Suburban woes: North Shore edition

Now that I'm back home living in the suburbs, I'm in the transitional stage of observance and comparison. Not only observing what lifestyle routines are different when living with your family again and living in a suburb rather than on a campus, but also comparing situational nuances to how college students deal with similar thing.

In a well-populated area of suburbanites, here's a list that my friends and I have come up with titled "suburban woes" - realizations, issues, complaints and funny moments that happen every day. All of these aren't even jokes, they have actually happened since we've been home to someone or another, or we've seen it happening. When you read each of these, envision yourself saying 'Uh oh! There are no bigger problems in life!' after each one. Enjoy!

You have to move the car closer to the driveway or the neighbor might hit it!

I see my whole high school on the Metra.

Plaza del Prado (the shopping center) is flooded after that storm!

The park got new benches! 

New benches at the Glenview Dairy Bar

Who goes inbound toward the city at 5 p.m.? That's not a commuter schedule! 

We have to take the lighted tree down because neighbor complained it was too bright and the town sent us a letter to remove it. 

I can’t talk in the Metra’s quiet car!

I can barely drive down my street because there are so many landscaping companies mowing the lawns and taking up the road!

Waiting for the Madison Avenue stairs at Union Station is the longest part of your commute.

I have to move to the side of the street when I'm biking and cars drive by- ugh.

You have to straighten your hair and wear nice clothes to the Little League baseball game. 

No where is open to go out after 10 p.m.!

A woman looks at you at the frozen yogurt store and says “I’m going to leave my dog here while I order, let me know if you see it run away.”

Do you have anything you would add?

Post grad problems: 8 things found cleaning out the high school bedroom

I've started doing every college student's favorite activity...cleaning out the room he or she grew up in. Although I often clean over breaks, something's different about cleaning when you know you'll have to keep said items in your own home or apartment.

I found plenty of craziness when cleaning out papers and clothing, but the most amusement came when a large, bulletin board fell down. I wasn't emotionally prepared to tackle this board, but the fly in the room that I had to kill must have been a sign that it was time to go. 

Here are the eight most comical, random things I found while cleaning off this board and other items in the bedroom:

• The other half of BEST FRIENDS keychains

• Polaroid photos from a ride at Chuck E. Cheese

• Disneyland postcards from 1997

• Athens 2004 apparel - Greece was very proud to host the Olympics!

• A Chattanooga (Yes, the city in Tennessee) police department keychain. What?

• A pile of 20+ inspirational statements from fortune cookies and raisin boxes. 

• Miniature license plates and keychains from various cities that have your name on them

• Receipts and ticket stubs for companies that have since gone out of business, like Crown Theaters (which is now Regal Theaters) and LaSalle Bank (now Bank of America) 

This is the first post that will be tagged with PGP, or post graduate problems. More post-college revelations will be written up under this tag here! 

Onto the ZOU side

Now that I am on track to receive my Master's in August, I will officially be a Mizzou alum. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to walk with my graduating class ('13) in the May graduation ceremony and had an amazing graduation weekend celebrating with the Twainers and my other journalism classmates. I'm lucky enough to have seven fabulous friends who I've gotten to live with and know better and better each day since freshman year.

It will definitely be difficult and sad to leave Mizzou, but I'm thankful for each of my four years there and look forward to returning for many reunions, Homecoming celebrations and games. Here are some photos from graduation weekend - thanks to brenPhotography for taking the group shots!

My amazing roommates and friends: Kathryn, Laura and Shaina

Kate, Shaina, Sherman, Kathryn, Laura, Andrew, Amy and I

All eight of us lived on the 5th floor of Mark Twain our freshmen year, which was on 5th Street. We stayed friends, roommates and journalism nerds all of college! 

And some photos after the Commencement ceremonies:

The family 

Four of my grad school classmates - thanks to these women for coaching me
through my thesis and other graduate classes!

Last but not least, me, Sherman and Andrew recreating
our awkward photo tradition that began our freshmen year. 

Whirlwind of a semester

When I started the journalism graduate program in August, I had no idea what type of time commitment I was expecting. A full-time graduate course load was only nine hours (compared to 12 hours for undergrads), I'd have minimal extracurricular activities and few evening meetings, so I held the expectation that I wouldn't be working as much. As the undergraduate student who took 15-18 hours of classes each semester and balanced that with leadership roles, I fully anticipated grad school with some leisure time and television. Sounds like that would be the case, right?

Wrong. Completely wrong. Something about graduating, working a 9 to 5 job last summer and adjusting to a solid routine that never existed in college contributed to my body's collapse. I couldn't work until 2:30 a.m. each night, write emails in my sleep or wake up 20 minutes before class started and get there on time. I was no longer able to focus at a 10 p.m. meeting for a group project, and even if my schedule wasn't as packed as it has been in previous semesters, I had the mentally busiest semester of my life. The first semester of grad school in the fall was definitely more academically stimulating, but the spring combined the academic, logistical and independence challenges that graduate school brings.

I'm happy walking away with the amount that I learned, especially in the productivity sense: from how to work independently, continuing to improve while working with others and having the discipline to sit down and get things done. Here are some pictures and words about the groups of people who helped me conquer the journey of this past semester. 

The Missourian's Spring 2013 Community Outreach Team with our teacher, Joy Mayer. Joy's participatory journalism class had students work six hours of shifts each week at the newspaper to learn how to build a relationship with a publication's audience. 

Our Changing Media Business Models class started off the semester with a free trip to Seattle, and grew together as everyone fought senioritis and learned about innovation.

For my teaching assistantship with Mojo Ad, I worked on a Public Relations team with these three amazing women to plan a department-wide Career Fair, industry workshops, two receptions and work on overall PR for the agency. They will be some of the most successful people I know and even thought of the above picture as a tactic for our event. By buying some fun items at the dollar store and throwing a sheet up on the wall, they entertained 70+ people with this photobooth for hours!

This spring, I TA'd a second class in addition to my official assistantship: the account management class. I had taken this class in fall of 2011, but the advertising industry changes quickly. These students kept me busy with questions, requests and text messages - but taught me a lot about what it's like to be a professor and mentor to others. I learned to give good, actionable feedback, say no sometimes, and ultimately, more than half the class will move onto Mojo.

Matthew, me, Fr. Michael and John smile at dinner after Pascha. Having a nice group of Orthodox Christian people in Columbia was a great addition to my college experience and staying for Easter made us extra close this past semester.

Obviously, spending some time out at the bars with these guys is really what kept me getting through everything. Some of the best friends smile at Piano Bar. Thanks for everything!

The Mizzou Botanic Garden

Because it was my last Mizzou spring, I took some extra efforts to capture some of my favorite spots on campus. There are few things that put a bigger smile on your face when heading from class to class and seeing the beauty of the Botanic Garden on Mizzou's campus. Check these out! 

The Columns

Memorial Union

Trees in front of Gannett at the School of Journalism

A closer view of the pink trees

The levels of the Reynolds Journalism Institute

Peace Park

The Chancellor's home on the quad 

Beautiful flowers by Speaker's Circle and the Hulston School of Law