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

January Disappeared

Things went kind of crazy town in January.

• 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 think this is why I didn't want to set New Year's resolutions. I knew this year was going to be turning life as I knew it on it's head and my list of stuff I've done kind of proves in.

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

The 2013 Listing

The Firsts:

• 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

The Growing TV Addiction

• 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)

Movies Seen in Theaters

• Warm Bodies
• City of Bones
• Catching Fire x2
• Thor 2 x2
• Despicable Me 2
• Austenland

New Music Loves:

• 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

Conventions:

• BEA
• NYCC

2014 Resolutions:

• None. Because I think I'm on to something and just want to keep that going.

Happy new year, guys. I'm going to continue watching Pitch Perfect, then try to read enough things to get my reading goal according to goodreads.

--Julie

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

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

The Little Things

As always seems to happen once a month, I find myself ready to be out of the city. Back with my parents and cats and brother, even if it means sleeping on a couch bed and losing control of what I get to do and eat each day. I still get to fall asleep each night with at least one cat curled up against me and not pay for food or laundry for a few days.

I thought I was going back to my parents tonight (last night? Suppose it depends on your definition of night and day). My mom was going to pick me up on her way back from her MRI or maybe my sister on her way from Virginia, but the weather looked like snow, so suddenly...maybe I wasn't. I tried checking in, but there was no response, so I packed before going to my night class. Cleaned my room up. Took out a lot of garbage. Did a lot of dishes. Made sure that if things were going as I thought and someone was waiting when I got back from class, I could just grab my laundry bag and my suit case and go.

Once my sister texted me while I was in class and said she was driving, could I call her back? I got hope that I was getting picked up. I rushed out the door, frustrated at my professor for continuing to babble ten minutes after ending her power point. I called my sister back but there was no answer. I went home. I played with my new make up and I read and I tried not to unpack anything, really. I moved my bags into the living room so I wouldn't have to navigate them while in a rush. Finally around 9:30, I gave in to how tired I was and lay down, planning on taking a series of 15 minute naps. with my phone by my head and my purse next to the pillow so when I got the call, I'd know and be able to grab my phone and its charger and go.

I woke up and it was 11:30. I didn't have any missed calls.

It's now going on 2 am and I've come to accept that nobody's coming tonight, so I've unpacked a couple of things and have to dig through my laundry bag for my pajamas and my towel and pull out my getting ready supplies and one of my books from my suitcase. I couldn't have another meal of just soup, so I went to Popeye's and ordered a crapload of carbs, including some food to act as breakfast/lunch tomorrow.

I think I'm mostly upset that she just...didn't acknowledge what was going on. I've been totally left in the dark today. I knew I called back half an hour later, but I also left a voice mail, explaining why and that I was ready to go, but was she coming? An answer would have saved me a lot of grief. And I am upset I'm not there. I told my brother I'd be there tonight, even though he probably wouldn't see me until he got home from school, anyway. But he has a half day and he expected me to be there when he got home around 1 and I wanted to be there and ready to watch some movies with him. I wanted to sleep with my cats tonight. I wanted a little bit of extra time with my parents before the crazy descends Thursday.

I wanted someone to tell me what was going on. It's not so much to ask to be kept informed about matters pertaining to yourself, is it?

Having had two hikes to class, one uphill and one upstairs, and two trips into the post office to make 4 since Friday, I've decided I get a bath. I suppose that's the upside to all of this, really. I can't take a bath at my parents.

The Tale of a Birthday

Because, really, you can't make this shit up.

• Just out of Catching Fire, a group of friends and I went to a diner across the street right around midnight. I got root beer and chocolate pancakes and all was well.
• Got to walk a block in a gorgeous night in midtown. It was totally cool that the closest train wasn't running up to my apartment tonight. It was lovely out! And the other train was a block closer to my apartment anyway!
• Within a stop or two, someone came on and brought a stink to that subway. Which was running local. 
• Then I somehow either was oblivious to my stop, or the subway skipped my stop and suddenly I was in the Bronx. I had to wait ten minutes for a train that was Manhattan-bound. Saw at least three rats and got something in my eye that made it seem like I was crying while playing Candy Crush.
• Got home. Maneuvered around house guest sleeping on floor. Found pile of still dirty dishes in the sink. Then I did start crying. Got horrid sense that nobody else was going to do them, but everyone else would disappear for the rest of the weekend.
• Found my room felt like a sauna, even with the door open. Meaning I'd be overheated going to bed. In November.
• Had it confirmed that USPS had tried to deliver a package I've been desperately waiting on for almost two weeks. Twice. But no sign of slip I would need to go pick it up at post office. And as I knew I'd be out for several hours the next day, I couldn't request a redelivery. 
• Watched Reign because fuck it.
• Fell into a spiral of self loathing and questioning the importance of my existence in the shower. Then had the curtain rod collapse on me. Postponed further self loathing to reposition the shower rod and finish washing up so I could get the fuck out of there.
• Stole my brush out of the bathroom because I was 99% sure somebody else was using it without having asked.
• Watch Glee at 5 am because really, what the fuck else could go wrong at this point.
• Fell into super restless sleep because my room was so overheated. It included lots of waking up with too little sleeps and feeling like death.
• Still managed to have a missed call.
• Confirmed that I had to go to the post office without a package slip.
• Opened a present from my parents. It was a spinning TARDIS.
  
