What defines you?

This woman is totally inspiring. Like puts everyone to shame how inspiring.
2 things. 1.I love a good public speaker. She was funny, heartwarming, interacted with the audience and was confident as hell doing it. 2.I love people who rationalize negative situations and turn them into positive things for themself. Lizzie could have spiraled into a pit of depression and self loathing after being mocked on the internet. Instead she turned it in to a career for herself.
And aside from overcoming her syndrome, she put herself out there, in the public eye, on purpose, which is not an easy thing to do. This is awesome. Definitely worth watching.

She kept saying, figure out what defines you. I have no idea what defines me. Good for her for figuring it out. AND she’s twenty-five. If she can figure out, we all can.

2013 in Review: My favorite albums of the year

2013 was a pretty good year for music in my opinion. I feel like I have a very diverse taste in music and I’ll listen to pretty much anything. Also, as a disclaimer, having absolutely no musical talent other than ability to listen and critique my opinion means pretty much nothing other than the I just really enjoyed listening to these albums repeatedly in their entirety. So the following, in descending order, are the 6 albums that pretty much dominated iPod during 2013.

6. Long.Live.A$AP. A$AP Rocky

I saw A$AP Rocky in concert 3 times this year. YES THREE TIMES. Once pre-L.L.A$AP, and twice post album release. I’ve got to saw he and the mob put on a good show. Despite almost getting suffocated at each show I have no regrets seeing him three times.

When I know I’m going to a show I try to listen to the artist non-stop before the show. It’s no fun seeing someone live and not shouting all the words to their songs. That being said, I listened to this album for about a month straight non-stop.

Favorite song: Probably a tie between “Long Live A$AP” and “1Train“.

5. ARTPOP Lady Gaga

This woman could probably release a blank CD and I would be all over it. I’m not sure what it is. Her eclectic style, or the fact that she is probably one of the most genuine performers of my generation, but I am always instantly drawn to anything Lady Gaga does. Her passion for her music and her performances is so obvious and she has the talent to back it up. I like ARTPOP because it reminds me a lot of her first album “The Fame”, which I still listen to like it just came out.

Favorite Song: “Do What U Want” feat. R Kelly.

 

4. Yeezus, Kanye West

You can hate Kanye for being an ass but theres no denying the man knows music. I feel like when ever Kanye releases new music, you can appreciate it if you go into it with any sort of expectations. Each album is so different than the one before it. People might say that he’s lost his touch but I think Yeezus is one of the best. It’s so dark and different and I love it.

Favorite Song: “I’m in it”

3. Yours Truly, Ariana Grande

It really blows my mind that Victoria Justice got a record deal before Ariana. I think people are always hesitant about young Nickelodeon/Disney stars going from acting into singing. Take away her cheesy acting and TV shows and I feel like Ariana is the real deal. People compare her to Mariah Carey which is no doubt a lot of pressure but I was truly shocked by how good her album is. Her voice is really unlike anyone else her age and in her genre. I hope she keeps going with music and does great things as she gets older.

Favorite Song: Tattooed Heart. 

If you haven’t seen it, watch her preform this song live at the American Music Awards. She even gets a standing O from Lady Gaga at the end 🙂

2. 20/20 experience, Justin Timberlake

Both parts are good but Part 1 was really hard to top. I literally still listen to the whole album at least once a week. The only weird thing is imaging him writing all of these songs about Jessica Biel.

Favorite Song: Pusher Love Girl 

1. Nothing Was The Same, Drake 

Anyone that knows me knows that I pathetically worship the ground that

Drake walks on so it’s no surprise that NWTS is my favorite album of the year. There’s just something about the way the album flows, you just have to listen to the whole thing all the way through. I’m obviously a bit biased, but you can really tell that Drake puts so much of himself in to his music and doesn’t just write songs to make hits. I mean, he raps, he sings, sometimes it sounds like he’s just talking to you. OK I’ll stop because I could probably write an entire post about how much I love this album.

Favorite Song: “Own it”, and also the way it is kind of a continuation of “Wu-Tang forever”. I always have to listen to the two back to back.

Just because the previous 6 are my top favorites doesn’t mean I didn’t listen to other things. Here a few honorable mentions, of other albums that I really enjoyed

• Bangerz (Don’t lie, you low-key liked it too), Miley Cyrus
• Midnight Memories, One Direction
• My Name is My Name, Pusha T
• MMLP2, Eminem
• Born Sinner, J Cole
• Because the Internet, Childish Gambino
• Sail Out EP, Jhene Aiko 
• Beyonce: The Visual Album, Beyonce (Special Sidenote: I do love Beyonce and her new album but I am still somewhat recovering from the fact that she just dropped it with no heads up so that’s why it didn’t make the top list. I don’t doubt it will be on my 2014 playlist for months to come.)

