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New You– Summer ‘Do

Saturday, July 27th, 2013

Ready for an updated look? There’s no better time than now! Listen, New York gets hot in the summer. The kind of hot where it feels like we’re forever alternating between sticky heat waves and solid weeks of rain; not the best recipe for a good hair day, I know. My hair is thick and curly, which in summer months best translates to massive and frizzy. I’m used to wearing my hair up in a bun almost all the time over the summer, and it’s less because of the heat than because my hair just gets unmanageable.  I was determined to fight back this year, and so I looked into upscale hair salons hoping that there would be some difference between the fancier places and my usual local ones. What I wound up trying was Salon Ziba, downtown by NYU. I want to talk a little about my experience there. (Spoiler Alert: great haircut, great people, great price, happy Laura.)

I walked in and immediately felt that this salon was out of my normal price range: chic and modern where my old place was more drab and uninspired. But I spoke a little bit with the owner, Alonso, and he explained to me that the salon’s goal is to deliver high-end, profession haircuts and styling for an affordable price. Alonso told me that his inspiration came partially from his own haircuts 25 years ago before Ziba opened. He said that he was very happy with how they looked and the great care that he received, but also that he was annoyed at having to pay up to $75 for a trim. When he started Salon Ziba at its first location in midtown, he kept this in mind and aimed to keep the prices low without sacrificing quality. As a low-income college student, I was particularly excited to hear this news.

The employees treated me like a princess. They offered me tea or coffee as they walked me to the back to get my hair washed. When it came time to pick a cut, my stylist asked me what I wanted and had his own advice about what I should do. (I’m on a mission to grow my hair out long, so what I really wanted was a look that would not only frame my face nicely at its current length, but also look just as good in a year.) What he recommended was that I angle it more at the front since my face is almond shaped, and that I try a center part for a more fierce look than my old side part. After I let him do his thing, he asked me if a wanted a blow-out. This is a first for me! My stylist was really nice and he showed me just what he was doing so I could try it at home.

Five days later on a humid day, curls are still intact.

I walked out of the salon that day feeling beautiful and renewed. They all gave me a lot of attention and good advice to help my hair grow faster. And the best part? The whole thing, wash cut and style, cost me $48. That only about $10 more than I pay for just a haircut at the place I used to go to. Guess I have a new regular hair salon!

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Laura DeFrancisci, Manhattan College. Check out my Blog!

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Posted in Fashion, NYC Student Guide, onBeauty, onFun, onHealth, onLife, onNews, onSavings, onShopping, onStyle, onValues, Out On The Town, Student Issues | No Comments »

Commencement – Campus Clipper Fiction

Monday, July 8th, 2013

Charlie Wickerson had always been skeptical about the availability of certain attributes within himself that are usually needed to make friends.  Before his embarkation to New York, Charlie never felt the scorn of social loneliness, but to an extent, he knew those who he called friends were just peers only interested in the most superficial and ephemeral qualities of association.  Today, though, Charlie understood the necessity of seizing this opportune time amongst his classmates before it was too late.

 

Together with his blonde and aloof Californian roommate Jackson, Charlie made plans to arrive at the opening ceremony about thirty minutes before the allotted starting time.  The boys agreed upon and stressed the importance of surveying fellow classmates as they streamed into the red-seated auditorium.  They didn’t want to sit bayside while everyone else began university life as emphatically as they had dreamed.

 

“What do you think?” Charlie asked.

 

“I reckon there are some pretty girls to the left,” Jackson said, “down there.”

 

“Well, there are pretty girls all over,” Charlie said, “There are five thousand of us rumbling in here.”

 

“Hell, I don’t know”

 

“Alright,” Charlie said, “Let’s just head down there around the left of the stage.”

 

Charlie and Jackson made their way toward the left-centered area of the auditorium and sat amongst the pretty girls previously marked, who, although they could have only been in the theater for a few minutes, found themselves surrounded by an array of suitors.  What surprised Charlie most were the girls’ radiance, which suggested that were more than delighted to be the spectacle of rows H through K. Perturbed by what they saw, Charlie and Jackson formed nothing more than the outskirts of the insular circle and found themselves only looking with envy toward their peers.  Fortunately for the two boys, they were not the only ones that had not made the cut and began conversing with some others near.

 

“Hi, my name’s Charlie.”

 

“Sam. How are you liking your first days?”

 

“They’ve been decent,” Charlie said, “What are you going to be studying?”

