spending the rest of my life in EDU-ma-KAY-SHUN!

Remember back when you were in middle school...and you dreamed of being in high school? Remember the moment you graduated high school, and you couldn't wait to be in college!

Remember the moment when you were in the midst of college, and wished you were in high school?

Remember the moment when you (finally) graduated college, and had a job in the "real world" and then wanted to go back to elementary school?

(you know those naps were much needed!) 

All of the above statements revolved around EDUCATION. The one binding force that grounded you into something to prepare you for the rest of your life. I have done all the above-several times- and still feel that I want to go back to school.

and study Environmental Psychology.

Wait, wait wait...you went to school for Interior Design. what does that even have to do with Environ...whatever!?

It actually is a crucial part of my field. In order to design something, you have to have a general idea of the space, what you are planning to do with it, what the functions are, and the likes or dislikes of that particular customer so you can happily design!

I absolutely love the study of humans and their behavior and when you mix that with the environment, you get Environmental Psychology. It is a great profession to get into. Many large companies hire an E.P. (environmental psychologist) to study the space they are planning to occupy as well as the demographics of the areas around them.

This stuff fascinates me!

I am planning to delve back into the educational business and get my Masters in Enviro Psych. I love school. I love studying. Especially when the subject matter is something that I am passionate about. I live and breathe design.

Even though this is my ultimate goal, I have to take baby steps to reach it. It is not something that I can do at the snap of a finger. But I am actively searching for internships or job opportunities to get closer involved in E.P.

I am working at a custom Cabinet/ Kitchen and Bath place.

It's fun. Lots of customization!

So look forward to more posts about my journey. I am ready to take on this for my lifetime :)

A promise isn't a promise until you are fulfilling your dream

Many of you who read my blog may have heard that I had gotten a job even before I was out of college. To me, that was unheard of; promised a job before graduation? YES! all my dreams were coming true, my worries were over with and I was walking straight into something amazing!

or so I thought...

As soon as graduation had hit, I was packing up my Cavalier, headed home for a weekend of sleep and jumpstarting my way back into work FULLTIME!

I was singing a happy tune and ready to start working. My boss asked me to call her as soon as I reached town. Which I did! She said tey were going to take a week and then call me. 

Sweeeeett! A few days to rest, I'm down! 

So I gladly took my week off and caught up on sleep and other relaxation techniques. Spent lots of time with the family and even get to see my friends whom I neglected while I was at school unfortunately :(

After the week, I waited....and waited....and waited...and WAITED for at least a phone call, email, text anything!!!!  and another week went by. Still nothing. So I was annoyed (obviously) but I figured that it was okay and I would hear soon.

Yeah right! It wasn't okay & I didn't hear anything for another week...until I got a text...that basically said 

"We aren't hiring you anymore...sorry for lack of communication..OH and here's another company but no contact info..sorry Good Luck!"

I cried.

3 weeks was all it took for no reply and that devestated me. However, I have picked myself up and put my resume up there and received an interview not too long ago. I also have a called a few places. But i'm not getting my hopes up like last time. Too painful and no one should have to experience that!

Anyways, when I start working and it's all good, I will update you all!

Untill then, never give up on your dreams :)

d.b

freaking out < relaxed state of mind

*sigh*

I have been having a lot of those lately. I do not know whether to be happy about that fact or sad about that fact.

*breathe*

I have been told to do that a lot lately. But again, I wonder if I am breathing completely on my own or the willingness within me is breathing for me.

*strength*

I feel a lot of that lately. It comes out of nowhere. Waves actually, a sense of peace flows over me and I shiver at the slightest whisper of calmness.

*sentimental*

I feel that strongly lately.  Not the kind that a grandma feels towards baking her grandchildren cookies- oh wait, maybe like that. Although I don't have kids, much less grands; and mm cookies sound good. Anywhoo!
I feel that sentimental is the best word to describe my feelings right now. Which lead me into this:


All of the words above have had an impact on me in some way, shape or form this past 10 weeks. As I approach my last week of classes..well more like my last week of finals, I can recall these same three words running through my head. Right now, I don't like thinking that I am 3 days away from my last formal presentation ever at school and I am 5 days away from graduation, from college, at age 20. HOLY SMOKING BONES! < whaa?!

Yeah! I don't even think I can begin to wrap my head around this sequence of events. Really. If you think hard back to you first day of kindergarten - for some of you I know that may be a lil bit extensive of a memory- however, feelings of nostalgia overwhelm the brain, same goes for elementary school. Middle school. ehh maybe more like "get me outta here" High school, feelings of weird bliss and "can't wait to get the heck out this place and be an adult" sank in. But now college. Where some people do not know where to look forward. It's kind of an emotional time. You know that you are now officially, official. Ready to do some work up in the working place. But for now, its more of a step forward, putting you in a positive direction type of thing.


And then there are all the questions from people.
"OMG so like, what are you gunna do now?"
"Are you excited?"
"Getting married?!"
"Are you going back to school?"
"What do you think your doing next!"
"Why are you graduating-your like 12!"
"So...this is it huh?"

Yes. This is it. I know what I want to do and I am willing to put it all there so I can do the best of my ability. I am excited, NOOOOOOO I am not getting married anytime soon. Besides, marriage entails a more-that-just-my-friend friend >boyfriend > fiance> husband..which I don't really have so no "dum-dum-da-dum".

Going back to school? Maybe. What am I doing next? refer to my list of starred words ^
Why am I graduating? Beecauuseeee! I A) went to elementary, middle and subsequentally high school, enrolled at Ai and now I am B) graduating.

