Social Justice, Jobs, and Halloween.

This has been one crazy week or two! Last Saturday I went to the Social Justice conference in the Union. It started at 8:30 in the morning and lasted until 9:15 that night. It was such a long day but I’m so glad I went to it. I am not majoring in social work, but I have always been interested in urban social welfare problems, which fits nicely in with my Political Science double major. Did you know that 78% of kids that go to inner-city schools in Milwaukee are 185% or more below poverty level? I learned that in a session called “class act.” It focused on the different classes and segregation in the Milwaukee area. It’s statistics like these that really motivate me to get educated and make a difference. We each went to three different sessions of our choice throughout the day, got lunch and snacks, and had two keynote speakers present. It was so awesome to go to and learn about. I would recommend that students take advantage of this free learning experience when UWM offers it again in the future!

I got my first job in Milwaukee! I have been in need of some extra cash to help pay for things like some books I had to charge on my credit card at the start of the year, and unexpected class materials like a flash drive, all the extra unplanned things in life that have came up! I would really like to get an on-campus job but I know that at this point in my classes, I won’t be able to dedicate enough time to having a job and doing as well as I would like to in school so I have been looking for odd jobs that don’t require extensive time commitment. I applied to work as an election officer on Election Day and I got hired! I attended a 2-hour training this week and I will work all day on Nov. 2nd. If anyone is looking for a job like this, they are still hiring! I found the application by searching Google a few times. I have also been using Amazon to sell my old books on to make some extra cash. It’s definitely an easy way to make a quick buck, but trust me, every now and then you will get a customer who is a huge headache… be prepared for dealing with that.

The holidays are coming up, starting with Halloween. I am not going to lie on this issue… I’m not a Halloween fan at all! It’s just way too much work to get all dressed up and spend money on a costume for one night. As a kid I always had the best Halloween costumes, I went as a crayon in a crayon box, a fly stuck in a flyswatter, no one ever had the same costume as me. Last year I went as a “Jersey girl.” This was before Jersey Shore was popular, and before laundry, gym… whatever the saying is, was invented. (I can’t say I’m a big fan of the show if you couldn’t tell). I thought it was a good idea because all I had to do was wear a lot of heavy blue eyeshadow and tease my hair. This is a picture of me and my friends going out last year on Halloween. Now it’s hard for me to get excited about any holiday around this time of the year, the weather starts to get too cold for me, and I hate winter! I wish it was always summer!