The Tweet of the Day

      There’s a saying, “if you can’t change the people around you, then change the people around you.” I’ll give you a second or two to let that sink in. – We good? Okay.

      Well I read that the other day on, of course, Twitter, (#dontknockittillyatryit) and it just kind of stuck. I’m a big believer that we have control of our own destinies.

      As my time at college draws to a close (7 weeks, but who’s counting right?) I’ve started to become incredibly reflective on my time in the great state of Georgia. I’ve made friends that will last a lifetime and our memories will hardly be forgotten. But, I would be lying if I didn’t admit I’m excited for a change.

      College is great, but man I am so ready to get back into city life. Coming here I have learned so much about myself. I’m ready for the opportunities a post-grad life will bring, and somehow no matter how far away I am, my appreciation for Texas has remained about as big as the state itself.

      I surely didn’t want to change the people around me these past 4 years, but now that my thoughts have shifted I’m glad to have that chance.

A New Kind of Sleep Cycle

      I’ll warn you. This post isn’t gonna be pretty – but like many of my others – it’s still I something I believe needs to be said.

     I had one of those nights last night, the ones where you wake up in the middle of the night and check the clock, hoping it’s only a few minutes to your alarm, but in the back of your mind you know it’s far, far too dark outside.

     6:35 a.m. Great. I had two choices. I could sit there and spend my idle time forcing myself back to sleep (we both know that wouldn’t go well), or I could use my wired state to think about the day ahead. Well, the day became the month, the month became the year. I was literally sitting in a dark room thinking, no, worrying about the coming months. Ugh… nothing good would come of this.

     So that’s when the idea for this post started to form in the corners of my mind. Here I was obsessing about something for which I had absolutely zero control. I was being too hard on myself, critical that I had taken a golden opportunity to plan (or really even sleep) and turned it into a pity party. And not the good kind. I’m talking the kind of party where you’re the guest with no certain future and no real job offer. Yet everyone somehow wants to know what YOU’RE doing after graduation.

     We all do that, you know. When our minds are too idle we’re prone to worry; we aim to control the uncontrollable. Like, if somehow we think about it enough the events will fall naturally into place like pieces of a puzzle.

     I challenge you to retrain your mind. I’m certainly going to try. I challenge you to dwell on the positive. Use those elusive early hours of the morning to get excited about the good things in your life.

     It took me a full 45 min for the fact that it’s a Friday to even cross my mind. I have one class today and the weekend will make itself known before 2pm. Yet here I was thinking about how I would probably have to work in July. Don’t say you haven’t been there.

     Everyone wants a challenge. Game on.

All That Sparkles Is Not Gold

Per my usual pedantic entries, I find myself writing again about the inner workings of the human psyche. I haven’t done exuberant amounts of formal training to hone my skill of reading people, but the more time I spend around others the more inclined I feel to attempt to figure them out. I didn’t choose to be this way, I didn’t actively search for ways to decode my friends, family or myself, but I find that as I am getting older the urge to dig deeper has yet to subside. Since it is perhaps too late to restart college (who wouldn’t want to though) I figure that my talents at this point are best spent writing about what I observe. No one wants to feel like they are friends with a psychologist – constantly being poked prodded and analyzed – but a writer? I think I can swing that mysterious edge I have going on.

So back to the point of my work. I already told you what I thought about the spotlight effect and how it actually affects all of us in one way or another. Well, loyal readers, I have a new one for you and this one is no joke. I’ve figured one of the greatest flaws of human nature. One that marketers, advertisers, matchmakers and especially Steve Jobs prey on when they attempt to attract and sell you the latest and greatest available. I present to you the shiny ball syndrome. Think about it for a minute, take a second, let it sink in. when you were a kid, did you not run around the playground chasing after bouncing balls aiming to grasp them and eventually become the keeper of the keys, the team captain, the coolest? Later on, those “balls” became your world of must-haves; the secrets to success. Once you caught a ball, or became inducted into the cool kids or chosen first for (insert elementary school game here) that feeling of pride just stuck. Like a crack addict, we’ve been trying to emulate that victorious feeling for the rest of our lives.

In high school, the elusive ball became a girl, boy or good grade, depending on your level of academic motivation or lack of. That’s when things started to get interesting. For some people there’s just one girl or boy that makes the chase worthwhile. If you’ve ever seen the movie “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” for one nerdy boy Beth Cooper shined brighter than any ball in Travolta’s “Saturday Night Fever.”

But I digress.

For a few, the shiny ball isn’t a person; it’s a feeling. It’s the feeling that we need to be chasing something or someone to validate our existence; to validate our social status. Basically, if you’re not trying for better than you’re just. Not. Good. Enough. And that my friends, is where I’ve been stuck like a girl in rapidly sinking quicksand.

Only lately did a friend tell me she thinks I have shiny ball syndrome. The subject changed as quickly as it was broached, partly because I didn’t know what that meant but mostly because I didn’t want to find out. Not from her, not from anyone. But alas, the notion stuck. Did I actually have what she claimed? Was I leading down a path of eternal unsatisfaction?

When I said it’s like a drug, I guess I wasn’t kidding. This kind of thinking sneaks up on you from a young age and just hangs there, feeding on every close encounter, growing with every boy left alone at the end of a date night while I jumped to something better.

