I have no regrets.

Yesterday: I wore Pink (brand) yoga pants, a cami, a grey sweater, and a reversible Barca beanie that I wore on the blue side. I went straight to the library at ASU West to work on homework right after work got out. Then I went home to eat, and just fell asleep in those clothes.

Today: I'm wearing Pink (brand) yoga pants, a cami, a grey sweater, and a reversible Barca beanie that I wore on the  red side this time. (BUT I put on another sweater over it because it was freezing.) 

And I have no regrets because finals. 

Sleep

Day #2 of finals week 

After having a very busy day at work (and overtime) and being so extremely tired after working on a paper the night before, I came home and took an hour long nap...and I realized that I might as well just sleep tonight and skip a night of work to just sleep. 

So that's what I'm doing after this post: sleeping! 

Too often we work too hard and our health suffers. I've been eating crappy food and getting no sleep...and I've also been very dehydrated. Today alone I had three chicken sandwiches from Wendy's. I haven't been eating clean for about three weeks now, and it's really making me even more tired.

So tip of the week: get some sleep too. It's good for you and when you do retune to studying, you'll feel much better and much more focused.

May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor

As we wind down the final couple of weeks of school left in the semester, it's good to remember that this is all worth it and we all came here for a reason. 

We are tired but we must go on!

This is my last week of school for the semester (with the exception of a take-home exam that's due on the 14th), and this week is the week that my bosses asked if anyone's interested in overtime. Of course, I am. But holy God, I am so tired. Pulling all-nighters at 21 isn't as fun as it was when I was 18. I feel so old now. 

Let us hope that this week resembles more of the Catching Fire ending rather than the first movie/book. The odds are more in our favor...and when I say odds, I'm thinking grade curves for the better :) 

Good luck y'all, and I'll be posting everyday this week. 

Note: go see Catching Fire if you haven't already, it's so good! :)

Currently, this picture describe much of everything in my life right now.

GUESS WHAT?

Hey everyone!

Have been really busy again! I didn't get into the Phoenix Police Department because of my speeding tickets, but that's ok since I applied to Mesa Police Department and so far I've passed the Physical, Written, and ORAL BOARD! Oral boards are very nerve-wrecking and I definitely freaked out a bit over it. But I passed and the next part is the polygraph :)

I also had Train the Trainer: Domestic Violence and Sex Trafficking training just this past Saturday and I'm hoping to use that training in the police departments around the area such as Phoenix, Glendale, Surprise, Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, etc! It's a great training that will benefit and educate police officers on how to handle these sort of cases. I learned so much! :) I can tell you all more about it if you're interested!

School has been tough this semester and I'm working overtime now as well. (Not something I'd recommend if you can avoid it!)

A great quote I learned about during my sophomore year of college is this:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

Everything I've ever been involved in, whether it was my internship my freshman year with Arizona Students' Association, the police departments, volunteering at homeless shelters, this quote has definitely rung true to a T! Compared to the rest of the population, all of those listed are a very small group of people and they're changing the world one day at a time!

Have a good week everyone!

Albina

No followers

I am really glad that my running a blog isn't my job or hobby since I would definitely either get fired or I wouldn't have any followers on my blog.

So I'm happy (kind of) that you're all required to read my blog haha

The past few weeks have been extremely busy for me: still training for police jobs (I applied to Mesa Police Department, and I have my physical this Saturday. This is for a full-time real job!)

I was offered a really exciting position of campaign manager two weekends ago because of my connections to Arizona Students' Asscociation!!! (ASA is my original internship that I completed during my freshman/sophomore years btw.)

Basically I would be a campaign manager and focus on LGBT rights in Arizona! I was at the Rainbows Festival the 19th and the 20th (two weekends ago) volunteering for HRC (hrc.org) and I was approached by this guy who would want me to work for his campaign! I also met a model that weekend (who I will be going out with soon :) but that's not relevant, I just feel like it was an amazing weekend with all that happened!)

I love how the whole point of having an internship with a certain organization is to potentially set you up with future jobs, and my internship with ASA proved to be just that. It's just so exciting to think about how it all worked out for me. I mean, what if the police dream doesn't work out? I can become a person who is on a whole nother level of justice!!! What if I become a lawyer eventually and take on cases of discrimination in the LGBTQA community?! I mean anything can happen!

I guess having been in an internship already and having that experience where you have a potential job offer for something related to that internship...it makes it all worth it. That's my advice for everyone: take your internships seriously, learn as much as you can from them, build awesome relationships with the people you intern with because you never know who you'll run into and get offered an amazing opportunity and maybe even your dream career!!

Thanks for reading! I will have more post coming now since I have my schedule all figured out now!

Albina

I PASSED!

Hey everyone,

So I was scheduled for a physical test at the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy in South Phoenix for last Wednesday.

