How to Trick Yourself

Long time no see!

After I got back from Peru (Mike and I broke up while I was there, not sure if I updated you on that), I moved back home, and started working at Victoria's Secret again.  I worked there for a few months, and in October I talked with Kerry and Kate about going to England to visit everyone. Then, in November I had a truly life altering conversation with Ellen in that she encouraged me to move to Washington DC.  I discovered the best way to move to a new place, or to do things that are challenging in general. The key is to trick yourself. Let me explain.

I spoke with Ellen in November. I told Kerry I would come with her to the UK to visit all of our British friends in February. The trick was, I bought a round trip ticket from New York, and vowed that I would not need a plane ticket to get there. So I needed to be moved into DC by Feb 14. I gave myself about a month, and my one way ticket to Washington left on January 17, 2014. About a week later, I was moved into a house with 3 roommates: Sam, (and his girlfriend Sheila), Leanne, and Diana. Two or three weeks after that, I was on the bus to New York, then Kerry and I met at Heathrow!

That was a great trip, we got to see such great friends! We stayed with Kate, and Valeria, and Grace at different times. We also made a side trip to Paris. And we had so much fun that we are planning another trip! This February we will be going to Iceland!

Upon my return, I basically used up all my credit on living and job hunting. Job hunting, in case you don't know, is the WORST.

Luckily, Sam was working with a temp agency called CityStaff. CityStaff sent me on a job interview with a law firm, and I did not get that job. Then, I worked for one day at a restaurant, but they never called me back. I also had a job offer from Guess to be their assistant manager, but the manager forgot about my interview where I was supposed to meet the district manager. Since then, the store has closed down, so I supposed it's for the best.

One morning, I woke up early fully intent to deal with my stress regarding unemployment by watching Netflix, when CityStaff called me and asked if I could work that day. I jumped out of bed and onto the metro, and was hired to sit at the desk at Rosetta Stone HQ for the day. They asked me back the next day, and I met the person in charge of the receptionists, Natasha. She asked me what I was looking for in terms of work, and I told her that something like this would be great (full time, and money? YES please!) So I stayed on for a month or so before I had a "formal interview," which consisted of Natasha asking me if I would stay longer than 6 months.

I've been working there for about 8 months now, and it's great. I answer phones and greet guests and help candidates get to their interviews, I book travel for candidates and other non-company guests, and I am working on assisting our foreign employees with travel to the U.S. and hopefully will be rewriting travel policy while studying for the GRE.

That's right! Grad school is back on the table! I got accepted to the Institute of Education in London last year while in Peru, but I couldn't rustle up the money to get there. So I am going to take the GRE and try to get into international relations and/or public policy either here in DC or in Geneva.

There was a bit of a trick to that as well. I signed up yesterday to take it (I have been studying longer, but I actually booked it yesterday) on October 9. That is about a month from now. That means, I have to be done studying in a month. It leaves little time for procrastination (as you can see).

I hope I do well on it, but if not I can take it again.

That's about it for now :)