A Super Big Day...

So i woke up this morning with my day very clearly organised in my head. I was going to put my business woman suit on ( with my new trench coat that makes me feel like a celeb) and i would strut to work and dominate my interview to become team leader of the sales and marketing team at my work. The end. i would hopefully get a 2nd round interview and then it would be announced that i am in charge.

wow. things change quick. I arrived right on time which never happens so i was quite happy with that... but as soon as i sat down i knew my boss and the HR manager had other things in mind for me.

Really great interview. Great questions..some of them threw me off badly though. When asked "if made the team leader and you had to fire 3 of your team mates, who would you fire and why?" oh man... that is SUCH a loaded question. It is hard because these girls and boys are my friends.. i spend all day every day with them and we are extremely involved in eachothers lives. I wont let my friendship with them hold me back, but i dont see why being a bitch about it could possibly help. They also kept asking questions about problem solving using past experiences and i must have referenced my girls at camp 20 times. I have never been so thankful for camp in my whole life. Its suddenly dawned on me, that camp wasnt just the happiest pleace for me, but it also taught me so many life lessons. lame yeah yeah but its true.

Really talked full on for an hour about me, my life, my career, and my goals. They then went on to explain the team leader position in absolute detail. No Sales, No client interation. Boring. If appointed, I may not even have a budget at all; I may not even make sales calls. My whole day would be monitoring the team and motivating them to make sales and monitor their progress. 100% not what I want to do. So basically in the middle of the interview i stopped. Said i appreciated their time and asked to withdraw my application.

Oh geez.

The look on their face was priceless. Kind of like " oh, um, well, what the hell do we ask her next?"

Then the big question came. " Sarah, what DO you want to do? you cant run around America all your life" Ohhhh she really touched a sore spot.. but i chose not to react.

I answered that I LOVE sales, i love advertising, i love marketing and i am extremely ready for bigger clients and higher budgets and i want to start now. I told them that i am not leaving the country, im here to work and learn from them BUT i need to know they have bigger things in mind for me. If im going to give up travelling for 2 years, i need to know im going to come out of it at the other end with something to show for it.

Although the outcome was not was i expected today, i feel so empowered by the whole thing. I had a great interview, i realised that although team leader is the step up i crave, it isnt a step in the right direction. I know my bosses believe in my ability now and word on the street is theyre about to announce a new position. Key Account Manager. Drool... face to face advertising sales, National clients and million dollar budgets. Sales is my porn.no doubt.

I ended in saying that I am excited for the future, even though I don’t know what that is yet. I said I am dedicated to being the best I can be, i smiled and went back to my desk.

In the end, they know I want to learn, they know I want to achieve and they know I want more responsibility. What more can I do now?

in other news, i had a date a few weeks back with a boy i met on the train, it was horrible... he came to the date wearing suspenders and it officially lasted 8 minutes as i called rachel to come and save me ASAP when he asked me my views on capital punishment. Either way, i told him i wasnt keen...and now.. i see him EVERYWHERE i go! he must live around the corner from me, i see him when i go for walks, i see him when im on my way to work or after a big night out with the girls. Note to self. dont meet boys on public transport outside your apartment if you dont want to see them again. Awkward. The End.

Also, my best mate in Aus Rachel moved overseas last week. A little shattered as she is my partner in Melbourne based crimes, but more shattered as she is currently living it up in London with my lifetime lover Richard who i met at camp. Gah. Jealousy can be a tricky emotion...

ps. i can now cook 4 different meals. not including toast so technically thats 5! wahoooo!!

will tap dance for money..

So its wednesday night.. and it feels like i have been awake for days.. i dont know why im not sleeping well. So much is going through my little head about everything. work, family,friends, love blah blah...

Since moving out my relationship with my parents has been a little strange. I see them once or twice a week but they call me 10 times a day. In the morning to say hello, mid morning to see if i got to work on time ( am i 10 years old?) at lunch to see how my morning was... you can see the pattern. Dont get me wrong, my folks are the best people ever and i adore them but im trying this whole independent thing and not getting very far.

