University Marketing

I thought it was really interesting learning and reading about universities and the different things they have to think about when marketing. Not only are they marketing to prospective students but also to prospective faculty and donors.

Every university is different in what the emphasize to their target audiences. Some really push a specific program that they are known for, others find that showing off their campus brings more people. Regardless of what marketing technique they use a university's primary goal is education.

Books, Books, Books

Throughout this semester there were three different books that I was assigned to read for my social media class. "Share This", "Real-Time Marketing" and "Measure What Matters" had a lot of overlap in topics but also had some individual insights.

My favorite book was probably "Real-Time Marketing". As an art administration minor there were a lot of things in the other two books, especially "Measure What Matters", that I had learned in my minor classes. "Real-Time Marketing" had a lot of new information that I really enjoyed learning.

It was also a lot of fun this semester as I learned about different aspects of social media and then utilized some of the ideas in my officer position of Kappa Phi. I was in charge of the Facebook page this semester and I also created a YouTube account.

Sing-A-Thon in Media

For Sing-A-Thon this year I was in charge of keeping the Facebook page updated and posting videos and pictures. It was a lot of fun trying to pick the best moments to record and post. I decided to put everything together into a montage to try and capture some of the highlights of the weekend.

Life in High Gear

Life has been so crazy. Not only did I only get about four hours of sleep over the weekend because of Sing-A-Thon but I've also had to stay up late trying to get homework done. There are some things that I'm not sure how I got them done on time.

Sing-A-Thon was so much fun this year. Not only did my boyfriend get to come for part of it but I also got to spend time with a lot of my sisters and found out that I was going to be getting a little. The raffles that I put together went over really well and a lot of people bought raffle tickets.

I had a huge research paper due on Tuesday so Monday I worked like crazy to try and get it done. I stayed up late and still had two more pages to write before class. I somehow managed to get it done in the short break that I had before class and even had just enough time to run to the library and print it out.

That night I also got my little as well as Kappa Phi initiated twelve new sisters into the sisterhood. It was a lot of fun and our family got several new members. We got lots of pictures and stayed out probably a little later than we should have but we had fun and that's what matters.

Hopefully the rest of this week will go smoothly. I'm so ready for the semester to be over. I just have to get through two more days of classes and a few finals. I'm so excited but I'm also exhausted. Good luck to everyone!

Kappa Phi Sing-A-Thon!

Every year my sorority, Kappa Phi, holds an event where we invite the campus and others to join us for 24 hours of singing to raise funds for a charity or cause voted on by the sisterhood. This year we are raising money for a little girl who lives in the community, Amelia Griffin, who has Neuroblastoma. All the funds will go to helping her parents with Amelia's healthcare. Organizations on campus sign up to sing for half hour slots and there's games and raffles and just a good time hanging out with friends until random hours of the morning. We're always exhausted afterward but it's a lot of fun and a good time to relax before dead week and finals.

This year we're doing a Frozen theme and I'm in charge of the raffle. I've had a ton of fun putting things together and I really hope they do well. I scoured the Internet looking for ideas and finally narrowed it down to a reasonable amount of items. I consulted my sister for advice as well as she always has some fun ideas.

We're also selling snowflakes this year as an additional way of raising money for Amelia. It's kind of like when grocery stores sell hot air balloons or other shapes and you can put your name on it and they put it on the wall. I designed snowflakes which we're selling and then sending to Amelia along with other goodies and some pictures and videos after Sing-A-Thon. 

I'm really excited for Sing-A-Thon this year. It'll be a lot of fun spending time with my sisters and friends while raising money for a sweet little girl and helping to give her family a blessing this Christmas.

Kappa Phi Sing-A-Thon
December 4, 5 pm - December 5, 5 pm
Mac Activities - Ohio Northern University

If you'd like to make a donation to Amelia feel free to contact myself or Claire Beadle at c-beadle@onu.edu

Another Tough Week

So after everything that happened after my last post I went home and was able to reconnect with some old friends. It was great seeing them. One downside is that I ran into my ex but it wasn't the worst situation. Just a little uncomfortable and my anxiety started to act up. Luckily my friends saw that I was anxious and took me away from him and we sat and talked for awhile.

