Summer, The End of School, and the Beginning of Other Adventures

I haven't posted a new blog in a LONG time.  I thought it was about time.  If you follow my blog, you're most likely more updated on my life than what this blog would reflect.  However, just in case you aren't, I'll update you anyway!

I finally have a breather since I just finished my last test for the week.  (only one left next wednesday!)

So first,
SUMMER
This summer, I got the internship I wanted at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium!  I am so excited to be moving to The Music City for the summer!  It is such a beautiful place!  In case you were curious, here's an overview of what I'll be doing:

• Assist with the sales and marketing of a multi-purpose venue: 
• Answer the phone and provide administrative support. 
• Sell tickets on the Ticketmaster system. 
• Create a social media marketing plan for the NMA. 
• Update our Wikipedia listing, Facebook page, MySpace page and Twitter account. 
• Create an online press-kit. 
• Develop a plan to market the NMA to event promoters. 
• Explore the possibility of developing and maintaining a blog about the NMA. 
• Explore the possibility of creating a new marketing video to post to YouTube and our Facebook page.

This list was taken from my internship description. :)

Needless to say, I am so excited to move!  I cannot wait!

I would also like to add that social media is a big part of how I got this internship.  My entire interview comprised of questions about whether or not I have an active account on any number of websites, from Blogspot, to YouTube, to Twitter.  Also, another part of how I got this internship is that my social media sites are CLEAN.  They did check my sites, and I gave her the link to every  single one of my pages.

Moving On...

The End of School

This is my last week of classes for my second year of college.  It's extremely bizarre to think that I'm already half done.  It seems so daunting to have 4 or 3 years ahead of you still.  Then it hits you--you're already halfway done.  But it went by so fast...how did that happen?!  I feel like I've learned so much in some respects and learned nothing at all in others.  This week has proven to me though that my life next year will be extremely busy.  I always wonder with each passing semester how much could possibly be added to my plate, and it just continues to grow.  This week has tested to see whether or not I could take on so much.  I passed. :)  I complained a little, but I think that's more Spring Fever than anything else.  I'm just ready to be done.  

Watching all the seniors in MIMA sign the drum head as they stood in front of the organization today at their last ever MIMA meeting was surreal to me.  Last year, I didn't know any of the seniors really at all. This year, I can't say the same, and I know I will miss them all!  It's weird to think that in two short years, I will be doing the same.  It's also weird to think that only two years ago, I was a senior in High School.  Most of the time, it seems longer than two years ago, but sometimes it doesn't seem so far away.  The high school me was a lot different.

I think my brain chemistry (note my lack of science knowledge nowadays) has altered quite a bit just in the last year.  For one thing, I now SUCK at test-taking. I don't know what happened!  In High School, I would've begged for a test over a project.  Now, I would MUCH rather have a final project than a final exam.  I've been brainwashed by the College of Business.  Well, not BRAINWASHED, per say, just taught more applicable skills like presentations as opposed to test-taking.  I'm glad that I'm learning such great applicable skills and excelling in my program, but I feel really stupid when I study for several hours and get a B- on a test (it's happened more than once this semester).  That would've NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER happened in High School.  I got As. and a couple Bs.  B-? Oh no.

And Lastly....

Beginning of Other Adventures

So here's my exciting plateful of stuff for next year!

Firstly, I am the new Secretary for MIMA for 2011-2012.  I had my first meeting as an Eboard member today!  So much fun getting to be more involved!

I also get the privilege of serving as Co-Head of On Campus Promotions for Turn Up the Good 2012 with one of my best friends, Robin.  

Add classes and work on top of that, and it'll be a great year.  I honestly can't wait to get started on everything!  

BUT I have to do my internship first!

Peace Out!  Updates from Nashville to come!

-AK

Spring Break & Internships!

Ah!  I haven't updated in awhile!  So much has happened over break!  I stayed home for a few days (Friday through Tuesday) which was really great to relax and hang out with my great friends from high school.  I feel so lucky to have such great friends in my life, and I know that there's a lot of people who weren't so lucky to have so many wonderful people as friends from high school.  We had a lot of fun, and I spent way too much money in just 4 days.

