Category Archives: Reverb10

Reverb10: 11 Things

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This post is part of the online initiative Reverb10. You can find all of my Reverb10 posts here.

December 11 – 11 Things. What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

Are you happy?
{via weheartit}

Self-doubt

I have become much more secure of myself but I still doubt myself too much. Especially being that I am about to start my first full-time job, I want to eradicate self-doubt from my life. It makes me second-guess my decisions, my work, and what others say. It’s very counterproductive and I think that if I want my supervisor to believe I am doing a good job, I need to be believe it myself first.

Lethargy

Whenever I have too much time on my hands, instead of easily getting everything done, I become lethargic and frequently don’t get anything done or take forever to get things done. I think that having a job will take care of having too much time on my hands. I have found that being productive makes me feel much better than not doing anything.

Procrastination

I love putting things off till the last minute. While that worked okay when I was a college student, I think it won’t work so well now that I’ll be working. I want to eliminate procrastination not just from my professional life but also from my private life. I will have much less free time and need to use that time well, so I can get everything done that needs to be done and still have time for fun things.

Drama

I really cannot stand having drama in my life. Some people seem to thrive on it, but for me it just steals so much energy. I have done pretty well with avoiding drama in the past couple of years and want to keep it that way. Especially as work brings a whole new potential for drama.

Dependence

I know it is only natural to depend on others but what I do not what for 2011 is the kind of dependence I had on my parents up until now. I need the distance and I need for them to see that I am an adult. I am hoping that will change how they treat me.

Inactivity

I am a pretty lazy person. It’s hard to motivate myself to exercise. In the past few months I have been doing really well with a workout routine but moving will change a lot of things, e.g., I will no longer be able to take Zumba classes. But I am planning to find new things to do. I want to keep going swimming once a week and will start running again when the weather permits. I am also going to try to find exercise classes in the small town I’ll be living in, though I won’t be able to be very picky. And I want to order the Zumba DVDs and do Zumba at home once a week or so.

Overweight

Very closely related with the previous point, I want to eliminate being overweight from my life in 2011. I have already lost roughly 25lbs since August and I am planning to get to a healthy weight range within the next few months. But really, while losing weight is not easy, keeping the weight off is a lot harder than losing it, so I will have to work extra hard when I have reached my goal weight, especially as I will be sitting at a desk for most of the day.

Worrying

Typically I worry especially about things beyond my control. Which is particularly pointless as I have no influence over it in that case and worrying won’t change a thing except cost me time and energy that would better be used on something else.

Nailbiting

I have been biting my nails ever since I was a kid. I have tried to stop several times. I never last very long. I don’t have  a lot of vices but this is definitely one of them and I really don’t like it. To me it’s just not a very grown-up thing to do. I want to stop biting my nails and finally have nice-looking nails.

Late bedtimes

I’m a night owl and for the longest time have gone to bed late and gotten up late unless I had to get up early. Once I start working in a month, I will have to get up early every day, so I will hopefully get used to going to bed early because otherwise I’d be permanently sleep-deprived. I am hoping that I will simply slip into this new routine. So far it was hard to do that as I had no real reason (except my nagging parents) to make it a habit to get up early.

I know I am only at ten things in my list but in an attempt to work on #10 I am going to end it here. It is 1.30am already and tomorrow will be  a busy day so I want to be up early.

Reverb10: Wisdom

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This post is part of the online initiative Reverb10. You can find all of my Reverb10 posts here.

December 10 – Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

The first thing that came to my mind was deciding to apply for the job I I ended up being offered despite all my doubts about it, and going through the interview process. I have not actually started the job yet, so hypothetically it could suck, but I do have a very good feeling about it. But as I don’t want to reiterate this post, I will write about something different.

Though technically not a decision I made in 2010, it impacted me mostly this year. I think one of the wisest decisions I made was picking the two professors I did for my final exams. Literally everything depended on these two persons, as they are the ones determining all the grades that made up my GPA. I chose two professors who specialized in topic areas I had an affinity for, and I liked them as persons which is so important in all relationships, whether they be personal, academic or professional. My grades were not perfect (though I am happy with the overall result), I got asked some mean questions, one exam went pretty horribly, but I don’t harbor any feelings of animosity toward them. Both were friendly and supportive, while also having their own little quirks.

Personal sympathy is really what can make or break a project. I find it invaluable to be on the same wavelength as a person you’re dealing with, especially in situations where you cannot choose not to deal with them. Maybe some people are good at dealing with people regardless of how they feel about them, but it is so much easier when you don’t have to pretend you like a person when really, you don’t. And this was a situation where two individuals had a lot of power over my professional future in terms of my grades. Of course studying was up to me but I do believe that personal sympathy influences both professors and students in how benevolent they are. There is some leeway in grading and that personal sympathy can make all the difference.

I am hoping that as I am about to start a new job in just a month, I will find a friendly and benevolent environment. I have had a professional experience when this was not the case and it was something that impacted me very much and for a long time. And that was just an internship, where my days where counted. But this? Is a permanent position. I want to enjoy being at work. I want to love what I’m doing. I want to get along with my co-workers.

