Ending One Chapter, Beginning Another

Hi everyone. I really wish I was better at updating this. The last time I posted on here, I had just found out that I would be the new editorial assistant at Charisma Media. It's been almost three weeks since that post, and a lot has happened since then. I realize that if I kept up on this I could write shorter posts, but it's becoming my style now I guess.

I did give Applebee's my notice, and they were not as grateful as I thought they would be. When I turned in my notice, my general manager wasn't there. He never once mentioned me leaving. He didn't ask about my job opportunity, congratulate me, say he would miss me, or anything like that. He is a nice and personable guy, so this felt uncharacteristic. For my last week, I worked Friday through Friday. That is eight days in a row with no day off. I also had a double on two of those days. It was completely awful, but I did make a good amount of cash. I was just SO exhausted by the middle, let alone at the end. I think I used all of last weekend to recover.

It was so nice to know, though, that there was a light at the end of the tunnel! I put in my time at Applebee's (in June it will be two years since I started at the one in Bloomington) and I finally started a full-time job related to my degree. My first day was Monday, March 14. Let me start by saying that I work for a great company. I have not met one person I haven't liked. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming to me, some even coming up just to meet me! I was even greeted by a wonderful sign on my office door, and candy and flowers sitting on my desk. I have never felt so special. :)

For those who are curious, the editorial department puts out three magazines and two e-mags. These pictures are the covers of the latest issues of our print magazines, Charisma, Ministry Today, and Christian Retailing. As I mentioned, I am in an administrative position. The editor hopes to give me some editorial tasks as well, but not right away. So far I have mostly been doing administrative things, but I still like it. There is a lot to learn and I haven't felt too overwhelmed yet. I've been working things like budgets, author agreements, and copyrights. I go through all of the e-mails for each publication (there are A LOT, so that takes up a good chunk of time) and I even worked on one of the e-mags. We put out one called SpiritLed Woman, and I got to put that together last week. If you'd like to see it, let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

I am looking forward to getting into even more editorial things and not having to ask Leigh what I should do every time I have finished a task. Leigh is a copy editor in the department and she has been training me. My predecessor left a few weeks ago, but Leigh did this job a while back and has been helping me with everything. She is so wonderful and I am sad that she is leaving soon. She's getting transferred downstairs to the book group, and I'm afraid that I'll be lost without her. I'm grateful that we still have two more weeks with her on our team though. Our team is pretty small right now, but everyone seems to be making it work. They are all really hard workers, and I am really going to enjoy working with them.

I am excited to possibly write for some future issues and to be involved in their publication. I will mostly be working on Charisma, but will also be helping with Ministry Today. I may do a few things for Christian Retailing, which is an industry publication, but not as much as the others. My background is in newspapers, but I am loving working with magazines so far. I'm praying that I will continue to love it and that this job will open some wonderful doors for me

I am not used to an 8:30-5:30 schedule, so I felt pretty tired a lot of the week, but I know my body just needs some time to adjust. My wonderful husband has been trying his best to wake up with me, even though he doesn't need to start his day for a few more hours. He gets up anyway though and helps me pack my lunch and makes my breakfast for me. Bless his heart!

I am definitely loving having the weekends off. It is still kind of weird not having to work. We were supposed to volunteer for Give Kids the World this weekend with our life group, but that fell through last minute. =( We're still going to hang out with friends from our life group though, which we're excited for. Tomorrow we're going to see Anberlin at the UCF Arena, woot woot! Well I hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for reading! :)

To Write Love on Her Arms

I'm guessing most of you have heard of To Write Love on Her Arms. If you haven't you should check out their website. I first heard about TWLOHA about three years ago. It is a non-profit organization that was formed in 2006 as a way to reach out to a young girl who turned to drugs, alcohol, and hurting herself as a way to cope with her depression. Now it is "dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide." They exist "to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery."

To Write Love on Her Arms spreads the message of love and hope to people everywhere. In the last four years, they have responded to 150,000 messages from people in 40 different countries. According to their web site, two out of three people struggle from depression, which is the leading cause of suicide. "In America alone, it’s estimated that 19 million people live with depression, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death among those 18-24 years old."

Although I have never been diagnosed with clinical depression, I think we can all agree that we've had times of deep struggle and heartache. I'm fairly confident that most people can say that if they haven't harmed themselves, they've at least thought about it. I was telling my husband just the other night how I can think of five people I have been close to - just off the top of my head - who have self-harmed. I don't know about you, but to me that's a lot. And those people are not alone. This organization exists to bring them together and let them know that they are loved. TWLOHA is currently working with PostSecret (another cool organization you can check out here) and the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, to launch a project called IMAlive "the first online crisis network with 100% of its staff certified and trained in crisis intervention" to reach these millions of depressed people.

I recently joined the TWLOHA Street Team, which is a way to promote and raise awareness for the organization. I have a strong passion to help and reach out to depressed, lost souls and even if it's just by doing some small things via the street team, I'm proud to say I support an organization such as To Write Love On Her Arms. It gives hope to those who think they are hopeless, love to those who believe they cannot be loved, and support to those who feel unsupported. It is an amazing organization that has helped thousands of people, and I hope one day I can be involved in more ways than just being on the street team. If you think you might want to be a part of the street team, you can join here. And if TWLOHA sounds like an organization you want to know more about or desire to support, visit their website. You won't regret it!