Then on Tuesday afternoon I hopped on a plane and got to Tucson, Arizona where my dad lives around 10pm (12am EST).  I was so exhausted I went straight to bed, which was about 11:30pm by the time we got home.  I slept until 10:30 the next morning.  It was awesome.  Wednesday was great.  I got to just hang out with my sister Britni and my cousins Gemma and Hannah.  We played mini golf, and went to dinner with my dad and stepmom, and the best part was that it was about 75 degrees outside!  I even wore flip-flops!

Then on Thursday, I got to hang out with my sister all morning, which was nice, but perhaps a bit too short seeing as I woke up at 10am again.  People in Arizona like to get up early and go to bed early, but people in Michigan like to stay up late and sleep late.  See they need to utilize that time in the morning before the sun rises, especially in the summer where it's too hot to go outside by 9am.  That doesn't work for me.

Then at 1pm, my cousin Gemma picked me up so I could get to my interview at the Fox Theatre downtown.  While I was in the car, I had a phone interview with the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville!  Sharon, the lady I talked to was so nice, and the internship sounded so great to me.  I really hope that I get that one.  I think I can learn a lot from them and help them out a lot as well.

The Fox Theatre was also really great.  The theatre has a great historical aspect to it, which I love.  It is also a great option, seeing as I can live at home and probably get a part-time job!  The people that I talked to there were so nice, and I would love to spend the summer in Tucson as well, with my family that I don't get to see very often.

Also, the high on Thursday was somewhere around 88 degrees.  Just wanted to rub that in.

Friday morning, my dad, stepmom and I woke up super early and got in the car to head to San Diego for the weekend.  I don't know what it is about San Diego, but I am always instantly relaxed when I breath in that ocean-fresh air.  It's also so refreshing to see a city where every morning is cloudy and foggy, but by 10am the skies are blue and the sun is shining.  Something that certainly never happens in Michigan.  If it's cloudy in the morning in Big Rapids, you can bet that it'll be cloudy all day.

On Friday afternoon, I had an interview at this little venue just outside the Gaslamp Quarter called 4th and B.  Where exactly is that?  Well, it's at the intersection on 4th street and B street.  Real tough to find, let me tell you.  The lady I spoke with there (her name is Natalie) was super awesome, and it sounded like another great internship!  She didn't have a lot of time, but it was so nice to talk to her!  There was just one problem.  The venue is 21+, and I am only 20.  My birthday is in January.  Turns out it isn't legal for me to work there.  Maybe next summer on that one, I guess.  Still great interview practice.

Then Friday night we were on a hunt.  Of the NCAA playoffs type.  To find the USC vs Arizona game. So we went to the Hyatt right down the street from the marina where my dad's boat is at.  Well, it turns out they don't get that channel (it was on FoxSportsNet), so we finished our drinks and appetizer and left.  We knew that the Hilton had a Fox Sports bar, and they would definitely have the channel, so we walked about 10 minutes over there.  Well, it turns out, there was a private party going on at that time.  Thwarted again.  At this time, we debated yelling to the people on the giant yacht if we could watch it with them since we could see the game through the window, but we decided not to.  We finally got to watch the second half of the game, and Arizona won (woot!).

I crashed hard again that night.  At about 9:30pm.  I was so tired.  and I sleep like a baby in that cabin on the boat for some reason.  It was awesome.  The next day, we took the boat out in the morning.  Man, that tsunami made the ocean swells crazy!  I had never seen the waters so rough before!  It was awesome out there.  Then we watched Arizona lose to Washington (bummer), even though they could've won the game.  It went into overtime, and was tied up at about 7ish seconds left in OT, and Washington had the ball.  So they bought a few seconds and made the winning shot.  Also, something was wrong with those announcers.  I think they would go gay for Isaiah Thomas.  That's all they talked about.  Derrick Williams is pretty awesome too, no?  We ended the day at Pizza Nova, ate way too much buttery garlic bread, and crashed again.

