Create your own opportunities.

Sometimes life is like "Groundhog Day." No, not the day in February that's focused around Punxsutawney Phil, who may or may not see his shadow, which arbitrarily shows a prediction on winter's end. I'm talking about the 1993 Bill Murray movie where he finds himself living the same day over and over again. He wakes up to his alarm, goes to work, and carries on his daily activities. By movie’s end, he realizes he's doomed to stay in this monotonous lifestyle unless he makes a change.

Well, sometimes I am Bill Murray. I get so easily caught up in the daily routine that I forget to mix it up. I forget to interject the “fun” things because the “required” things can seem overwhelming. Now that we are starting to get “big kid” jobs, our responsibilities are growing and our timetables are seemingly shrinking.

But they don’t have to.

To get out of Bill Murray mode, I’ve started to create some new opportunities for myself. I’m easily restless, so this idea of having downtime in the evenings is somewhat frightening. Lack of cable tv has also spurred me to be creative with my extra time.

First on the agenda? Beef up the resume.

Let’s face it: even when we have jobs, we’re always peeking over our shoulders for other opportunities. It’s hard to find a 20-something that knows exactly what they want to do or is already doing it. I’m fortunate to be inside athletics, so I’ve been making connections with our Marketing and Development departments, two areas I’m very interested in career-wise. I sent an email to Marketing and poof! One week later, they set up a time to meet with and discuss opportunities for me. Since the beginning of last month, I’ve been volunteering a few hours a week in their office. Now that Men’s and Women’s Basketball is starting up, I’ve started volunteering at games whenever I’m not busy with volleyball. It’s fun to be behind the scenes of such an intricate production. And let’s be honest: shooting the t-shirt gun is legit.

Next on the agenda? Explore the city.

From what I’ve heard and seen, the city of Charlottesville is rich in entertainment, unique dining experiences, and a plethora of outdoor activities. Wineries pop up nearly everywhere and there’s a feeling of progressiveness that is often absent in smaller cities. Aside from the outer beauty (hello beautiful autumn colors!) there’s a beauty about the city in its quaint, historic livelihood. Now that volleyball season is winding down, I’m excited to see what this place is all about! And of course, visitors are always welcome to come explore with me!

Other activities? Card making.

While I’ve always loved to scrapbook and explore the little bit of creativity I feel that I possess, I wanted to find a craft that was less time consuming and relatively inexpensive. The solution? Homemade cards. My first endeavor was on Valentine’s Day last year, where I spent two days creating scrapbook-like cards, some adorned with photos, and sent them to friends around the country. Not only did it help me exercise my creativity, but helped me put smiles on friends’ faces. And who doesn’t love getting mail, right?! So be on the look out. A homemade card may be heading your way! Note: if I don’t have your current address, please send it to me!

So I guess that was a roundabout way of giving a life update with hopefully a dash of encouragement! When I had endless amounts of time back at the beginning of 2010 (chunk of time post-graduation and pre-Alabama), my friend Rebecca encouraged me to use that time to do things I normally didn’t have time for. That was when this blog was created. While I haven’t been faithful in keeping up with it, I hope this new sense of adventure will spur me into actively pursuing the checklist above and documenting it all here. Finding these little activities have kept life from entering Bill Murray mode. It’s so easy to waste each day, focusing solely on jobs and other daily important tasks so it’s time to nix the monotony and create some new opportunities!