Only 2 weeks left!

Back from Thanksgiving break...and only 2 weeks remaining until finals. And then-- it's the end of the semester.
I have not had much time to myself, hence the lack of blogging- not to mention I have been working on a new site for class, fitrunner.info. The site is for my New Media New Markets class and it is a website designed to serve as a running resource for all runners. We could pick any topic we wanted and had to develop our site, design it, and get it up and running by the end of the semester. For PR II we have been working with a client (Boston Debate League) to come up with new volunteers for upcoming debates. This is proving to be more difficult then originally imagined.
I am so excited for next semester-- I am taking Review Writing and Media Pop Culture. Hoping for an easy semester for once. I will be continuing an internship of some kind (whether it be staying at Mom Central where I work now or a different pr/marketing firm) I can't believe real life is so close.
Panic mode will definitely be kicking in soon.
Winterball is coming up and then I'll be heading to Vegas for new years! Can't wait

A Little Sore, But Ready for More

Yesterday was my half marathon in Newport, RI. It was the most beautiful course I have ever run, by far. It's no wonder why it was voted 4th best marathon to run in the country!  It started at the beach and continued on through Ocean Drive, where all of the mansions are in Newport.  My sister and I placed 316 out of 2055 with a finishing time of 1:44. It was freezing in the morning of the race. We had to leave my house at 6:30am to get to the shuttle, only to wait in line outside to actually get on the bus to get to the race. By the time we got to the start of the race (post bag check and waiting in more lines for the bathroom) the gun had already gone off. We were anxious to get there on time at first, but then we remembered that our time would not actually start until we crossed the start line (there is a chip in the bib that actually keeps your time for you). I was dressed in shorts in a Tee, but by mile 4 I was starting to warm up. My sister and I decided to stay together for this race. Normally she takes off on me in the first couple miles, but since we have both never done a half marathon, we thought it would be fun to just run it together at a comfortable pace. I have to admit I am glad my first big race was the full marathon, last May- it made this race seem like a breeze (And I was so relieved that I was done at mile 13, and that I did not have another 13.1 to go!) I am SO ready for another half. Today, registration for the Boston Marathon opens... I so badly wish I had a number to officially run in Boston this year. But my sister qualified, so i will be running along side her come race day. The only real problem with not running in the race officially is that if I do run it in under 3:40 and potentially qualify for Boston next year, I won't be able to register, since the time would not have counted. Looks like I will have to register and run in another marathon either before, or after Boston!

 More Pics coming soon!

Rainboots...

The first gross rainy Monday of the semester. It's cold, dreary, and just plain annoying. And to top it all off, I have a Bio Exam at 5:30 tonight. Blegh. According to the forcast this rain will last throughout the next couple of days.
I can't complain too much though. I had a great past couple of weekends. We celebrated the last of the 21st birthdays out of my group of friends. We took her out to this dueling piano bar in the financial district called Howl at the Moon, which is a different type of bar since there is a live band (or dueling pianos) that take requests and play top hit songs (Like rediculous renditions of Keisha and Lady Gaga).
My roommate from the dorms Freshman/Soph. year got engaged recently and I am going to be the Made-of-honor. Her parents held an engagement party for them at their house. All of a sudden I feel so old. Almost graduating, friends getting married- I have a feeling this year's blog theme is going to be about how fast the time has gone- and how bad I want it back.
Things are about the same as any other year- class, work, tours, internship... I am finishing up my last of  my required classes-including the general education ones and my PR ones. Looks like next semester will pretty much just be electives. Hopefully I can find another internship to tack on to get some more experience before I try to find a job next year. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Still have to get through this Bio exam. Ugh- why did I wait until senior year to take this? No motivation for Biology, or Biology Lab at this point.
1/2 marathon in Newport, RI in 2 weeks!

The Beginning of the End.

Senior year?  Really? Hard to believe this is my last fall semester at Suffolk. Where has the time gone? After working this summer full time at my internship, I realize I am NOT ready to graduate. I don’t love the 9-5 thing.  It gets old reallllllll fast. The only upside of working full time is having nights and weekends all to myself. Yet, I am willing to give that up for chance to stay here for just a little longer. Maybe an extra year? I love that as routine as school becomes- the rigorous schedule, balancing the class schedule with working while fitting in gym time, it never gets boring. It is always changing. As soon as it becomes intolerable, there is a break, vacation, or the semester ends. With work, that’s all there is, Monday-Friday-8:30-5:30  Every. Single. Day. I just am not ready for the rest of my life to be one long monotonous routine. Maybe a little too depressing for a first post back from summer- I apologize. I did have a great summer working. I learned a lot. I was the executive assistant to the CEO of the consulting firm I interned at last semester. I learned all about different PR firms, campaigns, and tactics. I was in charge of all of the company’s social media and online product reviews. It feels weird coming back and taking classes about public relations, social media, and event planning, when I did it all for real all summer.

