GenPink

About a month ago my mother sent me a very cheesy “I’m so proud of you” email. In her email she points out how much I’ve changed and how much I’ve accomplished in the 10 years since May of 2000 when I graduated high school. YES, I am about to have my 10 year high school reunion, and YES it makes me feel OLD, and it reminds me that I’m getting very close to THAT birthday!

This idea of 10 years did however get me thinking. I have changed and I have certainly grown. So I thought it might be fun to do a quick breakdown of the highlights and major life impacting events of the past ten years. And of course I catalog milestones based on how old I was at the time. So here goes nothing:

18: I graduated high school and decided 3 weeks before college started that I did not want to attend the local private college in Texas I was already enrolled in. During a vacation in Phoenix I drove from Phoenix to California on a whim, applied to a college in Southern California, decided I was going there. In a little under 2 weeks I came home and told my dad (who thought I was crazy), packed up my stuff and moved to Orange County.
19: I moved back to Texas and opted for the large state school route and decided to move into the dorms (even though I was a Sophomore) and tried alcohol for the first time (yep I was that girl). I met many of my close friends this year.
20: I had a 13 hour jaw surgery and hibernated for 3 months to heal.
21: I moved into a 4 bedroom/4 bath with 2 friends and a stranger. I also went through an intense entrance process to get into an exclusive design program.
22: I’m pretty sure I didn’t sleep the entire year, I can recall many 48 hour must get this project done or I will die times.
23: I graduated college and got my first “office” job.
24: I worked full time and started freelancing and moved in with my then boyfriend.
25: I started blogging as a way to have a sense of community about the craziness that is life in your twenties. I got engaged. I was convinced I had life all planned out for the next 80 years. I went though 10 painstaking months of watching, hopelessly, someone struggle and lose the battle with cancer. I attended 7 weddings.
26: A three year relationship ended and I got unengaged. I celebrated getting laid off from a job I didn’t like. I was convinced I had no idea what I was going to do with myself, my job or my life. I went through a personal effectiveness leadership training that completely altered my outlook on life. At which point I decided I wasn’t shy anymore. I moved into my first no roommate, living alone apartment. I decided I wanted to work for myself. I networked my face-off (credit for this term goes to Miss Sydney Owen). I worked night and day, sometimes forgetting to eat, and certainly there was no time for laundry.
27: I decided I wanted to go back to the office environment and for the first time experienced the cubicle lifestyle. I worked long hours, I was thinking about work even when I wasn’t working, I traveled. I was challenged and pushed and made a huge contribution to business and an industry I was a noose to. I started speaking in public, me the person who was too shy to talk to people speaking to large audiences of people. I got to speak at the ultimate nerd conference, SXSW!
28: I traveled to Memphis, Las Vegas, Boston, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Cape Cod, and Houston. I got a job offer without ever applying for jobs. I turned in my first letter of resignation. I am moving in with the current boyfriend. I paid off a crazy amount of debt by changing my lifestyle and living frugally. And as of this writing I still have 6 months left of being 28!

I’m sitting on an airplane flying to New England to attend my best friend’s (of 14 years wedding) so I guess you could say I am in a bit of retrospective mood. I think the reason there are so many 20-something bloggers (did you know there are 13k plus members on 20sb.net?) is because most of us have 10 years of roller-coastering, life changing, job jumping, breakups, marriages, babies, celebrations and tragedy. I’m not sure that once the clock hits 30 that all those things change but I can definitely say if someone asked me 10 years ago when I graduated high-school if I had any desire to become a public speaker I was have RUN the other way!

This exercise was fun for me, I challenge you to think about all that you’ve done, who you’ve met what you’ve contributed to and how you’ve changed in the past 10 years.

This is the cutest vlog I may have EVER seen! Belle Renee’s video blog is her ode to what being apart of 20sb (20-something bloggers) means to her. First, I must say, I love the song! Pretty sure that will be my new ringtone for my soul sisters! And secondly, I think Renee’s points really are the major advantages of having a sense of community anywhere online (and I suppose in real life too). While I am partial to 20sb and Brazen Careerist, if you’re community is mommy bloggers you can still have all of these perks. Just find your people and share with them!

vlog day 8/17/09 from Renee W on Vimeo.

This guest post was written by Dani, a fellow 20SB, who is currently a secretary by day, and psychology grad student by night. She blogs regularly on She laughs too easily & cries too hard …

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for a 20sb blog swap…

When I first opened the email telling me the identity of my Blog Swap partner, my initial reaction was:

“::insert sailor words here::! This, clearly together, lady has a serious blog which people actually read. I’m not used to that.”

And so I started reading backwards to try and glean what kind of content would not horrify Elysa’s readers be appropriate and in an attempt to own my Gen Y identity. What did I have to say that would resonate with folks, some of whom might be rather like me (that is to say, a working, student-ing, single, blogging, “slightly” outspoken mess from Jersey) and many of whom probably differ greatly, about the experiences of being 20-something in today’s world?

And I thought…and pondered…and mused. I tried to be sage; to mine, from within my heart or mind, some noble truth that would shine rays of light into the lives of all those who read it. To recount some story that would be applicable across all divides and unifying in its universality.

Here’s what I got:
Saturday morning, after sleeping on the couch of one of my dearest friends because my car had been blocked in his driveway the night before, I was awoken around 5 am by the baying of his 8-month-old pug. Much to my delight, another friend, who had also been blocked in, got up to take him out. I rolled over and began to fall back asleep.

Ten to fifteen minutes later I was awoken by the sound of Puppy and the feeling that someone was standing right next to me.

“Does he only go for some people? Because he won’t go.”

I swung my legs off the side of the couch, mumbled some sailor words at both the friend and the dog, took the leash from his hands and walked, barefoot outside. Puppy did his business, we came back inside and I went back to sleep.

Two hours later the owner of both the house and the dog came down on his way to work. “Puppy has already been out this morning” I croaked. Owner let him out of his crate, put some food in his bowl and headed to the bathroom himself. While he was doing so, Puppy made a mess in the laundry room.

…Sometimes life cooperates with you. Sometimes life shits next to your dryer. And that’s about the most unifying truth about getting through the roller coaster that is being a 20-something that I have for y’all.

I laughed out loud when I read Dani’s email with this post and then about 2 seconds later the goodie-two-shoes in me said "can I put *that* word on my blog?" and obviously I decided I could – at least for now … unless I decide not to. This train of thought was the perfect spring board to my impromptu post for Dani’s blog. Hey it is 20sb blog swap day after all so I had to come up with something to say on her fun blog as well.

Thanks for sharing your ohh so wise insight with us soon to be master degreed lady!

I am what you’d call an information junkie. I love books/seminars/podcasts – if it has information I’m hooked. I particularly like the arena of “being a better me.” The book I just finished is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One bit of advice I’ve heard/read a few places is that we become who we hang out with … negative people breed negativity, you get the idea. I would say my networks of friends is quite in keeping with my values – so this post is not a find new friends push. Hey, if that’s something you should do I welcome you to it.

Actually, I would like to find some interesting people to “hang out with” on the web. Since I am a graphic designer by profession I follow many successful designers on twitter. The 50+ Designers to Follow post is a great place to start if you’d like to “hang out” with the big dog designers.

So here’s my plan … I’d like to interview (on GenPink of course) some successful 20somethings. I have an idea of a few people to start with but I’d love input and/or connections to some people you’d like to know more about. Also, let me know if there are any particular questions you’d like answered in my interviewing.