Day 6 - Yellowstone

After a long day of driving and sightseeing in South Dakota, we arrived in Billings, MT to meet our 3rd couch surfing host, Jeremy. He was not the usual host for this couch, he just so happened to be house sitting for the woman that offered the couch to us. Jeremy worked in her vet office and was house sitting for her while she was away couch surfing through Europe. Jeremy was 18 years old and was graduating from high school the next day and then joining the Air Force. We had a very pleasant but basic stay there but we met Cap'n the 3rd legged cat. Sweet cat, purred the entire time we were there. We left the next morning after some breakfast at Cracker Barrel and were off to drive through the rest of Montana (keep in mind we were at exit 450, so we had a long way to go).

All along we had made plans to make a pit stop to see Yellowstone National Park. Little did we know, the type of time commitment Yellowstone would take. Now, I knew Yellowstone was big, but didn't realize just how big it really was. It was pretty much the most breathtaking landscape I had ever seen. While the entire park had not opened just yet, we still were able to see the hot springs, some geysers, canyons, waterfalls, and even bison. This should definitely be on your bucket list of things to see in America. For the little amount of time we spent there in comparison to others, we did manage to see quite a bit of the park. I can see how people can easily spend a week there, there's so much to see, and so many beautiful trails to hike.

After leaving Yellowstone, we finished our drive through Montana and Idaho leaving us in Spokane, WA for the night. Our host, Kimberly, in Spokane had a little kitty (name TBD). Kim was a student at Spokane Community College studying Biology with an emphasis in Botany. She had spent a lot of time travelling and couch surfing through Indonesia and Australia. Kim was our final Couch Surfing host of the trip, and we can say that we have had nothing but positive experiences with Couch Surfing and we are still alive and we have met great and interesting people that we would have never met otherwise.

Day 6 marked our final day to Seattle. Read Rae's blog for her reactions on arriving to the final destination of the road trip.

Road Trip Day 3 - Chicago

After the fact, I know. The thing about not staying in Holiday Inn Express like we usually do on road trips, time and wi-fi is hard to come by to blog.

Day 3 was spent exploring the city of Chicago. Coincidentally, we knew a lot of people who either lived in the area or happened to be able to conveniently pass through the area, so we got to meet up with a lot of people throughout the course of the day. We began the day at Intellegentsia Coffee downtown near Millennium Park. There, I had the best pour over coffee of my life, I know this because I was able to drink it black.

We first met up with Carli, someone we went to JWU with that is originally from the Chicago area and was home for the summer. Carli walked around the city with us where we took the cliche photo in front of the bean in Millennium Park and walked along the Magnificent Mile with us before meeting some others for lunch at Lou Malnati's for some deep dish pizza. At Lou's we met up with our host, Jenn (Rae's brother's friend from college) and Darien (my childhood friend from OK) who's boyfriend's aunt lives in Chicago and they find any opportunity to drive up from Memphis.

Stuffed from our deep dish pizzas and Pinkberry, we headed over to the Navy Pier. Since we decided to skip the $20 for the Sears Tower, we thought the $7 Ferris Wheel ride was a bargain. Still stuffed, we decided to walk back towards the Millennium Park area and I got to meet up with Carl (my friend I met in NYC at Most Promising Minority Student that will be interning at Leo Burnett in Chicago for the summer). After tea with Carl, we had some time to kill before dinner, so of course we did some shopping.

For dinner, we met up with Matt & Joe (Darien's boyfriend and his best friend from WI that came down for the day) and Madison and her boyfriend (Madison, another childhood friend who's family moved up to WI and she goes to college there) at the Grand Luxe Cafe.

Long story short - my day in Chicago made me realize a couple of things.
1. It's a very grown up thing to do to just casually meet up with old friends when you're in that area.
2. How cool is it to have friends in all different parts of the country?!
3. Mi amigos es su amigos. Between Rae and I, we have built up quite the network. I feel like I know her friends as well as she knows mine. And I'm glad we've both been able to meet each others friends and become friends.
4. And lastly, friendships can last past high school (and college) if those friendships are important to you.

