Up until now...

Quick run-down of the last year or so...take a deep breath... I graduated from the University of Denver in June of 2008 after having a fantastic senior year with some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for...and a liver that wanted to kill me. Needless to say, we got really good a flip-cup, beer pong and making giant batches of "Hop, Skip and Go Naked". Denver was a great time to spend my college years and I have never regretted leaving Santa Barbara to go there...although I did miss the ocean. The mountains were a nice trade-off though and I could never get over how blue the sky gets in Denver...definitely trumps the fog in HMB. However, I did move back to Half Moon Bay shortly after graduation and had great plans with a few of my friends to live in my house (since my parents have uprooted to Washington D.C.). But recent grads have no idea what to expect after graduation and the grand plan fell through...leaving me alone in my big house with Libby (the dog). That left for a lot time to think...and think...and think...because let's face it, Libby is not really one for converstaion. The summer was great while friends were still around, but once fall came around, and they all went back to school, it just sucked...not gonna lie. During this time, I started working at EA part-time...8-12 everyday felt like so much work. I was obviously such a highly ambitious post-grad...my parents must have been so proud that they put me through private university. So a few months went by and that's basically all they did...until another grand plan came into fruition in the middle of October to move to LA with a friend of mine. I wanted to live the Hollywood dream...start at the bottom and one day become a famous screenwriter who not only made a decent living, but made a difference with her profoundly moving films. With all these thoughts swimming around in my head, you would think it would be easy to write something but it proved to be much harder than that. I moved in with my Nana (it was only supposed to be for a few weeks) and the horrible economy made it impossible for me and my friend to find decent jobs. I got a great unpaid internship at a small development and production company where I got to read tons of scripts and offer my opinions. I learned a ton from the guys I worked with and almost felt bad that here I was, a recent graduate, choosing which screenplays were crap and which ones I thought were pretty decent. I would be horrified if I wrote something and somebody my age, with no credibility, decided my writing was terrible. While I loved what I was doing, the hour and a half commute to LA was so not worth it, and being an intern really loses its charm after a few months. Plus, I came to realize that this dream I had of making it big in LA was just that...a dream...based on material goals and naive notions. To a certain extent, you have to be truly "hard" to make it anywhere in the industry...cut-throat and ruthless. I can be hard sometimes, and I could have learned to fit the Hollywood mold, but I didn't want it. I didn't want to get ahead in life by being a jerk...that didn't seem like a good recipe for happiness. Let's face it, the transition after college is a challenging one and mine was no exception. I had an unpaid internship, had no friends where I was living, oh and lived with my nana. How awesome was I? Moving on...in February 2009, I moved up to Half Moon Bay again where my friend Kelly and her family so graciously accepted me into their home so I could try to find a job and spend some time with my friends. This honestly saved me...helped me regain my sanity after 7 months of soul-searching. Being unemployed for a while sucked, but I was surrounded by my oldest and dearest friends and nothing can replace that. I finally got a job at Sony in the middle of March which consisted of some really fun people, a lot computer work and little brain function. But who was I to complain? I had a job, I had my friends, I was getting healthy and working out and I was generally content for the first time in a really long time. But, I knew that I couldn't stay with Kelly's family forever and my job really wasn't going to go anywhere towards a real career path. This is where the TSA Career Resident Program comes in. My Dad started working for TSA in 2007 and he told me to apply for this program as it was for recent college graduates looking to start a career in the government. At first I thought it was not for me, plus my Dad works there and fear of nepotism was holding me back. But the opportunity sounded very unique, so I applied for the hell of it. I didn't think it was going to lead to anything. However, I made it to the round of interviews out in D.C. and after 3 days, I never wanted to talk about myself ever again...embellishment and B.S. can now be added to my resume...I ended up getting a position doing Stakeholder Relations for the Transportation Sector Network Management division of TSA. Or...since the government loves acronyms so much...I work in for DHS at TSA in TSNM. I'll learn eventually.... I was so torn because the woman who would be my boss is awesome, ridiculously smart, funny and would teach me so much, but this position was also a lot closer to my Dad than I would have liked. In the end, I decided that my career should outweigh any fears about people thinking I only got the position because my Dad works there. They can think what they like, but I know I am smart and capable and will have a lot to prove. Plus, I desperately wanted to use my brain again...I missed school and learning and being challenged, and I knew I would get that at TSA...or so I hoped. So I took the job and went through the somewhat arduous process of background checks, drug tests, and paperwork...and finally had a few freak-outs (to say the least) when I realized that I was officially moving to Washington D.C...