It’s funny — I always thought that I would be sad the day my time ended with the magazine. It has taken up so much space in my brain for the last year that I thought I wouldn’t know what to do once it was gone. But it’s kind of like graduating high school: when the time comes, you welcome the change. You’re ready for it. And I realized yesterday that I am most definitely ready to move on.

I’m a fan of clean breaks and definitive periods in my life, so looking back it’s only fitting that I end my time with SLM days before I start my internship at USA Today. I am so excited for new projects, new coworkers, and new goals that come along.

So keep up with the gals — I know they’re working hard. As always, I’ll be here doin’ my thang.

It’s a scary thought at first, but after spending a little time with the idea it was actually a relief to consider myself quietly as an individual without any possessions, relationships, identities, or conflicts. I know, this sounds hokey. But I’m asking you to suspend your disbelief for a few more paragraphs and stick with me.

The hours after the meditation were drenched in a glow of acceptance. While tragedy normally shakes me in my core and cruel words find the quickest way to pierce my gut, last night it was quiet — the only thing I knew or cared was that the things that happen today are fleeting.

And that gave me incredible perspective on my life, material items, identities, and relationships. I am so comforted by the knowledge that I am surrounded by a wealth of friends whom I admire. It’s a seemingly small detail that I think ultimately means more than any other aspect in a relationship: I respect those close to me and they respect me. Though our dreams aren’t the same, we speak the same language of hard work and empathy and we encourage each other with the belief that there is enough to go around.

That’s an idea I think a lot of women forget when they start strategizing their careers. When your goal is to get to “the top,” whatever that may be, anyone near you with a similar talent, background, or goal becomes competition. This is how we keep ourselves down as individuals and as women. But I’ve been reminded recently how valuable — and frankly, crucial — it is to “lift as we climb.” A strong leader encourages rather than disparages her peers and subordinates. A team is only as strong as its members who may choose to tear each other apart or set aside their motives and identities for the good of a project.

Have I convinced you to try meditating yet? It’s crazy the things you can learn by quieting your mind.

But these are all happy problems to have in the grand scheme. Ultimately, I still have a little bit more time to read all day long and go for days without touching hair products or makeup. Now that’s a relief.

So for now, check out my pre-summer reading list:

I’ve finished I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest already, and right now I’m working on Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit at the recommendation of a friend. It’s a library book though, so I’m hoping to finish it before I ship out on Sunday.

I bought The Devil Wears Prada on a whim at a thrift store last week because even though it’s dismissed by most people in the magazine industry, I just love the movie so much. I could definitely use a little journo-fantasy in my life.

Finally, a friend of mine sent me The Accidental Feminist after she got an early release copy at her job at a big, fancy magazine. Perks of having friends in high places, right?

Keep track of my reading this summer on Goodreads! I’ll keep ya updated if anything great comes my way

The famous opening line from Anna Karenina is truer than anyone would care to admit; the frequency with which it is quoted and cherished speaks to its universality. Whether a marriage falls apart or a child is lost to an untimely death or a lifetime of spiteful silence, each family has its demons reflective of the members themselves.

Even in the face of expectations fallen short by flawed family members, the hope for a more perfect union remains very real for us all. With each wedding proposal and subsequent marriage, our eyes all shine with confidence that this pairing will be different; this couple will live happily ever after, defying contemporary social law that says half of all happy weddings will ultimately end in a nasty divorce. These young couples become emblems of the hope we once had for ourselves, and so we put everything we have into the celebration of their apparent love while letting our own dwindle into obscurity at the bottom of a can of beer. At the same time we ourselves smile in joy and dab at eyes, wet with a mix of empathetic joy and dispair of loss. The newlyweds themselves recognize what they now represent for their families – they are now the vessels of hope for the disillusioned generations ahead of them. Hands clasped, they speak the vows as they gaze into each other’s eyes, simultaneously feeling the joy and dispair projected upon them by their two families, joining together for the time being.

In spite of dark statistics keeping joyful aspiration at bay for the pragmatic, the optimists and the idealists remain hopeful that each day is a new one providing freedom to forge new paths and create a better tomorrow than yesterday. In affairs of love and work and life, isn’t that all any of us can do?

That is the hope with anything we do, right?

So serifs are the tails on the tops and edges of letters, and they characterize fonts the way line weight and heights do — think Times New Roman or Baskerville. Serifs are more traditional style of writing, and they’re thought to have originated from ancient Roman methods of carving Latin words into stone tablets (serifs made the letters easier to distinguish, I guess). Serif fonts are frequently used these days in print – as opposed to online — and as headlines rather than body text.

As you can probably guess, sans-serif typefaces are the ones that don’t have the serif projections on the letters — like Helvetica or Tahoma. They’re considered easier on the eyes for extended periods of text and are frequently used on the Internet. They’re also pretty hip. To me, they tend to convey modernity, boldness, and creativity.

Serifs on the other hand, look classical and safe. Guess which one I love more (you can probably tell from my blog).

I realized a couple of months ago my love for serif typefaces and ever since I have been trying to expose myself to sans-serifs. When used right they can look so great! I just have a really hard time warming up to them. At the same time I find myself describing myself with the qualities in serif fonts that for better or for worse characterize serif fonts: safe, traditional, and sometimes square. While it’s all fine and dandy that I’m discovering my personal design style, I do wonder what kinds of creative spaces I’m letting fester when I disregard an entire genre (is that the right word?) of typeface.

Case and point. These are words that actually came out of my mouth at a meeting this week when I realized how safe my idea was: ”I feel like I’m always thinking in serif fonts, and you’re always thinking in san-serif fonts.”

Okay, nerd sesh is over for now. Please tell me I’m not the only one with font family commitment anxiety.

