Who thought job shadowing can be this fun?

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

In one day I learnt how to write a press release, how to evaluate a company's website, as well as how to handle corporate people when you criticize their website, social media presence as well as their digital marketing.

Day 1 of shadowing

In the beginning of this semester, we were notified by a lecturer that we had to shadow a Public Relations Officer in our October holiday. I wanted to shadow at my mother's company, only to realize they don't believe in the importance of Public Relations... Like are you crazy?

Anywho, I had to find other alternatives, because working at my mother's company was out of the question. My aunt's friend told us that her daughter is in Public Relations and will organize something, that's when the opportunity of a lifetime came my way! Flow Communications accepted me to shadow at them for this week. I couldn't be more ecstatic! They are a company doing pure communication work: anything from web development, content, design, social media, public relations, media training, exhibitions, name it and they do it in communication.

On my first day, I was asked to fix a press release by making it shorter and write more concise sentences. It was hard for me to think in English again after being at the university for so long, where we speak purely Afrikaans. I'm sure in a day or so, I will get my English vocabulary up to date again.

I, also,  helped to evaluate a company's website, we then went into a meeting later this afternoon to point out what needs to be done to their website, the content on it, how it links to their social media profiles, etc. Thankfully, it was not my job to tell them what Flow thought and what the critique was, because I'm only shadowing. It felt like sitting in a tennis court and the ball going back and forth. The opinions in the company differed so much, one person agreed, one didn't, the other one asked Flow to elaborate... No one was on the same train of thought. Coming to a conclusion was not easy at all. I was just a spectator in that tennis match and I'm so grateful for that. Nonetheless, it was a great learning school on how to handle a meeting like this.

A selfie on the way to the meeting with this company

Today was really great and I have already learned so much. Flow Communications have exceeded my expectations on so many levels. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for me! I think PR may be for me, but let's not talk too soon.

Flow Communications is responsible for the following campaigns:

• Nando's
• World Wildlife Fund
• Nelson Mandela Foundation
• South African Tourism
• SASOL
• South African Heart Association;
• and many, many more!

So yes, I'm very privileged to be shadowing here. They mean business!

Peace out 'til next time!

The importance of 'I'

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I, is a very important word. Why? Because it all starts with YOU. With me.

I really think I should become an ambassador for this quote, because I've been promoting it and using it constantly. This quote has been a symbol to me since my life made a change for the better, and my life made a change for the better, because I realized that HAPPINESS IS AN INSIDE JOB!

Yes, Millenium Lady is preaching again or as I would like to call it: Soapbox! Constantly, I hear friends complainig that their significant others are not making them happy.
Now, the problem is that I don't go into a relationship to make someone happy for the duration of that relationship. I go into that relationship, because I like them. It is not your task to make someone happy and it is also not their task to make you happy! You have to contribute to each other's happiness, not take it from unhappiness to happiness.

YOU! YOU! YOU! You are responsible for being happy. You determine your own future. You have to realize that YOU determining how your life is. No one made the choices for you. If you don't like where you are in life or about the choices you made: Today is a good day to start changing it.

We all have our off-days, when we'd rather stay in bed, watch movies and eat ice-cream out of a tub and that is perfectly fine. But today is a really good day to make a change for the better. The catch is: YOU have to make that change alone. No one is going to change for you or will be changed by you. YOU have to be the change. If you want the world to change, you have to be the change. Start with the person in the mirror- wise advice from the legend Michael Jackson and here is the video- you're welcome!

My challenge for you is to make you own happiness and just be happy!
Peace, love and everything nice!

Day 5: In the life of a Junior Events Manager

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

It is day 5 of the #writersbootcampZA. The task for today is to take a newspaper and find a job ad, then we have to write about how it would be to live the life of that person working in that job. There were lots of jobs to choose from, but I chose the Junior Events Manager.

The ad in the paper

My life as a Junior Events Manager:

My name is Kiara and I am a Junior Events Manager. I am 23 years old  and I started as a Junior Events Manager a few months ago. I am passionate about life, I am energetic, organised and dynamic. I am the bossy kind, because you have to be when you have to organize events, like parties, weddings, bachelorettes, etc.... Otherwise you'll never get what you want and how you imagined the party to be. Yes, people don't always like me, but I get things done.

I have lots of contacts in every imaginable business there is, so I can call on them when I need their help with an event. There are also a lot of discounts because most of them owe me favors or they are my friends and insist on better prices. 

I have two closets. One closet is my wine and dine closet, it is spectacular clothes, so my clients will be impressed by my appearances and believe that I'm sophisticated and successful. In my other closet, I have my normal clothes which I wear to work and on days when I'm not working. 

I have a boyfriend, but we don't see each other a lot, because I am always working even on weekends. It puts quite a strain on our relationship, because we never have time for one another. He complains often, but what can I do? I am good at my job and I need the job!

I have two cats. Maybe I'll become a cat lady, because they understand that I cannot always be there. They don't need the attention that my boyfriend does. Yes, I'll become a cat lady.

