When I first started this internship, I had high expectations. I knew that it would be different than the other internship I had; I could tell from the interview alone that this one would be a little bit more exciting, a little bit more hands-on, and was definitely about a subject matter that I enjoy. And I have to say, I was pretty much right.

I think that my experience has been exactly what an interning experience should be: there have been highs and lows, exciting moments of feeling like an actual journalist and those back-to-earth moments of feeling like the lowest person on the office food-chain. There have been frustrating moments when I’ve felt like I just want to walk out and never come back (like a 12-hour day where there was absolutely NOTHING to do), and there have also been moments where I wouldn’t give up the job for the world (like when I got to interview Derek Jeter). I’ve had to deal with some rude people, but I’ve also gotten the chance to meet some really amazing people. And probably the best thing was seeing my name in a national publication several times, and knowing that my hard work in school was finally starting to pay off a little. Read More »

LOVE HER.

I’ve been a fan of Ann Brashares for a decade. “The Sisterhood” series is one of my favorites and practically defines my young adolescence. So, when the opportunity to interview Ann Brashares and review her new book “My Name is Memory” came up, I jumped at the chance! I’m still in shock that I had an actual conversation with one of my favorite authors.

Below, find the interview with one of the neatest women I have ever met and then the review of My Name is Memory. Read More »

So the freelance lifestyle was going great for me. I was sleeping in late, blogging from bed, and avoiding wearing pants with buttons, zippers, or any of those overly-complicated mechanisms. But then one day I woke up, got hit on by a homeless man at the library (one thing led to another and he did eventually gave me the number of his favorite pay phone to pee on), and found dried-up oatmeal on my scarf and I asked myself, “Is this how I want to spend my twenties?”

I mean, sure the 5-day old oatmeal tasted fresh enough, I’m not trying to sit here and bash eating leftovers. But it couldn’t make up for the fact that I had no co-workers, no real office, and no one believing that freelancing was a real job. So I did what any qualified writer does when she’s looking for a legitimate job: I got back on Craigslist, found the job of my dreams, and applied immediately. Unfortunately it turns out that my pre-puberty body prevents me from being an escort. Another dream crushed.

But I wouldn’t let that stop me. I found four more almost ideal jobs: babysitting an incontinent 80-year-old blind man, being a drug mule on the Mexican border, working for Coed Media Group, and having a sex change and appearing on Tyra 1-3 times to talk about the experience. Read More »

"Tard pills? Hilarious!"

As every CollegeCandy writer knows, blog commenters can be brutal. Like, kill your self-esteem and make you question everything you’ve ever written brutal. People who you have never met will take the time to dissect your blog and tear it apart sentence by sentence. No typo goes unnoticed and no opinion goes unbashed.

I’m writing for four different blogs now so half my day is consumed with writing them and the other half is spent reading comments filled with racial slurs, homophobic comments, and sentences written in all CAPS. Nothing says “I hate the way you blog about puppies,” like a 6 paragraph comment written in caps and exclamation marks. Sometimes there are so many asterisks in a single word that I can’t even figure out what kind of motherf***ing***tard I am.

I’ve gotten so used to the negative comments that I’ve begun to crave them. It’s kinda like how many people will tell me today that I’m clearly writing from my mom’s basement (I wish…talk about cheap rent and endless things to talk about in therapy). And how many middle-aged men with usernames like DildoMongoDemento can tell me I “forgot to take my retard pills.” Note: If it was true that I forgot to take these so-called retard pills, it would be pretty amazing that I was able to successfully blog and post. Like I am Sam-meets-Forrest-Gump amazing. Read More »

Last night, President Obama addressed the current economic crisis, assuring America that “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” That sounds especially promising to the billions of college students across the country, who are faced with escalating tuition costs and skyrocketing student debts, and who are watching as the window of opportunity seems to shrink with news of major layoffs every other day.

However, if you play your cards right, you can find great success after college. Sure, some of us will spend years after college struggling to pay off student loans and going on interview after interview, sometimes for entry-level jobs we are overqualified for but still can’t seem to nab. But some of us are on the brink of making headlines, like these uber-successful post-grad powerhouses have done in recent years.

1. Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda went to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, a school where tuition runs at over $38 grand a year, plus $10-12,000 for room and board expenses. While attending Wesleyan, Miranda, a native of Inwood, New York City, turned his life experience into a theatrical production that has exploded since his graduation from the University in 2002. Miranda is the composer and lyricist behind the smash hit musical In the Heights, which was produced at Wesleyan, picked up for off-Broadway, and transferred to the Great White Way in 2008. Miranda, an actor-slash-rapper who originated the lead role, Usnavi, in his own show, picked up a Tony award last spring and is currently slated to reprise the role when it hits the silver screen. Read More »

You felt like you have something to say to the world, so you started blogging. You may not be some famous writer for the New York Times, but you want your voice to be heard! You want to enlighten the masses! Make people laugh! Show everyone your perspective!

And your three best friends are the only people who read it.

But you don’t care; you’ll get there. And even if you don’t, you have so much fun blogging that you keep tip-tapping away…while thinking in the back of your mind that maybe – just maybe – there is a chance that this will somehow turn into a job after college.

