Wisdom from Dr. Seuss

The end of the semester is always a little bittersweet for me. It is nice to be finishing up classes and getting finals over with, but it also means that I won’t be seeing the same people as much. I always enjoy making new friends in my classes, so it is always a little sad when those classes end, because you just don’t run in the same circles anymore. It happens every semester, even when I try to tell myself that to won't.

I also have a few friends that will not be at BYU next semester. Some are leaving on missions and others have internships for winter semester, so I will not get to see them at all. It is really sad that I won’t get to see them, but there is this one quote that I love that always helps me feel better. It is from Dr. Seuss, and it says:

 “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Throughout my life, this is a quote that I have been able to look back on and help me have a better attitude. Endings are always sad for me, but if I remember to be grateful for what I have had instead of focusing on what I won’t have, then I will be able to be a happier person. This is something that I have to learn again and again, but I feel like I am definitely getting better at just “smiling because it happened.” I’m so grateful for the opportunities I have had to meet such amazing people, including many of you. I hope you all the best with finals!

Remote Meeting

Group projects have lots of pluses and minuses. It is nice to be able to divide up the work and share ideas but it is very difficult to find times when everyone in the group can meet together. With so many different schedules, it is hard to coordinate meetings where we can all be present. So out of necessity, our group has had a couple of meetings where we have had people Skype in. It is not as easy as it would be if we could actually meet in person, but it allowed us to still get things done even when we are in different places.

Google Docs were also very helpful in compiling and organizing our ideas. We were able to see what our other group members had written and get a general idea of what we should write. Although it was not perfect and we still had to do a lot of group editing, it was nice to have all of our information in one place where everyone can access and see it.

So despite the difficulties of group projects, we were still able to get things done thanks to the help of modern technologies. And even though group projects are not always the most enjoyable, I know that I need to get used to working in them because the business world is full of group projects. I want to be a contributing member, so working in group projects helps me to become better.

Thankful for Family

This week I got to be a mother of five … and it was an interesting experience. My parents went to Italy for Thanksgiving break so they flew me home to babysit my siblings for the week. It really was a lot of fun, but also I a lot of work! I noticed that there are lots of little things that my mom usually does that I don’t usually notice, and I now had to do them – like making sure everyone brushed their teeth and figuring out meals three times a day. It makes me really appreciate all that my mom does.

It was even more difficult to figure out meals with it being Thanksgiving! Good thing my siblings are young and easy to please because I do not know how to make a turkey (or really cook at all) …. So we had chicken nuggets and they were just as happy! I was worried it wouldn’t really feel like Thanksgiving with a chicken nugget dinner, but we were able to make it feel like Thanksgiving in our own little way. It truly is the spirit of the holiday that counts.

So I guess what I learned this week is that I am so grateful for my family. With my parents being gone, it was a lot more work around the house, and we all missed having them there on Thanksgiving. But I am also grateful for my siblings and how they make the best of things and still have tons of fun. I am so grateful for all of them, especially during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Because family makes the holidays better! 

Individual Presentations (2)

This was week two of individual presentations, and I was surprised by how many programs and apps there are out there to help you to effectively manage both your personal and business life. I didn’t even know about things like Evernote, Asana, Hootsuite, Todoist, and countless other applications. It was nice to get to learn a little bit about all of these programs so that if I ever find myself needing to organize, or plan, or collaborate anything, then I know where I can go to get that help. That is one of the most wonderful things about the internet – you can always find the help you need as long as you know where and how to look for it.

I also learned a lot of helpful things about using social media. It is something that I can use to help myself, but it is also something that is helpful in evaluating the social media presence of our business for our final reports and recommendations. For example, in my group project, I am in charge of evaluating our business’s use of Instagram, and thanks to one of these presentations, I learned that one of the best ways to use Instagram is to “tell your story.” I love that what we learn in this class is so applicable and useful.

So I want to become better at utilizing all of the resources at my disposal – both these “help” applications and my own social media. If I can effectively use the things that I have learned about in these presentations, then it could give me an advantage and I will hopefully be better organized and prepared.  

Individual Presentations (1)

For class this week, we had our individual presentations conference. It was a good experience to practice presentations where we are heavily graded on how we give the presentation as opposed to what we give the presentation on. I really had to remember to be more aware of what I am doing because there are a lot of things that factor into a presentation besides just the content. It’s good practice because all of those things of how we give our presentations is what can make it successful or not.

I do wish that I could have gone the second day though, because I feel like I could learn a lot about presenting from watching my classmates. There were so many good presentations! I loved all of the creative hooks and interesting ways to remember the topics. I think that a good hook is one of the most important things of the presentation because if you don’t hook your audience, then they aren’t going to pay attention to you and it doesn’t matter what you do during the rest of the presentation if they aren’t listening. But overall, I feel like everyone did such a great job at doing that. Because even though some of these topics are not the most interesting to talk about, I was still engaged during all of the presentations.

