Throw Away the Plan

The other day I was watching an older episode of The CW’s show The Flash and heard one quote that really struck me. “Make the plan. Execute the plan. Expect the plan to go off the rails. Throw away the plan.”

Once I heard that I thought, “wow what a perfect quote for life.” I know I had a plan of how my life at 30 would be when I graduated high school. I don’t think a single thing went as planned, but I can’t say that I am really upset at where I am.

The plan was to go to college for theatre to become a stage manager. I was thrilled when I was accepted to Northern Kentucky University, but not even a semester in, I realized theatre was a passion but not a career choice. So, I trashed that plan and wrote a new one with a degree in Public Relations. It was a great choice for me because PR is one of those degrees you can do about 1,000 different jobs with. At 18 I had zero idea of what I wanted to be when I “grew up”.

Fast forward to the summer before my senior year and my internship choice. Over the previous 3 years at NKU I had immersed myself in the local music scene. I was at local venues at least two times a week catching a show(rip mad hatter). I was working on two different labels street teams, promoting their artist and having a blast doing it. Over that time I also had become friends with a small band out of Louisville. When it was time for me to decide on an internship I was convinced I wanted to go into band management/marketing. It seemed like a perfect match that their manager owned a music promotion and management company.

So I started my internship, and that lasted all of a month. Turns out she and I did not work very well together and she really wasn’t interested in showing me the ropes. Now I was beyond devastated, I had to do some really big soul-searching that summer. Then came the fall semester, where I had to pick another internship so I could complete the course and graduate.  I was still lost and had no idea what I wanted to do with my internship when my advisor suggested applying for one of the radio companies internships.

Have you ever had a moment where you just feel like the universe lined everything up for you? I don’t think I felt that at the time but looking back now, I think this really is one of the defining moments of my life.  In the fall of 2009, I started my internship with what at the time was Clear Channel. My first event was a brutal 14 hour day at our rock stations WEBN end of the summer fireworks show. It was hot, I was exhausted but at the end of the night sitting on the edge of the river watching the fireworks, I realized that this may be something I wanted to do with my life.

During that internship, I was working a crazy amount of hours at the stations, a part-time job and a full load at school, but loved every second of it. I loved going out to events, setting up and promoting the station and clients. I became friends with several of the interns and a few of our on-air personalities. The crazy thing is now two of those people are part of my new radio home/family too. But, my favorite event became going to a nightclub (Metropolis) every Saturday night for what we called “Club Kiss”. It was at this event that I made friendships that have lasted for almost 10 years.  I have had so many fun nights with my friends from that club, most of them none of us probably remember. It was also there and those friendships that have ruined several types of liquor for me. Thanks, Danny and Ashmanda(Amanda).

I was lucky to be able to do the internship at Clear Channel for two semesters. But, I was approaching the end to my last semester at NKU when I received a project to interview someone in the job/field I wanted to be in, but I could not already know them. That ruled out everyone at Clear Channel. I used some connections and set up an interview with the promotions director at another radio company in the city, Q102. Fate decided to step in again at this moment. During my interview with Scott, he mentioned that Q102 was hiring for a promotions coordinator position. At the time I could not imagine going to the competitor radio station from my internship, but Clear Channel didn’t have a job for me and I was about to graduate, so I applied.

I had an interview with Katie, who has the biggest personality of anyone I have ever met and a true rockstar in her own right. She talked about how Q102 had some of the biggest and best promotions in the city, her team were and still are the A-team. By some chance of fate, I was asked to join that team. It wasn’t always easy at first, there were changes from my internship I had to learn. But, the biggest thing was realizing my plan to be doing radio promotions full time wasn’t going to happen overnight. Yep, scrap that post-graduation plan and write a new one.

My next plan was to work part-time at the station and to get the experience before trying to apply around the country. I had another part-time job at Wal-mart and was doing pretty good. But then I was 25 still working part-time at Wal-mart my health insurance from my parents was about to expire, and I decided to enter the “real world”. The first corporate job I did not even last a month at! But I was smart, always keeping Q102 as a part-time job, mostly because it has never really felt like work to me and I knew I always had some source of income. The people I work with at the stations have become family. I did eventually start to apply for jobs around the country at other radio stations, but nothing ever really came out of any of them. So I scrapped that plan and started searching for other full time jobs that I could be happy in.

Here I am almost a decade after starting at Q102, still doing part-time promotions and LOVING it! My last post detailed how I have grown and started doing photography for the station too. It may not have been the plan going into working at the stations but I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

I also found a full- time job that I really enjoy. In college, I never would have thought I would be working in the health care field, let alone being an event planner. But I love it, this job challenges me every day. I get bored easily and there is not a dull moment about being an event planner. Which is ironic as I talk about throwing out the plan, that I am a planner. But you do have to plan to some degree but then you have to account for at least 10 things to go wrong and still make the event look good to those attending. Like I said, never a dull moment.

This wasn’t the original plan, heck, it wasn’t the second, third or fourth plan. But, it is working so I have finally decided to throw the plans out the window and just enjoy the ride. Yes, I still have my life goals but,  who am I to question fate right?

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower