a manuscript or properly tackling my TBR pile. I still haven't dealt with my inner demons properly and in some aspects, even made them worse. I've isolated myself a lot and still suck at making friends and keeping them. I haven't lost weight (maybe some? I dunno) and I didn't get straight As (though I have raised my GPA quite a bit since this time last year). I haven't brought myself back up to my personal standards of blogging. I made this list last year of things I wanted to do in the next 1001 days. I've added a couple of things to it since then, but the list has had 43 things on it so far. I've finished 7 of those things. I have until almost the end of 2015 to finish the rest of these things, and there are a number in progress, but to think I've only done 7? Makes me feel like a failure.
I try to remind myself of all the good. I got to go to fancy cocktail parties and movie screenings and met a decent number of famous actors. Even if I haven't lost weight, I've built muscle. I live in an apartment that's generally a good environment for me. I've released some parental-related steam without them really realizing, and therefore without upsetting anyone. I've made it clear where my political interests lie. I've improved my baking/cooking skills. I've had a lot of fun with the friends I do have. I've discovered a ton of new favorite authors. I've been a freelance editor for almost a full year and have even launched my own editing company. I went to BEA for the first time and NYCC for the second time and did it so much better this time. I met a lot of my favorite authors, one who is also a new friend and two who have been long term friends. I was recognized by Veronica Roth and Sarah MacLean. I was interviewed in PW. I got to take an entire class on Jane Austen and another on 20th Century Europe and I'm halfway through my Publishing Certificate classes.
The problem is, a lot of these were one-off events and the Happy of them only lasted so long.
I'm obviously not going to call this The Worst Year Ever, one because there was just too much good, and two because well...I feel like a lot of people (myself included) tend to call EVERY year the Worst Year Ever. And I don't feel like I want to add this year to the endless list.
I already have January laid out in front of me. I start my first in-office internship at a major company. My mom has surgery and has limited use of one arm for six weeks and I will be unable to help. I'll go see my fourth musical, Newsies. I'll return, by train, for another orthodontist appointment and somehow going to visit my grandma for her 88th or 89th birthday. Return to the city and work and start school, a semester where I'm taking four classes, three M/W and one just Wednesday.
Then the rest of the year. I've already had it confirmed that my braces will be off before this semester ends. I'll have a steady paycheck. I'll have a lighter semester. I won't be moving again and therefore won't have to worry about getting to BEA. I'll turn twenty. I'll start prepping for my thesis and study abroad. I'll be halfway through college. I'm finally meeting my best friend, if nothing goes wrong.
There's so much good, and yet I'm already plagued with guilt knowing my mom was hoping I would stick around all break and help her around the house. I hate having to think about how to feasibly work as much as possible and also transport myself to/from the city without my mom driving. All of these awesome things, yet I won't be able to enjoy it much with this weighing over me.
I have faith that 2014 is going to be better. It seems promising already. But I can also already guarantee it'll come with some difficulties I'm going to have to manage. Somehow. I think I'm ready.
--Julie
I don't really care what it's called. It sucked.
I still haven't done a lot of what I want to in life, like finishing a manuscript or properly tackling my TBR pile. I still haven't dealt with my inner demons properly and in some aspects, even made them worse. I've isolated myself a lot and still suck at making friends and keeping them. I haven't lost weight (maybe some? I dunno) and I didn't get straight As (though I have raised my GPA quite a bit since this time last year). I haven't brought myself back up to my personal standards of blogging. I made this list last year of things I wanted to do in the next 1001 days. I've added a couple of things to it since then, but the list has had 43 things on it so far. I've finished 7 of those things. I have until almost the end of 2015 to finish the rest of these things, and there are a number in progress, but to think I've only done 7? Makes me feel like a failure.
I try to remind myself of all the good. I got to go to fancy cocktail parties and movie screenings and met a decent number of famous actors. Even if I haven't lost weight, I've built muscle. I live in an apartment that's generally a good environment for me. I've released some parental-related steam without them really realizing, and therefore without upsetting anyone. I've made it clear where my political interests lie. I've improved my baking/cooking skills. I've had a lot of fun with the friends I do have. I've discovered a ton of new favorite authors. I've been a freelance editor for almost a full year and have even launched my own editing company. I went to BEA for the first time and NYCC for the second time and did it so much better this time. I met a lot of my favorite authors, one who is also a new friend and two who have been long term friends. I was recognized by Veronica Roth and Sarah MacLean. I was interviewed in PW. I got to take an entire class on Jane Austen and another on 20th Century Europe and I'm halfway through my Publishing Certificate classes.
