I had to get real. I can’t expect to be handed a dream, mid-level job with zero experience, and I can’t afford to start over in an entry-level job. I need experience before I’ll be taken seriously, plus it might be a good idea to make sure I actually like editorial work. So I started looking for unpaid, low commitment opportunities to write online. I landed great opportunity to join The Next Great Generation, an online magazine written by 18 to 27-year-olds about growing up in the information age. As a staff writer I’ll work with the editor to contribute one piece a week for the hyper-local Boston blog on topics from technology to pop culture to fashion to business.

Without further ado I bring to you my very first post on Boston.com: I live in Boston, and there’s an app for that: 5 must-have apps for Bostonians.

Now pardon me while I go jump up and down and squeal with delight. My article is currently the most emailed article on all of Boston.com! I’m so giddy it’s embarrassing.

Our unit is awesome.  It’s massive, it gets a ton of natural light and it has more storage than I’ve ever had in Boston.  But one of the best perks of the place is my new, shortened commute.  On some days, I get to work in 12 minutes.  Door-to-door.  12 minutes.

Even better, we’re located right between two different train lines, so on the way home from work I can hop on either the Green Line C or Green Line D train, whichever comes first.

1. Regardless of the fact that I’m logging 10-12 hours more a week than in the old gig, I am… making more money.  And for that reason, I can’t complain.
2. On more than one occasion, I’ve walked into a conference room to find the development team playing video games on the biggest plasma I’ve ever seen.
3. Our office is equipped with xbox, allowing the development team to play for extended periods of time in said conference room, on said TV.
4. On other occasions, the dev team doesn’t even bother secluding themselves from the rest of us – they play right in the open space we like to call cube land / the bullpen / the corral.
5. They play in said bullpen, or in the aforementioned conference room, with little to no threat of being reprimanded for such actions.  Video games are encouraged.  They’re ‘learning’ and ‘researching’ and ‘studying.’ (Oh, the perks of working in a software development group).

Aside from money and video games, my new job rocks for more reasons – reasons more appreciated by a 24 year old lady like myself.

1. We celebrate every, single birthday.  We have a card, we sing happy birthday, and we have anywhere from 30-60 minutes of cake time.  We tend to stick with delicious chocolate mouse or chocolate & rasberry.  New co-workers love chocolate, and cake, and taking time away from our laptops and massive plasma screens to enjoy chocolate cake.
2. New co-workers like to have fun.  They laugh, a lot, during the day.  They joke out loud about completely inappropriate things and execs join in on the mayhem.
3. New co-workers also like to have fun after hours, over beer.

Wouldn’t you agree that beer, and giggles and chocolate cake and money make any new job better than the last?  

• a successful trip to NYC
• a fabulously thrown “surprise” birthday party
• a few trips home to Maine
• plenty of quality family time, and
• … a new job. A new job? Yes, you heard me right. I had been searching for new positions for quite some time, and by quite some time I mean over a year. But just recently I actually started applying, and even more importantly, following up with my applications. I interviewed with a few companies, had three job opportunities cookin’ at the same time, and baboom! An offer fell into place.

So more on that later. I just wanted to check in and say I’m alive, and well. The last month has been rather tumultuous emotionally, mentally and even physically (hello exhaustion) but it’s all been for the best.