From a man’s perspective

Men and women belong to different species and communications between them is still in its infancy.
– Bill Cosby 

I stumbled upon this YouTube channel called “Guy Moments“. Even though it is aimed towards men and the annoying things women do, I was laughing the whole time. This video in particular, “Just Come Over” was super relateable and really shows the difference between men and women.

 

A couple things to learn from this video:

• Women over analyze everything. Men over simplify everything. 
• Women are stubborn. Men don’t realize that they’re just as stubborn as we are. 
• Women just want men to say what they want to hear. Even if men don’t really mean it, it’s still comforting. 

This video is hilarious and I can definitely see where the guy is coming from. ALTHOUGH in her defense if a guy said “I ain’t trippin” I would have reacted in the same way. A simple “yeah come through” or a “nah I’m good” would have sufficed. 

Also, the word “female” is oddly degrading. Just say “bitch” if that’s what you really mean. 

Regardless, this is relateable for both men and women. Let’s just face it, we’re both always going to think that we’re right. Women will always be stubborn and men will never quite understand how to deal with it. 

“…but then you print some sh*t that makes me wanna scream”

I recently distanced myself from social media. Mostly Twitter. I’ve come to hate most social media sites in the past year or so, with the exception of a few niche sites like Pinterest and LinkedIn.

I decided to get off of Twitter because I realized that I really don’t care about what any of my followers have to say. That mostly speaks to the quality of the people that I follow. Everyone on social media has an opinion, which duh, that’s what social media is for. Giving people the opportunity to express themselves and yes, everyone is entitled to say and think whatever they want.

Lately, every time I log on to Twitter it’s all the same stuff. Complaining when you’re bored, complaining when you’re busy, men slut shaming, women slut shaming, everyone calling everyone out for the way they live their lives all while boasting these meaningless quotes and prophecies about what you need to do to be successful or how to be a better person. No one really lets anyone live their life without having some conflicting opinion about what’s cool and what’s not.

I live by the philosophy that if someone is doing something that makes them happy, and they’re not hurting themselves or anyone else, then just let them do the damn thing. Who cares? People care so much about how other people live their lives and spend so much time telling others how to live via social media. Twitter and Facebook especially have made people think that just because they have an opinion on a subject then that makes them an expert, and they can pass off their knowledge as some kind of supreme law.

I know that me telling people to shut up on Twitter is hypocritical and doing exactly what I said I hate, which is telling people what to do, so that’s why I just logged off. The only downside is that now I feel so out of the loop. I mean I didn’t even know about Beyonce’s new album until like 12 hours later (a long time in the world of social media).

I think in the near future I will be doing a cleanse of my followers and only keeping the ones who’s posts I enjoy reading. For now it’s actually been nice not knowing what people are saying or doing. It’s also been nice not being glued to my phone which is a habit that I hated myself for acquiring.

Sorry this is a bit of a rant but I just had to get it off  my chest.

Dress code: There is none.

I’ve never had a job that required a strict dress code. I’ve worked at in an IT department and in a gym, and while both were professional environments, it was a pretty casual setting. Starting my first full-time job, we have the same kind of dress code I was used to. “Business casual”..but….not really.

A lot of people would be stoked to not have to dress up for work everyday, but I’m somewhat indifferent. Being the youngest person in the office it becomes a struggle between dressing for the culture of the job versus dressing to be taken seriously. It would be impractical for me to go into work wearing a power suit, yet I don’t want to be the girl who wears hoodies everyday.

Anyways, I’ve come up with some creative ways to keep it super casual, yet professional, that seem to work for my work environment. I don’t consider myself a fashionista by ANY MEANS, but here are a few of my go-to outfits for a typical day at work.

Side note: I practically live in leggings and the majority of my wardrobe is black, but I’m trying to mix it up!

 

Revitalization Project: Little Bits of Inspiration

I’m starting a sort of “revitalization project”. It started off with just my apartment but I am putting it into effect for other aspects of my life. I want to be a positive person which starts by surrounding myself with positive things and getting rid of the negative. I don’t spend a lot of time at home. I’m usually at work, the gym or the library, but when I am home I want it to be a place that makes me happy. I’ve been slowly decorating different areas of my apartment and am pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. It’s funny because 90% of my clothes are black but everything in my apartment is a different color. It’s all about balance I guess. Here are a few bits of inspiration I’ve placed here and there to keep me sane and positive.

