Don't let this be you

My biggest fear is doing exactlly what this guys does.



Yes, its funny and I laughed for awhile after seeing this. But please, please, don't let that be me! Especially in a dress!

My Last Class

Well this is it. Its 1:19 pm on Tuesday May 12th and I am officially done with my last semester of college classes. I have waited for this day for years. I am excited, nervous, and a little bit choked up. I can't imagine what it will be like to wake up in the morning and not go "ughh I have class" or when work calls me at 9 am begging me to come in because someone called out I can't say "Ohh nope I have class." I mean, I plan to go back to school so maybe one day I will say those words again, but for now, I'm done.

My Summer Plans

I always love the end of the Spring semester. Not only does it mean no school, but it means the beginning of summer! The beach, the pool, lazy days with nothing to do! Although this summer won't be quite as relaxing as the last few, I think I will still make use of my time off. I picked up a second job, just working 2 extra days a week to help pay for my student loans. Plus there is the LSAT prep course fee I mentioned a few weeks ago. Oh yea, and then there is my slight shopping addiction. Besides that though I plan on relaxing by the pool, taking my dog to the park, and sleeping in!

I was curious as to what some other college graduates (or almost graduates) would be doing, so I casually asked around in some of my classes and here are the top 5 things people will be doing this summer:

1. relaxing/vacationing
2. looking for a job or completing an internship
3. traveling out of the country (Europe and Belize were two I remember)
4. taking a summer class to graduate
5. working

If anyone has anything else to tell me about that they will be doing after graduation, let me know! I'd love to hear about it.

A Word from the Wise

Dr. Spaulding pointed out to me that Professor Potter, who I blogged about a month or so ago, posted a bit of advice for students who are finish up with finals and about to graduate from college. As I said before, Professor Potter has decades of experience in the field of PR and Journalism so when he offers advice, it should not be taken lightly. In his bog, he advises:


Now it’s time to clean up the Facebook pages (especially the photos), get some businesslike clothing, practice speaking in complete, coherent sentences (and writing them, too), and hit the job search circuit.

Now that we are making the transformation from college students to college graduates, some things in our lives will need to change. One of them being the image we portray about ourselves through Facebook and MySpace. Potential employers will do some "Facebook stalking" of their own to find out if the front you put on during an interview is the real you or not. So, take some advice from the wise, and clean up those pages!

A Buzz Like No Other

I am reminded on a daily basis that there is only two weeks left of school and finals every morning when I wake up in a fit of panic worrying that I missed a final or forgot a paper. That was not however the case last night. See, you have to actually go to sleep in order to wake up. I blame no one other than myself for procrastinating until the day before a paper is due to write it(or as my boyfriend says, its not procrastination, I am just motivated by deadlines) . I do also blame my slave-driving employer who schedules me to work open-to-close 13 hour shifts every weekend.

So as 6 am rolled on by, I found myself high as ever. With the amount of caffeine and adrenaline running through my veins, it doesn't surprise me though. Its amazing how the feeling of banging out an 11 page paper gives you a buzz. Suddenly you look down and 5 hours have gone by and your almost done. The relief you feel afterwards is something I will miss about college. Its even more comforting to look up and see a surprising amount of students around me doing the exact same thing I am. Its comforting to know I'm not alone.

10 best cities

With the economy still at its low point (I know I keep talking about but it's the truth) it's going to be hard to find a job. I stumbled across this press release the other day about the 10 best cities to live in post-graduation by taking into account the cost of living. In a nutshell, here is what it said:

Top 10 Best Cities for Recent College Graduates &
Average Rent for a One Bedroom Apartment

1. Indianapolis $625
2. Philadelphia $1,034
3. Baltimore $1,130
4. Cincinnati $691
5. Cleveland $686
6. New York $1,548
7. Phoenix $747
8. Denver $877
9. Chicago $1,133
10. San Antonio $696

And look, there is Baltimore at number 3!! Looks like I should stop complaining and embrace my wealth.

