So since I got my dream job as the community manager for Postling, everything got really busy, really fast. I’m working a full time job, going to school full time at night, and trying to stay healthy and lose weight!

How does one find time to blog in the midst of all that?!

I’m starting to thing that I really have to start a writing schedule, and make the time to write the blog posts I want to write and make the videos I want to make.

I enjoy producing content, so it’s stressful for me when I don’t have time for that outlet in my life.

But I wanted to give you all an update on my weight loss goals, and staying healthy through all this stress. I’ve officially lost 20 lbs!

When I first started at Postling, it seemed very difficult to stick with my regular eating schedule. When you are suddenly out of your element, you lose control of your food to a certain extent. And if you aren’t the type of person who plans every meal in advance, suddenly not being in your own kitchen can make deciding what to eat very difficult! (especially when you are vegan)

I’m starting to feel like I’ve regained control and even picked up a few great tips on how to eat anywhere and stick to my plan. (more on that in a later blog post)

Stepping on the scale and seeing a lower number than before still feels amazing, and I’m looking forward to losing the next 20 lbs!

Two years ago Gary Vaynerchuk declared April 3rd Good People Day! It also happened to be the first day I made a video for randomsarah.com, and so I also declared it to be my blog’s birthday.

Every year I’ve been using my Good People Day post to sum up the last year, and thank all the AMAZING people in my life who made the past year awesome!

The past year of my personal life has been a crazy roller coaster that I cannot even begin to describe. But I wouldn’t take it back for anything because those experiences made me who I am today. I’m still struggling with a lot of the things that happened in the past year, but I know I will get through it because I have amazing friends and an even more amazing family.

But let’s focus on the good people in my more professional life.

David Lifson – I met you over a year ago and since then you have been a great friend, but an even bigger inspiration to me professionally. I am in awe of you every day as you continue to develop an awesome product with Postling.

Matt Knell – You’ve seen me through ups and downs and have always encouraged me to do what I love! Even if that meant waiting a while to figure out what I really wanted to do.

Michelle Deforest – You are an amazing women! I am inspired by training every day. Our professional relationship hasn’t crossed paths nearly enough, but we have the whole year ahead of us!

The entire Philadelphia tech community! – I don’t even know where to start, but I would be crazy to recap this past year without mentioning the awesome friends I made in Philly. There are way to many people to name, but you all welcomed me with open arms and you truly became my family there! I miss you all and I hope to visit soon!

My whole SXSW Family – You know who you are! This is an amazing group of people that sometimes I only see once a year in Austin, but I see them every day online and they make my life richer and full of love!

There are SOOO many people that I missed that have made this year memorable. You will forever be in my heart!

I’m looking forward to another great year blogging on randomsarah.com

I really planned on writing a longer post later today. My blog’s birthday also falls on Good People Day, so I usually will recap the year in that post.

I will try and write it later tonight.

So many of you know I went to SXSW a few weeks ago and I had an amazing time! I got to spend time with so many of my great friends, and meet so many new awesome people.

During my week at SXSW I was going through a sort of “career identity crisis”. After I left Comcast in January I wrote about my decision to go back to school and look for a job back in NYC. I said that I wanted to be open about being a student again, but I was worried about getting categorized as a “Student” and not being considered for jobs that I should be able to get based on my level of experience.

But along the job search trail I got a little lost. I started to apply for jobs that were where I thought I needed to be (mostly PR and Marketing agencies) but during SXSW I realized that wasn’t what I was really passionate about. Everyone kept telling me “just do what you love”. But the problem was that I didn’t really feel like I LOVED anything. I liked a lot of different things, but I couldn’t put my finger on what I was most passionate about. I made it a point during the conference to talk to all of my good friends and mentors, to try and get a better sense of a “career road map” for myself.

On the last day of SXSW I realized that what I have loved to do all along has been online community. It’s something I have always been passionate about, and something I know I am great at. But there was a problem, I had to go home to interviews I had lined up with agencies, and try and explain to them that I no longer wanted the job I applied for.

Last Thursday I was sitting in my 3rd interview with a PR agency. I had just come back from SXSW, so I was pretty excited about everything. But while sitting there talking, I realized that I was not going to be able to do what I wanted to do within such a large company.

When the interview was over I had a missed call from my good friend Dave Lifson. I had met Dave over a year ago at New Work City and I have been in awe of how he has been able to grow a startup from idea to funding. He was calling to tell me that he wanted to hire me as Postling‘s Community Manager.

I literally started jumping up and down on the sidewalk in midtown Manhattan!

So stay tuned, there will be awesomeness to come! But don’t worry, I will continue to bring you the same random content you are used to here on randomsarah.com.

I also wanted to thank my family, friends and more importantly my mentors, for helping me find what I love, and hold out until I found a job that would make me happy.

So I was asked a question on formspring.me

How long have you been a Vegan?  And what turned you to choose that lifestyle?

So I thought I would tell you guys the story.

More details on the conditions mentioned in this video. (definitions from WebMD)

• Costochondritis is an inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone or sternum. The condition causes localized chest pain that you can reproduce by pushing on the cartilage in the front of your ribcage. Costochondritis is a relatively harmless condition and usually goes away without treatment. The cause is usually unknown.
• Fibromyalgia syndrome affects the muscles and soft tissue. Fibromyalgia symptoms include chronic pain in the muscles, fatigue, sleep problems, and painful tender points or trigger points at certain parts of the body. Fibromyalgia pain and other symptoms can be relieved through medications, lifestyle changes, stress management, and other fibromyalgia treatment.

Here is a video from almost a year ago when I first went raw.