There are a few RSS feed readers out there that people use. I’ve been on the lookout for one that is simple and user-friendly enough to replace my beloved Google Reader, and I think I may have found it — it’s called Feedly.

What it is:

An RSS feed reader with a beautiful user interface. You can toggle between different views (magazine style, full article, thumbnails, etc.) in a way Google Reader doesn’t let you. You know I’m a sucker for nice design.

Fun features:

For those days when you’re feeling lazy, you can also mark large chunks of blog posts as read so you don’t have to go through and check off each post individually.

Finally, you can also import your Google Reader subscriptions into your Feedly account so there’s no need to rebuild your library. Now I’m not entirely sure whether these subscriptions will remain once GR dies for good, but as for now things seem to be transitioning pretty seamlessly.

Do any of you use different RSS feed readers? If you have a better suggestion, let me know in the comments! I’d love to play around with them.

My own triggers tend to send me into spiraling bouts of uncontrollable obsession — over my career mostly, but sometimes it can spill into other aspects of my life. My triggers can be anything from discussions on job hunting strategies with my friends to an article on the lazy habits of the millennial generation, but the outcome is the same: my thoughts jump in a rapid-fire sequence from one opportunity to the next, searching tirelessly for any way I can find to improve myself.

It’s not healthy at all. I recognize that. But I’ve only come to recognize these tendencies in myself in the last few months. Awareness is arguably the first step to overcoming things like this, and I suppose that now that I know what kinds of thing set me off, I can go about interrupting the feedback loop and make. it. stop.

Easier said than done, though – I’ll be the first to tell you that. My dad has lectured me my whole life on how I need to meditate so I can learn to control the way my thoughts flow. True. Maybe one day I’ll learn — after about 200 more episodes like this one.

If any of you have triggers for certain types of behavior, how do you manage your reactions to them? I would appreciate some insights here.

Tonight I met up with the Recipe for Press gals to our fellow interns’ graphic design exit shows. They were lovely, in case you were wondering. Past, present, and future interns were all there and it really reiterated to me how deliberately things seem to fall into place. Not only do we all get along great together, but we’re also connected to each other in these bizarre ways — we share mutual friends, we’ve worked in the same places (but at different times), or we’ve had classes together.

So that’s how the night started off. It continued with beers and corn dogs at a new restaurant/bar downtown where Brittany read into my soul in such an insightful way you’d think she’s known me forever.

I drove home with the windows down listening to The Shins’ ”Wincing the Night Away” and while the cool wind whipped through my hair I felt how lucky I am to be able to spend a beautiful summer night like this. I especially appreciate the autonomy I have to call it a night at 11:30, wash my makeup off and sit on my bedroom floor in an old t-shirt and cuddle with my dog. It’s bliss, it really is.

People tell me that I’ll have time to sleep when I’m older and that this is when I should be enjoying myself, but if “enjoying yourself” means getting extremely drunk and visiting the same haunts full of the same people…I’m okay missing out on that experience. Tonight was thrilling and I am ready to fall asleep reading.

I first heard of Kate White when she did an office hours session with Levo League back in December. I took devoted notes; she’s the former editor in chief of Cosmopolitan, and though I don’t necessarily want to work for a magazine that hawks the most ridiculous sex advice in the world, I respect any woman who has made it to the top of her business.

In the height of finals procrastination, I decided to buy her newest book this week: I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know. I’m such a sucker for career advice in any form, so I just blew through the book, reading whenever I had a free moment and highlighting notes like a mad woman.

At first I was crazy paranoid that I was destined to fail in my career because none of the skills and habits White outlines come naturally to me. She says it’s absolutely necessary to demand what you need and negotiate everything, and I tend to err on the sheepish side hard bargaining. She suggests to anticipate necessary changes — I thrive under strict guidelines. Clearly I’m destined to be fired from every major job I have.

Of course I took a chill pill for a second and realized that I will be FINE. And so will all of you. I realized that good work habits are actually skills you have to learn in order to succeed, similar to good school habits. Remember all the years in middle school when your teachers forced you to write your homework assignments in your planner? For me, I eventually internalized it and learned that this was what I had to do to succeed — and then I became a pro at juggling multiple school assignments. Same way with English papers. I sucked at writing them for a really, really long time. And now I don’t suck.

So what I mean to say here is that yes, a lot of skills go into being the best employee ever so the more time you invest in learning them, the sooner they will become second nature. Just don’t be freaked out if they don’t come naturally. You will probably suck at first, but it will get better as long as you work at it.

With that, I’m going to transition into some of my favorite pieces of advice from White’s book:

• “If you’ve been given a certain assignment in relation to a project, ask yourself what would make it even better? What extra step could you do?” -One thing I really love about White’s writing style is that she almost always gives examples about how to put her advice into practice. Since I am so often reliant on examples and guidelines, this makes it easier for me to visualize what it might look like when I exceed expectations. 
• “Career breakthroughs occur at the intersection of readiness, opportunity, and hustle.” Further proof that it never pays to become complacent.
• “If you can’t be number one in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.” This is especially relevant in the entrepreneurial moment we’re having in media right now. Everyone is looking to evolve into something new. Don’t be afraid to do that as well — but sometimes it’s better to stick with what you’re doing and work to become the best.
• “Smile less, nod less.” Apparently people tend to smile and nod to their superiors, and of course women tend to do it more than men. Remind yourself that you aren’t rude if you don’t smile.

If you’re my age and about to head out for a summer internship or you’re about to graduate and start your first big girl job, I definitely suggest picking up White’s book.

Lately I’ve been on the lookout for some shiny, pretty, or sparkly songs and here’s what I came up with. It’s a short playlist, but it’s an awesome cheer-me-up-during-finals treat — I would know.