First Letter

It's been almost two weeks since I left Mississippi.  Looking back one year, I would never have imagined things happening the way they did:  Accepted into the prestigious Teach For America program, scoring in the top 5th percentile on a math content knowledge test, moving to an area referred to as "The Deep South of the Deep South," and teaching 3 higher level high school math courses.  Perhaps most surprising was my decision to leave.  What will surely go down as one of the most influential decisions in my life, I'm now on a very different life path - thankfully I still carry my same passion, enthusiasm, and generosity of spirit.

Strangely enough, this decision did not surprise my parents all that much.  In fact, my dad told me that the family has pretty much gotten used to me doing "out there" things with my life.  So I guess in his mind, joining a teaching nonprofit, moving to an economically and socially depressed area, and teaching a subject I took little interest in for the past 5 years was not a huge deal - that's just Jeff, I suppose.

And as a past employer remarked, I apparently have a work ethic "like a bulldozer" - a description I kind of enjoy.  I've always had a strong mindset to achieve my goals and a fair amount of patience and perseverance to push me through to the end.

So what have I been up to in the past two weeks?  I feel a bullet-point list will best describe my adventure thus far.  I have:

• Read an excellent job-hunter manual, "What Color is your Parachute?" by Richard Bolles and fine-tuned my professional path into marketing and advertising in Chicago
• Almost finished the highly-recommended networking book, "Endless Referrals" by Bob Burg
• Purchased a contact book, a weekly planner, plenty of sticky-notes, and a stack of thank you cards
• Discovered my personal sphere of influence (turns out I know a few helpful, influential people)
• Interviewed over 10 people for career and networking advice
• Cleaned up my resume and cover letters
• Researched the top agencies in Chicago that I hope to work for soon

**Note:  I've also caught up on a lot of TV shows, namely Gilmore Girls which is pretty much on TV nonstop (and to my heart's delight!).
It's not a bad start to the rest of my life.  And in true Teach For America fashion, I've set a big goal for my job-hunt:  by September 30, I will have at least 2 job offers in Chicago.  Let's get the ball rolling!

Sincerely, J