This summer consisted mostly of working, but I was able to get away a few times for some long weekends. I went to Chicago to visit my brother, whose band was playing right next to Wrigley Field. My cousin got married, so my whole family came to town for that. I went to Maine and Vermont with my friend Dayna (who I met while in Australia), and I got to go home to RI a bunch of times to go to the beach.

We are all getting back in the swing of things here at Suffolk, getting used to the new faces on campus and all the new ambassadors. I am still trying to get used to introducing myself as a senior before all of my tours. I am missing the old senior ambassadors who have moved on to other things. Luckily social media keeps us all connected and I am able to keep tabs on the incredible things they are all up to post college life.

My schedule, per usual, is pretty jam-packed. Mondays I get up at 5:45 to hit the gym (aiming for the Boston Marathon this year!) and get to admissions for 8:30. I have New Media New Markets from  1-2:15 and Public Relations II from 2:30-3:45. I have a quick break from 4-5:15 and then Bio from 5:30-8:10. Tuesdays, I am at my internship until 4 and then go to Bio Lab until 8. The same goes for Wed. and Thurs., but without the night classes. For the most part I have Fridays all to myself, which is another plus about still being in school. I am getting course credit for my internship, so I am technically enrolled in 5 coursed. This semester I will finish up the last of my core requirements. Next semester I am going to try to get another internship, to broaden my resume.

In one year I will be at a completely different place in my life. Scary. In just a few months I will begin to look for jobs. What happened to the senior in high school stressing out about which college to go to? Seriously feels like yesterday. 8 months until I am a college graduate. Let’s slow down. Please?

Summer...Sort of.

One month later- and so much has happened! To start off, I ran the Providence Marathon!!! For those of you who have been following along (or have read any of my older posts) you know that I had been training for the marathon since September. That’s right, 26.2 miles. And trust me, it’s a lot longer than it sounds. (Although it sounds pretty long to say) And the “.2 “ at the end of that 26- feels like eternity. But I did it! 4 hours and 6 minutes later, I passed the finish line in downtown Providence. It was the best/ worst feeling of my life. My sister actually qualified to run Boston next year. I am deciding whether or not to put myself through training again and try to find an in to run Boston with her next year. It was the hardest thing I have ever done (And the most painful, especially after the fact). Recovering was awful. But it gave me a great excuse to eat anything and everything. “I can eat that, I just burned 3000 calories” was my saying of the week. A little counter-productive. I took only one week off of running- but it took a lot longer for my muscles to feel better. I took up yoga my first week of recovery- and it definitely helped me with stretching and getting back out there. School finished up, I had my 21^st birthday, and now I am now officially a senior. Crazy. I am trying not to think about that too much right now, but graduating is getting closer and closer. Working full time over the summer is a taste of life after college. It is nice to be done after 5 for the day, without having to worry about schoolwork or papers, but I am not used to the same routine everyday. Getting up at 6:30 is not my favorite thing to do. Welcome to the real world.

I am loving my internship, though. I have learned so much about marketing and public relations. I am planning to keep working here through next year, too. Hopefully I will be able to get class credit for it again in the fall. My schedule is going to be rough- per usual.

One more science lab to get out of the way! I am also taking New Media New Markets, and Public Relations II. What’s strange is throughout my whole career at Suffolk, I have been a PR major, and never questioned it. Now I work at a marketing consulting firm, and I am thinking I really should have been a business major all along. But I guess if they both would have gotten me to the same place, it doesn’t really matter. It’s something to think about when picking your majors. I would have been miserable trying to get through economics and math classes for four years. I guess what I am saying is, many majors at Suffolk can result in so many different jobs after college. I don’t think it’s what you are studying at school that really matters, as much the experience you are getting through school and the internships you do. So don’t stress if you still have no idea what you want to do. I’m sure more than half of the seniors that just graduated still have no idea, either.

I will post throughout the summer if anything interesting happens- although I am not really counting on it.

I am off to an Aquafina Flavor Splash party for work!

Happy summer!