Then I got up early Sunday morning and flew back here.  And now Monday is over, and I wish I could go back on break.

Oh well.

I hope I get some phone calls or emails this week about internships.  I am anxious.

-AK

Generation Love

 This post is not about any professional matter of any kind.  It's about something so much more important than that.

I was on Tumblr last night, and my friend had reblogged something.  Huge font.  Automatically got my attention.  A girl named Taylor had just posted a suicide note on her Tumblr page.  The post that was getting reblogged was asking for help.  They wanted to find someone who knew this beautiful 16 year old girl and try to stop her before it was too late.  That's an automatic reblog, to me.

After I reblogged the post, I read the suicide note.  Talk about depressing.  I just felt so helpless to this girl in England, and I wanted to stop her.  I sent her a message on Tumblr, and started following her page.  I wanted her to know that people do care about her, including me who is a total stranger and that someday she will look back on this and be glad that she didn't do it.  She has so much more to do and to be.

I went to bed fairly depressed about this.  I woke up this morning at 6:30 and went to work.  I was studying for a test, so I didn't really go online.  I eventually decided to check my email.  Well, I got an email saying that Taylor followed me back on Tumblr.  Highlight of my week.  And a lot of cool stuff has happened this week.

Someone apparently interrupted her before she could even start swallowing the pills.  Today, she had over 1,600 messages, most of them from complete strangers.  She is saying that she will never consider suicide again, and she is doing her best to respond to each and every message that she received.  This makes me so happy.  I hope she does well in life. :)

If you want to feel a little extra happy today, here is her blog:
http://ihopesomebodyhears.tumblr.com

I came across a preview of a song this past week, which is off of YouTube now, but the song is entitled "Generation Love."  Here is the chorus:

"They call us Generation Lost
Or Generation Greed
Or the connected generation to the plasma screen
Or a generation why enough is not enough
Or maybe they'll call us
Generation Love"

I think this is a good start.

Thanks for reading <3 AK

Work and a Worldwide Media Revolution

So I'm at work right now.  If you didn't know, I work at the front desk of my residence hall.  It's a pretty sweet job.  We can basically do whatever we want at work.  Even update a blog. :)  I usually try my best to do homework, but that doesn't work out a lot of the time, like right now.  Most of my hours are weekend night shifts. So last night, while you were fast asleep, I was working from 2:30 am to 5:30 am.  The problem with trying to do homework during a night shift is: 1. You're tired.  It is so unnatural to wake up in the middle of the night for a few hours.  and 2. There's always 2 people working at the desk on a night shift.  So would I rather do homework or talk to my friend that I'm working with?  I feel like that's not a very hard decision.  I have to be very determined to get work done on a night shift.

Now usually, on Saturdays on B weekends I work 2:30-5:30am and then 1pm-5pm.  However, I wanted to go home today to help take care of my mom again, and so I switched hours with Jenna and now I work 9am-1pm instead of 1-5.  Needless to say, I haven't slept much.

While my original plan was to do homework right now at the desk, I am instead using my time to update my blog and watch the very first episodes of "FRIENDS."  It's already been three hours, so I'm doing pretty well so far.

I also wanted to post this awesome video that was shown last week at a Public Relations meeting.  My friend, Alex, who is a PR major posted this video, and I really enjoyed it.  Alex just came back from a week-long internship for a designer during New York Fashion Week.  Want to know how she got that internship?  Twitter.

I know that people have their issues with the pointlessness of Twitter, but it doesn't have to be useless if you use it right.  A lot of companies will post job openings on their Twitter pages.  Want to know about that opening first?  Follow them!  I also think that Twitter is a great source for other information.  I am kept up on world news since I follow my local news channels as well as CNN, Huffington, etc.  As a music major, it's also important for me to keep up on music news, so I can follow my favorite artists, my favorite venues, and many other music news sources to stay updated.  As this video points out, we don't have to search for news anymore, news finds us.

I used to think Twitter was pointless too.  I understand more and more as time goes on that it is a very useful asset.