Next time I give a presentation, which will probably be in the class, I want to makes sure that I am sending out all of the right nonverbal cues to keep the audience interested. It is an important part of presenting that I don’t usually focus on, so I’m glad that we do that in this class! 

Here is a link to a blog that has some good tips for non verbal cues during presentations. Enjoy!

http://24slides.com/blog/communicate-non-verbally-presentations/ 

Be a "Supremely Happy" Person

Every day in class, my finance professor gives a spiritual thought. It is nice because it breaks up the lecture, and I always really appreciate what he has to say. This week he sent out an email with title, “Too long for a spiritual thought in class.” I wasn’t going to read it because of the “too long” part, but I decided to just take a quite look at it, and I'm glad that I did. It was a link to an article titled The Surprising Science Behind “Supremely Happy” People. It was really interesting to read and I definitely want to apply some of those principles in my life. Here is the list that they gave of “The Habits of Supremely Happy People.” Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Happy people surround themselves with other happy people. Joy is contagious. People are four times more likely to be happy in the future with happy people around them.

2. Happy people try to be happy. When happy people don’t feel happy, they cultivate a happy thought and smile about it.

3. Happy people spend money more on others than they spend on themselves. Givers experience what scientists call the “helper’s high.”

4. Happy people use laughter as a medicine. A good old-fashioned chuckle releases lots of good neurotransmitters. A study showed that children on average laugh 300 times a day versus adults who laugh 15 times a day.

5. Happy people use the power of music. Researchers found that music can match the anxiety-reducing effects of massage therapy.

This was a really good reminder to me of what really makes us happy. My very favorite is the first point of surrounding ourselves with happy people makes us happy. It makes me really appreciate all of the wonderful people in my life and remind me that I need to be that happy person in other people’s lives as well. I hope you enjoyed this little insight! 

Online Interview

This week I was able to practice and online interview. It is a very different interview experience than having a normal meeting or even a phone call, so it was nice to be able to practice this before I had to do it in a real interview situation.

My partner was very good at giving feedback. One of the things he suggested was including an interesting or distinguishing factor in my “tell me about yourself” so that the interviewer has something to remember me by and make me stand out. That is something that I definitely want to incorporate in my future interviews. I also feel like I could be better at using the PAR stores as the format for answering the questions. It is easy to tell about experiences but if feel like using a PAR story just gives the interviewer a better answer than just an experience. It is something that I need to be better at preparing beforehand because it is hard to think of a PAR story on the spot. 

A few things that I felt were helpful that I had done for this interview was making sure to answer questions and to use the same wording on my resume as listed in the job description. Having questions makes you seem like you have prepared for this interview and that you are really interested in working with the company. Also, using that same wording make it easy to identify if you are a god candidate for this job.

Overall, I feel like I learned more than I thought would and I would definitely say it was a beneficial experience.

Becoming a Better Listener

Boise State v. BYU

This past weekend I went to Boise, Idaho, to watch the Boise State v. BYU game. I have a lot of extended family in Boise and it was nice to get to see a lot of them. While I was there, I visited one of my cousins who is about a year and a half older than me and she is married with a baby on the way. We don’t have that much in common, so I was surprised by how much time we spent together on that short vacation. Mostly I just listened to her but I feel that that is sometimes one of the best ways to get closer to someone. 

My mom always tells me how important it is to be a good listener. She says that really listening to someone can help people feel important and loved and it really helps strengthen your relationship. And that is something that sticks with a person. There is a quote that I love that says:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”― Maya Angelou

This is such a true statement. Looking back on my life, I don’t really remember specific things that people said or did, but I always remember how they made me feel. That is why I think listening to people is so important. When you really listen to them, you get to know them better and they feel important and loved.

All of the things we’ve learned about in Mcom about reflective listening are just as important in everyday life situations as they are in business situations. When you truly listen to someone, it really helps strengthen your relationship and people will remember that you cared enough so listen. And so that is why I really want to work on becoming a better listener.

Did You Think to Pray?

This past week I have heard so much about remembering to say morning prayers, which is always something that I have had to work on. When I was younger, my dad would always help me by singing the song “Did you think to pray?” and he is not a very good singer, so that was always a funny but good reminder. Unfortunately, I don’t get that here now that I am at college.

My Friend Emerson 

Before this week, I was trying to get better at remembering but without much success … Then I started getting all of these amazing reminders throughout the week! 

In my D&C class, my professor told us that we need to make morning prayer such a priority in our life that we would never even consider leaving our apartments without saying morning prayers first. This really helped me to think about the importance of saying morning prayers.