 

“Business and Finance,” Sam said, “What about you?”

 

“I’m not so sure yet,” Charlie said, “How did you know finance was right for you?”

 

“I just wanted to do whatever makes me money.”

 

“Oh, interesting”

 

“You should look into engineering or another STEM degree.” Sam added, “They always have great job prospects.”

 

“I’ll definitely think about it.”

 

Before the words had completely rolled off Charlie’s tongue, the stage’s red curtains were pulled back and the opening ceremony was set to begin.  For the next three hours, Charlie stared at the events without concern or opinion.  He knew he should have just stayed in his dorm

 

Alejandro Font, Student at NYU.

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Interactive Art Exhibitions at the MoMA: The Rain Room and “Blood-Splattered” by Imran Qureshi

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

From the staging of free concerts to the screening of films in various parks, the onset of the summer has been replete with stimulating, cultural occurrences. In addition to the former and the latter happenings, the months of May and June have also been marked by a proliferation of ground-breaking interactive art exhibitions. Within this grouping, a wide breadth of acclaim has been allocated to MoMA’s Rain Room installation – a breathtaking exhibition wherein motion sensors allow participants to activate streams of simulated rain through bodily movement. Bringing recent technological developments and human movement into a fluid parlance, MoMA’s Rain Room installation allows its participants to transpose the most pristine and malleable of the four elements into graceful, cascading fugues.

 As with the Rain Room, Imran Qureshi’s “Blood-Splattered” installation – situated on the roof of MoMA’s main building – represents one of the most ineliminable artistic experiences of 2013. From an initial exposure to Qureshi’s work, the macabre hue that constitutes “Blood-Splattered” has led many visitors to testify that an initial exposure to Qureshi’s style is both highly provocative, as well as singular in its treatment of violence and mortality.

 According to Qureshi, the composition of “Blood-Splattered” stemmed from a desire to address the  psychological trammels that have resulted from recent events, from the Boston marathon bombing to terrorist actions and infighting in the Near East. Rather than attempting to justify these wide-ranging occurrences, Qureshi in “Blood-Splattered” seeks to impart a sense of consolation to those who have undergone them through the modicum of painting.

 Even in the absence of this background information, it is clear that Qureshi’s intention in “Blood-Splattered” is to transcend the concept of mortality by bringing it into dialogue its direct antithesis: that of resuscitation. Emerging from the stark matter that composes the work, the vivid forms of foliage, wings, and feathers come to attain an ever-clearer distinction in the viewer’s mind. As many visitors have testified, the contemplation of Quershi’s wondrous work before the wide expanse of Central Park is a testament to the beauty and the incorruptibility of life.

For students that express a desire to witness art that is exceptional in its formal qualities, or for those that merely wish to wile away the afternoon hours in a calm and meditative setting, a visit to Qureshi’s “Blood-Splattered” exhibition is highly recommended. Remember to present your Student ID to gain free admission to MoMA, as well as other cultural institutions in the New York City area. Stay tuned for more museum-related postings in the near future!

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Pietro Crotti, New York University. Check out my Twitter!

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Pets for Students in NYC

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

So you want a pet? Cats and dogs, kittens and puppies, chinchillas and bunnies, fish, mice… all of these can be extremely rewarding investments. Loving and taking care of an animal can make you happier, give you more responsibility, and give you some priorities on what to spend time and money on. Instead of buying more useless crap, buy a bag of pet food and receive unlimited love from a furry friend! If you live in your school’s dorms, you might want to stick to fish, as most of them do not allow other pets. Check what you can have… lie to your RA about pets if you want, but don’t bring me into it. If you live in an apartment, check your lease agreement or ask your property manager. A big one for NYU Students, Jacobson Properties, allows pets! Here are some tips on keeping cats and dogs in the city.

Apollo

My new kitten, Apollo

 

 

Adopting an Animal:
It has been said that adopting a cat or a dog in New York is harder than adopting a child. While anyone who has watched 30 Rock would know how hard it was for Liz Lemon to adopt a child, I still believe it is comparably difficult to adopt a new pet. I looked into adopting a pet from PetCo at Union Square. A big cat adoption agency runs out of that location, KittyKind. They will allow people under 21 to adopt, which is good for students, but, here are some of the things they do to screen people out of adopting a cat:

