Category: Becca

Becca: Please Learn from My Mistakes

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It’s my final semester here at BU. While I refuse to admit I’m g*******ing, I will admit to several mistakes I’ve made over almost 1,300 days at Boston University. While these are not detrimental, avoiding them can make your life so much easier during your time here. 

  • Don’t spend all the time with your roommates. 

I love my roommates. I’ve loved all of them and some are my best friends. However, living with someone will most likely at some point put them on your nerves. It may be for something really small, but you will still want to have someone to talk about it. If you only have your roommates, this time will be unbearable. Everyone needs other people to reach out to. Lucky for you, there are so many on-campus organizations that you can be apart to find even more friends. Then, if your roommates forget to take out their trash, you can brush it right off. 

  • Actually explore outside the BU bubble. And not just Back Bay. 

This one is hard to do after your freshman year. The more time you spend at BU, the less free time you have to explore all the amazing neighborhoods that Boston has to offer. While Comm Ave and Back Bay are amazing, take the Orange Line to Kendall Square or Red Line to the Seaport. There are so many unexplored places that lie just outside of the Green Line. Who knows? You may find your favorite place (mine is Brookline Booksmith or Naco Tacos). 

  • Take more than the required classes outside of COM. 

I was so excited to get into my advertising classes that I didn’t even explore all parts of the course catalog. All of my classes served a specific purpose or requirement they fulfilled. Of course, each one was so valuable. But, I often wonder about what classes I missed just because I was hoping they would fulfill a specific credit.

Invest in good shoes. 

I cannot stress this enough. According to all of my tech, I walk over an average of 60 miles a month, not including any time spent at FitRec. That is at least two miles a day; some days many, many more (and some days I don’t leave my bed). If you don’t have good shoes or socks, there will be a lot of times where the blisters catch up to you. Good shoes don’t have to be nerdy Dad shoes, there are plenty of stylish options that provide comfort and are still sleek. 

While there are many other things that I would consider mistakes, I wouldn’t change them. Those mistakes have made my time at BU as memorable as it has been. Many of them from my first year don’t even seem like mistakes. You may be tired some mornings and kick yourself when you are walking to your 8 AM lecture, but those nights are the ones to remember.

Becca: 4 Last Minute Halloween Costumes Everyone Can Do

With the widely raging debate of what weekend is the true Halloweekend coming to a close, so does another issue. If you are like me, you used all your good costumes last weekend. (Was I Edna Mode? Follow @beccabuchholz to find out.) But, if your friends are dragging you to the various activities around Boston that require some semblance of a costume, you’ve come to the right article. 

Tina Belcher

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All this requires is a denim skirt, a plain shirt, tube socks, glasses, and your black vans that we all know you have. Bonus points if you have a strong love of a boy named Jimmy Jr.

Identity Thief

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One of the easiest costumes if you pass a Questrom networking event. Get a bunch of name tags and write everyone’s names on it. Boom. Identity theft is not a joke, Jim.

Eye Candy 

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This is for everyone who doesn’t want to lose an outfit for a holiday. Cheap sunglasses, Gorilla glue, and stolen candy from COM Undergraduate Affairs. An easy costume that looks sweet!

Dwayne the Rock Johnson

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If you don’t own a black turtleneck, chances are you visiting from a warmer climate. Throw on that (or borrow your roommates), some jeans, and a gold necklace. Really commit with a fanny pack addition. Print out his picture for free in the COM lounge so people know who you are. 

If you aren’t a fan of Halloween, relax! Spooky season is coming to an end real soon. You need not fake a love of Monster Mash for much longer. 

Up next is the season of binge eating and capitalism!

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Becca: Why You Can’t Stop Procrastinating and Why You Don’t Need To

Like many students at BU and beyond, I tend to procrastinate, especially when things get busy.  Studies show that up to 95% of college students procrastinate on a regular basis. So, odds are you do too. Every September and January, I vowed to quit procrastinating that semester. But November or April rolls around and I’m doing homework the day its due and prioritizing the gym, extracurriculars, and Netflix over why I came to BU. I would start major projects a couple days in advance and kick myself the entire time.

