If you've been wondering where the travel updates have been lately, there haven't been any because I haven't been traveling. Sad, I know. I'm devastated, but the loans need to be paid, and thus I've joined the real world and surprisingly, I'm enjoying myself for the most part. To the friends to whom I said I would never get a "traditional" job (you know who you are), I hereby officially renounce any glib remarks I made about the corporate world back then - I was young and innocent and scared out of my mind of what the "real world" was going to throw at me.
Thankfully, what the real world threw hasn't been so bad. But I've been luckier than most recent college grads - I haven't had to work at a smut job with a company that I hate (not yet anyway). After months of frustrated job hunting, a few failed interviews (which always ended with "You have such a good resume, I know you'll be fine." A statement to which I have since started to reply (in my mind of course), "If it's so great, then why haven't I gotten a job yet?"), I finally decided to take a marketing internship with Organic Valley in La Farge, WI. I have no marketing experience - I was an English major! - but they kept calling (which seems really backwards to me, but hey, it's nice to be sought after!) so in July I took the internship. I figured I could at least get paid more while I search for a permanent job. Well, it's now October and it turns out they want to keep me around for a while, so I'm pretty excited, mostly because it means I can stay around here for a few years at least. I love the La Crosse area - there's lots to do outdoors, there are no skyscrapers in sight, and best of all, I have the best group of friends (small but amazing) that I've probably ever had. This job will give me a chance to get some valuable job experience as well as stick around a place I've fallen in love with for a little while longer.
As for the corporate part, this company is extremely non-traditional. We're located in the heart of Wisconsin's hippie country, so it's extremely laid back, and by "extremely" I mean t-shirts and bare feet in summer, sweatshirt and jeans in winter, and the CEO calls himself the C-E-I-E-I-O on his business cards (after Old MacDonald - we're a farmer cooperative - get it? yes, I know, cheesy, but still funny). It's a great office culture, their mission is in line with my personal values, and I'm learning a ton, so I'm very thankful.
The only bad part about the job is that it's located in La Farge (aka: The Middle Of Nowhere). From La Crosse, it's an hour drive through the winding back roads of Wisconsin Amish country, but I'm a member of the coolest carpool in the company, the Buggy Dodgers (and trust me, there is some serious buggy dodgin' going on some days), so it's bearable.
So there's the update if you've been wondering where I ended up. But don't worry...there will hopefully be more adventures in the near future. Cheers to my fellow travelers and vicarious voyagers!
