college – Modern Notebook

Happy October

Life & Adventures, Photography, Thoughts

Happy October! It’s finally starting to feel like fall. I’ve actually been able to wear long sleeves two days in a row. In Southern California! That’s just super exciting to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer. It’s just cool when the weather changes too. Get it? It’s cool weather. I crack myself up sometimes.

I love the beginning of every season. Well, scratch that. I love when it’s about a week or two into any season. By then I’ve had a chance to get used to my allergies acting up because of the temperature change. I’ve made a list of goals for the season and mentally prepared for things that are coming up. I’ve made a list of fall goals and will keep reminding myself of them every day by making little steps so that I accomplish them. I prepare not just for the changes in my own future but how the world is constantly changing too. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with all the changes.

These are pictures I took two weeks ago on campus before school started. At that time I started seeing more people than normal, including more people who looked like professors or staff members and more people who looked like they might be students. The campus still was fairly quiet though. It didn’t get really busy until a few days later. Then Welcome Week started, students moved back on campus, and conferences began for faculty and staff. That week before school started though there was this feeling in the air. Perhaps only I felt it. Perhaps it was a feeling inside me. It’s like I could feel that things were about to change.It has now. The atmosphere is more exciting now, more full of life. This might sound silly, but I think places have feelings too, in a way.

I would like to a do a series of pictures from my college campus. It’s just going to be so funny to leave it. I need some way to say goodbye and to take the memories with me, in a tangible way. It would be nice to have some photos of my favorite spots framed somewhere in my house. Of course, I do only live about fifteen minutes away and can visit any time, but it will be different if I’m not required to go for school or work and I have other things going on, such as a full-time job or internship. As it is one of my goals, I would like to improve my photography skills and I may even retake these photos to make them better. I know these photos are too flat and grainy, but I’m not sure how to take something better quite yet. Thankfully, I have a digital photography class this quarter.

Pretty soon it will be holiday season. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it seems to sneak up on me. Do you feel that way too? This year I’ve been preparing my heart to be happy about all the celebrating. I want to take plenty of pictures, but also be in the moment and enjoy every minute.

Back to school

Fashion, Style, Thoughts

These photos are from last Thursday, my first day of school for fall quarter, yet I’m just now putting them up. I’ve been fairly busy and decided to let myself relax. Thursday, Friday and Saturday went by fast. Today I let glide by a little more slowly. I don’t want to get stressed out since it’s still barely the beginning of the quarter, but I also have to stay on my toes since the 10 weeks in a quarter system go by super quick. Pretty soon I will be done with my classes and saying good bye to the school. Of course I will come back to visit. It will just be so strange to be done with classes after all this time. Even after I graduate, I know I’ll come to participate in my favorite Cal Poly Pomona traditions.

Most of my favorite traditions are in fall at the start of the school year. One of them, the BroncoFusion concert, just happened last Friday. Actually, to be honest, it wasn’t really one of my favorite events until then. Even though this year is my fifth year as a student at CPP, last Friday only marked my second time attending the annual beginning of the year event. The first time was because I was promoting The Poly Post, the student newspaper, the year I was news editor. This time it was because I was interviewing students and the artists for videos for my job with ASI. Just thinking about my involvement with both of those things and the memories from both events makes me smile.

It was really fun getting to interview the artists for BroncoFusion. They were all rap/ hip-hop artists. I know very little about that genre of music. I’m more of an indie and pop girl myself. But these guys were nice, I did my research and although I was nervous it ended up okay. I’m super thankful for the people I work with who also kept their cool and made it fun. I’ll be posting my coverage of the event and interviews on my company’s blog soon. Once the videos are up I’ll share them here.

Speaking of people I work with, BroncoFusion reminded my boyfriend and I how two years ago we were at the event to promote The Poly Post together back before we started dating. That night I actually stuck by him while avoiding a guy I had dated the spring before. I swear, it’s funny how things change. Now I couldn’t imagine spending CPP traditions with any one else. We already promised each other that we’ll have to keep coming back for Dia de Los Muertos and the Pumpkin Patch.

