This Is The Life I Live

When you first graduate college, I don’t know how to describe it other than depressing. Sure for a couple of months, you don’t have to pay loans, you don’t have to get a job and you literally have all the time in the world to do what you love. But the minute school starts again in August, that’s when it really hits: you’re out of college and everyday of your life will be the same. In college, you could choose whether or not you were going to class. In the real world, you better be going to work everyday otherwise you’ll be out of a job.  In college, you learn things you find interesting. In the real world, you are forced to learn things that are not interesting but are essential for your job. In college, you could go out any night and would just have to bring a Gatorade to class the next morning. In the real world, it doesn’t matter how many Gatorades you bring, florescent lights and constant work will only make the hangover worse. So this is where post-college depression spurs from, it’s such a lifestyle adjustment, its hard at first. So how do you treat it? Well you could take the route I did and spend the first three months denying you are out of college, the next three months pretending you’re still in college, and the next three months pretending you love being out of college. The problem with this is the entire nine months you’re just depressed and it doesn’t fix the situation. Well ladies and gentlemen, I would like to propose a better treatment, one that took nine months for me to figure out.

1.     The College Bar Scene Is Less Glorious After Graduation

      You know that bar that you loved in college? Well chances are, you’re going to hate it after college. Now that you’re older (more mature is optional), you’re going to realize that the smell you once associated with that bar is actually the smell of puke and beer, the guys who once swept you off your feet are actually desperate assholes, and the dance floor you once loved is actually a place that will undoubtedly create claustrophobia. Continuing to go to this bar after college just will make you frustrated that you never have a good time. Solving this is as simple of finding a new bar that’s more your scene.

2.     Create Memories With People You Will See On A Daily Basis

     One of the things I missed the most about college is always having stories to talk about with friends and roommates. I missed catching up with friends in class and outside of class, discussing the night before or upcoming weekend plans.  Then I realized, I was excluding myself from this happening in other circumstances because I was leaving myself out of those situations. The solution? Hanging out more with people from work and people I do see on a daily basis. This makes work a lot less miserable when you at least look forward to catching up and hanging out with the people you work with.

3.     Focus On The Positives

Now this seems obvious, but I obviously did not do this in the beginning. I was so focused on how much I missed this, or that, etc. Once I switched my thinking, my attitude changed too. I now realize that not being in college means I can go on vacation anytime of the year regardless of midterm schedules. The places I loved to go and the things I loved to do are less crowded during school days. I never have to stay up all night writing a term paper again, and also, you have more money when you’re not paying a grand a month in rent.

4.     Just Because You’re Out Of College Doesn’t Mean You’re Old

This may single handily be the most important to remember. Just because you’re out of college doesn’t mean that you have to act like an adult everyday. You’re only as old as you think you are. Going out and being ridiculous is actually more fun after college because now you have more money, have learned from mistakes you’ve made in the past (maybe you’ll make it to the bars this time), and you have friends who need a break just as bad as you do.

Unless you live in a cave and have no access to internet, chances are that you are aware of the KONY 2012 campaign (in case you aren’t you can watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc ). Before I even get into this let me start by saying, I am in full support of stopping Joseph Kony. I think what he is doing is awful and should bring national attention. However, I think that as a country we are picking the wrong battles. As Americans, if we gave this much attention, effort, money, etc. to all issues I would feel differently, but we don’t. In the beginning of the documentary, the filmmaker says “…If this happened in America, it would be all over the cover of Newsweek…”. While this too is true, there are many other issues happening in America that are being ignored. Everyday, children are being taken from their parents because the family is too poor to provide proper living conditions for a child. Everyday, people are going into debt because even though their hours working increases, their bills are not decreasing. Also, everyday Americans are dying due to inadequate healthcare coverage.

We’re America, we pride ourselves on being the country that others rely on, isn’t that why we spend so much on foreign aide and are always the first to jump in after a crisis somewhere else in the world? We like to think that we have the skills, money, labor, power and resources to solve problems everywhere else in the world. So why can’t we first fix the problems in our own country before addressing others

I really do believe that if as citizens we band together to solve these issues, we can. I think the problem is that we don’t know or want to know that this is happening in our own country. If we can capture someone on the other side of the world, there’s no reason we cant tackle these issues in our own country. 

