So if you care to find me ...

... look to the western sky The Everygirl and the San Jose Public Library blog! :)

photo via Instagram

Hello, readers! I just wanted to pop in and update you on my long absence from Semi-Charmed Kind of Life. I don't have plans to return to regular blogging in this space anytime soon, but I am keeping the blog open to continue my seasonal reading challenges (the summer list will be posted on May 15, with the challenge running June 1 - August 31!) and to make a transition back to blogging easier if and when and I decide to pick it up again.

In the meantime, you can find my posts about travel (and possibly other subjects quite soon) over at The Everygirl, and you can read my bookish posts on the San Jose Public Library blog. As always, feel free to keep up and interact with me on Instagram and Twitter!

P.S. — If you understood my title/intro of this post, I hope we're best friends. ;)

6 Ways to Make Your Mornings More Productive

Morning is an important time. It sets the tone for your entire day, and it's home to the best meal ever (see #5 below). Since I went back to school and changed jobs last year, I've been spending a lot of time at home, so a morning routine has become more important than ever to start my day off right. Today, I'm sharing five six easy tips to help make your mornings more productive as well!



1. Don't use the snooze button. Pretty self explanatory, right? Does anyone really feel better after getting 15 extra minutes of half-sleep in the morning? I know I don't.

Change is here!

Well, now seems as good a time as any to post my big news, considering I just got home from my last day at my current job. Woohoo!! As of next week, I will be working part-time as a library aide, and (hopefully) part-time as a lifestyle blogger. ;) Y'all are some smart people; most of you guessed that a new job was one of my big announcements!

As for the other announcement, it goes hand in hand with the new job....

A Year in Review: Life as an LC

Although I left my sorority's international headquarters on May 10, my last duty as a Leadership Consultant for Alpha Delta Pi just ended in Dallas this weekend, as the other consultants and I worked at the biannual Grand Convention.

This year was a whirlwind to say the least. For anyone who isn't Greek—or even those of you who are Greek but never experienced a consultant visit—this job probably sounds ridiculous. Some of us affectionately call ourselves "professional sorority girls," but really we serve many purposes: event planners, conversation experts, recruitment gurus, confidants, handywomen, and—of course—leadership consultants. No matter the specific purpose of our visit, we always met with the collegiate sorority officers to provide suggestions, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the chapter, and develop detailed reports and chapter goals to help the organization continue to improve.

I already shared several of the things I learned during my first semester of this position, and now I'd like to share a few more:

The rose of Pi Kappa Phi.

As I've mentioned before, each fraternity and sorority has its own consultant program to support their chapters. On our first full day of training in July, the Pi Kappa Phi consultants drove down from Charlotte to meet the Alpha Delta Pi consultants and tour our Memorial Headquarters. As a former intern, I was able to lead one of the tours and learn just how much I did (and didn't) remember about the building. After the initial meeting and tours, we had cookies and lemonade and chatted about our upcoming years. Many of the Pi Kappa Phi consultant visits overlap with our Alpha Delta Pi assignments, so some of us may see these men again. Before they left, the Pi Kapps gave us a beautiful bouquet of roses and serenaded us with "The Rose of Pi Kappa Phi." Sweet, right? Who said chivalry is dead?

Also, on a completely unrelated note, the winner of my 100-follower giveaway is....

Breanna of My Beautiful, Crazy Life!
Congratulations, Breanna! Email me at semicharmedkol@gmail.com by Monday, August 13, so we can get your prizes to you ASAP. You can go ahead and attach your 200x200 button to that email so I can get it posted in my sidebar immediately. Congrats again! And thanks to everyone who participated. :)

The making of a professional sorority girl.

After meeting each other for the first time at Leadership Seminar a few weeks ago, the 2012-2013 Alpha Delta Pi Leadership Consultants were reunited in Atlanta last Tuesday. We overcame our first travel-related obstacle together by successfully fitting 11 people and 26 suitcases in our two rental cars. Whew! After unloading the cars at Executive Office, we were invited downstairs to receive our new goodies from the sorority.

Here are some of the fabulous things we got to help us get through the year:

• A new iPad, affectionately nicknamed the "PiPad" in these parts.
  
• A PiPhone (which I used to take this picture).
  
• A very official nametag.
  
• A binder designed by our Violet Sister (see below).
  
• Our very own Ritual Book!
  
• Fun folders and office supplies, including sticky pads, paper clips, highlighters, etc.
  
• A padfolio with the crest of Alpha Delta Pi.
  
• Legit business cards with a card holder.

