On Traveling & New Experiences

March 18, 2015March 18, 2015 - Colin Ashby Leave a comment

Let’s talk about traveling for a moment.

All throughout college people would say over and over “You need to study abroad. It opens your horizons and makes you aware of other cultures!” Lots of the study abroad representatives would always say the slogan “You won’t know until you go.” They would give me pamphlets detailing trips visiting the Eiffel Tower, backpacking through Europe, touring the Irish countryside, visiting some castle in England, helping build things for kids in Colombia. You get the picture.

When people in class talked about the things they wanted to do, a recurring theme would always be to travel because they loved traveling. Where to? They would respond with far off places like the Greek Islands, backpacking through Europe or teaching English in an Asian country. When I’m older I’ll regret not having travelled when I was younger. Traveling can be expensive but the money is worth it to have the experience!

I always had a problem with these things. I wondered about some things. Why do people think that they need to go off to far away places to experience more of the world? Can’t you just do that by going to Canada, another state in the US, or maybe a place in Central America? To me, “experiencing new cultures” and “broadening your horizons” could be done by simply going out of your comfort zone and seeing how other people approach things.

Back in 2013, I felt discouraged. I had only ever been outside of Texas (where I live) three times. As part of a 2014 New Year’s resolution, I committed to getting out more and meeting new people. And I did. From March 2014 to March 2015 I went to South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas for the first time, New Orleans, then on a cross-country trip to Chicago and New York City with stops in Memphis, Tennessee and Cleveland, Ohio. Other visits for the year included Chicago for a second time, Twin Peaks, Colorado, and New York City two more times.

My full list included:

March 2014: South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas: I met celebrities like Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz and I sat/got sandwiched between Seth Meyers and Olivia Munn after a panel.

At the festival I got to meet a role model of mine, Mindy Kaling. She signed some photos for me and jokingly agreed to be in a movie of mine that I said would be like “a new age Sex and the City…but better and with less ego”.

While sitting in the hallways of the convention center waiting for a panel, a lady came up to me and asked if she could use the plug next to me. I said yes. In a weird twist of fate, she turned out to be a childhood friend of a famous film director I admire, Joe Swanberg.

April 2014: New Orleans, LA. Encountered copious amounts of horse poop and drunk people on Bourbon Street, saw the plantation from the movie Django Unchained and went to a WWE wrestling match.

August 2014: Cross country trip to Chicago and New York City: Tight on money, I decided to ditch taking a flight and instead took a MegaBus to Chicago and New York City. I scheduled meetings with seasoned improv professionals and visited with a communications agency I admired. The route let me make prolonged pitstops in Memphis, TN and Cleveland, OH.

On the 18 hour bus ride to New York City, I talked with a 63-year-old woman who was going to her 45 year high school reunion in Ohio.

“I want to look hot when I walk through those doors! Do you think I will look good in this dress?” (she hands me her phone with a picture of the dress. Amused and happy by her confidence, I nod in agreement).

While in NYC, I stayed at a hostel-type place and met a 19-year-old girl from Hungary. She talked about studying at university and how much she loved to study languages and cultures. She said she had always wanted to visit America but was unable to because of the cost. After several months of saving up money, she finally made the trip and was visiting NYC for a few days and then Chicago. She had such delight in her eyes as she talked about all the places she was visiting and food she was trying.

September 2014: Traveled to Chicago again to make a talk show appearance on Steve Harvey for an article I had written that went viral. The shows producers sat down with me and talked about their career experiences since college. I got to meet the other guest of the show, a 64-year-old cancer survivor who had beaten up a guy with, get this…a neck scratcher, when he tried to rob her house. Her adult daughter talked with me about the frustrations she had with the college system, how expensive it was, and how good-paying jobs were hard to come by.

On the flight back home to Austin. A woman came up and sat down in her seat beside me. We started talking and she mentioned how she had just visited her boyfriend in Chicago where he was working as a sound engineer for a great company. She had lived in Chicago while going to college but moved to Austin. For seven years she worked at an environmental agency as an editor. There was no upwards mobility in terms of promotion for her so she quit and started her own company.

The company, Austin Editing, had been something she was working on as a freelance side project for over a year before quitting her day job. I was surprised when she told me she didn’t have a lot of clients lined up when she quit her day job, just enough money to cover rent and a few things each month. Slowly but surely, with a lot of hustle, she built up a client list and today she had several team members that she manages as part of her company. She said something that stuck with me afterwards.

