I would come nowhere near labeling myself as a sentimental. However, the nostalgia I feel for college life comes all too often. I miss the Classic City. I miss being in a college student mindset – invincible, limitless.

What I miss most though are the people.

UGA is huge. With over 36,000 students enrolled, it can be easy to get lost in a crowd of people, especially when you are from a small coastal town in Southeast Georgia. What is special about UGA though is how many opportunities there are to get involved.Once you put get your foot in the door to a sorority or fraternity house, the Center for Student Organizations (now called the Center for Student Activities and Involvement) or any of the college ministry groups, it opens up a smaller world where you can find your own niche, becoming a name not just a number. The involvements I listed are just the ones I was involved in, not mentioning athletics or the plethora of other fun, communal activities on the UGA campus.

Compared to my four years at UGA, post-college life has been lackluster.

A big part of this for me was the transition from personal relationships to professional relationships. Transitioning from deep, 2 AM Little Italy relationships to somewhat surface, work relationships was difficult, and for an extrovert like me, the isolation that I let incur from that was toxic.

Finding purpose was another big part of the transition for me. I am a true millennial in this way. Work to me needs a purpose, a reason; it needs to make a difference. In my first job out of college, I liked it, I liked the people, but I did not feel like I was working towards anything. I was learning, I was making great friends, but I could feel myself feeling stuck, lonely and purposeless. I was not separating my purpose or identity from my work and I could not see beyond that job.

After almost a year in my first job, I decided to venture elsewhere in the hopes that returning to a familiar place would spark something in me that I knew I once had. I found a fellowship with a local youth ministry, applied and was accepted. It was a place I had not imagined myself being again but a place I am eternally grateful for, home.

In every dream I had before this point, home was not where I was and a fellowship was not what I was doing, but here I am. For me, coming back to my roots, my foundation, sparked my dreams again and set me on a different, but incredible journey. Although I am still working on the purpose bit and have just acknowledged at this point that there will probably never be another time like college again, coming home allowed me to regenerate, dream again and set my sights on something new and hopeful.

It allowed me to remember where I came from so I can imagine where I want to be.

I loved college, and I will never have that same experience again, but post-college life can be just as enjoyable and life-giving if you are able to find the balance between purpose, identity, work and life. It is hard work; it may take three moves, two jobs and one journey home to get you there, but it is possible.

Hopefully, I will be in graduate school next year working towards a degree in social work. A field I had never considered until two mentors on separate occasions both mentioned it to me. Had I never come home though, I may not have ever thought about social work and the doors it can open.

The journey has been different than I expected but so worth all of the people I have met, lessons I have learned and new dreams I am working towards.

Holidays are one of the best times of year for college students. They are a break from schoolwork and responsibilities and a chance to spend time with family and friends. For me they are the time in the fall semester where the swim team has a lot of hard training because there is no school. But at my house it’s all play.

Thanksgiving break is about all the things we are thankful for and how much food we can eat as we avoid the schoolwork that lays before us in the days before finals. Christmas break is about spending time with the ones we love the most and the Christmas story of Jesus. The things I look forward to most about the holidays with my family are the foods we eat and the traditions we have.

Thanksgiving break for my family and I involves a lot of eating and TV watching. Like most families we have a large Thanksgiving meal, but that is not when the eating festivities begin for us. We wake up on Thanksgiving Day and eat breakfast. We then watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which we recorded in order to fast forward the commercials. Once it is about 11 am we break out the parade watching snacks, everything from chips and salsa, guacamole, and queso to veggies with ranch to spinach dip with bread.

Once the Parade is over we stay on NBC and watch the National Dog Show. As a family who does not have dogs and are not particularly dog lovers we often find ourselves making jokes about the dogs that are shown and laughing our heads off. When the Dog Show is over we switch over to football, but this is usually the time of day when everyone falls asleep, so football becomes background noise. Dinner at the Raab house is usually around 5 pm and although we have nice tablecloths and dishes, we are still in our sweats. When the food is almost gone and we can’t eat anymore we go around the table and all say five things that we are thankful for. The only rule is that you can’t repeat anything that was already said.

