Opportunity Cost :: June 9th, 2010

Project Blog Prompt #9: [Self Chosen]

My job title is Camp Counselor and the place with which I work at is about 40 min away from my apartment. This 40 minutes does not include if there is traffic. Usually though, to travel from one to the other, it takes about an hour to an hour and a half because I have to go through downtown Austin. During the school year, I’m a full-time student and work about 20-25 hours a week at this place. When I’m out of school though, I easily work 40 hours a week just like a normal person.

I thoroughly enjoy my job. I enjoy working with kids and my bosses are beyond flexible with me in order to make sure my schedule works around what I have going on at school. I get along with all the staff there as well, and it’s just overall a really great job that I enjoy. Unfortunately though, this 1+hour commute to work and then a 1+ hour commute back from work is really wearing on me. I’m beyond exhausted and have noticed a serious decrease in my ability to make it through the day. Hell, it’s gotten to the point that during the school year, when I have homework, I’d half-ass some of it just because I lacked the energy to stay awake to finish it to the best of my ability.

I’ve been thinking about getting another job for a while, but I already know that no matter what job I get, I won’t be near as excited to go to work as I am for my current job. I already know that before my college career is over, I have to get an internship as a graphic designer. As much as I’d love for a paid one, I’m just not sure how big of a chance I have of finding one. So now it’s a question of, do I continue with my current job as a camp counselor because I enjoy what I’m doing, or do I quit and find something that’s closer to my apartment so that I won’t be as much stress on myself mentally and physically?

I have yet to figure out an answer to this question. I don’t know how I could ever leave the kids I get to work with. They’re so full of life, and they provide such a nice break from the “real world” that has no sense of humor or sense of fun. On the other hand, since my major is graphic design, it’s already known that I’ll have to eventually quit anyway to get a design job.

*sigh* I titled this post after how I feel about this subject — it’s a matter of opportunity cost.

Current Mood: Contemplative & Exhausted

Expecting the [Un]expected :: June 3rd, 2010

Project Blog Prompt #3: 10 things you expect in a good friend

First off, I’d like to express my overall excitement about this prompt that was suggested for today. I feel like there are people that I call ‘good friends’, but that’s only because out of everyone I know, they’re the better of them…not necessarily what I always would say fulfilled what I wanted in a friend. I guess this gives me a chance to reevaluate how I view people and rank their range of closeness to me lol.

1. TRUST. I think this is a must for everyone in any sort of relationship – whether it be friendship or romantic. I want to know that if I told you I planned on destroying the world, rather than turn me in, you’d keep it confidential if I asked you to. Maybe not to that extent, but that general idea. I’ve come to find that I have an extremely hard time getting over people who decide to break my trust with them, even on small things. While yes, I need to understand that mistakes like that happen because no one is perfect, I also know that whoever I confided in made a conscientious choice to prove themselves distrustful.

2. GOOFY. Yes, I enjoy being around people who are as uniquely crazy and hyper as I am. I want to know that whoever I’m with will always be excited and unpredictable. I love having moments with friends where we’ll blast NSYNC or old school Britney Spears in the car, and we’ll just jam out to what we listened to when we were 8 or something.

3. HONEST. Gosh I feel so cliche with some of these things I’m putting down for these expectations. It’s true though. Why would I want to be around someone who is just going to build a wall between us? This one is just as obvious an expectation as the trust one.

4. DEPENDABLE. I don’t think it’s at all possible to ALWAYS be there when some situation or event arises for someone else. I don’t expect a perfect record, but I want to be sure that if I was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, you’d be there to answer the damn phone when I use you as a lifeline. Don’t bullshit me into thinking that if my cat passes away, you won’t mind stepping out of the club you’re in to give me a few minutes of counseling if you’re not gonna do it.

5. GIVE A DAMN. Meh, what can I say, I like when people actually take an interest in what’s going on in my life or what I enjoy doing. It’s just a way to for someone to show they care about me. I mean, I have a boyfriend in the Marine Corps. with a sister who tends to ALWAYS be in the hospital for injuries or illness. I like to know that someone genuinely wants me to vent to them and get things off my chest. This goes for just knowing the little quirks about me that explain why I act the way I do lol.