It's tradition that my sister and I go over and help my grandma cook Thanksgiving dinner the night before so Wednesday night we both went over and helped her prep. I'm always in charge of making the Mac and Cheese so I made a giant triple batch and we made a little extra to eat that night.

The next morning, Thanksgiving, I slept in then had breakfast with my family while we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My grandma said that my cousin, who lives with her, was sick so I decided not to go over as early as I had intended in order to lessen the chances of getting whatever she had. I did go to my grandma's a little early in order to help her get everything ready. We had a smaller Thanksgiving this year which was nice. Normally there's anywhere from 15-17 people but this year we only had 9 which was a record low. There were several people sick so that made the number lower too. It was a delicious meal and we all helped clean up before heading home.

Black Friday I had to work so I got up at some crazy hour early in the morning and went to work. My boss knows that I love straightening and organizing the store so this year she had me do something a little different. Instead of running around doing customer service and ringing people out she had me work without a uniform and just in my normal clothes. I was in charge of restocking, straightening and organizing the store while the other employees helped the customers. I had so much fun. Whenever I go home and work I'm always in charge of refolding all the t-shirts. Apparently I do it the best. Our back room was also looking pretty crazy so I was also able to make that look better.

After work I went home and ran some errands before my boyfriend came to visit. He only got a little lost in the dark and once he got there we sat down to dinner. After dinner he wanted to look through my dad's Magic the Gathering card collection so I sat on the couch while he sat on the floor looking through cards. As I sat there I started to feel a little weird, like dinner wasn't sitting well, so I took a Tums and sat back down. A little while later my mom and sister said something about feeling a little off. A little while later I heard one of the run to the bathroom. In less than an hour all three of us were swapping in and out of the two available bathrooms. My poor dad and boyfriend were great and took care of us three sick girls.

By Saturday morning I had stopped emptying my stomach but I still felt absolutely horrible. My poor boyfriend, bless his heart, had slept on the other end of the couch from me and woken up every time I got sick. He took great care of both me and my sister and without him and my dad there is no way us three girls would have made it through the night. We spent all day Saturday just sleeping on and off and watching movies. All of us were exhausted and us girls could barely eat anything. My boyfriend and I watched some Supernatural as he is still flying through it. He just hit season 8. After falling asleep on the couch again I finally felt good enough to move up to my bed.

Sunday morning my mom and mentioned going to church but I was just not feeling up to it. She made breakfast and I was starving, I didn't get very far into it though before I realized that I still wasn't up to eating much. I ate a few bites then gave the rest to my boyfriend who always gets my leftovers. Our family always gets our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving break so that we can have it up before my sister and I get back from finals. That way we can enjoy it the entire time we're home for Christmas. We mostly felt up to it so we all piled in the car and went to find a tree. We were all exhausted so we didn't spend too much time choosing a tree. My boyfriend carried into the house for us and then promptly managed to try to pick it up and it fell on top of me. It was quite the scene and we were all laughing and my sister told us to stay still so she could take pictures.

After expending energy with the tree I was exhausted so we relaxed for a bit then slowly started decorating the tree. I could only stand and help for a short time before I had to sit down and rest. With four of us helping it didn't take long to decorate the tree even with all of us needing a break now and then. We watched our Holiday favorite, White Christmas, then my boyfriend and I headed home.

It wasn't till Tuesday that I finally started to be able to eat again and even then I was still having issues finding something that sounded good. I also couldn't eat very much before my stomach starting feeling off. My dad and boyfriend both ended up getting sick after we did as well. When my dad researched what we had he found something that mimics food poisoning that stays in your system for up to 21 days or something like that. I really hope that I don't continue feeling this exhausted and unable to eat normally until almost Christmas but at least I can eat now.

Tough Week

This last week has been one of the hardest weeks I've had in a while. It started out with multiple days with migraines hitting me at random intervals. This made getting homework done or focusing at all extremely difficult. Then our department found out we had lost one of the theater students to suicide. It hit all of us really hard and I, once again, wasn't able to get much done. Needless to say I was grateful for my professors being understanding and giving me extensions on certain projects.