When I first found out Brett was my Violet Sister at Leadership Seminar, she told me she had stalked my Pinterest to see what kind of stuff I liked. I can tell from this binder: It just screams Megan, don't you think? :) She also sent me a beautiful engraved bracelet at Executive Office accompanied by a turtle card. It was such a nice surprise!

Thanks, Violet! :)

After opening up all our goodies, our boss gave us the best gift of all: Our August schedules! I'm not saying where I'm going quite yet, but I will say I'll be visiting five campuses in three different states during the month of August, and I couldn't be more excited.

Stay tuned for more updates from our training here in Atlanta!

I'm back!

Hello all! I can't believe I've only written one non-SCSBC post in the past two weeks. After two weeks on the east coast, I'm finally back in California and hoping to make blogging (and blog reading) a priority this week before I jet back to Atlanta again for more job training. Here's a quick review of my stint in Atlanta at the end of June:

I flew to Atlanta on June 25 to begin job training for my new position as an Alpha Delta Pi Leadership Consultant, which included attending our biannual national leadership seminar. I was also privileged to attend this seminar as an emerging leader for my chapter two years ago, so it was neat being back at the same hotel with many of the same programs and facilitators. I wrote about my experience with the IMPACT program two years ago on the ADPi Leadership Seminar blog here if you want more details.

The 2012-2013 Leadership Consultants for Alpha Delta Pi. (I'm in the yellow dress.)

As an incoming LC this year, I went through the other program offered at Leadership Seminar: the Adelphean Compass. We also squeezed in some extra training sessions before the seminar, which you can read about in my second post for the Leadership Seminar blog. After the conference ended on Sunday, we had another day and a half of training to learn about expansion, or the process through which a sorority seeks to establish a new chapter at a university. Although I was pretty absent from my social media during the week, I did try to keep up on my Instagram:

Travel Tuesday: Week 15

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! This week's topic: Share an old trip. This can be anything: A domestic or international trip. A long or short trip. A trip you took last year or a trip you took when you were 9. You can share pictures, tell us a story or two, or do both. As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

<a href="http://megancstroup.blogspot.com/search/label/Travel%20Tuesdays"><img src="http://i1073.photobucket.com/albums/w399/mcszr3/TravelTuesday3.jpg" alt="BWS tips button" width="500" height="338" /></a>

I'll admit it: I created this prompt to force myself to blog about something I've been putting off for months: The Outside staff retreat to Colorado in March. Believe it or not, this was my first trip to Colorado! (Not counting layovers in Denver and drives through the state on road trips, which I don't count.) Apparently, ski weekends are a yearly perk for Outside staffers sponsored by Vail Resorts. No complaints here! I have a special focus for this post, however: The food. Oh my goodness sweet heaven in my mouth. But seriously. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the food, but I can (and will!) tell you all about it.

If I were fashionable, this is what I would wear.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope your weeks have been good so far. I'm sticking with my usual Wednesday link-ups for now, but please take my survey if you have a few minutes to give me some feedback on my blog. It's only ten questions and all questions are optional. Now, on to what I'm loving this week....

First, please indulge me for a minute while I tell a roundabout story: I've been wanting a yellow pencil skirt for a while now (remember this?), and I thought I struck gold when The Limited had a 50% off sale on its website last week. I had put a yellow pencil skirt in my cart a while ago but was putting off buying it. Of course, when I went to buy it at the reduced price, it was no longer available! Luckily, I had to pick someone up in Albuquerque on Thursday night, so I went down early to stop by the mall. There were only about three yellow skirts left, and only one was close to my size, but alas, not close enough. Then, a saleswoman found my size on a mannequin and I was able to buy the skirt! It was 40% off in the store and I didn't have to pay shipping, so it ended up being a better deal than if I had bought the skirt online! Score.

#8: Change someone's life ... for the better.

I feel a little silly—and slightly conceited—crossing this item off my bucket list, but I think I have sufficient evidence to say I have changed someone's life. I say this because he told me so himself.

Source: ohsobeautifulpaper.com via Brannon on Pinterest

For six of my seven semesters at Mizzou, I worked at the campus recreation center, first as an equipment attendant and later as a student supervisor. During my last year there I had at least one shift a week with a younger employee who ended up being promoted to take my supervisor position when I left. He was a great kid: hard-working, ambitious, smart, witty and always fun to work with, even before sunrise. (Yes, the rec center opened that early.) We didn't interact much outside of work, but I definitely considered him a friend. Even so, I was surprised after my graduation when a mutual friend of ours gave me a card from him. Inside was a Starbucks gift card (those early mornings had made it quite apparent how dependent I was on caffeine) and a Winnie the Pooh card containing some of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me, including:

"Although this is a congratulatory card, I would like for it to also be a thank you card. So, thank you Megan! What for? Well, as it turns out, you've been like a big sister for me over the past year. I never thought that someone who I only saw once a week at 5:15 in the morning would ever influence me as much as you have. You ... have influenced me more than anyone else I've yet to meet in college!"