Now this is a personal rant and for that I apologize. But, for all of you that watched the bachelor last night (1/16/12), I’m sure you watched the drama that unfolded as an ex-bachelorette Chantal (from Brad’s season) reappeared at the cocktail party with an interest of having Ben keep her around so she could participate in this season in hopes of pursuing the previous connection the two had made outside the show.

Well let me tell you, I have never seen so many tears shed in such a short amount of time. Why the tears? Well all these girls were upset because they thought that Chantal didn’t deserve to be there because she came on hoping to fall in love with someone she barely knows. They also were upset because her connection to Ben could never compare to the amazing connection they already had with Ben.

Ok, now here’s the part that really pisses me off. They’re upset because they think it’s unfair that she came on hoping to have a connection. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that the exact same thing the current girls did? Didn’t they sign up not knowing who the bachelor would be, hoping that they could form a connection and fall in Love?

Second thing that pisses me off is the fact that they think she’s intruding on the amazing connection these girls already have with Ben. There have been three episodes of the show, which means these girls have been dating him for MAYBE 3 weeks at most, and they already have that amazing connection?

So maybe I could just ignore these fallacies if the girls didn’t react so strongly, but seriously these girls were way too overdramatic. Yes I understand that the show provides a lot of alcohol throughout the show, which causes the girls to overreact, but did it really have to be that ridiculous? If someone who wasn’t watching the show walked in, they probably would’ve thought the president just died. Also, one girl fainted. Remember when there was the stereotype of women leaning out their windows, seeing a handsome man and fainting out their windows? It took a long time to dismiss that stereotype, but now we’ll have the stereotype of women fainting over other girls.

I understand it’s upsetting when another girl enters the picture of you and your guy’s scene, but if you can’t be confident in your connection with your guy and he throws it away for some random girl…then maybe he’s not worth it.

(Source: thebachelor)

Now that the year is coming to an end, most people reflect on their year in order to plan their resolutions for the upcoming year. While it’s easy to make personal resolutions by looking at events that happened in our own lives, it’s a lot harder to look at how larger events influenced us as a society.  What if each year, we reflect on the year’s events and make resolutions as a society? Well America, here it is, “America’s Resolutions 2012”.

#1  Don’t Let Fame (And Too Much Coke) Get To Your Head

- Charlie Sheen, what a transformation in a year. We began to see him spiraling down one arrest after another until he finally lost it and began speaking in a brand new lingo. While the words #winning and #tigerblood are now part of our vocabulary, they serve as a friendly reminder that too much fame and drugs can take you from being the highest paid actor on television, to losing your job.

#2 Watch What Messages We Put Out To Teens

-Remember a few years ago when MTV put out that show called “My Super Sweet Sixteen”? The show was portrayed as though that’s how all teenagers lived and that’s what all teenagers should expect. The show was later cancelled when we realized how bratty teenagers were becoming when they thought that was the norm. We should learn how we portray teen pregnancy. Shows like “Sixteen and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” inaccurately display the struggles of being a parent at such a young age. We are training our teens that, ‘you’re sixteen and have a kid? That’s ok, we’ll give you a reality show’. I’ll be the first to admit, I love both those shows. However, maybe we should portray more of the struggles that teen pregnancy brings in a documentary, not a reality show.

#3 “I Do” Does Not Last Forever, So Let’s Revise How We View Marriage

-Ahh, a wedding day, nothing more romantic about two people so madly in love that they are ready to spend their entire life with each other. For 50% of Americans, this ends up being the case. For the other half, divorce comes after a couple of years into the marriage. For Kim Kardashian, the marriage lasted 72 days. This became an ongoing joke between Americans. Trends were started on Twitter, the two most popular being #thingslongerthankimsmarriage and #thingsshorterthankimsmarriage. While this is something we still joke about, this presents a problem. As Americans we pride ourselves on the “sanctity of marriage” right? If this is what marriages are coming to, don’t you think we should accommodate marriage to include more people? If Kim can have a marriage that lasts 72 days, don’t you think that two men/women that truly love each other should be granted the right to marry?