The day after Thanksgiving means swim practice, movie watching, and spending time as a family. We are a family of athletes, and holiday breaks are no reason to miss a workout. The three swimmers in our family roll out early and get a swim practice in. As a family we not much into Black Friday because we don’t like big crowds and crowded stores. Instead of shopping my mom and I and whoever else wants to join will start watching the Hallmark Christmas movies. Although we have probably seen them all, we still enjoy watching them. The Friday after Thanksgiving also includes family board game time.

Christmas decorations at my house include the many nativities that my mother has collected over the years. We actually went around the house this year and counted them. We counted 59 but are sure that we missed some and that more would be received as gifts this year for Christmas. Each nativity is unique. One is wooden and hand carved from Korea that is a family heirloom. Another is made from banana leaves. My favorite nativity though is the Willow Tree one. It is very pretty to look at; each piece was crafted beautifully. The nativity pieces sometimes magically appear in other places. One of the nativities in the kitchen has pieces that have been found in the fridge, the pantry, the medicine cabinet, and the container of cookies on the counter. Whenever my mom finds the pieces she takes a picture of them in their new location and sends it to me.

We have a set of Merry Christmas block letters. Every time you walk by the letters they say something else. This year has been out of control with new words created. Everything from “my rich armrests” to “cherry mistmars” to “I c smart rhymers”. Each one is funny to read and they change rather quickly so you may miss some of the best ones. This adds a comical element to the holiday season and we laugh about the different combinations often. It was cool to see how many things could be made of those 14 letters.

My family has many Christmas traditions that I look forward to every year. We do the same thing every year on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day making it one of my favorite times of year at the Raab house.

Christmas Eve typically starts off with an early morning swim practice. We attend the Christmas Eve service in the late afternoon at church. On the way home we pick up Chinese food for dinner. We read the Christmas story out of the Bible during dinner, usually with each person taking a turn. After we have eaten, we open one present that is for the entire family, and some years we all open one present of our own. The family present is always a new board game that we play as a family after dinner. When we open a present of our own, we usually get matching jammies that are perfect for the family Christmas morning photo in front of the tree. After the fun of Christmas Eve, my four siblings and I have our annual sleepover. This sleepover usually involves TV watching, more games, and staying up to midnight to check isitchristmas.com before falling asleep.

Christmas Day begins no earlier than 8 am. We start with stockings, and where our stockings are located becomes our present drop off zone during the present opening. My parents give us kids three gifts a year: something we need, something we want, and something that is a surprise. The three gifts are symbolic of the gifts that the three wisemen brought to Jesus after He was born. I have four siblings, but each year I only give gifts to two siblings. On odd years I give gifts to my sister Allie and brother Luke, on even years I give gifts to my sister Shannon and brother Tim. The surprise present involves a sibling scavenger hunt that has evolved from simply following the clues in the house to getting pictures of places sent to our phones and upon figuring out which location was next, we sent selfies or videos of why this place is important to us to get the next clue. The scavenger hunt is always fun for the five of us. Once all the presents are opened, its time to assemble and play with gifts, learn how gifts work, and eating something to curb the hunger feelings until dinner. Christmas dinner used to a spiral ham, but for the last couple years has been standing rib roast.

The holiday break draws to end for me a couple days after Christmas as I have to head back to school earlier than normal students because of practice, I think about the time I have had at home with my family.

My family is in a category all its own. We are a little weird and we do things differently than most, but I wouldn’t pick a different family if I could.

The New Year is approaching and the talk has turned from what people want for Christmas to the resolutions people will make for the coming year. Personally I don’t make any resolutions because I believe that one can change anything about them anytime during the year, not just at the beginning. But there are several things that I look forward to with the New Year. The swim season’s biggest competitions are in February (SECs) and March (NCAAs). As someone who thrives with the stress of competition, this is an exciting time for me. I look forward to the changing of the seasons from winter to spring. Spring is my favorite time of year because all the plants are turning green and blooming again, animals come out of hibernation, and the weather warms up. There are so many outdoorsy things to do and places to explore in the spring and summer time around Athens and Nashville that I say I will venture out to and find, but usually doesn’t happen.