This is just a little bit in the life of a Junior Events Manager.

Day 4: Living without this would be impossible...

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

It is day 4 of the #writersbootcampZA. Happy Independence Day to all my American friends! Hope It was a great day! Today's challenge is to write about the thing which I cannot live without. Now, the people close to me will already know this answer very well.

What is the one thing I can't live without, you ask?

My wild imagination!

Yes, my wild imagination. I sometimes wonder where these images come from. Like how did I ever think of the things that pop into my head? 

Always when I'm talking I'll make the most random comparisons, which makes a lot of sense but no one would ever think of it in that way. I would usually describe my future as a kid who smudged cake in his face meaning it's blurry and I don't know what I'm going to do in the future, but I'm sure as hell enjoying it to lick the icing off my face, meaning I'm enjoying the uncertainty and still enjoying life.

I am way better at writing fictional stories than I am with writing realistic stories. When I was little I used to believe in fairies, trolls, gnomes, you name it and I believed in them as a child. I think the world would be wonderful if we really had such mystical creatures roaming the earth. My imagination never stopped thinking of them and I still love to write stories about these creatures. 

When I was about 10 years old, a friend and I decided to build a house for fairies and we put it in the field below us. We had fully believed that the fairies would be staying comfortably in that house, I was really crushed when there was nothing when we paid a visit a few days later. 

My wild imagination is part of my daily life and I would never give it up! It makes my life interesting and more than never, I want to laugh out loud about the things that are going on in my head because it is an imagination which is priceless. 

What is the one thing which you cannot live without?

Day 3: One of my greatest fears

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

Today is day 3 of the #writersbootcampZA and the challenge is to write about One of my greatest fears. The challenge was given last night at 6 pm, since then I have done a bit of introspection about my greatest fears and which one stands out. Now, like I have mentioned on day 1, my big fear is the dark, but it is not my GREATEST FEAR!

My greatest fear is the fear of being MEDIOCRE

I don't want to be the girl in the crowd, who no one notices and just walks past without thinking or looking twice. I want the people to look, walk on and have the urge to just look back. 

I have always been afraid of being mediocre/normal/plain/unnoticeable and not being remembered.... I always had to do things to make me stand out from the crowd, to show that I am better. 

I have always imagined myself having an exotic job and an exotic life with a man who fits into the lifestyle with me. It can still come true, because I still have my whole life in front of me. I just have to dream big and everything I do, must be towards my goal. But yes, I am afraid of ending up behind a desk and no one even knows my name. I have this picture in my head, where I walk to the office next to me and I ask them a favor and they reply: "Sorry, but who are you?" I think I would die right there. 

I want to be the type of person you meet and afterwards you can't stop talking about how cool I am or how I have changed your perspective about things. I just want to be remembered. Am I crazy for feeling like this? 

I don't want to lead a normal life and I most certainly don't want to be normal. Yes, that is my greatest fear.

Day 2: My 5 most favourite words

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

So, like I said, I joined the #WritersBootcampZA. Every day, for the month of July, we have to follow the task given and write a blog post about it. Day 2's challenge is to write about your 5 most favorite words. So here goes:

1. LOVE: I love love! To me it resembles all things beautiful: passion, integrity, appreciation. Love also means that you know the faults of the thing/person which you love and yet still choose to love them/it.
2. HAPPINESS: Happiness is my life motto and it is the conscience choice that I make every single moment of every single day. No one is going to make you happy, except you! Happiness is an inside job!
3. MEDIA: I am a lover of all things media: Social-media, Mass-media, Ora-media... You name it and I love it. I love to spend my days on anything media-ish!
4. WATER: Yes, water. Why? Because it takes away the thirst, it gives life to plants and all living things. It resembles calmness and all things relaxing. 
5. CHOICE: One always has a choice. Nobody determines your course in life, except you. Yes, people can persuade you, but the choice is still yours! 

This is my 5 favorite words and they have much more meaning to me than these small explanations! Join the #WritersBootcampZA, there is still time!

Even if you know me well, you don't know this...

By Arnia Kiara Oosthuizen

I decided to take part in the #writersbootcampZA hosted by @WritersBootcamp. The first assignment is to write a post about the things that no one knows about you. Challenge accepted!

Even if you know me, you don't know this:

When I was a little girl, I developed a very big fear of the dark. When I say big, I mean really big. I used to switch on the lights everywhere I went and didn't like switching them off again afterwards. A had a huge teddy bear and I used to take him everywhere and sing gospel songs very loudly to make the long hallways a little bit less scarier.  Yes, every little kid is afraid of the dark, so what? Well, I'm still afraid of the dark! A 21 year old student! I live in a dormitory and the hallways are just as long and a dormitory is scarier than my old house used to be.
I'm not so much afraid of the dark, as I am of the unknown. The unknown which awaits in the dark.

Yes, there are many things that you don't know about me, but it's good to be a bit mysterious sometimes, don't you think?