      #4 Lets Watch Who We Let Get Famous

-The Casey Anthony Trial was one that had us glued to the TV’s for days. A wave of shock rolled across the country as we learned that she was found “not guilty” in the death of her daughter.  Casey now has plans to write a book, make a movie, and have her own talk show. There’s nothing we can do about the verdict, but we can refuse to buy the book, watch the movie, and watch her show. She killed her daughter; lets not let her get rich off of it too.

#5 If We’re Going To Do Something Intellectual, Lets Not Be Lazy About It

-Words With Friends, the game that changed everything. This was the first game that provided you with a sense of always interacting with your friends as well as providing a playful competitive game. This game was one of the top-selling apps with around 12.5 million players. The game, isn’t a game of chance, it actually requires some thinking and strategy. It wasn’t soon after the game came out though, that another app came out, “words with friends cheats”. This app allowed you to input the letters you had, and it would present you with the top scoring words you could play. While we did learn some new words from cheating (yes qi is a word), it allowed us to take a shortcut to mental exercise. What can we learn from this? If we’re presented with a challenge, lets fully embrace it instead of taking a shortcut (i.e. diets, financial problems, social problems).

#6 Remember That Mother Nature Is Still Stronger Than Any Country

-As Americans, we like to compare ourselves to other countries. “Who’s strongest/richest/most technologically advanced/has the best defense/etc?” No matter how strong and safe we think we are, we must always remember that Mother Nature can wipe us out in a flash. We can be reminded of this by remembering the tragedy of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

#7 You Have One Life, Make The Most Of It

- This year, we had many people pass away; some famous and some not. Most notably and most recently was Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs revolutionized technology around the world. He changed the way people communicated, shared and interacted both with each other but also with technology. He gave a new meaning to the letter “i”. He reinvented the term “user-friendly interface” with his products.  Most notably, he changed the way we listen to music and use our phones. And to think that he did this all by the time he died at the age of 56. He didn’t live as long as most Americans do; yet he did more in his lifetime than most of us can even imagine. If there’s just one resolution we should embrace, this should be it: “you have one life to live, make it worth it”.

Those are just a few that we should embrace, what else should society have as it’s resolutions?

So I’m not sure if you guys are following the whole Lowes thing or not. But basically there’s this show on TLC called “All-American Muslim” where it follows a few families living in America and portrays their journey, as they become part of society. It shows these families following American beliefs and values. Lowes decided to pull their advertising from this program and many people are praising them for not supporting “terrorists”. My inspiration from this post actually came from some of the comments people are saying who are in support of Lowes. Check them out here.

Here is what I see wrong with their argument: we’re America, don’t we pride ourselves on being a “melting pot of cultures”?!? Guess what people? You can’t have a melting pot of cultures if you don’t allow people of other cultures to live here.

People are so ignorant. They should maybe get off their lazy TV-watching American ass and travel to a place where they’re the minority (and I mean not some American resort in Mexico or wherever) and I think they will get a huge culture shock. I have traveled throughout Central and South America and it got to the point where I started telling people I was German not American because of how much people hate Americans. Why do they hate Americans? Well here are some generalizations about Americans summed up:

We are Americans and therefore grew up never needing a job, we got a ridiculous amount of presents for birthdays and holidays, we only learned American history not any other culture’s history, we go to resorts in other countries and think we know other cultures, we got a car for our sixteenth birthday, we all have maids, we eat fast food every meal, we get liposuction instead of working out and we don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Now at this point, I bet you are saying, “that’s just some Americans, most Americans aren’t like that”. OH REALLY???!!! Don’t you think the same is true about the generalizations we make about other cultures?!?!? Not all Muslims want to blow up America, not all Mexicans wear sombreros and drink tequila all day, and not all Japanese are computer science geniuses.  So guess what America? Maybe we should focus on the way we present ourselves to other countries before jumping on and attacking other cultures. You’re an American, that does not make you better than everyone else. I’m not saying you have to watch this show or even support it, but I am saying that maybe you should educate yourself before you give your two cents in such a controversial argument.

I was at target this morning trying to kill time by looking at Christmas decorations for most people, Christmas lights and decorations evoke feelings of joy, warmth and peace. My peace was interrupted when a lady next to me started yelling at the top of her lungs “does anyone work in this department? I need help!!!”. An employee from an aisle over came to her and offered his assistance. Instead of being grateful, this woman proceeded to yell at him for not being there when she needed him and went on to criticize him on his work ethic and character. This lady then went on to ask this employee various questions that she could’ve figured out by just reading the box. I was shocked. This lady was so shellfish and only thinking of herself. In the last couple of months, I have dealt with many customers like this. All these incidents have slowly led me to believe that nowadays people are selfish and only think of themselves.

I was discouraged until later this morning when I heard something on the radio. The KS107.5 Christmas Wish came on. In case you aren’t aware of what this is, it’s a radio station that during the holidays grants Christmas wishes to families in need. In order to be considered, you must submit a letter to the station explaining your situation.

This morning’s letter started out: “dear KS 107.5, I have suffered from cancer most of my life. I had breast cancer for years, once I got over that, I was diagnose with brain cancer. I finally eliminated it and thought my fight was over. Just a week ago I was diagnosed with uterine cancer.” Now like most of you, I was thinking “wow, this woman really deserves something special”. But I was shocked, the letter went on to describe how her husband and daughter were always there for her during her fight against cancer. The woman explained that because of medical bills, she was never able to show her husband and daughter how much they meant to her. She was asking the radio station to grant the Christmas wish to her husband and daughter not herself! KS 107.5 granted the wish and got the daughter and husband something special.

Here’s what I find amazing: we have a woman who deserves to be selfish and she still puts others before herself. This gives me so much hope, that there are good people out there and not everyone is selfish.

So what can we learn from Target woman and cancer survivor? As cliche as it sounds, reflect on how you treat people. It’s easy to put yourself first, but putting others before yourself is what can make this holiday season so special.

I was driving to Boulder today and I asked Siri what the weather would be like today. To my dismay, she answered “I’m really sorry about this, but I can’t take any requests right now. Please try again in a little while. There’s something wrong, and I can’t answer your questions right now. Please try again in a little while.”

HOW WOULD I FUNCTION WITHOUT SIRI?!?

Usually Siri does everything for me: she wakes me up at the time I tell her, she checks the weather before I get out of bed, she tells me what notifications I have, she tells me what I have scheduled that day, she responds to my texts, she finds me places to eat at, and she answers random questions I have throughout the day. I was pretty sure a day without Siri would mean a less productive day.

What I found instead was that I was able to have a more meaningful day. When I got back home I watched the news to learn about the weather and I found it was kinda nice to get to learn about what was happening around the community and the world in addition to getting the weather. Instead of Siri telling me my schedule for that day, I manually had to go into my calendar to get it. It was nice being able to see what I had going on for the entire week and month. And finally, if I wanted an answer, actually going to Google and looking up the answer was refreshing because it led me to other articles and sites that might interest me.

We live in a technically advanced society that is dependent on technology day to day. When technology fails, there is the possibility of our society falling apart. Whether or not technology breaks down, I challenge you to take a day in which you take a break and go back to the basics. It’s refreshing, and in some ways it makes you appreciate technology more.

Remember when we were kids and everyday we woke up with a new idea of “what we wanted to be when we grew up”? I’m pretty sure every kid had president, teacher, astronaut and racecar driver on their list. Wasn’t that supposed to end by the time we got to middle school?

Well for me, this has started happening again now that I’m out of college. Yes I have a BA in psychology, which I can do so much with while at the same time I’m not able to do anything with it. Everyday I wake up thinking I want to do something different with my life. Some days I want to go back to grad school and get my masters. Some days I want to work my way up to human resources at IKEA. Other days, I’ve thought about teaching English as a second language in another country and other days I’ve thought about just becoming a beach bum.

The uncertainty of my future is like childhood but the main difference being that I no longer have years to figure it out. I keep waiting for some magical sign to come, pointing me which direction to go. Until that comes, or until I get some insight into what my future holds, I guess I just have to take life one day at a time.

The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates the number of homeless people to be just under 1 million. That number does not include, the number of people living in cars or crashing on friend’s couches.

