16. Building Britches

To   Jonathan Weiss , Gabriella Navarez , Matt Sanders , and Leah -whose name I apologetically cannot recall so please forgive me. To all four of you I say thank you. Thank you for not getting to big for your britches. Thank you for helping me fit into mine. Thank you for words that surely did not fall onto deaf ears. Thank you for hope.

I’m sure as you can tell from previous posts on this blog I am on the journey to finding my dream position. It has been a hard and daunting trail but it is because of people like Jonathan, Gabi, Matt and Leah that trotting along has not been as difficult as I had imagined. 

 All four of them and 50+ others recently traveled with a few professors to New York for an agency tour with some of the biggest ad companies out there. W+K NY, McGarryBowen, and Huge just to name a few. While they could have soaked up all they could and then came back to Oregon without anything to share, they did just the opposite. This career field is a competitive one so it would have been understandable if they did not divulge any information but like Matt said, "Drop the competitive. We can be on a team and do everything together."  The fact that they were willing to take time out of their day to relive the moments that I and many others weren’t there for, I find that one of the greatest things anybody could ever do for someone.

So with that said, I now pass on the most prominent points I got from them.

It’s all about intrinsic motivation. Nobody is gonna tell you to do it, you just have to. - Jonathan

Stay around people you admire. It will keep you… sane. - Gabi

It’s about making the commitment to stay after hours. // There is an eagerness to be a part of cool sh*t. // I know I’m good at everything but what am I really great at. I shouldn’t be ashamed of that. // You just gotta get in where you fit in. - Matt  (I think I soaked up the most from him because I felt like we had the most in common with our “uncommon” way of thinking.)

Have outside interests. Make pie! - Leah.

Also, a big shout out to ALL the companies that hosted the #UONYC . I know I was not there to share and partake in the glory that was the Big Apple but seriously, I love when people who have been helped out never forget to turn around and do the same.