I’ve been in California for nearly two months now, but everyone I run into asks the same question: “Are you going to move here permanently?” Those back in Georgia frequently ask me “Do you see yourself moving back home?” And of course, with the LSAT on my mind 24/7, the inevitable question of “Where do you want to go to law school?” comes up. Apparently all things post-grad rely on geography!

Where you go to law school matters a lot – especially for where you want to live. If you go to a school that isn’t nationally recognized, job perspectives outside of that region shrink. Am I spending all of my time thinking about law school in the context of location? No – there are more initial factors, but picking a future residence does have a major importance. But how daunting is that? Although it may be a little drastic to say, it really feels like I have to answer “Where do you want to live for the rest of your life?” right now at this very second.

So, the plan was to move out here – get my post-grad life together, and then figure out where to go after I worked hard enough to make my plans happen. Since I’ve been here, a lot of people assume this is where I plan to reside forever. Do I want to end up in Orange County or Southern California forever? Honestly, I don’t know if it’s for me. While California is gorgeous, I still don’t feel like I can call this place home. I haven’t had my “ah-ha” moment of residential happiness. Read More »

[For most college students, summer means one thing: an unpaid internship. We’ve been there and we feel your pain. Whether you’re making copies, making coffee runs, or just trying to make your mark on the industry of your dreams, it’s much easier to get through it all with a little help from your (CollegeCandy) friends. So come back every week to listen/sympathize with/vent with our anonymous intern as she does her thang at a big time magazine in New York City. Because, let’s be honest, what else do you have to do in that cubicle all day?]

Let me start this off by saying I love my internship. I mean really, I do. I know I might complain about it sometimes, but in the end I enjoy my time here and have gotten amazing experience. I’ve met a ton of cool people and I’ve been able to see my name in print numerous times (a fabulous feeling). I know I’m interning at a place where hundreds of girls would love to be and I don’t take it for granted.

But here’s the thing: I graduated over a year ago. And this whole not getting paid thing? It’s getting more than a little bit frustrating.

When I graduated college, I decided to give myself the summer off. Despite my mom’s annoying pleas to “think about my future” and apply for some jobs, I spent my time stumbling into my house drunk in the wee hours of the night and lounging at the beach all day. I had led a life where things had come relatively easy for me, so I figured that when I was ready for a job, it would be waiting for me. Read More »

It’s that time of year again: time to start thinking about Back To School! The time when the dorm assignments flow in and you start mentally decorating your new room. When you start packing and having late-night Gchats with your friends about your first Welcome Week party. When you start searching Amazon for the cheapest books you can find and, more importantly, your go-to comfort pieces for the season.

This wish list is partly out of courtesy to all my fellow hoodie lovers and partly out of denial about my current life-after-college situation (while you lucky college kids can rock hoodies and sweats all day, every day, it is unfortunately no longer socially as acceptable for me to do so). But regardless if it’s acceptable or not, the Lacy Hoodie from Victoria’s Secret will most definitely remain at the top of my wish list.

No one can deny that the purpose of a hoodie is 100 percent comfort, but when it also boasts edgy fabric and modern details it is for sure a must-have, college schedule or not. Sharing the mullet’s motto, the sweatshirt is all business in the front (with a simple black zip-up) and party in the back (with hot pink satin and a lace overlay). Read More »

I’m in a lot of pain right now. I’d like to say it’s physical pain from all the hours I’ve been putting in at the gym, but unfortunately the unbearable heat wave has kept my butt right on the couch watching marathons of Say Yes to The Dress while internet shopping.

The pain I’m feeling you ask? It’s an emotional one, due to the fact that the back-to-school commercials and Nordstrom catalogs flooding my television and mailbox are making it painfully obvious that for the first time in my life I cannot justify an August shopping spree that empties my bank account because I’m not going back to school. Obviously in order to crack open the books and learn you need to have a new pair of leather boots, some go-to jeans and four adorable dresses. But if you’re not going back to school….well, what’s the point?

If you’re thinking this pain is going to cause me to skip the back-to-school sales, however, you’re wrong. Very wrong.

Of course I’ll have to deal with a small side of guilt knowing that I’m now just a struggling college graduate and not an eager student, but I’ve decided to throw self-control to the wind and go at the sales anyway. Shopping smart can take the edge off the guilt, and so I have my eye on pieces that can easily transition from work to play. At least every time I whip out my credit card I’ll be getting two outfits in one.

