Things for my apartment.

Note: I wrote this post on October 26, intending to add more items to the list before I published it, but that hasn't happened thus far. So, I'm publishing it now! With a quick addition at the bottom.

I recently made a list of things I can't wait to have when I live in an apartment and not in a totally-fun-but-slightly-restrictive sorority house. Since then, I've thought of several more items I'm itching to purchase/enjoy. Enjoy part two of the series:

Source: wanelo.com via Mallory on Pinterest

A coffee maker! Luckily, we have decent coffee at my sorority house, but it is unfortunately not out yet when I leave for work at 4:50 a.m. When I have my own coffee maker, I can caffeinate myself whenever I need/want! And though I might need to stop by Starbucks once a week or so for a delicious peppermint mocha, having my own coffee maker will drastically cut down on my spending.

Source: bhg.com via Anna on Pinterest

I can't wait to have my own bathroom. Well, I'll probably still share with a roommate or two, but it will be glorious to have a medicine cabinet and not be limited to a little metal cubby under the sink with 20 other girls' stuff. I'll be able to store my toothbrush upright instead of in a travel toothbrush holder, and I won't have to carry my less-than-daily cosmetic products back and forth from my room! It really is the little things in life.

Source: etsy.com via Linnea on Pinterest

I can finally buy wine! Of course, campus and sorority rules prevented me from having wine in my room up until this point, but I'm probably more excited about the possibility of adorable wine stoppers (see above) than I am about the wine itself.

The best four years of your life.

If you read my blog post from yesterday, you know I'm a little sad about graduating from college and leaving Columbia (and all my friends) behind. While writing that post, I was reminded of my commencement speech from high school.

Yes, this is actually a picture of me, not a Pinterest picture. Shocker!

I really didn't want to speak at my graduation at first; I really didn't think I had anything to say that the audience hadn't already heard at each of their previous children's graduation ceremonies. I definitely knew I didn't want to give the typical recap speech of high school: highlighting the best moments, listing my class' athletic and academic accomplishments, and telling inside jokes that the majority of my 139 classmates would have understood.

Instead, I wanted to do something different. I'm from a fairly small town, where most of my classmates had gone to school together since kindergarten, you knew pretty much everyone's name, and many of my friends had the same teachers their parents had had years ago. I wanted to remind everyone that regardless of whether they had enjoyed high school or not, there is always something better waiting up ahead. To steal a line from the romantic comedy Just Friends, I don't think anyone should be "the girl [or boy] who peaked in high school." So this is the speech I gave, and I hope I accomplished my goal:

The end of an era.

Time's up! 

Source: browndresswithwhitedots.tumblr.com via Traci on Pinterest

I've had plenty of time this semester to think about graduation (and what comes after). I've remembered the good times, written countless cover letters during my job search, finally figured out my plan for next year and spent as much time as possible with friends. I had a countdown to graduation on my phone, a Facebook album titled "The End of an Era" for this semester's pictures (hence the post title), and my cap and gown has been sitting in my room since October 5.

But it didn't really hit me until it was too late to change my mind.

I've known for a while that I was on track to graduate a semester early. In fact, I started taking the minimum number of credits per semester when I realized I could have graduated a year early if I wanted. (I didn't.)

My friends (especially my younger ones) constantly asked me why I wasn't staying until May. I always told them it just wouldn't work; I already had two majors and, like I said, I was already taking the minimum course load. I guess I could have picked up a minor along the way, but by the time I realized how much I would really miss Mizzou, I felt it was too late. Everyone was expecting me to graduate in December, and I thought I was ready to leave.

Update on the great unknown.

For those of you who read my "Heading off into the great unknown" post, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Well, after five weeks of submitting job applications, I got an email on Monday from an editor who wanted to set up an interview. Mere hours after the phone interview on Wednesday, I got another phone call offering me the position - an online internship with Outside magazine in Santa Fe beginning in January.

I am so excited for many reasons, including: 1) Outside is a great magazine, which I've been reading for about a year and have even mentioned in my blog several times. 2) The internship will use my skill set perfectly and allow me to develop new skills before I search for a more permanent position next summer. And of course, 3) I actually know what I'm doing after graduation, and that is a huge relief.

When I look back on it, even though I felt like I was floundering sometimes with the ambiguous online career site application processes and my lack of journalistic summer internships, writing this blog is the first time I've realized it only took me five weeks to find a position that was a good match. So, in contrast to my previous duck picture, here is how I feel now, happily on my way!

Source: riskeverythingfearnothing.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

Things for my apartment.

I feel like I've been blogging about my friend Kiki a lot lately, but what can I say? She's a big part of my life. So, she inspired this post in two ways:

1. She came to my room to cuddle briefly tonight.
2. She bought candles at Marshalls when we went shopping last weekend.

Now let me explain what these two things have in common.

1. I live in a twin bed. Which also happens to be a top bunk. Which makes cuddling with two grown women a little difficult.
2. I live in a sorority house. Which means candles are prohibited.

So, that leads me to the topic of this post: Things I can't wait to have when I live in an apartment! Here's the short list for now:

Source: None via Megan on Pinterest

A double bed (at least!). I have always lived in a twin. My sister and brother (who is three years younger, mind you) both had double or queen-sized beds in high school, but I - the middle child - slept in a broken old-top-half-of-our-bunk-bed-from-1997 twin until my mom sold the house last month to move to Switzerland.

(Don't even get me started on my mild-to-severe middle child syndrome. It's quite traumatic.)

