putting on my big girl pants

Lately I've been spending a lot of time doing what my mom likes to call "putting on my big girl pants," meaning... doing grown up/professional/career advancing/real world things. The semester has been hectic making plans for my last year in college (I finish in December - woo hoo!). Here's the plan:

This summer:
-- World Lit (online)... yeah, I still haven't taken it.
-- CHINA!!!! study abroad for 6 credits

Fall semester:
-- My last two undergrad classes!!
-- Internship for 6 credits

Then, hello diploma!

I just went to a second career fair last week; this one was for non-profit versus the business career fair disaster I went to a month ago. The non-profit career fair was such a different experience; it felt right, like it's what I'm destined to do. I spoke to 4 organizations that I am interested in (as well as some others) and am really positive about the leads I made with all of them. I was already asked to come in for an interview with one of them!! I submitted my application to another and have plans to complete the application for one tomorrow and email/follow up with the last one. I still want to find a few more to apply for, so if anyone knows a non-profit looking for interns, let me know!

I've been getting more and more involved with SIFE lately as well. It's a great organization - wonderful people, excellent experience, great cause(s), and also a pretty amazing resume builder. We had Regionals this past Monday in Atlanta. After a late Sunday night at the bar in the fancy hotel, we put our business suits on and handed out resumes to tons of huge companies. At the luncheon Monday, we sat at tables of about 10 people - I sat with 6 SIFE students from schools all over and 3 corporate big-wigs. One was an Area Director for Frito Lay, one was the HR Director of Rite Aid, and the third was the CEO of Vanity Fair (a lingerie line). I'm not particularly interested in working for any of those companies, but it was a great experience to talk to people in those positions in such a small (as close as you're gonna get to one-on-one) setting. The experiences and learning opportunities I've had with SIFE have been really amazing. P.S. Our team also won Regionals!! So we're going to Philly in May for Nationals!!

All of this "being a big girl" stuff is tiring! I'm ready for the weekend and having some free time for once...