We’ve all seen at some point, a homeless person standing on the street corner with a cardboard sign asking for money, food, employment, etc. These people have lost everything, but one of the saddest things they will lose over time is a sense of being/ a sense of self.

Humans create a sense of self through a mixture of views of ourselves as well as how others view us. For those of us who aren’t homeless, everyday we interact with people. All day people’s perceptions of us help us to figure out who we are. Whether these perceptions are good or bad, they still give us a sense of self. However, we never question whether or not we exist to others because all day other people will at least acknowledge our existence on this planet. For the homeless, people who are stopped at lights turn their heads the other way so they don’t have to acknowledge the homeless person. When walking past a homeless person, most people don’t make eye contact as if they didn’t exist. When people don’t make eye contact with someone all day, for weeks on end, it psychologically affects the person into thinking they do not have a sense of self or being.  A study done in 2009, found this to be true of most homeless people.

Think about how sad this is: these people lost: their house, their money, their job, maybe their family, and then they lose their sense of self?!?

Even if you don’t have any change to spare, at least help these people remember that they are humans and they exist. Next time you are at a stoplight and a homeless person walks past your window; look them in the eyes, give a small nod acknowledging them, or even give them a smile. I have done this every time, ever since I first read the 2009 study. And let me tell you, it has made every homeless person at least smile, some of them even wave.

We’re all on this earth together, lets at least grant everyone to a sense of self, a sense of being, a sense…of humanity.

Every decade has its fad. Whatever the trend may be, it affects all areas of life. One trend that has grown over the last couple of years is the vampire obsession, or the fang fad. What factors contribute to this? Books and movies like Twilight first made the idea of vampires, more mainstream. Recent shows such as ‘True Blood’ and ‘Vampire Diaries’ have turned all components of being a vampire (such as fangs and sucking blood), mysterious and sexual.

 So how exactly do I know this is a trend? Well just look at the products around us. I’ve been in the Halloween business for three years and since the release of these movies and TV shows, people no longer desire the plastic fangs, but rather the more realistic ones. Also, people come in looking for fangs that mold to their teeth and that they can wear year round, not just one day a year. Vampire costumes used to be scary but the recent vampire costumes that are produced for females and sell the best are the ones that are very sexual. Also, there are drinks being made after this trend. A few months ago I walked into Cost Plus World Market and found an entire section of “vampire inspired wines”. These wines were all red wines and all the labels had a least one picture of blood imprinted on it. Some of the types of wine included: “Vampire”, “Dracula”, “True Blood”, and “Chateau Du Vampire”. I would expect this around Halloween, but not during the summer and not from a company that promotes their high quality wine from around the world.

 So, now we have the evidence of the Fang Fad, it’s a fad, it will fade like all others. But what are the consequences when people take this fad to an extreme? Since the release of the Twilight movies, the sales of the “paler shades of makeup” have increased by 200%. Dentists are finding more and more people coming in requesting to have their teeth chiseled down to fangs. Also some people are unable to separate reality from fantasy and are acting like vampires. One story that made headlines is the Florida woman who thought she was a vampire and tried to “eat” an elderly man, but instead bit his face off (read it here). Or the Denver woman who bit customers in the neck (read this one here). These present a problem due to the risk of disease and for public safety issues. The larger problem here is people unable to face their reality so they instead live through a fantasy. Fantasy at some times and some levels is appropriate and necessary but we as a society must ask ourselves, what problems we have that would want to make people live in a fantasy rather than face reality. I’m not here to offer up the solution, but rather to provoke the thought that may someday push forward social change.

 As for the other effects this fad has had? Well red wine in moderation is healthy, so there’s no harm in pretending wine is blood. People with chiseled teeth, will either become much more effective eaters, or will spill more money back into dentistry once the fad is over, in order to “fix” them. And as far as people favoring the pale look? Well it might reduce skin cancer rates if this trend continues but I have a feeling that once the new season of “Jersey Shore” comes out; people will once again trade in their pale makeup for orange makeup.