This, I will not miss

This is one thing I will NOT miss about school. This is my binder from this semester. Granted, I do have all of my classes combined into one, but still. There is enough paper in here for 3 trees! It won't even close all the way. Can you imagine lugging all this around plus textbooks 5 days a week? The worst part is, I am constantly cleaning my binder out and throwing away old papers. That means everything that is in this binder is actually things I need on a daily basis. That is sad. That I will not miss.

I will miss it

I know I have been endlessly talking about how excited I am to be graduating and how sick I am of school but this morning I had a change of heart. I was in the library at 8 am and there were a decent amount of people in there and everyone was typing of discussing a project. The guy next to me got a phone call and was telling the person on the other line how he was never going to finish his project and he was freaking out.

My best friend stayed up all night to finish a presentation. I drank 3 cups of coffee yesterday and sat in the library for 7 hours writing a paper I should have written a month ago.

That's what I will miss. The excitement and the panic when you have 2 pages written of a 20 page paper and its due the next day. As much as I complain about class and projects, come september I'm sure I will be missing it!

What to Wear

With graduation only 18 days away, my friends and I (being girls of course) have gotten into a few conversations about what to wear to the big day.

Traditionally it is custom to wear white but I personally am not a fan of white so I'm going to opt for the non traditional attire.

One of my good friends said she wore black pants and black shoes and another said she wore a navy blue dress and nude heels.

For all you fellow senior girls out there I would appreciate some feed back on what you plan to wear. I don't think it really matters as long as it's tasteful correct?

It's never too late for an internship

In a previous blog I offered some advice for any students who weren't graduating this semester. One of the tips I offered was to get an internship. I never had one and it is something I highly regret. The job market is tough enough as it is right now and it's going to be so much harder to get a job with no experience at all.

An article I found on CNN.com spoke about college graduates who have been laid off getting internships rather than jobs.

Graduation Gifts Part II

After I posted about the three best graduation gifts I would like to receive, I got a response from someone who is not in this class, finally! Dana Schultze is a fellow blogger who has used her blog as a resume. She commented on my post by giving me a link to a website she has used to help her find gifts for graduates. Gifts.com is a great website to use when looking for specific gifts. I found 3 cute ideas ranging from $10 to $1000. In order from cheapest to most expensive:

1. Words of Wisdom Books: I think this is a really cute idea to get a graduate for a couple reasons. First, we are all scared about entering the real world and failing miserably. A little book with some real-world advice doesn't cost a lot and can help more than you think. Second, let's be serious, I know I am not getting a job when I graduate and I still need to exercise my brain so why not get me some nice reading material so that I have something to do while passing the time.

2. Some stocks: I like this idea because stocks right now are fairly cheap. It is the best time to buy so why not buy a few hundred dollars worth of stocks as a gift to give to a college graduate. This way when the stock market rises, the few hundred dollars you invested could turn into a few thousand!

3. A computer: In a previous post I blogged about how much I needed a new computer and how it would be a great graduation gift. Apparently I am not the only one who thinks this is true. A computer would make a better gift than most would think. Most teenagers get a computer after graduating high school to transition into their college career, but after 4 or 5 years, a computer gets filled with a lot of useless junk (I blame the downfall of my laptop on Limewire). A computer is a great gift, especially since my $16,000 of debt inhibits me from splurging on one for myself.

So, thanks to Dana Schultze, here are a few more great gift ideas for college graduates. I hope this helps!

Gonzo Journalism

In one of my classes today we talked about Literary Journalism and the 1960s. I have to say, I am obsessed with the era of the 1960s. The hippies, or counterculturalists as they are often called, amaze me. It's so interesting to think about the fact that the people that were against war and inequality and for civil rights and peace could be referred to in such a derogatory way. I mean, I do question the idea of communal living, but that aside. These days being a hippie is the norm. Wearing tye-dye and promoting peace is not only acceptable, but stylish and encouraged. I myself have caught the "peace and love bug" and I am not ashamed to say it.