Reverb10: Party

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This post is part of the online initiative Reverb10. You can find all of my Reverb10 posts here.

December 9 – Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

Graduation

2010 is the year I finished university. In Germany we don’t usually have graduation ceremonies. The university doesn’t organize anything. In fact, you simply get your diploma by picking it up at the examination office or in the mail. Yes, in the mail. However, some departments choose to do a function for graduates to celebrate their diplomas. Luckily the English Department did; the Spanish Department didn’t do anything, though (I majored in both). It’s still nowhere near as big a deal as a graduation ceremony in the US but it is nice just to do something to celebrate.

My graduation ceremony took place in June, when I was not done yet with all of my final exams. I had no idea what to expect going there, and I was not sure how to dress. I decided to go with a nice dress, but was a little worried I might be overdressed. As it turns out, I wasn’t, because everyone dressed really well, except for a few who came in jeans and must have felt terribly underdressed. We didn’t receive diplomas then, because it is not the English Department handing out the diplomas but the examination office.

Graduation

It was such a nice experience. So festive with everyone dressed up, the choir singing, and in the gorgeous old auditorium of the university. One of my best friends came with me. It was great to have this event for us to celebrate and be proud of our achievement, to make our graduation a little more special.

Graduation 2010 from Karen on Vimeo.

Reverb10: Beautifully Different

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This post is part of the online initiative Reverb10. You can find all of my Reverb10 posts here.

December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

I am happy and excited!
{via weheartit}

One of the main things that make me different, in my opinion, is that I have adopted a very positive attitude. This is a change that I have noticed in myself in the past few years, I wasn’t always like this. I see the good in people. I like to find a solution to a problem, and I try to give everyone and everything a chance. I believe in self-fulfilling prophecies and think that if you approach something with a negative attitude, if you don’t give it a chance from the get-go, it will turn out bad. Basically, if you think that something is going to suck, it will. That’s why I generally try to keep a positive attitude. Don’t get me wrong, I do get disappointed when something doesn’t work out the way I wanted, but I always try to find something positive about it that will make it less disappointing.

A couple of months ago, I received an email from a recruiting company looking for someone for a company in a very small town. At first I thought, hell no, I’m not moving to a small town. I decided to apply for the job anyway, mainly because I thought I had to. I received the offer via the job center and thought that it might influence what little benefits I do receive from them if I don’t apply, though in hindsight I don’t think it would have. I was also thinking that I might be able to move to the bigger city nearby and commute. I was invited for a job interview with the recruiting company, and was also invited for a job interview by the employing company a couple of weeks later. I was honestly a bit surprised because I didn’t fit their profile that well, I thought.

By then I had found out that commuting wouldn’t be possible because of how far the company is located from the local train station. I realized that I would have to move to this very small town if I worked there. I wasn’t very excited but decided that going to the interview wouldn’t hurt. At the very least, it would give me some more practice for interviewing situations. I also thought that if the job offer was decent, I might just accept it and essentially settle because who knows when another job would come along. The interview went very well, and I was generally very impressed with the company and how welcoming they were. After the interview I was actually really considering the company not just based on, ‘well, at least it’s a job,’ but based on, ‘hey it might actually be a good job.’ They didn’t make me feel like I ought to be grateful to even be considered for the job, and like it was only me who had to convince them of my abilities. They were also applying for me as a potential employee.

I knew that if I was going to be offered the job, I would not have too much time to consider the offer. I knew that they were going to get back to me within two weeks and that I should know whether I really wanted the job or not by then. After lots of thinking and talking to friends, I decided that I would take the job unless they didn’t meet my expectations in terms of salary. Yes, I would be living in a tiny town, but it’s not that far from Munich. I would easily be able to go to Munich for the weekend if I wanted to. Besides, there are a few larger towns in the area as well. Yes, the train only runs every hour which isn’t very frequent, but all that means is I would have to plan. I can do that.

On the upside, I would be living within walking distance from work – well, I would have to live within walking distance because there is no local public transport and I don’t own a car. I would also be able to ride my bike virtually everywhere in town once the snow melts. Another plus is that renting is very cheap in that town. Once the probationary period would end, I could buy a car which would also solve the transportation issue and make surrounding cities a lot more accessible. It would be a challenge, but I like challenges. It would definitely help me build character, it would make me more flexible and better at adapting to new and unknown situations. It would be a really good first step into the job market. And who knows, I might actually like it there! I would be determined to make the best of it and I would find a way to make it work.

After about two weeks I heard back from them, and they wanted to see me for another interview. That interview took place yesterday. After about 20 minutes it was clear that I would get the job unless I said something extremely stupid in reply to their questions.

I accepted the job.

Yes, people, I have a job!!! As of mid January I will no longer be unemployed! I found a good job that sounds like it has lots of potential to become something even better with a company I am very impressed with. I have shared some of the frustrations of job hunting on this blog, and I am so glad that that is over. It’s a permanent position (after the usual 6 month probationary period), and I consider myself lucky to have gotten a permanent position so soon after graduating.