12247. Corral 12: The Dirty Dozen.

I actually did it.

 I ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 12 minutes and achieved the biggest goal I have ever set for myself. I crossed the finish line at LP Field, got my medal, found my momma and immediately burst into tears. I have 3 purple toenails, two extremely bruised/blistered toes, and an awesome sock tan line. It's an amazing feeling knowing your family's proud of you, I still think my dad is shocked I actually did it. But the best feeling in the world is being proud of yourself. I will cherish my race bib forever. I will always remember looking behind me from the starting line at the 30,000 people waiting to run. I can still hear my momma yelling "RUN LINA, GO LINA GO!" I can still feel my feet kicking my butt sprinting that final .1 to the finish line. And still tear up when I think about finally seeing momma and Joe and the looks on our faces. April 28th, 2012 is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. There is no way to put all the memories and emotions of it into words. All I can say is the next time you're on Broadway in downtown Nashville, just imagine it being empty at 7am and running down it along with a couple thousand other runners with blocks and blocks of people cheering and yelling and whistling at you with signs and bells and shakers, and then maybe you'll be able to start to imagine what an incredible life moment running the Country Music Half Marathon is.

So this is weird...

  Today was my last Monday of college. My senior Campaigns presentation has come and gone. I will be done with four out of five classes as of Thursday afternoon. And by Saturday afternoon 13.1 miles will be added to my pink laced Nikes. This is when I cry, right? My graduation cap is almost done, thanks to my very best friend and roomie LPC. And my new favorite thing to do is try on my graduation dress and practice posing. It's weird when you realize you're actually doing it. You're accomplishing everything you set out to do. This is what life is all about. When I first started this blog I had every intention of continuing it after graduation and I still hope to. After all, new city, new job, same Pekarsk-ing Around...

Another day, Another countdown

cpekarsk on Instagram

  For the past four months, I have been a human countdown clock. 24 days till graduation, 13 days till the half-marathon, and now one month till I officially start work with BOHAN advertising in Nashville. I blogged last week about my Easter weekend full of champagne showers and surprise flower deliveries, but now it's all getting real. Like "starting to pack up clothes, my tub of advertising notes, and my bajillion picture frames" real. Where did the days go? In my very first blog I bragged about how I was rarity because I'll be graduating in four years with a double minor. And now I can add "accepted a job offer before graduation" to that statement. It's crazy when you have those moments were you realize you're actually doing it, you're living the life you always wanted.

24 days!

Graduation night bucket list:

  














I've been having these moments quite a lot lately and you bet your momma's Hoover I'm Instagram-ing all of them! I have friends all over the state and just like blogging keeps me and Molly up to date on each others' lives, Instagram is a great way to always know what's going on with Jenn in DC or Julie in Nashville. And for a girl with a picture frame obsession, Instagram is heaven.

Just gotta make it through finals.

13 days!

   














My two New Years Resolutions were to run the half-marathon and get a job before graduation. I will complete both of these before the month of May even rolls around and then we celebrate! We have a dry erase board hanging in our hallway between Lauren's room and mine with our extensive plans for graduation night, we come prepared. And after pulling a semi all-nighter for my psychology exam finding my graduation announcements in the mailbox that afternoon was the best thing ever! So of course I Instagram'd all of these along with a picture of my last minute study session that afternoon. Instagram is a 21 year old girl's dream. You can share little snippets of your day with all your friends and make them look pretty with all the filters. It's like Facebook, but only pictures. Instagram is definitely my favorite app, only second to Twitter and am so glad all my Android friends can finally download it too! Now all my friends, no matter where they live, can keep up with my crazy beautiful life with the tap of an app.

"No matter our dreams, you'll always be on my Christmas card list"

  This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of my fabulous little Molly Albin and I winning "Best Big and Little" at Zeta Tau Alpha's annual White Violet Banquet. To say we were unprepared for the award would be an understatement; in fact I think we talked through the introduction to the award, typical. 

If I had to make a list of my three best friends, my momma not included, Molly would have to be at the top of my list. The countless stories of our antics still come up in everyday conversation and  we still laugh till we can't breathe. This girl has been there with me through it all. It would be a lie to say we haven't had our fights, even not speaking for a while. Lesson learned from that: never rank a relationship over a friendship. But we worked it out and have a stronger friendship today because of it! I cherish our nights out together and I don't know where I'd be without her.

Life gets crazy, people get busy, and suddenly lunch dates become a thing of the past. Texting helps to bridge that gap, but stories are so much better in person. So thank goodness for blogs!! Molly tries to update her blog, Good Golly Miss Molly, at least once a week and as embarrassing as it sounds it's how I keep up with her hectic life as she does with me through my blog. And it looks like we'll have to keep tabs on each other through our blogs for the next couple of months, with me moving to Nashville next month and Molly interning in Knoxville this summer. So till then we'll live it up during these last four weeks packed with Mexican graduation dinners, me running the half marathon, surviving finals, a couple pool days thrown in there, and finally graduation! No matter what life throws at me I will always know this girl has my back.We'll be friends forever because let's be honest, she already knows too much about me. 

Pink Champagne

  I had always been dreaming of this day and then all of a sudden it was happening. In the blink of an eye I was hanging up the phone call, about in tears, that had delivered my first job offer. It had lasted all of seven minutes.

  My momma was the first person I told. We cried together. I will remember that moment forever, "Mom, I need to tell you something." I about scared her to death. "I got it." That was it, the moment we had been talking about for years. 

