Pray for Stephan. He’s over in Iraq right now. Keep him and the 82nd Airborne Chorus in your prayers as they perform concerts for the troops over there. I’m not sure when they’re coming back, but pray for a safe return.
Also, continue to pray for me as I look for a job. I just applied for a government job, as a publications officer (an editorial type job) last week. I don’t know if I’ll hear from them or not, but it’d be a great experience, and it’d be serving my country as well. If I got it, I’d be up in DC, which means I’d be living near my brother and sister-in-law, as well as my grandma and a couple of uncles. I could even get an apartment in the same complex as my brother
While the DC area is not my ideal place, it’d be a great place to start off for a career, and I already know people up there (and you’re up there too, Nancy!) So I’m looking for jobs in that area… as well as the area I’m in now, since I like southern Virginia too. But who knows, maybe I’ll end up somewhere completely different! I wish God could give me some hints, lol.
Thanks Nancy! Unfortunately… nope… haven’t heard from the government. A couple of days ago I emailed someone over at Military Living, a magazine over in Falls Church. They have editorial jobs, and they prefer military people (or spouses or dependents), and my dad was in the Coast Guard for 20 years, so that’s a plus. I don’t know if they’ll even look at me since I won’t be available until late May/early June, but it didn’t hurt to ask and send my resumé
Also, my brother asked for my resumé, to pass along to (as he put it) “the big boss man” - the Vice President of the division of the company he works at (Plexus Scientific). Apparently he has a say on who gets picked for internships. I’d rather have a full-time job, but I guess a lot of people who work there started out as interns, so it could lead to a full-time job. I just don’t know what they have available for English majors!
I’ve been looking at craigslist for opportunities (that’s where I found the Military Living job). I have a feeling that I won’t be able to apply anywhere until closer to graduation, or even after graduation, since most jobs are for immediate hire. But who knows… I just wish God would point out a job and say in a big booming voice “Go work there!” If only things were that easy…
You know, I’ve been asking God for a big, bright neon arrow pointing out the way for me and He just won’t give me one either!
When I graduated, I job hunted for six months during a terrible time in the economy and was very discouraged. But just as the money was running out and I was living in a drug neighborhood, not able to afford a whole lot more than day old meat and bread, God brought me to this job via word of mouth of a ministry friend. I’m betting He won’t let you get down to eating gray hamburger before you hear the words “You’re hired.”
If you’re definitely interested in working for the government, you may have to wait until you’ve actually graduated because we feds have a hard time holding a job open, waiting for someone to get through school.
Look for positions in the government’s Career Intern program. This is a really good deal and I wish they had it when I started. It’s a two year program and you’re doing a “real” job, not actual intern tasks like making copies and running around with coffee and donuts. It’s a mentoring program, and is an easy way to get your foot in the door with the government. If you come into the program with a bachelor’s degree, you’ll qualify for a GS 7 (salary $37,640 in the DC area) and if you have a master’s, you can enter as a GS 9 (salary $46,041 in the DC area). That may sound like a lot of money if you live in other parts of the country, but starter houses in the surburban DC area go for upwards of $500,000 so that money doesn’t end up stretching quite as far as you’d think it would. At the end of the two years, you are converted to a more permanent status as a government employee.
Look too for jobs that have a “career ladder"--you can come in at say a Grade 7 and progress to a 9 and then an 11 in successive years. Not all jobs are like that, but if you can find one, it’s a quick way to move up the bureaucratic food chain.
There’s hope for English majors. I’m surrounded by them.
Look for positions in the government’s Career Intern program. This is a really good deal and I wish they had it when I started. It’s a two year program and you’re doing a “real” job, not actual intern tasks like making copies and running around with coffee and donuts. It’s a mentoring program, and is an easy way to get your foot in the door with the government. If you come into the program with a bachelor’s degree, you’ll qualify for a GS 7 (salary $37,640 in the DC area) and if you have a master’s, you can enter as a GS 9 (salary $46,041 in the DC area). That may sound like a lot of money if you live in other parts of the country, but starter houses in the surburban DC area go for upwards of $500,000 so that money doesn’t end up stretching quite as far as you’d think it would. At the end of the two years, you are converted to a more permanent status as a government employee.