Now my question is, with the age of newspapers "dying" as some like to say, why can't we go back to the age of Gonzo Journalism? Can't we all learn a little something from Hunter S. Thompson? Gonzo journalism is something that people want to read! Vivid descriptions, in-depth interviews, and using first hand experience to write a great story. Since many of us college students have all caught the "peace and love bug" why can't we all just graduate from college and take journalism by storm? I propose we start a movement. A Gonzo Journalism movement. Who's with me?

under pressure

So I am going to use this time to vent about all the stress that has consumed my life and basically feel sorry for myself. School is killing me! I have so much work to do. My research class is so much work. It's almost impossible to conduct a full blown research project in 5 weeks. I have so many papers to do and so little time. I have to somehow find copies of original newspaper articles on The Dred Scott Case of 1876 which also is nearly impossible! Two more weeks! I just keep telling myself that. If anyone has any suggestions on how to find old articles let me know!

practice makes perfect

Just when I thought my financial woes were over I am rudely awakened. Since I am preparing to take the LSAT, I have been told it is essential to enroll in a prep course and take lots and lots of practice tests. I have already read Kaplan's LSAT prep book which was helpful, but i definitely need more. I have found some really great prep courses such as Princeton Review. I have seen some advertisements around campus for MyTestPrepAce.com. I know Princeton review charges $1000 for a tutoring class and a lot more for individual tutoring. That's a lot of money! I did find, however, that UMBC offers a LSAT training course for $600, plus they take off an extra $50 if you sign up 6 weeks in advance. I will continue to search for the best rates around and keep you updated!

relief

As criteria to graduate from Towson, every student must take a research class in the area of their major. So, me being a Mass Communications major, I am currently taking Mass Comm. Research. I don't care who you are or who your professor is, any class that involves SPSS and data reconfiguration is hard. I would say 2/3 of my class failed the first exam miserably. In fact, so many people failed (myself included) that she had to give us all 4 extra points just so we all wouldn't cry.

Well, we had our second exam yesterday and I studied for 2 days. When I actually took the test, I thought I was going to fail. Even afterwards I didn't feel confident. Especially since our professor kept saying "if you failed the first test and you fail this test, you probably won't pass the class." OK that helps calm my nerves... Especially since me not passing the class means me not graduating and it means a lot more money out of my pocket.

Well lucky for me she's a quick grader and I got my grade back today. Drum roll please... a B!! Barely, an 80% in fact, but still its a B! I am elated to say the least. There is hope for me yet. You all have a great weekend. I certainly will!

I'm International

It finally happened! My blog has gone international! According to google analytics, I have one visit from India and one from the Philippines. According to analytics, I also got the most hits and the most comments I have ever gotten on my April 7th post on limbo. granted, some of this may be due to the fact people were searching the other type of "limbo," the religious type, but it still gave me hits! I also implemented some of the tips I offered in my last post. When I researched google hot trends, one of the topic that came up was graduation gifts, so I wrote a post on graduation gifts. I didn't get any comments and my hits were not severely increased, but it might take some time. I will certainly keep you updated on how well these SEO tips are working for me!

Increasing Traffic

For all you bloggers out there, I am going to post a list of 5 tips I find are useful in increasing traffic to your blog. Now this was an assignment for a class, but I think I did a very good job and I think these tips can really be helpful.

1. Use Google hot trends: Google Hot Trends gives you a list of the top 100 words currently being searched for using Google search engine. If you can somehow find a way to implement the keywords into your blog, it will allow your blog to come up in the search results, thus increasing traffic to your blog.

2. Use Google Keywords Tool: Google Keyword Tool is helpful in telling you what your competition is doing. For example, if your blog is on hotdogs, you would type in the word hotdogs and then click “get results.” A list of other keywords associated with hotdogs will come up, such as “kosher dogs” or “turkey dogs.”

3. Use Google Webmaster Tool: According to Google, Google's free webmaster tools provide you with an easy way to make your site more Google-friendly. They can show you Google's view of your site, help you diagnose problems, and let you share info with us to help improve your site's visibility in our search results.