We left early the next day for Sioux Falls, SD. Check out Rae's blog for our adventures in South Dakota.

Road Trip Day 1 & 2

I'm baaack! Rae and I are back on our 3rd road trip together. This time we are going from the east coast to west coast. Rae will be interning in Seattle, so we are taking a week to travel from RI - WA and couch surfing along the way.

Yesterday we left Providence right on schedule at 8am and drove down to Philadelphia, because we had never been. After surviving CT and NYC traffic, we made it to Philly at around 3PM. Anticipating thunderstorms, according to the weather forecast on our iPhones, but instead we got to the city and it was sunny and in the high 80s! It seemed like everyone was in on this joke leaving us being unprepared for such warm weather.

Our first stop was to get cheese steaks of course. Rae got hers at Geno's, I got mine at Pat's and we tested to see which one had the better cheese steak. Pat's won.

After lunch, we headed over to Center City to check out the historic sites. We saw the Liberty Bell and walked through the beautiful green spaces spread throughout the area. Soon after we drove over to the art museum to see the famous steps and hung out for the steps for awhile enjoying the nice weather. Still with plenty of time to kill, we headed over to University City to see the college area of town. We may be college graduates, but we still feel like college students most of the time. Overall, I really enjoyed the city of brotherly love.

After our day in the city, we ventured onto our next adventure, which was staying with our first couch surfing host: Caleb and his twin brother Joel outside of the city in Norristown. I feel like we may be a bit spoiled for our remainder couch surf locations because Caleb and Joel were great! The two are twins out of 13 children in their family back in Michigan. They live a very sustainable/minimalist lifestyle by growing and making all of their food from scratch. They are great Christian men. They don't have cell phones, internet, or a television in their home. And they have the friendliest German Shepard that I have ever met named Cinnamon. We got a home-cooked meal for dinner and they sent us off with a hot breakfast as well as sandwiches for the road. There are such nice people out there in the world, how would we have ever met them without the internet?

Our entire day Thursday was spent in the car driving from Norristown to Chicago (15 hours). Nothing too exciting about NW PA, Ohio, and Indiana. Exhausted. This is a joint blog effort between Rae and I (so you don't have to read both of our same stories. Check out her blog too! Keep reading for more of our road trip adventures. 

Joy

Most Promising Minority Students Class of 2012

It has been quite the whirlwind of a month so far and it's only February 6th. These past few days I have been in New York City with 49 other Most Promising Minority Students in advertising w/ the American Advertising Federation. It was an incredible 3 day event, I got to meet anyone and everyone I could possibly work for in advertising, as well as future colleagues. 3 days filled with lots of hand-shaking and talking up my skills and visiting  3 awesome agencies: Digitas, Deutsch, and DraftFCB. It opened a lot of doors for me to get my foot into the big leagues in the industry and even led to an official job offer. I now know that moving home jobless is definitely not going to be an option, now I just have to choose what I want to do and where I want to move.

Lessons learned from MPMS:

1. In advertising, the day you stop learning new things, you're done.
2. The connections you make with fellow MPMS'ers are just as important as the ones you make with the recruiters. It's all about networking.
3. Focus on what you want to do in an agency and strive towards it.
4. Advertising is way too time-consuming if you're not passionate about your work.
5. Handwritten card or email doesn't matter, as long as you follow up and maintain that relationship.
6. Recruiters hire people, not paper. Show your own personality in everything you do.
7. Keep a relationship with the recruiters by coming up with conversation topics including keeping up with recent agency news: new business, losing business, awards, etc. 
8. Always ask for feedback, whether you get the job or not. Especially not. 
9. Planners must have a naturally curious.
10. Be prepared with good questions, always.

I got back from MPMS on Saturday, hopped off the train in Providence, put on a dress, and went to Snoball. The next day I hopped on a plane to DC. Now I'm here for my 3rd CPAC a few days early to help the ACU staff prep for the conference starting Thursday. I'm shadowing the Communications Director again this year, should be an awesome CPAC since it's an election year. Now I am standing at a crossroads in life. Madison Avenue or the Hill? We'll see.

