Living My Life Like It's Golden

At times like these, I need to do two things.

1. Sit back, reflect, and be thankful for the amazing opportunities that have come my way.
2. REMEMBER this moment during the times I feel discouraged.

As a result of the Jack Brand Camp (which I still need to talk about) I was informed of the FutureM event that is happening this week. I am now home from the first two days of workshops, panels, and networking and recharging for the rest of the week. Let me give you a run down of what my life has consisted of the past few days.

Sunday: Photo shoot with SERAi Hair and Makeup Artistry at the Bridal Garden in East Greenwich. As soon as we walked in the door at 4pm, Gessenia and I played Bride-To-Be: trying on dresses, picking out jewelery, and getting our hair and makeup done by Samara and her team. Our session of playing dress-up was followed by a photo shoot that would have made anyone feel like a celebrity!

After a rush of flashing lights and enough lip gloss to last one million kisses, we left there like two teenage girls who just met Justin Bieber. It was so incredibly fun and Samara was absolutely fabulous. However it wasn't long until the reality sunk in that we were leaving for Boston the next day and had a lot of preparing to do. We attempted to do work at her house, but we didn't even make it an hour before our eyelashes seemed heavier than before and called it quits.

Monday: Woke up at 6:45am to meet Gessenia at the office to print our resumes and business cards. Blasting Adele in the background to calm the stress of our "To Do" list, Adele helped us through a dozen failed attempts to align the business card paper correctly. Exhausted, frazzled, and laughing at our situation, we left with only copies of our resume in hand. Dave picked me up at 9:00am and we were finally Boston-bound. The first event Dave and I attended was The Future of Marketing in Sports Entertainment. It was awesome. People from Hill Holliday, NESN, the Patriots, and a Non-Profit were there sharing their marketing wisdom about the one thing that unites people from all over the world-Sports.

One parking ticket later, we headed over to the Microsoft office to Tap Into Gen Y- a panel led by Edward Boches from Mullen. This event particularly got me excited during the segment where it talked about how our generation "brand" themselves while looking for a job via social media. (Hey! Gessenia and I know all about it!) After that event, Dave and I somehow managed to lose the car which took us 65 minutes to realize it was parked only two streets away. (Thank God I took off my heels). We later picked up Gessenia from the Back Bay train station with a surprise in hand...her Mom went to Staples and printed out our business cards!!!! So proud, we headed to the FutureM kick off event where we met a wonderful woman, Alison from Smarterer. She connected with us immediately and offered to help us in any way possible. It's people like her that keep us going!
 
We grabbed dinner and drinks at Red Lantern before making it back to our hotel.

Check out our Business Cards!

 














Tuesday: We woke up bright and early to make our way back to the Microsoft Headquarters for our first event, Massachusetts: The Future of Marketing is Here. A panel of entrepreneurs, venture capitalist and marketing professionals discussed the ways in which they can keep and attract the talent to Boston in order to grow and foster better businesses in the area. Brilliant people with great ideas.

The last session we attended was by far my favorite, "Boston's Digital Showcase." Young entrepreneurs discussed their career paths, and up and coming success stories presented their elevator pitch. The one that made my jaw drop? Krush. Look them up. This guy is a genius. (I could go on and on about these sessions but for the sake of interest, I'm trying to keep this short!) We ended the day on a networking event that directly followed, and met more fascinating people. Boris: CampusLive. Peter Stringer: Celtics Social Media Guru. We made some rookie mistakes during the next hour, for example: when I was asked "Where are you from?" I replied, "Exeter, RI. You know, closer to the southern end." ....He was looking for where I worked... there were a few more- but hey! we are still learning.

While I am gasping for air, I have to say the first few days of this week were an overall success and I cannot wait to go back for more tomorrow.

A Quick Hello from OK!

Thank goodness for my BFF, Gessen. While I am away for a week with limited internet access- she of course is constantly keeping me in the loop (and sane) by tweeting job opportunities and sharing her job search status via #GraduateSwagg. What would I do without her?!

During the first 20 minutes I had a chance to get on my laptop, I opened my inbox to a formal invitation to Jack Morton's Brand Camp September 1st. More than a little excited!! ....as well as tip that there may be a job opening at Glamour Magazine in NY! I said I wasn't going to limit myself...so let's put that to the test! I forwarded my resume... and we'll see what happens next.

