Trust your gut
This is a big one. We all think we want to work at a place with an incredible office, with the coolest furniture, where all the workers dress like they’re models off duty and are friends with famous people. That’s great and all don’t get me wrong. But, do you feel comfortable in the room? When you walk in the door do you like the energy? Would you have the courage to speak your ideas?
As great as it is to be with the “cool agencies” if it doesn’t align with your values, culture, the way you operate listen to that. Don’t force yourself to like an agency simply because it’s known by everyone to be “super chill n shit”. Like an agency because it’s a good fit for you. You’ll know that feeling the second you walk in the door and don’t push it away.
Trust your gut. Move with your gut. Reach out to places that make your gut happy :-)
Advice to live by
A few days before leaving for the trip I was questioning everything. Questioning what I wanted from this trip, questioning what to do to prepare for the trip, questioning what size agency, questioning where I wanted to live, questioning how my four years at the University of Oregon were coming to an end. But with all these questions I was searching for answers. Answers that I didn’t have yet, but was pressuring myself to know. I had a semi-mental break down in Deb’s office and for some reason, was convinced that I had lost all control of my life. As an account manager and control freak, this wasn’t something that happened often to me. Deb looked to me and said, “Paige, stop going into this trip searching for answers. Instead, leave the trip asking more questions and more curious”. *Wow. Mind blown. That’s some good advice*
Four days of being here that’s been my mantra. Don’t look for answers. Look for questions. Learn what you don’t like in order to learn what you do like. IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY! This trip is absolutely insane, exciting, and exhausting. A bad day in NYC can be one of the worst days of your life. BUT, a good day in NYC be the best day of your life.
Paige Bara
5/8/19
1
Limp Dick Energy
I’m not talented enough to be here.
I’m not smart enough, creative enough, or interesting enough.
It wasn’t until halfway through packing last night when my roommate confronted me. “You need to stop!” Her being the first person I ever met when I came to UO as a freshman in 2015 she has seen me search for what I want to do and major in. Being from outside Allen Hall she had interesting insights that I think it’s been hard for me to see. “Yes, your portfolio still needs improving and your resume isn’t extensive. But you have such good ideas and are so creative.”
I promise this week I will stop telling myself I’m not good enough. I know that the more I tell myself that, the more people will notice and believe that it’s true.
I think agencies can probably sniff out the limp dick energy.
MP 5/5/19
3-2-1 Takeoff
What an incredible amount of human brain power and natural resource power it takes to get is to get us all safely to this magical city. Flying across the country is no easy task for us as passengers, for the pilots and crew, or for the plane. Taking off and rising up above 30,000 feet in the air, I could feel all the power being used to thrust this giant piece of metal into the air. Prior to this trip, I had not thought about the carbon impact a journey like this has on the environment. As students transitioning to professionals within the world, it is our responsibility to take care of the earth and reduce our carbon impact in the most efficient ways possible both in our personal lives and in our careers. After learning about carbon offsets, it gave me hope for our future on this earth and I hope we can all learn how to take care of it before it’s too late.
Henry Ammann - 5.5.2019
Astrology
Astrology: Maybe it’s real. Maybe it’s fake.
All I know is this: Today, the day that I leave for New York, my horoscope boiled it all down to 4 words. “You can do this.”
Maybe they have some sort of algorithm tracking my internet behaviors. Algorithms that see me scrolling through pages and pages of incredible work done by the agencies I’ll visit in the next coming days. Algorithms that see me preparing, compiling a document of every question I have coming into this experience. Algorithms watching as I agonize over an Excel spreadsheet, attempting to fit every NY experience possible into a short 1-week window.
Maybe that’s how they calculated what my horoscope should be today. Or perhaps it was just dumb luck.
All I know is this: Today is the day we leave for New York. We can do this.
-Carly Belin 5/4/19
Prepping for my team’s Day of Discovery with guess what…some reading.
I’m very excited to find out my cohort will be heading to Ellis Island at the end of the week. As any good researcher and ethnic studies student would, I bought a book to prepare for the visit. It’s called Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. I am always conscious of the different experiences of the myriad of people that have contributed to this nation. However, I am also prepared to fight for the voices that have unjustly been recognized by history. I understand the harsh battles European immigrants faced upon arrival to this country. I don’t want to take those experiences away from them. Nonetheless, let us also be reminded that European immigrants, despite the many prejudices they faced, were able to be subsumed into the white folds of American society. Other immigrants groups have not been so fortunate. This is just a reminder to keep a whole perspective of the world and that it’s possible to be empathetic and critical at the same time.
- Zoe Haakenstad | 4.28.2019