  • Required home visit: are your screens cat-proof? Do you have everything set up for the cat you might receive from KittyKind? If not, you may be told to fix your place up, or you might be flat out rejected.
  • A long history of cat ownership. If you haven’t had a cat or a pet before, you are simply out of luck.
  • An interview: What are you going to do with your cat when you move? Do you have other cats? What will you feed your cat? What litter will you use? The last two questions are trick questions. There are right answers: wet food and non-clumping litter. The question of which type of litter to use and which type of cat food to use are long debated in the kitten and cat owner world. At KittyKind it’s considered near animal abuse to use clumping litter or to feed them dry food. They will not approve your application if you say you will use these and they might get mad at you.
  • Three references: two personal, one professional. Does this sound like a job interview yet? What on earth could they do with a professional reference? My boss knows… that I look at pictures of cats on the job…
  • $150 to $300 in adoption fees, depending on the breed of cat you want to adopt. Yeah.

 

I’ve heard that adopting a dog or a puppy is similarly difficult. One of my bosses had to enlist the help of Richard Belzer to get a dog! He apparently does a lot of work with dog adoption agencies.

His true personality comes out.

Get ready for your cat to interrupt your Tumbling.

If you don’t have these kinds of connections, I’d suggest you call up your aunt in upstate New York, in Delaware, in Staten Island, or in NJ. Ask your relatives or family friends in the Tri-state area if they know anyone whose cat has birthed a new litter or if they have rescued a litter of kittens. These people are actually probably going to want to find a home for their kittens, instead of NYC adoption agencies who apparently want to keep all their cats. They probably also have a lower fee or asked donation if they’ve gotten the cats shots. While you’re out there, pick up some cheaper-than-in-New-York cat food and litter.
Another great place to find cheap pet supplies is online. A can of food that costs 99¢  in New York can be just 50¢ online, delivered right to your door.

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Claire M., NYU.

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Spiritual Devotion and College

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

www.wikipedia.org

    In addition to cultivating skills that are indispensable in the job market, a college-level education is frequently associated with long-term individual benefits. The ability to interpret and engage issues from a wider breadth of perspectives, and the cultivation of critical reasoning skills – as advocates of higher education will point out – leads to a more reflective lifestyle, and allows graduates to engage literary and artistic works in ways that are more meaningful and enriching. Higher level education is also lauded for its capacity to produce citizens that are inquisitive, as well as receptive towards other viewpoints.

    Being exposed to different cultural practices and unfamiliar political views – as students within each generation have testified – frequently cause former systems of belief to appear less rigid, and more susceptible to reassessment. It has often been pointed out that a sense of commitment towards familial and communal ideals – particularly those of a religious or spiritual orientation – may appear increasingly tenuous as one begins to explore unfamiliar ideas, diverse organizations, and novel friend circles.

     As recent studies prove however, entry into a higher level institution and the disintegration of religious belief fails to evoke a clear, correlative pattern. According to one study, universities have reported that at least a third of their respective student bodies participate in regular spiritual activities. Students within several universities have also expressed a shared desire to enlist religious speakers to speak at campus-wide events.

    This phenomenon is restricted not only to educational institutions within the Midwest, but is increasingly pervasive in cosmopolitan regions as well. Towards the conclusion of 2012, New York University completed construction on the Center for Spiritual Life, partly as a response to the proliferation of spiritual activity within the university. The CSL arranges non-exclusive programs and meetings that center on exploring spiritual sentiments, as well as facilitating intercommunication between students of different faiths. The Center is also responsible for housing religious figures, including a Protestant Reverend, a Catholic Priest, a rabbi, and an imam.

    For next week’s blogpost, I will interview the founders of three separate religious organizations in NYU: the Youth Evangelical Fellowship, the Islamic Student Association, and Hillel: The Jewish Culture Foundation at NYU. In doing so, I shall inquire into the histories of these three organizations, their programs and activities, and whether promoting interaction between different organizations constitutes a priority for each of these three groups. I will also interview the founding members in order to determine whether living in a fast-paced urban environment, and attending a secularized university poses a constant challenge to the consolidation, and furthering of personal devotion.

http://aidanharticons.com

 

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Pietro Crotti, New York University. Check out my Twitter!

Follow the Campus Clipper on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!

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Pressed Juice and your Pressed Wallet

Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

The cold-pressed juice trend that has swept up many health-conscious New Yorkers seems an enticing new way to stay healthy. But cheap? It is not. With a juice-bar on every street corner in Soho and countless pictures of green concoctions popping up in my Instagram newsfeed, I felt I had to try it. However when my beet, orange, carrot, lemon, ginger blend the size of an average bottle of water rang up at ten dollars, my eyes widened and I knew this would be my first and last juice. As much as I hoped that this little juice would be a worthwhile investment for my health, a ten-dollar juice is simply not do-able for a student looking to use college discounts at every possible opportunity.

