College Did NOT Prepare Me for a Full-Time Job

I recently got employed in my first time job. As in, within the last week. I’ve had jobs before, but they were all part time. I’ve even had multiple part time jobs before, but they all worked around my school schedule. Basically, for the past seven years, the main focus of my life has been college. Part time jobs helped pay bills and stuff, but they weren’t my everything. That was school.

Technically, my focus is still school, and will remain that was until I get that degree. However, as I look at the future world of getting my dream job, I need experience, and you get experience by working. Additionally, I’m reaching the magic age of 26 where you lose your health insurance, and I have prescription requirements which require me to have insurance. Yes, my school offers it, for $400/month. Yeah… I’ll just get a full time job and get paid AND get a cheaper health insurance plan.

You’d think that after 7 years of college, a Bachelor’s Degree, and all the course work of a Master’s Degree, I would be overqualified for an entry level retail job, no matter how many hour a week you’re employed. Now, in some cases, you’d be right. However, in most places, you’d be wrong. From the four days of full time work that I’ve experienced, one particular thought has remained in my mind, and occasionally popped out of my mouth. College does NOT prepare you for full time work!

In college, you’re taught to sit and listen. Now the listening element, that is a great thing for you to learn. You need to listen to your boss and your customers. However, you don’t have a notepad or laptop in front of you. You need to listen and look them in the eye and react and smile and nod and remember on your own. This is not what happens in college when you’re sitting in the desk with your head down and your eyes flitting between the powerpoint and your notes as you rush to make sure that you get every little detail to make sure you pass that test.

And the sitting, the sitting DEFINITELY doesn’t prepare you for a full time job. The more I think about it, the more I realize that being a college student is far more sedentary than most jobs. Now yes, there are some jobs that have you sitting at a desk all day, but many jobs, even if it’s a desk job, have you running to your boss’s office or going to talk to one of your members or running to the stock room or even standing at an event for a few hours to schmooze whoever you’re trying to get money out of. In a retail job, you do a LOT more standing. Only a few hours into my first shift my feet were hurting. Now, I realize that I was wearing the wrong shoes for the job, and fixed it on my last day of the 4 day stint, but shoes aren’t something you think of so much in college, at least not their efficiency over their appearance. I hurt everywhere. I bruised my knees from kneeling while facing product on the lowest shelves, so I started sitting and squatting. My butt, hips, thighs, back, they all hurt. I know I’ll get used to it, but I can’t help thinking “why am I not ready for it now? I have a college degree dammit!”

You definitely aren’t taught to react to customers in college. You chat with your friends and make cliques. In a job, you have to interact with everyone. In college, it’s easy to become a shut in. You bury your nose in a book and research and sit quietly in class and MAYBE you get some social time, but often that is encouraged by alcohol. In work, you soberly approach everyone you meet, smile, ask how you can help them, and have to answer questions when called on. “I didn’t do the reading” is no longer an option. Your dog cannot eat your homework. And often, there is a limited amount of research you can do. Work is trial and error. You want to know where something in the store is? You ask and you remember, or you walk the aisles until you’ve found it.

Attention span over time? In college, your classes are on average 50-70 minutes long and you get a good 10-15 minute break in between, minimum. A long class would be your 3-4 hour night class. 8 hours with minimal breaks? Yeah, we don’t do that. Even when we’re studying we give ourselves facebook breaks or mental breaks. Yeah, you get your designated breaks in any full-time job, but they aren’t as frequent as you experience in college. And in a world where technology is causing us to have lower and lower attention spans, it can make 8 hours feel like weeks.

However, there is one thing that college truly prepares you for in the job world: acting on my toes. Sometimes a customer will come to you and ask you a question, and you may not know, and you can take the time to track down the answer and ask, or you can take the product and look on the back and deduce the information for yourself. Like when you are in the middle of a multiple choice exam and you don’t know the answer to a question but another question on that page gives you the answer. In college, you always try to act like an expert to impress your friends and peers and teachers, and in a job setting, you have to in order to gain your customer’s trust. Oh, and you’re probably pretty good at bagging items after stuffing all those books in your backpack.

