it's christmastime in OOOOOklahoma!

In 500 Words or Less: Review & Application

I got a class assignment to write a paper over either my graduate assistantship, a case study of a movie/book about higher education, or exploring a topic of interest in greater depth.

In researching possible films to watch, I stumbled upon a documentary I had never heard of: In 500 Words or Less. The sleeve reads

Going to college is a rite of passage for many American high school students, but the process can be overwhelming: college fairs, tours, SATs, applications. And then there's the personal essay. How does a seventeen-year-old define herself to total strangers when she's only beginning to discover who she really is? [...] In 500 Words or Less serves as a portrait of four of the nearly 1.5 million families who go through this process each year. While race, geography, and socio-economic status affected how they got here, their stories converge as they all juggle acceptance, rejection, decision-making, and letting go. 

During my undergrad work with first-year students, I focused on the struggles they would face when they got to the University. Maybe they would be homesick. Maybe they wouldn't be making as many new friends as they'd like, or maybe they wouldn't be getting as involved as they thought. Maybe school would be a little tougher (or easier) than they expected.

I hadn't really thought about how all these things could be the result of a decision in the college application process. I hadn't thought much about how many of them wind up at our metaphorical doorstep with lingering hesitation of 'was this the right choice?'.

Maybe for those who went through a similarly grueling process, these thoughts are more obvious. For me, they weren't. When it came to applying for college, I kind of just chose a school and applied to it, and to that one school only. Luckily I got in. I didn't grow up with a "dream school." I didn't have a dream major either. Because I was fortunate enough to get accepted, I never felt the sting of a rejection from a school and I never knew the discomfort of being wait-listed.

As a to-be student affairs professional, I think it is incredibly important to know where someone has been to know where they are going. In 500 Words or Less made me much more aware of a multitude of things freshmen face before they ever step foot on campus. The film is just a glimpse into four students' lives and the college process, and there are many other stories out there waiting to be heard.

a mini-update

I neglect my blog far (far far) too often.

I'm making a lot of little differences in my life, and hopefully updating my blog more often can be one of those changes.

My spare room is undergoing an overhall. I rearranged the furniture today and the family will be here in two weeks so that we can get some designing going on - I'm stoked! Things up my sleeve include a DIY table which, fingers crossed, turns out exactly like I hope..

Graduate school is great! I'm a little concerned about my year-and-a-half away job search, mainly because my heart is already wanting to move to Kentucky/Tennessee/North Carolina/South Carolina, but nothing is guaranteed. I believe that wherever I end up is where I am supposed to be, and I just have to be happy with that!

Counting down the days until Christmas ringtones can officially be used.

xoxo erikah

Sunday Snapshot: Wreaths

I have a long list of things to blog about, but I thought a Snapshot Sunday would get me started on that list without being too overwhelming!

I moved to Oklahoma in July and am currently living in the residence halls. My mom helped me turn it into home really quickly :)

The lovely (and simple) wreath she made for my door for July-September.

It's *OFFICIALLY* October, so I just put this baby up on my door!

My favorite part is the little LED lights she snuck in. 

Aaaand I'm counting down the days until November to put this one up. 

Technically I know this should be about my crafts, but I got my crafting gene from somewhere, right? She got everything for them at Hobby Lobby. 

Stay tuned for Christmas wreaths & decorations :)!

xoxo erikah

Book Review: StrengthsFinder 2.0

StrengthsFinder 2.0 arrived on my doorstep about 2 weeks ago (courtesy of the residence life department I'm working for in the fall - thank you!) It seemed a promising read, but in my normal procrastinating nature, I didn't open it until yesterday.

StrengthsFinder is, just as the title says, about finding your strengths. The idea is that too many times we focus on our faults and how to fix them, rather than focusing on our talents and maximizing them. The book states the belief that if more people worked this way, we essentially would all be more successful and happier.

The real magic of the book is that it comes with a code where you can log onto the StrengthsFinder website & take the assessment to find out your strengths. When you finish the assessment, you will find out your top 5 themes (classifications of talent) out of 34 that exist in the Clifton StrengthsFinder, and you receive detailed information on those talents as well as a list of specific ways you can apply them in your work.

Now, I've taken many "personality" quizzes and stuff of the like, but the Clifton StrengthsFinder is something else - it is wickedly accurate. While reading my results I seriously kept making a Home Alone face and yelling "oh my gosh that is SO me!" It's that accurate. Amazing.