“Sometimes you aren’t fully ready and you just have to have this fuck it attitude and do it.”

November 2014: Twin Peaks, Colorado. I visited relatives and stayed in a freaking awesome cabin (I really love architecture so staying in the cabin was super fun). While in Colorado for a few days, I climbed mountains, sled down the hills, and had snowball fights. One of my cousins wives was studying to become a forensic photographer. She talked about how she had arrived at her desired career path and the way she loved photographing things to unravel a case.

January 2014: Visited New York City again for an interview. I got to see the inside and workings of a company whose site I read on the daily. By a stroke of luck, I got to meet with a seasoned PR professional near her workplace’s Williamsburg office.

March 2014: New York City for the third time. On my flight I met with a women named Denny who talked about how excited she was having just visited her son in North Carolina where he was graduating from Air Force training school. She said she loved Austin for all that it was and didn’t like the crowded, non-stop nature of New York City. She had a knack for solving crossword puzzles and sudoku.

Next month I’ll be going on a cruise with stops in Yucatan (Progreso) and Cozumel, Mexico. For the summer I will be going to Italy.

I traveled a lot in the timespan from this time last year to now. Did I go to some far off place, backpack through Europe, or help kids built houses in Colombia? No. Instead I just went out of my comfort zone, the safe nest of my apartment in Austin, Texas and visited places all across the US. I met a lot of people, learned their stories, their struggles, and how they approached life.

Many of the people I talked to who have gone on study abroad trips say it was great but they never seem to pull out anything other than talking about the different monuments and tourist spots they visited.

A girl once told me “Yeah, I just studied abroad for useless crap. I got to see some tourist spots and stuff but that was about it.”

You see? When people say they want to travel to “broaden their horizons” they usually think of visiting tourist spots rather than meeting people and seeing their walks of life.

My point with all of this is that you don’t need to go to Europe or study in England to broaden your horizons, sometimes the easiest way to do it is by going out your backdoor and talking with new people. I’m not discouraging international travel, if you have the money and resources, then by all means, go do it. I’m speaking to the people who say they can’t afford to travel, the ones who think it’s out of their reach.

Traveling can be as expensive or as cheap as you make it.

I used to think it was out of reach until I discovered that traveling can be as simple as going to another state. See the Grand Canyon, go to the Golden Gate bridge, see the nature of Washington state. You don’t have to break the bank just to broaden your horizons.

There’s something more I have to reveal. Some people know about it but many don’t. Right now (and for the past several months) I’ve been writing a novel. I don’t talk about it much but it involves a women graduating from college and joining a support group. The novel features people from all age ranges and walks of life. Throughout all of the flights, bus rides, and car rides while traveling, I was writing and working on the novel. The people I met along the way and interacted with have influenced my book in a great way. I can’t wait to share more about the book soon. For now I will leave you with the title’s initials (#LOTR). Can you guess what it is?

Also, if have an urge to travel, don’t let it go vacant. Go out to somewhere in the US you’ve never been, meet up with people you might know there, strike up conversations while in the coffee shops. Just get out there.

Happy trails.

Mindy Kaling at SXSW 2014 — Meeting one of my TV writing role models, Mindy Kaling at SXSW

Imagine Central Park John Lennon — At Strawberry Fields Central Park dedicated to John Lennon.

message in a bottle coney island — Found a bottle on the beach at Coney Island. No long lost message in it.

chicago bean summer time — Rare photo of the Chicago Bean without a bunch of crowds around it. I woke up early and took this photo at 7:30am to beat the crowds

Chicago skyline from the Willis (Sears) Tower skydeck

chicago skydeck — looking down from the skydeck. 103 floors high!

twin peaks colorado — Twin Peaks, Colorado

monica gellar apartment building — Monica Gellar’s apartment building from the TV show “Friends”

colorado cabin — Cabin view while in Colorado

My green room name display while getting ready to appear on Steve Harvey

Coffee Shop Etiquette

March 4, 2015 - Colin Ashby Leave a comment

It’s 2:33pm on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve been holed up all weekend and I want to get out. My brother asks to hang out. After going a few places, we stop at Starbucks. An afternoon caffeine pick me up, ya know? Anyways, the store doesn’t look to busy as we walk in, the line isn’t long and there seem to be some tables left.

Surprise. After getting our coffees, we try to find a good table and come up at a loss. The inside is packed and the only ones available are on the outside patio where the weather is currently a windy 55 degrees. Not too cold, but enough to not be comfortable.

Guess who’s occupying all of the tables inside? Wi-Fi Leeches. Eight of the nine tables have people sitting with laptops at them, browsing away. Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. A few of the people seem to be doing actual work. Although most are not. From what I can see, two people are watching videos (probably through Netflix or something), a couple more are on Facebook and Twitter. One girl is intensely staring at her laptop, looking at Pinterest and writing down some of what she sees.

Can these people be considered “Wi-Fi leeches” or are they just people who are using the complimentary service provided to them after purchasing a beverage/snack? Public Wi-Fi is mainstream. It’s everywhere now. Starbucks, McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A, Burger King, Panera Bread, and more offer free wifi (as long as you purchase something). Heck, even airplanes now have wifi (albeit with a price tag).

Why do people use it so much though? It seems normal to sit in a coffee shop for maybe 30 minutes or an hour and use the wifi, but three hours, four, five…? I remember going into Starbucks when I was younger and–get this–there were seats available to sit down at. People would sit down, read their newspaper, drink coffee and leave after 30 minutes or so. Times have changed.

Although skeptical at first, Starbucks began offering free, limited wifi in 2008 and then free, unlimited wifi in 2010. Other businesses began following suit and public wifi became commonplace and expected by consumers.

Is using public wifi for hours on end bad? Probably. If you order a coffee and sit down for hours, using your laptop, you’re taking away a table that new customers can use. Although I’m guilty of using free wifi at places like Starbucks to do work for a few hours. However you look at, there are a few rules people should follow for proper coffee shop etiquette.

1. Consolidate your stuff

Don’t be that person that has all of your stuff scattered across the table and chairs. Do you really need to spread out all of your work over the table and have your power charger strewn across the walkway? No, you don’t.

Only bring what’s necessary and make sure your laptop has a full charge before coming to the coffee shop. Stop taking up unnecessary space with your jacket, backpack, purse, and so forth.

2. Don’t hog power outlets

I went to this one coffee shop where they had a big community style table among the other smaller tables. The big community table was big enough to sit about four people comfortably. It had a four plug wall outlet. When I walked by the table, there were three people sitting at it, two of them appearing a little disgruntled. The other guy at the table was occupying three of the four plugs. He had his phone plugged in, laptop plugged in, and some type of power pack or something plugged in. Seriously dude?

*Bon Qui Qui voice* “Rude!”

3. No Phone Calls

Unless you’re famous, no one wants to hear your phone calls to your business partner, co-worker, mom, dad, boyfriend, or girlfriend. Stop. It’s alright if it’s a quick one minute call but when you’re on the phone for minutes on end, for the whole coffee shop to hear, it gets annoying.

4. If you’re in an independent coffee shop, make sure to buy something every hour or so.

Support your local coffee shops, be a good, non-freeloading customer. You could maybe apply this rule to Starbucks, but they seem to be doing fine considering they always seem to have a steady line of cars in the drive-through and a line inside.

5. Nobody wants to hear your music

Put in headphones and make sure the headphones volume is low enough so that the people around you can’t hear it blasting out.

All in all, practice courtesy at the coffee shop. Share power outlets, buy more coffee or food if your going to be there a few hours, and don’t hog space.

Never Settle, Keep Moving Forward

January 28, 2015January 29, 2015 - colinashby Leave a comment

With New Year’s resolutions crossing people’s minds, and the everyday grind of work, it can be easy to feel stifled, unmotivated and wanting to be lazy. Don’t fret. Below you’ll find some awesome things to read and to use. Keep churning on!

Praytell Strategy: Never Settle

Earlier this year, I got in contact with a startup “new school” public relations agency, Praytell Strategy. Aside from them having a freaking amazing site (I thought it was Squarespace, I thought wrong) they also have a great company blog.

One of the blog posts from earlier in the year could be super relatable to writers everywhere (even though it wasn’t even about writers). The agency’s founder, Andy Pray, goes through a rough time while drafting content for a social contest.

The post reminds me of when I was working on the first draft of my novel. Filled with doubt and an extreme critical eye, I would always not last more than thirty minutes or so of continuous writing time before getting frustrated and going on the internet, getting food, and so forth.

So what should you do as you’re trudging through writing and your self-critic won’t shut up as you try to reach your word count?

Keep going

Many times you have to go through the clutter to get the prize. If your writing isn’t working and you feel like throwing in the towel, don’t. Habits take time to build.Sometimes the grand idea is right around the corner.

Go on and read Praytell’s blog post on never settling. It’s short, to the point, and will get you thinking and ready to move.

Realizations Upon Visiting NYC

January 21, 2015January 12, 2015 - Colin Ashby Leave a comment

As you may have seen from last Wednesday’s post, I visited New York City. Aside from a job interview, I played tourist a bit and wandered around, finding new places to visit. Along the way, some thoughts entered my mind about The Big Apple.

1. New Yorkers seem to walk really fast or really slow, there is no inbetween

2. Making eye contact with a stranger in the murky underground subway station is more awkward than most eye-contact scenarios. Keep your eyes on a revolving rotation while in the station.

3. People really love Starbucks here (everyone I walked past was jam-packed crowded (although maybe it’s just cause NYC has so many people…maybe).

4. WHY DOES EVERYONE IN THE COFFEE SHOP HAVE MACBOOKS ?!?!? (sorry, macbooks are just too expensive for me #windowsforlyfe).

5. By the end of your visit to The Big Apple, you will have perfected your “subway smug face” (seriously, everyone has it while they ride the subway).

6. There is little treasures of different places everywhere

John Lennon dedicated Strawberry Fields section of Central Park

7. WHY IS IT SO COLD HERE?!?!? (I’m from Texas, I’m not used to 9 degree weather!

8. You can find the most incredible views in the most unexpected places.

dumbod — View from a bathroom window in Dumbo, Brooklyn

9. I suddenly love bagels (NYC has great bagels)

10. Movie Tickets are expensive (I thought paying $10.75 in Texas was expensive, in NYC tickets range from an okay-reasonable $11 to $15 freaking.dollars.).

11. This may be the city with the most amount of jaywalking

12. There’s so many neighborhoods and different cultures (I mean, I thought it was just the standard Manhattan, Brooklyn, what’s Dumbo? Williamsburg? Greenpoint?)

13. Times Square is a horror zone that must be avoided at all costs (seriously though, there’s SO MUCH more to explore in NYC besides Times Square).

14. Basically, NYC is beautiful and you should definitely take a visit up to the city that never sleeps

Magnificent Brooklyn Bridge *not posting a picture of Times Square*

My New York City Visit in Photos

January 14, 2015January 12, 2015 - Colin Ashby Leave a comment

Yesterday I got back from a 6-day trip to New York City. My time in The Big Apple was a blast. Aside from the job interview I went for, several great things happened. I visited a few famous buildings and places from TV shows and musical artists. The trip brought new connections as I got to chat with a budding playwright while sitting in Starbucks and talk with a senior account executive at a well known NYC public relations firm.

All in all, New York City was great to experience. This was my first time visiting in the winter time and it came as a shock! It was 9 degrees at one point, definitely not something a born and raised Texan like myself has ever experienced.

Look through the photos below to see my visit to the big city!

The first time I came to NYC (back in 2009) I was with a tour and mostly stayed in Manhattan. I made a point to see more of Brooklyn this time. The photo above was the view from a bathroom window in a Dumbo, Brooklyn office building.

Tom's Restaurant, the restaurant seen in the TV show Seinfeld — Tom’s Restaurant, the restaurant seen in the TV show Seinfeld

Monica Gellar’s apartment building in the TV show Friends

When I was a teenager, I LOVED the TV show Wizards of Waverly Place. So glad I got see the New York City street referenced in the show!

Practiced my hand-lettering while sitting in Starbucks.

I had heard about Cafe Grumpy before. On my last NYC visit, I just went in, ordered some coffee, took photos and left. On my visit this time, I stayed in the place for a few hours and now it’s become my favorite NYC coffee shop. Fun trivia: This Greenpoint, Brooklyn Cafe Grumpy location is the one Hanna (Lena Dunham) works at in HBO’s Girls.

Visited Liz Lemon’s apartment building from NBC’s 30 Rock.

Keep your eyes out for next Wednesday when I share some humorous insights I learned while in New York City. Stay Tuned and follow me on Instagram: colin_ashby until then!

Stop acting polished

January 7, 2015December 21, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

Your workspace isn’t that clean,

You don’t dress like that all the time.

You can’t possibly drink Starbucks everyday.

Sound familiar? Well anyone who takes the daily scroll through social media might know what I’m talking about. People who act like their lives are put together and stunning. Instagram is a prime example. Nearly all of a person’s photos are clean and polished with good contrast, lighting, posture, and overall picture quality.

Really? Is that how your life is?

I thought I was crazy for being the only one thinking this until one of my friends brought it up as well. She was scrolling through Instagram and made a scrunchy face as she saw some particular users post the same type of photos over and over. It may involve the same background, object, selfie, and so forth.

Is it wrong or bad they’re doing this? No. The problem is that it doesn’t let them be as authentic to their users as they could be. The point of this post is not to bully and point a finger at people, the point is to be authentic, be yourself.

Just because other bloggers, entrepreneurs, working professionals, etc. post coffee pictures doesn’t mean you have to. Just because they post about pictures of their boots and how ready for the fall season doesn’t mean you have to.

Be yourself, share what’s going on in your life, not what you think you should be posting.

If you have a hobby, share it. If there is some quirky anecdote you want to share, share it.

Post and share on social media that showcases you, not content and/or an image you think you should have because of others.

Polished image away

your authentic self shines now

show you, show true, always

#thehaikuproject

Me (2nd from left) coding this past year on my first site!

Photo by: Joshua Earle

College Graduation Day: Part 1

December 12, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

Well, it’s here: the day I graduate college. A mixture of emotions are running through me right now. The most obvious one is happiness…or is it nervousness? I’m not too sure. The thing I know is that I’ve done a lot to get here. Story Time I grew up in an oh so small town of 8,100 people. As you can probably imagine, there wasn’t much to do there. I made it my mission to get out of the town and pursue great things in a (much) bigger city. So I set out to do just that. My high school had a partnership with a nearby community college that allowed high school juniors and seniors the ability to take college classes for FREE (all you had to pay for was the class textbooks). I thought, “This is my chance! I can start on college early, finish early, and get out into the real world sooner!”. At age 15, I signed up for my first set of college classes. The early college start agreement allowed students to take up to two classes per semester for free. I made sure to take advantage of this opportunity. I signed up for two college classes almost every semester of high school in addition to my AP high school classes. I had a goal of finishing college early and starting my career in the real world (who wouldn’t want to live their own live and have their own place, amiright?). Although I was happy to be pursuing my goal, there were challenges. You would expect the challenge to be a high schooler struggling with college level work. This was one of my challenges but not the biggest one. My biggest challenge at the time was that I was at a disconnect with people my age. Several of my friends and other people I interacted with wanted to play video games, watch Netflix, go to Starbucks, and the ever popular “hanging out”. Hanging out was the big one. People would see me doing work and go: “Colin, you need to chill out and relax! Just hang out!” Ugh. I hated it when people said that. Don’t get me wrong, I hung out with people and had fun but that seemed to be all that they wanted to do. Every so often I would check myself to see what goals I was working towards and what I had accomplished so far. Several of the people around me in high school weren’t the same way. “Man, I’m just trying to graduate, lol” “I’m relaxing and living in the moment!” Some people even got frustrated with me because they said I was “too motivated”. Long story short (even though you read already, haha) is that I had goals and was looked at as some weird person who (because I didn’t “hang out and relax” most of the time) didn’t know how to have fun. To people reading this, I want you to know something: If you have a goal, protect it. Work towards it and don’t let people bring you down. Whether you’re starting a business, starting freelancing, doing a blog, learning a new skill, or just trying to plan the type of life you want to live, it’s going to take time and investment. Your gut and intuition will tell you if you’re doing the right thing. I don’t advocate for being a workaholic but also don’t give in to never ending requests to have a night out, hang out, chill, and so forth. Just as importantly, when life happens, figure out a way to move forward.

Last day of college! — With Paige Vaughn on my last day of college!

There were tons of obstacles that stood in the way of me graduating college early (money, remedial classes, family obligations, personal health, mode of transportation, scheduling, etc. etc. etc.). Regardless of the obstacles, I did it. I’m graduating college today with my 4 year Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Mass Communications-Public Relations in only 2.5 years…at the age of 20. I’m freaking proud to say that I did that. Good luck to everyone, whether you’re graduating college and planning your life or if your deciding on a new direction in your life. I wish the best. Part 2 will be filled with graduation images (right now I’m just sitting in the campus library…waiting two hours before check-in starts). I leave you with this J.K Rowling quote. Although she is talking about writing, it can apply to a lot of things. If you have a passion project, are learning new skills, or whatever, keep this in mind. To excelsior and silver linings!

Writers & Social Media

November 3, 2014 - colinashby 2 Comments

Social media is kind of like this mysterious black hole. Besides seeing the constant #pretty or #blessed photos and posts, you aren’t exactly sure what you’re getting out of it. You can put things into it but you’re not exactly sure what you’re going to get out of it. Plus there is the bad habit of social media eating into your writing time.

We all know how important writing time is (especially with NaNoWriMo upon us). Never fear, there are measurable ways and tactics manage your social media.

Moving to the beat of those metrics

Gone are the days of just blindly posting updates/posts and never really knowing how much they were seen. There are ways to see how much exposure your Facebook update, tweet, or Instagram picture got. Facebook Insights, Inconosquare for Instagram, and Analytics for Twitter are great (and free) ways to measure the impact of your social media updates.

With these tools, you can see which weeks were better than some, days that had higher exposure than others, and so forth. No longer do you have to post a super excited tweet with your novel details on a blind eye!

Don’t stop till you hit the post

Posting only at certain times isn’t something you have to religiously follow but it is helpful to know. Whenever you have exciting details about your novel, revealing your cover, or just want to post an update, post during peak hours so as many people can see it as possible.

This helpful infographic from Hub Spot shows the best times to post and even what to include. Isn’t that nifty?

Hootsuite is your kinda sorta awesome best friend that tells you everything

I’m suprised at how many people still don’t know about Hootsuite. I use it all the time for my PRSSA organization and plan to use it even more once I start hardcore promotion for my novel next year.

With Hootsuite, you can schedule messages for future publish. You can also schedule things to post at the same time across all of your social media channels.

This feature is a hugely beneficial way of taking the constant thought of needing to update, logging into all of your channels and posting to each individually.

Once I start using this to post updates, I can set aside a designated time to craft posts. Then for the rest of my time, I can work on what really matters: finishing my novel!

Thoughts

Self-publishing is a lot of work…and a lot of money. You’re having to do nearly all of the marketing and engagement yourself. It takes a lot away from you. It takes a lot away from writing time. Using the right tools can make using social media a little bit more insightful so you know what you’re getting out of it.

I don’t want to promote my novel and engage with other authors without having a little insight into how much exposure I’m getting and how to maximize it. Or maybe I can just post saying I’m Colin Ashby, buy my novel!!! (note: probably wouldn’t work).

Go ahead and check the sources out and see what works for you. Happy writing!

Blowing Smoke

October 28, 2014 - colinashby 1 Comment

I’m glad most people that read and liked the various articles about me living in my car won’t see this post. This entry is a bit of a turn from the vibe that those car-dwelling articles were about.

Blowing smoke

Ever heard that phrase? Apparently it’s a common phrase yet I had never heard it until recently. There is this version of the phrase that I just put up and there is also a slightly extended version. Both mean similar things. The expression of people giving you compliments and saying they will do something…and then never do.

When the article came out, a handful of people talked about how my story was inspiring, humble, and so forth. I didn’t really understand it considering I just lived in my car to get through college, but nonetheless I went along with it. I knew things were going to die down soon enough. Many people I talked with mentioned that they would try to help me get set up with jobs and careers. They said I could reach out if I ever needed help.

Well, I’ve experienced my fair share of people blowing smoke lately. I was told about a likely job offer only for it to never happen. Then a handful of people got in contact with me and talked about introducing me to potential job leads…only for it to never happen.

I didn’t realize what I was doing wrong at first. I had told the people I was talking with about the types of careers I wanted, the skills I had, and that I was open to moving anywhere in the country for a career I wanted. Things seemed good at first. I was talking with a few people, they were sending information and so forth. The fan fare died down, however, and things have hit a (sort of) brick wall.

I’m no closer to knowing what my future career entails than before the article was released. It wasn’t my intention when writing the article to have it boost my career in any way. It’s just that when I started getting in contact with working professionals saying they wanted to help me, I thought “Hey, maybe a potential lead could come out of this.”

This was far from the reality.

I thought working hard, living in my car freshman year, and taking a full load of classes would get me prepared for the job hunt.

I thought having good grades, a handful of internships, and student involvement would help me secure a job for after graduation.