Then, when my visiting teachers came on Sunday, they also talked about prayers, and how we can use them to get our daily guidance from the Lord. They also talked about praying to help remember to say prayers, which has really been helping.

I also got a letter from one of my best friends who is on a mission right now. We used to text each other every morning to remind the each other about morning prayers, but now that she is on her mission, we can’t really do that. But in this letter, she wrote this cute little poem and drew a picture that I now hang on my wall to remind me to say morning prayers.

So this week I have been pretty good at remembering and it has made a difference in my day. I want to be better at remembering all the time, and this week has been a good motivator for me to keep up with it!

This is Water

This week, my friend showed me this amazingly inspirational video. It’s a little long, but if you have the time, you should definitely watch it!

This video is a good reminder for me. I think that it can be easy to get into the routine of life and not be aware of everyone else around you. Like the video says, our default setting is to think that this is “all about me,” and what I want.

I think that it is especially easy for me to fall into this mindset while I am at college. I am here to get an education for me and the have fun for me. The only person I have to take care of and be responsible for is me, so it is easy to get caught up in that. That is one of the differences I really noticed when I went home this summer, how different life is when I live with my family not just me. I’m not to only one I have to take care of.

And so one thing that I really want to work on is to just be more aware of all the people around me. The video says, “The capital T-Truth … is about the real value of a real education which has (almost) nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with simple awareness.” Becoming aware and choosing to reach outside of myself is something that I want to learn while I am here at school. Getting an education is not only about getting a degree, but also about learning how to live life. And I want to have that. 

Teaching the Right Way

Tomorrow in Relief Society, I am teaching the lesson, and so this past week I’ve been thinking a lot about what I am going to say. It’s amazing how when you are thinking about something, like a lesson, that everything seems to connect back to that. Whether I was listening to conference, or in my D&C class, or even just talking to my mom, everything seemed to connect back to what I am teaching about.

But one of the most helpful things I learned this week was not actually about my topic, but rather how I should teach my topic. It comes from D&C 43:8.

8 And now, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my law and commandments, which I have given.

In my D&C class, we discussed how the three most important components of teaching are to instruct, to edify, and to inspire to act. This past week, I have been worrying only about the instruct part of teaching, which is important, but it’s not the only part of teaching. I realize that I also need to try to edify and inspire them to act. It has helped me to focus how I teach my lesson, but also has helped me to get more out of my studying. I have learned a lot more from thinking about my lesson in this way instead of focusing only on the instruction.

I still have to finalize what I am going to say, but now I know that I also need to aim to edify and inspire the Relief Society too. If I want to have a good lesson, I need to have all three of these components. And it is amazing how we had this lesson in D&C right before I have to teach. It must truly be inspired! 

I Love to See the Temple

My Favorite Temple: Washington DC

This week, on Tuesday, was my ward temple night. This week was pretty busy and wasn’t sure if I would be able to get everything done in time, but I decided that I was going to make going to the temple my priority. I hadn’t been to the temple in months, because at home, the closest temple is a three and a half hour drive away, so I didn’t go at all over the summer, but now that I am here in Provo, Utah, I don’t have any excuse. And I am so glad that I took the time to go on Tuesday. It was a great experience, but I have to say that it wasn’t all smooth sailing!

When we got to the temple to do baptisms, there were so many people there … In fact, they ran out of baptism suits and we had to wait just to even get dressed. And then we were singing in the waiting room for hours before we were able to actually do the baptisms, but what amazed me was that I didn’t ever get annoyed or impatient. I still had lots of homework that I had to do that night and it was getting late, but I never felt stressed – it was great! Usually waiting would bother me, but I just felt peaceful the whole time I was in the temple, which was such a blessing. The temple really does have a different spirit and it is so wonderful.

Another thing that made this trip so great what that I was able to do a friend’s family names. It makes a difference when you know a little bit about the person because it is easier to visualize them and how they must be feeling. And my friend had found so many interesting stories! She told me that she had originally thought that all of her family history work was done, but when she sat down to do some research, she was able to find lots of information that she didn’t even know was missing. It was inspiring. I have always thought that all of my family history work is done too but now I’m not so sure …

So this week I have been inspired to go to the temple more often and to try and find more family history information. I have been hearing a lot about temples and family history work in church and in the General Women’s Broadcast, but I haven’t done anything about it until this week when I decided that I am going to change that! I can wait to see what I can find!

Hats off to Technology

This week, I am really loving technology. I’m enjoying all of the amazing ways there are to connect with people! Right now, my family lives in Pennsylvania, my brother in the Mexico MTC, and my mom is on vacation in Italy. But because of FaceTime, texting, Snapchat, Facebook, and email, I get to keep in touch with all of my family members no matter what part of the world they are in. It is amazing! I get to be a part of my family’s life even when I am across the country. I feel the same way about keeping in touch with friends; even though I don’t get to see them often, I still get to talk to them and know about their lives.