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com

Although, pressed juice is a fresh, innovative way to get in your daily nutrients without harming your digestive system, there are cheaper, less-trendy alternatives. If you feel committed to juicing, you could invest in a juicer, which runs at about 80 dollars, the equivalent of only eight pressed juices, and less than the cost of your average juice-cleanse at your average New York juice-bar.

Another great option and perhaps the most obvious one, is simply to eat fruits and raw vegetables (which is not a bad idea even for those who are partaking in the juice trend). Juicing removes some of the pulp, which contains fiber. One may not have the same opportunities as far as combinations of fruits and vegetables go, but there are plenty of great pairings, like strawberries and beets, apples and celery, oranges and carrots, that compliment each other well in salads and snacks, so you can get both sides of the pyramid in one meal. Keep in mind that it’s a good idea to eat fruits and vegetables in a myriad of colors, as different colors contain different nutrients that are important for your diet.

http://www.jpost.com/

Yet, fresh fruits and vegetables at your average New York City grocery store can still run up quite a bill. To avoid high prices, I recommend making weekly trips to Stiles Farmer’s Market in Hell’s Kitchen and stocking up on fresh produce. The market is a much cheaper alternative to Morton Williams or Food Emporium, and they have daily specials on bundles of produce. Another money-saving option is to head over to your local Associated grocery store and fill your cart with fruits and vegetables. You can save ten percent on your entire purchase with our Campus Clipper coupon and your student I.D. Juice your purchases or eat them as they are, even though you didn’t buy into the juice trend, your body – and wallet – will still be grateful.

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Frankie Johnson, New York University. Check out my Twitter!

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Posted in Cheap Eats, onFood, onValues | No Comments »

The New Museum: Free for NYU, Columbia, and CUNY Students with Student ID:

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

Utilize the Freeseums program at NYU, Passport to Museums from Columbia, or Cultural Passport from CUNY!  There are a ton of museums accessible through your student ID card’s college discounts. New York City is a cultural center, and its universities know that students experience much of life outside of school, so they often give free passes to expensive places. Going to a museum can be a workout for your mind as well as a relaxing experience. You can contemplate an artist’s work or the historical context of a piece without worrying about homework attached to it!

Keep in mind also that these museums are almost certainly air-conditioned! In the heat of summer, museums are a great way to get out while staying inside so that you don’t melt. To top it all off, guided tours at many museums are free.

About the New Museum:

The New Museum is “New” because it exclusively houses contemporary art. It exhibits works by living artists from around the world and serves as a center for new ideas and reflection on the current time period. It is the place to view art from individuals who have directly experienced the pressures of the era you live in.

domusweb.it

The New Museum displays an array of exhibitions simultaneously. Currently showing are the After-after Tears exhibit on the fifth floor and Adhocracy (watch 3D printing in action!), both available until July 7. Multimedia installations from Erika Vogt and unsettling paintings by Llyn Foulkes are showing throughout the summer and into September.

Up until July 31, the experience truly begins before you even enter the museum, thanks to a 28-foot-tall rose on public display on the second floor balcony. Rose II is a sculpture by Isa Genzkin, a Berliner with a love affair for New York. Interested in integrating sculpture, nature, and architecture, Genzkin originally created this rose in 1993 as a symbol of tribute and love to the city.

newmuseum.org

Isa Genzkin’s rose is installed on the New Museum, viewable from below as well.

As students of any subject, we are scholars of life. No matter what you study, whether biology, urban planning, music, or otherwise, there is sure to be something at the New Museum of interest to you. Practice thinking about the art you see through the lens of what you already know. You may be inspired forever, or maybe just for the day, or you may just keep the experience in the back of your mind for an essay or two later in your schooling (professors eat this kind of thing up). Either way, a visit to the New Museum is an inexpensive way to experience culture, and, since the exhibitions are constantly changing, no visit is ever the same.

The New Museum is on Bowery, just below Houston. The closest subway stations are the Prince Street N and R Station, the Bowery J station, and the Second Avenue F station.