“The List”: Part 1

I have about 2 and half years of experience being in my twenties and there some things that I have noticed certain trends about being this age. I must say that I really hate reading lists about “Things every twenty-something should know” or “what ever twenty-something should be doing” because all they do is stress you out and make you think you’re living your life wrong. Which we already all think we are anyways.

But this is part 1 of my “list” of things that I have noticed during this short time of being in my twenties.

It really is all about “who you know” not “what you know”

It is unfair but it is what it is. I am all for networking except for when it leads to companies hiring under-qualified twenty-somethings, and then later complaining about how incompetent millennials are. I won’t complain too much because I got my current job solely through networking and being at the right place at the right time, but the emphasis on networking often gives young professionals false hope that they can get an amazing job from who they know, but come time to deliver quality skills, they are coming up short.

“Social Media is not a career”

Duh. I can’t even count the number of times I was told this while networking. Social media is a day to day activity and it is like breathing for a lot of people. There is no need for fourty-somethings telling me that I’m not going to make a living doing social media. Young people have been marketing themselves on social media since before professionals even realized it could be used as a valid marketing tool.

Generation Y invented social media and Generation X took it upon themselves to write articles about it and teach courses on it and call themselves “social media experts”. There is something wrong with a job posting requiring 7+ years of professional social media experience when Twitter itself was only created about 6 years ago.

Don’t expect to be taken seriously 

I worked in my last office for almost 5 years, and was always the youngest person working there. The department was failing and no one was open to suggestions. The point is, it doesn’t matter how many degrees you have, if you’re under a certain age, you still won’t be taken seriously as a professional. They won’t hire you, but they sure will ask you to teach tenured, 60-something PhDs how to right-click a mouse and compose an email.

Just be grateful, no matter what

This first year out of college has been an interesting time. I’m technically not even out of college since I made the ridiculous decision to go to grad school, but grad school is so different, it doesn’t even count. The point is, that everyone’s journey is different. I was lucky enough to find a full time job and find myself envious of my unemployed friends who get to do crafts and watch Netflix all day. Meanwhile, they’re willing to do anything to secure that 9-5 position. This time is so trivial when you look at the big picture that as long you’re doing something that makes you happy you should just be grateful to be where you are.

Tricky questions

I was recently asked….

“Was there ever a time where you questioned your interest in working in the media industry? What happened and what caused you to reconsider?”

My (not so) brief response:

In the summer of 2011, I was approached with an internship opportunity with Black Card Media, an online and print media company who published a college newspaper called The Black Sheep. The Black Sheep is an edgy, satirical newspaper geared towards the interests and lives of typical college students. The company was interested in starting a new branch of the paper at VCU and I was offered the position of campus manager as well as editorial manager. I was given the task of assembling a staff of writers and a marketing team. After about three months of finding writers, brainstorming story ideas, editing articles and searching for venues to distribute the paper, we finally launched the first issue of The Black Sheep at VCU in October 2011.

Shortly after the launching of our first issue, Style Weekly, a very well known and established newspaper in Richmond, approached me wanting to do an interest story on our student-run paper that was quickly gaining popularity on campus. I took a call from a friendly reporter who asked me questions regarding the casual and sarcastic style of the paper. Two days later a very condescending and mean-spirited article was printed making a mockery of the paper and our efforts to provide students with entertaining reading material that is relevant to college life.

I was shocked at how a group of professionals would be so underhanded and seem so friendly; even send a photographer to photograph us at a campus event, and then write an article that would essentially discourage and dampen the spirits of our staff who worked so hard at launching this paper from scratch. We had all taken our jobs with The Black Sheep because it seemed like amazing learning opportunity for us as students and way to gain journalistic experience while contributing something to our school.

Until then I had only had experience networking and meeting with PR professionals in Richmond, all of whom were extremely helpful and encouraging to students trying to pursue a career in their field. I admit that I was naïve to the fact that a journalist could so easily appear to have my best interests in mind when in fact they’re intentions were the complete opposite. This caused my entire outlook on the media industry to change. This was my first personal experience dealing with negative press and naturally it made me question my involvement with the paper and with our entire project in general. I did not want my name to be associated with a negative article, especially when my words were spun so far out of context. I was even considering resigning my position with the paper. After taking a step back and speaking with my supervisor and a few of my mentors in public relations, I realized that this is what a career in PR is all about. I came to the realization that I would inevitably have to deal with a lot of negative press in my career if I intended to pursue a career in media. Although my first negative experience came earlier than I had hoped it would, it has made me a stronger person by learning to deal with the situation as well as coming up with ways to fix it.

