Best Book You've Never Heard of on...Punctuation?!

Yes, you read that right. One of my favourite books is about punctuation. It's called The Book of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks: A Celebration of Creative Punctuation.

Today, Modern Mrs. Darcy is doing a link-up about "the best books you've never heard of". It's a great way for people to share their favorite books that don't necessarily get a lot of exposure, so I thought I'd share one of my favourites!

This isn't by any means a heavy read for which you have to allot an afternoon. It's more of a coffee table book: I pick it up any time I need a laugh. Nobody who doesn't care about grammar or find humour in typos would find this funny, but if you do....I promise you'll find this hysterical.

The book was written by Bethany Keeley (name twins!) based on her blog (www.unnecessaryquotes.com) and it's divided into chapters like At Work, On the Menu and Seasonal. She has collected dozens of entertaining photographs where people have used unnecessary quotation marks. Here's one of my favourite examples:

In my opinion, the best part of the books are the clever captions associated with each picture. Clearly, people don't understand the function of quotation marks, and Keeley's mission is to point out some of the funnier examples. Everyone I've showed this book to has cried from laughter, and it's given me some great amusement since I was given it a few years ago. 

Trying to be a Lark

Last summer, I stayed up until around 4AM every night. I loved it. Every morning I'd roll out of bed around noon or one - I was only working evenings, had no commitments and could therefore do whatever I wanted. Staying up late holds a certain magic for me - whiling away the hours reading, catching up on TV, or reading blogs is really one of my favourite things to do and it's even better at 3AM. However, this summer I'm working fulltime and obviously, 4AM bedtimes just wouldn't cut it.

I naturally started going to bed earlier because working 12 hour days is exhausting. I noticed that on the nights I got any less than 7 hours of sleep, I'd hit snooze, drag myself out of bed only to lie on the sofa downstairs. However, if I got seven hours, I would be awake and alert in the morning: ready to go and feeling motivated. I also realized that on the weekends when I slept in until 11 or 12, I was just as exhausted and got absolutely nothing done in the day.

Then, some blog and book reading inspired me. What the Most Successful People do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam talked about people's morning priorities and how easy it is to get things done in the early morning. According to research, self control is easier in the morning because restraint is actually susceptible to overuse. By the end of the day, you've stuck to your diet, worked hard, etc...and you're just ready to give in and eat that entire cake. In the morning, you can wake up and tell yourself to exercise or write a blog post - and it will be easier.

After reading this, I decided to make over my mornings. I never get anything real done; I just go through my routine, get myself ready, and head out the door. I'm going to use my mornings to wake up and work to achieve my goals! I'm still working on what those goals are, but for now I have the following:

• Get really good at crosswords - I'm going to do the newspaper crossword every morning.
• Learn how to cook breakfast - Right now I can do cereal. Lots of room for improvement.
• Read the classics - I've never loved classic books, but I want to. 20 minutes of reading them every morning might help.
• Keep a journal - I had a few consistent months of journal-writing last year but I've fallen out of it. The morning will be a great time!
• Continue to grow this blog - The morning provides a good time to sit down and write a post, as well as do research on how to be successful.

I'd love to hear about your mornings and how they help you reach for your dreams. 

I'm Addicted to Self Improvement Books

I don't know when this happened. I read a frighteningly wide variety of books; my current favourites are historical fiction, dystopian literature, memoirs, and self-improvement books. Every time I go to the library I laugh at myself for the books I come away with - it's like I'm getting books for five different people.

During this past school year was when I really fell in love with self-help books. My mother recommended The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin to me, and I gave it a shot. It's now one of my favourite books of all time. My favourite self-help books are the personal ones: people sharing their own stories inspires me so much more than generalized advice from someone who doesn't talk about their own life.

Since then I've read dozens of self-improvement books. Here are some of my favourites:

• Obviously, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin.
• 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam: All about time management and how we can make the most of the 168 hours we are given weekly.
• Live It, Love It, Earn It by Marianna Olszewsk: Money management for women. It was on the perfect level for me - not a simple intro, but not too advanced
• Life is What You Make it by Peter Buffett (Warren Buffet's son). I was expecting that I would find the author entitled and snobby, but I was completely wrong. Buffett talks about how his father raised him to work for what he wants, and how everyone can/should do the same.

Basically, what I want to get across is how valuable "self-help" books can really be. I'm absolutely not unhappy with my life - quite the opposite - and I think the impression of these books can sometimes be that they're only for people that need to turn their wreck of a life around. There is always room for improvement.

Sometimes I only really retain one piece of information from a self-help book. But if that one piece helps me change something in my life for the better, it was worth it to me. 

Professional Fashion

Crop tops, short shorts, leggings....that's what teenagers are wearing nowadays. Myself included. I really hope that it goes without saying that none of these are appropriate for an office workplace. Through events in the last few years, I've learned how to dress well for presentations, galas, meetings....and this summer, working in an office full time has given me great experience with professional fashion. Here are some of my favourite tips!

Dress your age.                                                                              Although you can't wear typical teenage attire, still have fun with your outfit. If you wear a white blouse, black blazer and black pencil skirt every single day, that's just boring. You want your personality to shine through! So add a bright pink blazer, some blue shoes, a statement necklace, coloured pants....let your age show through a little bit.