  From the moment I got up, something was different about Thursday April 5th. My roommate and best friend Lauren was abnormally home that morning, we had a random roomie Sonic date for lunch, and my favorite pair of Nike shorts and my favorite long sleeved t shirt were both clean on the same day. This never happened. We had planned to walk to our 2:10 classes together that afternoon but instead found ourselves jumping up and down in the hallway, screaming, and both crying after that magical call came. Celebration was in order and we knew just how to do it. You see, Lauren and I had been talking about this moment for months. 

  

















    
Pink champagne was our drink of choice at 2pm on a Thursday afternoon. In fact we bought every pink champagne they had. Bottles were popped off the balcony, multiple toasts were made, and it still didn't seem real it. It still doesn't. The next day a surprise delivery from my wonderful family arrived at our door complete with balloons and a pink vase. I officially signed my offer letter and contract Friday morning. We celebrated all weekend.

  I had blogged last week that multiple friends were sharing their good news of job offers via social media and if I was lucky enough to have news of that matter I would, of course, do the same. Don't worry, I made good on my word. I even tagged BOHAN in my Facebook status and attached an Instagram picture of their building to my tweet. I don't just talk a big game, I am a social media queen.
  






So now it's unfortunately back to real life. Only three more Mondays left of college with 31 days to go till graduation. Graduation announcements have been ordered, my graduation dress has been purchased, my cap is decorated (Lilly print with monogram of course), graduation tickets have been reserved, job offer has been accepted and signed...now all that's left to do is actually graduate, oh and win that XPS 13. But it's all worth it because May 15th, 2012 my career in Media starts as soon as I walk through those gorgeous doors at BOHAN Advertising in Downtown Nashville. Watch out y'all, little person in high heels coming through!

#GOT140 ?

  It's Sunday night, which means life stops at 9pm EST and Game of Thrones takes over our apartment. HBO has done it again. First it was Entourage. Now it's the medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones that has me counting the days till the next episode. The second season started just last Sunday and being the social media freak I am, I of course tweeted about it. While scrolling through my timeline I started to notice that the Game of Thrones handle, @GameOfThrones, was RT select fans' tweets all containing the hashtag #GOT140 and the episode's name. So being the responsible Advertising 490: Social Media student I am, I began to dig deeper. 

   I pick up on everything social media oriented these days and am usually impressed by most, but HBO's new digital marketing campaign for season 2 of Game of Thrones blew my hair back. Through HBO Connect I found Game of Thrones's #GOT140 social media campaign and I must say it is pretty dang cool! Every week the keyword fans should use in their tweets changes, usually having to do something to do with that week's episode's title. Regardless of that week's keyword fans should always include the hashtag #got140 and/or mention the show's Twitter handle. Fans can tweet directly from the site along with viewing select tweets from the night pulled from various fans' accounts. Tonight's keyword was "TheNightLands" and you bet your sweet bippy I will be tweeting through #GOT140 every week from now on. In the Game of Thrones you might win or die, but here in ADV 490 you tweet/blog/fb/pin/instagram or die.

  

38 days till it all gets really real

Little Person, Big Aspirations

  If I got to name the weeks of my life like I name my pin-boards on Pinterest, last week would have been called "Interview till you drop." To quote my mom, it was "stupid exciting!!!" The next weeks are going to be full of final projects, presentations, a half marathon, and craziness but it will also be full of exciting job announcements from tons of friends who are entering the real world right along with me. And because we are the online generation, I would say a good 99% of these announcements will come via social media. Just last night two of my sorority sisters shared their good news, one on Twitter and one through Facebook. Immediately the congratulations started pouring in through wall posts, status comments, replies, and DMs; Mark Zuckerberg would have been proud. 
  I have a huge passion for social media, not just personally but professionally as well. Being Social Media Rep for Rent the Runway University of Tennessee along with being enrolled in Advertising 490: Social Media has really opened my eyes to everything social media can do. But at the same time respecting traditional media and learning how to connect the two to take a campaign to a level it could have never reached before. I like to view media as a puzzle. Every aspect of the campaign has to be taken into consideration and then like a 1,000 piece puzzle carefully analyzed. For an uber-organized girl like me this department of the industry is heaven. So now it's the waiting game, waiting to hear back and then time to make a pretty huge life decision. You're first job offer only happens once, right? But don't worry everyone will know when the call comes because I too will share my good news on the media platform that has gotten me this far, social media.

Drama in District 2

  Chances are if you're a functioning member of society you've heard of The Hunger Games, the thrilling trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It was no surprise when the announcement came that the trilogy would be made into a movie series, and on March 23rd the first movie hit theaters and broke records. Initial reviews raved not only of the cast but that the movie stayed extremely true to the book. However not all were pleased with the film's interpretation of the book and what better way to air grievances than social media?

  The race of specific characters was the hot button topic blowing up twitter just hours after midnight premiers across the country. The characters of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna were all cast as being African American and fans were less than thrilled. Tweets claiming the movie was ruined because of these specific castings were a dime a dozen along with the claim that Rue's death was less tragic because of her race. Through a string of tweets I found a great article discussing the whole debacle with screen shots of dozens of tweets, all sharing the same negative thoughts concerning the film. It was no surprise to the article's author, or anyone for that matter, when the tweeters whose tweets were recognized within the article either deleted the tweets or deactivated their accounts all together. Unfortunately for them, who knows how long those screenshots of their tweets will hang around in the online realm and who will find them. Everyone is free to have their own opinion when it comes to movies especially when it's the movie version of a beloved book; I still refuse to watch the film version of The Lovely Bones because I don't agree with how Peter Jackson interpreted the book. But you have to be smart when sharing your thoughts especially if you plan on sharing them on any social media platform. Comments can come back to haunt you, so stay on the safe side and keep heated movie reviews limited to the car ride home.