My first buy? The 2-in-1 Chiffon Vertical-Ruffle Dress from Express. I totally love the skirt and tank combo now and into fall and this dress takes all the guesswork out of planning an outfit by giving you the same look without the hassle of matching separate pieces. It looks as effortless as it actually is with a thin black tank melding into a high-waisted army green chiffon bottom complete with chic, cascading ruffles. For a perfect fall work ensemble I’ll tone it down with black studded flats, tights and a boyfriend blazer. Read More »

[We're following one post-grad as she grabs that diploma, packs up her college life and heads on out to the big, bad world. There's a lot of change comin' her way and one big challenge: The LSAT.]

So, it’s crunch time. From this point on until October 9^th, my life is really about one thing and one thing only – the LSAT. Of course, I will still have everyday life to live, but from this point on my post-grad life really is going to be dictated by what I am convinced to be as one of the most evil tests in all of existence.

And I’ll be the first to admit – I am terrified. I’m absolutely shaking in my Rainbow flip flops at the thought of one test having so much power over my life.

You gotta do what you gotta do though, right? And what I have to do is do well enough on the test in October, so I don’t have to take it again in December, and come out with a score that satisfies me enough to get into a good law school for Fall 2011 admissions.

A lot is riding upon this exam. If you aren’t familiar with the whole “getting into law school business of admissions,” the LSAT is the end-all-be-all factor in admissions. According to Top Law Schools.com, “Your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are the two most significant factors that admissions committees look at. The fact that a four hour standardized test carries as much, if not more, weight than four years of classes should tell you how important the LSAT is.” Yikes! Read More »

In elementary school, I made friends in the sandbox – sharing my buckets and shovels. In middle school, I made friends by being that new girl from California living in a small Georgia town. In high school, I made friends by joining the newspaper and writing about my misfortunes of high school dating in an all-too honest column. In college, I made friends and bonded with them over two hour road-trips, Britney Spears’ Greatest Hits, and gas station food. Looking back, the whole process of making friends has always seemed easy, but now what?

I’m out of college, on the opposite side of the country, living with my dad who thinks he is starring in his own comedy sitcom, and completely alone. Those closest to me are elsewhere. My boyfriend is on the opposite coast. My best friend is in the middle of Atlanta. My dearest, bestie ever is living in South Africa! My college friends are strewn across the USA. And here I am, writing about how to make friends at 22 years of age without an inkling of what to do.

In all honesty, I’m actually surprised with the sudden need to make friends. Going into my senior year of college, the girls I thought were my friends for life broke up with me. The friend break-up was a major wake-up call! Although it ended up being one of the best things that happened to me, and I was really lucky to get out of that situation, I will admit – it made me very cautious and guarded about people and their intentions. During senior year, the word “friendship” was completely out of my vocabulary. Read More »

I don't know what to do!

Looking back, college didn’t require a lot of serious decision making – even though I thought it did. For the most part, I made decisions about frivolous things such as: Should I wear pajamas to class today? Should I stick to rum and Coke or go for the Jager bombs? Should I go out tonight or should I spend time working on that eleven-page term paper? I know at times these choices sure stressed me out, but looking back, they really didn’t matter the way post-grad decisions seem to.

A lot of difficult decisions have come my way recently. There was me deciding where to live. Atlanta, Georgia or Southern California? It was not an easy choice to make, and many factors played into my choice to move to California. Then there was the decision of what to spend my time doing. Should I reapply to graduate schools for next year or pursue my other dream of becoming a lawyer? These questions required a lot of long-term thinking, and I’m glad that I had the time and the options to choose from. However, now that life is moving full speed ahead – more life-decisions are coming my way and many of them are giving me a day to decide, instead of a month or two.

So, you know how I was running my mouth last week about no jobs being available and how awful it is trying to find something? Well, that very same day, I received a call back from a marketing firm wanting to hire me for an entry level position. A real adult job. One with benefits and a respectable first year salary. One that requires business professional attire from 8:30am to 5:30pm. A marketing firm with connections to major Fortune 500 companies.