4. Use Negative Keywords: Negative keywords help to target a more specific audience. For example if your blog is on a writer named Tom Bobama, but you don’t want people searching for Barack Obama being directed to your site, then you can use Barack Obama as a negative keyword. You can do this with the help of websites or by adjusting the html of your specific blog by customizing the settings.

5. Do not use doorway pages: Doorway pages are designed for robots only, not humans. Search engines like to index human friendly pages which contain context that is relevant to the search. While these can be helpful for businesses, they are not helpful for blogging.

The three best gifts

To all my friends and family out there who may be reading my blog, I would like to remind you that there are only 39 days to graduation! I would also like to mention the top three best gifts that I personally would love to recieve 39 days from now.

3. One gift I would love to recieve that I have always, always wanted but could lever afford is a Louis Vuitton purse. A real one. Now I know this seems a bit shallow but let me argue my point. If I am going to get a serious job, I need serious attire and I truely believe employers would take me more serious if I have a nice purse with me on my interview.

2. The second gift I would love to recieve would be a new laptop. I haven't had one in about 2 years now. You know, because all the time spent writing papers and doing school work finally burnt it out!

1. The the third and final gift I would love to recieve, and the ultimate gift, would be a trip out of the country. Maybe to India or Indonesia. I would love to go somewhere exotic, but also somewhere I could learn about another culture. I wouldn't want to just go to Mexico or somewhere beachy.

So, Mom or Dad, if you're reading this, you better start saving!

looking forward to limbo

There is nothing I am looking forward to more than limbo. You know, that place you find yourself after you have graduated and finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel only to find that once you reach the end of the tunnel there is nothing more then a very, very long road to nowhere. I have no time to go to the gym. My poor dog gets so excited each time I pick up the leash, hoping I will take her to the park like I used to once upon a time, only to realize I am merely picking it up just to dust the leash off because I haven't used it in months. All I do is go to school, go to work, go to bed, wake up and repeat. I want to be lazy! I digress. Only 45 more days until I can happily rest, diploma in hand, in limbo.

Is it May 22nd yet?

As the semester rolls on by, I find myself asking more and more, "is it May 22nd yet?" It's down to crunch time with term papers and exams and worst of all:my Mass Comm. Research project! My group and I are dreading completing this project. Our professor doesn't seem to be much help when it comes to helping us compile a professional survey. She has only ever taught graduate courses and I think she tends to forget that we have never done this before. Ohh well! I have two tests and a paper due this week. Yuck! Is it May 22nd yet?

struggling students

I found this short clip on CNN.com when I was browsing through the other day. It interests me because I am constantly worried about if I will be able to get a loan to go to law school or grad school come September. I am not the only one that worries about this. In the clip, CNN news anchor Kiran Chetry says the lack of loans "could be the biggest threat to our economic future."

HuffPost Tip

One of the tips offered in The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging is that when you get writers block to ask a question. Well my question is: How do people honestly have so much to blog about? I feel like this blog has turned into a boring relationship. You know, like when you are with someone for a long time and you spend a lot of time with the person and eventually they get to know everything about you. After awhile you run out of things to talk about because you have exhausted every topic imaginable. Now I'm not saying I have exhausted every topic on this subject, but I am bored with it and it's a rainy, dreary day, and I still can't think of anything worth blogging about, so I am a bit frustrated. Well that's it for now. I think I am going to give myself the weekend off, unless something so exciting happens that I can't help but blog (although I'm sure it won't). Have a good one.

Five Questions

I recently had a conversation with one of my friends, Rusty Walters, who graduated from Towson last year. I asked him to answer some questions for me. What he had to say wasn't anything I hadn't heard before yet it certainly didn't make me feel better about the job market.

Me: When did you graduate from college?

R: December - 2007.

Me: What did you do after you graduated?

R: I saved up money for a few months and took a few months off to travel and work on a marine conservation project in Fiji.

Me: Was it hard for you to find a job?

R: Surprisingly no. I was very fortunate and my current job just kind of fell into place for me. If it weren't for this position open however, I think it would of been very difficult, at least to find something that I wanted to do. All of my friends in this industry were having problems. The only people who seemed to be getting jobs pretty easily were teachers and nurses.