Hay

Papers, Providence, and a little bit of Pomegranate

My to do list is getting smaller. I can actually see the end. The Providence Marathon is on Sunday. Freaking out just a little bit, although watching the Boston Marathon and running some of it got pumped me up for my marathon. The expo at Hynes was really cool, too. Tons of free stuff, and great information for runners. I also met the editor of Runner's world, Andy Dixon, among other runners who have won top marathons all around the country. I know I have done all the mileage and have trained for so long, but I am still afraid it was not good enough. I saw many people in the Boston marathon who hit a wall or got really bad leg cramps and just looked like they were in so much pain. I even saw a girl faint at mile 25. Seriously 25?! They took her away in an ambulance. She was so close. I would rather that have happened at mile 4. I cannot imagine not finishing after running 25 miles. Why am I doing this again?! Trying to think positively and just not think about the race until I am at the expo on Friday... All I have to do is get through this last week. 8 months of training. Where did it go?

My theory paper is due wed. Cannot wait to turn that in! Took me a verrry long time to get through it, but I did it. Feels great. My Integrated Marketing Communications project is due tonight- my group and I are going to have to pull it together at the last minute before class since we have only all met once. Hoping it all goes smoothly. We are presenting Bud Light Pomegranate to our class as a new summer beer- with all the promotions and advertising attached. This is a slide showing some of our packaging ideas- we used photoshop to create new logos designs.
The ambassador farewell dinner for our seniors is tonight- but unfortunately I have class and have to present so I will not get to go. It's too bad too because I hear they are getting food from the North End (little Italy section of Boston). Sad I am missing out :(
We also had our last themed party of the semester at our apartment on Saturday and as usual, all the ambassadors took a picture. It was Rubik's cube themed and everyone was supposed to dress up in all the colors of the cube. Of course not everyone did, but it was fun to see those that did dress up!
Last night was my friend Kirsten's 21st so her and her boyfriend cooked dinner and made dessert for all of us girls. This semester has been crazy-with a different 21st birthday to celebrate every week. Our weekends are definitely packed, that's for sure. My birthday is coming up on May 8th- and I'm thinking a pub crawl through Boston to celebrate :)
We also planned a trip to Vegas after our last friend turns 21 in September. We are planning a trip for the long weekend in October. There seems to be some good deals for flights and hotel packages- so more to come on that next year!
This will probably be my last post as a Junior! I will try to blog a bit over the summer- although with my internship 45 hours a week I know I will be swamped with work. I am excited to have weekends to myself though for the first time since I can remember. The joys of a real job- and not a waitressing one. I signed up for a summer race series along the Charles river on the Esplanade of Boston (assuming I can run again after my marathon). They have one race a month for every month of summer- reggae, Mardi Gras, and blues themed...I am hoping it will keep me motivated to keep running!
Good luck to all of you making your final decisions on school!
Until next time,
Haley

p.s
Good luck to our seniors leaving us- :( Nicole, Beckee, and Kristin. It has been so amazing getting to know all of you over the past three years and I will miss you all so much! Come back to Boston if you can find the time- through teaching kids in Mississippi, going to a great law school, and working on your dream in Disney. I am so proud of all of you for getting to do exactly what you wanted for yourself after school. All of your hard work has paid off! You have all been great friends and co-workers and I hope you continue to keep in touch and keep me updated! We will miss you!!!

The 2 week meltdown...

Let me just throw this out there...in two weeks or less, I have my Communication theory paper and presentation, Intercultural communication paper, intercultural communication project, integrated marketing group project, Internship log/paper/portfolio, and my communication theory final -all due. And to top it all off, my marathon is May 2nd, at the end of that Hell week. How am I going to get through the next couple of weeks?! I guess I have to just take one thing at a time, but it is hard not to freak out when looking at it all at once. Right now I am stressing most about this Communication Theory paper- it is on Facebook and research I have done about friending and getting to know strangers by looking at pics, posting on walls, etc. This is also known as "Uncertainty Reduction Theory." It is a very formal and structured paper and I have never written anything like it- based on my own research. I keep putting it off but I definitely need to get to it this weekend. I need to lock myself up in my apartment and or library and just get stuff done. Enough complaining.

My parents came in last week and we took a ride to Castle Island. We walked there for a while and then went back to Sunset Grill to eat those amazing nachos. That killed my "eating healthy before the race" strategy just a little bit.

Last week Rach and I went looking at new apartments with our other friend, Anna. We are now looking for a 3 bedroom in the north end. I am nervous we are never going to find anything for as good a deal as we have it now, but we are looking. Lets ad that to the stress list, too.

This saturday we are having a mini showcase- since the last two were so full and we had to start turning some people away from registering. I will be speaking and giving tours for accepted students. Click the link above if you did not get a chance to come to the other showcases!

Marathon Monday coming up next week! I'm excited- hoping it will get me super pumped for mine!

Time for a tour,

Hay