Anyway what ive been doing. Well on the weekend mum had a conference in Sydney so i thought i would tag along. I havent been to sydney in since i was a little kid so it was the perfect time. Also there is a guy i met at camp 2006 that i havent seen since and id been missing him heaps.

So Sydney...what a place... definately not somewhere i would EVER live but fun just for the weekend. The city is so confusing, almost every street is one way so you're constantly driving in circles. We got cabs everywhere cos..well..mum was paying and cabs are better than buses. I dont know if it was national crazy cab driver weekend but between the italian man telling us about being a bricklayer for hitler and having to wear string for a belt....and a woman telling me my fortune whilst driving ( which included me becoming a famous writer and falling in love with a married man) it sure was an experience. The city is pretty dirty...and the people are really rude but i do love seeing the opera house.. everytime i see it i still get excited. We must have walked and shopped for hours. Also splurged on a jet boat ride around darling harbour. A Definate MUST DO if you're ever in the area. Going 100mph in front of the opera house and doing 360 turns was just hilarious. i couldnt stop laughing which equalled me not being able to breathe which then led to choking on sea water... yes i am a catch fellas.. make a line.. only shattered thing was i lost my FAV sunglasses in the middle of a turn and as we were pulling back up to the harbour my mother laughed in my face and told me i looked like " a wet zebra" as apparently my hair was standing up straight and i had mascara running down my face. once again, yes i am a complete catch.

On saturday night mum and i went out to a fabulous thai dinner ( my new obsession) and saw Billy Elliot the musical. Anything with dancing and singing is going to be brilliant. plus i LOVED the movie so was super excited when mum suprised me with the tickets.

Did some serious shopping, walked past the Alex Perry head quarters and just as i was saying "i could never imagine paying $20,000 just for a dress" ALEX PERRY actually walked behind me... not even kidding...

All in all... Sydney is a good weekend visit but Melbourne is where my heart lives. It is the most fantastic city and i couldnt imagine living anywhere else forever. The people, the city, the river that runs through the middle of it all. i just love it. My favourite thing in LIFE is having friends from other places coms visit. Being able to show them my town and the things i love. OO the best news i have heard in a LONG time is 2 of my best friends in the world Amanda and Sharon have almost 100% committed to coming to Australia in December. Needless to say, if this does happen i will FREAK OUT and start counting down the minutes. I cant wait to spoilt them!

anyway thats whats going on right now. work is okay...nothing exciting happening right now. I have an interview for the team leader position on Tuesday which im starting to prep for. would really love to take a step up in my career...but on the other hand i would LOVE to throw it all away and run to america to play with my besties... thoughts?

babies first step...

What a great day!

I woke up.. and literally jumped out of bed. Put some classic Al Green on and got my day started. (note to all "cant get next to you" is the sexiest song i have ever heard) anyway had a load of fresh laundry to choose from which is always a major bonus. Gotto love when mum comes over to visit...she always leaves my apartment smelling like vanilla. She is seriously the best lady ever. Anyway as i closed the door to my house and stepped out onto the pavement the trees kind of parted and the sun started shining. It was 100% 'movie esque' and i actually found myself smiling and walking down the street. lamo i know. but i just had a feeling that things were going to happen today. i wasnt wrong.

So i got to work and found 2 new emails from clients wishing to take out larger advertisments in a magazine im working on right now. Score. I walk into the kitchen and find one last muffin. Score. and to top it all off... the creepy IT nerd that watches everyone when they work and looks like he is constantly picturing you naked or doing nasty ass things is on holidays for 2 whole weeks! double score!

As i mentioned in my first blog.. work is great but getting a little boring and im super keen to move on up. The position of sales Team Leader is now being advertised publicly so today seemed like the perfect day to get my resume in order and go in for the kill. I wrote a kick ass cover letter and printed my resume off in pretty font. yes i do think that matters. i spent 2 hours putting it all together and felt so accomplished by the end. I marched myself down to the HR Managers office and handed it to her. Her response was " Thank you Miss McGaw, i look forward to reading this and meeting with you furhter to discuss your career" GAH. So yes. I did it. I took a first step. I actually did something today that could change my day to day life which makes me feel great and sick at the same time.