Check out the New Museum’s past, current, and upcoming exhibitions: http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions

Plan your visit to the New Museum: http://www.newmuseum.org/visit

Nearby:
Housing Works: A charity bookstore cafe. Follow Prince Street to Crosby Street, and take a right.
Cafe Habana: Stop by for a torta or some tacos! On the corner of Prince and Elizabeth Streets, one block to the east of the museum.
SoHo: The New Museum is a short walk from Broadway, for all of your shopping needs.

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Claire M., NYU.

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Free Summer Concerts in NYC for College Savings

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

Summer in NYC teems with fun, heat, and excitement, and there is nothing that encompasses all three of these qualities like a summer concert.  With thousands of concerts to choose from, and festivals such as Governors Ball and Electric Zoo, summer fun can leave your wallet aching and dry.  Luckily, for students lacking a handsome, continuous income, New York is chockfull of free concerts during these hot months.

A popular venue for free music fests lies downtown in South Street Seaport. Nestled comfortably east of the Financial District’s towering buildings, the Seaport Music Festival has brought a collection of talented artists (including Animal Collective, Abe Vigoda, The XX, and Asobi Seksu) to its famous Pier 17 for ten years. This year, artists such as Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Ex-Cults have been announced, with still more to come.  A great facet of this particular music festival is the spacing between the acts.  Instead of all these bands playing clogged together over a day or a few days, some bands begin playing on the first Friday in June, with the other acts playing on the subsequent three Fridays.  That’s already enough concerts to hold you over until July.
But if your insatiable desire for free concerts continues, South Street Seaport will be holding an all day festival after the Seaport Music Festival culminates. Sharing the beautiful seaside venue, the 4Knots Music Festival is guaranteed to melt your face off.  Fast, punkie, and unrelenting, the 4Knots festival features a group of musicians whose genres range from punk to psych rock.  Artists Kurt Vile, Parquet Courts, The Babies, and The Men shine in this year’s lineup, so get ready for a fast-dancing, sweaty, and fun time.

The most popular summer venue in NYC, however, is undoubtedly the Central Park Summer Stage.  In the next few months, the Summer Stage will host about twenty shows, more than half of which are free. The stage will see bands like Twin Shadow, The Airborne Toxic Event, and Django Django.  Music from all genres will play, so if certain acts don’t strike your fancy, don’t fret, because there will be plenty more to catch.

If you want to hang in a borough other than Manhattan, there are free concerts for you as well.  The Northside Festival has acts playing across venues around Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn. With an integration of film and music, and boasting over 300 bands set to play from June 13th to 16th, the Northside Festival is an art-lover’s dream.  Unfortunately, the festival works like NYC’s fall CMJ festival, with an array of free events but some premiere showings that cost money.  But if you pick and choose carefully, you can attend the festival without dropping a dollar, like if you go to see The Walkman or Solange (Beyonce’s sister) for free with an RSVP at McCarren Park.

nycgo.com

There are too many opportunities for inexpensive fun, so be sure not to miss out. Make a plan, gather up some friends, and head out this summer to enjoy warm weather, good company, and great music!

 

 

 

Alejandro Font, Student at NYU.

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Coffee as a Health Drink

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Know any coffee addicts? I never had a taste for coffee in high school, but long nights and early mornings in college seemed to push me towards it. I’m not hooked on the stuff (my roommate last year used to drink around four cups a day — yikes!), but I do enjoy a cup every so often (as in “Oh my gosh, this project is due tomorrow and I still haven’t started it” kind of often). And while this habit of mine may not be the healthiest in terms of sleep scheduling, early birds and night owls alike will be happy to learn of some research that’s been happening over the past few years assessing the possible health benefits of drinking coffee.

The ingredients in coffee are beneficial on a few fronts:

Life Expectancy— Coffee is loaded with antioxidants and compounds that ward off a number of diseases. According to the The New York Times’ Well blog, regular coffee-drinkers are 15% less likely to die of “diabetes, heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, [and] infections.” This is based on a fourteen-year government study that included over 400,000 adult men and women. I was a little surprised to read this, since all that I’d ever heard about coffee was that it stunts your growth and makes your heart race.

Mood Elevation— This one’s specifically for women, although there have been studies that have found similar results in men. Evidently, the caffeine in coffee has a lifting effect on our moods that doesn’t occur in other sources of caffeine. In fact, this study shows that the risk of depression is 20% lower in women who drink coffee daily than in those who don’t, and the more of it they drink, the lower the risk drops. I knew lattes put me in a good mood . . .