Back when I was in college I would spend the entire week waiting for the weekend. What was so special about the weekend you may ask? Well simply put, it was a time where I could procrastinate on homework, get drunk and sleep in. I always thought that once I graduated college, weekends wouldn’t be such a big deal since I had so much more time and flexibility during the week. I have never been more wrong in my life.

 Now that I’m post-college, I find myself needing the weekends more than ever (so much so, that I start a countdown on Mondays). So what is it about being graduated that makes the weekends so necessary? Well, I made a list of reasons why the weekend is more necessary post-college than it was in college.

To start, the people at work make me question my sanity. Everyone is so… “professional”, talking about stuff actually related to the environment they’re in, and having conversations any mother would approve of. As much as classes sucked, I would give anything to be back in a classroom and hearing classmates telling each other stories of alcohol induced debauchery.  That brings me to reason number one.

•  You don’t have to watch what you say at a party/bar nor do you have to discuss anything work related.

 Speaking of work, along with being stuck in a place with boring conversations, I feel as though my workweek is a scene stuck on repeat. It’s the exact same things everyday. Yes I deal with different people everyday, but it’s the exact same conversations with and questions from customers. This leads to reason number two.

•  Drinking is the least predictable thing you can do. You never know where you will go, what you will do or the crazy stories that will result. This is the complete opposite of work, which is why we crave chaos every once in a while.

 Back in college, if you didn’t want to go to class, it was your money so you didn’t have to. If you didn’t want to write a paper, it would affect your grade but you still had that option. In the real world, there are no choices like that. If you don’t want to go to work, well guess what? You’re Fired! Don’t want to call the clients you’re supposed to? You’re Fired! Decide to show up to work in sweatpants? You’re Fired! Harsh reality check is that your work is now paying you so you have to abide by their rules. Rules are stressful and make us feel like we’re children again, which brings me to reason number three.

•    On the weekends, there are no rules, so it’s the one time you feel like you have some freedom again.

 And finally, in college, you are the most social you will ever be. You get put into classes with a ton of people, you live with a ton of people, you meet people that know a ton of people, and you go to social events with a ton of people. It’s almost impossible to not meet a ton of people in college. Well post-college isn’t like that. You may work with a ton of people, but these people have lives outside of work and most of them don’t want new friends. With work being the same everyday, it’s not like classes that change every semester. The real world can make you feel disconnected and like you have no social life. This brings me to my final reason that weekends are more necessary post college.

•  Weekends are the one time where you can feel like you have a social life again. You meet up with a ton of people, go to the bars or parties with a ton of people and meet a ton of people.

 In no way am I saying that these are the only reasons why weekends are so important post-college, but they are definitely the top four for me. As weird as you may feel being the oldest at a college bar, just remember; you’re at an age where weekends are more necessary than coffee in the mornings.

Growing up, us girls spent our days watching Disney movies, especially the ones that had princesses. To us, the princesses were a glimpse of what we could expect our futures to be like.

 High school turned out to be our first reality check that maybe we aren’t supposed to grow up and be princesses. To start, “Prince Charming” was nowhere to be found in a high school setting, and instead we settled with guys whose muscles were larger than their brains, boys who still thought girls had “cooties”, and band geeks. Next, homecoming dances were nothing like the balls in the Disney movies. The beat-up car that picked us up looked nothing like a pumpkin carriage, the sparkly heels left us with blisters and sore feet, and the graceful dance moves were replaced with “shaking our tail feather” and dancing to “my humps”. The final reality check came when we realized that princess’s had no concept of what a calorie was. They made it look like having a size zero body while still having a healthy glow and not dying from anorexia was easy.

 Now for many of us girls, we’re in college (or in my case, I like to pretend I still am). With the knowledge of how the world actually works, we are well aware that in America there is no such thing as a “princess”, nor that we will grow up to be Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. Does that mean that the movies that were such a big part of our lives have no relevance? In some senses yes (hate to break it to you, but no boy is going to show up on a magic carpet to sweep you away), but in some ways no. Each princess had her unique story but all of them taught us some lessons about boys.

Disney Princesses 2.0: 

Pocahontas: She fell in love with John Smith who then revealed his prejudice against Native Americans and his intent to take their land. She then changed his mind by singing to him about nature. Lesson learned: Don’t fall in love with a guy who’s against everything you believe in. Especially don’t fall in love with a guy who’s willing to change his entire belief system after you sing one song to him.

