The dreaded question: what are your plans now?

Since I have kind of a lame life now that I’m out of school and without a job, I tend to go to whatever I’m invited to. My little brother is also graduating this year from Boyle County High School so we’ve had lots of graduation parties to attend. And, I’ve grown to dislike these social events because of the many questions thrown at me… especially one in particular: what are your plans now?

What are your plans now? What are you doing now that you’re graduated? What is your dream job? What do you want to do? How about you do this…(usually something I really would not ever like to do)? How about you talk to this person (someone I’ve usually never heard of that would probably not help at all anyway)? You should do what this other person did, etc. etc. etc.

These are the questions I’m bombarded with no matter where I go. While sometimes the advice is very helpful, there are also those people who I really don’t know, they don’t know me and they suggest I do something I wouldn’t dare do in my life.

I would LOVE to know some of these answers myself, but honestly most of them end up answered with an “I don’t know.” I’m sure some people are thinking, “You’ve been in school for the past 17 years of your life… don’t you know something by now?” I wish I did. Truth is… even after being in school for the majority of my life I still don’t know what to do. And, I surely don’t know what my plans are since I can rarely even find a job opening.

Here’s my plan: sit at home and enjoy it while I can (including sleeping in), search for jobs, start wedding planning, hope I can get out of the house soon.

Watch for flying windshield wipers

Monday I was driving to Murray to visit my fiance when a torrential downpour came out of nowhere and stole a windshield wiper. Seriously.

It really was the hardest rain I had ever experienced while driving, my wipers were on full blast for about 10 seconds before the driver’s side wiper gave up and committed suicide in the middle of the Western Kentucky Parkway.

I pulled over to see if the wiper could be recovered, but only found half of it. So, the wiper expert that I am (not… I just learned a week before how to put them on), I tried to take the passenger side wiper and switch it over. No such luck of getting it off because I was afraid that one would break too.

Instead I prayed God would stop the rain and send some sun… which He did! Thank God it stopped raining… the only problem was that the roads were still wet and when a truck got in front of me it sprayed water onto my windshield, leaving me blind once again.

I had decided to go on to the next exit and buy some new wipers, only the next exit was another highway. Luckily, within a mile or so there was a state police station. Thank the Lord!

Thank you to the state trooper who helped me switch over my windshield wiper! It was probably a silly task he laughed at, but I am very thankful. Next time I’ll make sure the wiper “clicks” before putting them on full blast.

Moving home

Well, I did it! I graduated from Campbellsville University!

I’ve been back at home for about five days now, and I must say it’s weird moving back into your parents home after college, still having no clue what lies ahead.

I began my week with lots of cleaning and rearranging… which still isn’t done. Since I haven’t moved back home completely in two years… plus, my bedroom and my dorm room were both already full of stuff… I knew I needed to get rid of some stuff.

I started with the closet. So, today I’m taking a load of clothes to Plato’s Closet in Lexington. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great place to take your gently used clothes and get paid! I hope I make a decent amount… I’ll let you know later.

Then, I knew I had to do something with all my binders and textbooks. I’m keeping a lot of them, but since I’ve decided to no longer go into psychology, I put those books up on Amazon.com to sell. In less than 48 hours, I already sold seven books!’

Yesterday, I also had a phone interview for a summer internship in Louisville. I’m in the top four, but I’m also the only one of the four who has already graduated… so, of course, they worry about me finding a full-time job.

Now that my room is most of the way clean, my parents and I are coming up with projects to keep me busy until I find a job or internship, or something so I’m not stuck in the house.

Have an idea for what a newly graduated college student can do if they don’t have a job yet? (Besides, looking for a job.) Let me know by making a comment!

Need a handyman?

As part of a Graphic Design class, I designed a Web site, powered by GoDaddy.com,  for my dad’s business. http://edmiller.edmillerhandyman.com

As part of the economic downfall, he is now doing something he loves… making and fixing things.

If you are in need of a handyman orhave a project of some sort, check out his Web site. I’m in the process of teaching him how to use it, so it will be updated more often.

Check out the site and give him a call! Everyone needs a handyman at some point!

http://edmiller.edmillerhandyman.com

Tags: business, fix, GoDaddy.com, handyman, help, project, tools, web site

9 down, 1 to go!

My fiance was recently looking for honeymoon spots when he came across Yahoo Travel’s top 10 cities in the U.S. http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-191501863-united_states_vacations-

I discovered that I have been to nine out of the top 10 U.S. cities! And, it’s kind of funny because the one I haven’t been to is #1 on the list!

Here are your top 10 cities:

1. Las Vegas– haven’t been there unless I may have flown through there at some time or another, but I don’t remember it if I have.

2. New York City– I was there in March 2009 for an editing workshop at The New York Times… I wonder if it’s still in the top after closing down Times Square for the car bomb?

3. San Francisco– I have family that lives right across the bay. Last time I visited there was in June 2007. I think my family flew in there over Christmas when we visited California, however.

4. Chicago– So, I haven’t exactly visited, but I’ve been stranded there many times in the airport. This is somewhere I would love to go for fun! My brother went there last month for a concert.

5. Seattle, WA– I have family that lives there, too.

6. San Diego, CA– I’m pretty sure I’ve been to the zoo there when I was little.

7. Los Angeles, CA– I have family there, too. I went to Disneyland when I was three years old, and again when I was about 10.

8. Orlando, FL– Some former next door neighbors have a condo in New Smyrna Beach which is about 30 minutes away from Orlando. We spent time at their condo for vacation one time and took a short trip to Disneyworld– it was only the Epcot part though, so it didn’t really feel like Disneyworld. We didn’t see any of the Disney characters!

9. Atlanta, GA– I’ve been there several times. Most of it was just driving through or in the airport. I stayed the night there over Christmas break between Hawaii and Nicaragua, and I was stuck in traffic there after Spring Break in Clearwater Beach, Fla.

10. Honolulu– I was there over Christmas break! I was also there about eight years ago for family weddings.

It’s pretty cool to see how well-traveled I am. I think it would be a good goal to actually visit all of these top 10 cities…and not just be in the airports.

Awards Day at CU!

Last week Campbellsville University held her annual honors and awards day! As one of those graduating, I received a few awards and presented some as well. Here are some photos:

Dr. Michael V. Carter, president of Campbellsville University, presents a valedictorian plaque to me.  There are seven co-valedictorians!

Dr. Cheatham, vice president for academic affairs, me, and Dr. Carter as they presented me with the plaque and stole for valedictorian.

Shannon Clark presented the Outstanding Senior award to me!

As the winner of the Rotary Club award, I received a $200 savings bond from Chuck Vaughn.

Hillary Wright, editor of Campus Times, and I, assistant editor of Campus Times, won the journalism academic awards. Our professor, Stan McKinney, is in the middle. He won the distinguished professor award later in the awards ceremony.

Here is a photo of all the award winners that work in the Office of University Communications! Joan is so proud of all of us! Almost every senior who works in there won an award! We’re such an awesome group, right?

Andre Tomaz, Rachel Crenshaw and I all won clocks for special awards. Andre got the leadership award, I got the outstanding senior award, and Rachel got the Don Doyle Spirit award. Tick, tick, tick!

And, of course, my proud parents came to visit!

Check out this guy’s hat! I presented the Challenger Award for SGA to Dr. Jarvis Williams. I’ve never had him as a teacher, but I’ve heard he’s pretty tough.