I have a confession to make...

But it's only part-time! I swear!

So, I might have recently began barista training at Starbucks. At a Starbucks inside a Target. Double corporate sellout? It feels like it sometimes.

I mostly did it because in my real job I don't always get to see people and I miss the human contact. I also wanted to pay off as much of my student loans as I could before I went gallivanting off to incur more. So, basically I'm doing it for fun, which, according to some of my friends, apparently makes me strange. 

It is a strange place to be when you're working alongside people who have retail as their main source of income or their full time job. Not that their jobs are any more or less valuable than mine, believe me that is not what I mean to imply. It's just an interesting work dichotomy when there are part-time, full-time, salaried, and hourly employees all essentially doing much of the same job function, but approaching it all very differently. 

I guess what I'm really trying to say is, I'm just like everyone else. Which is awesome, considering some people are predicting all of us to be another lost generation. Looks like I'm right on track!

GRE Update

Take that GRE. KAPOW!

FYI, I did finally study and subsequently take the GRE. It was a harrowing process, but in the end I got where I needed to be. I scored in the 94th percentile in verbal, in about the 50th percentile in Quantitative, and in the 92nd percentile in Analytical Writing. Luckily, I have no desire to be a scientist or mathematician so hopefully those scores will still get me into my program of choice.

I am somewhat embarrassed that I essentially failed at basic math, especially when you consider this score was over 100 points higher than my Quantitative score before. But let's focus on the positive! I know a lot of useless words. Hurray!

Failure to thrive

Both personally and professionally I am seeing this more and more: listless 20-somethings suffocating under a mountain of student debt and unable to establish any kind of career track. And, what's worse, the longer they (we) face indecision and rejection, the less the desire is to do so. We are turning into a generation of hipster barristas, life-long students, professional volunteers, and International English teachers. The one thing that's uniting us all is how completely clueless and hopeless we are regarding our futures.

HOWEVER, rejoice! All is not lost! We have our parents spare room and the internet so no matter how uncertain our futures may seem, at least our present is secure. That and the schadenfreude make life pretty ok.

My friend Denis says I have to post

SIGH. Ok, I'm posting. Some friends of mine encouraged me to start this blog to share all of my crazy stories. Problem is, I don't think I've had that many stories lately. Life has become complacent and it's just something that's happening in the background while I'm taking care of other things. This is why I would like to announce (to my audience of maybe one) ktb's Year of Living Dangerously.

I haven't taken many risks in a while and I think it's starting to show. The goal of this project is to do something bold, brave, interesting, or outrageous at least once a week and then post the stories here. I have a few ideas of some things I'd like to try out and hopefully more will come to me as I move forward with this project. Since I'm starting late this week, I'll pick something a little boring, but doable in the next 3 days: I'll finish my mom's painting. Now lest you not find this brave, allow me to first note that I am not an artist and to share with you that the last painting I made my mom she has tried to give back to me several times, finally succeeding last week. Ever since I took up the brush again she has been requesting I make something for her, oblivious to how arduous that task really is.

So, I'll finish the painting and take my GRE practice test. I've been putting it off, fearing scores that would prove me having mental handicap, but I can't procrastinate any longer. If I'm going to try to live dangerously, I need to start being more bold about my future. Hopefully this is a first step in that direction. Until next time!
-ktb



ktb is extra susceptible to the evils of the GRE because we are both made up of letters that do not spell real words