Well, lovely people, this is it.

I'll be leaving for London on Friday and holy crap am I nervous/excited/weirded out. I'll be there for eight weeks, and while there I'll be doing a few things:

1. Interning. The reason I have this amazing opportunity to begin with. I'll be working in PR for the full eight weeks and getting my first real delve into the professional world. 
2. Keeping a travel journal. This is both for me and for my school. I'm applying for a Distinction in Writing for my graduation in April 2015 and to do this, I have to do a great many writing-specific activities outside school. One of those things is keeping a travel log and writing in it every day I'm abroad for at least six weeks.
3. Travel blogging. For the entries that need a more multimedia presence. And to keep everyone at home updated on my shenanigans without spamming Facebook.
4. Contributing to an online magazine. I've already been doing this for a few weeks but it'll be quite a challenge writing articles pertaining to my school while I'm... not at school. 
5. Blogging for my internship class. I have to be enrolled in an internship course in order for my internship to count for credit. In order to receive credit, I need to blog once a week about either my internship or an assigned reading. This is on an official GVSU Writing Department blog, so these posts are more private.
6. Enjoying London. I've dreamt about working in London for a long time. And in order to really experience that, I want to gain every experience I can while I'm there. I don't know the next time I'll get an opportunity like this so I might as well enjoy it.

The best conversations happen after midnight.

Recently, I had a talk with my cousin/roommate about where we were going to be a year from now. At face value, we'll be picking up our cap and gown and finishing our last college finals as undergrads. It's a scary thought. It became even scarier when we started thinking about our careers and how we were going to fair after graduation. Scratch that - it became terrifying.

My cousin is a Therapeutic Recreation major but she has plans to go into an accelerated Nursing program after graduation. Even with a relatively steady profession like that, she's still nervous about where the future will take her. Where she'll end up, if she'll succeed.

After talking with her, I began to realize just how universal uncertainty is when it comes to a person's career. I've been told time and time again that it's only something people majoring in the arts deal with (myself included). But really, everyone goes through it. With all of the stories about the economy failing and job security becoming rarer with each passing year, all professions are being affected. It's your job to make yourself more marketable and gain experiences that will make you a better candidate for whatever you want to go into.

As a writer, I have a lot of dreams. But the most important one to me is getting a book published. I've have one of my short stories published in an on-campus journal, but other than that I know next to nothing about the publishing world or how to make myself stand out. And since I want book-writing to be my main source of income one day - with my work hours clocked in my own personal library, typing away at my computer - realistically, I'll need to find "normal" job first. Naturally, I want that job to be writing-specific so I won't hate going in to work every day and be using my strengths to their fullest potential. Call me greedy or what-not but I really don't want to work in retail for the rest of my life.

So, I'm trying to get experience that will make me marketable to magazines. Or maybe even newspapers. Anything to make me a prime candidate.

Yet as a writer, I am constantly hearing and reading work from people who are much more talented than I am - much more accomplished. While that serves as a sort of fuel to get me going it can also be my greatest drawback. I'll read short stories from fellow students and be like "Wow. This is amazing. How can I ever compete with this?" The same goes for my reading habits. I'll read a book and marvel at how amazing it is and how I'll never be able to write like so-and-so. It's really depressing, honestly, and I find myself fishing for compliments from random friends and family members to make myself feel better - not caring if they're telling the truth when they say they love my work.

Today, I gave a three-minute reading in front of a class for my final. It was a humor piece and my goal was to make everyone laugh, which, strangely enough, I did. After that, a classmate came up to me and asked if I considered to apply to the Lanthorn (our college newspaper). I'd been tossing around the idea for a while but didn't think I would be a right fit. I'm no journalist.

"Well, you should apply in the fall," the classmate said. "If you wrote for them, I'd actually read it."

My face reddened after that. It was a compliment I didn't ever expect to get - especially from a classmate whose work I admired.

For background: The Lanthorn, along with any college newspaper, doesn't get a lot of traffic with students. Sure, some headlines catch campus-wide attention but other than that, most don't take the time to read it. I'm guilty of this. I mean, I pick up a copy every new addition but I only graze the articles and look at the comic. There are editorials also, usually written by writing majors, but I never read them for fear of feeling inferior. No joke. I'm pretty petty.

So when someone suggested I apply to write those same editorials, I was pretty floored. Flattered beyond belief - but mostly floored.

Getting a compliment like that really made my day. Any day when someone compliments anything about my work is a good day. Just a simple "I really love your writing style" can mean a world of difference to me. And I'm sure the same would go for anyone else.

