Dream to be happy

The time has come. The time that I’ve finally got off my butt, stopped pesting my friends and finally decided let’s do this. I’ve had the idea for this blog for quite some time now but the timing never seemed quite right. I was all ready for a July 1^st launch but I couldn’t come up with a name. And I couldn’t really this time around either so I decided to take an easy approach and just use an internet screen name I have been using over the years. Now, I have received questions like what will your blog be about? I don’t have an answer to that and most blog experts will tell you, that is what I’m doing wrong. However, I’m going against the mainstream with blog writing – I wanted to do it my way. Let me explain this, I have a lot of interests, a lot of things irritate me but I also LOVE a lot of things. So when I decided to finally write a blog, I wanted it to be not about me but the things that interest my friends and myself. I hope you all like my blog and I’ll take any suggestion you have to share with me – whether you’d like to send me an email or post a comment. My blog is an open book and not just an outlet for me but an outlet for you. I will cover a wide variety of topics in my blog. I’ll cover politics and pop culture – and I will even share my guilty pleasures of TV (yes, I watch way too much television). I’ll share music and book reviews. But before I really dig deep into any of that I want to share some personal things with you that will allow you to get to me know me better; this will also probably give you a glimpse of some of the more exact topics I will cover in my blog.

I asked my friends and some of my twitter followers to ask me questions that they’ve always wanted to ask me or just facts they wanted to know about me and I’ll answer them as I go throughout this blog process. This first question comes from a good friend and former Wilkes University classmate of mine, @GerardH51, “what is your favorite ice cream flavor?” This is a marvelous question indeed!  I love ice cream and to be quite frank – I eat it pretty much every day. And I’m not just talking ice cream summers but ice cream winters as well. I grew up with my father indulging in ice cream selections every night so I pretty much blame this habit to him. We even make homemade ice cream on occasion. I enjoy lots of ice cream flavors and types (gelato, Italian ice, etc) but I guess I’d have to say my favorite is Cookies ‘n Cream!

I was going to go through seven things about me (I’d say my top 7) that you might already know but you might not – instead I think I will cover one of those seven topics in all of my next blog posts. This will allow me to dig a little deeper about the topic and share my personal viewpoints about the topics as well, instead of my original thought of just a few sentences. I think this will work out much better. Because I already have written enough and I don’t want you all to get too bored already. I'll stick with a pretty easy topic this time around. J This one I will call Job/Education/Career. Fair Enough?

I graduated Cum Laude in May of 2008 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Wilkes University. I had emphasis in Public Relations and Telecommunications, as I had big dreams to be a country music radio disc jockey. I also had a minor in Psychology, because I still may have an interest in being a Guidance Counselor someday. I loved Wilkes and the little family that was our Communications Department. I have learned so much from not just from the education but from the friends, professors and many experiences we had together. I miss them every single day and believe me but college really is the best time of your life! Miss you Colonels! Moving on because believe I could go on and on about Wilkes. I landed my dream job 2 weeks before graduation and I decided I was going to move to West Chester, is a suburb just north of Philadelphia. This job was everything I hoped for – it was in the field I wanted (non-profit), it was nation-wide (I could potentially move anywhere) and it was what I wanted to do (event management & planning).  The job and being in the non-profit and specifically the field I was working in taught me a lot about working with difficult people, working with difficult mangers and also how important a work/life balance is. I worked for this organization for 2 ½ years and then I burned out. I decided almost a year ago (mid August 2010) that the work and lifestyle was just not for me anymore and I quit. I did not have a back-up plan. I did not have another job lined up, I did not even have my resume updated – I just woke up, went to work one morning and decided this was not for me. Looking back, I still think I would have taken the job and I still would have quit. I was unemployed for 4 months and it was a ringer of a 4 months. There were high’s and low’s but it taught me a lot about myself and a lot about my friends & family (mostly how awesome they were). I finally got a job in December at a local college. I’m still there 6 months later and I love it. I can come at night, cook dinner, drink some wine/beer and just relax. No stress and no worries about what the next day will bring! I always knew I wanted to be in Higher Education if I wasn’t working in the non-profit field and I have made it. Who says your dreams have to big? I say dream to be happy.