Dress

Dress (see more one shoulder dresses)

Home

My oh my, where has this week gone? I've got to start packing up and heading back to real life on Sunday. The end of breaks always give me a weird feeling. It's hard to be happy to leave home but also excited to go back to real life. Coming home is like slipping back into the past. I get all the perks of being a kid without the responsibilities I once had while living here. I get to enjoy sleeping in, eating my mom's cooking, watching re-runs of old teen dramas I used to follow, and hang out with all of my old friends. It's like living the dream until reality sets in and realize that I didn't actually step back in time or stop time for that matter. The world is still going on, I'm in the middle of a trimester, I have ongoing responsibilities in RI, and my friends have lives here as well.

The feelings are extra weird this time around because I don't know when I will be back home. It could be after graduation, or it could be a year from now. It's funny how I've spent my entire life wanting to be an adult and thinking I'm an adult, but the sooner that becomes reality, I all of a sudden get the Peter Pan syndrome I never had.

Nevertheless, the show must go on.

2011 Highlights

Facebook timeline has made it really easy for me to look back at this past year and reflect. 2011 was an incredible year. Sometimes I get so focused on the present that I forget to appreciate the past.

Highlights from 2011 (in no particular order):

• Really formed those "life-long friendships you make in college"
• JWU Ad Team #3 in the country
• Re-branding UIB 
• Traveled to LA with the Special Events Society
• Spent a week in Stockholm, Sweden and worked with the incredible talent at Berghs School of Communication
• WaterFire Providence

2012

My new years resolution is to start blogging again. I miss it, but I find it more and more intimidating to report on my life, especially when times are actually eventful. For the past week I have been home in Oklahoma for the holidays and it occurred to me that is my very last Christmas break forever. Sure, I'll have a few days off but I won't have a full 2 weeks off and have very minimal responsibility. I have been taking advantage, spending my days watching old television shows on DVD and Netflix as well as spending time with old friends. 

2012 is a very exciting year of my life. Exciting because for the first time I am entering a year without any certainty of where I will be standing this time next year or 6 months from now. Of course, we never know what life will throw at us from day to day but usually you have at least an idea of how things will be. 2012 will be the year that I graduate college, start a career, and start a new life. And the rest is still up in the air. I feel pressure from society and more so the adults in my life when they ask me "So do you have anything lined up after graduation?" No I don't have anything lined up yet. And should I be panicking just yet? It's January. There are some days when I get that question to where I am just trying to take care of what I need to take care of for that day. Sure, it would be comforting to have job security 6 months ahead of time, but what's the fun in that? I like the excitement of not knowing where I will be packing up and moving at the beginning of June. It may be across the country or it could be across town, who knows. Stay tuned.

 

Dormcubator Week 1 (June 28,30)

This summer I was asked to participate in a 6 week pilot program run through the RI chapter of the Association of Independent Colleges and University (AICU) called the bRIdge and/or Dormcubator.  The program participants consist of students from colleges all over Rhode Island including Bryant, Roger Williams, Brown, RISD, and RIC. When I first heard about the program, I was told I would be helping develop a smartphone app to help college students navigate the city and to find events going on and networking with people in the community. The perks were that we were all to stay in the Snowden Hall for 6 weeks and given a meal plan. My thoughts were that I would have somewhere with A/C to sleep, meals, and an opportunity to meet some new people. The program was thrown together last minute and you could tell that no one knew what was to come of this. We are nearing the end of the 6 weeks and me being the flaky blogger I am, I thought I would back track and blog about my experiences.

The first meeting awkward as usual, especially since nobody knew exactly what they had gotten themselves into. We realized who all of involved in this and we met our group leader you could say, Andy Cutler. I am not really sure how he got involved but he seems to be quite involved in the community in many capacities. The soon found out that the program was an initiative to reverse "brain drain" in Rhode Island, meaning to convince students to stay in RI post-graduation. The theory is that if students wander beyond the gates of their university and engage with the community and the businesses in the community, they are more likely to stay. After we went around the table and introduced ourselves, Andy asked us to go around again and tell him what we wanted to get out of this program. We all said the same thing, we all wanted to expand our networks. So through the next weeks of the program, Andy did his best to expose us to his wide network of people and organizations.

