calm before the storm!

The title is a little allusion to this recent Texas weather, as well as a nod to what is to come of my blog.

Going to work on giving the blog a little facelift today design-wise, and learning what to write about. I am giving up on having this blog focused on one thing because if anything, this blog is me - and I am a lot more than one thing!

Get excited for crafting news & project pictures, music blurbs, inspirational posts, possibly film reviews.. and still some thoughts on higher education, public relations, and my other career interests.

xoxo e

Where do I begin?

I spent time today looking into schools across the nation to try to come up with some idea of where I would like to go after I get my master's degree (I know I am jumping ahead of the gun seeing as I haven't even applied, much less got accepted, to graduate school)... but I digress.

My current thoughts are that I would like to stay away from Texas and Oklahoma so that I may experience something different. I am also avoiding the general tornado alley area considering I think I've been plagued enough with them my past four years, and I'm not too keen on California because of earthquakes. Random, I know, but I don't particularly want to live in natural disaster-prone areas.

Other than that, I am not sure what I want! What should I even be looking for in a school I am considering working at? For anybody who teaches in the university atmosphere, what brought you to the school you are working at? I really love the University of Oklahoma, but I just don't know that is in the cards for me to stay put. If it is though, I'll be much obliged. Back to what I was saying, I am just not sure what to look for - at this point I don't know that I'm entirely sure even what I want to do in the realm of higher education. I really think I would enjoy anything where my job primarily involved dealing with new students because I love their enthusiasm. Even more so I love students who aren't enthusiastic because getting them to that point just feels that much better. I am heavily weighing out my GA options in hopes that they may help me discover what I love the most. I'd love to work with student life, but am also highly interested in the leadership and volunteer graduate assistantship. I also think it would be fun to work with housing again because I don't truthfully know if I can ever give up my attachment to residence life!

As far as universities go, I think I would like to work at another state university since it's what I am most used to, but am also interested in working with the Art Institutes. A lot of research needs to happen in the days to come though. I'm hoping to find universities I might like so that I can pursue an internship with them between my years of graduate school and build a rapport with them.

As for what else is to come in the year.. a JOB! I am searching for a job as we speak and have found two that I need to fill out the applications for this week and hopefully I will get one of them, or at some point soon another job. The two I am looking at are in the education field (one at the local high school and the other at the university in town).

Guess I'll go work on those applications now, but I will blog again soon :) !

Outlook

I can't believe the last time I posted was a month ago! Holy sheesh!

Well, in that month's time I have finished up my summer job at OU. Summer camps was a good run. I am now out of school and taking a year off at home. I plan to look for work in September, hopefully finding work in one of the local school systems (either high school or collegiate) so that I may work an environment that I may work in permanently in the future.

I will apply for graduate school in January, to start my master's degree in Higher Education in the fall of 2011. Before then I hope to accomplish:

- learning more about the education field. I have started to follow great education and leadership twitter accounts and hope to familiarize myself with blogs and forums that discuss education.

- working on my design skills. I no longer have access to a mac, but I hope to learn a lot through online tutorials. I love love love design and I hope to learn as much as I can! I think every great communicator should at least understand the world of design.

- having fun with the extra time I have to enjoy my interests. I have picked photography back up (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scarletoak if you're interested) and am spending a lot of time on www.hitrecord.org - a collaborative art website. I have fallen back in love with creating and am glad I have the time to spend on things that bring me so much happiness.

- hopefully dabble in the PR real world a little. I didn't get my degree for nothing! :)

I am open to advice, insight, or feedback about any of the above.

I also hope to blog more in the future about my endeavors, honorbright.
Life is good.

xoxo e

first part of the journey.

I used to be a huge 'plan' creator, and then came to the conclusion that life is meant to be unplanned.
Then I was lost. Haha.

So I have returned to creating plans, but just allowing them to be more open to change.

The Two Year Plan
-Fall 2010: Return to my hometown of Waxahachie, Texas, and try to get a job with WISD, Navarro Community College, or Southwestern Assemblies of God University. If that doesn't pan out, hopefully a job that will allow me to use my public relations degree.
-Summer 2011: Internship. To be discussed in the latter part of this entry.
-Fall 2011: Graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, aiming for a master's degree in Adult and Higher Education.

I plan to commit to Adult and Higher Ed because I love the college atmosphere and don't really want to leave it behind. I think it is broad enough that I can find a specialization of something I enjoy and work in that element on a college campus.

