Alison’s Weblog

I do hope that some of those reading this blog remember that grand Nickelodeon show. What what what would you do?!? So great! But, this phrase so brilliantly corresponds with some of my thoughts lately. Though it is obvious that I desire to do public relations in sports for anyone I know and clearly I want to do something with pr or communication or I would not be typing my thoughts and opinions about such topics essentially for anyone to see online, I realized lately that this determination is quite different from many people, especially those outside the US.

In two of my classes, one briefly and the other quite in depth, we discussed how Italian education emphasizes learning information but not necessarily learning to test or learning to use. American culture for education on the other focuses on obtaining an education in something tangible, like engineering or pre-med. But for those with communication or philosophy or history or sociology, etc, our degrees are almost looked down upon. And though I constantly defend the legitimacy of my educational path and the necessity for acquiring knowledge about people and communicating with others, I realize that I am a complete and utter product of American culture. Europeans in general (yes, a little bit of stereotyping but I learned that it is not a bad thing as long as it is not judgmental, simply observant) are accepted even if they have no specific career, constantly change educational paths, take time off, don’t get married or have kids, (either at the “right time” or at all), and simply do what you want. I, though, as an American, find myself, upon introductions to peers, asking what they are majoring in and immediately asking what they intend on doing upon graduation and how their major and degree is pertinent (in not so many words of course).  Why must we constantly be engrossed with occupational directionality? Can we not just wish for people to find their own path and guide their life however they so choose, even if the decision is quick and sudden and spontaneous? I envy people here for their casualness when it comes to that. Life for them is worth living all the time. They simply enjoy and promenade about life for quality, not quality of activities to talk about. Just an intriguing difference between a variety of cultures, and trying to embrace the pros and cons of each…either way, we must embrace our own lifestyle choices and respect all others, whatever they are. Each person has their own life to choose their path for, so we needn’t be unnecessary obstacles along their road.

I must begin with an apology. I have severely neglected my duties as a blogger to posting to this blog, seeing as I created another one for my fun adventures while studying and working in Florence, Italy. If for some reason you desire to read this monologue of mine about such adventures, go to agitaly.wordpress.com. But coming back to this blog, I knew that there was something I needed to write about, I just could not pinpoint it. Then I realized, as I was surfing the web looking for jobs, exactly what it is. It is this idea of searching constantly. This monotonous, continuous game of hide and seek with jobs and internships is an unending struggle and pleasurable challenge of mine (a trait that directly correlates with my Dad’s personality as well). Case and point: I have already obtained an internship for the summer – hooray!! – one that cannot be altered because of the contract I signed. Yet, even with this amazing job opportunity to become a Director of Public Relations at age 20, I search pr websites and emails vigorously, as though I could really find something better. It is like an addiction. I am addicted to finding jobs, learning what is out there in the world. I don’t know exactly if this is for the satisfaction of knowing I have an amazing internship lined up, or to know that the occupation I want to go into really does have available jobs, or just the thrill of learning about other jobs in the public relations field. No matter what the reason is for me doing this, though, I will spend hours upon hours simply reading other blog entries about jobs, following a link of Twitter to new internships, and reading and re-reading emails from LinkedIn specifying job openings. I simply write this with the hope that I am not alone in this crazy addiction. Do others also feel compelled to ridiculously check and re-check about jobs and internships, no matter if they need it or not? I suppose it is just like the theme song for Lamb Chops (yes, I did just reference a ’90s children show…and yes, some younger people – not to say I am old, but I am still older – would not necessarily recognize it), the search goes “on and on my friends…”