LAST HOMEWORK

I realized I am able to get what I want in my life and I will never doubt myself again.

I have grown in the way that I realized that everything I want to do in life is possible, and all I need to do is stay goal oriented and work hard, and everything will fall in its place. I grown more optimistic and I know I will not give up until I reach what I want to reach. My thinking about myself changed in the way that now I am sure I can do it. I was scared before, but I am not anymore. I see my future; I see the graduation day and me finding a job and buying a home and getting married and having kids that I’ve been waiting for so long now. Everything is possible in the world, you just got to go out there and get what you want. Stop doubting yourself, believe in yourself and go out and work hard. It might take a long time, there will be things in the way that will try to discourage you, but you need to face them and knock them out of the way. As for the activities I have engaged in for the first time was first of all bungee jumping that was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life, as well as really being able to ask for what I want and research around to get information from other people that have done what I want to do.

The three things I liked the most about Leadership For A Change was the professor :) , she is the most fun person I have ever met in my life and someone that really believes in her students, I liked the blogs, it was fun to read them at the end and see how much we actually wrote, and I liked the quizzes, because I was always prepared for them and got good grades and that made me feel better about myself. I cannot list the three things I liked the least about this class because I think the class was perfect and I really enjoyed it. I am happy I took this class and wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t think the class needs any improvements.

Nov. 17th, 09 Tuesday

Next Step

My next steps are to continue applying for jobs, research some schools, and finish up more school work that I have next couple of weeks to do. So today I applied for more HR positions, and also I applied to Highland Park Police Department, it is not really in my field, but the job sounded pretty interesting and pays pretty well (I took few Criminal Justice classes before because originally Criminal Justice was supposed to be my minor), so we will see. Someone better call back, please J. Next, I researched the Roosevelt University. In my previous interviews I’ve heard from Professor Larson that they have a pretty good IO Psychology program so I will consider that school, so I checked it out and completed an application. As my school work progress, I started my English final, completed my English extra credit and I am already knocking out this and next week’s homework. I also really want to sleep at night tonight because lately I’ve been too stressed out about school and for the past two night I could not sleep at all! So if I get more work done on a Tuesday night I will still have the rest of the week and the weekend to do more and maybe I can relax. I will also e-mail my buddy to meet me for another Buddy Meeting this week and blog about it few days later.

Buddy Meeting

I tried to meet with my buddy this week but we ran into some miscommunication. I emailed her one night to meet but she said she wasn’t sure if she’s doing this week’s assignment and that she was sick. Then Thursday night she emailed me that we can meet Friday morning, like we did last week, and to meet in the same spot at the same time as last week. So I emailed her back late Thursday night after I got home that I will meet her at the library at 830am. So Friday morning I went to school super early and was waiting for her, but she didn’t show up. Later that morning she texted me asking if I am there and I was but she said she didn’t check her email last night and she was still on the train and by then I had to go to class. Way too lose points…Great.

Sunday Night Planning

Sunday- finish some homework and practice for the presentation; get some sleep.

Monday- class in the morning, go see my teacher, meet with my group to practice for the group presentation. Finish paper.

Tuesday- internship and work. Finish all other homework.

Wednesday- sleep in, work, homework.

Thursday- sleep in, see mine and my boyfriend’s family for Thanksgiving. Night off from studying.

Friday- work, do homework. Go see a movie.

Saturday- clean the house, homework, my boyfriend’s birthday party.

