Inspiration at the Right Time

On my first day of summer break, I spent some time reflecting. I began wondering how I have managed to come so far. However, I cut myself off and wondered if I've even come that far at all. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it, but other times I feel like I have found who I want to be. For me, it all comes down to people inspiring me at the right time.

After high school, no one I knew challenged me to search for what I wanted out of life. Though one person, my sister, Leigha, unknowingly challenged me to evaluate what I didn't want out of life. In 2008, her and I had a huge argument that we have never fully recovered from. What I took out of it was that she was under the impression that I couldn't do anything in life without her. As if I wasn't able to function without her by my side. I applied for the Spring 2009 semester at Valencia Community College to pursue some sort of A.S. degree a couple weeks after the incident because I wanted to prove to her that I am my own person.  I had no clue what I was doing, but I spent a lot of time distancing myself from her. I don't regret it. Little did I realize at the time that my inspiration to challenge myself came directly from my biggest antagonist. To her I owe my success.

When I started, I had no idea if I would really ever graduate from Valencia. Thankfully, I met perhaps the smartest lady I've ever met during my first semester at Valencia. Jill Sebacher was my English Comp professor. After a few conversations with her, I was inspired to change my major to an A.A. in general studies to "keep my options open" so that I could go on to pursue a bachelor's degree if I wanted to. At this point in my college career I really didn't have any interest in getting a bachelor's. The idea daunted me, but I changed my major. After all, she is brilliant. I took classes at a slow, part time pace. Semester after semester, I kept registering for classes. Except I refused to take classes during the summer, so I always had a nice, long summer break while I was at Valencia. A Direct Connect representative from UCF spoke during one of my government classes at Valencia. With Sebacher's wisdom of not selling myself short in the back of my mind, I filled out an application. Though I didn't really have any intention of going to UCF... but just in case. To her I owe my success.

In the Fall of 2011, I met this super friendly girl in my meteorology class named Taylor. She was a girl with a plan. I was a girl making it up as I went along. We began eating lunch together after class two days a week and hanging out whenever we had free time. We talked about anything and everything. She challenged me to search for what I want out of life.  And, when we got on the topic of our future academic plans, she inspired me to see an advisor... which I had never none before. The advisor helped me figure out what classes I needed to take in order to graduate with her in May 2012. I took five classes in the spring of 2012 in order to graduate! She inspired me to transfer to UCF. To her I owe my success.

I'm on track to graduate with my bachelor's in finance in May 2015. So, I'm keeping a keen eye open to find inspiration for my next chapter in searching for a job/career. Obviously, I owe my success to others who have supported me through my academic career. They may not have been where my inspiration originated from, but family and friends have inspired me to keep going. I want to pay it forward, so I'm stepping up to hopefully inspire others to challenge themselves. I want to be a mentor to those who are in the shoes I wore in 2008. Don't underestimate yourself and don't sell yourself short. Be a visionary of the future and then take action to be the change you want to see.

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?

Disney Characters and College

I've only personally encountered two Disney characters going to college, but I'm sure Orlando colleges are full of them. At Valencia, I took Macro-Economics with Cinderella. The girl that sat next to me, Morgan, worked as Cinderella at Disney. I actually forgot about this factoid until I found out the girl I sit next to in my Professional Selling class at UCF works as Mary Poppins at Disney. Where else in the world can you be sitting next to a princess/prince/icon and not even know it?

I Love My New Haircut

After my hair loss incident in March, I was finally ready to get more than a trim yesterday. Before I got it cut, it was a little longer than shoulder length and I didn't have bangs.

I have long been a lover of bangs and I have been a lover of long bangs, so I decided to get nice side sweep bangs to go with the bob. Basically, I banged bob. It's just short enough that it won't go into my typical ponytail. I find myself always just throwing my longer hair up into a ponytail so that I wouldn't have to deal with it. That's exactly why I wanted it short so that I won't have to deal with it. I haven't yet decided the best way to wear it now when I run, but I'll figure it out. I love having short hair!  My neck can breathe! I'm not very good at styling my hair because I don't like to take the time to do it. So, short hair is great for me since it's quicker to blow dry bob. Basically, I like quickies.  Okay, I'll stop...

Dreams, Goals and Plans

A big struggle of mine has been planning and setting goals to reach my dreams. Heck, I tussle with dreaming in general. I'm more of a visionary today than I was five years ago, but I'd still like to improve my ability to think and plan for the future with imagination and wisdom. A wish of mine is that more people in my life would challenge me to challenge myself and encourage me to strive to dream, set goals, and plan to reach those dreams. I'm addicted to routine as much as anybody else, yet somehow my fear of failure has been replaced with a fear of settling where I'm at. I've not yet reached my potential.  I used to think dreaming was scary because the future used to scare me. However, now I'm more afraid that my present will be my future and I want to dream big enough to make sure I'm not in the same place in five years. So, my three year dream is as follows:

2015:  Graduate from U.C.F.

2016: Work at a corporation with a career ladder to climb; where I can be constantly learning and growing my experience in the industry. If I ever become a stale employee, I will look for other opportunities to further my career. Experience is my top priority.

2017:  Be ultimately independent and move out of state for the ultimate adventure of my life.

The only dream I have a concrete plan for is to graduate in 2015. The other two need blue prints. At least I know what I'm working towards. My 2017 dream has gotten some criticism, but I have faith I will figure it out in time with the help of my bowels. Details aren't really my forte, so I have to work especially hard to work them out. 

Feeling Well

I woke up feeling surprisingly well today! No pain! That's right, I moved, danced, stretched my arms above my head and breathed deep without any pain. I felt so well that I even smiled at myself in the mirror. Sadly, when I don't feel well my hygiene suffers because I don't have the energy to properly take care of myself, so I do the bare minimum. I took advantage today by showering, shaving and moisturizing. I even did laundry and dishes. My appetite has been noticeably bigger the past few days. I hope that's a sign of even better days to come.

My only issue is that my bowel movements still aren't very pretty.  Yes, BM's can be beautiful. Trust me on this. I can almost guarantee that I would be jealous of how beautifully formed your BM's are.