Coffee and Oranges

I’ve consumed more oranges and coffee in the past two years than I have in all of my life. Oranges to keep well, coffee to keep awake.

Other things I mastered while getting my Masters:

• Procrastination – While I had a good handle on this skill prior to grad school, grad school solidified my expertise in this matter.
• I wear lipstick now - I am going to attribute this to becoming more professional, but I actually think this is because my lips seemed to have faded in color over the past couple of years and I don’t like how they look without lipstick anymore. Maybe this is related to hydration, aging, or high caffeine intake – idk, it’s just a fact.
• Writing to fit page limits, within a given deadline – **Bonus** This is a for real, important skill in the real world too!
• Skimming for important s*&! – This is also an important, real world skill.
• Interpretation – The ability to take what a professor says and translate that into what he/she actually means.
• How not to over-caffeinate – The key is to space out coffee with tea and water.
• Small talk – Ok, maybe not mastered, but I’m definitely better at this than I once was, unless I’m very tired.
• The Art of Just Missing a MARTA Train – This is a true talent. It also increased my reading completion rate.
• Language acquisition – Nope, not a real other language, unfortunately. Rather, the AYSPS language, which entails an assumption of agreement by ending every statement with: “, right?” It’s annoying at first, but actually it’s quite useful and I like it. Right?
• Time management – duh.
• And related, juggling priorities – Being a student, intern/employee, and graduate assistant was like having 3 different jobs, often meant answering to 7 different supervisors, sometimes required working on scores of assignments/projects/proposals/papers/etc. on the same amount of different topics at the same time. Basically, this meant tons of reading and tons of writing. Oh yeah, and I write a blog. And I was constantly looking for jobs. And I attempt to be a friend, daughter, aunt, cat owner, and human all at the same time. I sadly might have failed at some of those last things at times.

Oh yeah, and I now have some management skills and quite the portfolio of analyses of various nonprofit organizations, especially on those in the Atlanta area and/or that focus on international things.

I feel prepared for the real world again. Thanks, Graduate School.