I've only been gone for a day.

So Many Activies!

...a phrase my beautiful friend Alicia would often squeal out.

Speaking of Alicia and the girls of K2... if there was one thing that could bring us together it was food. It didn't matter if there was an exam the next day or 8 pages left of our typical 12 pager, if you tempted us with a good meal, we would be there! Luxe Burger was our not-so-guilty pleasure during school and I returned there a few days ago with my boyfriend and mom, thanks to Groupon. I got my usual turkey burger with sauteed onions and guacamole, Dave got something ridiculously spicy (probably so I wouldn't pick at it) and my mom got the Thanksgiving burger. The food was fab and although the company wasn't the same, it was still just as great.

The rest of the weekend (which includes Thursday because I'm still unemployed) was an awesome one. Gessenia and I kicked off Thursday night at Centro, a martini bar in East Greenwich where we stuck it through the less-than-okay service for some of the best martinis ever. Hers was an Oatmeal Cookie and mine was a Butterfinger (which we decided was okay because we went to the gym before). We played catch up for the next couple of hours, talking about where we were on our job search and how her informational interview at RACEPOINT GROUP went!! (read previous blog) We laughed at my emotional state and attempted to figure out the reasoning behind some of the songs being played in the background. Anyone overhearing our conversation was given free entertainment for the night.

Friday was the annual Blessing of the Fleet, an event that everyone and their mom attends. It was a great time under the beer tent except this year there was less elbow room than ever before. As soon as all of our tokens had been exchanged for beer, or in my case, pinot grigio, we headed over to the Coast Guard House where we spent the rest of the night.

After a 4 hour nap and a 7 hour work day at the golf course, I met up with my friend Alicia to drive to Acton, MA for our friend Kelly's graduation party. It was sooooo good to be with some of my K2 girls again and thanks to BBM, Facebook, and mobile uploads it was like we were all together again dancing to Gold Dust.

Us waving "hi" to our missing 3

Last Friday Night

Sorry I have fallen off the blog radar for the past few weeks. I've been caught up with work, summer nights, and Firefly Lane. I'm finally able to add another post (in between blowing my nose and drying my tears) because I can now step away from the book that has had me in another world this past week. Firefly Lane has been the perfect escape but I have to say I'm glad it's over. I've been so caught up in it, I would race home to read more. I don't remember the last time I read a book, never mind one that effected me as much as this one.

Last week, Friday Night finally made a comeback... I guess all the stars were aligned. It was the perfect day, mid 80s, and at the last minute two of my bests from Bryant came to visit. We had dinner at Kabuki, caught up over edemame and I successfully introduced them to the eel avocado roll which is my favorite!

When we got home, we got ready all together just like we were back at school- music blasting, playing relay with the flat iron, and 4 girls to one mirror. Gessen joined us when she got out of work and after trying on a dozen outfits, snapping a bunch of pictures, we were ready to go. The rest of the night was spent at The Coast Guard House where you could find us holding our Narragansetts in the air on the dance floor. Nothing could stop us- except for the view outside that we admired multiple times that night. On the ride home we hit the highest notes our vocal cords would allow and recapped in the morning via pictures, videos and the disaster in the kitchen. Now that's the Friday night I've been looking for.

View from the Coast Guard deck

It's a Rhode Island Summer

I have been busy busy, editing, changing, researching and organizing but I can't help catching myself time and time again daydreaming about my awesome start of July. Despite the June gloom, July has really kicked off the summer with a bang... For starters my graduation party. Over 200 people attended, including my Boyfriend who flew over from Cali for the 3rd time in the past month, my former roommates all through college from Mass, NY, and Philly, and the old throw back friends I grew up with - It was a blast! There was endless amount of food, beer, and music. Well maybe not endless, considering there were no left overs and the 3 kegs were completely kicked. Only a result of a good time. (Which reminds me I have too many thank you letters to get to!)