Homework #11 THE BUDDY SYSTEM

My next step is to graduate :) In order to graduate, I still have bunch of school work I need to complete within the next three weeks ( can't believe it's almost over!).  It is stressful to think about how much more I need to do within such a short period of time.  This was honestly the hardest semester of all my college years- not only as always I am working full time, school, and internship take a lot of my time (when do we students sleep?), on top of that the past few months were the hardest on me in my personal life as well- everything just went wrong...  I am very stressed and this better end soon...I need a break.  So that's why I am taking a year off before graduate school.  So applying to schools and all that good stuff won't be the center of my attention for the next few months still. So my next step, as I said earlier, is to complete all my school work and graduate.  On my sheet in class I wrote down that I will finish up whatever I need for my psychology paper (which is a nightmare) and get my psychology presentation out of the way, and I did it. It feels good.  The rest of the school work I gotta do shouldn't be as hard as those two, so I feel better.  I think I can breathe again...:) 

As for the Buddy Meeting, I chose Abidemi Abioye as my partner.  We met up this morning at the UIC library.  Our meeting was kind of pointless, to be honest.  Both of us have goals to get our Master Degree, but we both are taking a break off from school for a year, so right now we are not applying.  So as for reporting back step, we reported back to ourselves that we did our school work for the week, because we both have the same next step to complete all the school work and graduate, so her, as well as me, also knocked out a lot of school work out of her way this week to move closer to graduation.  We did not run into any problems so we didn't really need solutions, other than that we are both tired, stressed, and stuck with he same psychology paper (she's also taking that Nightmare Psychology class!!!) but we are getting there with help of our strict and criticizing TAs... Our plans for the future- keep on working on school stuff, lets get this over with!, and graduate:)

I didn't find the Buddy Meeting helpful at all...Me and my buddy are on our own pace and on top of the things, and it was really hard to find a time to meet as we are both very busy.  It actually took me two hours to commute this morning from Buffalo Grove to school (our 90 Highway is something else...) just to meet Abidemi up...  Honestly, this could have been done over the phone... 

Homework #10

Homework #10

The next step on my planning wall is to find a job… Not just apply for a job, but actually get a job. I cannot wait to graduate, quit my current babysitting job (that I cannot stand any longer) and get out there in the real world. Last week I applied to so many jobs. Hello the real world, our economy is something else these days…So what I need to do now is ask for a job where I know I have a big chance to get one, the one I want the most, which is at my internship. My supervisor told me weeks ago to come talk to him if I decide to want to possible stay with the company. So for weeks I’ve been making excuses when he hasn’t mentioned it again…maybe he forgot, maybe something changed, I can talk to him later. No. He’s waiting for me to stand up for myself and come ask for a job so he sees I care. So no more being a chicken, I am getting over my fear of asking for what I want and I am doing it…

Later

I did it. I went into his office and asked to talk to him. I closed the door and sat down and asked him if they are hiring. I told him I thought it was a good time to talk to him since I only have three weeks left at the internship. Of course they are hiring, where have I been?! The lady who was doing what I wanted to do for the company (scheduling, interviewing, recruiting, HR, job fairs, office stuff, and bunch of more tasks to help the company grow and improve ) just quit! So I got myself an interview this Thursday at 9 am for the position.

Thursday

My interview went really well, and I got the job offer, however, I turned it down…It is not really what I expected, the salary is pretty low, I think I make as much babysitting as I would there, and my babysitting job is 20 min away from my house, while the job at Aflac is 45 miles away that takes me a little over an hour to get there. If the money was good I wouldn’t be so picky about the location, but if neither one is good, I’m not going to bother. I was actually quite disappointed when I finished the interview, there were just a lot of aspects of the job that I did not like, such as having to pay tax at the end of the year, instead of having it taken out from your paycheck right away (no, thanks, I am not getting slammed with having to pay couple thousand of dollars at the end of the year), no health insurance for the first year, low salary, and location. Plus for the amount of work they expect you to do in so many different fields of the company, the salary was just funny. I went to college for a reason…So my job search continues. What a bummer….

