#elizabolt

My former boss would reply to any request for vacation with “ok...” and I never felt like I was allowed to request PTO!

I won our building-wide costume contest as Best Person Eleanor Shellstropp. The prize was a bottle of wine, because duh.

So I started using "alt grad school" when I got into performing arts Photography in undergrad and continued it on the side when I started working for my Alma mater's registrar's office.

But then I got really into higher education as a career and recently completed my actual masters in higher ed administration. So keeping "alt grad school" didn't feel like who I was anymore but it was still part of my internal brand/discovery process.

Now: thrilled that I kept AGS as a Tumblr url because I've found my next career goal/dream job but am still academically hung over so I won't even entertain the idea of a doctoral program for a few more years. But I want to work towards this dream job anyways and have always (since I was a child asking my mom to create homework and tests for me during vacations - crazy, I know) enjoyed creating my own curriculum and that's what I'm going to do!

What discipline?

We're the same age!!?

Dude I am right there with you. 100%. I'm touring venues in two weeks and that concept hasn't sunk in yet

Week 1, I guess

Wedding planning is officially happening! This week, I found my dress and shoes! I have my entire “look” figured out and can finally, slowly, start planning. The first piece has fallen into place. I’ve also started a (mild) workout regimen so my off-the-rack dress will fit me perfectly... in 14 months. 

funny story: when trying on dresses, it might’ve been the first or second dress I put on (which was all wrong for me, but I wanted to rule out styles), the shopgirl plopped a veil on my head (again, all wrong for me) and I nearly blacked out. It was completely overwhelming. It felt so wrong, but in a ‘living someone else’s life’ sort of way, not a ‘why am I getting married’ way. I almost started crying right there on the platform. Disorienting is probably the best way to describe it. Like, yeah, I was just playing dress-up and had no commitment to buy the dress or veil, but the way weddings are packaged tend to be “best version of you” messaging and I honestly didn’t recognize myself in the mirror in that moment. For what it’s worth, my dress is honestly the polar opposite of, well, actually, 99% of the other dresses I tried on that day. And it really does feel like “me” as a dress, which I honestly never expected I’d experience. It’s difficult to understand the power of (seriously) trying on wedding dresses without having done so, but it was a bizarrely emotional experience.