Well, here we are again, Fairly Straight University. My fourth and final year in a town with 3 main roads, four bars, too many Amish people for my taste, and 45 minutes away from any civilization (shopping malls, casinos, and Targets, oh my!). Needless to say, these next 7 months can't fly by fast enough. Yeah, yeah, savor the college years, best time of your life, blah blah blah. I really just want to go to the mall without spending $20 on gas.
I can definitely say that my "Senioritis," as it's called, is in full effect. What are the symptoms, you ask?
irritability
procrastination
watching television
skipping class at least once a week
new-found levels of procrastination
not doing homework, even if the subject interests you
watching several hours of television in a row
beer
Tumblr
Facebook is suddenly interesting
New low levels of disapproving of Freshmen behavior
Wondering how you could somehow not take those last 5 classes
I don't know if I originally came up with this phrase yesterday, or if it's completely unoriginal, but it does completely and accurately describe my situation.
Anyone that I have ever looked up to professionally has had the following things in common:
1. They love their job.
2. They care about other people, especially those below them.
3. They work really hard to do an excellent job.
If you don't have these things, then I have a hard time respecting you as a professional, especially if I have to answer to you. So, let's talk about these things.
1. You love your job.
I understand if you work at a job you don't like to get by for awhile, but I then assume that you are working hard to find a job that you like or are figuring out what it is that you want to do. If you love your job, your quality of work is better and your attitude is better. Nobody wants to hear you complain about your job, and nobody can respect you if you're not trying to get yourself out of this job that you hate.
2. You care about other people, especially those who work below you.
Everyone cares about the opinions and feelings of their boss, but it takes a really good person to care about somebody that works underneath you. Without those people working for shit money doing shit tasks, you would have to work and extra 40 hours a week doing those shit tasks for no extra money. Paying attention to them and letting them know that they're appreciated will help them remember that they're important to the company. They will respect you so much more if they know that you respect them.
3. You work really hard to do an excellent job.
I don't understand the people that are more obsessed with other people doing their jobs correctly than doing their own job correctly. If you aren't doing your job, no one else is going to do it. Trust in your co-workers and make sure to converse with them appropriately if you feel like they may not be doing their job.
What does that entail, you ask? For instance, if you feel like they didn't do something they were supposed to do, ask them if they did it. Then, ask them if they knew that they were supposed to do it. Then, if they answer the questions accordingly, go ahead and tell them off. 90% of the time, it was a misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, make sure that everything you are asked to do is done efficiently and excellently. Making sure other people do their jobs well still doesn't reflect well on you if you aren't doing your own job well.
The main reason I love working at Taillight so much is that I can genuinely respect almost every person that I work with. I wish more offices ran the way that this one does. Have I run into a few people that I don't respect as professionals? Yes. However, you would think that it would be more than the two I can think of, especially being in the entertainment industry.
I've never met so many humble, hard-working people that love their jobs and love everyone they work with. Even though I'm an intern that does those shit jobs as described earlier, I love coming in to work every day.
I just hope I can work in a office like that when I need to find a grown up job.
Ever have one of those days? It's National You're Going To Fail At Life Day, and you were not forewarned. You woke up late, didn't eat breakfast, dressed for the wrong weather, and as soon as you get to work, it gets worse.
I had a similar day this week. The copy machine, stapler, printer, desktop computer, DVD burner, etc. did not like me. Lunch took a half hour longer than I had time for. Then, I got sent on a 4 stop run. How can I screw that up? Don't worry, I'll find a way. It is, after all, National Amanda Fails at Life Day.
I had to go outside of town to pick up a hard drive. I waited about 20-25 minutes for the guy to finish up when I got to the studio. I took the hard drives across town (in some nasty traffic), took those discs back downtown to CMT, almost got a parking ticket, moved my car to where I could park for free (because why would I have change the one day I need to pay for a meter?), walked 3 or 4 blocks to the post office, and saw that two hours after I had left to go on this run, I still wasn't done, had 3 missed calls from my supervisors asking where I was, and ended up an hour late for my second job after driving back to my internship and across town again in rush hour traffic.
Needless to say, they weren't happy that I took so long. Nothing that day was my fault, it just happened to fall on me. After about 5 and a half hours at Bar Louie (which was insanely busy because of the NBA game), it slowed down enough for me to actually think about what all had happened that day.
My day started off terribly at 8:30am, and it took me until about 10pm to actually get mad about what a failure the day was. I've always been a person who dwells on my mistakes. I still remember getting detention in 6th grade for passing a note with Amanda Do about how we hate Language Arts.
I can, however, be proud of how I handled those mistakes. You can only give your best, and if the universe sees fit to screw you up, it will, regardless of your attitude. So why not just smile through the day anyway?
Nothing stresses me out more than other stressed out people, so why spread that around?
