The Next Stage

Life has been pretty dang interesting lately. In December, I graduated from BYU. Woo hoo! And because I felt really strongly about it, I decided I needed to stay in Provo. I don't know why, but there you go. I'm in the midst of one of those leaps of faith that you hear people talk about. Hopefully there will come a time when I know why I was supposed to stay in Provo. Not that I don't like it here. In fact, I love it. All my friends are here and I have much better opportunities to meet more friends here than I would with my parents, which I love. But there's the minor factor that I don't have a job and I have rent and groceries to pay for. Not fun.

But I did get an internship. It's with Paper Crafts Magazine, which is incredibly exciting. It's a scrapbooking magazine, which is definitely not my thing. I don't scrapbook. But hey, it's a real, published magazine and I get to work on it, so I don't care what they publish. I have a friend who did the internship over a year ago, and it turned into paid freelance work for her. I'm really hoping that's what happens for me. The only catch is that it's part time, and it's unpaid. Eek. But it's excellent editing experience that I desperately need.

So when I got back to Provo from the break, I started looking for a part-time job. So much fun! I've applied to a grand total of two places. I'm so on the ball, I know. But I did snag an interview. For an editing job. A part-time editing job to go with my part-time editing internship? Yes, please! It's pretty much the perfect situation for me. Two things to go on my resume for when I finally apply for that dream job, whatever or whenever that will be. Not that it will be enough. But it's a start.

The interview went fairly well. I interviewed for an editing position at KLAS Research. I would be editing comments by healthcare professionals about the products they use. Not the most exciting stuff to edit, but it's professional editing, which is wonderful. Three people interviewed me, which was rather intimidating, and then I had to take a short editing test. I think I did all right. I'll find out next Thursday if I got the job, so keep your fingers crossed.

And tomorrow I'll be talking to the managing editor of Paper Crafts to work out my hours and what I will be responsible for. I'm pretty dang excited, mostly because even if it takes me a while to get a job, I will be doing something worthwhile and working towards something. I'm doing absolutely nothing right now and it's killing me. I'm incredibly bored. Not to mention the fact that it's rather disorienting because I'm living where I lived the last year and a half of my college career, yet I'm not going to classes or working or doing anything. I feel like a bum.

It's definitely weird to be in this stage of life. I always thought about what I would do when I got my bachelor's degree, but it's so different when you suddenly have to not only think about what to do, but decide on it. I knew in my head that I was graduated once finals ended last semester, but it didn't really sink in until after break, until the Monday school started for everyone else but me. Waking up in my Provo apartment and knowing that I didn't have to do anything was so surreal. I knew all my roommates (well, all but one) were off to their first day of classes, and it made me quite sad. I really do miss being in class and learning. But I definitely don't miss the homework. And it's good to grow up and move on. The time always comes when things have to change and you've just got to change and grow too.