 Snow White: She lived with seven dwarves; the Queen found this out and tried to poison her with a poisonous apple so that she could be the “fairest in the land”. Lesson learned: Don’t be a whore and live with seven boys. More than likely, girls will get jealous and try to poison or kill you.

 Cinderella: Is a maid to her stepmother and stepsisters. Her fairy godmother gives her one night where she can go to the ball but she must be home by midnight. The prince falls in love with her. With midnight right around the corner, she runs, losing a shoe. The prince searches the entire city looking for the girl whose foot the shoe fits. Lesson learned: If you leave a shoe or other piece of clothing at a guy’s house, if he doesn’t attempt to return it to you, he’s not interested and/or worth it.

 Aurora: When she was born, an evil fairy put a spell on her so on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger and fall into an eternal sleep. Prince charming awoke her with a kiss, they fell in love and it was happily ever after. Lesson learned: If you awake from a blackout/deep sleep making out with some dude, check if you’re breathing. If you are, he’s probably not doing CPR so you should not be thankful towards him. No guy believes he can wake up a girl from a blackout by making out with her, so if you find yourself in this situation, especially after having one to many margaritas, do not fall in love with this guy, or even continue making out with him. 

Now that I’ve graduated college, it seems that every adult I talk to, asks the exact same question… “What degree did you get?” which is then followed by “What job did you get?” 

 My entire life I’ve been on a very specific path: elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. Next on the path is supposed to be career in what I got my degree in. The part that scares me though is that career is the only thing left on the path. Yes somewhere between getting a career and death, I’m supposed to get married and have children, but there is no stage in-between college and career. Well, at least in the past there never has been that in-between stage. With the exception of my friends who graduated in engineering and architecture, all of us are at a point where we don’t want to start careers just yet. This is a trend I’m noticing with the current generation. We’re creating a step in-between graduation and career.

 What are the characteristics of this step? To start, we’re a lot more educated at this step than we were right out of high school. In fact, this may be the most educated we will ever be in our life because we still have sixteen years worth of classes jammed into our heads. Once we start a career, we start losing what we don’t use. Another characteristic is the lack of obligations and the amount of free time we have. The last couple of months have been amazing because if there’s a show on a Monday night, I go, without the worry of doing homework before or having to worry about waking up in time for class. It’s also the time in my life where I’m not tied down by marriage or children so I have the ability to move anywhere/do anything I want. The final characteristic, is that we are at a point where we can work random jobs to meet people, have fun, and figure out what we want/don’t want to do with our lives. Do I want to spend the rest of my life ringing up Swedish meatballs and explaining what lingonberries are? HELL NO! But I’ve had a blast meeting so many awesome coworkers and working for such an amazing company.

 So the next time I get asked, “What job did you get?” I’m simply going to reply, “I haven’t started my career yet, for now I’m just having fun”.

So I’m sure we all remember those PC commercials “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea”. What made those commercials so catchy? Well, they made it seem like PC users were everywhere among us and that Windows 7 was ideal for the average person.

 But what happens when other ideas take on this commercial concept? Well this has already happened with the new Mormon commercials (See the video here). Don’t even get me started on why I don’t believe Mormonism is the correct faith, but I have such a problem with their commercials being shown on channels such as ABC, NBC, etc. It would be different if it was a religious channel, but these are popular common TV channels. We already know Americans are susceptible and gullible to commercials (just look at the number of stuff bought from infomercials). So the problem with these commercials is that they trick the American public into thinking that Mormonism is just as normal. The commercials take on the same concept as the Window 7 commercials: they present a short biography about someone who would seem normal to most. They then say that legendary tagline “I’m ___(fill in name)____, I’m a ___(adjective)____ and a ____(adjective)____ and I’m a Mormon”.

 So what can we do about this? Well I guess what you would do with any other product, inform yourself before “buying”. I’m hoping you would at least research Windows 7 more before you bought it; the same should be done with religion.

 And just as an endnote, I thought this video was an awesome parody of the commercial. 

Watch Mormon Parody