My Last Week of Summer Break

It's crazy to think that today is possibly the last day of summer break I'll ever have. Unless my future employer invests in me to get a master's degree, this is it. By the time next summer gets here, I'll be an alumni from the University of Central Florida. Just thinking about it makes me cry. My goal is to have a job lined up by the time I graduate in May 2015, but I could very well still be job/career hunting next summer.

I took the first couple of days on my last week of break to recover from my trip. Yes, I need recovery time for these sorts of things. I rested and started reading another book. I felt great and had nothing to do. Heck, I even binge watched the Netflix series 'Orange is the New Black.' Hilarious show! Tampon sandwich coming right up!  Sometimes I forget to take time like this for myself when I feel good. I gave myself injections on Wednesday. This was one of the times I felt like a professional needle pillow. I'm pretty good at injecting myself despite occasionally having scary thoughts like what if the needle breaks off inside of me? It's crazy how focused I can get to block out thoughts, doubts and hesitation in order to do what has to be done. I went to see the comedian Pablo Francisco on Thursday because I won tickets. I went with my friend Gabriel and it was nice to catch up on all of our summer adventures.  Among other things, I learned how a dyslexic person flips the bird. The show was a hoot! Friday, I spent the night at my parents' and started making room to move back there in October. Saturday, I went to my friend Brittany's daughter's bday party and afterwards I picked up my cousins, Beth and Megan for a sleepover at my place. Today, I helped them create a three year plan, which included things like graduating high school, getting a driving permit, getting a job, and going to college. I think they will look back on today and say that it was a turning point for the rest of their lives... At least, I hope it will be. They have so much potential and they are just starting to realize it.  I challenged them like I wish someone would have challenged me. I somehow feel responsible for their future like if I stand by and do nothing to inspire them, I'll regret it because no one else will be their inspiration. We even started a writing club where we plan to share a prompt once a month and share what we wrote based on it.

I should have known something was brewing on the horizon because I felt extremely well this week. My bowels are the best it's been in weeks! My poop has been beautiful!!! Well, good days don't just happen without hiccups lingering in the near future. I woke up this morning with a horrible head cold. It was inevitable really... My sister that's my roommate decided to come back to our place of residence after spending three weeks with my parents.  That's fine, but it's annoying because she came back infecting our place with a bad cold, which I now have. School starts tomorrow and I feel like shit. Damn people and their germs... now I'm the germy person being damned.

Summer Break Part 1

It's hard to believe I haven't taken a single nap so far during my summer break. That in itself is proof I'm been feeling pretty well. Some typical issues health wise, but they seem so minor compared to what I was dealing with that I welcome them. Plus, I'm gaining some weight back. Weight is good because it gives me a little cushion room during bad times since when things go bad quickly I've been known to lose 17lbs in two weeks. Weight also seems to give me more energy and when it's sticking, it usually means I'm doing well... unless I'm on steroids, then I'm just a sick, chubby chipmunk.

Summer Break: Day 1
I spent my free time having dinner with my grandma. No doubt that she enjoys my company as I enjoy hers as well.  She has come a long way in the past couple of weeks emotionally. Now, she can reminisce of stories about grandpa without getting too emotional. It made me realize that somewhere in the past month I have stopped mourning grandpa's death. I can't tell which specific day I no longer broke into tears at the thought of losing grandpa, but somehow the crying has ceased. I still miss him though.

Summer Break: Day 2
After work, I met Taylor, her boyfriend and her grandparents at their hotel downtown to get a pre-graduation celebration underway. We enjoyed happy hour where Taylor and I took advantage of their whiskey and coke special. We all drank and chatted about life wasting time before heading to Sak Comedy for a show. My face cheeks hurt from laughing so hard during the show. After we walked back to the hotel, we called it a night and I headed home.

Summer Break: Day 3
I met Taylor's friends and family at the CFE Arena on UCF campus at 7:30am for Taylor's graduation at 9:00am. The graduation was long, but I enjoyed every minute of it. We spotted her walking in to find her seat and she spotted us as she stood up to head to the stage. The speaker called, "Taylor Lauren Conklin," and Taylor gave a little fist pump as she walked across the stage! I fought back tears. I'm so proud of her! Witnessing a UCF graduation makes me even more excited to work hard to graduate in May 2015. Following the graduation we went to Kobe's to celebrate!

Summer Break: Day 4
This morning I put on my running shoes for the first time in a month to meet my friend, Brittany, on the West Orange Trail. We're training for a five mile race in October. We decided to go for five miles, and I was gladly surprised how well we did for just beginning our training schedules.  I love running with friends. They make the miles fun. After our run, I showered and headed to my mom's friend's house to put her camcorder videos onto DVD. It took all afternoon because she had a lot of videos, but I didn't mind since she pays me to do it.

I'm just getting started... more fun times ahead!

Professional Selling

Summer B term is now complete. I'm free for the next 18 days, but somehow I've scheduled so many things that I don't actually have much free time to myself during those 18 days of freedom. I have four classes left to take before I graduate! Shit just got real, folks! Graduating with my bachelor's has been a distant dream for a while now, and it's hard for me to believe that I'm this close to achieving it.

As far as my Summer B class, Professional Selling, is concerned, it was one of favorites. I learned more real world skills in this class than any other class I've taken before. Interview skills, how to read people, how to sell products and how to sell myself to a recruiter. It was one of the most challenging classes I've taken, but it has also been one of the most rewarding.  I'm likely going to get a 'B' overall, and I'm okay with that because I feel like I've learned a lot, I will take away a lot from this class, and I will apply it to making a future for myself. Not only was the class a great benefit to me, but my professor was too.

My Professional Selling professor, Karl Sooder, has a heart of gold. I took advantage of his office hours and just today I spent an hour with him talking about life and my future. Seriously, it made me giddy! I think I'm going to use him as a mentor.  He wanted to know how he can help in my career moving forward. What? A professor cares about my future!!! How awesome is that? We went over my strengths and weaknesses. He has a background in sales and has worked with many high profile corporations in his career like Coca Cola, so he has his foot in the door. He sometimes shares student resumes with these corporations. My goal in the fall is to get my resume in his system, pick his brain about different things, and learn more from his experiences.

One Fun Night

Over the weekend, Leigha, Kelly, our childhood/lifetime friend, Brittany, and I had a girls night at my place. We ate, drank, played drinking games as well as other games, and danced. I had never partied like this with them before. It totally beat my expectations.  I know these ladies know how to have fun, but this was the first night of real, adult, college kind of fun we've had together.  It was great to feel good, let loose, and have fun. I loved every minute of it! It was the break from reality I needed before diving into this week.

The first part of this week is crazy because it's finals week for Summer B! I'm blogging quick in between work and school. At my late night class tonight, I'll learn what I need to know for the final on Wednesday! Geez, I'm kind of nervous thinking about it! I can't wait for Thursday when my real summer break begins! I have so much planned during my 18 days of break that I'll likely need a break from my break. Is it Thursday, yet?