As I sat in my mom's rental car on the way to my graduation dinner reading his card, I started crying. Seriously, it was that bad good. I was sad to be leaving Mizzou, obviously, but it was nice to know I had made a positive impact on at least one other person during my college years. I don't know if the person I'm writing about reads my blog (or even knows it exists), but if he does: Thank you. You definitely added substance to my college experience, I'm so proud of everything you've done for the Mizzou community, and I know you'll continue to achieve much more! Thank you for making me feel like I made a difference. (Oh, and of course: I hope MizzouRec is treating you well!)

Source: twopeasinabucket.com via Teresa on Pinterest

51. See my name on the masthead of a national magazine.

Alright y'all, it's been hard to hold this in for the past two weeks, but I wanted to wait until the April issue was on newsstands before I shared this. (On my blog, that is. Of course it was up on Twitter the day I got my office copy.)

That's me! Four lines down from the OUTSIDE ONLINE heading. I might be just a lowly intern, but I got my name on the masthead, so I've crossed off #51 on my to-do list. Yippee! Also, it happened to be the travel issue, so I'm telling myself that's a good omen for my future career path. Right?

Big news!

It's time for another edition of The Vintage Apple's "Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday!" From now on, I'm also going to combine my Wednesday post with another link-up, "What I'm Loving Wednesday" from This Kind of Love, because I usually only pin stuff I love anyway, right? :) So here goes!

First, there is something specific that I am loving this week. Last Thursday, I found out I had been chosen as a 2012-2013 Leadership Consultant for Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and on Monday I got to tell everyone! A Leadership Consultant (or "LC," as we more often call them) is a first-year alumna of Alpha Delta Pi who travels around the country helping collegiate chapters and colonies with officer trainings, programming, recruitment, rituals and the like. I'm super excited about this job because it combines two of my favorite things—leadership development and travel—with, of course, ample opportunities for social media! I hope you'll follow along with my travels on this blog when I start the job this summer!

A weekend in Angel Fire.

Last weekend (Feb. 11 & 12), I went skiing with a group of the other interns and some of their friends from Santa Fe at Angel Fire Resort. It was my first time skiing in two years (Northern California didn't any good snow this winter), and I had a blast! It was also a really good time to get to know the other interns beyond just passing each other in the office.

1 & 2: First views of the slopes from the lodge.

3 & 4: Gorgeous views from the slopes.

5 & 6: I skied until the lifts closed!

7 & 8: The resort at the base of the slopes, where we stayed for free in the press rooms! Score!

Winter Office Style Contest: Lovely Undergrad

Jessica over at Lovely Undergrad is hosting a contest to see who can design the best winter internship interview outfit, so I decided to take my chances!

Productive Thursday.

I had three very important accomplishments today. (Only one was actually important - #1 - but that's beside the point.)

1. My intern coordinator finished training me on the content management system Outside Online uses at work today. This means I can start building content as soon as I get my own login information! :)

2. I finally got a library card at the Santa Fe Public Library. Between that and my Kindle, I should surpass my Goodreads goal of reading 25 books in 2012 in no time at all.

 Photo courtesy of my Samsung Captivate.

3. Gasp! I read everything in my Google Reader! Even with the 18 new feeds I've added to find story ideas since starting my internship. This is crazy. (Remember when I had 411 unread items at one time?)

Maybe tomorrow I'll be even more productive and finally give you another photo update on my apartment! But for now, the Criminal Minds episode I'm watching is tracking a killer less than 30 minutes from my childhood home, so I'm very intrigued. See you later!

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

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

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!

Would You Rather?

This morning at work, my coworkers and I began a fun game of "Would You Rather?" It started with a question a friend (quite randomly) asked me at a tailgate this weekend:

"Would you rather only eat cheese for the rest of your life, or only eat hot dogs?"

(Obviously, I chose cheese.)

This continued with more silly questions (i.e. "Would you rather murder your significant other or win $20,000?" Yeah, think about that one for a minute), until one girl finally asked a question I really had to think about:

"Would you rather date someone horribly vain or wildly insecure?"

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

I know my answer, but I want to hear yours, first. Please comment with your answer (and reasoning, of course).

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....