Aside from the fact that you can follow people and places that are important to you, also think about who will follow YOU.  A lot of people follow me that I don't know, but a lot of them also have connections in the music business.  If they know what I'm up to, then when I'm looking for a job or internship, that might just be one more opened door.

So if you still don't want a Twitter, that's fine.  So long as you don't mind losing a few dozen (at least) job opportunities.

-AK

Reading the Fine Print

Today was such a long day!  I have a lot to talk about, though!  First, I have some of the best friends in the world, and my suitemate, Jenna was so nice to come down to Grand Rapids today to visit my mom with me.  My mom had surgery today to get a lump removed from her breast.  Everything went really well, and the doctor said that he was very confident that the lump was not cancerous!  Good news!

We also got a nice home cooked meal from my aunt, which I miss quite a bit.  I am very sick of dorm food.  Of course about two hours later, we ruined that by stopping at Culver's on our way back to Ferris.  It was necessary.

I also learned a lesson or two this week about paying attention to details.  I have been waiting for a long time for CMT to put up their 2011 application for download, but every time I looked at it, it said 2010.  Turns out, they didn't change the link, but they changed the inside information.  The application is due on the 28th with two letters of recommendation.  Bye, CMT.  It's too late to intern there.

I have also been working on an application for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  I went to put the application with my letters of recommendation together, and learned that I also need an official transcript.  Now I have to pick up my transcript (after paying $8) tomorrow at 1pm and get it in the mail before the mail gets picked up (even though I have class until 2:45), so it can be overnighted to D.C., where it is due on friday.  Lesson learned: READ THE FINE PRINT

I'm really bad at that some days.  That's why I don't like math, and I don't like True/False questions.  I forget little details sometimes.

I also had a great conversation with my friend Robin today.  She might go intern at Rock Hard with me this summer!  She helped me decide on the Advertising major thing.  If I really like Rock Hard, I am going to keep my advertising certificate and get a Film Studies minor.  If I don't really like Rock Hard, I'm going to get the Advertising degree.  I can't stay in school forever, as much as I would like to believe that's true.  If i had my way, I would get an advertising degree and the film studies minor.

I am super excited to be going to bed before midnight tonight.  I can't remember the last time that happened..

"That's All For Now, Folks!"
I don't want to bore you.  Although if you're bored, you really should've just stopped reading...
-AK

Stream of Consciousness

So I think I am way too excited about this blog thing, for real.  I love just being able to put your thoughts down.  And people can read them or not, and I don't really care.  My life isn't that interesting, but if you really want to know, you can read this.  For me, it's just fun to write.

I am so excited about this Rock Hard Films opportunity.  It sounds absolutely amazing.  I also completely spaced on the details of my mom's cousin in LA.  She is Mary Hart's personal assistant.  Mary Hart, if you didn't know, is the Lead Anchor for Entertainment Tonight.  How did I not remember this? I don't know, but *lightbulb*  There's a bunch more doors that just opened for me!  I'm excited to get in touch with her!

I'll be able to do more this weekend when I go home.  My mom is having surgery and I'm going home to take care of her for a couple days.  She will be able to get me in touch with her cousin Lori (Laurie?) Things are finally looking up on the internship front, and I'm so excited to go away for the summer and learn more!

I am also debating getting a second degree in advertising.  I am in a class called promotional writing this semester and it is supes fun.  I've also discovered my new favorite ad, the Chrysler 200 commercial (more like a Detroit commercial)

If you don't like this commercial, you're insane.  We spent about 45 minutes in class discussing this ad, and we've watched it 3 times.  It's quite amazing what they did here.  I've been so intrigued with advertising lately.  I'm pretty sure that I want a double major!

I should really go to bed.

-AK

Rock Hard

I just got an email back from a really nice person at Rock Hard Films in LA!  She is so nice and said she is certain there will be a position open for me this summer!  I'm so excited!  They've done some great videos for Willow Smith, Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, etc. I called my mom and her cousin actually lives in LA so I will probably have a place to stay as well!  I am so stoked for this opportunity!  I can't wait to go on internship!
-AK