Freelance Writing....For Real This TIme

Today I went into a meeting at City Hall. (dun-dun-dun!) No I'm not in trouble (shocking, yes?). About a month ago I went to a Greeley Young Professionals Meeting in which the City of Greeley unveiled their newest ad campaign entitled "Greeley Unexpected".

I won't lie. I was incredibly impressed by it. It was exactly what Greeley needed. Not an image revamp, but a closer look at what makes Greeley what it is and why we as patrons and citizens of the city should invest ourselves more into it. Afterwards I talked to the woman who presented and told her just that. Somehow we ended up talking shop and there I was sitting in her office today, nervous as heck, sweaty from the drive without A.C. in Brutto and of course exhausted.

And she asked me the most beautiful question a writer could ever hope to hear "Would you be willing to do some writing for our blog?"

YES. YES. YES. OF COURSE. YES.

She asked me a few more questions concerning my schedule and what sort of experience I have. Namely, am I comfortable in front of a camera? From my days in the legislature (both working and testifiying) and as an intern for the Montana Cowboy Poetry Festival doing t.v. commercials and radio interviews you could say I am.

I've been in a slump lately. I won't lie. I don't like my jobs (100% because they don't do anything to further my career) and I'm burned out. Yet today, all those seemingly small things I did in the past prepared me for today, getting one of my first freelance projects. Hearing words like reference letters and portfolios? I'm a big kid! And maybe, all those days I've spent working for Housing and IT will prepare me again in the future.

All of this to say I need to warm up my blogging fingers because it has really been awhile since I devoted any sort of time to the blog realm of writing. I've had a pretty serious itch lately to start fashion blogging. I check my blog lovin' feed on the daily, and I know I dress well enough. The main thing getting in my way?

A camera! With just a phone camera and a mirror that shows my rat cage and generally my dog chewing a bone behind me it doesn't really capture the image I'm looking for. So that's something I'm working on figuring out. Dadblammit if I'm going to waste my life at dead end jobs I may as well get some time in researching while I'm at it!

What Does PhD Even Stand For?

Hello Dear Friends!

I apologize for my absence. I've had a bit of a rough time these past few weeks. Finals are right around the bend, and as excited as I am for winter break, I still struggle with the fact that every semester I finish is another semester closer to being done with school in general. The problem is, I LOVE school. 

I love learning from professors who have such an extensive knowledge of the subjects they teach and are so passionate about them. I love how each semester I find out another tidbit that reminds me why I am in my majors. I find myself growing more and more passionate about them. I absolutely love to learn and dissect the works of great Philosophers. It's given me an entirely new understanding of the concept of "putting yourself in their shoes.

The problem with all of this, is that my thirst for knowledge and hunger for learning is leading me down a path I never, ever, ever, expected to take. And that is Grad School. 

I have been tinkering with the idea for the past year and a half or so, but never really thought it would amount to much. But, I am firmly convinced that the Masters Degree is the new Bachelors Degree. College degrees are so much more common than they once were. And in this day and age common is not the right recipe for a great job in the field I love. A field which is rather small anyways. So I had been thinking about it, but the other night finally began the search.

I had planned on going back to Montana for grad school, but I found that MSU doesn't have the program I had in mind. Neither does my current school....Or schools in Denver. Or Fort Collins...The only one I found was in Boulder. So I began searching even further. I still have residency in California so I began looking there  and that was REALLY outside the box of anything I had ever imagined.

Berkeley? Stanford? UCLA? Sheesh. All of them have the programs I want, but there is one small, tiny, little, miniscule problem.

They are all only PhD programs. o.0

That is definitely not a route I ever expected to take. I don't think that I'm cut out for it, I wasn't even sure I was cut out for Undergrad! However, I find myself really considering this route. I would enjoy teaching at the college level, and a PhD is nothing to turn your nose up at. But it scares me. It's a huge commitment and will take every ounce of strength I have to complete. 

So, I present to you my list of possible grad schools ranked in no particular order. But maybe a little bit what I think I could actually, maybe, possibly, achieve. 

• San Diego State University (SDSU)
• Colorado University-Boulder
• University of California-La Jolla
• Berkeley
• Stanford

O, and for what it is worth. My current studies have me as a double major in Journalism (Concentrating in Public Relations and Advertising) and Political Science. My goal in grad school, whether that ends up being a Masters or a PhD is Political Theory and Comparative Politics. If anyone has ideas, please let me know!