My top 5 themes were restorative, deliberative, ideation, input, and context. Basically, I like to fix problems, I'm a private person, I love creativity, I crave knowledge, & I respect the past (if I could sum up each theme and how it specifically applies to me - the StrengthsFinder results are much more detailed and my fragments do them no justice!)

Another fun thing is figuring out how the theme applies to you. You and a friend could have the same theme, but it exists in you in different ways. For example, I think there are multiple types of problem solvers. Some love the thrill of fixing unexpected problems, and are fast decision makers. I, on the other hand,  prefer a longer problem solving process. I like to mull things over and flesh out each option as much as possible to make 100% certain that I make the right decision (because I hate having to re-do things. I'd rather take the time and do it right the first time.) I like fixing things just as much as other problem solvers, I just have a different way about doing it.

Also, getting back to the creepy accurateness of my results: "you simply cannot have too much information. It is impossible. Like a miner searches for gold day after day, you continually collect new bits of knowledge." How does it know this?! How did StrengthsFinder know I'm addicted to Sporcle, I wiki EVERYTHING under the sun, I keep a notebook documenting the things I find via IMDB, & that I actually have a book specifically about completely useless information? (My dad couldn't stop laughing when I read him this result, I am always spouting off some miscellaneous fact when we're together!)

Overall, I think StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a great book and if anything, it really helped me articulate what my talents are and helped me learn how I can become more successful by honing in on the things I'm naturally good at.

If you have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment, what are your top 5? Did you find them to be accurate? How have you applied them in your life? Please share!


xoxo erikah

stocking up

I always feel there is a need to say "Hi," "Thinking of You," "Miss You," "Thank You," or "I Love You" to somebody - so I'm trying to build up my card/stationary collection!

Today I made a trip to Marshalls, which is without a doubt one of my favorite places to stock up on supplies. They never fail me in having cute things at cheap prices, and once again, they came through!

How cute is this? I love love love the style and I think it's a really fun way 

to basically ask "how are you doing?" 

20 notecards & envelopes, Katie Daisy, $5.99

I love this set! Again, not something I see all the time, simple and beautiful.

And bonus! I love that it's in a silver tin I can reuse!

12 notecards & envelopes, Fringe, $5.50

I bought this mainly for the cute packaging

&the color palette. The picture really doesn't do it justice!

50 cards & envelopes, Graphique de France, $5.99

This pack had multiple sets of cards with different images. 

A kind of indie design that I really enjoy!

And look, another bonus!

I LOVE the box it came in & can't wait to use it for other trinkets.

20 notecards & envelopes, Maxine Sutton embroidery/ Galison NY, $3.50

I'm completely over the moon with all my purchases & I'm about to look some of these brands up to see if I can find more for a steal! Even if I can't, I know there will be many more trips to Marshalls (or TJ Maxx!) in the future just for this reason.

xoxo erikah

tray makeover

I'm currently gathering up things for my big move a month from now! For my new room I decided to go with a southern shabby chic style and my color palette is mainly browns, creams, and peaches.

This is my first time kind-of, sort-of attempting to do a tutorial so please forgive me for any errors! I'm new to this whole craft-blogging thing ;)

I had really wanted to do a tray makeover for my coffee table. I luckily found this cute wooden one, and I loved the brass* handles. AND best of all, it was originally $14, but was 50% off at Joann! Deals are my favorite.

*the handles actually aren't brass at all! They're PLASTIC! I didn't find this out until I took them off to paint it... they look like the real deal!

So the first thing I did was take the handles off. When I started the project, I knew I wanted to put words on the lines rather than quotes... because when it comes to crafting I have a very short patience and want to get things done as quickly as possible - a sin when you're a crafter, I know. I chose roots, place, family & tradition from a quote that I love, "The South - where roots, place, family, and tradition are the essence of identity," by Carl N. Degler. 

Hoping I would find peach spray paint (but of course not finding it) I mixed some acrylic paints I had on hand. It's probably much smarter to use paint from the hardware store, but what can I say, my impatience strikes again. My impatience also lead to the dark dark peach color you see on the sides because it was almost night time when I first tried to do this and I totally thought I had made the right color. The second time, I mixed a bit of orange and pink and a lot of metallic white (metallic was actually the only white I had on hand, but I loved using it in the end because it had a really pretty sheen to it.) I didn't have much paint, so I tried to just paint enough that I'd have space for the letters. Note: Paint the whole bottom if you can. After I spray painted over it, there was an unevenness between the part I had painted and not painted (though it wasn't a big deal to me because I plan on putting something on the one side so you won't really notice it.) 

