- I turned 21 and got a horizontal license.
With amazing celebrations both in Chicago and at Mizzou, I had a great time spending my birthday with friends. We stayed in the nicest hotel suite I'll probably have in my life, and I was lucky to have everyone I wanted to see come and share drinks together!
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| Sherman, Kathryn, me, Shaina and Andrew at the Hilton Chicago Suite January 2012 |
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| 21st at the Heidelberg in Columbia |
- Chaired Mizzou's Relay For Life, which fundraised more than $85,000 for American Cancer Society.
After a year of planning, the 5th Relay For Life of Mizzou was on March 16-17, 2012. The event came together very well with representatives from Relay For Life nationally, more than 1,200 participants and about $8,000 fundraised just that evening.
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| Charlie, Bret and I (Relay co-chairs) at Relay 2012 with Truman |
- Traveled across the country.
Traveling is one thing I didn't realize how much I do until I thought about it. I went to:
-Colorado to visit Jesse
-San Diego to explore with Elena
-Project Mexico for another homebuilding trip!
-Iowa to see Helen
-Michigan to see Stacey and Nouno Peter
-Kansas City to stay with Laura over the summer
-Missouri and Illinois (duh)
-Wisconsin pretty much every week of being home for church
-New York, New Jersey & DC with Stacey over spring break and saw Maria, Kara, family & Evita the musical!
-Ohio and Indiana visit Yiayia Sophie
to total 14 states!
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| Jessie and I at Rocky Mountain National Park in February |
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| Stacey and I in Times Square for Evita on Broadway in March |
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Project Mexico June 2012 for the first home build of the summer
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- Best teamwork experience of college working as a researcher for Mojo Ad.
After surviving my management of strategic communication class that I'll soon be the TA for, I was accepted into Mojo Ad, Mizzou's student-run ad agency, with the researcher position. There was an open spot was on Team Maven and my team developed a "Let's Happy Hour" campaign for TGI Friday's and won!
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| Team Maven at our client presentation in April |
- Went alumna from my sorority after a great three years, some awesome socials and planning a sisterhood retreat!
After three years in Phi Mu serving as PR, VP and sisterhood chair, I went alumna and am no longer an active member. My pledge family is closer than ever and I am forever thankful for my daughters Dani and Liz, Shelley and close friends from my pledge class and floor- Kathryn, Alex, Jen, Emily & Jordin.
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| Phi Mu Sisterhood Retreat at Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City in February |
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| Last Phi Mu Formal in April |
- Oh, I graduated college.
It was a little anticlimactic since I've stayed for grad school, but I walked in Mizzou's graduation ceremonies for Honors and Journalism graduating cum laude.
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| Mom, Dad and I on the quad after the Honors Graduation Ceremony in May |
- Starcom internship.
Working a rigorous internship in media research taught me the reward of working an intellectually stimulating job and sifting through information. A lot of work is proprietary or disclosed by NDAs, but I had the opportunity to work with an excellent Integrated Insights team and group of mentors at Starcom MediaVest Group this summer, and am even back for winter break.
- Got to know downtown Chicago.
Throughout our 11 years living in Chicago, we have stuck to visiting the same few places with and kept to the touristy places downtown. As college have progressed and I was working in the city on Wacker & State Street, I was at the prime location for exploring River North and other parts of downtown. After work my friends would go to happy hour, meet up in different areas like Lincoln Park and even staying at some of the nicest hotels like the Hilton Chicago, Palmer House, Allerton and Hyatt Regency. Those adventures made me not look past living downtown for a few years and want to continue working at Starcom and exploring the city.
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| The Chicago skyline from a boat cruise I went on with work from Navy Pier |
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| At Oak Street Beach for a free vendor event in August |
- Went skydiving.
Inspired by a Groupon email, my sisters and I went skydiving together in July! It was as exhilarating as you think it would be and felt like flying frozen in time. We dove from more than 15,000 feet in the air at 100+ miles per hour, and the biggest shock for me was the temperature change in the 2.5 minute fall. It was definitely a success!
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| Eleni, me and Maria before the dive |
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| In the air! |
- Started to explore Milwaukee after leaving Sts. Peter & Paul.
This June, my dad was reassigned from our Glenview church to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee. Despite the details, commute and driving past six other churches Sunday mornings, Milwaukee parishioners were welcoming and we had some nice summer adventures at the pool.
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| The family at our last Easter at Sts. Peter & Paul after 11 years, the longest we've lived somewhere! |
- Started grad school and got my first 4.0.
This semester, I was enrolled in graduate classes focusing on international journalism, the history of the mass media, qualitative research, convergence journalism and Missouri business news. If taking five classes and being a TA wasn't enough, I was adjusting to conversational courses, intelligent debates and classes with nontraditional and international students. I was reading about 1,000 pages per week, writing 3 papers each Monday and learned a variety of tools to produce this deer hunting story. It was an intense semester!
- Worked an assistantship.
Being a TA has been one of the most intense experiences I have had in college (and next semester- I'll be a TA in two capacities). The opportunity to work with professors, manage students and review their work has been an insightful one and I have learned a lot from a business and educational standpoint.
- Celebrated Mizzou joining the SEC.
This September, Mizzou had its inaugural SEC game against University of Georgia! Although it was a rough football season, the tailgating was worth it and the basketball games have been great.
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| Our first Mizzou football game in the SEC vs. Georgia in September |
- Lived in my first apartment with the best roommates ever- and dealt with it burning down.
Memorial Day Weekend, I got a phone call that the Brookside apartment complex my friends and I were moving into in August had burned down. After a lot of stress and doubt, our apartment was in the 1/3 of the building that was ready in August and Kathryn, Shaina, Laura and I moved in together for the first time since freshman year- with Sherman, Andrew and our friends Cliff & Stein next door. It's been a blast and an adventure dealing with our landlords- but always nice to have company!
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| Kathryn, me, Shaina and Laura at a wine tasting in Hermann, Mo. |
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| Both of our apartments at Kathryn's birthday celebration |
- Watched TV and enjoyed it.
Revenge, Girls, the Newsroom and Nashville have kept me looking forward to watching weekly television- something I haven't done since Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars in middle school. TV gives you so much to talk about and look forward to!
I'm thankful for a great year!
By the numbers
- 25 Facebook albums, 213 new friends, 36 pages liked, 3223 tagged photos and 2020 tweets
- 349 birthday wishes online
- 457 LinkedIn connections
- Retired my old Macbook Pro with 22,1260 pictures saved on it
What's in store for 2013?
- Traveling the US the next few weeks- 8 states this month!
- Acclimating to a new computer and camera
- Running a Career Fair
- Writing a thesis
- Being employed
- Receiving a master's degree
- Going to weddings
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