Turns out Andy is on the board of the RI Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE) which hosts many programs that have to do with helping local entrepreneurs and they have an incubator program called Betaspring which is a start-up accelerator for young entrepreneurs with a business they want to develop. They hold networking events weekly (I think) and that was our 2nd outing. We met the group Hope Street Media who we would be helping develop their smartphone app and many other start-up companies as well. I met someone from DealBird and Sexy Period just to name a few. Many of the students are from the Brown engineering program but also students from schools all over the country. I met a group of nice guys from Kentucky too. All of them have one thing in common, they have taken a problem and fixed it using technology the free market system. Good thing I had WaterFire to talk about, otherwise I would have had nothing to talk about with these people with start up companies.

While the networking event was awkward, it did restore my faith in traditional liberal arts education because while they do learn for the sake of learning, right now, they are the innovators. Through a career education, we learn what we need to learn to do a job, but not necessarily to create a new kind job titles, unfortunately. 

to be continued...

Jet-setting and Apartment Dwelling

Again, I have proven to be a flaky blogger. An entire month has passed and so many things have happened. Exactly one month ago, I was killing time in Westport with Professor Ure while we waited for our second chance to catch a plane over to Sweden after missing our first one due to a series of unfortunate events. Within the last month, I have traveled a combined 50,000 miles between Providence, Boston, Stockholm, San Diego, and Oklahoma. I can't even tell you the hours I spent on an airplane. But the stories I have to tell is worth every minute spent in airport security, waiting for transportation, and time spent crammed on an international flight. After my travels, I started my internship with WaterFire, started settling into my new East Side apartment and my friend Madison came to visit! I apologize for the long post...

Just to give you the highlights of each trip:

Stockholm, Sweden (May 22nd-May 30th)
When Professor Ure and I finally got to Sweden a day after the rest of the group, we jumped right in and got to work. Despite our big plans to get all of the work done in the 11 weeks of class before the trip, we of course put it all off until we left the country. It was our second year to partner with Bergh's School of Communication in Stockholm (one of the best communications schools in the world) and they were phenomenal. They were able to get us an awesome opportunity to create a marketing communications campaign for Electrolux, pitch it to them at their world headquarters and showcase our project at the Bergh's Annual Exhibition. The Bergh's Exhibition is a showcase of their students' final projects for other companies around Sweden and the opening night draws in a crowd of VIPs in the communications world around Sweden and Johnson & Wales played a part in it. After much dispute, our booth turned out wonderfully and we made it through our pitch to Electrolux. I have to say that I am truly disappointed in us for blowing that awesome opportunity. I do admit that I got caught up and completely spent on JCPenney and the Ad Team project, I just did not put in the effort the Electrolux campaign deserved.

Luckily, our schedule allowed for the ad team presenters to enjoy the city for the weekend after completing our project. I must say, Stockholm is a beautiful city with fantastic food, great people, great transportation, and beautiful scenery. I do hope to visit Sweden again.

One minute it was sunny

The next, it was raining

San Diego, California (June 2nd-June 4th)
After taking a short breather after getting back from Sweden at Professor Ure's house, Addy, Christie, Ure, and I were off to the airport once again to go the American Advertising Federation's (AAF) Conference called ADmerica and the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). This time we met up with the other key ad team members and Prof. Monahan (Tom). We flew transcontinental on JetBlue airlines...which I love, watching tv really makes the trip fly by. We checked into our hotel and decided to explore San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter before starting the conference the next day. In the midst of all of the excitement of making it to the nationals, we had to try really hard to not forget what we were there to do, to win.

Our first few run throughs were a bit rough and people were getting nervous for the presenters, but after some quiet time away from the rest of the group, we pulled it together. The day of our presentation, we slept in, ironed our outfits, ordered in room service, visualized success, and catch a little bit of the national spelling bee before heading downstairs to compete. It was just what we needed!

Mmm room service breakfast

Visualizing success

Ryan's motivational speech

3rd Place!