A few months later I arranged for The Black Sheep at VCU to team up with VCU’s PRSSA chapter on our X-Out Homelessness campaign. Together we advertised the campaign in our paper and my supervisors at Black Card Media agreed to match any amount of canned goods that we received as donations during our campaign. This partnership definitely helped the image of the paper and showed our readers within the community that although the paper is about college life and the “fun stuff” that comes along with it that we also have the community’s interests at heart and that we are able to benefit the community through our readership and contribute to such a great cause.

I later learned that the people at Style Weekly might have felt threatened by our paper and the fact that we were after the same sponsors and advertisers, and used the story as an attempt to create bad press for our paper to discourage businesses from advertising with us. In retrospect, I am thankful to have had this experience because it taught me a lot about dealing with the press and how to move past negativity. It is an experience that actually ended up reinforcing my passion for public relations and I think back on it a lot while moving forward in my career.

Networking: You mean…I actually have to talk to people?

Networking. Every college student has heard this term (ok, I’m generalizing). You meet someone you find interesting. Something about their job, the company they work for, or the field in general has sparked your interest. Networking, in theory, is so easy. You just walk up to someone, introduce yourself, have a conversation, be exceptionally charming, and then they give you a job. Right? It COULD happen. But instead of a job, they hand you a business card. As an up-and-coming professional, the rest is on you. If you’re like me, the realization of having to talk to actual people to find a job may have you reconsidering your path in life. You contemplate faking illness, or even possibly changing your major completely to something that consists of no human interaction at all. Okay I am being dramatic. But once you pluck up the nerve to make the initial connection, you may wonder what to do next. You have their contact information. First you send out that email.

“Hi,

We met at this event. I’m in the process of looking for a job, and you have a job that I want. I’m going to ask you a lot of questions about that job so you know how interested I am in it. I’ll probably ask  you about yourself. What you like or don’t like about what you do, or what your job is like day-to-day. But by now you’ve figured out that what I really want to know is how you got your job and what I can do to get a job like yours. Because face it, I’m in college and am just looking for that one foot in the door. We should get coffee and talk some more about your job and your life in general because I’m genuinely interested in getting to know you (not only because you can help me) because you seem like a very interesting person.

Please respond so I don’t feel so needy and annoying.“

Ok, I really hope no one’s ever sent an email EXACTLY like that, but you get the idea.

I used to think professionals thought I was really annoying until I realized that they really are happy and willing to help young professionals get their start. It’s all about putting yourself out there and stepping out of your comfort zone. Especially in PR, if you’re not willing to step out of your comfort zone and ask for favors, it’s likely that you’ll remain stagnant in your career pursuits.

However, for the socially challenged, LinkedIn is another great networking tool. Before meeting a professional ahead of time, you will likely be able to find them on LinkedIn. (If we’ve had a conversation, I probably looked you up on LinkedIn on the way home) You can add professionals or simply browse their profiles. Learn some stuff about them that you can bring up in conversation or use to generate interesting questions to ask. They will be impressed that you took the time to do your research.

Just keep in mind that as annoying or bothersome you think you are being to a professional, that they have all been in your position once before. It took me a while to realize, but professionals really are happy and willing to help young people, especially students, in providing them with the advice and guidance they need while looking for that first job. It did take a while to get comfortable with, but for me, networking eventually became second nature.

(Image source)

Just keep running…

This Saturday I participated in the Ukrops Monument Ave 10k for the first time! It is something that I had been telling myself I wanted to do for a while and I finally plucked up the courage to just sign up for it. So after about 3 months of “training” I was so excited that the day had finally arrived. Collectively, I probably ended up running about 4.5 miles and jogging/walking the rest of the time, and finished in roughly 90 minutes. Keep in mind that I, in no way, consider myself a runner, so the fact that I finished the race without stopping..or dying..is probably one of my greatest accomplishments.

Since this was my first year participating in this historic Richmond event, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Needless to say I was overly impressed by the entire event, from start to finish. I always forget about the sense of community that the city of Richmond builds around events such as this. For the entire 6.2 miles, there was not a single block without spectators with signs of encouraging words or community partners cheering us on. It was truly motivating and was probably what kept me going throughout the entire race. I was also very impressed to see the amount of people who had traveled from out of town to participate. It is definitely something I plan on doing again in the future.

Side note: I was writing this post when I heard about the horrific explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. My thoughts go out to everyone who was affected by this tragedy. It scares me that this incident was purposeful and all of runners who had put forth so much effort preparing for what should have been an amazing accomplishment were unable to finish the race, or worse suffered distress or injury. Events such as these are supposed to create pride, happiness and sense of community, not fear.