6. SHARE INTERESTS. I don’t think there’s a single person in the world that can literally share a liking to everything you take interest in. I try to hang around people who find some of the more major things in life as enjoyable as I do. Not gonna lie, it’s difficult for me to be around people who just want to stay home all the time and never do anything. I need friends who like to go out as much as I do or do something exciting every so often.

7. GO SOMEWHERE IN LIFE. I’m a bit iffy on this one. I try not to judge people for the conditions of their lifestyle because I don’t always know the backstory behind it. It’s easier for me to connect with friends though who are relatively going through the same things I am. I sometimes feel a little weird talking about college and grades with friends of mine who either dropped out of high school or just didn’t do anything after high school graduation. I try to surround myself with positive influences, and I just find it difficult to be motivated if the people closest to me aren’t helping to push me to be a better person.

8. DRUG FREE IS THE WAY TO BE. Yeah I said it. I really will not get to know someone that well if they spend their time smoking, snorting, shooting, inhaling, etc. I think that’s the number one thing in life someone can do to make me just see them as repulsive. I’m not saying I won’t associate myself with you at all if you decide to do them. I’m simply pointing out that it’s just harder for me to want to be around people who are constantly doing those things. No, I’m not someone’s mother, but like I said earlier, I try to keep positive people around me…annnnnd drugs are just gross and mess you up in the long run in my opinion.

9. TALK. A simple text messaging saying “Hey, just wanted to say hello!” once a week or even month satisfies this. I understand that life gets busy and chaotic, believe me, but also don’t think that’s an excuse to just disconnect yourself from everyone you’re associated with. With the people I consider good friends, I always try to keep in touch pretty constantly so that they don’t feel like I’m silently telling them goodbye or something. I just like to know people are still alive and are interested to talk about stuff :].

10. RESPECT. Yes, I LOVE Britney Jean Spears and I promise that if you ever decide to argue with me about her, I WILL destroy you. Yes, I am a proud Catholic, but I won’t shove it in your face and try to convert you. It’s basically common courtesy. Don’t sit there and tell me I’m wrong in life just because of what I believe, do, or think it awesome. If you can’t respect me for what I like, then how do you expect me to do the same for you? I know this sounds a little contradictory to what I said about not wanting to be around people who do drugs (because in a sense, I’m not tolerating a choice of theirs), there is a fine line between drugs and higher-being belief as well as a fine line between drugs and taste in music. You don’t have to watch Glee or like it, just understand that I never miss an episode and deal with it.

Oh the amount of cliche I feel with this post, but everything I said it true though. A lot of my current ‘good friends’ don’t even hit all 10 of those, but I still love them anyway XP.

Current Mood: Chill

Thanks For Your 2 Cents, Not :: June 2nd, 2010

Project Blog Prompt #2: [Self-Chosen Prompt]

It becomes apparent now that in every decision I make in life, someone feels the need to act like they’re the all-knowing and dispute with me on what choice I make. I don’t understand why people feel the need to be complete assholes about it either. I mean, there’s a difference between expressing your opinion/concern on a subject and just completely going on and on about it like you’re the lead of the high school drama club.

There are two main things that these kinds of people lack in taking into concern when they open their mouths:

1. No matter how well you may think you know me, you will never know the entire background story that influenced what I decided to do. It’s impossible. You may be pretty knowledgeable on the matter, and granted you may have been by my side the entire time, but there’s always the little things that push someone towards a choice that no one else knows.

2. Just because something similar happened to you, it does not mean it will play out the same way for me. I appreciate your guidance on the matter, but going on and on about how it played out for you just annoys me.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of choices in life that I really appreciate peoples’ concerns for me and take into account what their opinion is. I’m just fed up with the people who seem to always say I’m wrong. For example, when I first signed the lease for my apartment, I swear I could’ve busted through the roof of every building I walked into with how happy I was. There was the one person though that had to sit there and tell me I was an idiot for choosing to live in the area of town I chose to live in. Yeah, the apartment isn’t in that great of town, but geezus it’s what I can afford SO SHUT UP. I just don’t get how on things like that someone ALWAYS has to be the Negative Nancy it seems.

- RANT DONE -

Current Mood: Annoyed