Body Acceptance: What it's REALLY about

For the past year (or 11 months, if we're getting technical) an article has been sweeping the internet, and probably your facebook feed, about one blogger's "6 Things [She Doesn't] Understand About the Body Acceptance Movement." If you really haven't read it - just google the words I put in quotes and check it out, because I refuse to put a link to that in my blog. If you can't tell yet, I am a big advocate of body acceptance, which should NEVER be retitled as "Fat Acceptance," because, despite what the haters want you to believe, it's NOT about fat! I am a moderator of a few plus sized forums on Reddit. I write this blog. It is the ONE "controversial" topic I will comment on on friends' pages.  So, and I can't believe I'm doing this, here I am in all my plus sized glory, in a BIKINI, and I was SO excited to put it on for the first time.

Instead of directly replying to the previously mentioned blog post, I am going to write a post about the TRUTH of the body acceptance movement for someone who actually has experienced the benefits of it. Because I used to hate myself because of my body. I let my appearance dictate my happiness, and that is wrong.

SO LET'S START: Body acceptance is NOT a physical health movement. It is, in no way, Healthy At Every Size (HAES) or saying that everyone in the world is healthy. Body acceptance is a MENTAL health movement! Let's face it, our waist lines are growing due to various reasons, which, honestly, I'm not sure anyone is 100% sure about. Because, let's be honest, there's a new fad diet being introduced every other day about a new food that will make you lose weight and the number one food that makes you gain weight. There are diets that let you eat as much fatty bacon as you want as long as you avoid carbs. There are diets that say you should avoid ALL SUGARS, including those found in fruits. There is probably a diet that says a stick of butter a day is fine as long as you don't eat any meat. I don't know - I'm not a dietician.

Body Acceptance is about happiness! Body Acceptance is the ability to look in the mirror and say "this is what I look like right now, and that's ok." Body Acceptance is the ability to be well over 200 pounds in weight and feel comfortable enough to wear a bikini or a dress or whatever you feel comfortable in! Body Acceptance is a step AWAY from the concept that your appearance, whether it be your waistline or your overly bushy eyebrows or your imperfect nose or that awkward birth mark, does NOT dictate your happiness for life. Body Acceptance is the realization that everyone can be beautiful to someone, and if I'm not you're type of beauty, then THAT'S OK!

The fact of the matter is, people try to say that the Body Acceptance Movement (we should call it BAM! - doesn't that sound exciting?) is an excuse for being unhealthy. IT IS NOT. I would like to say right here and right now that health is NO ONE'S business except yours and your doctor's! Got it? It's not your right to go to Joe Schmoe on the street and discuss how his weight or appearance means he's unhealthy. The same way you shouldn't verbally abuse a stranger smoking a cigarette on the street because it's unhealthy. The same way you can't tell a college student on his 21st birthday the dangers of drinking in the long term. It's NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!

You can be a member of Body Acceptance and be trying to lose weight! That's totally fine! Basically, that person is saying "I love how I look now, and if I do this, I may look different, but I'll love that just as much!" Body Acceptance is a way of saying that we shouldn't dictate our lives around appearance, we should dictate them around health. If your doctor *who you chose and you trust, not just any doctor* says that you need to change something, then "Sorry, I am a Body Acceptance Advocate" is not the correct answer. Because, just because your doctor tells you to lower your carb or sodium intake doesn't even guarantee that you'll lose weight.

Fun story: Cholesterol, Heart Problems, even Diabetes? They don't discriminate based on weight. I am very close with people who are very thin but have high blood pressure or diabetes or high cholesterol. And when they made the changes to fix these, their blood pressure or cholesterol levels went down, not their waist lines!

Body Acceptance is about being able to go out into the world with a smile on your face, even if you didn't get a chance to do your make up today or your hair isn't cooperating! It's about SO MUCH MORE than the size of your body. It's about the fact that I have man wrists. My wrists have no fat on them but they're so big that I have to wear male watches because the petite female versions just don't work. AND IT'S OK! It's the fact that a young lady is balding and you can see parts of her scalp, but SHE'S STILL BEAUTIFUL! It's the fact that this teenage boy cannot bulk up for the life of him, but remains skinny and "scrawny", AND IT'S OK!!! And yeah, it is about that plus sized girl who cries whenever her father tells her that she is too fat for her own good, because SHE CAN STILL BE HAPPY! SHE DESERVES TO BE HAPPY!

