Back to School

It snuck up on me!

My family can offer testimony of that, as I scurried to get everything organized and packed. I'm kind of shocked at how much I brought home. Well, no...not really. I always over-pack. And it's tricky, because I'm home from Thanksgiving until after New Years. I'm home long enough to need all my personal effects, but not long enough to be considered "moving."

So, 2 laundry baskets, 1 large laundry bag, 1 shower caddy, 1 packed-tight laptop case, and 1 Adidas bag full of all the stuff I needed last night and this morning. I still need to go do my hair and makeup.

This kind of makes me wonder about future internships. If I end up doing any internships in which I have to travel, how will I survive? I would want to bring way too much stuff with me. Granted, my high school's Spanish Club trip to Mexico taught me some valuable travel tips for space-saving and such...but that was 4 years ago and was a VERY different situation.

Taking another perspective at my move back to school, tomorrow is the start of class. I resume office work for the Marketing and Communications department on Wednesday, and I also have mandatory meetings regarding the school-sponsored tutoring I'll be doing this term.

Yeah, I'll be insanely busy. Yeah, I'll probably end up stressed out, but I'll love the feeling of being busy. I'm also going to continuing applying and interviewing for new internships.

Going back to school also draws an end to my winter term at the office. My supervisor had some huge compliments to offer as we cleaned out my office. He commented on my increased independence, and the fact that he barely had to explain anything to me. He said something along the lines that this had been my most productive stretch of time in the office to date. That meant so much to me.

So, here I am, in my bathrobe, getting ready to get all gussied up to go back and catch up with my school friends and the seemingly-alternate life I lead there. I'll miss home, yeah...my family, friends, my boyfriend, my dog, the open spaces...

But it's time to go back. It's just another step in building up my career.

First things first...

I'm Kelly. Or, as I'm known at my current job, "Kelly the Intern." We actually have customers who know me as Kelly the Intern. I've been talked about in blogs and podcasts as Kelly the Intern. The longer I work at building some career experience, the more I realize that being Kelly the Intern is actually a pretty huge part of me.

Of course, being in my field, writing a blog about it seemed fairly natural.

I'm an interactive media studies major. That means...well, it's hard to explain. It pretty much means, right now, I'm a jack of all trades as far as creative marketing goes. I do video, print documents, some web editing, design, writing, and a bundle of other random tasks. I do the things that people appreciate, but don't always realize actually need to be DONE. Unfortunately, at this state in my career, I'm okay at doing all of those things, but not overtly skilled at any. Oh, and I'm also minoring in English, because a designer who can write the document they're drafting a layout for is a pretty valuable thing.

I'm at a crossroads. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to specialize in. This is scary and weird and not so warm-and-fuzzy when you think about it.

So, enter this blog. It's going to be my sounding board. I'll introduce you to my escapades as a college student, an intern, a woman, and a member of society.

And if you're curious about the name, "Cheap Pizza" is in reverence to the food that's kept me alive through the first year and a half of college. If it weren't for great deals from Little Ceasar's and Domino's, I would have starved to death in my first semester.

I hope you enjoy a view from the eyes of an uncertain, relatively-poor, and professionally-developing college student.