After work i had dinner with a new friend. His name is sharkey and he is best friends with a guy i had a thing with at camp back in 2005. Anyway he is a very cool character. We met up a few weeks back for the first time as he was new to Melbourne and i told my friend i'd be happy to hang out with him. Turns out we've become mates and we have the best conversations. he's really into music which is a msssive part of my life and we just walk about travel, bands, careers and all the general stuff. Tonight i introduced him to the world of "cheap china town dumplings" and i think i rocked his world. Around the corner from my office you can be a bowl of amaaaaazing chicken dumplings for $6. The service is ridic and the restaurant looks likes someones living room but i think its why i like it so much. Its not mainstream boring... the waiters yell at you when you ask for cutlery and watching sharkey try to use chop sticks tonight was freaking hilarious. Anyway after dinner we usually walk around the city just talking. good kid.

This leads me onto my seconds major announcement today. In the middle of dinner i got a phone call from the president of the Young Tourism Network. http://www.youngtourismnetwork.com/ I joined this network a few months back to meet people in the tourism industry and to start going to events that might help my career. A month ago they started taking nominations for people to be on the board. These 8 people run the network. Plan events. Represent the network at conferences and basically are just totally kick ass. Me, being the ridiculously person that i am, cant ever just be apart of something. A little person inside me says RUN THE WHOLE THING so i nominated myself and got on the ballot papers. I went to a few friday night drinks to scope out my competition and meet the people in the network and ended up having a blast. met LOADS of amazing young people who are just trying to get noticed in the industry. SO back to the phone call, after 2 weeks of voting... I DID IT! i am now officially a Board Member on the Young Tourism Network. I almost choked on my dumplings when i got the phone call. I called my mum who was driving and got so excited she had to pull over. I called my dad who started shouting to the neighbours and also to my dogs that " Sarah did it, she's on the board" so i couldnt have asked for better reactions.

So that was my day. Im exhausted/excited/happy and a little queezy... but i guess thats just what happens when you eat 15 dumplings....

life = good.

Where to start...

So here i am, writing a blog. I didnt think i was a blog writing kind of gal. But lately there has been so much going on that i honestly feel this might help me work through some things as well as keep my close pals upto date on where im at.
So me.


Name: Sarah Jade McGaw ( Sarah Mac to those lovely Americans)

Age: 22

Location: South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia.

Occupation: Advertising Account Manager

Hobbies: Music, Shopping... i could lie and say i play sports but who would i really be lying to? TV... yes i actually admit it.. lots of my friends always say "yeah i really have no time for TV". i make time. Going to the movies and seeing pointless comedies to escape thought. and eating at fabulous restaurants...and my fabulous i mean cheap and fast like TGI fridays where the waiters are hot and the food is greasy.

Status: Single...yep..single..looking for my very own Ted Moseby ( see 'how i met your mother' )Mood: Generally happy. but extremely ready for adventure...


So the past 5 years of my life since graduating high school have been full of so many highs and lot of mind numbing lows. I finished high school with a very clear vision. It was going to be easy. I was going to have the " omg best summer ever" with my girls and then start uni. I would be finished in 2 years and i would become an event manager and organise lots of amazing celebrity parties. This went smoothly for the first 18 months and i was really enjoying myself. Then my dad got diagnosed with bowel cancer and life became real. Every day was filled with appointments and all of a sudden he was on the operating room table. Life is put into perspective when you come home from the hospital and accidently find a "goodbye my darling daughter" letter on the table that your mother was supposed to put away just incase. After dad started chemo, he fell into a deep depression that saw him house bound for 6 months. This rocked my world because to those who only knew this side, missed out severley. My father, before the treatments, was the most hilarious/kind/outgoing/loving man and father anyone could wish for. A laugh that was infectious and a general happiness that radiated into rooms he wasnt even standing in. After 8 months of sadness and illness...we finally came to the root of all evil. A sleeping pill called Stillnox that has now been proven to cause mental dissability. and its STILL on the market. The moment my father stopped taking those pills... he started coming back to us.
In the middle of all this, i finished my course and decided that at 19, i needed something that was going to change my life. I had heard of a program called Camp America and had always wanted to know more. Before i knew it, i applied, i was accepted and i was a few short months away from getting on a plane to a little place called Cleveland Ohio. All i knew about Cleveland was that Drew Carey lived there and it was the home of the rock n roll hall of fame. Leaving my mum was the hardest thing i have done in my whole life. At 2am the night before my plane was leaving, i officially had a panic attack and was almost taken to hospital. Not that im a particularly nervous kid, but this was the biggest thing i had ever done in my life. But as ive been learning over the past few years, im a lot stronger than i give myself credit for and i hopped on that plane with tears streaming down my face ready for the great unknown.......