The problem is, a lot of these were one-off events and the Happy of them only lasted so long.
I'm obviously not going to call this The Worst Year Ever, one because there was just too much good, and two because well...I feel like a lot of people (myself included) tend to call EVERY year the Worst Year Ever. And I don't feel like I want to add this year to the endless list.
I already have January laid out in front of me. I start my first in-office internship at a major company. My mom has surgery and has limited use of one arm for six weeks and I will be unable to help. I'll go see my fourth musical, Newsies. I'll return, by train, for another orthodontist appointment and somehow going to visit my grandma for her 88th or 89th birthday. Return to the city and work and start school, a semester where I'm taking four classes, three M/W and one just Wednesday.
Then the rest of the year. I've already had it confirmed that my braces will be off before this semester ends. I'll have a steady paycheck. I'll have a lighter semester. I won't be moving again and therefore won't have to worry about getting to BEA. I'll turn twenty. I'll start prepping for my thesis and study abroad. I'll be halfway through college. I'm finally meeting my best friend, if nothing goes wrong.
There's so much good, and yet I'm already plagued with guilt knowing my mom was hoping I would stick around all break and help her around the house. I hate having to think about how to feasibly work as much as possible and also transport myself to/from the city without my mom driving. All of these awesome things, yet I won't be able to enjoy it much with this weighing over me.
I have faith that 2014 is going to be better. It seems promising already. But I can also already guarantee it'll come with some difficulties I'm going to have to manage. Somehow. I think I'm ready.
--Julie
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
The Final Stretch
It's almost freaking done.
I have 5 days of classes left. Tomorrow, then four next week.
By the end of classes, I'll have turned in two papers and taken a final. Then I take a quick trip to my parents', then back to do a presentation and write three more papers. Then there will be one last paper due at a still unknown date.
In that time, I also have Christmas shopping to do, some time with friends to fit in, a Broadway show to see, lots of cleaning to do, volunteer hours, desperately attempting to switch classes and a few other things. I also have to deal with the insane temperature jumps that most of the north east seems to be going through, which means it'll be really warm for a couple of days and my heat will not be shut off so I'll be sleeping even less, but I have to hang around because I'm expecting packages.
This semester wasn't particularly challenging, but mentally...I wasn't doing well. One particular assignment caused stress that lead to physical, debilitating pain, then sickness I couldn't quite shake for almost a month. I was constantly either sacrificing sleep or sacrificing eating because I just didn't care. I'm getting better but not by much. I could use a quieter month, much of which will be spent at my parents for holiday/babysitting/wisdom teeth purposes, so I can read and edit and sleep and not worry about money or anything for a little while.
Just a couple more weeks to get through.
--Julie
I have 5 days of classes left. Tomorrow, then four next week.
By the end of classes, I'll have turned in two papers and taken a final. Then I take a quick trip to my parents', then back to do a presentation and write three more papers. Then there will be one last paper due at a still unknown date.
In that time, I also have Christmas shopping to do, some time with friends to fit in, a Broadway show to see, lots of cleaning to do, volunteer hours, desperately attempting to switch classes and a few other things. I also have to deal with the insane temperature jumps that most of the north east seems to be going through, which means it'll be really warm for a couple of days and my heat will not be shut off so I'll be sleeping even less, but I have to hang around because I'm expecting packages.
This semester wasn't particularly challenging, but mentally...I wasn't doing well. One particular assignment caused stress that lead to physical, debilitating pain, then sickness I couldn't quite shake for almost a month. I was constantly either sacrificing sleep or sacrificing eating because I just didn't care. I'm getting better but not by much. I could use a quieter month, much of which will be spent at my parents for holiday/babysitting/wisdom teeth purposes, so I can read and edit and sleep and not worry about money or anything for a little while.
Just a couple more weeks to get through.
--Julie
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