So please, quit trying to make body acceptance into something it's not. It is NOT an excuse, fat promoting, skinny shaming, eat whatever you want and sit on the couch all day. It's not even saying "oh, you're not fat" to your plus sized friend. NEWS FLASH: I know I'm fat and I am fine with it. It's just not. It IS about happiness despite what cards you were dealt in the physical department. And remember, if you've never been overweight, or underweight, then you can't judge.  The struggles of weight loss or weight gain are REAL and still very misunderstood. You never know the story behind someone. Just because a person is still over 200 pounds doesn't mean they haven't already lost 50. Just because a person is thin doesn't mean they're anorexic! And shaming someone one way or the other does NOT encourage them to change, it will probably make them worse actually.

Body Acceptance is about only one thing. Remembering that we are ALL people and that we all have a history and no one knows the complete history of anyone else. Not even my mom knows my whole history! If you aren't someone's doctor, then it's not your place to comment. Ever. Period. Just go back to kindergarten and the golden rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. Make your world one of happiness, and spread it into the lives of others. Because, while you can change your body, you CAN'T change who you are or how people perceive you, and a bitch is still a bitch, no matter how pretty (or ugly) she may be.

Fat and Fearless: Flatulence

Today we're going to discuss the f-word. Flatulence. Farting. Forcing fumes through your anal opening. Because, let's be honest, if you're the biggest person in the room, you're going to be blamed for any foul scents that waft through the room, even if you KNOW it wasn't you, you will be blamed. For those of us who were bigger throughout our adolescence, we will feel the fear of letting one rip in any sort of public setting, or maybe even alone with our cats, because we know the shaming that will come.

After all, people with a bigger waistline are easier to insult for the average person anyway. I mean, we're insulted everywhere. In the media, on the internet, and to our faces. So when a thinner person toots, the people around them may just let it go. After all, she's pretty, who cares if she farts?? It's natural. But the MINUTE a plus-sized person lets out a fart the room is ablaze in laughter and people waving their hands at their noses in an attempt to get away from the smell and fake coughing and gagging. It's terrible.

So let's get some things straight. You know that children's book "Everyone Poops"? Well here's a concept. EVERYONE FARTS! In fact, I remember in high school seeing a news report that a person with a healthy colon should pass gas at least seven times a day. Divide that with 24 hours a day, that's right around one fart every three hours. And yes, our diet will affect this. Go get that Mexican Food with extra beans and yeah, it's gonna happen more often, but cabbage will do the same to ya!

Being in my adult years, I have made a conscious decision not to respond to farts in any way expect with people I know, love, and trust. But if you're in public, keep your mouth shut! You never know if it was the fat guy in the corner who already has self-esteem issues, or the little kids trembling next to his mother, terrified that someone's going to notice, or maybe it's that super fit lady in the corner who just had  a lunch of black beans and chicken.

Oh, and if you're plus sized and feel that pressure churning? Just let it go. Don't sit there in misery. Don't run out of the room in hopes of keeping other from noticing, that may make it even more noticeable. And you know what? If someone comments on it, take it with pride. Take in a deep whiff through your nose and say "Yep, that was me, just making sure everything's still working down there!" And go on with your life. Because WHO CARES!? Love your farts the same way you love your body!

Cooking Corner: Chocolate Mousse

Ok, I took a few breaks from the 52 week challenge on my blog because the meals were either total failures (Offal Week - Chicken Kidney Dirty Rice, we ordered pizza), or have already been featured (coconut shrimp), but I'm back with week 6, chocolate! I knew I didn't want to bake, but it's hard to make savory chocolate - so I decided to do chocolate mousse, which mostly utilizes cooking skills.

You'll Need:
3 Tablespoons Butter
6 oz. Semi Sweet Chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
3 separated eggs
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

So to start, you need to cube up 3 tablespoons of butter into pretty small cubes and then break into pieces 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate. Throw all these into a metal bowl that you can use for a double boiler and put them over a pan of boiling water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. I was TERRIFIED the first time I used a double boiler and did my best to avoid it, but I promise, it's super easy and not scary, and you won't get burnt!  Let this melt and stir it with a wooden spoon until smooth. Then, one by one, whisk in those egg yolks, returning to the heat as you do. When you're done, it will look like the picture below. Set it aside.

Melty, Chocolatey Goodness!

OK, so now turn to the egg whites. Put them into a bigger bowl than you think you need, because these little suckers grow. Seriously, cooking science is AWESOME! Grab your electric mixer and start beating these puppies up (I stayed on the low setting for better control). When those egg whites get nice and foamy, add your 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar. That's going to help them stiffen up. Keep beating until soft peaks form. When I say "soft peaks" - that means you can see the ripples, but when you turn off your beater, those ripples go away. When you have soft peeks, gradually beat in that sugar, little by little, and keep beating until hard peaks form. These will NOT go away when you turn your beater off. It looks a little something like the picture below. When you finish, set this mixture aside

See the ripple-y peaks?

OK, finally, grab that CHILLED heavy cream. Pour it into a CHILLED bowl (I took a metal bowl and threw it in the freezer for a few minutes). Grab your electric mixer again and start beating that cream until it starts to stiffen. This will take longer than the egg whites!! When it's stiff, add in your 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Then keep beating until you get those hard peaks again!  Do NOT over beat, or you'll get some awkwardly sweet butter!

Got it? Ok. Good. Now grab all three mixtures. Slowly and gently FOLD your egg white mixture into the chocolate. I used a wooden spoon, but a spatula can work well too. Now this is not stirring or beating. Take your spoon and scrape it along the bottom of the pan and bring it up over the mixture.  Think about when you get a Blizzard from DQ (not paid for this reference) and you have to scoop the bottom up over the top so the topping gets fully incorporated! I did about 1/2 the egg white mixture at a time. Keep folding until fully incorporated, but do not over work your mousse or it will become too thick. Next, fold in your whipped cream. Can you believe it? You're done! You've created professional-grade mousse, at home, and you didn't even break a sweat!  And it should look like this:

It looks sooo good!

Cover it up and throw it in the fridge for about an hour to let it set. Then grab a spoon and dig in! Or.. ya know.. put it in cute little cups and share with others (but sharing is SO overrated).

Cooking Corner: Shrimp Linguine with Vodka Sauce

OK y'all, I am SUPER proud of this one. Like, ridiculously proud! The inspiration for week three was alcohol. My mom has been in love with pink/vodka sauces since she first tried it recently (it's not a common sauce in Idaho for some reason). Therefore, I knew the minute I saw the word alcohol that it was what I was going to do. While vodka sauce also goes well with chicken, I feel its calling is seafood, so I decided to make some jumbo shrimp with it.

Now, the only problem with this recipe is I decided to go all "real cook" and not use measurements. It's fine though because I can give you approximations. I started by peeling and deveining the shrimp - like a legit person! It's super easy, especially when your shrimp are as jumbo as mine were! Peel off all the shell above the tail. Slice that nekkid shrimp down the back and use a toothpick to pull out the poopshoot and any veins you can find.

Next, melt four tablespoons of butter in a flat, high pan.  Like, a sauce pan, not a sauce pot.. if that makes sense. --AS IT MELTS, GET YOUR POT OF WATER BOILING AND YOUR PASTA MEASURED OUT -- Add a can of crushed tomatoes and a little can of tomato paste when it's melted and stir it together. Take this chance to flavor your sauce! I used basil, oregano, tarragon, and garlic powder, GENEROUSLY, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Remember, start small and add more - stir and taste!  When you've gotten your general tomato sauce tasting good, throw in somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cups of vodka (or glug it til it looks good, remember start small and add more). Mix that in. At this point, I threw my shrimp in the sauce. Cover and let boil/simmer. As the vodka cooks out, the shrimp will cook up.  --AT THIS POINT YOUR WATER SHOULD BE BOILING, THROW IN YOUR PASTA!--

When your shrimp is beginning to pink and your sauce tastes less boozy, throw in 1/2 cup to a full cup of heavy cream. I kinda swirled til it looked pretty. Lower the heat a smidgen, stir it til the heavy cream is thoroughly mixed in, and COVER because it will get messy.  Your sauce will begin to thicken. --KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR PASTA, IT'S GETTING CLOSE TO DONE NOW!!--  When your shrimp are done and your sauce has thickened a bit, add about one to two handfuls of shredded parmesan, because it's not unhealthy enough! Stir it in til it's melted.  Drain your pasta, dish out your shrimp, cover with the sauce, and eat up!! I did my best with plating, but I kinda screwed up the nesting that I had intended.. but look how the shrimp almost stand up!!

My dear mother was licking her plate - proof that I succeeded! I may have ruined restaurant pink sauce for her - and it's SO MUCH CHEAPER than eating out. I think this ended up yielding around 4 servings. We ate two and have frozen about half of it.

Cooking Corner - Homemade Chicken Cordon Bleu

So this week's inspiration was dairy. I had quite a few thoughts, but Chicken Cordon Bleu stuck out to me. Mom and I love it and we're always craving it, but we'd always buy the frozen version, which for some reason is a seasonal item that's only available in the winter. Add to that the fact that our grocery store started carrying a different, subpar brand, and we hadn't eaten it in a while. So I figured I should figure out how to make it myself!

Fortunately, this one is SUPER simple! We only had bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, no big deal, I can butcher up a chicken thigh with ease! So I tore off the skin and sliced out the bone and we were ready to go to work. I used my trusty mallet to flatted the chicken a little more. I then put on a slice of ham, a slice of cheese, and another slice of ham, and rolled it up. Because it was my first time, I chose to hold it together by skewering it closed with toothpicks.

Next you take a bowl which has 4 tablespoons of melted butter and three tablespoons of olive oil mixed together (or however much you need, keeping those proportions - since there are only two of us, I halved it). Put your chicken in the bowl and give it a good coating. Then the chicken goes into a bowl with a 50/50 mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan cheese (this time I used shredded, but in the future I'll be using grated) and give it a nice coating.

Finally, we throw it in a pan, into the oven at 375 for 30 minutes. That's it! Easy! Doesn't it look delicious?!

It tasted just as good. Oh and that beautiful creamy gold flowing over the top? I whipped up a simple, homemade hollandaise. The ratio is 1-2 teaspoon of lemon juice per egg yolk, depending on how citrussy you want it. Whisk together in a stainless steel bowl. Put it over a pot of simmering water for a double boiler and whisk furiously, making sure that egg doesn't cook. Once it has thickened, whisk in, in tiny little cubes, 1 tablespoon of butter per egg yolk. Remove and return to the heat as needed, always whisking. Keep it warm when you're done and you're good! Seriously - I LOVE HOLLANDAISE!

Cooking Corner: Pork Chops with my "Signature Rub", Brussel Sprouts, and Asparagus

So, I love food, obviously. I love cooking food. And I desperately want to increase my arsenal of dishes. Therefore, I'm participating in the Reddit 52 Weeks of Cooking Challenge. Week 01 was "diet foods". Ok, well I'm not a fan of most diets, I think they're fads and the minute you're "done", you gain all the weight back, so I took it as "acceptably healthy foods".  Mom LOVES my pork chops with my signature rub, and we USUALLY do Auntie Annie's Mac and Cheese with it, but I decided to make it a little healthier with some nommy veggies!

Step One is to prepare your Pork Chops! We start with the rub, mine consists of Pink Himalayan Salt (OMG - so good, so much more flavorful than table salt!), some chili powder, paprika, a bit of cinnamon, and a healthy pinch of brown sugar. Please do not judge my lack of measurements, because I don't measure. So you pour it on your chops, one side at a time. Rub it into the first side before your go pouring it on the second side. I usually put my rubbed chops back in a plastic baggie and put it back into the fridge to let it kinda... soak in.

Next I got working on my sprouts. I, personally, trimmed the ends off and cut the big ones in half and the REALLY big ones into quarters. I then tossed them in extra virgin olive oil and flavored in salt and pepper. I put them on a cookie sheet and into the oven at 375 for 30 minutes, taking them out every 10 minutes to turn and reoil, and on the last 10 minutes I added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. We did have a few leaves fall off, but they crisped off, and, I'mma be honest, they tasted WAY better than kale chips.

Next the asparagus. It's SUPER EASY!! Pour some EVOO in a large pan/skillet. Put your oven on medium high and let that oil get hot. Place your asparagus in and just keep turning occasionally until its green and easily poked with a fork. Oh, and don't forget a pinch of salt!

Finally, I pam up a medium sized pan and put it on medium high and let that sucker heat up. It should be HOT before you put your pork chops in. Place them in, they should sizzle, and cover. turn them in six minutes and cover again. If you feel they need a little longer, lower your heat to medium so you don't burn your chops. Remember, you don't want your chops to be "medium", because they're pork, but then you also want them to be juicy!.

That's it! Plate it up and you're done. Here's my plating, but I suck at plating soooo.... Oh - and I enjoy dipping my pork chops in BBQ sauce while my mom enjoys a yummy Plum Chipotle. When I make these chops, my sodium loving mother DOES NOT ADD SALT! That's right, it's a miracle, because it's that good!