The chips were riceworks – Gourmet Brown Rice Crisps

The two documentaries I think EVERYONE should see:

Food Inc

King Corn

Hey guys! I made this video yesterday and I wanted to share it with you all. I hadn’t made a video blog, or even sat down in front of a camera since May 2009. So I get a little emotional about it. But I’m really excited to start getting back to my first love of social media, which is online video. So I hope you enjoy it, and I hope this opens up a really good conversation.

So since no one really seemed to have any input on what I blog about, or where, I’m just going to write about what I have been wanting to write about for a while. For a long time I tried to keep this blog mainly about social media and online tools, and while that is still a huge part of my interests, lately I’ve been wanting to talk about something that is very different. That is, food.

A few weeks ago I posted on my tumblr that I was tired of feeling overweight, and that I was ready to do something about it. I put myself on a healthy diet that consisted of lots of fresh produce (fruits and veggies), whole grains, and to try and keep all of my indulgences vegan (that has helped me to not fall of the wagon by eating a huge bagel and cream cheese every time I have a bad day). And I started to exercise more (mainly yoga and walking).

I’ve been posting updates on my tumblr about how much weight I’ve lost, and it has really helped me to feel the support of a community who wants you to achieve your goals. So far I have lost 7 lbs! So I wanted to share this with you all so that you won’t be as confused when I start writing about healthy eating, supporting local farms, vegan recipes, etc.

But I know I have to write it.

Over the past 4 months I have been living in Philadelphia, and working for Comcast Interactive Media. I worked on a project producing a series of tutorial videos. It was a very different job for me. There was a lot of managing. Managing people, managing expectations, managing outside agencies… it was a very big project. But my contract is ending on Jan. 15th so it’s on to hopefully better things.

So I had to make a decision, stay in Philly and look for another job, or move back to NYC? After talking with my family and close friends I have decided to do something that I didn’t want to do, but I know I have to do. Go back to school.

When I first started blogging there were 2 things that I worked very hard to keep under wraps.

#1 – that I was still in school

#2 – how young I was

I don’t really remember why I decided to do that, but from my point of view at the time, they were both negative things. I had a number of friends my age who were still in school and also in the social media/ blogging podcasting space, but for some reason whenever they were mentioned, they were always “student bloggers” and in my head that sounded like it was something less than everyone else. I didn’t think that they deserved less credit because they were young, or still in school. I also feel like the “student blogger” was being put in a box. It became a specific category that I didn’t want to be a part of. The age thing I always wanted to keep under wraps because I wanted my work to speak for itself.

I have very strong opinions about higher education. I don’t like it, I didn’t think I needed it, and I think the whole system in general is broken. I’ve written a little about education before. Once I had finished 4 years of school, I was done. I didn’t graduate, I just couldn’t take it anymore, I didn’t see the point. But while I still feel this way somewhat, I have decided to go back to school and finish my degree in Media Studies.

I can only hope that this doesn’t set me back career wise.

So…now that I got that off my chest, I’m moving back to NYC and I’m looking for a job. Not an internship people, I might be going back to school, but I don’t think that takes away from my level of experience. Ideally I would like to find some work in community management, social media consulting (I know I hate that term, but there is not other way to put it) Something that doesn’t require me to be in an office all of the time (since I will have classes, etc)

If you hear of anything, please let me know.

I wanted to thank all of my friends and mentors for being so great and supportive to me with this decision.

Some of you may know that I went to school for photography. I have been obsessed with it since I first entered a darkroom in high school. I loved film photography and how quickly you could forget all of your troubles in the darkroom.

I would spend hours shooting and developing. But when I got into an art program, reality set in. I was going to have to start shooting digital. At first I really hated digital photography. I felt like I had to relearn everything about my camera again.

No longer did I only have 36 frames to get the shot in, I had an unlimited amount. No longer was I waiting till I pulled the film out of the canister to see if I got the shot, I could see right away. Sounds like it would make it easier doesn’t it? In fact it made me sloppy. I trusted the camera too much instead of trusting my instincts and what I know the settings should be. Everything looks in focus on that tiny screen, but when you get back to the computer you can see it wasn’t really in focus.

I feel in love with digital when I was in a photography program in Florence, Italy. For the first time my digital pictures weren’t just images on a screen, but I could print them out, hold them up, step back and take a look. The same way I would after I printed something in the darkroom.

When I came back I started doing some work as a freelance event photographer. It was hard at first but a had a good run of weddings and events. I don’t think i have touched my digital SLR in a long time. And I miss it. So I thought I would share with you some of my favorite photos that I have taken.

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Hey guys, it sure has been a while since I blogged here on radomsarah.com!

I have been settling into a new city and  a new job, not to mention helping crush cancer!

It sure has been a crazy few months, but I do really miss blogging. I never really stopped blogging, I have kept up a constant stream of content on my tumblr.

What I blog on tumblr is a lot like the kind of content that I used to post on Random Sarah. Random things that I find around the web that interest me. Over time I started to blog in a more focused way and tumblr became my outlet for all of the random stuff I found. But Random Sarah is where my twitter profile (and almost all of the other social sites I use) point too. When people are trying to find out more about me, they are dorected to a site that I don’t think currently reflects my level of activity on the web.

That being said I have decided that it’s time for a re-design of Random Sarah! I would really want this to be my home online, I want it to accurately reflect my activity online. I don’t want you to come to randomsarah.com and not see a post for a few weeks and think I dropped off the face of the earth!

As you can see, there doesn’t really seem to be any consistent design element, or branding across all of these sites that I use.

I am not 100% sure how I want this to look, of course I have ideas of my own, but I would really like to work with a designer on this.

If you would like to be considered for the project, or you know someone who has experience with wordpress and tumblr, please leave it in the comments. Or you can always shoot me an email at sarah.k.cooley@gmail.com