We delivered a flawless presentation and once again became a crowd favorite (Addy especially). Once we were done presenting, the rest was up to the judges. The next day, they announced the winners at the luncheon. After much anticipation, they announced 4th place as Butler University, then us as the 3rd place winners! Ithaca College won 2nd and Miami University got 1st place (well deserved). The professors and a few students flew out that night and the rest of us had Saturday to enjoy San Diego and fly out later that night. Saturday was very fun, we slept in, ate lunch, and rented a boat! Made great memories and bonded with our fellow ad team members more than ever.

We're on a boat!

Tahlequah, Oklahoma (June 6th-June 12th)
After one strange day spent in my apartment on the couch, I got on another plane and headed home for a visit. The point of the trip was to unwind from the craziness and spend some time with my family and friends because I wouldn't get another chance to go home for quite some time. And I went home to see my oldest friend, Ben, get married. My time at home was exactly what I wanted it to be. I got to see all of my friends at home, spend time with my mom, and got to relax. I didn't have anything to do but hang out all day for 6 days. It was fantastic. I got to reconnect with one of my best friends, Katelyn. We used to be neighbors when we were kids and we started drifting senior year of high school and then I left for college. Glad to have spent time with her reminiscing, we walked the neighborhood, went to the river, and she came over and watched tv with me then stayed for dinner just like old times. I also got to spend time with Janessa before she left for Falls Creek and got to see Emily and her son Declan. Unlike most of my trips home,

I barely saw my guy friends except for at the wedding. When I got to the wedding with my mom, I realized all of my friends there were in the wedding party...a bit awkward, but we made it through. It was a very nice wedding in front of the historical Murrell Home. Right before the ceremony began, heavy clouds and wind moved in and looked like it was going to storm. Luckily it never did rain, it was actually a blessing because it cooled the weather and made the outdoor wedding not so hot. After that, I boarded on my last plane for a while and headed back to my real life, not in Oklahoma.

Ben & Ceyeli Corbett
June 11, 2011

Providence, Rhode Island (June 12th-Present)
The rest of my time has been spent settling into my apartment. I spent a lot of my free time browsing Target, Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and IKEA looking for just the right things for my new home. It's such a womanly instinct to want to create a home. I loved every minute of shopping for things. Madison flew in for a few days to come visit and help me settle a bit. So glad she got to come. It's cool that we both don't live in Oklahoma anymore, but I can say with full confidence that we will be friends for a very long time. Also I have a summer roommate, Nicole Bomba. She's great! She's subletting for a few months and although we had never met before, we have mutual friends and get a long great.

I also started my internship at WaterFire. As the development intern, I get to see a completely different perspective of putting on an event. My department is all about finding the funding for each WaterFire and building good relationships with sponsors and donors. On my first day, I sat down with a list of phone numbers of restaurants and hotels in Providence and asked for them to offer deals to our best donors. This is going to be really good for me to learn to not be afraid to ask for something. That's always been my one fear, asking a question that I do not know the answer to, and getting an answer that I do not want to hear. Still no paying job...but it's gonna be a great summer!


That's all for now...until next time...

Year End Frenzy Pt. 2

And the time has come again...another year of college ending. And once again, I let reading days just slip by without barely cracking a book to study. I get a few free days and suddenly I can't help but schedule stuff to fill the free space. Busy as usual. Good news though, I got an internship with WaterFire the summer. I'm super excited about it. I'll be working with 2 JWU alums, and one of them being a former Ad team member too. But before any of that happens I still need to do so much and travel so much. Needless to say, I will be quite the traveler by the middle of June.

This past long weekend was filled with activities of course. I had the chance to network with administrators, share my student experience with University Admissions Marketing, retreat with the new executive board for UIB, go shopping at the outlets, work at Future Affairs Productions, and socialize with the UIB/sailing gang as well as the SES/PLC crew. Not very much packing got done...

I am so pumped for finals to be over so I can focus on what really needs to get done. I need to get my life straightened out before leaving for Sweden on Sunday. That's right, I'm leaving for Sweden this Sunday. That means I should have a job lined out, my apartment partially ready to live in, and prepare for an international trip with a national advertising competition to follow.

Lots to do, but I am surprisingly calm about all of it. Maybe too calm? Regardless, it always gets done in the end. Wish me luck on this week!