my first memory of america was walking through this big doors and seeing a photo of George Bush... and this american family walked past me and the dad made his kids salute the photo. i chuckled to myself and wondered what i was getting myself in for. I had no idea who was picking me up or what i was walking into. I waited for over an hour and no one was there. I burst into tears and finally a huge black woman came and said " child why are you crying" and i explained where i was from and that they must have forgotten to pick me up. She laughed and told me i was in the wrong area and needed to go through the gates. HA. oops. of course i walked through and met someone who would end up being a massive part of my life. Sarah Holloway. But we'll talk more about her later.

the next 8 weeks were a complete blur. i met people from all over the world and made friends people only dream about. I always wonder what sort of person i would be like if i never got on that plane. I wonder if i would have gone back to university and finished my degree... or if i would have just chosen another adventure. Truth is, i think i would be a very bratty,spoilt, sheltered kid. I know i can be those things at times, but camp actually changed who i am, as cliche as that sounds. In life, all i want to do is laugh, dance, take photos, play in the mud and be surrounded by good quality people. Camp IS all of these things for me. http://www.campwise.org/ i ended up going for 3 years and have enough stories to write a book. maybe one day i will... best seller? probably not, but oh man it would include stories such as my first american kiss in the middle of a field in Ohio, my first joint which led to sleeping UNDER my bed cos my sheets were "creeping me out" falling in love with about 10 different israeli men, sneaking out and pretending i, myself was a camper, meeting girls who i truley believe i am soul mates with, making out on the top of the empire state building and making other choices that you would NEVER do if you werent in a foreign country. The last year for me was the best by far, no boy drama, no girl drama. it was 100% full of love and laughter. 2 of the worlds most important things. There arent really differnt "groups" at camp... but the girls i spent my time with are the people others WISH they knew. These girls are smart, beautiful, funny, kind, naughty, caring, confident and everything i want to be. They know who they are. I miss them every day. and i tell them how much i love them as much as i can. Just wish there wasnt so much space between us. England, America and Israel arent just around the corner...

As for my life here in Australia. Its a good one. im blessed. I have good friends that provide adventures on a saturday night and cuddles on the couch for greys on sunday nights. I have a great job with a Tourism Company called AAA Tourism where i sell advertising space in an accommodation magazine. Im a junior at the company, but i wont be for long if i have anything to do with it. Ive been there for nearly 2 years now and i am SO READY for more responsibility. My boss thinks im too young but im working my ass off for a promotion. They just annnounced that theyre looking for a team leader and im officially applying tomorrow. The girls i work with dont have the drive i do, they dont love sales and i think work for them is just something that fills the time between 9 and 5. And thats great for them, but i want more. I cannot WAIT to be successful. its a big word as success can mean SO many different things. For me, it does mean a few material things.....which i know is superficial but im okay with that. I want a convertable, i want my own expense account, i want to be able to take off to america whenever i have a few weeks off, i want to have clients that know i am the ONLY PR Consultant/Marketing Goddess they should talk to if they want their product to be successful. So im working on that.... The plan right now is to keep working, having fun and travel wherever possible...but January 2010.. im making a move. i dont know where or for what reason but its happening. I'll be 25 and on the move...

I moved out of home :) its weird. i miss my parents but my GOODNESS having my own apartment has changed the game completly. I live in a very trendy part of Melbourne. about 10 minutes from the middle of the city and a 5 minute walk to the best Bars/Restaurants and clubs in Melbourne. I come and go as i please and im just really enjoying my own space.

Having said all of this, i would give everything up to go to camp for the rest of my days. If only life could involve food fights and mud sliding every day hey?

xx