Open up your mouth...a closed mouth don't get fed!!!!

Have you ever been to a club, party, etc where you wanted to talk to someone, but were afraid of rejection so you didn't speak?

Or, have you heard about people you know getting higher salaries, and/or jobs that you would love to do?

Better yet, seen "your type" being boo'ed up with a creature that looks like a cross between an uglier verison of quasimoto and the Lord of the Rings Gollum?

Ladies & Gentlemen let me break down my new still in progress theory called "Speak dammit Speak!!!!" It goes a little something like this: The reason for all of these things is partly fear of rejection, but due to a larger phenomon called not opening up your mouth. I suffer from this greatly, in fact it wasn't until I had my magic drank (read below) that I really saw how much not speaking had impeded on my life. Then I juxtaposed that to the event I went to (entry called Inspirational) and really got to see how my own growth has been impeded. Its true, when you speak whether its in a "hey little mama [ or daddy whatever the case may be] me whisper in ya ear & tell ya some thangs you would like to hear" way, or breaking the proverbal ice at a networking function, or even speaking up in class, you get better results typically than being silent.

Yesterday I was talking to my friend and fellow blogger, bmassie (check his blog out FIYAH!!!!), after he read my latest post he informed me that his previous job was @ a lobbying firm, with a 2 Black partners, not only that but one the partners and another black associate who works there is frat! Oh, it doesnt' stop there, tell me why, the Black female went to our alma mater and has an MPA (what I'm currently working towards which I'll detail in a later post about this good ole class). At first I was like, man I wish I would have opened up my mouth sooner. But then thinking about it later on during the night I figured oh hell, I might as well e-mail them and introduce myself, explain my situation, and ask for an informational interview.

*I was told by my mentor before she left for Nigeria, was that in DC, no one ever gets a job by asking for a job interview, you ask for an informational interview instead. The purpose is to get yourself in the door, and during the informational interview, you get more of a dialogue than in a traditonal interview. For example, you get to explain your skill sets, your goals, ask questions of the interveiwer for their input as to what you should do next professionally. By following this advice I was really close to getting a job at the largest and oldest African-American NGO dedicated to giving aide to Africa.

As far as the good ole love life, well its cooled down considerably. Not to a halt but the euphoria of the new has worn off, and now I'm here in this seeing where all this will lead. I feel sort of bad b/c I'm not really head over heels for any of them, I don't have a crush on any of them, and I'm fine with that. But part of me keeps thinking that am I just going through the motions or is this normal?

Update on the graduate course I'm taking. I don't like it, I thought it would be taught from a more legislative view, but it has been told moreso from a bureacratic view. Its nothing new, I've taken policymaking courses every year since I was a sophomore, I've interned on the Hill, Ii understand policymaking in theory, and I also got to see how most of it isn't applicable. At least the way its taught in the course. Then we were suppossed to get this handout off of e-reserve, and I looked for it the day after, and wasn't there so I emailed him to let him know and he said he was goign to look into it. What!?!?!?!?! Its not there, give me a resource to find this obscure ass article. I've tried finding the handout but its part of a book so I'm going to schlep over to the library and see if they still have it or not. ... 'Bama ass class... It wouldnt' be that bad if it was merely just a handout for reading but we have to do a short paper on it. C'mon now....