• Tried to look through Facebook messages. Was denied this. By Facebook.
• Walked to post office. Got the phone call from my grandparents while walking, and therefore had to half-shout to be heard over traffic.
• Went to the post office. Was informed they would have tried redelivery today, but went to go look for it for me. Five minutes later, she comes back and informs me it's too far back, write down my number and she'll call me when the package resurfaces. So I can come to the post office AGAIN. BECAUSE EVERYONE LOVES GOING TO THE POST OFFICE, RIGHT? 
• With a few minutes and best friend texting, I calmed down and did my makeup. Even though I didn't have my new products to play with. 
  
•  Left for lunch with a friend, still in a mood. As the Subway Gods often do, the train I needed showed up within a few minutes and I was able to get a seat. Same happened with my transfer.
• She didn't know it was my birthday, but while in line to grab Shake Shack, I mentioned it in relation to my feelings about when Christmas celebrating can start (there ARE ALREADY SALVATION ARMY PEOPLE OUT). She offered to buy me fries. Being starving and knowing I'd need to orders of fries, I asked to to get me a creamsicle float instead.
  
• Got a table next to a heater and spent two hours eating and talking.
• Went to Argo Tea where I got a large chocolate mint for myself and a table for the two of us (which is nearly impossible in this particular spot). Sat and talked for two hours over tea, each of us buying more tea before leaving. Got phone call from dad and brother while in Argo to wish me a happy birthday.
• Walked towards Union Square and find the Christmas market is up, so we wandered through it, not browsing, but still taking in some of what was there.
• Realized I have a voice mail, and figure it's from the post office. Apparently, my package still hadn't been located, so she promised to check again in the morning and call me again. Spirits lifted about not going back to the post office AND the way this woman goes out of her way to keep me posted.
• Get to Strand and make a game plan of starting in the basement and working our way up to the second floor. Spend three hours there, browsing and chatting. She has to make trips all over the store to return some of her arm-fulls of books. I only put back two. Got a phone call from my mom with family details and Thanksgiving details and happy birthdays and she told me to enjoy cake and that my brother picked out a card for me that she hoped would arrive today. I almost cried when she told me he didn't like that I was away from her for the first time on my birthday, but...I was in the middle of some non-fiction shelves about Germany. Also while browsing, had a guy tell an employee he was going to load his arms with as many books as he could carry. The employee wished him a happy birthday and they separated. Friend and I laughed and she said "That's so weird! It's his birthday too!" Guy was apparently not that far away, and came back and said "Happy birthday." Sadly, I think I forgot to tell him the same.
  
• Leave Strand and texting my roommate, she instructs me to eat cake which I didn't have, so therefore I had to go find some. As its now almost 9, I ask friend if she wants to go to Times Square, our best option.
• After walking 6 most of Times Square, ultimately turn back to go to Chevy's to eat real food. Chevy's was always my favorite Mexican place and it was something my mom and I did after seeing movies before it closed. Ate tacos, ensuring I wouldn't have to make food or do dishes that night. Then ordered a brownie sundae that I mostly conquered.
• Got on the subway home which was running fine, despite signs at my friend and my station saying they wouldn't be. Quickly got seats and settled in, continuing to chat.
• Found two cards, a tidied up, empty living room with a light on, and a mostly-empty sink when I got home. Rejoiced slightly about the lack of dishes, alone time, and no stumbling in the dark. Opened the cards and found a sweet one from my parents with a generous check in it. Then there was this one, including a note that he had picked it out himself.
  
  
  
  My brother is 9 (9.5 as of my birthday) and has never been good at saying how he feels. When he calls me and is ready to hang up, or when I'm leaving to go back to the city, I have to force an "I love you" out of him. But when I am at my parents, he likes trying to find ways to spend time with me, without saying exactly that, but asking if we can watch a movie or some videos together. Since learning to use a phone this semester, I've been getting at least one phone call from him between visits to my parents', usually to tell me things like the cats are getting along better or he figured out how to open his locker on the second day of school or he got his violin and wants to play for me over the phone. He doesn't talk about his feelings because that's not something we do in our family. So to get this card from him, knowing he picked it out and filled in things and all is what set me over the edge. And I cried again. Because for him to do this is a huge deal.
  
  
  Things I Got as Gifts:
  •  A TARDIS sweatshirt and spinning TARDIS from parents, plus money and phone calls (they don't call their kids unless someone's dead, my mom's pregnant, or it's a birthday)
  • Money from grandparents
  • $25 gift card to Starbucks from aunt
  • The card from my brother
  • College gossip from my roommate
  • A creamsicle float from my friend
  • Books, favorite foods, and tea from myself
  • A crapload of clean dishes from our house guest
  • A Doctor Who/Hunger Games parody video to my Facebook wall from my sister
  • Happy birthdays from a lot of friends.
  
  
  I had lost all faith in today being anything close to good before even going to bed last night, but it ended up being one of the greatest birthdays I've ever had. That's not saying much (I always get excited about birthdays and usually they're not that great), but still. It was very much MY day. And the little things that happened and small gestures from random people and my brother's card just kind of made it perfect.
  
  
  Now that this chronicle is done and all birthday wishes responded to (besides one aunt who said she hope things are going well here, so I feel obligated to ask about how things are for her? maybe?), I'm going to watch Scandal, then take a bath with a romance novel.
  
  
  --Julie