Week 3: My Favorite Homework Spot

What's better than having a coffee shop all to yourself?

That's often the case when I visit Crate's Coffee House in Lake Orion. I'm usually accompanied by a couple other people in the shop if it's not totally empty. Whenever I need to get out of the house to do homework, I opt for smaller, hole-in-the-wall places like Crate's rather than Starbucks or Cafe O'Bears.

Today's a little bit different. My sister tagged along with me this trip. I ordered my usual vanilla latte and we sat down to get to work. She was leisurely writing her story, and I, on the other hand, was juggling all of the work for this class with a lecture for my public relations course. The assignment for that class didn't seem too bad, so I put that on the back burner for a bit.

Over the course of an hour and a half, I've seen a handful of people walk in and out with their orders while others have set up their tables similarly to my own: notebooks, pens, a laptop, and of course their warm, inviting cup of coffee on this chilly January day. I got up to throw away my trash and saw that the place was rather busy for a Sunday afternoon 20 minutes before closing.

One of the factors that draws me back to Crate's again and again is the atmosphere. Today there's indie music playing in the background over the light chatter of the other patrons. It's the perfect amount of noise to get my work done--nothing too loud and crazy, but just enough to let me focus on the tasks at hand.

It's important to have a place to go when I need to get away from my normal workspace. Over the past two semesters, I've had 4 online classes. I find myself getting easily distracted when I work from home. With my to-do list in hand, I try and make my way over to Crate's at least once a week. Even if I don't get all my work done, it's nice to be in the atmosphere of a coffee shop.

Week 3: Strangers

Earlier today when I was cleaning out my room, I found my yearbooks ranging from kindergarten to senior year. Once I blew the dust off the covers, I dove in. I was excited.

There's so much going on in those books: history of friendships that once were, horrible Lifetouch pictures, the ever-changing yearbook slang, etc. Just reading the word "HAGS" in almost every signature from my elementary school books made me laugh-cringe. Some of the signatures in later yearbooks made me wonder, "Where are they now? Do they remember the good times and jokes we had?"

I moved to a new town in the middle of 7th grade. It was rough, as anyone could expect, to leave the classmates you've grown up with and start over as an awkward middle schooler. So I found myself in an interesting situation: I still communicate with/"see" (via Facebook) most of my high school classmates. The other half? No clue. Every so often I'll conduct a mass Facebook search and see what my old friends are up to.

You might be thinking, do you send them a message to reconnect? Nah. I guess I've got an underlying fear that I've been forgotten--I'm sure I'm not alone in this. But another part of me doesn't care that much. Sometimes it's best to leave people in the past. I see it this way: if we haven't kept in touch for so long (like, almost a decade), I'm not really one for rekindling a friendship. But until the day I do decide to reconnect, my old classmates and I will remain strangers.

Week 3: A Week in Review

What an eventful week.

I went to my first hockey game on Sunday with my brother, sister, and sister-in-law. Nothing like some good ol' family bonding over pizza, beer, and hockey. The Red Wings played the Buffalo Sabres and totally destroyed them. There's nothing quite like hearing the crowd roar after a goal in person rather than on TV. While this was my first game, it certainly won't be my last. I can't wait til the next time I can make it down to the Joe.

The highlight of my week: attending the Zola Jesus concert on Monday at a bar in Ferndale. I'm not one for the whole bar scene, but getting out of my comfort zone was definitely worth the experience. She's one of my favorite artists and her live performance did not disappoint. I'm still not over this show. Truthfully, I probably won't be for a while. I keep going back to look at the videos and pictures I took just to relive the joy I felt in those moments. If you have the chance to see your favorite singer or band live, by all means, do it.

As you can probably guess, waking up the next morning was tough. Tuesdays are easily my least favorite day of the week because they always seem to drag on. I got to campus around noon to start work at the Post. That lasted until about 4 o'clock which was perfect timing for me to grab dinner and do homework before my class started at 6 p.m.

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days spent at home working on the assignments and readings I hadn't been able to get to earlier in the week. They're finally building houses (two of them at once--imagine the noise!) on the lots across from my house after almost 10 years of vacancy. What does any music lover in that situation? That's right--they let one of their favorite records drown out the noise. I honestly didn't get much work done. That's what staying up until 2 a.m. is for.

