Famous Last Words - Week 13

I could tell you all about how well I've felt this class is going for me, and I'm sure you'd all love to hear it. Instead, I have an exciting announcement to make...

I received my call from the Northeastern State Oklahoma College of Optometry and got accepted this week! I cannot express my feelings appropriately right now. All the hard work of the past 3+ years has culminated into this beautiful moment. I will be studying in Tahlequah, OK next Fall. It's actually going to be pretty tough to stay focused since all I have to do to make it in now is just complete my degree by May 2015 -- which I'm on track to do, thankfully.

The interview was fine, and I've always thought of myself as a solid interviewer, but I had my doubts. Most of this apprehension stems from some of the job interviews I've had in the past that seemingly went well, but to only end up with no call-back from the prospective employer.  I determined this Summer what I think was the source of this disinterest in my application by employers. I had used a past employer as a reference on nearly every single application I had filled out, but they evidently had written me down as a "No Call, No Show" on my last day of work there. When I confronted some of the supervisors about this, they even remembered me and thought that I fully worked my last two weeks there. The issue was that it had been so long since I worked there (over four years) that they could not change the database and thus when prospective employers called, they likely told them that I was listed as "No rehire". Needless to say, I don't include them on my reference list unless I specifically have to.

Famous Last Words - Week 2

 Source: Deviantart

I chose to make a story out of the Ramayana tale of the Ganges and while I thought that my writing for this week's storytelling was written much better, but it didn't feel like something I would write. It needed more of a touch of my writing, yet I can't figure out what to add. I think the most common story I found from browsing my peers' blogs was some sort of incorporation of the golden deer. I would like to know if this theme was caused by a prompt or if everyone found the story of the deer to be inherently interesting. The most interesting story I read was a scary mystery version of the golden deer tale. I would like to incorporate some mystery and/or horror into a story of my own.

I felt like this past week was a complete and utter blur. It certainly did not help make things better that we were short staffed for each of my shifts at Couch.

This weekend was my first football game as a student and not a member of the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band. I thought my band friends did outstanding, and the football was great, too. I'm not so certain that I like sitting among the student section. I don't miss rehearsals, but it just feels wrong to not be behind the band. I hope I can get to the stadium early enough to do that against Tennessee.

Outside of school:
I absolutely need to buckle down about getting my admissions exam out of the way for optometry school. I put way too much on my plate over the summer with the classes and work I was doing. Because of that awfulness, I never got around to taking the test and now I have to figure out a way to take it before Christmas hopefully. Wish me luck.

Week 1: "I have not yet begun to storytell!" - Famous Last Words

 Source: Flickr

I thought the only real writing that I did this week was my clumsy foray into rhyme re-telling. After reading the re-telling of others in the class, I felt like mine was relatively weak. My main problem was lack of a real plot, and I think I understand now how to better reinforce my stories in the future.

I did enjoy how much detail others managed to fit into their stories. I can only hope to be able to include that in my future works.

The first week of class is such a tease for me. All of my classes attempt to scare me with their exam dates, lab reports coming up, and projects that will eventually be due. The first week is like this not just for the sake of the students getting acclimated to the semester, but also for the benefit of the instructor -- at least that's my take.

I told my manager at Couch Restaurants this week that if I wasn't promoted to student supervisor soon, I would be requesting a transfer to another department. This is sort of a huge deal for me. I think I'm an excellent worker, and the past few semesters have left me doing a ton of supervisory duties while reaping none of the rewards. However, I'm not the most persistent guy when it comes to asking for promotions, money etc. It turns out that my ultimatum actually worked, and I feel like I finally stood up for myself.

I hope to carry over this newly discovered self-confidence and swagger into this upcoming semester, so wish me luck!