Back on track - after my paint had dried, I used some stickers I had on hand for the lettering. I'm sure if you have a silhouette machine, there is a much simpler/better process for this step, but this was the best I could do! The last step was to spray paint over the whole thing & pull my stickers up!

And voila! 

Excuse the messy picture, I currently live with my parents and don't have the most adequate place to photograph my finished items. When I move I'll make sure to dedicate a post to showing you the things in their new natural setting! In my actual room I plan on having a mason jar with flowers on that side of the tray, but I haven't got to make that yet, hence it's substitution :)

So there it is - my first kind-of, sort-of tutorial!

xoxo erikah

Bottlecap Art

This craft developed out of my dad's love of soda sweepstakes. He always has me enter the codes for him, and as many caps as I come across, one day I decided to just start collecting them. Before I knew it I had a bucket-full and I actually hadn't come up with a plan for their use, but just decided to start something without thinking about it too much. The result:

You may be looking for some explanation.
I belong to an online collaborative art community called hitRECord (the red circle is our symbol, if you will.) Artists upload their 'records' (works of theirs - images, text, video, audio, etc) so basically at the tip of my fingers I have all of this artwork I adore. I had been collecting smaller caps (Coca Cola caps in the middle) and larger caps (Powerade/Minute Made caps surrounding.) The main crafting part of this is the larger caps, which I laid out and spray painted navy blue. I then chose 64 images that I loved and created a circle template to resize them all to, then printing them out and cutting them. The final step was mod-podging the paper to the caps.

This isn't the final result because my original intentions were to hang them on a wall and I still haven't figured out the best way to do so.

Future rehashing of the same craft: When I first started collecting the caps, I had an idea of making one large mosaic, painting caps accordingly so that from afar you would see an almost pixelated image. I couldn't decide on one image though, but it is an idea I would like to try in the future. I cut all the circles by hand because there weren't sized punches at my local Wal-Mart and I was already knee deep in the project (read: impatient.) In a future endeavor I would buy a sized punch that matches the caps' size and perhaps just use pretty scrapbook paper on the lids, in no specific fashion. We'll see.

Hope you found this interesting and let me know if you try/have tried something similar!

xoxo erikah

update

Hello!
So you might notice I gave my blog a bit of a facelift! As much as I love my southern roots, I wanted to breathe new life into my blog with a fresh, youthful & modern makeover. I know chevron is the biggest thing right now, but I can't help but love the boldness and pop of it :)

It's been a while since an update, so I haven't shared the news that I got a graduate assistantship for when I start my degree in the fall! I will be working as a resident director in the housing department at my University, and I am absolutely thrilled.

Currently I've been spending a lot of time doing art projects so I haven't had much time or other things to blog about! I did do one crafty project lately though, so expect a post about that soon. Also, starting in July I imagine my crafting posts will grow exponentially with me moving into a new nest and what not! On the Higher Ed front, I recently saw a list of suggested books for those in student affairs, and I hope to get my hands on some of those books this summer so that I can blog reviews/discuss topics.

Hope all is well in your world readers and promise to do a better job of blogging!

xoxo erikah

now seeking: advice!

It finally came: the official letter stating that I have been admitted to graduate school to study Adult and Higher Education!

Now that one part of my future is secure, I am seeking advice from those in the student affairs field.

This past week I interviewed for a graduate assistantship position at my university and when the interview ended, I asked the committee for advice for someone pursuing a student affairs career.

1) Remember perseverance. The infamous tale of a lot of rejection before an acceptance - don't get deterred from what you are truly passionate about. Allow your passion to shine through so that others may see it.

2) Be open to change. Just because something works one year doesn't mean it will work the next (or that it is the best option.) Be willing to try new things to find what works best.

3) Commit. Take the good with the bad (take them both and there you have the facts of life!). Really dedicate yourself to your profession so that you may get the most out of your experience!

I have a few months before I'll be in grad school so I thought this would be an opportune time to ask those of you out there involved in student affairs (grad students, those who just started their careers, or seasoned professionals) for any advice you could offer up to me! I know every person has had a different experience from being in different departments, at different schools, or from our own personal backstories. I look forward to hearing (and learning) from you all!

xoxo erikah

the truth about growing up

I spent the better part of my teenage years (and my college years) dreading 'growing up.' My 18th birthday was nothing more than another year, a year that I didn't feel any more like an adult. With each candle added to my cake, I found myself Peter Panning more and more, clinging to my youth as much as possible.

