Author: Sarah Mitroff

Internship

I guess in a way I am not much of a “Writer for Hire” at the moment, I got an awesome internship! I am super excited to get to develop my writing skills further (finally!). The skills I will gain through my internship will hopefully put me a step above the rest when I start my career search after I graduate in May. I will also have awesome professional experience to add to my resume.

Through the process of applying for jobs and going to my interview, a phrase came to me, “It can take a long time for it to rain, but when it rains, it pours”. Now the latter part of that phrase is an expression that not necessarily positive. It usually implies that when one negative event occurs, more can or will pile on top. However, the phrase that kept coming into my mind had a more positive idea behind it for me. I had begun my job search a few weeks ago and had my days where I felt defeated by a lack of response. However immediately after I was offered my new internship I received responses from other internships I applied for. This led me to think of the phrase that kept popping in my head. What the phrase means to me is that it can take a while for an opportunity to come my way, but when one opportunity comes along, more opportunities will come with it. If I can remind myself of that, I know I can gain the success I want.

I am so happy that I have this opportunity to prove myself and gain skills that will help me later on in my career. Sometime in the further I will be for hire again, but for now I will be busy gaining awesome experience! I start on Monday, wish me luck!

Put Down the Flat Iron and Walk Away

Several weeks ago I posted about my curly hair and how I was about to embark on my new journey towards hair enlightenment. Well actually I just wrote that I was going to follow the popular “Curly Girl” method (named after Lorraine Massey’s book) and see if I can handle not straightening my hair into submission.

When I began the process of following the “Curly Girl” method, which involves staying away from sulfate-free shampoos, hydrating hair with lots of conditioner and using only gel to style the curls with a few other styling techniques, I expected more freedom from my flat iron and my blow dryer and potential fights with my hair because in the past I have not been happy with my curls. I never expected to fall in love with my curls, and lets just say I fell hard.

I had borrowed “Curly Girl” from the library (San Francisco’s libraries are awesome!) after reading an article that referenced the Massey’s book in Glamour Magazine. The version I got was published several years ago but was still a wealth of knowledge. In the book Massey talks about “turning the corner”, that when someone first starts the “Curly Girl” program their hair may not look great for the first few weeks while it is basically healing from heat damage but, around the third week their true curly hair emerges. Well I have more or less turned the corner, and it is wonderful. Not only am I so pleased with how my hair looks, I am happy to have finally put down my flat iron and walk away. I haven’t touched it in nearly 4 weeks and I hope to not use it for at least the next year, if ever again.

The value of curls is so much clearer to me now. Before I blended in with all the other straight haired women out there, now I stand out! Whats more I seem to notice more women with curls all around me, each with unique types of curly hair. My curls have given much more freedom than I thought possible. In the past when I wore my hair curly, I had to maintain it everyday, now I know that if I treat my curls right they can last a few days. My previous hair styling regimen was so extensive that I had plan out my whole day or even week around it. Curls have given me so much more spontaneity in my life.

A funny thing happened right after I started my “Curly Girl” routine; my hairdryer that I’ve had for years broke. I took it as a sign that my flat iron days are over. I ended up getting a new hair dryer, after all I live in San Francisco where going outside with wet hair in the winter is not always a good idea, but my new dryer is a bit more gentle for my curls.

Looking back to my previous post on the subject, I talked about my hope that 2011 will be a year of curls. I choose to make a new year resolution to not touch my flat iron and I get the feeling that will be the first resolution in a long time that I actually keep. Do I still have the urge every now and then to have straight hair? Yes, yes I do. But armed with the new edition of “Curly Girl”, support from websites that celebrate curls (like NaturallyCurly that I recently discovered), all the awesome hair care products I’ve been experimenting with and my new found confidence I am certain that my flat iron will stay under my bathroom sink and I will have a head full of curls throughout 2011.

What Makes Me Smile

In an attempt to keep one of my new year resolution, finding what makes me happy, I have comprised a list of what makes me smile. Here we go!

  • The sunset
  • San Francisco Fog Horns that I can hear from my apartment
  • Getting a magazine in the mail
  • My Boyfriend
  • Any type of gooey chocolaty dessert
  • New music played in my car stereo
  • Seeing the ocean that is 5 blocks from my apartment
  • My friends
  • My dad’s San Francisco State University ID card from the 1970’s
  • Finding a great book at the library
  • San Francisco Giants games
  • Spray painted pictures on sidewalks and buildings (they are all over San Francisco). I saw one yesterday that was a Coke bottle with a heart on it.
  • Adorable animals, including my dog Sadie
  • The night sky

There are more things that make me smile, but if I named them all, this post would be much too long. Hopefully this year I can find even more things to make me smile. 🙂

Reality TV

I contend that reality TV has gone too far. I have accepted the realm of reality TV, crazy as it can be, but now I feel like reality TV has turned into the best way to exploit people. The show that was my final nail in the reality TV show coffin is Bridalplasty on E!. Now I don’t have full cable, I only really watch TV online and on Netflix, but over the holidays I was visiting mine and my boyfriend’s family and got my fair share of cable TV watching. Luckily I learned that I am not missing much from not having cable at home. While flipping through the channels one afternoon I came across Bridalplasty and thought I’d watch for a few minutes. I was so incredibly appalled by what I saw. Not only was it disgusting that women were competing for plastic surgery for their wedding, but that the show was basically exploited these poor women who obviously lack self esteem to the point they’d be willing to compete plastic surgery on a reality show. I couldn’t stand watching the show and quickly changed the channel.

The other show that bothered me during my vacation watching TV time was Teen Mom. Now I know this show is not new, but I haven’t had the chance to watch any of it. What bothered me the most is that the show fails to really show the hardship of being a teenage mother. The show focuses on the teenager and their lives and does not highlight the difficulty of caring for a child. I also feels like the show glamorizes teenage pregnancy, instead of showing how much of problem it is. Its almost like teens will get a message that if they get pregnant they could be on MTV. I feel that its distasteful on MTV’s part to produce a show like this and allowing these girls to gain popularity.

Now I am not a reality TV “hater”, I enjoy many reality shows. I will not argue that some of my favorite shows are great television, but they are entertaining and harmless.  I may not have the best taste in reality shows but I really don’t have tolerance for shows that glamorize a public problem or exploit people who are weak. I am starting to fear the future of television shows.

New Year, More Blog

So I started my WordPress blog last year and I have been loving it ever since. Now they launching their Post a Day and Post a Week challenge and I am more than happy to participate. My schedule is so unpredictable that posting everyday will not always be possible, however posting every week is something I want to commit to do. If I want to be a writer this year, I need to start working harder to make that happen. Thank you WordPress for all the tools and encouragement to keep me blogging.

So here’s to a new year and more blogging!