The biggest thing that I think about as one year ends and another begins are all the things that I accomplished, and where my new goals are. This year included my two best semesters in school ever, being a part of a SEC and NCAA winning relay, a NCAA championship with the best team around, my first major concert, a top 10 finish in the country at Olympic Trials, a road-trip with my brother to our grandparents house, the chance to live broadcast high school sporting events, the wedding of a former teammate and friend, and I was baptized. So many great things happened in 2016, and I know that 2017 will hold so many great things that I can’t even imagine yet.

My husband and I both work full-time and also work on my blog, Wonder & Awe. We work on the blog whenever we have a free minute.  

I first saw Matt while he was leading worship at church, we made eye contact and it was love at first. We dated for six months, were engaged for five months and have been married for almost a year. When you know- you just know.

When it comes to Wonder & Awe, Matt is equally as involved as I am, and Wonder & Awe would truly be nothing without him. Matt is the half of the story that you do not see- the man behind the camera. He spent countless hours on a beautiful redesign of my website and helped me upgrade all my different web features. He researched the best camera lens to purchase for the types of shots we do and takes the most beautiful pictures. Our skill sets really complement one another, and it honestly is just way more fun working with him than it would be to do this on my own. We both love the creative process and enjoy creating beautiful new content for Wonder & Awe.  

I grew up always working at newspapers. Before deciding to go to law school, I had plans to work in broadcast journalism. Matt is a computer genius and runs his own company, Loop Community. We both are very busy.

I started Wonder & Awe because I needed a creative outlet. During the day I work fulltime as a lawyer and at night Matt and I work on Wonder & Awe. Balancing working fulltime and also trying to get a blog off and running is not easy but I love it so much I just cannot stop. I really have the best of both worlds.

However, there are many days when the whole process becomes way overwhelming. Between finding time to work out after a full day of work, grocery shop, make dinner for my husband and sneak in the occasional shower sometimes I start to crack under all the to-do-lists I create for myself.

I always wish I had more time to devote to building the blog. There is a huge business behind blogging and one that requires much more time than I currently have to devote to it. I wish I had time to network with all the different Chicago bloggers but in this season of my life I just can’t. Right now time is precious. I am so thankful that I get to work with my husband and spend time with him throughout the whole process.

To learn more about Wonder & Awe, please visit http://wonderandawe.com/!

The #halfthestory you do not see in front of the camera is the most important part of the story for me.

Life as an entrepreneur isn’t always roses! Balancing life, friends, and clients is tough. While I love owning a biz (make that two), the truth is I’m up working past midnight almost every night.

Running your #sidehustle requires determination and LOTS of hard work. If you want to be a #girlboss, you’ll need to learn the art of saying no. It’s never easy, but while my friends are having GNO and frolicking about town — I’m usually at home working on my laptop.

Finding balance in the entrepreneurial world is key. There’s not enough room for everything so the choice is yours — social life + success + sleep {but you can only pick two!} You’ve got to figure out what matters most, be intentional with your time and make those things priorities.

While I’m obsessed with my life and wouldn’t change it for anything — work never stops. Ever. Not even on vacation. Or while you’re sick. Or even when you’re on a mission trip in Africa. Entrepreneurs work 24/7. No one told me that. You hear the perks of making your own schedule and sleeping until noon, but the reality is that you have to be on your A-game at all times.

You can’t miss a single opportunity because it could be the one you’ve been working tirelessly for. But believe me, when failure isn’t an option, you’ll do whatever it takes to make your dream come true!

#HTS

To many people, being a quality leader may be distinguished as a person with great bravado and a dazzling command over a group of followers. 