Me: Do you think it will be hard for students graduating in the next few months to find a job?

R: I would not want to looking for a job now. Everyone seems to being laying people off, not hiring. I know we haven't hired anyone since September and probably won't any time soon. When I read stories about middle-aged people going back to interning for free, just to get into another field that may lead to a job, that scares me.

Me: What advise can you offer college students or college graduates that will help them find a job out of college?

R: Get online. Sites like Twitter, Linkedin, and even Facebook now are great for networking with people. You can do a lot for yourself by showing your intelligence through these sites. There are TONS of executives using them heavily, and interacting with everyone. Get involved in conversation online with them and you'd be surprised. They are also great opportunities to find job listings.

So as you can see, by blogging and getting involved with Twitter, we are all probably in the best position we can be, economic crisis aside. So keep blogging, keep tweeting, and the rest, hopefully, will fall into place.

un-dress for success

As the economy continues to spiral downward, the number of unique solutions to financial problems continues to rise. I have read some stories about bankers now becoming cab drivers and CEOs now delivering pizza, but this story is by far my favorite. A strip club called The Foxy Lady, located in Rhode Island held a job fair to recruit new strippers! Now I know times are tough, but seriously?

back to reality

I want to first begin by apologizing for not blogging in a week. I was celebrating my last spring break ever! My boyfriend took me to Vegas (which was amazing by the way). The picture above is of these beautiful blown glass flowers that cover the ceiling at the Venetian. I love the colors and I was told that each one of the flowers costs thousands of dollars. But, now that I'm back its back to reality. Eight weeks left of classes and then the much anticipated graduation day.

Secondly, I would like to say that I finished reading The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging and it is a great book with tons of information about blogging. It has really helped me a lot and I am going to share some tips with you in a couple later blogs. But for now its back to work. Hope everyone enjoys their final hours of spring break!

CNN says so

So this one is going to be short but sweet. I was looking through CNN's website today and found this article on the homepage. It is an article posted in TIME magazine about the job forecast for college graduates. Basically what is says is things are worse than we thought... great.

Three tips

For those of you reading this who are not graduating in 85 days (not like I'm keeping track or anything) I am going to offer a few obvious yet understated tips.

1. Your GPA does matter!
When I was a freshman a lot of older students would tell me things like, oh employers don't care about your GPA, all that matters is that you get a degree. Well, those people are liars. Now that I am planning on graduate/law school I am realizing more and more that I really should have worked harder. Yes, I got good grades but I slacked off a lot and now I'm kicking myself for it. My overall GPA barely hits the 3.0 mark, yet I have held a 3.5 or higher the past three semesters. I could have a MUCH higher overall GPA if I would have just applied myself more. Oh well, like they say, hindsight's 20/20.

2. Get an internship, seriously
I never got an internship and I regret it now because I really could have used the experience. Not to mention it looks great on a resume. Of course since I paid my own way through college it would have been nearly impossible to work 40 hours and go to school full time and do an internship, but I'm sure I could have figured something out.

3. Find your niche early
I am a Public Relations major and yes, I do love people and I would love to get a job in the field of PR, but I didn't even choose my major until my junior year and that set me back a semester. Now that I am graduating I have discovered my love for law, mainly because I will argue just for the sake of argument (ask my boyfriend I'm sure he would have a bit to say about it) but also because I want to help people. I wanted to be a nurse for a very long time but I realized the first time I gave blood that the sight of needles makes me pass out. So if you can find what it is you truly want to do early on, it will benefit you in the long run.

For more professional tips I suggest you go to Professor Potter's blog. He is by far my favorite professor I've ever had my college career and and extremely talented man. He knows the field of PR more than anyone ever probably. OK maybe a slight exaggeration, but still, he's smart.

stuck in neutral

On Thursday when Matt came to talk with our class, in a way he filled me with some hope for journalism. His optimism about newspapers had me questioning their "death" after all. He did address one topic that we all seem to have on our mind: what am I going to do come May? Matt suggested that we all will merely be"stuck in neutral". Kind of a limbo between graduating and working. After hearing him talk I really feel as if grad school is the absolute best choice. As for the the few of us that are able to get ourselves into "Drive," good luck!!

