I spent yesterday being entirely hedonistic and unashamedly kept on my festive season ‘ignorance is bliss” path by lounging in the pool with beers and ciders with Maddie, Steph, Rina and Ellie. We had a beautiful lunch and lots of fruit salad and late in the afternoon Rina asked us what our new year’s resolutions were. Usually I don’t bother with them because I’m slack or they’re just too fickle, things like “lose weight” or “read more”. This year though I felt a little more inclined to actually document something, not so much as inspiration but more so as a guilty list to actually keep me on track. So far it’s been a month of “yeah yeah next year is really when I tackle this whole ‘life’ thing head on” and low and behold next year is now 2 days away.
SKIP TO THE END: These are my new years resolutions in no particular order.
1. Get match fit and join a football team: I’ve wanted to do this since high school but I’ve always been to scared/unwell to actually join. This year I have no excuse because Monday night netball has reignited my fire for team sports and I’m insanely jealous of the Bye-Curious boys who get to play twice every week. I’m 99% sure the damned Ross River Virus has gone away and I’m still going to the gym a few times a week so yeah…no excuse. Subi FC let’s do this.
2. Get a job: der.
3. Learn more about football: I realised recently I know FA about the sport I love in a technical sense, and I’m sick of only being able to talk about last weekend’s round. I also want to be able to back myself up when I talk about soccer so there’s only one way to do that. Learn more. I started up a fantasy football team so I have to pay attention to other teams and players and be a bit more analytical.
4. Save money: I don’t do it at all. I need to start.
That’s pretty much it. I don’t want to set myself anything unreasonable because really and truly the whole job thing is the most important and that needs to be the focus now.
On a very exciting note I applied for my dream job on Tuesday! It’s a digital media officer with the Dockers and I’m absolutely desperate to get it. There are a few other jobs with the Dockers that I’m going to apply for as well which is exciting!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Zealous Chang
Things I did today instead of staying on task:
Saw my housemate’s band play their first gig. They didn’t play their #1 hit “Sex Dat Poosay” but they were good nonetheless. Scrappy, but good. Unfortunately the MC for the open night mic ragged on them for “not having any words in their songs” but he gave out bulk candy canes and I won a lollipop filled with more lollipops for knowing 5 songs by Crowded House (I’ll be adding that to the old resume). My other housemate (who is the first housemate’s girlfriend) and I attempted to rig the votes so they’d win, but I just got a text with the alarming news it didn’t work. Oh well. Next time.
Had a late breakfast at Elixir. If you’re friends with me you’ll know my utter obsession with this cafe. I got taken there for the first time in about July by some friends and since then I worry to think how much money I’ve actually spent on coffee/BLTs. I’d say on a good week I get at least 5 coffees and maybe two meals there. On a bad week it’d be much more than that. The BLT is insane. All the nice people who work there know my name and order. They’re shutting down for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year and I’m actually unsure of how I’m going to cope.
Said goodbye to my 2 best buds. After a week that’s gone far too quickly they were off back to the Gold Coast today. I really like having them around because even though they rag on me without relent, it’s nice being around people who allow my constant quoting. I’m sad to see them go, but happy because they’ve got a sick new house to move into and Loz will have missed Pablo (her pug) like all hell.
Things I did today managing to stay on task:
Added my lecturer to my resume. Well done Sophie, a whole sentence!
Went on SEEK. Well it was last night actually, but it still counts. There’s a business journalist position that’s advertised and even though I know absolutely nothing about business they want someone with tertiary education in EITHER business or journalism. I can nail one of those criteria, and quite frankly how hard can a whole facet of life that I have no experience or interest in really be to learn about right?
Saw my housemate’s band play their first gig. They didn’t play their #1 hit “Sex Dat Poosay” but they were good nonetheless. Scrappy, but good. Unfortunately the MC for the open night mic ragged on them for “not having any words in their songs” but he gave out bulk candy canes and I won a lollipop filled with more lollipops for knowing 5 songs by Crowded House (I’ll be adding that to the old resume). My other housemate (who is the first housemate’s girlfriend) and I attempted to rig the votes so they’d win, but I just got a text with the alarming news it didn’t work. Oh well. Next time.
Had a late breakfast at Elixir. If you’re friends with me you’ll know my utter obsession with this cafe. I got taken there for the first time in about July by some friends and since then I worry to think how much money I’ve actually spent on coffee/BLTs. I’d say on a good week I get at least 5 coffees and maybe two meals there. On a bad week it’d be much more than that. The BLT is insane. All the nice people who work there know my name and order. They’re shutting down for 2 weeks over Christmas/New Year and I’m actually unsure of how I’m going to cope.
Said goodbye to my 2 best buds. After a week that’s gone far too quickly they were off back to the Gold Coast today. I really like having them around because even though they rag on me without relent, it’s nice being around people who allow my constant quoting. I’m sad to see them go, but happy because they’ve got a sick new house to move into and Loz will have missed Pablo (her pug) like all hell.
