I started a story assuming that the majority of the audience knew where I was coming from, leaving me free to dispatch with the introduction and launch right into the action (or subsequent inaction that has largely been my Jefferson City experience).
Some of you have kept up with me, but for those of you have missed a bit (be it weeks or years), here's where I think I'm at.
Okay, I'm currently 23 having concluded my undergraduate classes at the University of Missouri - Columbia. Despite my poor sleeping and eating habits, and a propensity to start major projects within 12 hours of them being due (Mom, Dad, and concerned readers who may or may not be taking heart medicine: Don't ask how much time I spent on my final thesis for my English senior capstone class. The amount will only cause you needless trouble and I seemed to have earned an A in the class regardless of the hours I did or did not spend composing it), I graduated with two degrees: A bachelor's degree in English and journalism. I seem to have pulled out some honors in the process as well.
I applied and was turned down for fall entry into the journalism school's master program. I took classes over the summer (in addition to some volunteer shifts) at the Columbia Missourian (the working lab where MU students comprise 95 percent of the workforce at the community paper) with the intent to pick up some prerequisites I'd been missing and build my confidence concerning certain areas of expertise. I have been concentrating on copyediting and newspaper design over reporting since I discovered I liked working with other people's words and that the nutty, screwball items I usually prefer to churn out don't mix well with the responsibilities of a daily reporter. I am in the midst of reapplying to the graduate program for the Winter/Spring semester, though I am also looking for a temporary to mid-term job (depending on how applications turn out).
Church wise, I am coming off a long binge at Praise Assembly of God church in Columbia (with semi-regular sojourns back to Faith Assembly of God in Sullivan). In college I was very active with Royal Rangers, the Christian camping group I've long worked in, as well as their youth program and children's church. I miss both churches a lot already, and look forward to when I can visit them again.
Professionally, as earlier noted, I am jobless. I am open to any job hints or tips I could get. I'd prefer to get a new-orientated job, preferably having to do with the copy desk, though I'd be open to reporting just to fill out my resume and save myself from going stir crazy. I continue to write a lot on the side, some of it even appearing on this site. I have several series of short stories in various degrees of uncompletedness. I also have a working version of a quasi-devotional book, a collection of some of the peculiar lessons I've learned and re-learned along the way.
Concerning the future... I've got many impossible dreams and I'm trying to work out which ones are real. I'd love to work at a newspaper, going to bed knowing tomorrow’s headlines, as well as getting a boost in cash flow from my writings on the side.
Currently caught in limbo between my old Sullivan house (currently under severe renovations and steadily emptying of all recognizable mementos and appliances) and wherever I'm heading next, I don't know where I'm going. That doesn't make me much different from the next person down the line, though I think my limbo is a bit more pronounced.
I'm working hard not to get depressed. I have plenty of time to read (too much, in fact. I try to keep pacing myself concerning the other things I need to do; though it's hard since I'm connected to a decent, overflowing public library for a change). I have a lot of good music and videos download on my computer, which I occasionally reassemble in the middle of the living room floor before putting the parts back into their respective packing containers. I also have a boost in DVDs - and am trying to work my wave through various first seasons (of the Cosby Show, Quantum Leap, and the Muppet show) as slowly as possible to stretch out the fun).
I also haven't spent this much time with my immediate family in years, and that's mostly good (though as my Dad observes, we can't all fit on the same couch).
I am optimistic, if not a bit idled from so much time spent indoors. If grad school turns me down again, I'm sure I can get a job and find a new good church. I also hope to turn some of the crazy musings poking around my brain into something a bit more physical.
That's about it for now. Keep reading and see how things turn out.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress...
said...
I hear Joplin is hiring, although you'll have to talk to Chadwick about that one.
Have you watched the Muppet "Sex and Violence" yet? It messes with my head....
Caleb Michael said...
So familiar, yet so out of place.
To imagine what could have been... No Kermit at center stage, Sam the Eagle in the Fozzie role, and a title that most assuredly would have prevented the series from going as long as it did.
All this from the Muppet show that time forgot lost pilot.