We were always told it was bad, too. “You need as much time to revise as possible.” “You’re setting a bad habit for the future.” But, is procrastination really as bad as it seems?

First off, there could be a couple reasons underlying why you are making the conscious or unconscious choice to procrastinate. The first reason is that you could be afraid of failing. Putting in effort but still failing makes you anxious so you wait and so you can always use the excuse that you started late if you do fail. The second reason is actually the opposite. Success and the burden of more responsibility can be frightening because it propels you into the unknown. The last big reason is perfectionism and the anxiety that accompanies a misstep or two. This demanding standard of work is incapacitating, especially in a creative-heavy field like communications.

(The effects of depression and anxiety effects can make you more likely to procrastinate events, but I am not in any way a mental health professional. Please see a trained professional if you or someone you know are suffering.)

Regardless of the reason you procrastinate, I am saying something controversial right now. There is no need for you to stop procrastinating. As long as your grades don’t slip and your quality of life doesn’t diminish, why stop procrastinating? There are a couple reasons procrastination works in your favor.

As you wander, your brain can make the connections that come with an idle mind. Keeping things on the “back of your mind” can make them expand and turn into these beautiful nuggets of creative inspiration.

Procrastination forces you to prioritize your time. For example, I always make time to call my mom before I do assigned readings. Turns out, my family is important to me and optional textbook reading is less. Can you blame me?

  • You apologize better when you take break.  

When you procrastinate the important stuff, like the stuff you may need to apologize for, you are likely to develop a more sincere and honest response and apology. The other person has time to relax and you both approach the situation with your rational minds.

There are other reasons to keep actively procrastinating. Focus your time on and energy on the most important things in your life. Keep flexing your creativity and don’t let your fears or anxieties keep you from your best work.

Becca: Why My Fall Goals Matter to You

The fall semester is one of my favorite because it’s time to reset the focus on meeting goals. Even if you spent your summer working or taking class comparable to your fall semester, as I did (although in Australia), everyone is back on campus together to take classes, work part-time jobs, participate in extracurriculars, and try to strike the work-life-school-friend-extracurricular balance that’s rare. So I take time every fall to set some concrete goals for myself. However, it is hard to set goals that are really meaningful, so I am willing to share my mine with you guys so we can all have a successful semester. If you’re already inspired, this Fast Company article is my favorite guide to create an attainable plan. I encourage you to write your goals down in a visible place that you will see daily to reconnect you with your vision.

But, if you need some examples or are just really nosy about my life below are my goals. This is not only helpful for you, but for me because now everyone knows them and will keep me on my toes. Enjoy!

  1. Read for enjoyment every day.

I don’t know about you but I grew up a reading fiend. I would read after my bedtime and risk being caught by my Mom.  However, as I have gotten older reading has become something to stress over for class. Well, this semester I am determined to take back the fun in reading. Once a day, I am trying to set aside some time to read a thriller, a sci-fi mystery, or a romance novel. Even books I have to read for literature class can fall under this category if I find myself enjoying them. I can talk about the scientific studies that accompany reading novels every day, but really you just feel a little better after some good book time.

  1. Find fun ways to move my body daily.

As you will see a majority of my goals are taking things off my chore list and making them something I look forward to. Exercise is no different. We all know we should be doing it daily and making it a habit while we are young. But no rulebook says exercise is thirty minutes on the treadmill (it actually began as torture machine) and not dancing with your roommates or participating in an intramural league. I want to recommit myself to love the body I was given and all of its talents instead of using it for my next Netflix binge. (or Hulu, because I just started Handmaid’s Tale. Amazing.)

  1. Take personal relationships very seriously.

My friends mean the world to me. I can count on them to fulfill any role in my life, and I would do the same for them. Lately, I have been putting effort into my close relationships with my best friends, leaving acquaintances and new companions in the dust. This semester I am committing to be a better friend to those in my life. Whether that means grabbing lunch with someone in the GSU (when I’d rather watch Netflix) or just commenting something nice on new Instagram posts. We forget most people have their own lives with their own problems and can often use an extra dose of compassion from their fellow humans. And remember, when you put good in the universe, it comes back for you.