Things I did today managing to stay on task:
Added my lecturer to my resume. Well done Sophie, a whole sentence!
Went on SEEK. Well it was last night actually, but it still counts. There’s a business journalist position that’s advertised and even though I know absolutely nothing about business they want someone with tertiary education in EITHER business or journalism. I can nail one of those criteria, and quite frankly how hard can a whole facet of life that I have no experience or interest in really be to learn about right?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Then there's tomorrow...
Day Two
So it’s good to hit the ground running right?
Here’s excuse number one coming at ya! I have 2 very close friends staying with me at the moment, they’re visiting from Queensland and I haven’t done very much in terms of job seeking since they’ve been here. I sent my application off for a journalist/copywriter position at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry literally minutes before I went to pick them up from the airport on Wednesday night and I put in my “application” for a different position at my current job (that was fairly soul destroying) yesterday but other than that....yeah not much.
Today instead of doing more writing or applying for jobs I went shopping for clothes that will make me look good when I go for all the interviews for these jobs that I’m not applying for. I got a good shirt thought so don’t worry about it. I also neglected emailing the chap from the ABC whose email address I received from my wonderful lecturer. He reads the news at the ABC and he was nice enough to bother asking around at the ABC for me and I’m throwing that back in his face by not doing anything about it!
Even writing this little admission has made me feel really guilty so I’m leaving it here for tonight. I’m going to add my lecturers as references to my resume and sending the email to the chap from the ABC. I’ll also go on SEEK again I promise.
On a more positive note I’ve been catching up on the LPHP podcasts. There are a lot of dick jokes but I think it’s kinda funny.
So it’s good to hit the ground running right?
Here’s excuse number one coming at ya! I have 2 very close friends staying with me at the moment, they’re visiting from Queensland and I haven’t done very much in terms of job seeking since they’ve been here. I sent my application off for a journalist/copywriter position at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry literally minutes before I went to pick them up from the airport on Wednesday night and I put in my “application” for a different position at my current job (that was fairly soul destroying) yesterday but other than that....yeah not much.
Today instead of doing more writing or applying for jobs I went shopping for clothes that will make me look good when I go for all the interviews for these jobs that I’m not applying for. I got a good shirt thought so don’t worry about it. I also neglected emailing the chap from the ABC whose email address I received from my wonderful lecturer. He reads the news at the ABC and he was nice enough to bother asking around at the ABC for me and I’m throwing that back in his face by not doing anything about it!
Even writing this little admission has made me feel really guilty so I’m leaving it here for tonight. I’m going to add my lecturers as references to my resume and sending the email to the chap from the ABC. I’ll also go on SEEK again I promise.
On a more positive note I’ve been catching up on the LPHP podcasts. There are a lot of dick jokes but I think it’s kinda funny.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Time to Re-emerge from the Mire
This blog never had a “point” so I’m wrenching one out of this foul mood I’ve created for myself.
It’s only a month since I finished uni and although that doesn’t sound like much time in the grand scheme of things, it’s long enough for me to burrow down into a nice pit of self-pity and sulk.
I studied journalism and broadcasting at uni and for the last 18 months I’ve been entirely focused on obtaining a cadetship with The West Australian Newspaper. I’m passionate about print journalism and my ambition was (is Sophie, is!) to be a court reporter. I threw myself into my work for the last year particularly and I did everything I thought I should to get myself a spot as a cadet journalist for 2012. I worked hard at uni, I stayed employed for the newspaper in the call centre for their classifieds, I did placement with them and had work published in the newspaper. Everything seemed right on track. I got through to the final round of interviews and everyone around me told me they thought I was a shoe-in. It all seemed like I was in the right place at the right time. But then I didn’t get it. Instead of taking the usual 4-6 cadets they had in previous years, they only took 2. And I wasn’t 1 of the 2.
It wasn’t until I actually got the news that I realised how much I’d invested in getting the cadetship. Of course in the year leading up I just took the ‘positive reaffirmation’ path and told people that that's what was I was expecting to do next year. If they asked what my back up plan was I told them I would take some time to “re-assess my options”. Well the “re-assessing” has started and it SUCKS.
I went to Bali as an end of uni celebration with a friend last week and we both spent the 5 days whinging about how hard we’d worked for nothing (admittedly my whinging was more constant and self-pitying than his was). He narrowly missed out on a graduate position as well so we fed each other’s moods. By the end of the week we realised there was only so many times you could say “it’s all for the best” or “something good will turn up” before you stop believing it.
I decided to allow myself a little bit of time to feel sorry for myself. I gave myself a week. That should’ve been enough time for me to be as upset as people were allowing me to be and I thought things would look a bit brighter at the end of the week. Well it’s been 3 weeks now and I’m still sulking. I’ve also stopped writing. Usually writing is the one constant activity that keeps me both happy and busy. When I was at uni most of my work was writing so I was able to genuinely enjoy my study. The “days off” I gave myself after I finished uni to have a rest and re-coup have now turned to weeks and my sulking has kept any sort of inspiration at bay- actually that’s a lie as well. I haven’t even needed inspiration because I haven’t even bothered to try. But I’m reaching the end of my tether with all of this.
