JSchool: The Last 113 Days

Chronicling the trauma and joys experienced on the quest to get to graduation day.

[jschoollasts]

15 Easy Things You Can Do To Help When You Feel Like Shit

You don't have to tackle it all at once.

This couldn’t have come at a better time. #twoweeks #thirdsemester

[jschoollasts]

19 things I do to keep from losing my mind...#19days

1.) Climb Everest (http://everestavalanchetragedy.com/mt-everest-journey.html)

I’m on top of the world!!!!!!!

2.) Read about celebrities doing awesome things amidst tragedy...(http://mic.com/articles/129279/heres-chrissy-teigens-response-to-fridays-planned-parenthood-shooting#.ZyrFTRDD6)

Really, what is the world coming to?

3.) ...and check people with equally awesome social media responses. 

Tell ‘em. 

4.) Watch a new show on Netflix.

Because it’s the first episode, I’m not going to get hooked. #liesitellmyself

5) Call my mom to feel better about myself.

But if I stay on too long, the smothering stops. :(( #achildforever

 6) through 17) Google-search ways to distract myself.

(http://www.wikihow.com/Distract-Yourself-from-Things-You-Don't-Want-to-Think-About)

If only I could get a masters in THAT. 

18) Find encouraging memes.

19) Dance. 

Because... adulting.

[jschoollasts]

Relieve Your J-School State of Mind

Remember, air is important. 

Trippy GIFs. 

You have a beautiful mind. A beautiful, overworked mind. 

More trippy GIFs. 

Things to stare at.

A gift from the Class of 2013… (via Skyler Reid)

Follow the circle.

Discombobulated fuzzy things.

News fails…and funny moments.

Broadcast...

...Print…

Radio

US President (major) name fail: http://wp.me/pv6l9-bY

[jschoollasts]

Day 85: Does it help that…?

…graduation is 28 days away. Count it. 28. Despite that, there’s a sh*t ton of work to get done in what now feels like an impossibly short amount of time. This has had me trying to come up with reassuring thoughts, which has turned into a game of hypotheticals I call “Does It Help That…?” 

...

So here goes. “Does it help that…”

…You’ll be home with family, friends and more food than you can stay awake to eat?

Better f*cking believe it. 

Does it help that…

…your capstone advisor wants to see all your reported material tomorrow morning? 

Sure, I don’t miss sleep. Hell to the naw. 

Does it help that…

Your Day 1 j-school friends and you have reached a new level of openness about your daily stresses, bringing your relationship to a whole new level of honesty and understanding? 

*shrugs* Yeah. (Side note: Ahh!!! Rode mic!) (Side note to the side note: no one uses it like that… ugh #jschool.)

Does it help that…

…there are a million job post notifications on Facebook and you still haven’t replied to one? 

Freelancer is starting to sound way too real an option.

Does it help that…

…you have work to do and all you can think about is how bad you want to “Netflix ‘n’ Chill?” 

No chill. And no Netflix. No bueno. (OK I LIED. I’m on Episode 5 of Aziz’s Master of None… which is increasingly sounding like the story of my life).

Does it help that… 

...that 2016er thinks you give good advice and is amazed at everything you’re working on? 

But please, continue. My ego is in the ER and your sweet words are my IV. 

Does it help that…

…your Facebook statuses lately have everyone who’s not in j-school like…

…and everyone who is like…?

We so supportive.

Does it help that...

Even though you’re 75% done with your program, you still feel like…?

*tears* It’s just too much.

Does it help that…

…for a moment you can remember that this life isn’t forever, that you have a vibrant personality and interests that will grow past the four walls you’ve conditioned in for the last 15 months? 

J-school took my soul, but it won’t take my youth! 

Does it help that…

This may be the last degree?

♪ Schoooooooooool’s out…for-EVER! ♪

Got some more? Add your gif to the list! Submit your “Does It Help That…” question to the blog! 

[jschoollasts]

What they should really ask is...

(via Evol Intent)

[jschoollasts]

Ohhh, we’re halfway there...

...and, yup, living on a prayer. (That’s Jon Bon Jovi for you youngins).

We’re 57 days away from graduation. The official halfway mark is upon us, yet all I’ve been worried about is the flu, excessive caffeine intake, and having over the counter pain meds for an assortment of aches and pains.

I think about relaxing, but when I try it, it’s like jschool is the lady at the DMV who looks at your paperwork, frowns, gets you on a technicality and sends you away to fill out some other paperwork.