 Comfy shoes. 
I love heels. Love them. I own a scary amount. Gala invitations make my day because I get to wear heels. So naturally, I wore heels the first few days to work. Worst idea ever. I now have permanent scars and have not worn heels to work since. I wear small wedges sometimes, but that's about it...flats and sandals are my best friends. People told me this would happen, and I didn't believe it. But it did. 

The question of skirt length.
I was always told that knee-length skirts were the only thing you could wear in the workplace. I don't think that's true. Obviously, bodycon skirts that you would wear to the club are not cool. However, if you have a dress that is high-necked and decently modest up top and it's a few inches above knee-length, I think that's completely fine. You don't want to look like you're playing dress-up in your mom's clothes, so wear a skirt that reflects your age.

The little details matter.
While you're running out the door it's easy to think nobody will notice the length of your pants, your chipped nail polish, your crazy hair or stained shirt. The truth is they do notice! Obviously when you're really in a rush it's fine to look a little rumpled - we've all done it. But it really makes such a huge difference to have your pants tailored, take off/redo your nail polish, tie your hair back, or change your shirt. It's the little things!
                                                                              

I have to change the world.

Why do I get to have so much while other people have less than nothing? I saw this quote the other day:

"If you have the great luck of having health, education, and family and you live in a democracy, the world is all yours."

Reading that and thinking about it made me so emotional. It's 100% true. 

Health-wise, what is the worst thing that has ever happened to me? I can't even think of anything. I hurt my arm one time. I had the flu a few times. I get bad fevers. I have never even been sick enough to go to the hospital.

As for education, I have been so lucky. I went to an awesome elementary school and was able to skip 2 grades. Junior high and high school came easily to me, and I had some great opportunities for awards and extra-curriculars. And most amazing of all, I can go to university debt-free because I have scholarships. Those are a lot due to how hard I worked and what I did to succeed, but also simply because I live here and have supportive parents. Even if I didn't get scholarships and I wasn't saving my paychecks, I still wouldn't have to get a student loan because my family can afford to help me out so much.

My family is basically all still here. I was trying to think of the worst thing that has ever happened to me, and I couldn't. Nothing stands out as having a hugely negative impact - how is that even possible? 

After all that, then I hear this awful stories about people who have been abused, tortured, raped, who live in extreme poverty, and so many other awful things. Who decided that I get to have so much and be so lucky? It doesn't make sense to me. 

The things that I worry about or think about in a day - what colour I should paint my nails, what I'm going to do this weekend, what I want to have for supper....so inconsequential. People have to make such horrible decisions, or even worse, other people destroy their lives. My life is so amazing and I need to stop being so selfish and really make a difference.

It's just so hard to know where to start. Can I really change the world? Is that possible for a 17 year old? How?? 

I hope I figure it out. 

Generation Jobless: What can students do?

Lately, I've been hearing my generation referred to as "Generation Jobless". There are certainly some statistics that back this up:

"Among youths aged 15 to 24, employment declined by 19,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was 14.5%." (Survey results here)

This is double the overall unemployment rate of 7.2%, so clearly there is an issue here. Why are students and recent graduates struggling to find jobs? There's been tons of articles on that by much more knowledgeable economists, etc, so I'm not even going to try to answer that question. What I want to talk about is what students can do about it.

If unemployment is 14.5%, then we can infer that approximately 85.5% of students are able to find jobs.

What are these students doing right?

Experiential learning.

In an interview, nobody has ever asked me "Oh, what was the coolest thing you've learned in Communications class?" They ask about the projects we do with Enactus, the awards I've won through Junior Achievement, the conferences I've attended...that's what interests them.

My involvement with these programs (which are open to anyone) have easily been the biggest influence on my life.Although I've learned so much through formal education, but I am able to apply this knowledge and skills (while learning new ones) through experiential learning.

Companies don't want there to be such a high student unemployment rate. They want to hire students, but increasingly they are finding that there is a skill-position mismatch: students aren't prepared for the workforce.

So my advice to every single student out there: GET INVOLVED. Start a company, do charity work, join the Students' Union at your school, ANYTHING.

Learning doesn't only come from the classroom. It is so crucial that students find the time and commitment to work hard outside of school.

I don't want to be part of Generation Jobless. Do you?

Who am I?

I've always wanted to start a blog, but I never thought I had much to say. I'm 17 years old, after all, and there's still so much for me to learn - what could I possibly have to say that people might be interested to hear? But, then I thought about the blogs I like to read. They're all about people's life experiences, what they learned from them, and how other people can use this.

Maybe this won't teach you anything - maybe you'll just find it interesting. Either one works for me;)

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Bethany Dickey (shocker). This is my Twitter bio:

17. Accounting student @AcadiaU, Co-President @EnactusAcadia, Ambassador for @JAnovascotia, and compulsive shopper. The harder you work, the luckier you get.

It took me forever to try to sum myself up in however many characters you're allotted. If I could have more room, I would add something about:

• My addiction to reading
• My role models (Arlene Dickinson, Amanda Lang, Oprah, etc...)
• My presidency in the Acadia Children's Wish Society
• The fact that I'm entering my second year of study, and
• My career aspirations (social entrepreneur, CPA designation, change-maker)

There's so much that I always want to say (I'm one of those people) that I thought a blog could be a perfect outlet. I'm hoping to write posts about female empowerment/women in business, student life, social entrepreneurship....and whatever strikes my fancy.

Please leave comments or feel free to email me at any time: bethanydickey@gmail.com

Have a fabulous day!