A giant lobster suit?

A close friend of mine recently graduated from college last fall. To spare her from embarrassment I won't mention any names. After she graduated she got a job working for an event planning agency. Her first week on the job she was given the pleasure of dressing up in a giant lobster suit. Her second week she was given the pleasure of blowing up over 1000 balloons for a Cinderella carriage display. Is that what we have to look forward to? A giant lobster suit? I hope not!

Gadgets

Well, I am trying to make this blog look nice and everytime I try to add a gadget that I want it says error, this gadget is broken. I even tried to make my own gadget at it gave me a very long html to add. Now if I can just figure out where exactlly to put the html. Anyone who knows what they're doing feel free to let me know because I am lost!

not just US

So on my quest to find other blogs similar to my topic, I found that it was fairly difficult. I used google blog search and still found only a few blogs that posted anything at all about graduating college and the recession. What I did find though, was a few blogs from other countries. One of the blogs posted on my blog roll is focused on how college graduates in China are having a difficult time finding jobs too. At least we aren't alone!

sixteen grand

Well now that tax season and my final semester are both in full swing, a pleasant documentation came in the mail for me today. Just a friendly reminder from Towson that I owe 16-thousand dollars. Sixteen thousand dollars! I can't even begin to think about how I am going to be able to pay that back. I wait tables for a living. I have enough trouble paying my rent and bills. I'm just now paying off my 600 dollar credit card bill that I've had for almost a year. So if it took me a year to pay off 600 dollars it will only take me about 27 years to pay off 16 thousand at the rate I'm going. I guess I better step it up!

Tanzania?

So I played hooky today. I mean, I had a doctors appointment so its not like I didn't have an excuse but still. I thought that with my violent case of senioritis it would feel good to skip class but it really didn't at all. In fact I feel guilty and I hate feeling like I missed something. Oh well, I will keep that in mind for next time.

On another note, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what my plans are for after graduation. Graduate school? Law school? Tanzania? Which one of those doesn't belong. As many of you know I'm sure, Tanzania is a country in Africa. I've really been thinking a lot about volunteering abroad and I found this awesome program from cross cultural solutions. You can choose how long you want to go for, anywhere between one and 12 weeks. And you do things like help build healthcare centers, help teach children, or take care of infants. There are also over 12 countries to choose from. I have narrowed it down to either Costa Rica, specifically Pursical or Tanzania, specifically a town called Bagamoya. Either way I think it would be an enlightening experience. So that's option number one for my future. Hey if anyone wants to join me on my venture let me know! The more the merrier.

senioritis

I found class exceptionally difficult to sit through today. Not as a result of my wild night which involved gossip girl, sushi, and me being in bed at 11, but rather because of a violent case of senioristis I have somehow contracted. As I mentioned earlier, listening to someone lecture about Pericles and Plato at 9 a.m. is not really my idea of fun. Do I really picture myself applying the aspects of Plato's Republic to my career? Well, that may be an issue of concern if I ever find a job. Let's be serious here and admit the odds are not in my favor on that one.

But I finally made it through a grueling 5 hours of class and just when I thought I was home free there was the ever so anticipated fifteen minute wait just to leave the parking garage. Those of you that have ever experienced Towson's campus between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. can feel my pain. Maybe graduating will have its perks after all.

an introduction

Well I suppose I should begin by introducing myself. Hello, my name is Keri Kemmerzell and I am a senior at Towson University which is roughly 15 minutes outside of Baltimore, Md. The purpose of this blog honestly is as a class assignment but I want you to know I am excited to be doing this also because I have never blogged before nor am I very familiar with blogging so if anything this should be an interesting experience. Now since I am ever so rudely posting this blog while I am listening to my professor lecture about the Peloponnesian War I suppose I should leave it at this for now. Have a wonderful day!