Either way, you’re pretty sure not getting what you want today. And it’s two point four seconds away from getting all up in your feelings.

But hey, career fair tomorrow yayyyyyyyyyyyy.

[jschoollasts]

Things that make graduation day feel that much cooler…. #StarWars #TheForceAwakens #ISleepeth #IWishICouldStayAwake #CoolestCommencementDayEver

[jschoollasts]

60 days left and it feels like...

(via Andrea)

[yrbff]

give me all the coffee in the world

(by dilfosaur)

[jschoollasts]

Omg...this was at least three nights so far this semester.

[jschoollasts]

‘Sick days’ just mean you’re doing more sh*t later

Let’s face it: ‘sick days’ are nonexistent.

The work doesn’t stop being due. Rarely are you actually relieved of your duties. Taking a recovery day is more like taking a high interest loan: it’s a forced necessity that you know you will massively regret.

It’s Day 36 (that’s 32% done with the semester) and being trapped in bed so far is no bueno. Sinuses are pressing into my face like a baker’s hands into bread dough, spreading and stretching its reach into my skull and down my throat.

It’s a silent war zone, save a cough, a sniffle, a passing airplane and a neighborhood that only decides to get noisy when a nap is necessary. *shakes fist at world*

Tea, Umcka Care, over-the-counter pain meds and sleep only passively serve as allies. *fist drops slowly, fatigued*

But these thoughts, expressed in two gifs and three numbered points, come to me in this order: (1) Work is stacking up, and (2) I’m f*cked, and (3) revisit numbers one and two.

Joy.

[jschoollasts]

Sometimes working late nights are nice.

I may be a weirdo...

...but sometimes, and I only mean SOMETIMES, I like working into the night.

I know. But let me make a case. Here are signs you might enjoy working late into the night.

Burning the midnight oil while the city is fast asleep makes you feel like a bad ass. (Take that, sleep!!)

In a strange way, you feel like the world is your oyster.

No one is up, social media is slowing down, and you’re proud for feeling less distracted and getting more work done.

You can finally hear yourself think.

You feel more creative and expressive.

A steady stream of coffee and/or energy boosters throughout the night have you feeling like Lionel Richie in 1983.

You feel bolder, wiser, stronger...maybe even invincible.

It’s a point to be argued, but regardless of how you feel after a late night, I think we can agree this is probably how you will look at some point the next day.

91 more days.

[jschoollasts]

End-of-summer sadness... already over September.

That moment when #ThrowbackThursday playlist on Spotify played Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and understood my life too well...

*tears*

[jschoollasts]

A laptop love story.

You don’t remember how you met (probably because of school or work), but you do wonder how you ever lived without each other. 

Until one day, you’ve got more work than ever.

Your laptop says it gets it... at first. But after a while, it can’t help but distract you. It pulls all the stops...

...and you are left feeling betrayed.

Of course your girlfriend disapproves of him...

...and after hours of being under his spell, it hits you like a wave that he’s controlling you.

So you take some time to reflect, do other things. Ideally this...

...but more likely this.

And you realize, for better or for worse, your relationship will always be complicated.

So you heave a sigh, reconcile and find a way back to one another...

...because you have a deadline.

[jschoollasts]

Day 7 and I’m already sick

Waking up stuffy after just a week of school…

So groggy. Immune system needs to be like...

…106 days. 

[jschoollasts]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMlPDlY094)

This literally made me cry. I wonder if this is how our teachers feel. 

Here’s to all les miserables out there. #onedaymore #112days

[jschoollasts]

Day 1: The Countdown

Begins today. #113daystilgraduation. 

Lots of feels today: a twinge of sadness to be back after a summer of working,

a warm, nostalgic feeling to see classmates--changed yet not all that different--take their places in the newsroom again, 

and anxiety knowing all too well what’s to come and be expected.

Going to try and chronicle this because, well, two reasons. Besides the fact that there was no journaling done for the trauma from the first two semesters,  this is it for us; the experience over the next 113 days will be a series of lasts, starting with this last first day of school, ending with our last last day of school and maybe our last degree. The second reason is simply that everything we’ll do here is probably going to have a lasting impact on what we do out in our lives, or at least in the world of journalism. 

So I want to try something: to keep track of some of our last moments and moments of lasting impact this semester. They may be on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or here, but they’ll all have the hashtag  #JSchoolLasts. 

Happy Last First Day.