Source: mycottageofbliss.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

Pretty candles! These are especially gorgeous for autumn.

Source: whitekitchens.blogspot.com via Rhonda on Pinterest

Somewhere to cook. I currently have access to a microwave, but no oven. This isn't to say I actually can cook, but I'd like to have the option. Or at least be able to broil my leftover French fries in the oven instead of microwaving them to a soggy temperature. Yuck.

Source: None via Nicole on Pinterest

Great art! I'm limited right now to hanging decorations from the wooden strip around my room, and I'm also limited to hanging things that are light enough to be held up with 3M adhesive. I just can't wait to put some nails in the wall! The Creed of Alpha Delta Pi will be the first thing to be framed and hung.

I'm sure I will think of many more material things to look forward to as graduation approaches, but that's all for now!

Heading off into the great unknown.

I finally submitted a job application today! Actually, I submitted four. (For those of you keeping track at home, I now only have 58 days left until graduation.) Part of me had been waiting because many of the positions I found were looking to be filled immediately, but another part of me had been putting it off because I was kind of hoping I wouldn't get a job in January and could travel around Europe for a few months before I had to join the daily grind.

(Of course, that isn't to say the latter won't happen. Submitting a cover letter and resume in no way guarantees me a job, or even an interview, so Mom might need to prepare to house me in Switzerland for a few weeks next spring when I run through all my savings on a cross-continent European trip.)

But regardless of what happens, I finally took that first step. I applied for a researcher position at a very prestigious national travel magazine (a.k.a. highly selective), a web editor position at another well-known travel publication and an assistant editor position for a Chicago-based local media company. I also submitted a general inquiry to a media company with luxury city magazines from coast to coast.

With all my cover letters and resumes floating around in cyberspace, and many more to circulate in the next month or so, this picture pretty much sums up how I feel. Plus, it makes me smile:

Source: acottageinthewoods.tumblr.com via Julie on Pinterest

72 Days at Mizzou.

Photo via Pinterest

1. It's been a while since I've written a post about my
impending graduation and subsequent limited time at Mizzou.

2. I bought my cap and gown for graduation today. Eek!

3. With only 72 days left, I don't anticipate I'll accomplish

much more during my undergraduate experience.

Due to these three items, I decided it was time to write a nostalgic piece about my time at the University of Missouri. I don't know if you can be nostalgic about something that isn't actually over yet, but I'm going to do it. So there. This will be mostly photos that represent my most memorable and/or proudest moments here at Mizzou. Enjoy!

Education makes a difference.

Welp, I started my Teach for America application on Wednesday during my office hours. One of my good friends is the campus campaign coordinator for the program here at Mizzou, and she has been talking it up! I even met with her higher-up earlier this week to discuss the program. I'm not sure where this path is going to lead me yet, but I discovered this amazing video along the way and wanted to share it with you.

Enjoy!

94 Days at Mizzou.

Source: weheartit.com via Megan on Pinterest

Whew. Every day I look at the countdown on my phone and the number gets smaller and smaller, meaning graduation is getting closer and closer! The 94 days I have left until graduation include:

• 11 chapter meetings with Alpha Delta Pi
• 44 scheduled shifts at MizzouRec
• 84 class meetings
• 5 home football games
• 82 nights in the Pi lodge
• 1 academic break (boo!)

Wow. I probably shouldn't have done that. Now graduation seems so much closer, and I'm started to feel a little depressed about leaving my carefree college life behind....

100 Days at Mizzou.

Source: fashionandmodeling.tumblr.com via Keith on Pinterest 

Well, maybe the boys in this post don't look quite like this. But a girl can dream!

So, I was walking past a particular fraternity house on my way home from work today and was inspired to write a new post. See, this fraternity really likes to play music on its lawn when the weather is nice, which is usually accompanied by several men playing sports in the front yard or lying out on lawn chairs, sometimes sans clothing. Some days, I find this irritating, but today I really appreciated the music because the fabulous almost-fall weather we've been having put me in a good mood.

As I was walking by the house (singing along in my head, of course), I realized it is probably the trivial things like this that I will miss about Mizzou when I graduate in December. I've lived in my Greek house for the past two years, so I've become accustomed to the surrounding atmosphere. This realization came only a few hours before I looked at my phone and noticed my graduation countdown app, which now says:

"Graduation! 12/16/2011. 100 Days Left."

Of course, I took this as a sign that I needed to somehow commemorate my last 100 days of my undergraduate eduction. So this is the first post of (probably) many, to record the good times and the bad before I leave Mizzou at the end of the semester.

Source: bakerella.com via Laura on Pinterest

Someone, please feel free to make these for me.

They will make the fact that I'm graduating so much easier to stomach.

P.S. - As I was writing this post, the above-mentioned fraternity house began playing Justin Bieber ("One Less Lonely Girl"). Yes, I can hear it from my room.

Welcome to Atlanta!

Okay, so it's "Welcome to Miami," as my fellow interns pointed out just the other day. But I'm in Atlanta, so I'm going to adapt the lyrics for now.

Welcome to my blog! I will (hopefully) be chronicling my adventures during my internship in Atlanta this summer...


then my study abroad trip to Rwanda...


and then my job search when I get back to school (University of Missouri) in August.


I would like to point out that I wanted to call this blog "Megan in Motion" to reflect my constant travels and life changes, but the other interns in the room all laughed at me. Well look right to see my new alliteration! Ha! (Edited to add: I used to have a widget in the right column called "Meet Megan," but I've updated my blog since then!)