High School Drama

Dear Readers. This post serves as a plea to share, comment and post to those who need to read this.
I'm seven years out of high school and it's one place/time I would not like to repeat. Even with all my learnings high school was tough, but no matter how dramatic I became as I cried, "my life is over"  - I still woke up in the morning. Unfortunately, for three Chardon, Ohio students this is not the case. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Chardon families - it's an unimaginable tragedy, that for me as well hit really close to home.
For some perspective, I grew up about 45 minutes away from Chardon, but my parents now live about 5 minutes away -- they grocery shop, run errands, walk our dog in the same county. My brother was one year and one township away from attending Chardon, he could've been there...
There have been so many things in the news this last few weeks about teens acting out (the racist YouTube girls from Florida, for example), or even the last few years (school bullying) and it's amazing to me how different "high school" has become - it's really turning into a place you need to survive.
In my day (there goes my old soul) I did become an outcast and subject of ridicule for a good three months of my high school career, where in my most dramatic way I literally thought I would die of embarrassment. Here's the story.
Eleventh grade - I was going through a period of rebellion, hanging out with the a new crowd that I absolutely didn't fit in with. Picture a darker Hilary from Fresh Prince attempting to hang out with a female version of Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony ... Yea, that was bound to work out.
Anyway, if you made one of these girls mad they were all mad and I should've know then their value of friendship, but I digress... Inevitably as you can guess I made one of these girls mad and that's when the drama started. I was shunned at school, literally had to eat lunch by myself or skip it altogether and go home to eat, I was nervous to be in the hallway by myself, it got pretty bad. The biggest worry I had was that these girls would do something to damage or impact my future or mess with my early acceptance into college.
So I get it. I get what it's like to be bullied, picked on, and intimidated. One thing I never forgot was to stay motivated and that no matter what I was going to graduate, succeed and pursue any and all dreams that I had. So this message is two-fold, if you are bullying, it's not worth it - when you get to the workplace, there are bigger bullies that actually have leverage, or as bullies typically wind up: your high school wanna be thug life image will soon be merged with your real life, and while everyone around you is changing, you become static.

If you are being bullied, I can promise you, your insecurities don't run as deep as whoever is trying to stand in your way. I can't remember the last time I thought about that memory of feeling so alone and isolated and that's because I did so much more to never sink and stay persistent with my goals. I'm not perfect, no one is, but one thing I've learned is that "strength comes from an indomitable will" (Ghandi) and that is something you have to believe to make it through.
 High school is 6 parts a painful and 4 parts fun, you make mistakes, some people hang out with bone thug wannabes, but you grow up and you move on. Thank goodness because I do not look good in corn-rolls!

Experts in Spreading the Word

Since I went to school for a traditional English and Literature degree, I left school knowing about the must-reads of British and American literature from eighteenth century to the present. Interning in advertising and a small newspaper, I quickly assessed and confirmed where my interests lie. Curious to learn more and understand the connect between brands and consumers, my current experience in public relations is definitely adding to my knowledge of "how things work." However, I can't seem to settle, what the difference is between marketing and PR? I can't help but think these two roles might be double dipping. Think about it - let's say you're creating a campaign to raise awareness for something. Where does marketing come in, wouldn't you tap into a PR company? In the PR world, marketing is used as a verb (let's market this by doing XYZ), but marketing folks like to think they are the "big" idea... Being the biased PR girl that I am, I would like to say, PR is queen and marketing follows the lead. In the interest of expanding knowledge and spread the word, like any good PR girl, here's what I know about PR and marketing.
PR is about measurement and reputation - how many people know about you or your product or your message and how many people like it. PR has control over messaging and trends. Here's an example, Kleenex is a household name, my guess is some savvy, super cool PR girl working for Kimberly Clark refused to call it tissue until it caught on. She probably called people, stalked the internet and called it monitoring, and threw an event called "Dry your eyes here's a Kleenex" - a relationship forum for women going through break ups/divorces/PMS. So there you go - message spread, PR = A+*. So, then what is marketing? If marketing is the management process that establishes how to execute successfully to satisfy both consumer and organization... is the difference how the brand relates to you vs how you relate to the brand? Courtesy of Ads of the World, here's the best answer I've received.

Interesting right? Choose your field wisely, where do you want to fit in, when it comes to brands, the message and the recipient.

*Fictional analysis, not actual

The New York Shoe Box

Also known as an apartment in Manhattan. I guess everyone would live here if it was affordable, since smelly subways and crazies walking next to you is appealing. I mean really and the real estate agents have to make a small fortune off of their so called "no fee" apartments. Some of the apartments I've seen are atrocious, but can you imagine - having two days to move and you start to convince yourself that you can share a bathroom in the hallway with two neighbors in a six floor walk up (yes those places exist and are on the market). Seriously, the rat infested apartments should be discounted since more than one thing is living there at a time -- what you think is a studio is really a three bedroom convert.
If you can't tell I'm having a moment - and I have a blog, why not merge the two :)
Welcome home:

You take 1/2

So it's 2012 - end of the Mayan calendar, beginning of my first mile marker in becoming a centenarian. Just kidding, I know I'm being a little dramatic about my birthday, so don't worry that's not why I'm writing to you today. I've been thinking about sharing; you know this was the first year my honeys came with me over the holidays. I had spent a few holidays with his family so this completed the circle - we shared our families with each other. At the end of it my bf discovered I'm the weird one in my family...
We shared so many wonderful moments together, laughing at my nephew who talks like he's a thirty year old trapped in a three year old body. Seeing the matriarch of my family hold our newest member. Listening to my sister vow to only invest in relationship that are valuable in the truest sense of that word. We spent four days together at home and my bf left with the most cookies from my Grammy (much to my Dad's dismay) and more of my heart than he can know. Might be slow on understanding this, but here's what I figure - I give 1/2 of me and you give me 1/2 of you, as long as we promise to make each other whole whenever we're together what more can a girl ask for?