Today I did my time at the Golden Arches (aka working my weekend job at McDonald's). Although today's shift wasn't too bad now that I think about it. I'm pretty sure I got a total of zero rude customers. Mark this day down in the books. 

After a semester like Fall 2014, I welcome these kinds of weeks with open arms. My days were so structured (at least that's what it felt like) that I felt like I couldn't do anything besides drive out to Troy for my internship twice a week, go to class twice a week, and work on the weekends (you guessed it - twice a week). Here's to hoping for a more eventful final semester.

Week 3: The Impending Job Hunt

Today started off like every other morning: wake up, check phone, lay in bed, check phone again, etc. I finally pulled myself out of bed and started a pot of coffee. Getting out of bed is a little bit easier knowing that my coffee mug will soon be filled with liquid happiness. Coffee is everything.

I drank my morning coffee with a guest today: the LinkedIn Jobs section. I found a few that suited my interests, read the descriptions, and closed out of the tab with a sense of anxiety. The thought of sending my resume out and applying to jobs for post-grad life has been looming over my head for the past few months. It's such an exciting thing to think about--working in a field that genuinely interests me. But it's also kinda terrifying.

Later on I received a call from my professor slash new "boss" about the internship I should have started a month ago, but hey, better late than never, right?

Goals for this internship:

• Overcome my fear of leaving voicemails. They are the literal worst.
• Learn how to make a pitch so irresistible that people will be calling me
• Get paid big bucks (...Right.) while leaving nervous, possibly slurred-word voicemails

Maybe I'm being a little too hard on myself. Whatever. I just hope I won't stretch myself too thin this semester with three jobs and school. But that's a whole nother story.

Time for bed. It's almost 1 a.m. and I've got a long day ahead of me. Also my laptop is going to die soon and I'm already comfy in bed and too lazy to get the charger.

All the World's a Stage

It’s important to be aware of how you present yourself to the world, because as the great Shakespeare once said, “all the world’s a stage.”

Face to face communication is hard for some people. Think about everything involved: articulating your thoughts without stumbling on your words, making and keeping eye contact, being an active listener, etc. At least those are the things that I have trouble with sometimes. But the nuances of face to face communication--expressions, reactions, hand gestures--make it all worthwhile. 

Writing in my own personal space has been cathartic thus far. Sometimes just writing what I'm feeling or experiencing in a blank Word doc is enough to make me feel better. I usually end up deleting everything that I've written, but it's nice to have that space to release my thoughts in. I don't have to worry about anyone seeing it or picking it apart for grammar and usage. I don't have to think, "does this make sense to anyone else but me?" because it's solely for my eyes. When I write for a public space, I try to make everything perfect, witty, and tailored to what I think will get the best response. I'm hoping as time goes on that I'll stop caring as much about things that don't matter and instead will focus on discovering what kind of person I really am, as Luella B. Cook puts it.

Throughout the article, I found a lot of good tidbits of information that I'm planning on taking to heart.

"Discussion has become a kind of sporting event, governed more by the desire to win than to know that others think or how they feel."

I've been in one too many conversations where everyone involved was trying to talk over someone else. It's annoying, it sucks for those who aren't as dominant in these types of situations, and it breeds a bunch of bad listeners. I appreciate how Cook ties this in with her previous metaphors and explains that we need to view good listening as a "receptive attitude" and "active skill."

Authenticity in Writing

“Don’t just put in your time. That is not enough. You have to make great effort.”

This is one of several quotes in the article that caught my attention. I'll often put a time limit on certain activities, whether it's reading a novel or finishing a homework assignment. I tell myself that I'll work on (x) until a certain time or I need to finish (y) in half an hour so I can move on to the next task.

While this way of thinking can be beneficial (hello, time management!), when you're working on a skill that you can improve over time (like writing), you can't force or rush through it. Be authentic and take the time to perfect the craft. Don't write just to say you've completed your daily writing goal. Write because you want to, not because you think you have to. One of my goals for the semester is to forget the arbitrary "rules" mentioned by the author in this article and focus on growing as a writer.