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Jen A. Miller Consulting

Category: Lessons Learned

  • How To Meet Friends After College

    How To Meet Friends After College

    The Single Diaries points you in the right direction to meet your post-grad BFF

    PHOTO: Stephanie Rausser.
    PHOTO: Stephanie Rausser.

    You may have heard that in your 20s, you start to lose friends… Someone moves away. Someone enters a relationship. You no longer share the same interests. Life happens. Your social life doesn’t have to end there. In fact, we’ve found that you can actually meet people more easily and can spot potential friendships more quickly during this time in your life. It just takes the extra effort of putting yourself out there, but once you step out of your comfort zone you’re golden. Here are a few activities you can sign up for to meet friends after college, plus some tips to keep in mind along the way.

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  • The 52-Week Challenge: One Reader’s Quest to be Superbly Single

    The 52-Week Challenge: One Reader’s Quest to be Superbly Single

    Serial monogamist Kristelle Siarza makes a promise to herself to stay single for one year.

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    Years ago when I heard Fergie’s “Clumsy,” part of the song caught my attention and made me immediately think of myself:

    You know this ain’t the first time this has happened to me
    This love sick thing.
    I like serious relationships, and uh
    A girl like me don’t stay single for long.
    ‘Cause every time a boyfriend and I break up
    My world is crushed and I’m all alone…
    The love bug crawls right back up and bites me, and I’m back.

    It has been ten years since I was last single: I was a 16-year-old at La Cueva High School, lonely after my move from the Bay Area to New Mexico. After that failed “high school sweetheart” relationship, the others fell in line one after the other with titles out of Carrie Bradshaw’s black book: “baby daddy,” “the Guatemalan,” and most recently, the “40-year-old.” All great relationships, all ending in heartbreak and tears.

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  • Single Girl Reads: Lean In

    Catherine and Jacqueline discuss Sheryl Sandberg’s bestseller as it relates to generation Y, feminism, career decisions, and definitions of success

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    Catherine’s review: Well-written and well-researched. You may think that you get the gist from her TEDTalk, but there is so much more to Sandberg’s words. Thought-provoking and discussion inducing… A must-read for women as well as for men. I can’t wait to discuss with others who’ve read.

    Jacqueline’s review: Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In is kind of like a pep talk for women. She argues to believe in yourself, “lean in,” and trust you can have it all. I love how she asks, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” But sometimes it’s not that easy. However, we all could use a personal cheerleader every now and then. So that’s how I see the book, as a pick-me-up when you need a little push.

    Jacqueline and I got together over Google Hangout for a two-person book club discussion about Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Despite the limited scope of opinions, Sandberg’s content prompted some disagreement and controversy.

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  • Thank You For Reading!

    Thank You For Reading!

    The Single Diaries celebrates three months with a little help from our friends
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    PHOTO: Tara Freese.

     

    Happy Thanksgiving! When we set out on this journey, we were focused on finding a creative outlet for ourselves. We knew we had a great idea to share our experiences as twenty-somethings with others and to call on our girlfriends to share their life lessons with us. The Single Diaries hit its three-month mark last Sunday, and we are overwhelmed with the response we’ve received from our extended circles in this short amount of time. When you’re focused on writing and getting posts up on time, it’s easy to block your view of where the website stands in the public sphere. Because of this, your words of encouragement, support and affirmation mean the world to us. We are grateful that you are reading. We are grateful that you find value in our words. We are grateful that you want to share in our vision. We are grateful to have you wonderful people as friends.

    We wanted to celebrate our work, your work, and our friends, so we hosted our first Single Diaries Friendsgiving at Jen’s new place.

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  • Single Girl Reads: Catching Fire

    “The bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived despite the Capitol’s plans. The symbol of the rebellion.”

     

    Published in 2009, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games has become a phenomenon for kids of all ages. A year and a half of anticipation after the first film in the trilogy was released, Catching Fire finally hits theaters today. Jen Smith rereads the novel and shares her take on the book’s surprising lessons in becoming Superbly Single. *This review contains spoilers.

     

    A friend once told me that we don’t have to love an entire book, as long as we find that one nugget, that one lifelong takeaway that we can forever use to benefit ourselves. To my surprise, in rereading Catching Fire, I realized that the book offered more than just one nugget—it was a complete guide to becoming an independent girl.

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