And then there was the Fourth of July. Naturally any Rhode Islander or graduate from the state, knows that Block Island is the place to be. It was my fourth time going and man did the good times there catch word. I have never seen so many people as I did this year. The Town beach is usually the first stop and like always crowded with a sea of young people. Later in the day, we walked down to Ballards, where we enjoyed some mudslides and some serious dancing to classic rock. And of course the ferry ride home was a story in itself.

We finished off the holiday weekend by taking a trip down to the Charlestown Breachway. My boyfriends parents loaded their truck with the kayaks and we spent the day cruising through Ninegret park checking out the sights. We did the usual canal path, found our little island, brought our kayaks to shore and watched the waves roll in on East Beach. Then like any other Rhode Islander, on our way home from our adventurous day, we stopped at Iggys to grab some clam cakes and New England Chowder. YUM.

I might be in a hurry to get out of here, but let me tell you, there is nothing like a Rhode Island Summer.

Bostonians

7:30am: (401): So excited for todayyyyy! I'm on my way...Boston here we come!

7:55am: After getting to her house, Gessenia and I spent a considerable amount of time deciding which shoes she should wear to her informational interview. It was between her reliable "mature" white shoes or her stylish nude suede heels. After weighing the pros and cons, we obviously agreed on the latter...(it may be an interview, but you still have to look fabulous!) With the assistance of her mom, Gessen's outfit was complete and we were ready to catch the 8:38am train.

8:38am: We're only at exit 20 on 95. "Looks like we're taking the 9am train!"

8:45am: We purchased our tickets and it wasn't until we stepped out of Cafe Le France (or whatever it is) that we realized he said the next train was at 9:48. What?! Not possible. Turns out we somehow managed to read the schedule wrong the night before. After a brief moment of panic we did what he had to do and paid the extra money to buy another ticket for the 9:16 Acela.

9:05am: As we were waiting outside for the train I grabbed my camera off the ground to snap a pic of the State House. Silly me forgot I was using my camera to keep my ticket from flying away. Sure enough my ticket took off. As it drifted toward the tracks I had a moment of poor judgment and envisioned myself doing whatever I had to do to get it back in my possession...even if that meant jumping down to the tracks to grab it. Thankfully I caught it just as I stepped onto the yellow section. Gessenia and I died laughing at my frantic scramble and it wasn't until we read the sign "Caution live wires below" that we fell silent. That could have been bad.

9:48am: We arrived in Boston after numerous mock interviews and the extension of our Boston dream. We had just enough time to find New Directions on Oliver Street and grab a multi-grain bagel at Starbucks.





12:00pm: I got quite far into my book, Firefly Lane, while I had waited for Gessenia outside on a park bench down Oliver Street. When she finally walked out of New Directions it looked like a whole new level of excitement had come over her. She was reassured, motivated and was so excited to share the information she had learned during the past hour and a half. (I'm sure she'll go more into detail in her blog to follow)

We lost track of time for the rest of the day and it only continued to get better. We walked around Quincy Market and found Gessenia the perfect graduation party dress at Urban Outfitters. We grabbed lunch at a little Mexican restaurant where we discussed our next move (career wise) over apps and a pitcher of white sangria. We made a lengthy check list and decided to step our game up even more (after the 4th of course!). After we paid the bill and checked our statuses in the mirror, we took off-with no plan in particular just to make the most out of our trip. We hopped around from place to place, even tried watermelon flavored beer, until Gessenia got a call from a friend (who saw her tweet- that she was in Boston) and we made our way to The Landing. It was so exciting to be in the Boston crowd, mixed in with people who were just getting out of work and really feeling like we belong here.

After too many drinks and too many laughs my boyfriend scooped us up after his night class at 10:15pm and we headed home. It was such a perfect day....and we still have unused tickets back!

Present Occupation: Beach Bum

FINALLY THE SUN IS OUT! And things are looking up.

Khiara's Informational Interview went better than imagined, let's just say a situation 2. My older sister Kendra, who just graduated from Providence College with a Masters in Special Education, had her first interview for a teaching position last Friday (and I thought the job market was tough for my Field - try and be a teacher in the state of the Rhode Island) and ironically, her best friend Lindsay who has lived up the street from us our entire lives, had an interview the same day ( She also studied PR at URI.) It was only fitting that both of them got confirmation that they got their first "big girl jobs" yesterday within hours of each other. Weird huh? I can't tell you how happy I am for both of them. Seeing my sister jump up and down , a 25 year -old, tears in her eyes of just pure happiness. I Know what she was thinking, " it was all worth it." Every decision and step she made, substituting for almost two years, busting her butt to get into grad school, from being dead broke, living with her parents all through college, taking all those summer classes and not making it to the beach... all lead her to where she is today.

