Life Before Noon: A Millennial’s Manual

Welcome to the second half of the year.

Yup, folks, it is July, 2008– which means the year is half way over. What have you done?

Honestly.

At work you may be starting your mid-year evaluation. Re-evaluating objectives, duties, tactics. While this is important for professional development and planning, why not create a mid-year evaluation for your personal self? Perhaps by evaluating your personal self and striving to meet personalized goals- in the same way you try to meet your professional goals-may make you more productive.

When I let myself “float along,” simply living each day without a bigger goal or purpose, I feel undirected. Of course I always strive to “try my hardest”- but when this is not defined I let myself slide. For me, this means defining my passions-even planning my social and family time or writing down specific personal objectives.

The good thing is our purposes are dynamic. They change with time, relationships and responsibilities.

I’m not sure what my purpose(s) is, but by defining what I want to include and exclude in my life, I have narrowed my ideas on how I spend my time so I can become the person I want to be.

Here are some general ideas about what I want and like to do, and how I made them more purposeful:

-Exercising. Entered in a race in July.

-Spending more time with my family. Going home more often to spend time with family, calling home once a day.

-Caring for the surroundings-people, planet. Volunteering, mindful of recycling/greener options.

-Keeping up with friends. Call, send formal email (instead of casual facebook messages).

What is your purpose(s)? Think about it. Then define it. Then do it.

-Carla

I have recently been debating the advantages of applying to small companies versus big companies. Being the typical Millennial, I’ve always imagined myself at some wonderfully prominent, ever-expanding company that everyone would “oooh” and “ahhh” over when I announced I’d found a job there. I’d have a great big salary, tons of advancement opportunities and the right to be pretentious. Oh, the joys of working for a big company! I quickly discovered, however, that things aren’t usually what they seem.

Throughout my job hunt, I found the bigger companies are the worst at several things: being upfront with you, getting back to you quickly (or at all) and acting as if you’re actually important to them. After interviewing for almost two months and not actually receiving any offers, I naturally have been getting frustrated. How dare these people not get back to me even though I interviewed over two weeks ago! Don’t they know who I am? No, actually, they don’t. And they don’t necessarily care to find out. After all, if I give up and start looking somewhere else, they have a list of fifty others willing to take my place. With the economy in a downward spiral, the corporations definitely have the power.

After this frustration, I decided to apply to a smaller company of about thirty people. I got an interview a few days later, with the president of the company, and a job offer within a week. A whole new world opened before my eyes. There are places where people actually like potential employees and tell them they can make a significant impact on the company? Places where people will actually fight to have you join the staff? Is this possible?

It is, and I’m glad to say I’ve found such a place.

- Haley

I recently read the post, ˝Do You Have Regrets? What Should You Tell Your College Self?˝ by Tiffany Monhollon from Personal PR. I really enjoyed Tiffany’s ideas on what she would tell her college self. Many of her ideas are what I too would tell myself.

In particular what struck me was the section on ‘Broaden your horizons’ because it is a situation that I am in right now. No matter what happens abroad, I know that I can go back to Virginia and live with my parents and try something else if the international experience ends up not being up my alley. It’s the opportunity to try something different without too many repercussions is what makes the position that much more appealing.

Tiffany ends the post by asking what would we tell our college selves now. I would tell myself to take more chances. It’s not that I really regret anything that I’ve done or haven’t done, but if I could go back I would do so much more, whether it ended up being good or bad to just at least try it. The things that matter to me the most are what Tiffany writes about with relationships. The people I met throughout college are what I will remember the most, not the statistics test or environmental science lab. The good, bad and ugly relationships that developed during college are something that I will always keep with me.

Even though it would be fabulous to go back, it’s also good to take note and make the future that much better, knowing what we know now. I can’t go back to being 19 and terrified of what lies ahead, but I can realize what has and hasn’t worked and make my new chapter that much more memorable- and have this really be the best time of my life.

-Aida