Lately, I feel like a tornado strapped into a rollercoaster. I have had so much going on in every aspect of my life that it feels as though I haven’t even had a moment to pause and catch my breath for weeks.

However, while I do occasionally catch myself grumbling about my insane schedule (usually when I’m sitting down to eat my first real meal of the day at 10 p.m.), each and every thing that has kept me whirling through life from morning until night is worth it to me. Every current “role” in my life is important, and I wouldn’t give a single one up for the world. Friend, girlfriend, daughter, sister, employee, maid of honor, horseback rider, coach—every role (no matter how demanding) contributes to my happiness, satisfaction, and self-worth.

In previous blog posts, I’ve covered the fact that I had it pretty easy when it came to choosing a career and, therefore, avoided the hateful quarter-life crisis. But recently, I’ve come to realize the true value of that luck. Two people in my life are currently wrestling with the seemingly simple (but often excruciatingly difficult) question, “How do I figure out what career I want?”

My boyfriend breezed through high school but didn’t happen upon any particular area or subject that grabbed his interest along the way. He didn’t have the slightest idea of what to pursue in terms of post-secondary education or a long-term career, so he opted to skip them altogether and dabble in a variety of jobs. Although he’s excelled at them, being good at a job doesn’t always translate into being happy doing it. This has made him decide not to spend the rest of his life working at a job that holds no meaning for him. He's ready to get a post-secondary education and prepare for a career he can love (and I’m willing to bet it will be one that allows him to utilize his incredible talent and creativity—from writing to drawing to creating music, the guy never ceases to amaze me).

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I was forced to write my fair share of boring papers and essays during my time at school. But, while there were instances when doing anything else in the world seemed preferable (cleaning the bathroom, answering calls from telemarketers, and sometimes even shoving hot pokers into my eyeballs), I can honestly say it never once crossed my mind to steal (or buy) someone else’s words.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that I am someone who always has and always will have a strong passion for writing, and I was—at that time in my life—working hard to reach a point where I could build a career on the written word.

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My friends often make fun of me for being a “Teeth Nazi.” I have a strict daily teeth cleaning regimen, am one of those mistrusted freaks who actually likes going to the dentist for cleanings, and have even been known to whip out my “purse floss” in some seriously unconventional locations. Hey, when you have to floss, you have to floss—especially when you are a black pepper fiend.

I think the root cause of my clean teeth obsession stems from my childhood. Being a hardcore apple juice addict led to more “baby teeth” cavities than I could count (probably literally at that age). But while I may enjoy visits to the dentist that involve leaving with blissfully clean teeth, when it comes to getting my face frozen beyond recognition, and my teeth drilled into, there is absolutely no love involved.

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My best friend recently realized one of her lifelong goals: becoming an entrepreneur. Kate’s path to opening a small business started as a dream when she was a kid and followed her through high school, college, and various experience-gathering jobs. It finally became a reality in the summer of 2011. Together with her sister, Beth, she created Panache, a ladies’ accessories store featuring everything from scarves to bags to jewelry and even handmade clothing from an in-house designer.

Like any infant entrepreneurial venture, Panache has had its ups and downs, but, overall, it has been both a financial and a personal success for Kate and Beth. I can honestly say I’ve never seen either of them so happy.

I also strongly believe that this happiness stems from something far beyond simply achieving a goal. Ask any entrepreneur, and I think you’ll find that, for them, opening a business is much more than just a way to earn a living. I think most of them are born with something in their very core that drives them to make their mark on the world on their own terms and in their own way. No matter how great a job they might find, if it means working for someone else, they will never truly be satisfied. They need to put their talent, effort, blood, sweat, and tears into their own creation, and whether it succeeds or fails, the true gratification is in the fact that it existed—and to me, that is what the true meaning of “entrepreneurial spirit” is.

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Earlier in the year, I wrote about cyber bullying and its link to teen suicide. During that time, all of the news articles and statistics I came across focused solely on high-school-aged students.

However, a recent news article was brought to my attention, which sheds light on a new study aimed at measuring the presence of bullying and cyber bullying within post-secondary institutions. The results of this study shocked me:

• 15 percent of college students said they have been bullied.
• 22 percent indicated they have been a victim of cyber bullying.
• 38 percent know someone who has experienced cyber bullying.
• 42 percent have seen someone being bullied by a fellow student.
• Almost nine percent admit to cyber bullying someone else.
• Among cyber-bullying victims, 25 percent said it was via a social networking site, 21 percent by text message, and 16 percent through instant messaging.

When today’s employment climate is in the news, it’s usually about the lack of jobs. Layoffs, bankruptcies, bailouts, record-breaking unemployment rates: these are the topics that have been hogging all of the attention for years now. However, a recent study is bringing a completely opposite issue to light, and a phrase that has seemed to be all but banished from the headlines is making a comeback. That phrase is “worker shortage.”

Boiling point? The skills gap in U.S. manufacturing, a report from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, suggests that as many as five percent of current manufacturing jobs are vacant due to a severe lack of qualified candidates. While five may seem like a small number, it grows exponentially when you consider that this percentage actually represents thousands of jobs.

You may be wondering how it is possible for there to be thousands of vacant positions during a time when upwards of 14 million American people are searching for work. The answer goes back to that relic of a phrase: “worker shortage.” There is currently a shortage of skilled technical workers who possess the necessary training and experience to fill the manufacturing employment void.

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Despite the fact that I haven’t even quite reached my 27^th birthday, technology often has a sneaky way of making me feel like a dinosaur.

I think it all started when I was in college. I was part of the last print journalism class at my college to use film cameras for the photography classes. To be honest, I loved being in the darkroom. Working with images in an actual physical form, and watching the chemicals magically make the image appear on the photo paper was my favorite part of photography.

Today, I doubt if students or journalists ever lay hands on an actual physical manifestation of their photographic art. Film cameras have become virtually obsolete even for personal use—let alone in a professional setting. Digital cameras took complete command of the industry, and their takeover was hostile to the lowly film camera. Now, images go straight from a digital camera to a computer, and their only printed form is as part of a newspaper or magazine.

While I might mourn the loss of film and printed photos, there is one archaic item I would have been more than happy to upgrade into digital form during college, and that’s the hundred pounds worth of textbooks I lugged around all day, every day.

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If you’ve recently graduated from college or university but have yet to find employment in your field, then you are, unfortunately, far from alone.

The National Journal recently reported that almost one in five recent graduates is out of work. Despite the fact that America’s “Great Recession” officially ended two years ago, the unemployment rate for 16-to-24-year-olds is still hovering around a 30-year high at 17 percent.

Another unfortunate reality, according to research from Lisa Kahn of Yale University, is that the longer it takes for graduates to secure employment, the harder it gets. Think of it this way: if you were to lie immobile for extended periods of time, your muscles would eventually atrophy. The same principle applies to the hard-earned skills you gain during post-secondary education. The longer you have gone without applying those skills, the higher the chance that they have atrophied.

It was recently reported that the most commonly awarded grade in today’s American colleges and universities is “A.” When I first clicked into the story, I was expecting a positive, happy explanation of how this generation’s students are kicking butt in post-secondary education. In reality, it turned out to be a somewhat mocking and sarcastic explanation about how today’s professors are apparently guilty of a heinous crime described as “grade inflation.”

According to college grade researchers Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, 43 percent of all grades in the U.S. are now A’s—undeserved A’s in their opinion. They place the majority of the blame on private universities, citing that A’s and B’s make up 86 percent of their total grades.