Year End Frenzy

Gosh, I can't believe that we are already well into the month of May. Funny  how time never moves at the speed you want it to, it either moves to fast or too slow. Something feels like it's either yesterday or forever ago. But one thing is true, I am about 2/3 finished with my college degree, it's crazy because I was technically a freshman last year. 3 years is short, but I'm sure 4 years fly by as well.

The academic year is wrapping up nicely. Stress level is pretty normal. I am taking things one day at a time and making most of every moment. A forte of mine is definitely my ability to focus one day at a time without losing sight of the future. People are always trying to find a balance, because you cannot always just live in the moment, but you cannot only focus on the future without ignoring the present. I have lots of exciting things about to happen in the next few weeks that my mind just cannot even process right now. Once I finish up all of my school work and pack up my apartment, I will be jet setting to Sweden for a week, then heading to San Diego, CA with the Ad Team to compete in nationals.

In the mean time, I am scurrying around trying to find something useful to do for the rest of the summer. I am determined to find some really awesome experiences this summer, especially one that pays. I have a place to live, I just need a job or internship. The worst part about the situation was that a few weeks ago, I was struggling to chose between more than one opportunity, and now I am left with none. Hopefully it is all a crazy coincidence that will lead me to an awesome opportunity. The last minute notice may either work in my favor or not. Smaller start ups may be just realizing now that it may be nice to have an intern. I sent my resume to about 12 different opportunities in Boston I found on Craigslist (which is always a toss up). I also sent my resume to Waterfire Providence for their marketing and development internship, it's unpaid, but I don't have to receive class credit and it looks like a great internship. I will be meeting with them this Thursday to discuss further. Now if only the others would get back to me. A handful of the positions I applied for were social media positions. I like to think I am pretty well versed with social media, but there is so much more I want to learn! It is an awesome tool, and still quite mysterious. Businesses may not fully understand what it is and what it can do but they know they have to have it.

Just a few things bouncing around my head, until next time....

Happy Mother's Day

My mother and I have had an interesting relationship throughout my life. I think most first generation Chinese girls have a hard time with their mothers and their parenting style in comparison to their American friends. The different parenting style compounded with her working and a lot and me either taking care of myself or hanging out with other people's families made it even more of a difficult relationship. 

She had to sacrifice time with me to support me. Today in church, we watched this cute video narrated by little kids answering questions about their mom. It ended with the question "What is your favorite thing about your mom?" All of the little kids say things like how she plays with me, kisses my boo-boos, cuddles with me, etc. The video hit a heart-string with the whole congregation including me. Even though I don't remember my mom doing all those things with me, I still know she loves me and I am special to her. She just shows it differently. She was a single mom for most of my life and was able to give me everything I ever wanted. While she didn't understand why I did all of the extra things  besides school, she paid for them and let me do whatever I wanted with my life. She let me move all the way to Rhode Island to go to my dream school. 

So these are my favorite things about my mom, she is...

• Strong
• Generous
• Hard working
• Smart
• Unconventional
• Practical
• Her "Can do" attitude
• Obsessed with her little dogs
• Shows love by giving

As I have gotten older and moved far away from home, I have been able to appreciate her more and more every day. She never told me the things I wanted to hear. She never let me feel satisfied, there is always room for improvement. You can always study more, work harder, and achieve more. My mom is the strongest person I know. I joke about her a lot, but I really admire her. While she is a very small and intimidating woman, she has the biggest heart and is so giving. And the more and more I learn about leadership, the more I realize how great of a leader she is. She owns the restaurant and does the majority of the cooking in the kitchen. She spends well over 40 hours a week in that restaurant and manages to keep up her home and garden and still finds time and enjoyment to cook and entertain guests on the weekends and major holidays. Not to mention, she barely needs any sleep and is an expert power napper. She never gets sick and is in peak health condition. 

Also, the older I have gotten, I realize that I have many Shirley tendencies. I can't name them off the top of my head, but they are there. And I am okay with it. She never ceases to amaze me. I owe her so much. 

Happy Mothers Day, Mom.

Love,