At 22 I found myself graduated, unemployed, and lost to an indescribable degree. I never looked forward to entering the 'real world' and, consequently, didn't adequately prepare myself for it.

It's been a year and I am now looking forward to the 'real world' as much as ever. What happened?
I started by asking myself why.

Why was I so afraid or in denial to grow up?
For me, I thought growing up meant becoming dull. I thought it meant never having fun again. I thought it meant that I'd become this robot, a shell of the vivacious and easy-going person I think myself to be. I focused so much on what being an adult wasn't instead of what it was.

'Growing up' is a part of life, a part to be embraced, a part of your life where you become a more developed, wiser, truer version of yourself. No one said growing up means you have to lose your child-like nature. It doesn't mean your creativity has to be stifled. It doesn't mean you have to forfeit everything you know and love.

Stop wasting time digging your heels in the ground - lift your feet and fly!

Explore. Learn. Grow...up :)

xoxo erikah

How do you serve?

Traditionally I've always learned about hierarchy as placed in a normal pyramid with the highest positions at the top. Today I learned about people who see their hierarchy in an inverted pyramid with the positions reversed.

I never thought of leadership in this way until now. I could not stop thinking about it for the next 15 minutes. For some, this concept may be familiar, but it was new to me and really resonated.

Using the normal triangle places the executives/CEOs at the point. To me, this is the selfish diagram - it focuses on those in superior positions and places them above everyone else. When at the top, who do you have to look up to? To answer to? Where's there left to go when you're presumably at the highest point? I think sometimes when we reach the top of our triangle, we may grow complacent. We begin to think inside the box, because why exert the extra effort when you're already where you want to be? It is so important that as a leader you are always raising the bar for yourself - because if you don't, those who you are serving will suffer.

An inverted triangle is ideal. When you're in a serving position, who should truly be at the top? The inverted triangle shifts the importance to the people you are serving. With higher positions at the bottom, it becomes visually clear that your duty is to help others, those you are carrying. With the inverted pyramid, you can look up at all the people you are responsible for, an ever-changing population, which perpetuates growth in leadership. Any group of people you are serving will never be identical and for that reason, you cannot always lead these groups the same. It is so important that we are always seeking new and diverse ways to lead, and that we always keep those we are serving in mind when choosing how to lead.

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be." - Rosalynn Carter

xoxo erikah

growing up

I've been putting off growing up for as long as I can remember.

Flashback to this past summer: I was 22, a recent grad, and had no idea where my life was going. I had a lot of ideas, but nothing I was too sure about. Without any specific direction, I was terrified of entering the corporate world as this small town girl who was so unsure of herself.

When I originally went to college, I wanted to pursue film - I had high hopes of becoming an editor or something of the like. By sophomore year, all of my intentions were in the rear-view mirror and I hadn't a clue of what I wanted to do. I ended up graduating with a degree in public relations, which I loved, but even when I took on the major, I never fully expected to get a job in that field. PR, by itself, wasn't something I full-hearted loved.

I have been very fortunate to have a year off between undergrad and *hopefully* grad school (in the application process!) and it really has allowed me to discover myself. I know a lot of people my age who "never want to grow up" and I really think this fear stems from not knowing what you want to do with your life, which essentially stems from not knowing yourself well enough. I think too many people settle into a job that is financially satisfying or beneficial in another way (work hours, time off, etc) but doesn't fully entice them emotionally... which is so important.

You should use everyday of your life to reflect and grow. If you don't like your major today, why wait until tomorrow to change it? Pursue something you're passionate about, and really pursue it. A job may not be sitting on your doorstep when you graduate. College doesn't last forever, so I understand when students would rather spend their summers with friends or hang out with their roommates this weekend as opposed to "working," but if said work is something you enjoy, then is it really "working?" Sure you could go on a vacation all summer, but maybe an internship with an amazing company isn't a bad idea, because if you love the work, the rest of your life will seem like a vacation.

Know that this is coming from an ex-student who cherished a lot of time with her friends and devoted no time to herself. A person who was willing to wait for opportunity to come knocking at her door. A girl who shot for less than her dreams, because, well, something's better than nothing, right?

This year off has really woke me up. I can't expect other people to pave out what I want in my life, I'm the only one in control of that. I can't wait, and wish, and hope, and dream - I have to pursue, and act, and aspire, and succeed! I can, and I will.

For once, I am excited about my future and I am ready to grow up.

xoxo erikah