For a person to be a good leader, some believe it is necessary to have an egocentric personality, constantly expressing their superiority.  Leaders are assumed to be known as larger-than-life figures that capture the attention of a crowd as soon as they step foot into a building.  Any believers that think these qualities are the key to leadership will never become a successful leader.

I was once one of these believers and didn’t consider myself capable of becoming a leader because I didn’t have the aptitude to be an assertive, commanding egotistic.  I didn’t think I could be the captain of my high school soccer team because I wasn’t an authoritative person.  I never thought I was fit to be the student body president because I lacked command.

Little did I know, the aforementioned characteristics are insignificant to becoming a great leader.

The books “Tribes” by Seth Godin and “Good to Great” by Tim Collins have altered my perspective of what it takes to be a great leader.  These authors have instilled the confidence that I have needed to take the next step in life and start leading my own tribe.  Anyone can become a leader.  Being a leader doesn’t require a specific make-up.  Everyone has the same opportunity to become a leader, it’s whether or not you choose to be one.  In Seth Godin’s eyes, being a great leader starts with taking initiative in whatever it is you believe in.  If you have a strong enough belief in an idea, the passion you have will project itself and followers who have the same passion will join the movement.

In the past few years, based on Godin’s views, I would have been considered a “sheep-walker”.  I kept my ideas to myself, I did what I was told, and settled on being content with everything.  But in the recent year, I’ve begun to walk away from being a “sheep-walker” and pursuing to be more of a leader.  Being a leader doesn’t mean you have to be the CEO of a large company, one can lead from anywhere within the organization.  I’ve been interning for a few months for this sports company that is getting ready to launch by the end of the year.  A team of us had been given a project, to analyze and scout players performing at the NFL combine.

Not many reports were being posted on a regular basis so I took the initiative and began to post as many reports as I could every day.  Other team members saw the passion I had and followed suit because they had the same passion.  I tried to help any team members who were struggling and give them any tips that I had picked up.  I would try to spark up new ideas to help enhance the project.  I wasn’t doing all this to look good for the CEO, but all my actions have been done to help benefit the organization and I believe that has been evident to the rest of the team.

If I received any compliment for any of the work, the first thing I’d say would be “Thank you, but the rest of the team had a lot to do with it, they deserve most of the credit.”

One must have a “blend of personal humility and professional will”, an excellent description from Jim Collins on what it takes to be a great leader.

One must have the will to do whatever it takes to help the organization grow and reach new limits and in doing so, they must also be able to keep a leveled ego through modesty and humbleness.  The quote of “personal humility and professional will” is going to be ingrained in me for the rest of my life.  Now, I’ve made it a ritual to say every morning when I wake up.

Being a second semester junior in college, I really thought I’d have my life figured out by now. Truth is, I don’t and I’m slowly learning to be okay with that. For the longest time, I had always dreamed about my life after college.

I wanted to move to some cool new city in a different state with a fresh start. I thought I would have a lot more experience in the field that I wanted to work in.

I thought I’d be in a serious relationship with my college sweetheart. Don’t get me wrong, college has been the best years of my life, but it has taught me that not a lot in life is going to go the way you planned.

Reality has really set in this year because so many of my friends are seniors and are graduating in a little over a month.

I’ve seen them struggle to find jobs, apply to graduate schools. Many already have a job lined up for them after graduation, while some are still figuring it out. Once they’re gone, I’ll be in that position.

My plan for right now is graduate school. I’m stressed about having to take the GRE, completing the applications, and, of course, waiting to hear whether I’m good enough to get accepted to the programs.

Then there’s the whole matter of paying for graduate school, adjusting to a new city, and being successful in furthering my education.

It all makes me insanely nervous thinking about being a real adult. Living on your own inside the college bubble is not the same as truly living on your own.

As much as I long to start a new chapter in my life, I truly don’t feel prepared for it. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that I shouldn’t expect to be prepared for most of the things that life throws at me. With a little positivity and a little courage, I know that I’ll be okay.