I am most excited about an internship! I've actually never had an internship before. I am most worried about my graduate status at that point - I know many companies/organizations like interns who can work for course credit, but I will be out of school at that time, so hopefully that won't count against me.

What I'm interested in/internships I have looked into:
Paste Magazine, Fueled by Ramen record label, Saddle Creek record label, Urban Outfitters (and their fellow brands), Paramount Vantage, and miscellaneous other ones. I love film and music, would enjoy tourism, or especially some social project (think Truth campaign). I also have recently fallen back in love with dance ♥. I would love to become a drill team director for a high school, but know that that is a long shot considering I haven't danced since high school and I only danced in high school, but it is something I love with all of my heart. I would love to get an internship with ADTS (American Drill/Drill Team) or something similar.

The other thing I would like most in an internship is where it is located! I am looking for one outside of the southern-midwest region. I would love to go to Seattle, Denver, Portland, Boston, Nashville, Raleigh.. who knows.

I just want to experience something different.
Something new.
I am the only person who can take control of my life and I'm determined to make the best of it!

erikah meets the world.

In a little over a month I will graduate and officially be done with my time here at the University of Oklahoma.

What's on the horizon?

I am not entirely sure.

I felt like my life was going to fall apart, but know that I am in power of keeping it together and I control my future. I can't just let it go by the wayside anymore and I can't expect things to just come to me (you think I would have learned this long ago.)

I've come to the realization that I don't think I want to completely saturate myself and work in the music industry, but I would love for my future career to involve music in some way, shape, or form. I have also opened myself up to many other career options, so it is going to be interesting to see what happens. Right now I think it would be interesting to work for a non-profit organization, beauty pageants, tourism.. probably other things as well. I will actually be very excited to just work on almost anything where I can perhaps do promotions or something. While this is all very 'scary' to think about growing up, it's amazing at the same time.

Within the past day my plans for the near future have changed. I hope to stay in Norman, Okla. for the summertime and work a summer camp position while also volunteering with OU's Lindsey + Asp Student PR/Advertising Agency and am also looking into summer virtual internships. My options come fall are to return home and find something there, or, if God allows, I am hoping to get an internship for a semester's time. I never thought about doing graduate school, but occurred to me today if I can score internships to last me until Fall 2011, perhaps I could just start graduate school then. So now doors are opened to look at grad schools, but I just am not sure yet what to major in. I am actually very divided on that subject, but I hope to find a school to where I can GA in someway.

Just trying to stay positive :) I know that it will take plenty of time, but I hope to find the job of my dreams through hard work and dedication to the process.

if you want to know.

so this is my new blog.

after this first post, it will be about music, for the most part, but today I have bigger news than any record release.

this is the story of my hair loss.

in second grade my hair started to fall out and after multiple tests at the doctors office, it turned out I had something called alopecia areata. It's an autoimmune disease. Basically, my immune system attacks my hair follicles and then my hair falls out. Like I said, I've had it since second grade, it's just kind of an ongoing thing. The cause of the disease is still for the most part unknown - some say it's hereditary (not in my case though), some say it's environmental (stress + other contributors), and there are various other "reasons". There isn't one cure for it, some things work for people and others don't... I've used numerous shampoos, taken vitamins, steroid injections, and nothing seems to work permanently. My hair loss has always fluctuated, sometimes worse in certain seasons or weather, but there never has been a real science as to why it would grow back sometimes and fall out others.

Why am I writing this post?

Well, few people actually ask me about it. To be frank, it makes me feel awkward when they do because sometimes I honestly forget I have it (no matter how obvious it is). At the same time, I'd rather people ask because a lot of times they think it's something worse than just an autoimmune disease. It just makes me more uncomfortable knowing people are talking about it.

Anyways, the second reason I'm writing this post is this - my hair has gotten extremely bad this past couple of months. I don't know why. I can't fix it and it is truly annoying having to wear a ball cap every day (what girl likes doing that?)... so today I got a wig.

It's weird. I'm not quite used to it... but I like it. My dad had always urged me to take the leap, but I didn't think I was strong enough. I still don't know that I am, but we'll see.

You may be wondering why I chose to address this in a post the whole world will see. Well it's kind of obvious that I got one, so unlike before, I'd rather take the time to address the issue rather than ignore it. Also, like I said I know people were curious, so I thought I'd take the time to tell people about the disease :) . I'm trying to be more comfortable with the condition I have.

So there you have it! Ask any questions you want. Thank you all friends who are supportive :) I appreciate youuuu

xoxo e

me, now :) . Oh and I switched to clear contacts!