Now while, I can joke about it in a post, I certainly can not joke in person. Cuz i get emotional. Knowing that I am leaving my family. My ID Peas :) I love them.

Well, if I don't post another post before graduation. Know that I am ok. I am just breathing :]

db

What can be accomplished in 6 weeks might blow your mind...

I don't really know how else to put this, but 6 weeks from now, all the hard work, efforts, tears shed, trace papers wasted, countless sleepless hours & money spent on portfolios will have paid off in some regards. The panic that I have felt in the past three years and the countless times I have thought that I could not do this will have washed behind me, because I will have made it through. I pushed pass the odds, I can officially say, that I made it...in 6 weeks.

But I can never credit myself. Oh no! I went through this journey with some of the STRONGEST WOMEN (and Gents) that I know! The journey is not my own and even though I am almost finished and through with it, I am proud of my family. I never use that term lightly in an way. Literally, I think of all of you guys as my family. I feel overwhelmed and a little bit sad that it's almost done, but you guys helped to make it happen.

Sometimes at points along this journey I wished for more, I wished that I dug deeper and strive harder but my journey is what I make of it, and in the end, the knowledge has made me grow to be a better person. For now, I have to say that its about the seed that was planted inside of me to grow and not magically, because goodness knows I WORKED HARD (blood sweat and tears) for this degree, but thankfully I have you girls to be my support system!

This is not my sad goodbye, but more my midterm check up because I will be soon crying (happy tears only lol)

Til next time

db

Week Two at Internship

For those of you who were waiting patiently for the rest of my report her eat my internship, wait no longer!!!!! I am going to update you all as much as I can without overloading you. This post and probably one more will be about week two in its entirety! So let's get started.

The second week started off with a lot of pricing and preparation. The two teams had a proposal with separate clients and they needed the clients information and all of their proposal sheets done and in time to the clients before Friday. During the week, I was responsible for several duties. First, we had to pull a lot of spec sheets and pretty pictures. This also meant that all of the pictures and spec sheets had to be placed in a binder for us to look at and evaluate and the client got to look through those sheets and decide whether or not they wanted what we spec-ed.

One client was coming in and she had one idea in her head that we had to match, but then after sitting in the client meeting, I realized that she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to accomplish in her room, but after taking her through some of the materials library she focused in on a theme and we were able to get her on the right path to her vision.

Days 4 & 5: Fun Project time!

Thursday and Friday was really fun because I was assigned a project of my own. I got to pick out my own materials and fabrics for a project. It was really fun to be given that task instead of pricing furniture and scanning pictures and boring stuff. Not that everything is boring. It's a learning process and slightly tedious but hey, that is what happens when you are an intern and it is your first week lol.

But I was able to select the entire bedding and paint swatches for the kitchen/ sitting room of this ladies condo. They had this unique tile/backsplash that was going all throughout the kitchen and I had to select fabrics that correlated with the tile. I have to say that color coordination is my forte in residential projects. I think that everyone has said that I have a good eye for color. I will post pictures of the final selections later...so make sure to check back for updates.

It is different being at a residential firm. I thought I would not like residential at all but I kind of like the firm. I have not dabbled at all in commercial project quite yet but I am sure that they will have a few projects going. One thing that is very common in this firm is that they are always sending out proposals for different clients that need to be finished. Most Fridays, they are scrambling to make sure that all the components that are needed for the proposals are together.

I think, I am not sure that I wrote about it yet but I have done a board. UHHH I am not a fan of the boards. They do look good when they are completed. I think I don't quite like them because I haven't really done any at Ai. The coolest thing is ordering the samples of the fabrics and having them come in and touch and feel the samples for ourselves instead of staring at a screen. They were shocked to know that I did eveything on 11 x 17 prints and not 2 x 3 boards. Haha I never realized how many colleges do things on boards. But hey, c'est la vie!

I am going to get back to work, because technically today is Friday of week 2 but I haven't been catching up with my day to days. Don't worry though, I have written every day down so I'll go back and update soon! This weekend actually! I also have some good news that will be revealed later....hmmm dontcha wanna know?? Check back later :)

Day 3: You can only go as fast as your eyes will scan...

Wednesday = Hump Day...middle of the week& the time that everything seems to happen!

Today was a busy day as well. Lots to do and complete but not a whole lot of time to do it in. The first thing that I did was an Appliance Spec Book, similar to the ones for Commercials but at the same time a little bit different. You had to pull several appliances from the manufacturer's website and make sure that they were all available and then print the specifications for each appliance. No biggie.

Next, we had to put together a clients binder with all the electrical plans, the cabinetry detail, plumming, materials etc in an oganized binder for everyone who was working on the project. That was interesting to see how a customer's completed project comes together.

After that was completed, I did price sheets again. Pricing comes a lot easier now that I have a general idea of how everything works together, for the most part anyways. It's easy to recognize some of the furniture just by looking at the pictures. That is cool because I feel like I am becoming a small part of the firm...little teeny weeny haha.

We broke for lunch and then after lunch came back with scans and copies of room options for a client. That was interesting because clients have different tastes and visions than the designers, so we had to find a compromising position to let the client choose from. She liked our choices and then was able to come back with a final decision on the furniture we selected.

Next, I worked on some Custom Cabinetry requests. Those were hard because the customer wanted a specific style and specific way of these materials and we were not able to find right away a manufacturere that could do it..but a little hunting around and we did! It was fun and it was a little challenge at the same time which I liked.

Today I also received word about a special project that I would work on Friday so I will let you guys know how that goes :)