So it's been awhile
Not that anyone was particularly broken up by my lj hiatus, but I thought I would finally take time to myself to just jot down a few updates, at least for me.
I love being home. I will always love Chicago, but New Orleans is home. I love having four (!) PJ's within a 2-block radius of my office building (although not so great for me trying to save money, but spending $3 once or twice a week won't kill me since I'm not spending money on any other crap). I love seeing the streetcar pass by, how men stop to hold the door or let me walk into the elevator first, how friendly and nice people are, being near my family and friends. Part of me wishes I didn't come back because I'm scared that after a year, it will be so much harder to leave again if I have to. Hopefully, I won't have to.
I love my job. I love the people I work with. I'll be doing so much traveling. I'm going to seven championships and two bowl games. I get to go to the NCAA conference (the first part of it anyway, geared toward promoting women in athletic administration -- which is another great thing about this industry is that they're eager to hire more women). Yesterday my boss treated the four women in the office to Commander's Palace. I can't believe I got to eat there! I love that I'm put in charge of several sports, and nobody breathes down my neck asking me if I'm doing my job -- they just trust me to do it. I've been told that I'm doing a good job, and they seemed impressed that I was way ahead on a project than they intended me to be. I just keep my fingers crossed.
But I do feel that everything has happened for a reason, and that all of the pieces finally feel like they're starting to fall into place. I went to Chicago two years ago in order to not only find what I was looking for, but to find something to look for. I didn't know what I wanted, and I threw myself into a scary, unknown situation. I thought if I challenged myself and took advantage of opportunities, that I'd figure it out. I feel like I did.
Every step I took led to something else. Going to grad school and being in Chicago led me to my internships and my classes led me to my teacher who took a chance on me and helped me immensely. I covered the 2016 Olympic decision, then got to work with the US Olympic committee in Chicago, then actually got to go to the Olympics. What if I never took that chance to go to Chicago? I would have missed out on all of these opportunities. I keep thinking how lucky I am that everything fell into place, but I took a leap of faith in believe they would, or at least that I would have to learn to find the pieces that fit together myself.
I love working in sports information. I've always loved sports and history, and of course communications and the media, and this combines my love of all three perfectly. I got an e-mail the other day asking if we had any teams with a conference winning streak of 18-0 or higher. We do, and I had to put it into context and send the information out. I know it sounds boring to explain it that way, but think about the Saints. History puts things into context and sports isn't any different. Without the Saints' 40 years of mediocrity and Katrina, would Super Bowl XLIV mean what it meant? I could go on, but the point is that there's people whose job is to provide all of that information and keep records of all of those stats, facts and figures, and to make sure you know about it. I'm babbling, but I really love this. I'm happy. I just hope I can stay in NOLA, but I have to accept if I don't.
Anyway, everyone thinks living at home must be so awful. I actually love it. I missed being around my family for 2 years, so it's nice to spend time with them. They're helping me out so much. My parents bought a new car so I could have my mom's 05 camry (after the hell of my old Jeep, she didn't want me to have a shitty car especially with commuting across the lake every day). I gave her money for part of the down payment for her car, but I'm grateful to not have to a car note. After being on my own for 2 years, it's nice to be around other people all the time, especially people that love and care about me. I missed that. But I do plan on moving out when Rachel's house is finished. It'll be less than a 10 minute commute for me to get to work. Not sure when that will be, but I need to save up some money first anyway.
So much more to say and talk about, but that's for another day and time, if you're interested. Hope everyone is doing well.
I love being home. I will always love Chicago, but New Orleans is home. I love having four (!) PJ's within a 2-block radius of my office building (although not so great for me trying to save money, but spending $3 once or twice a week won't kill me since I'm not spending money on any other crap). I love seeing the streetcar pass by, how men stop to hold the door or let me walk into the elevator first, how friendly and nice people are, being near my family and friends. Part of me wishes I didn't come back because I'm scared that after a year, it will be so much harder to leave again if I have to. Hopefully, I won't have to.
I love my job. I love the people I work with. I'll be doing so much traveling. I'm going to seven championships and two bowl games. I get to go to the NCAA conference (the first part of it anyway, geared toward promoting women in athletic administration -- which is another great thing about this industry is that they're eager to hire more women). Yesterday my boss treated the four women in the office to Commander's Palace. I can't believe I got to eat there! I love that I'm put in charge of several sports, and nobody breathes down my neck asking me if I'm doing my job -- they just trust me to do it. I've been told that I'm doing a good job, and they seemed impressed that I was way ahead on a project than they intended me to be. I just keep my fingers crossed.
But I do feel that everything has happened for a reason, and that all of the pieces finally feel like they're starting to fall into place. I went to Chicago two years ago in order to not only find what I was looking for, but to find something to look for. I didn't know what I wanted, and I threw myself into a scary, unknown situation. I thought if I challenged myself and took advantage of opportunities, that I'd figure it out. I feel like I did.
Every step I took led to something else. Going to grad school and being in Chicago led me to my internships and my classes led me to my teacher who took a chance on me and helped me immensely. I covered the 2016 Olympic decision, then got to work with the US Olympic committee in Chicago, then actually got to go to the Olympics. What if I never took that chance to go to Chicago? I would have missed out on all of these opportunities. I keep thinking how lucky I am that everything fell into place, but I took a leap of faith in believe they would, or at least that I would have to learn to find the pieces that fit together myself.
I love working in sports information. I've always loved sports and history, and of course communications and the media, and this combines my love of all three perfectly. I got an e-mail the other day asking if we had any teams with a conference winning streak of 18-0 or higher. We do, and I had to put it into context and send the information out. I know it sounds boring to explain it that way, but think about the Saints. History puts things into context and sports isn't any different. Without the Saints' 40 years of mediocrity and Katrina, would Super Bowl XLIV mean what it meant? I could go on, but the point is that there's people whose job is to provide all of that information and keep records of all of those stats, facts and figures, and to make sure you know about it. I'm babbling, but I really love this. I'm happy. I just hope I can stay in NOLA, but I have to accept if I don't.
Anyway, everyone thinks living at home must be so awful. I actually love it. I missed being around my family for 2 years, so it's nice to spend time with them. They're helping me out so much. My parents bought a new car so I could have my mom's 05 camry (after the hell of my old Jeep, she didn't want me to have a shitty car especially with commuting across the lake every day). I gave her money for part of the down payment for her car, but I'm grateful to not have to a car note. After being on my own for 2 years, it's nice to be around other people all the time, especially people that love and care about me. I missed that. But I do plan on moving out when Rachel's house is finished. It'll be less than a 10 minute commute for me to get to work. Not sure when that will be, but I need to save up some money first anyway.
So much more to say and talk about, but that's for another day and time, if you're interested. Hope everyone is doing well.