If you like someone's writing - tell them. If you think their dress is cute, tell them. If you think they're funny or liked what they had to say in class, tell them. Don't back down on account of sounding creepy or fearing that they won't appreciate your compliment. Chances are it'll make their day. Personally, I was having a pretty crappy start to finals week, worrying about deadlines that were approaching too quickly, when someone came up to me and told me I should write for the Lanthorn. With no fear of sounding cheesy, I can confidently say that the sun shined a little bit brighter on my walk to the bus stop.

Moral of the story: Make someone's sun shine brighter. Make them feel confident about their job choice. You never know what could happen.

This is the last time I'll be posting about finals, guys. I promise.

(Until April, that is. Groan.)

This time around, I'm going to share some study tips for you lovely people. At least, the ones that have worked for me in the past. Study methods vary from person to person so take these with a grain of salt.

• Never study with more than three people. Three is the cap for most study groups. If it gets over that amount, the group members tend to get really chatty and distract each other from doing actual studying. (Again, this is my own experience, so if a big group usually works for you, more power to ya.)

• Also on the subject of groups: Pick your study buddies wisely. Don't say yes to a friend you know is going to distract you if you have legitimate work to get done. Save that for when they are the ones that have to study. 

• Take breaks. Don't study in five-hour long blocks. Study for an hour, take a ten minute break and play a relaxing game of Solitaire or something. Then, straight back to work.

• Bring both healthy and not-so-healthy snacks. The healthy ones are for when you're actually hungry and need an energy boost. The not-so-healthy ones are for rewarding yourself for getting stuff done. For example, I knew a girl who did her reading for class by putting a Skittle after every paragraph. 

• On the subject of food: Don't forget to eat. I know that finals week is a stressful time. Some people don't eat when they're stressed. But even if you're not hungry - if you haven't eaten in six hours, have an apple. Or a cookie. Keep that blood sugar up so you don't pass out or die. Dying while studying would be the worst way to go, really. Don't subject yourself to that boring obituary. 

• Listen to classical music. Maybe even some Dubstep. Lyrics are a distraction more times than not. Especially when writing that final paper you've been putting off since Midterms. Yeah, that's right. I'm looking at you, bub.

• Wear comfy clothes. Seriously. The comfier you are, the more relaxed you are, and the less distracted you'll be from constantly pulling down that shirt that just a little too small on you but you like it because you spent your entire paycheck on it and a pair of boots. No one is going to care if you show up to the library in Ninja Turtle pajama pants and an old sweater you still have from high school. Because chances are, they're either wearing the same thing, or envious of you having the guts to wear it in public while they're constantly adjusting their miniskirt.

• Pick a crowded place to set up camp. The slew of people surrounding you that are doing work will act as a motivator to get off Tumblr, pull up Google Scholar, and get cracking on the research for that same paper you've been putting off since Midterms. Or a whole other paper you've been putting off. You know, because you're really good at organizing your time. Still looking at you, bub.

• Write a to-do list for what you want to accomplish that day/afternoon/evening/whatever. Don't try to get all of your studying for all of your classes done at one time. Space it out. Do it little by little. Or conquer whatever is due first/whatever exam is scheduled first. That's what I do. Then, if I get tired or bored with it, I switch over to a larger project that due later in the week, and come back to whatever is due first. 

It's that time of year again, folks.

Nah, not Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm talking about something even more disturbing with far less candy and cheerful carols.

Finals.

Each year, finals have been getting progressively more stressful for me. This semester, I have a paper for every class, plus three in-class exams, one take-home, a portfolio, and I'm performing in a holiday concert the Monday the pandemonium begins. Plus, I get to work all of Black Friday Weekend. It's safe to say I've been close to losing my marbles every day.

To help alleviate some of the stress, I thought it would be nice to put together a list of all the things that are helping me get through these next few weeks.

• Coffee and tea - and lots of it
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathons study breaks
• Equally stressed out roommates to share the pain
• The light at the end of the tunnel - Christmas break
• My new warm sweater-wrap I splurged on from work.
• A heated apartment
• Junk food
• Sleep - and lots of it
• Socks (preferably fuzzy ones)
• The premise of finally having time for leisure reading
• Warm showers
• Netflix
• Twinkle lights
• Thinking about my upcoming summer in London
• The hope that I'll finally get some time to work on my book after the semester ends

Well folks, it's here. The countdown to back-to-school. I move back in exactly 5 days and am experiencing so many feelings they've kind of molded into an emotional hybrid. I think I'll call it supernerves. Because, more than anything, I'm nervous.