It should first be noted I grew up in Pierz, MN – population 1,394. Let me paint a clearer picture: No stoplights, three bars, a post office, a church and definitely no Starbucks. Needless to say, I hit the road not long after graduation to move to a “cooler” state – Iowa. While my hometown friends gave me grief for moving to Ames to attend Iowa State University, I embraced the change. During my four and a half years at Iowa State, I travelled the US and Europe, spent a semester studying French at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, completed an internship in New York City with a world-renowned fashion designer, Michael Kors, and truly discovered my individuality and capabilities as a young professional.
I completed my double major of Journalism and Communication Studies in December 2011. Like most recent grads, I hated post-grad life. I can confidently say 2012 was the hardest year of my life. I endured the death of two close friends, a crazy landlord, unemployment, my apartment being burglarized, a boatload of student loan debt, and many other discouraging situations. It literally felt like I was living “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.
When I stumbled upon Gaslight Creative’s website in the early part of December 2012, I was still unemployed. I had just spent the previous four months going through the gauntlet of interviews with a huge Minneapolis-based company only to find out I came up short in my qualifications – no surprise after the year I’d had. I changed my game plan and decided, on a whim, to look up St. Cloud area advertising companies. I found Gaslight and was blown away. Not only were the graphics and design awesome, but the witty text and innuendos were hilarious. A company with spunk and talent in St. Cloud? It just couldn’t be. They weren’t hiring, but I had to inquire.
I drafted up a clever email with my resume attached and sent it to the company’s email account listed on the website. The message originally went to Jodie Pundsack who forwarded it on to Kelly Zaske. Kelly’s attempt to reply to Jodie saying “Maybe she should apply for my job. Resume looks a lot like mine. What’s she doing in St. Cloud?” ended up going to me – not Jodie. Whoops. I was confused by her response, but being the bold person I am, I responded anyway. From there, we began a comical email thread that led to me coming into the office to meet the team, and the rest is history.
I absolutely love Gaslight Creative! I literally couldn’t ask for a better place to work and better people to work with. I’ve never been a believer in luck. To me, luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. Luck doesn’t come to people who sit around and wait for it. To be frank, luck comes to people who work their ass off and just when they think they can’t work anymore, they work harder. Now, that I’m full-throttle into 2013, I can reflect on the hardship of 2012 and smile because as much as I hated dealing with the misfortune at the time, it prepared me for what I am today, lucky.