I’m decidedly unsure of what lies ahead of me in terms of work/future study/next week but what I am sure of is I don’t want to feel like I do anymore. I have to do something about it. I’ve felt myself slipping away in the last few weeks. Not in an over-the-top ‘the world is coming to an end way’ but more in a ‘I can’t laugh or smile at anything and everything is boring and lame and I’m becoming an unbearable human-being’ kind of way. I’m incredibly unpleasant to be around at the moment and quite frankly I’m sick of myself (I can’t even imagine what the people who’ve put up with my mood lately must be thinking).
So this little blog that I’ve been tinkering away on for the past few years is now changing direction. Instead of being my dumping ground for erroneous writing and articles, it’s now my online promise and my public declaration that I’m going to at least try and make the most of what was given to me. I was born with a brain and I put that brain to (somewhat) good use and got a degree. I refuse to be one of those graduates who wallow around and end up in some job they didn’t even want and could have gotten without a degree anyway. But I’m pretty sure I can’t do it alone. I need other people to be my positive reaffirmation now. So I’m asking a favour. Come with me as I start actually ‘re-assessing my options’ and try and figure what happens next in the life of an arts graduate.
It’s only a month since I finished uni and although that doesn’t sound like much time in the grand scheme of things, it’s long enough for me to burrow down into a nice pit of self-pity and sulk.
I studied journalism and broadcasting at uni and for the last 18 months I’ve been entirely focused on obtaining a cadetship with The West Australian Newspaper. I’m passionate about print journalism and my ambition was (is Sophie, is!) to be a court reporter. I threw myself into my work for the last year particularly and I did everything I thought I should to get myself a spot as a cadet journalist for 2012. I worked hard at uni, I stayed employed for the newspaper in the call centre for their classifieds, I did placement with them and had work published in the newspaper. Everything seemed right on track. I got through to the final round of interviews and everyone around me told me they thought I was a shoe-in. It all seemed like I was in the right place at the right time. But then I didn’t get it. Instead of taking the usual 4-6 cadets they had in previous years, they only took 2. And I wasn’t 1 of the 2.
It wasn’t until I actually got the news that I realised how much I’d invested in getting the cadetship. Of course in the year leading up I just took the ‘positive reaffirmation’ path and told people that that's what was I was expecting to do next year. If they asked what my back up plan was I told them I would take some time to “re-assess my options”. Well the “re-assessing” has started and it SUCKS.
I went to Bali as an end of uni celebration with a friend last week and we both spent the 5 days whinging about how hard we’d worked for nothing (admittedly my whinging was more constant and self-pitying than his was). He narrowly missed out on a graduate position as well so we fed each other’s moods. By the end of the week we realised there was only so many times you could say “it’s all for the best” or “something good will turn up” before you stop believing it.
I decided to allow myself a little bit of time to feel sorry for myself. I gave myself a week. That should’ve been enough time for me to be as upset as people were allowing me to be and I thought things would look a bit brighter at the end of the week. Well it’s been 3 weeks now and I’m still sulking. I’ve also stopped writing. Usually writing is the one constant activity that keeps me both happy and busy. When I was at uni most of my work was writing so I was able to genuinely enjoy my study. The “days off” I gave myself after I finished uni to have a rest and re-coup have now turned to weeks and my sulking has kept any sort of inspiration at bay- actually that’s a lie as well. I haven’t even needed inspiration because I haven’t even bothered to try. But I’m reaching the end of my tether with all of this.
I’m decidedly unsure of what lies ahead of me in terms of work/future study/next week but what I am sure of is I don’t want to feel like I do anymore. I have to do something about it. I’ve felt myself slipping away in the last few weeks. Not in an over-the-top ‘the world is coming to an end way’ but more in a ‘I can’t laugh or smile at anything and everything is boring and lame and I’m becoming an unbearable human-being’ kind of way. I’m incredibly unpleasant to be around at the moment and quite frankly I’m sick of myself (I can’t even imagine what the people who’ve put up with my mood lately must be thinking).
So this little blog that I’ve been tinkering away on for the past few years is now changing direction. Instead of being my dumping ground for erroneous writing and articles, it’s now my online promise and my public declaration that I’m going to at least try and make the most of what was given to me. I was born with a brain and I put that brain to (somewhat) good use and got a degree. I refuse to be one of those graduates who wallow around and end up in some job they didn’t even want and could have gotten without a degree anyway. But I’m pretty sure I can’t do it alone. I need other people to be my positive reaffirmation now. So I’m asking a favour. Come with me as I start actually ‘re-assessing my options’ and try and figure what happens next in the life of an arts graduate.
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