It’s so good to be back in school and have it finally be fall, even if it’s not quite fall weather yet. As I said, I’m looking forward to all the fall traditions at CPP. I’m also glad to be back in classes. Last year I found myself saying “Most of my friends have graduated already” a lot since my close friends from the newspaper graduated. I caught myself saying that again a few times last week, but I will try to stop. After all, I have two awesome co-workers whom I have known since last spring and there are two other great girls whom I have known slightly longer. My co-workers are younger than me, but there’s nothing wrong with that. The other girls are on staff in my magazine class. Actually, my friend Meaghan took these pictures right before our class.

All of my classes seem like they are going to be amazing. I’m super excited. They seem like they will be fairly easy, which makes me wonder if I should try to add just one more. I’m taking Organizational Behavior (my first business class, yay!), Photoshop (WAY EXCITING), Yoga and Meditation (should be good) and Magazine Practices (an adventure, for sure). I’m wishing that I could stay in school longer, stretch it out and even do a minor. If I could I would have a tough time deciding between a minor from the college of Business or a minor in Ethnic and Women’s Studies. I’ve also contemplated getting a certificate to teach English as a second language. I do know that even when I’m not in school I want to be always learning. Life is a continual journey of knowledge in an d out of the classroom.

Hat: Handed down from my oldest sister, Dress: Dee-Lux, Boots: Borrowed from middle sister

In my time away

Life & Adventures, Thoughts

Today begins a new resolution to look toward the future with as positive an attitude as possible and to always keep blooming.

Looking back on the past year, I think about how blessed I am to have such amazing people in my life (some of whom I plan to feature here) and how much I have learned about life. A few big things in my life started last summer, so in that sense I am celebrating the anniversary of those events.

I moved out of the apartment I had been living in my junior year of college at the beginning of last summer, which was a big change. From there I moved into a new home with my aunt, mom and sister. That has definitely been an adjustment for me as it is a bit of a loss of independence, but it helps that I have such good, patient family members.

Last June I also started a new job as writer and editor for a marketing department at my school, Cal Poly Pomona, called Gas Creative Group. It is part of Associated Students, Inc., which is a non-profit corporation supported by student fees. It can be a little difficult to explain at times. Any way, through that job I have learned a lot about marketing, especially when it comes to blogs and social media. I’m happy to say I’m still working there and get to “learn by doing,” as the CPP motto goes.

Tomorrow I start an internship where I will be doing various communication work for a local non-profit. This will be my very first position off campus! Actually, it’s not if you count volunteering at my church or local library. I have had great experiences on campus working for a food place, the college newspaper and a marketing department but now it will be good to go away from my campus that feels like home.

At the internship I will mostly be working on social media but I have it on good authority that I will also learn grant writing and get to work on a press release. That should be good! I may also start the company’s blog. That part might be the most exciting, although it all sounds good.

Pretty soon it will be time for other big events and milestones too.

I’m looking forward to celebrating my one and a half year dating anniversary with my boyfriend. It’s fun to celebrate half year anniversaries too and I’ll make up any milestone to make a day extra special with him.

After two years without a car, I’m finally financially, mentally and emotionally ready to buy a car. Yeah, that sounds pretty dramatic. More on that later. So, I should definitely get a car by December any way.

In a little more than a month I’ll be starting my final quarter in college. I’ll be a super senior in my fifth year. But for good reasons! It’s going to be good to be done but I’ll miss it like crazy.

Here’s to preparing for the future and living in the now.

Working together, seperately on Dia de los Muertos

Life & Adventures, Love + Relationships

Two weeks ago my university hosted its 18th annual Dia de los Muertos event. It was amazing to be a part of it and hear the experiences of other people at a the big cultural event.

Last week I wrote about the event for ASInside, a blog with my school. Here it is! It would mean a lot to me if you would check it out.

One of the most fun things about the event that I didn’t mention in the blog post for ASInside was that my boyfriend was also there taking photos and videos for the school newspaper as a freelancer.

We got to work on a few stories together last spring when we first started dating. He was the multimedia editor and I was the news editor and we teamed up on a few feature stories.

For the first time the boyfriend and I were working separately, but hung out together. Yeah, if it were more of a newsy story that could be a conflict of interest, but not in this case. Besides, it’s not like we shared quotes or photos. It was all good fun!

Here is the boyfriend’s awesome video “CPP Dia de los Muertos 2012” hosted on YouTube.