It’s painful to say even now, but it’s something worth expressing in words. Nothing good ever came from internalizing and withholding the emotions. Even if it’s not the most desirable thing to read in the world, good journalism and blogging doesn’t come from simply giving the people what they want. Is it not the New York Times that touts their age old slogan, “all the news that’s fit to print?” delving into human nature, all good and bad of it, is not only fit to print, but it’s something I felt compelled to discuss. I had to get it out.

A New Age for New Media

As I near the end of my college career, I have started to notice a definite shift in my late-night online habits. Gone are the days of toggling back and forth between Gilt Group and Perez Hilton. I now find myself scanning job postings everywhere from LinkedIn to Journalism Jobs and beyond. Paychecks come at a heavy price these days, what can I say?

In a recent posting looking to hire a senior copywriter, I noticed in BIG, BOLD print that one can only apply if he has an online portfolio and/or blog site included in his application.

Ladies and gentlemen: the future has come and it arrived in the form of a Blog.

I guess you could say that a Blog is the cooler, newer version of an online portfolio. The kind that can do more, be more and sell more.

Professionals in the industry say that we in journalism and creative advertising are shifting to become more internet-based. I’m not here to say we are completely done with the move, but I think that post was one giant leap for all of us.

So I pose you this question…is a Blog the new online portfolio? Can we do away with websites containing only single dimension media?

In this age of convergence and multi, well, everything, is a Blog the most effective way to highlight our talents as a writer, webmaster and social media aficionado?

For now I think it is, but only until the next best thing comes along.

Graham Colton concert review

The Graham Colton concert at New Earth in Athens last night was reminiscent of a rising college town band trying to make it in the big world. His Tuesday night concert amassed about 20 devoted fans on an otherwise quiet downtown evening. The hit in numbers could be probably be attributed to its timing, as Tuesday trailed Georgia vs. Florida, the university’s biggest party weekend, and Halloween. Nevertheless, Colton gave a strong performance and other than a few comments encouraging the crowd to “act and sound like a group of 400,” he never indicated disappointment. Colton admittedly started the show without a specific set list and mixed up the concert with songs from all three albums. Loyal followers heard some of his classics, including “Cigarette” and “Best Days of Our Lives.” Songs from his new album fall into the similar indie/alternative genre and catch the same audience. Although his voice has clearly matured through the years it remains pure in that it-sounds-like-I’m-serenading-you way. He kept the crowd engaged with questions and conversation between each song, and kept referring to the group as being “one with the band.” For those who have always yearned to witness a great band’s casual jam session, last night was as close as they may ever get.

"Everyone gets a chance in the spotlight; you can have it when I'm done!" - anonymous

There’s a phrase in Psychology termed the spotlight effect. Someone experiences this effect when they feel like everyone in the room is staring at them. Newsflash: no one really cares about you (in a good way). Back when I was younger and under a lot of pressure to mold myself into the perfect middle school prototype, I used to think people were constantly analyzing my actions. I thought that, without a doubt, people were critiquing me behind my back and preying on my weaknesses. I can recall a specific incident when I was at the gym trying to stretch before a workout and couldn’t get all the way down into the splits. “This is embarrassing,” I thought to myself. “I can’t fail, I can’t do a half split it’s not good enough.” The thoughts kept coming. Even though I can look back and acknowledge how childish and insecure I was at such a vulnerable age, I can still remember that hot cheeks flushed feeling. I don’t know why some people feel the spotlight effect more than others, but for most of my life it highly affected me. It may have been an inflated ego (people want to watch me) or none at all (people want to stare at me), but I’m slowly emerging out of it into a much healthier adulthood. It’s not healthy to nitpick others for their actions and to feel ashamed or embarrassed for your own doings. The world tells you to be who you want to be, to follow your dreams and do what YOU want. There will always be the few who try and act as a roadblock on your path to success, but you can’t let them be the ones who keep you down. It’s not so much that no one cares, but they don’t notice your mistakes or your failures. People notice success. So the next time you’re at the gym and you can’t, let’s just hypothetically say, do the splits…remember that you’re trying and no one’s watching you fail. They’re just thinking that you’re a better person for pushing yourself to succeed.

Discovering Success

Have you ever heard the saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know?” Well if you haven’t, then of course you don’t know it. But I have – and I think about it a lot.

My dad, one of the wisest men that I know, has always been an idea guy. He dabbled in entrepreneurship post-college hoping to hit on the “next big thing.” While he can’t claim TiVo or the iPod, I still think of his personality and drive for success as one that I would like to emulate.

Having said that, I enjoy listening to those people who have gained some serious wealth by recognizing what was lacking from their surroundings, environment, nearest shopping mall, whatever. A few years back I attended the International Association for Business Communicators at UGA. They had Vena Kim, the founder of Yoforia, speaking about her journey to open Athens’ first frozen yogurt shop. Fro-yo, as it’s commonly referred to, has gained widespread popularity in bigger city markets.

She said something that I still think about today. She said there was a hole in the market. I had never heard anyone say that before. Usually people who want to become Steve Jobs and Bill Gates spend hours thinking about ways to improve what is already on the market. They take a popular gadget, drink, magazine, etc., and invest tons of dollars trying to steal away buyers.

Yeah, and how’s that workin for ya?

In short: it’s not. I think Kim captured the true entrepreneurial spirit when she said she saw something that wasn’t there before. So ask yourself, are you really going to spend your time thinking about a way to improve on the competition? Or are you going to try and improve the community? Because that, to me, is priceless.

Well…not totally priceless. Some say it could get you more cash than the government.