The government job I applied for, was about $37 thousand for a minimum. I was like “awesome!” until I remembered that the DC area is expensive.
Is there a website for that Career Intern program? I was looking around the web and couldn’t find it.
ive been really really tired lately and cant seem to get enough sleep… i dont want to get sick at the start of a new semester, and i dont want to get overwhelmed and stressed, as some of my classes are threatening to do to me. please pray for me?
Loisgirl, I don’t want to see you get burned out. Been there, done that, got the desperate journal entries to prove it. Seriously darlin, please try to make yourself get to bed at a decent hour.
Can you make a calendar with your due dates for your various class assignments? If you have everything on one calendar, you can see when each thing is due and be able to breathe a little easier, one chapter at a time, one project and paper at a time. I’m praying!
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And Kristen, there isn’t a central place for finding all Career Intern positions, unfortunately. To make things worse, a lot of government offices like mine don’t even mention in their job descriptions that the jobs they’re hiring for are Career Internships. One hint that a job might be a Career Intern position is that rather than the job being posted on http://www.USAJobs.gov, it’ll be posted on http://www.Monster.com or http://www.CareerBuilder.com or on a job board at a professional organization. I just hired a writer/pr person and we posted that position on http://www.MediaBistro.com and through http://www.PRSA.org. We didn’t mention it was a Career Intern job. If you search the key words Career Intern at http://www.USAJobs.gov, there will be a couple hundred jobs nationally, but not all government job openings are listed there.
Hey guys I’ve got a really serious request for a friend of a friend. My roommie’s best friend is really really sick right now. I’m not sure what she’s got but it’s bad. Kat Salazar is her name. She’s younger than me and one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. This is really hard on her family becuse they don’t have money to cover their doctor bills in taking Kat to see the doctor. What really let me know that this was bad was when I walked into my room last night and my roommate was sitting at her laptop trying hard not to let me know she was crying. Well being the unsure of what I should do I just hugged her and she cried for a really long time and then we prayed together. But ya’ll just pray for Kat and for her family because this is really hard on all of them. Her symptoms seem to be a lot of pain in her joints everyonce in a while she’ll go blind, be headaches, she doesn’t want to eat. That’s about all I know. One doctor said she might have lupus but I never heard any more on that lately. So ya’ll please please pray for healing, strength, peace, and hope.
Loisgirl, I don’t want to see you get burned out. Been there, done that, got the desperate journal entries to prove it. Seriously darlin, please try to make yourself get to bed at a decent hour.
Can you make a calendar with your due dates for your various class assignments? If you have everything on one calendar, you can see when each thing is due and be able to breathe a little easier, one chapter at a time, one project and paper at a time. I’m praying!
thanks nancy… i have all of the information from my teachers… but making a calendar seems like a lot of work right now! haha. maybe tomorrow morning since i dont have class until 1:40. i just… have to keep from worrying about my classes. because if im not careful, i will feel like choking over what i dont understand and how much needs to get done. outwardly im fine. inwardly i feel like a mess. i wish i could just live at youth group and church. haha. those are the only places where i really feel CALM.
My parents took the two foster kids to Walt Disney World for the week, coming back Saturday. Well, my dad just got online and told me they got back last night. Apparently the boy, the 12-year-old, caused some problems and was being uncooperative. He wouldn’t get out of bed their second day there and my dad had to call his social worker to get him going! The next day he was still being a hassle so they left.
My dad wrote: “We said we were thru but they (social services) talked us into trying some things. Mom and I will be staying in a hotel tomorrow and Sat while they are with some other foster family.” (the trip was an early anniversary trip - their 30th is in May, so that’s why they’re staying at a hotel). My dad also said that the boy has no privileges - no TV, MP3 player, computer, Playstation, any of that. He has to earn them back. But if he doesn’t, “he’ll end up with just his bed and clothes in his room. And then he and his sister will be placed in another home...”
I feel so bad about the situation… I love these kids, they’ve become like family. And because one of the kids is causing problems that my parents are having trouble with, they may not stay with us anymore. I hope it all works out, but my parents can’t deal with trouble all the time, and I can understand that. I just hope the boy straightens up and works hard to make things right…
I feel bad for my parents too. They took the kids with them instead of going by themselves, and they didn’t have to do that. And what kid wouldn’t want to go to Disney World for a week and miss 4 days of school (well, 3, since their school had a snow day Monday)? I would’ve loved to have gone… and if I was the boy’s age, I would’ve been on my BEST behavior so I could enjoy everything the park had to offer!
I personally don’t want the kids to leave… I hope they stay with us. But my parents aren’t 30 anymore. And lately it seems my dad talks to me and complains about the boy not listening… I can hear the frustration in his voice… he and my mom try SO hard to give these kids things they want and to give them a better life than they had with their mom… and they (the boy mainly) aren’t thankful or grateful.
Please pray for these kids. They can be wonderful kids. I think if they can’t handle the boy, they’d rather have the siblings stick together instead of separate them… I just hope they end up where they need to be. Their next court date is in June. If we have them before then, who knows. It depends what happens… it just makes me want to cry. They’ve become like my little brother and sister in these 8 1/2 months, and now they may leave not because they go home or to their grandparents, but because the boy can’t behave…
Pray for my parents too. They’re exhausted, I’m sure. They’re good, loving people, but they can only do so much.
Kristen, Disneyworld can be overwhelming to some children. All the excitement is sometimes just more than they can handle. Hopefully that’s all it was and maybe once he settles into something “normal” it will work out.
Another thought: Age 12 is tough because kids want to be grown-up and they’re stuck somewhere in between childhood and adulthood. Disneyworld sounds like fun to them, but they don’t want anyone to know that still enjoy “child-like” things because they want to be treated like a grown-up, not a kid. I think if I told my kids (ages 12, 15 & 16) that we were going to Disneyworld, the older two would say “YES!” The 12-year-old would probably say, “I’m too old for baby stuff.” (When we go to a restaurant, my 15-year-old will frequently ask for a kids menu so he can color, while the 12-year-old is visibly insulted if the waitress asks if she wants a kids menu.) Not to mention he is going through additional things, other than just “being 12.”
I will be praying for your family as I’m sure there are many other issues they’re dealing with besides the Disneyworld episode. How disappointed they must be to have had this trip cut short. I hope your parents will get to enjoy their anniversary. From what I can see here, they are wonderful people!
I just recieved an email from a friend. She’s been diagnosed with depression and had to go home for an indefinite amount of time. This is the third time this semester that one of my close friends has had depression for the first time. It’s scary for them (and me), and is maybe worse because they are away from home. I don’t know. I know it’s so important for them to be with people who can just listen and be with them and so I try to do that. At the same time, it’s hard because they don’t really want to be around people or show how they are actually feeling...they don’t want to show anything but their normal self. All three are so frustrated.
I’m worried for them, sad for them, and trying to help them through this. All three are Christians which makes it easier to talk about hope and trusting that they will get through this. But it’s still hard when they don’t see anything positive in their world right now. It’d be wonderful if y’all would pray for them and me.
I think your friends are pretty blessed to have you praying for them and looking and longing for a way to help. It’s kind of scary to have so many friends going through the same thing at the same time. Do these friends all know each other by any chance?
I’ve wrestled with times of depression since I was a kid. And you know, I didn’t realize that it was such a long history until I looked back at some writings I did when I was in the 12-14 range. I saw it in my words and remembered the feelings, and how similar they were to my more recent experiences of depression and the feelings and the writings I’ve done then.
Praying for you and your friends, and praising God for your wonderful, loving heart,