Well, we can’t promise you that, but we did just get word that all those hours you log in documenting your life on your creatively titled website (I once had “LaurenIsFunny.com”….for real) could be worth $10,000 in college scholarships.

Yeah, you heard me.

CollegeScholarships.org is giving away a $10K blogger scholarship! To any college student with a blog. Even if you didn’t have a blog until just this second! Read More »

Hey Potential Interns ! I just wanted to take a moment to let all students know that Fall Internship season is upon us and it’s very important to start putting in your resumes and cover letters for your dream Fall Internships. Lots of students say they cannot intern during the Fall because there are no “cool” companies in their town.

Wrong. They are out there – you just need to find them.

HOW TO FIND THE FALL INTERNSHIP OF YOUR DREAMS

1. Create a Dream List – A “Dream List” is a complete countdown of the companies you dream of working at in the future. If you are interested in becoming a magazine writer this list might say “Cosmo, Seventeen, Oprah, Cosmogirl, Allure, Redbook.” Try to write down between 8-10 companies that you’d be interested in working for.

2. Take your dream list and bring it down a few notches. If your dream magazine to work at is “US Weekly” then do some research and see what local magazines your city/town has to offer. Most big cities have at least one publication dedicated to their location. If your dream internship is to work at Lehman Brothers than take it down a level and see what financial firms are in your local area.

3. Reach out. Do whatever you need to do to at least find a main number to these companies. Going to the company’s website is usually your best bet. There is usually a “Contact Us” button at the bottom of the page. If not, try the “Terms of Use” or “About Us”; they should at least list a city where the company is headquartered. If you know the city the company is based out of you can at least look that up on yp.yahoo.com or another directory search. When you call these companies ask to speak with the Internship coordinator. If you get a voicemail, leave a clear message and state your phone number. If you don’t hear back in 3 days then call again to follow up. Don’t be annoying about it but at the same time – stay on it. Putting in one call usually does not get the job done. Remember to always thank the person on the phone for taking the time to speak with you. Read More »

Men have always ruled the comedy scene. From dynamic duos such as Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and Jay and Silent Bob to teams such as the Happy Madison boys (Adam Sandler, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Peter Dante, Allen Covert and Nick Swardson) and the Frat Pack (Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Owen and Luke Wilson and Steve Carrell).

There are virtually no female comedic ensembles who can sell movies like these guys can.

In the stand-up circuit, men generally receive the biggest reception. Recently, I went to a stand-up comedy review that featured twenty comics in one night. Of those twenty, only three women took the stage. Three. WTF?

Women are pretty damn funny, so why don’t we get the same appraisal as men get? Films like Old School put the Frat Pack on the map, while the hysterical chick flick The Sweetest Thing flopped at the box office. The Wedding Crashers cast has people rolling in the aisles, while far too many people have never seen Christina Applegate, Cameron Diaz, and Selma Blair sing The Penis Song.

I took this assignment to cover the 5 Funniest Women out there, but quickly realized there is just too much talent to narrow it down so far. That said, what follows is my personal list of five of the wittiest women in the world, along with some honorable mentions. I welcome feedback, comments, and nominations, because I’m sure I’ve missed some ladies that can more than keep up with the boys. Read More »

I’ve never been one to say no to an experience that sounds interesting. This inclination has led me down a few paths my parents would probably not be happy to learn about — one of those paths being recreational drug use.

Now, before certain readers out there go all NARC on my ass, let me say that I make it a point to stay away from hard drugs. No coke, no herion…nothing that’s genetically altered to speed me towards an early death. I like to stick to the hippie stuff; weed, shrooms, hashish…you know, things that come from nature. And I’m very careful about who I purchase this stuff from. Those of us that partake in these sorts of relaxation techniques should always be careful about that sort of thing. People are a**holes.

Right, so public service announcement over. What I’m really writing about is this article I recently read on Salon.com about Salvia, a hallucinogenic substance that’s illegal in about 10 states and is probably going to be made illegal in a bunch more very soon. According to the author of the article (and a few friends of mine), Salvia is super potent — but only for 5 to 10 minutes. Apparently, you will trip off your ass and see the weirdest sh*t in the world (including Aztec Gods…or at least that’s what the writer saw), but it’ll all be over in minutes. Read More »

[Read the idea behind this blog HERE]

The elimination of most of my music and pretty much any TV has been an interesting change to my morning. Luckily, my hangover from Saturday night kept me in bed for most of the day, and thus helped it go by a little faster. I made it through my Love Diet playlist about two and a half times before I decided silence might be a nice alternative to my new favorite 17 love-free songs.

I cleaned my apartment to an extent that left every surface not only sparkling clean but also disinfected. I did my nails, and even a bit of reading. No serenading, love notes or tokens of affection to speak of. And I am cool with that; maybe I am just on a residual high from yesterday.

It is the night I think that makes things hard. The evenings and/or nights are where I usually sit down on the couch and mindlessly get absorbed into TV for a while or watch a movie; obviously falling victim to the ideas of well paid writers who make a living off romantic suckers like me. Not tonight, I read the newspaper — a very unromantic newspaper — cover to cover. I just might turn into the most aware person I know. Read More »