I have been training for the test for a few weeks now with running, doing countless push-ups, and sit-ups. However, there was only one thing holding me back: the 6 foot wall. As hard as I tried, I just couldn't do it. Then I finally did it barely, two times in a row, and then couldn't do it again to save my life. So I gave up practicing and just went to sleep since my test was the next day.

Well I showed up to my test 20-25 minutes early out of nervousness, and the feeling of being on academy grounds was indescribable. I just felt like I belonged there. Our instructor was late to my surprise. We started with the push-ups (which I was not looking forward to because I failed this part of my police physical for Scottsdale last month). The minimum number of push-ups was 15, I ended up doing 20. Passed. Next up was the sit-ups. The minimum was 34, and I did 36. Passed. Next I was hoping we'd do the wall since I knew I'd be tired from the run and won't be able to do it all at. But no, we did the 1.5 mile run next. You'd think that playing soccer since I can walk would make me like running by now, but nope, I still hate it so much. The minimum run time for my age group is 15:05, I finished in 13:30. One thing left to do: the dreaded 6 foot wall. I wanted to go last. All the guys just hopped right up and jumped over. The only other woman there was a late 50's former triathlete with a fused wrist and she was second to last to go, and she went up and couldn't do it on the first try, so she told me to go. In my head I'm thinking "awww f***, there goes all my hard work." So I run up and I hook my arm and I'm struggling to get my foot up and all my fellow "recruits" just started cheering me on "you can do this!" and "you got this!" and "almost there, come on!" started flying at me and I flung my foot up and lifted myself up on the wall! I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EXCITED IN MY ENTIRE LIFE ABOUT SOMETHING. I climbed the wall on the first try! Then the former triathlete went again and she finally got up! I was so excited for her (even though she beat me by 11 seconds on the run). Only 2 guys didn't pass the physical.

Then we went into the classroom and talked about the background investigation process and received our paperwork. So that's the next step in my journey to becoming a police officer.

This part is the hardest because you have to list every job you've ever held, every single bad thing you did whether or not you were caught, every ticket you got...it's overwhelming. But so worth it!

I'll keep you all posted!

Below is a picture of the bruise from jumping over the wall.

(Possible) new internship in the works!

Hey everyone,

So I've been wanting to join the police force for a very long time now, and now that I'm 21, I will finally get a chance to apply and see if I'm right for the job.

I applied to the Phoenix Police Reserves because I feel like that's a great place to start since I will become AZ Post certified after the 9 month academy so I'll graduate hopefully by summer of 2014. My physical testing is Wednesday the 25th...so next week! I've been working out a lot and practicing pushups, situps, and the run. With the Phoenix Police Department, they require jumping over a 6 foot wall...well that's been a tad difficult. I've done it twice now and I've got a few scratches and bruises from it.

I went to a Q&A with police officers last night to talk about the qualifications, benefits, and departments.

My goal is to work in international law enforcement with human trafficking so this would be a great start to that career.

(EXTREMELY LATE) Introduction

Hi everyone,

My name is Albina Hidic, I am a senior studying Public Service and Public Policy with then intent of going into law enforcement. My main focus will be human trafficking once I get into the field. I actually have police exams coming up on October 5th in Seattle, WA, so I am training and studying for that currently. 

My background: I have been living in Phoenix ever since I moved here from Bosnia in November 1999. I grew up during a war in Bosnia and from stories my parents have told me, I've been shot at as a little kid. An interesting bit there for you. I still am fluent in my foreign language. It took me a short 6 months to fully learn English as not speaking or understanding the language made things difficult for me academically as well as socially. I think that having a foreign background will help me to succeed in life because I am very knowledgable in two different cultures and traditions and I know two languages, which is a great asset to possess. 

Right now, I am taking 28 credits while working a full-time job which worked out perfectly because I did an internship my freshman year and all the way into my sophomore year which I will elaborate more on in the following few paragraphs. 

I was a freshman living in Taylor Place when my community assistant's friend and then Undergraduate Student Government President Christian Vasquez informed me of a thing called "Lobby Con." I had to no idea what that even was, but being a freshman and wanting to get involved, I ended up going. Lobby Con ended being a conference where you can learn how to lobby and talk to State Legislators about higher education and how important it is to our society. There I met students from the three major universities who were passionate about their education and making it available to more students than it already was. The organization behind all of this? Arizona Students' Association. 

ASA: The organization was founded in 1974 by the presidents of the three major universities in Arizona. The organization started because the presidents wanted to give a voice to the students and figure out how to make a college education more affordable (we all want that, right?!). Up until 1998, ASA was funded by the Arizona Board of Regents, but the students decided to take a vote so that students would fund this organization with a mandatory $2 fee that is totally refundable per school year ($1 per semester). More information can be found at www.azstudents.org

My internship with them consisted of phone banking, class presentations, recruitment, and reaching out to political leaders in Arizona. I met students from all three state universities and even from all over the country.