Just for fun, if I still have your attention, I’m going to list the rest of my goals that you can adapt to fit your own needs. What works for me, may not be what your focus is. Set a goal and commit to it.

  1. Figure out job plans for the next semester
  2. Tell people honestly how I feel
  3. Actively listen to everyone (including professors!)
  4. Have a conversation with one new person a day
  5. Shut my phone down for a while (not including class!)
  6. Learn to forgive my family, my friends, and myself

 

Becca: Things Sophomore Year Taught Me

As the semester draws to a close, I become very reflective. I begin to look at old pictures and reminisce about where I was a year, five years and even ten years ago. It boggles my mind to see exactly how far I have come in a relatively short period. Genuinely, I get excited for the future when I think about the places you and I can go. And now, what I learned this year.

Professors want you to succeed as much as you want yourself to succeed.

I was lucky this year to have eight amazing professors who care about their students. Yes, they give tests that you might not do so well on. They also might give weekly quizzes with trick questions. But, deep down, they are all rooting for you to be your best. Because I went to their office hours (a lot), it became incredibly evident.

You find friends in unexpected places.

Sophomore year, I found where I belonged at BU. When I went home for vacations, all I longed for was to get back to school and see my Boston family again. I didn’t have these feelings freshman year because I overlooked nontraditional ways to find friends. You find your people next to you in classes, in the same extracurriculars, working Open House, and waiting in the Einstein’s line.

Although there are bad days, I am a better person now more than ever.

It’s no secret: you have bad days in college. Some really bad days. You also have some really great days. This semester instead of curling up and wishing I was anywhere other than Boston, I put on my “Big Girl” pants and faced problems head-on. I learned how to confront confidently, ask deliberately, and work incessantly, skills I learned from people I admire at BU.

To wrap up this incredibly sappy post, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you to the people who gave me my first adult job this semester. Thank you to the professors who were on my side. Thank you to the friends I never thought I would have.

 

Becca: Tips on Finding a Job the Summer after Sophomore Year

I started the fall of my sophomore year listening to my older friends talk about their stress surrounding summer internships. Their rambling started my nerves. “Do I need a job? Who is going to hire me?”  My resume was scarce, to say the least. I had worked at summer camp and a dance studio but my real life advertising experience consisted solely of Ad Club. I scrolled through pages and pages of advertising agencies websites until I noticed one consistency with all of the applications:

“We are only accepting applications from graduation years 2019, 2018 or earlier.”

“Only rising seniors and post-grads are eligible to apply. “

“Sophomore are ineligible to submit applications for this position.”

Even agencies in my hometown had similar rules for their internship applications. This can be incredibly disheartening, especially for students who feel ready to see what the “real world” is like. So, as promised, here are my tips on finding a summer internship in your field.

  1. Use your network.

LinkedIn is an amazing tool that gives you the ability to see who can jumpstart your summer job search. I used the chat feature to reach out to several of my older friends to get insight on where to look when your age feels like the biggest hurdle in getting a job. Also, don’t be afraid to use your parents and their friends to introduce you to players in your field. Most of the time they are very excited to offer help and their introduction might carry a little more weight.

  1. Research a TON!

When I don’t know how to solve a problem, my go-to is to understand it. In the fall, I spent a lot of my free time reading AdWeek and AdAge as well as drafting resumes and cover letters to send out to any HR staff whose email I could find. Through research, I also figured out which COM professors were key players in the field and could help me get a foot in the door.

  1. Nail the Interview.

If you get lucky enough as a sophomore to get asked for an in-person interview, prepare very thoroughly. Research the company and clients. Be familiar with major campaigns and their results. Examine their social media to get a feel for the culture and what they look for. Know the lingo about different programs and field jargon so you can speak their language.   The fear of employers with younger college students is the ability to fit a professional workplace. Quell their fears by coming in well dressed and well educated.

  1. Just Study Abroad

If you still can’t seem to lock down an internship with all those brilliant tips: just study abroad. BU offers a ton of international and domestic internships during the summer that provides you with a global experience.  BU works very closely with those that are accepted to go abroad to make sure you are fully experiencing what it is like to work in another culture. In addition, you will be adding relevant experience to your future resume. So if in doubt, just hop on the plane and go!

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