I thought, I thought, I thought…

I graduate college in 6.5 weeks and I have no idea what comes afterward. This is a weird feeling since my schedule is packed right now. I’m taking 15 credit hours, working a part-time job at a public relations firm, running an organization, and writing my first novel. However, once December hits, most of these things (except for the novel) will go away and I will have an open schedule.

Slightly (okay, very) frightening to say the least.

I always laughed at Lena Dunham’s character in Tiny Furniture. Now I feel like I might become the character.

I’ve always dreamed of moving somewhere else after college (either Chicago, NYC, or Seattle). Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of going to Chicago for the improv scene. Pretty foolish, right?

On top of all of the lost leads, I haven’t had much time to devote to my novel. It’s my first novel and I’m writing it right now, something I’m proud to be doing, yet I don’t have near the amount of the desired time to do it. It sucks having to put a passion project on the back burner for things like writing papers and studying for tests. Whenever I’m not doing that I’m working my job, whenever I’m not doing that, I’m running an organization. I clock in only a few hours a week toward my novel.

It is the one thing that I can look forward to after graduation…yet I don’t even have the desired amount of time to devote to it. I hate it.

Not exactly how I planned my last semester of college going. Originally I wasn’t going to have the internship at the public relations firm this fall. Not having it would have freed up a lot of time to job search. I socked away money in my savings account and had a good enough financial aid package to get through the semester without working too much. Well, my place of work extended an offer for me to continue the internship through the fall. I wanted to say no but my bank account told me to say yes.

Anyways, what I’ve learned the past few weeks as my college graduation nears is that nothing is guaranteed. People will tell you things then won’t do it. Opportunities will arise, then they will disappear. The only way to get through is to keep moving forward (thanks Walt Disney).

I monitor my time more closely now and put any free time I have toward finishing my novel. I don’t exactly know the type of job I will have but I know the person I want to become.

Last fall I promised one of my teachers, Mr. Zmikly, that I was going to be a speaker at our college’s Mass Communication Week. I even set a date for it, October 19, 2015. This date is starting to make me nervous considering the thought I have of me working in a crappy low pay job and not really seeming all that qualified to be a speaker.

There is something keeping me from believing this. It’s like there are two people in my head: one thinking I’m going to be an unemployed bum and the other thinking “hey, even though this will be freaking tough, I can get through it and come out on top.”

A big thing I learned at my college’s Mass Communication Week last week was simple:

Make things. Get stuff done.

Trei Brundrett of Vox Media said this during a panel. I freaking loved it. Constantly I’m being instructed to have a perfect resume, thoughtful cover letter, 3-5 internships, good GPA, and have a know-how of many different skills. Several of my teachers and the career advisors have jammed this into my (as well as other students) heads.

Thinking of all of this can get overwhelming and leave a person forgetting to do an activity that matters: make things.

So, even with the lost leads, disappointments, and rejections, I’m going to keep moving forward and keep making things. The “thing” right now include finishing my novel. There is a mass communication job fair tomorrow. Things will move forward, I just have to take the first step.

As Kenan & Kel (mainly Kel) would say, “Aw, here it goes!”

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Young Adult Novels Adhere to the Unconventional

October 20, 2014 - colinashby Leave a comment

Young adult novels…they’ve seem to have gotten repetitive. Fascinating worlds and wonderful tales fill them but many of the main characters across the book have a common shared theme: they’re socially awkward hipsters who take off beaten paths.

I’m not saying that all young adult books are like this. There are several books to choose from that do not take this well-worn path: The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent. It is worth pointing out why many young adult books are diving in this theme of embracing the unconventional individual. Several young adult books with nerdy/awkward protagonists have become bestsellers. Young adult author John Green’s books including Paper Towns, The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska all include having a main protagonist who isn’t very outgoing and believes in staying quiet.

Two young adult genre breakout hits of 2013 were Eleanor & Park and Fangirl. Both books (written by the same author: Rainbow Rowell) deal with introverted characters who surround themselves in their own world. This Song Will Save Your Life, a novel by Leila Sales, deals with a quiet teen girl who has trouble making friends. Notice a similar theme/trend with the other books mentioned?

Perhaps this is just a trend that in the coming years will start to slow down. It’s good that many young adult authors are helping teens embrace their quirky traits and awkwardness in a world of weight pressure, body image critics, and bullying. There is room for change however. Sometimes it needs to be known when to move on and describe other types of characters. Embrace the person who likes to speak up, make things, and/or is overly vain. It would be a welcomed change.

Colin Ashby

Constantly curious & eclectic

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