Workout Endurance— You may already have heard that caffeine can boost our workout. Basically, it promotes the production of fatty acids in the blood, which your body burns in place of carbs for fast energy. This is true for endurance sports like running and swimming, but another article on the Wellblog talks about the ways in which it can also be beneficial to sports with short bursts of activity, like soccer and weightlifting. In this study, athletes

Image from thnest.com

who were given caffeine before their workouts were able to exercise for longer without becoming exhausted, and they felt better and more energised afterwards. Coffee as a sports drink? I’ll take it.

Of course it’s never healthy to drink beverages that are full of sugar and cream, so keep this in mind when you make your morning cup. You don’t have to be a coffee addict like my old room mate to get excited about this research!

While you’re on your coffee-kick, here’s a free cup on us! Enjoy!

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Laura DeFrancisci, Manhattan College. Check out my Blog!

Follow the Campus Clipper on Twitter and Like us on Facebook!

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Open Season: The Job Hunt

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Sometimes jobs fall right into people’s laps, and in today’s economy we entry-level folk go to sleep at night hoping to wake up to a missed call and voicemail from an unknown phone number with a genial stranger—probably named Steve—asking us to come down for an interview that is really just a formality because he is dying to give us a job and full benefits and make sure we don’t fall behind on student loan payments.

When I wake up and check my phone, I find nothing of the sort, so I check my Facebook and Twitter and my email and decide to make some coffee. I decide that although my milk was “BEST BY” three days ago, I will drink it anyway because it will probably still be “WELL ABOVE AVERAGE BY” tomorrow. I pour it into my cereal and begin scrolling through Craigslist once again.

I check my email and Facebook and force myself back to Craigslist and Indeed and wish there was a filter for applications that require cover letters. I taste that the milk in my cereal is a little “off” and now I really begin looking for a job. I find four entry-level positions in my field and then learn that the “desired applicants” should have two years of previous experience. I find myself asking what “entry-level” means in 2013, and I linger and wonder if it is worth submitting my resume and writing another cover letter. I slurp down the milk left in the bowl, breathe in that sour smell, gag a little, take a deep breath and start writing that cover letter.

As someone who didn’t apply for jobs until after graduation, I regret not getting started sooner. If you’re still a student, do what you can to find an internship while you’re still in school! Yes, it will probably be an unpaid, thankless job, but it will be worth it in the end. You’ll have some of that mysterious, required “previous experience” by the time you graduate, which will help raise you above much of the competition. The connections you’ll make can only benefit you in the long run and you may even be hired as a paid employee after your internship has been fulfilled. You won’t be one of those college graduates stretching the truth about his/her “previous experience,” and you’ll have some legitimate references that aren’t your uncle or your roommate.

One way to think of your time as an intern.

The best thing to do is to get your name out there. Apply, apply, apply. Network. Send out your resume. Take the time to go to a Career Fair at your school and hand your resume out like you’re one of those comedy club promoters in Midtown. Take advantage of your school’s career center and its counselors. Ask the counselors to help you write and review your resume, ask them about career options relevant to your major, and attend workshops with interviewing tips from recruiters. Just get out there and profit from the resources your school created to help you.

...really, though: now what?

Talk to family members, family friends, friends, friends of friends, professors—the people who want to see you succeed. Sure, not everyone wants to give into some form nepotism, but beggars can’t be choosers. You will be the one making your way in this world, so why not let the people who care about you give you a hand?

You may find that the first jobs that are most attainable to you are jobs that are only appealing because of potential paychecks. These are the jobs that we are only half-interested in and are scared to step into in fear that we might get stuck. These are the cold coffee of the entry-level world: you need that little pick-me-up, but you have to force it down, and it may make you crash in the near future, but right now it is here when nothing else is. Deciding can be difficult, but why not take the job? You may really enjoy it once you get into the swing of things and there is no reason why you can’t continue your job-hunt on the side. If you’re still unsure, then try finding two part-time jobs in different fields you may be interested in and decide after a few weeks or months which career you’d like to pursue further. You have more time than you think to figure things out. It is common to not find a real career until a few years out of college.

Hopefully it never comes to this.

Patience and persistence are two traits you should embody as you begin your job hunt. It is tough out there right now, everyone knows it, but you can’t wait around for Steve the Genial Stranger to come looking for you with a salary job, some fresh milk and a hot coffee. You have to get out there and shake hands and answer questions and ask questions and write what seems like too many cover letters and then, hopefully, some genial stranger—probably named Steve—will call you with a job offer.

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