My Bunch of Crazies

It’s amazing how different life is because of technology. My parents always point out that when they went to college, they didn’t get see much of their younger siblings, and that was something that I was worried about when I first came to Utah. My siblings are pretty young, and I didn’t want them to completely forget about me when I went to college. That’s why it makes me so happy that I can still talk to them. My baby brother can remember me and I won’t be just some picture on the wall of that girl that shows up around Christmas time.

So I guess that the take away from this is that you can always connect with people, you just have to make a little bit of effort. If you read my post last week, then you know that networking has been on my mind. What better way to grow my network than through technology! Keeping in touch is now easier than ever, so there is no excuse. Thank you technology!

I Can Do Hard Things

This summer, I began to recognize the importance of networking and having good connections. I had an internship at an insurance company this summer, and the main reason I got the job was because I had connections. (Thanks daddy!) This was true for pretty much every other intern there – we all got the job because we knew someone who worked there. And when you think about it, if you have two job applicants who are equally qualified but one is a complete stranger and the other you have a connection to, then you are most likely going to hire the one that you know something about.

And recently, not just in class, I have been hearing a lot about people who have gotten jobs thanks to networking. In my marketing class, we had a guest speaker come in from Nike, and he told us that one of the main reasons he got the job was because of networking and the connections that he had gained. So if networking was able to help him get an awesome job at a cool place like Nike, then I guess I’d better get used to networking if I want to be able to get a great job too!

I’ve come to realize that a lot of the things that are hard to do are actually some of the most useful things that we can do. I know that was very vague, but it’s because it can apply to so many aspects of my life. So whether it’s networking or classes or callings, if they are difficult, then it means you are learning and getting better. That’s why I’m going to try an adopted a better attitude about hard things, because they are actually good for me! I love the talk that says “I can do hard things,” because it’s true! I’ve just got to try and remember that while I am doing them.

Communicate in Callings

This past week, I got a new calling to be in the Relief Society presidency. I’ve only had this calling for a few days, but I’ve already spend multiple hours in meetings trying to get everything set up. It’s already been a lot of work and I have been feeling a little overwhelmed … I have no idea what I am doing! This is an especially big change from my calling last year where all I had to do was post a spiritual thought on the ward blog that no one ever read. (That was actually my first blog so hopefully my second will go a little better!)

I don’t know if it was because of my Mcom class or not, but the thing I kept coming back to that would have helped me the most was if I had been better at communicating. It is hard to determine visiting teaching pairs or callings for people when you don’t really know the people you are trying to organize. I found myself constantly wishing that I had been better at getting around and introducing myself to the other sisters in my ward. Granted, I did not know I was going to have this calling while I was at these ward functions, but if I had been better at making communication a more integral part of my life then these past few days might not have been as stressful as they were.

So my goal this next semester is to really try and master my communication skills, both for the sake of my calling and my professional life. To be honest, communication really is one of the most essential things in life because it determines all you’re your interactions with everyone around you. I really love how in class we have discussed how communication is so much more than just what we are saying – it is everything about you! Communication includes your dress, manners, and expressions, as well as what is actually coming out of your mouth.

However, I know that this communication stuff is going to really push me outside of my comfort zone. I’m not usually one to just go up and start a conversation with someone and that is exactly what I am going to have to get better at. I’m really hoping that I will get better and I know that this will be a great skill for me to improve on!

About Me

So I’m actually stealing this idea of introducing myself from someone else’s blog … I thought it was a great way to start it off. Sorry if I stole your idea, but isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? I hope so because I’m definitely being a copy-cat here.

Anyways, I’m Valerie Atkinson and I am from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, which is about 45 minutes north of Philadelphia. I was actually born in Boise, Idaho (side note: I LOVE Boise State football) and then I lived in Washington DC for eight years before moving to Pennsylvania.

I hope to study accounting, but I won’t apply to the program until the end of this year. I didn’t always want to be an accountant. My dad is an accountant, my mom has a degree in accounting, and my grandpa was an accounting professor as Boise State. I was mostly opposed to the idea of being an accountant because it seemed like everyone in my family was doing it, but I decided to take the first accounting class just to try it out. As it turns out, I found out that I actually really enjoyed it! Imagine that! So that’s how I decided that I wanted to become an accountant. And after having an internship in Philadelphia this past summer, it has gotten me even more excited to start learning more about it.

I also really love playing basketball and volleyball, even if I’m not that great at them. I do have a pretty nice height advantage though, which can definitely be a big help! I also enjoy reading, being outside, and going places. Can’t wait to see what this semester will hold for me!