And Lindsay. She's something special. The type of person that just draws you in with her humor, charm and good looks. Always was that "in" girl, promoted for a liquor company, lived the fabulous young life, bar hoping, trips to Vegas, a total beach bum in the summer, and her worst worries were if it was raining or too cold out- she wasn't going out. But as she got older, 25 now, the panic started setting in, of when this real job was going to happen. She told me how interviews started going sour, when they were asking what has she been up to for the past three years and why she hadn't already been hired. Now, in two weeks she will be doing marketing and events for a medical company, which requires her to travel and be on the go and starting at an impressive salary. As linds puts it, "a cubicle was never for her."

After getting the good news, us three and a few other friends went down to the beach yesterday, taking advantage of the beautiful weather. And me and Linds got to talking. She was expressing her excitement and fears about finally starting her professional career. I told her mine. We talked about how our mind sets were different after graduating college. When she graduated college in 2009, she wasn't on careerbuilder looking for a job frantically yet, she wanted time to enjoy herself, and that the people she knows that did do that, weren't so happy. I thought about this. It's not the first time. I know I'm young, 21 - years -old. I have my whole life to work. And I'm sure that first job I get most certainly won't be my favorite. But I am ok with that. I am ready for something new. I want to be somewhere different. Not to discount Lindsay's path for a second, everything worked out for her. Because in the scheme of everything, our lives are not resumes that we need to continuously build to impress others. It's an experience. And how you spend your time and find fulfillment is only up to you.

So things worked out. Everyone has their own path. Things happen. Good and Bad. But Everyone gets there. Where ever "there" is. I'm sure my journey to my Scenario 1 Life isn't going to happen over night, but I'll get there. In the mean time, all you can do is soak up the sun for what it's worth.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

But here's a few dozen:

1. I'm a member of Planet Fitness 

(I highly recommend it)

2. If this girl plans on using this machine, she's facing the wrong way 

(she is well aware)

3. Okay, it's actually a friend of mine
(SMH)

4. She's going through a little rough patch 

(let's just say boys are stupid)

5. Motivation

(is clearly not present)

6. I'm in the market for a new gym partner. 

(Any takers?)

Ice Queen

Another Friday has come and gone and Mother Nature once again, selfishly took away a well deserved night out. I spent the stormy evening in with my boyfriend watching Get Him to the Greek- which I really can't complain about, however I'm still waiting for that typical "summer night" and longing to get caught up in the music at the Coast Guard House. Thankfully Sunday nights have saved me and are what keep me going throughout the week. Since I've been back in the area, I've found myself at Trio in Narragansett every Sunday night. Whether it's drinks with my gf or dinner with the boyfriend, it has yet to let me down...and the perfect summer drink may or may not be found there! Gessen and I first tried it out on a whim a few weeks ago- "being decisively spontaneous" is our new thing- and it was a pleasant surprise. I ordered the Midnight Martini: Patron XO, Svedka Vanilla and Kahlua-HELLO! and she ordered the ever loyal original cosmo. Both drinks were delish but it wasn't until my next visit the following week that I was tempted to call this the place of Summer 2011. My boyfriend and I went for drinks and half off apps and that's when I was introduced to the Ice Queen. It's one of Trio's best selling martinis and I can see why! Grape vodka, white grape juice and ice wine, topped with real grapes-so perfect. I didn't hate the food either: we had their "Pizza of the Moment" and although the name sounds silly, this pie was nothing to joke about. Although I'm now in love with Sundays, there's still an opportunity for Fridays to share the spotlight.

We Got The Cup

After Picking up the boyfriend at 10a.m. at Logan, searching frantically for a place to park and to get on the T, taking the blue line to the green line- we made it to Boylston st. Not to mention front row spots to the parade, and getting to see the one and only MVP Tim Thomas of the Boston Bruins with the Stanley Cup. One of the best times of my life!