Fear

So that was my fear. Sometimes I am scared to ask for what I want. I think maybe someone will just give it to me if I get lucky and I want have to go ask for it. And many times when I avoid asking for what I want, I miss out. Someone else gets what I want, because I didn’t say anything soon enough and that really screws things up for myself. I think its safer to stay in the shadow, but does that really make me happy? Is the safe place, the place where I want to be? I guess the reason why asking for what I want frightens me is because I am pretty shy (stage fright). The reality is that you have to stand up for what you want and just go for it. So the way I get through my fears is by telling myself “Stop the excuses and just freaking do it!”. And a time comes when I hit that point and just get up and do it. I tell myself, if anything, I’ll die, but then I realize that I don’t die from asking for what I want, and after the fact, I realize it wasn’t that bad. I guess I need to believe in myself more and gain some confidence. My mother believes in me more than I believe in myself, and maybe I should learn from her.

Dominika;

What is your concentration of study and what degree are you currently working on? (UIC was your undergraduate school as well?)

Olga: My undergraduate degree is in Biology from Loyola Univerisity Chicago. I am currently pursuing my Master's Degree in Psychology, although I will not leave UIC after that and will continue toward getting a Ph.D. My concentration area is Social Psychology. Specifically, I am interested in small group performance.

Dominika: Is TA position at UIC your first job with Psych degree?

Olga: I technically don't have any psyc degrees yet, but I have had a job after my undergraduate education for one year before starting graduate school. Being a psychology TA is my second job.

Dominika: What do you love the most about psychology?

Olga: What I love most about psychology is that it is a peculiar blend of science on the one hand (mathetics, statistics) and creativity one the other. What I like most about Social Psychology is that it actually looks at why "normal" people do sometimes strange things.

Dominika: What kind of difficulties did you face before you got where you are now?

Olga: When I first applied to graduate programs in psychology, I was not accepted to the Ph.D. programs. I decided to take a year off, improve my qualifications (better GRE scores), and reapply. My second attempt was successful. Here I am today...

Dominika: Professor Greenberg, where did you go to college and what degree/s did you obtain?
Professor Greenberg: Undergraduate - Brooklyn College, BS in Psychology. I studied much philosophy as well. Graduate - University of Wichita (Now Wichita State University) - MA in Experimental Psychology. I did a rat avoidance learning study for my master's thesis. Kansas State University - PhD. Majored in Comparative Psychology.
Me: What do you love most about your degree? Prof G.: Being a professor is not only a stress free job, it is intellectually stimulating. I am always exposed to new ideas and new students. The students are always the same age and this keeps a person thinking and feeling young. Me: What were some other jobs you did before coming to UIC?
Prof G.: I taught at Hunter College in NY after getting my PhD. Then was at Wichita State University for 40+ years before retiring and coming to UIC.
Me: What were some of the difficulties you faced while obtaining your degree? Prof G.: There were few difficulties for me other than occasional financial things. I was highly motivated to achieve and had the full support of my family.

GET INTO ACTION

Today I spent the whole day searching for a job. As I am approaching my December graduation, I am getting really stressed out about not having a job lined up. I have talked to my internship supervisor about a position, however, I ran into a problem that made me hold off on the offer until I think about it. The problem is that our downtown office just got relocated to Crestwood. Sure, traffic is much better, but I just moved to a new house in Buffalo Grove and that makes Crestwood 45 miles away from my new house... It's a long drive for a job; lots of miles and gas...In the mean time I am searching many other jobs. I am pretty desperate by now; our economy does not look promising. This seriously must be the worst time to graduate...A friend of mine works in the Knowledge Learning Center for children and they require a 4-year degree in either early education or psychology, so I applied to like four different position at four different locations...I am really hoping to get a response about the Assistant Director position, wish me luck...On top of that I applied to Glenview Police Department as a Police Dispatcher; it is part time only for now but the pay is pretty good, so we will see. Therefore, I have completed five different job applications as my assignment this week.

In addition, I will post my two previous interviews I had last two weeks ago that I havent written about before (but completed a while ago). The first one was with Professor Gary Greenberg, my Psychology 262 instructor from last semester. The second one is from a graduate student, Olga Greenberg, who is studying to receive Master Degree in Psychology at UIC and who was my TA last semester in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (330).

Gary Greenberg: