Coming to you live from Mexico! This is the second solo resort vacation I’ve taken (my first was in Puerto Rico last year) and would like to share some things I’ve learned while traveling “solita”. Some of these lessons are specific to warm weather, resort, and foreign countries, but if you’re considering a vaca that doesn’t fit neatly into that box, just use your imagination.

1) If you’re going to a country in which you don’t speak the language, you should learn how to say “Nope, just me” in their native tongue. And prepare to repeat it at leeeasstt 11 times a day.

2) Have an answer prepared for “what are you doing tonight?” that makes attempting to interpret The Real Housewives in English and ordering room service for yourself sound non-negotiable for when the creep at the pool named Damian from Miami, with two kids old enough to have kids themselves, asks to eat a sub-par “steak dinner” together at the (free) hotel buffet.

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Written communication has always been something that I’ve struggled with and have been trying to improve upon. Heck, it’s one of the reasons I started this blog in the first place.  I used to dread simply sending emails. In hindsight, this could have been because I was a college student who didn’t have much practice with formal written communication.

The further you advance in your career and the more experience you have under your belt, the more practice you get. Since I started at Seer, boy, have I gotten a lot of practice. While I value a quick face-to-face conversation or phone call as much as the next person, emails are nearly impossible to avoid at work. I receive close to 3,000 emails a month and send close to 700 emails every month, so I needed to get more comfortable communicating via the written word – stat.

Effective communication, both written and verbal, is one of the most important ways to ensure that projects keep moving along, that your voice is heard, and that you’re connecting with your coworkers. So I’ve been nerding out about it pretty hard.

In an effort to keep improving, not only did I observe people whose communication styles I admired, but I also did a lot of reading on the communication styles and words we use at work that have a dramatic effect on the way our messages are heard.

Below are a few of the articles that I’ve read that are engrained in my mind every time I’m drafting up any sort of message and actively attempting to improve my communication. These reminders have been so helpful in my journey to improvement that now coworkers even come to me for advice on the subject and it’s flowed into my personal life and personal written communication. I’m still far from perfect (and I still dread writing almost as much as I used to) but wanted to share some of the things that have made it easier.

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Last year I began a challenge to write down at least one positive thought every single day. This was partly inspired from Pinterest, partly inspired from my mom. The idea is to take a small piece of paper, write down a highlight from your day, something you learned, a fun trip, an accomplished goal, etc. and put it in a jar. At the end of the year, read through all of your “happy moments”. They serve as a reminder of how lucky we all are, the things we worked hard to achieve, and help us appreciate all that we have.

At the end of last year, my mom read through her happy moments with me, and although there weren’t nearly 365 of them, it made me happy to hear about the positive things in her life, and I was inspired to do the same.

So in 2013 I tried to write down my happy moments. There were months where I was writing several per day, and months where I wrote nothing at all. The important part is not to be disappointed in yourself if you aren’t writing often; that defeats the purpose of the exercise. Make it a goal to write often, but don’t beat yourself up about it if you don’t.

New Year’s Day came around in 2014, and I read through all of the notes I wrote. If you know me, you know I have a terrible memory. Reading through all of the great things from 2013 allowed me to re-remember them, and make less room in my brain space for any negative memories that may have been floating around.

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My brother was in town visiting a few friends this past week in Philadelphia. I decided to meet up with all of them for some drinks after work, since my brother and I rarely have the opportunity to hang out. He lives in Queens with his girlfriend, works crazy hours in a nursing home kitchen and does street art in his free time. That makes getting together for holidays, or even the occasional lunch somewhat difficult.

My brother and I have never been super close, but he has always been supportive of me, impressed with my accomplishments at such a young age, and takes every chance he can to brag about me to his friends, coworkers, acquaintances– you name it.

My brother never went to college. He got himself into some trouble in his teenage years, and at 27, is still working on bettering himself. He has a job that he enjoys, but maybe doesn’t earn as much money as he’d like, and has somewhat of a “starving artist” mentality. For this reason, I think that he admires how hard I work and the things I’m working to accomplish in my career. I wouldn’t ever call it jealousy; I genuinely believe he is proud of his little sister. Continue reading →

This is what Google tells me is happening on the Internet about me, “Emma Still”. You can decide for yourself what’s true and what’s not.

I love a short hemline.

But I value my education above all else.

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