Well, I’m entering into the last month of college. With that, a lot has been going in and out of my mind lately. I’m full of so many feelings from excitement, to nervousness, to anticipation, that I’m almost going nuts. As far as just graduating though on June 19th next month, in at least that aspect I couldn’t be happier. I’ve recorded at least most of the experience here in this journal off and on and it’s quite unbelievable to me that it’s nearing an end so quickly. I’m going to miss hanging out with and studying with people like Matt, Mayling, Mike, Jay, and even people like Paul. Most of these people, I’ve never even really hung out with much outside of classes except for a few special occasions, but after being in classes with them for so long, it’s going to be weird to not see them every week. Switching to Business from the CIS program I always remember being nervous about how I would make new friends since I thought the ones there were going to last such a long time. But things end up going full circle. In senior project I ended back in a group with Melissa (one of my first friends I made in DeVry during my freshman year), get to see Steven Mayes again who I used to have classes with in the old program, who I also used to go to Sunday school with growing up, and a few other familiar faces here and there. It’s just so incredible that it’s about over. I remember stressing about Senior Project since I was a freshman, and even that didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. It’s a lot of work, but I’ve got a decent team I’m co-leading and we’re getting the best grades in the class so far. So once we present that on June 7th a month from today, I’m pretty much done.
Besides just school a few other major things are changing in my life this month and next. First off, I’m flying back to Los Angeles on the 17th as Mortal Kombat Online and the rest of my crew will do some heavy reporting on MK: Shaolin Monks at E3, as well as catching up on the new next-gen systems including PS3 and Xbox 360. I’m hoping to be as lucky as last time and run into some more celebrities. Overall the convention is going to be a blast. I can’t wait to hang out with the gang again. We have a lot of fun on these trips and the last E3 Expo was one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life. Not just because of the games, but being right smack in the middle of the video game industry and meeting all of the great people at not only Midway Games, but other companies as well. I’m going to try to stir up some conversation on the job front while I’m there too. E3 really couldn’t come at a worse time, as I’ll be missing practice presentations for senior project, but these kind of trips are why I still do the work I do at MK Online. It’s going to be sad to have to someday leave that place.
The week of E3 is also going to be a kind of depressing week for me. Nic and Bobby will be moving to Boston for the summer just a few days earlier and won’t be back till sometime in July. With me graduating soon after I’m really worried what I’m going to do while these guys are gone. In some ways it might be good though. It will give me more opportunities to hang out with all my friends at the coffee shop, the new ones I’ve made at Newlife’s bible study, and wherever else. But the main issue is, I’m just not used to time off. At DeVry the most I’ve been used to since I’ve graduated from high school is three weeks. There’s going to be no more school, no more homework, no more projects. I think part of the anxiety leads from the fact that once I graduate I’m stepping outside of my closest friends’ loop. I’m the first one I know of at least in the class of 2002 at BC to be graduating so soon.
That brings up the job issue. My pathetic four year run at Wendy’s is finally about to take a stop! But it still requires me finding a nice full time job with my bachelors degree. The only job I’ve applied for so far has been Midway, to which the job ended up being filled apparently according to two different sources. However, I have found a few more leads. There’s a few openings at Alliance Data Systems in Gahanna that I’m somewhat interested in. I talked to them while at the Career Fair last month. Plus, I just realized Nic’s brother Chris works for that company. He also graduated from DeVry, has been with Alliance for two years and is making something like $56K! Nic got his number for me and I’ll be giving him a call after the weekend is over. He told Nic he would be able to let me list him as a reference and quite possibly help me get an interview. Besides Alliance, I’m going to start applying online to a bunch of other random jobs I find and see what comes up. Every Wednesday me and about three other people including Mayling and Matt go to Jobs class. It’s not a class you get credit for. It’s just us and the career adviser David talking about the job market and looking at what’s out there and he helps us prepare. He’s a really great, funny guy, and has really been a positive force on me. Next week he says he might bring in a speaker from BISYS. Apparently they are looking for some DeVry June grads. He says they really need people in fund accounting, not my major, but wants me and Matt and Mayling to come as they’ll probably be interested in us for maybe other business related fields. I actually met this girl Jenny last month who just scored a job with them and she seems pretty happy. But right now my biggest lead is probably Alliance Data Systems.
So I’m really hoping to get a job as soon as possible. I don’t want to work at Wendy’s over the summer and I’m more than ready to quit as you can probably imagine. To be honest, my best shot at a job is probably in Chicago if something opens up again at Midway, but I’m keeping that in God’s hands right now. The idea of moving away from all of my friends isn’t sounding too great right now, but I can’t overlook any opportunities there either. That all said, I can just say that these next couple of months are going to be very unpredictable. I can’t wait to see how life turns out; hopefully my path can be as straight as possible.
In other non-related news, saw Emily Huth’s band play again at Harvest Moon last night. I finally actually got to listen to her this time, I was a bit distracted during their first concert. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. After they played I went to a late showing of Kingdom of Heaven up at Easton with Bobby and Amy Snider. Pretty good time, but had me pretty tired this morning at work. Well, dinner is hopefully soon and I still gotta get out and get my mom a card for Mother’s Day so I’ll catch you all some other time.