Basically, after trying so hard to do everything right, my motto for the day became, "Bucket. I am doing the best I can." Well, not 'bucket.' It rhymes with bucket though...
I'm not saying I'm great at time management or that I follow this all the time, but here's what I've found to be important:
1. You can never do anything perfectly.
No matter how hard you try, someone will always be able to do the work better. Don't waste too much time trying to make it perfect. Settle for excellent.
2. Prioritize: What is the most important for your future?
When you're juggling so many tasks and projects, you have to figure out what is most beneficial for you to do well. Work on those first, and then move on to the less important things. Right now, I'm on internship, working part-time, and I'm in an online class. First comes my internship. That is the most beneficial thing to my future. Next comes my part-time job because, well, I like eating as opposed to starving. Last comes my online class. All I need to do is pass that thing. My GPA is high enough to take a hit from one class.
3. Set goals for yourself.
If you write down your goals, you are statistically more likely to actually achieve them. If I had written down that I wanted to get an A in my summer class, perhaps I would've been trying harder. Writing it down serves as a constant reminder as opposed to just a mental note.
4. Always do quality work.
There's no point in doing anything if it isn't quality. Don't ever rush through something to get through everything. Work with your priorities. That's why you have them. I wouldn't rush through a project at my internship to get to my part-time job on time. They understand that I'm here to intern, not to work for them.
I just saw this on Tumblr, and I thought that it didn't really ring true for me. I always seem to have motivation to make something happen for myself. I think these two things go hand in hand. You can't have motivation if you don't have ambition. You can't have ambition without motivation either.
If you truly have ambition without motivation, I don't think your ambition is aimed correctly. Maybe it would be better placed somewhere else.
I thought I wanted to play music for a short period of time. It turns out, I never had the motivation to practice. I just want to be able to magically play my favorite songs. So, I changed my ambition. Music Business. Now I have motivation.
I recently accepted an internship at Taillight TV in Nashville, TN for this summer, and I thought I should share my story of how I got this internship.
I interned in Nashville last summer at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. It was a wonderful internship where I got to answer phone calls, learn Ticketmaster, manage social media accounts, and even design a new sales kit for the managers to use.
One day, I answered a phone call when no one else was in the office. The man that called is named Brandon, and he is a music video director. He said that he had shot a video in our exhibition hall once, and he was considering doing it again. He wanted to come by and take pictures. I told him that I could save him a trip and E-mail the pictures I already had saved on my computer.
So, I sent Brandon an E-mail with some pictures attached. Then, I took a risk. I've been working very hard to correct my shyness, realizing that that behavior will get me nowhere in the music industry. I introduced myself as the intern and asked if I could help out on his video shoot, and I sent my E-mail.
HE SAID YES.
That's right. Just because I took a risk and asked to work and learn on this shoot, he said, "Okay." That was something I could honestly say I didn't expect.
Brandon sent my contact information (conveniently placed in my E-mail signature) over to Leah, Taillight TV's Production Coordinator. She got me all set up to work on set.
Here's the Randy Travis "Everything and All" video:
(I would've embedded the video if Blogspot were working correctly)
The day after I worked on this set, I sent a Thank You E-mail to both Brandon and Leah for being gracious enough to let me work on their set. They completely took a risk by letting me do that, and I am forever in their debt. It only takes one awesome person to trust you enough and open a door for you, and I wouldn't be where I am now without them doing that for me.
Again, I E-mailed Leah as soon as I saw the music video on YouTube. I asked her about an internship, and she said to send my resume to her. I waited until after Autumn aLive, our fall concert, to E-mail Leah again. I told her about our show and asked about my resume. She responded enthusiastically, but she also asked me if I had any experience in Final Cut, shooting, editing and Photoshop.
Well, the Photoshop I had down, but the rest, not so much. I made it my mission to learn Final Cut and learn more about making music videos. For our spring concert, Turn Up the Good, the planning committee made a video about sticking promotional stickers on personal items versus public property. I jumped to edit this video and learn Final Cut.
Here's how that turned out:
The day after this went up, I E-mailed Leah again with a link to this video. She called me the week after and told me that I had put in so much leg work already that they would love to have me intern at Taillight.
It all started with a chance phone call and taking a risk. After that came a lot of hard work, first on set and then months after.
What I've learned from this:
Be grateful when someone gives you something they didn't have to, and SAY THANK YOU.
Just because you think you'll get a position, doesn't mean you shouldn't work hard for it.
Be persistent when pursuing a job, but have something new and relevant to say.
Be someone that sets you apart from the crowd.
Take those risks. The worst they could say is NO.
If you really want it, you'll make it happen.
This was something I really wanted, so I did everything in my power to make it happen.
P.S. That video was NOT shot in our Exhibition Hall at the Municipal. But, the studio we were in had guitar toilets. and guitar tables. WAY COOLER.