Sounds great, right? Well, they could only take me on as a full-time worker Monday-Friday, with a lot of events that I would be required to attend on the weekends. My initial reaction was whether or not I could balance my LSAT prep course and study time in the midst of having a blossoming career path. Could I do both? Maybe, but I’m not someone that does things half-assed, so a balancing act possibly could jeopardize my work experience and hurt my practice for the LSAT. Read More »

No one wants to share their boyfriend with another woman, and that can only be more true when the other woman is Mommy Dearest. It’s one thing to bitch when she’s calling YOUR cell phone to see how her son with a cold is holding up since an hour ago (true story), but what do you do when she’s not calling your cell phone… but calling your name from down the stairs?

My boyfriend and I met at college and graduated together a month ago. He has been fortunate enough to be gainfully employed for the last two weeks, and I’m still on the search myself (wink wink employers – I’m a writer) for something in New York City. And while I’m waiting for everything to magically fall into place with a job and a move to the city where Alicia Keys says there’s nothing I can’t do, there’s a lot I can’t do while I’m crashing at my BF’s parent’s house… in lovely New Jersey, seeing as how the homeless haven’t been welcome in NYC for quite some time.

Now don’t get me wrong, his parents are extremely generous, kind, loving people who treat me as one of their own, which, let’s be honest, would make me my boyfriend’s sister.  If that’s not weird enough, he’s an only child. Just imagine the attachment when a stay-at-home mom has her only child back in the house after a four-year hiatus. It’s borderline Oedipus-creepy.

From my perspective, it’s a mood-kill to say the least. Coming from our own apartment and having lived together for a couple years, it’s not easy having to share our relationship with his parents all of a sudden. And while the temporarily living situation does have its bonuses (they buy us food and have a dishwasher!) I can’t get over that when my boyfriend walks in the door from a long day of work, it’s a race to see who gets out the first “Hi honey!” Read More »

With a full week in California under my belt, I’ve officially moved in. This move-in was a lot different than any dorm room move-in I’ve done throughout college. Instead of signing for my dorm key, I signed a lease. A real “I’m an adult, I must abide by this contract or I’m legally responsible” lease. In fact, everything I’ve done this past week had a stamp of “Adult” on it, making post-grad a lot different than any undergrad experience.

So, now that I traded my student checking for an everyday bank account, I think it’s time to put some money in there. Maybe it’s my drive to be successful, even when my life is in limbo, or all the California wealth around me, but I have been looking for some kind of job to occupy my time. However, job hunting is a full time job, and it seems like the job market has turned its back on us post-grads.

Nearly every job listing requires three to five years of experience. Uh … I’ve been in college classrooms for the last four years, does that count? It’s kind of scary to think that I spent all this time getting my B.A. degree, only to be told that I need experience to match my degree – full time experience. It seems like entry level positions, which used to require a degree and interest (not a few years of experience), don’t exist anymore. I want to use my skills, so I can build up experience – but I can’t gain experience when I can’t get hired. Some listings I’ve seen even say that if resume don’t show three to five years of job experience in the field, they will be tossed. Yikes! Read More »

Finally! I get to settle somewhere!

After a week long trip, complete with a surplus of roadkilled armadillos and a 24-hour stomach bug that caused me to projectile vomit on a cactus in New Mexico, I have finally made it to California.

First things, first though. Just because I’m living in “Southern California” doesn’t mean I’m living in Los Angeles (I’m living in Newport Beach). Everyone I have met along the way has not realized this, but this state is gigantic. And just because I’m moving out to California doesn’t mean that I am here to get on The Hills (I’m pretty sure I could take Kristin, though) or find a husband to marry and get on The Real Housewives of Orange County. It’s not just what the media portrays … especially when you’re living with parents.

One of the hardest transitions will definitely be residing with my dad. I haven’t lived with him since the ‘90s, when I was rocking clothes from The Limited Too and speaking in a British accent like my idols, the Spice Girls. In fact, I haven’t even seen my dad that much since my parents divorced and I moved to Georgia. How are you supposed to make up for lost time when more than decade has gone by? My memories with my dad are from my childhood. And now – hello – I’m out of college and on a war path to become a successful force in the world of law. Times have changed.

Even though it’s kind of awkward to get used to living with him, I’m happy for the experience and whatever may come from it. This is my chance to not only prepare for my future and my career, but I get the opportunity to live on the opposite side of the country while getting to know my dad as he is today, and he can get to know me as a 22-year-old woman instead of a ten year old girl. And hopefully, even though both of us are stuck in our ways, we don’t butt heads too much along the way. Read More »