Thankfully my weekend was much better. My boyfriend had been telling me for a while he had a bunch of surprises planned for this weekend. When I got there the first thing he did was give me an adorable stuffed cat. We were able to hang out for a little bit and then he had to go to work. I hung out with his family and watched a couple of movies. When he got home I helped him heat up some dinner and then we talked for a bit before heading to bed.

The next day we relaxed for most of the day and watched Supernatural. I only recently got my boyfriend to start watching it and he's managed to watch 5 seasons in less than two months. We tend to binge watch it when we hang out. It's a lot of fun. He took me to Denny's for lunch and for dinner we went on a double date with two of his best friends who are dating. On the way to the restaurant we stopped and my boyfriend got me 2 dozen carnations in my favorite colors. For dinner we went to a Japanese Steakhouse which was a new experience for me. We sat at a hibachi grill and the food was cooked right in front of us. It was delicious. I'm definitely going to have to go back some time. 

On Sunday we went to church together for the first time which I really enjoyed and then we ran a few errands and relaxed at home. Monday I had planned to head home but first my boyfriend took me out to the store and said I could pick anything out from the jewelry counter. I chose a gorgeous snowflake pendant with blue topaz accents.

His car had been in the shop so I dropped him off to pay for it and pick it up. While he dealt with his car I drove home ahead of him so I could pack up my things to head home. I was only there about ten minutes when he called me and asked me to drive over to him. He then told me his car was on fire. He had been driving his car home from the garage and all of a sudden flames had started to come up from under the hood. Thankfully he was fine but the front half of his car was completely melted. I stood with him while the firemen finished putting out the fire and the tow truck hooked it up. Then I took him home and we made hot chocolate and got something to eat while he called everyone he needed to about the incident. I postponed going home for a couple of hours so I could be with him and make sure he was okay and then I took him to work before heading home.

Despite some things not going exactly to plan this weekend turned out to be a wonderful end to the week. The week may have been rough but being able to spend time with people I love and care about makes everything better. Even if things do go a little crazy at times.

Social Media and Community

Measure What Matters Chapter 9

Businesses, organizations, customers and employees are all parts of a community to be measured and connected with in order to maintain a successful social media presence. When a company or organization ignores any of these groups then it is in danger of losing a vital resource.

When businesses and organizations outside your own make changes or announce products or events it is wise to pay attention to how they present it and how well it works. Keeping track of these things can help you to improve without having to experiment on your own. Learn from others mistakes.

Customers will often post things online about an experience they had with your company or organization. Always make sure there is someone available to find and respond to these as it will enable you to have a real-time response when a customer poses a problem. Solving these problems quickly and efficiently is one of the best ways to have a positive impact on other customers.

Keeping track of your employees well-being and feelings about your company is also vital. Employees, and sometimes volunteers, are essential to the continued success of any company or organization. Their happiness will ensure they are quick to respond in a positive way when problems arise.

Measuring your community and being aware of the changes is a major component of a real-time social media presence. If you ignore the world around you there is no way you'll be able to survive for long. No company or organization can exist in a void.

Flowers and Fun

This weekend I got to go visit my boyfriend and go to his grandma's surprise birthday party. It was a great time and I got to hang out with his family as well as him. I drove down on Friday and got to spend some time with him before he went to work. Since there's not a whole lot of places around Ada to get my hair cut I decided to run out while my boyfriend was at work and get my hair cut.

Saturday we spent some time relaxing and helped rake leaves. We both ended up buried in leaves multiple times. Later we picked up his sister and headed to dinner for his grandma. My boyfriend didn't know a lot of the people there as a lot of them were friends of his grandparents. He and I spent the time talking and hanging out.

Before I headed home my boyfriend told me that he needed to run an errand for his mom. I stayed in the car while he ran into the store. When he came back instead of getting groceries for his mom he had gone in to get me flowers. He didn't want to ruin the surprise so he told me he had to get groceries instead of telling me why he was going to get flowers.

My boyfriend claims to have more surprises in store for me. I'm excited to see what he comes up with this time. I love surprises and he's pretty creative so who knows what he'll come up with in that crazy head of his.

Starbucks' Red Cups

There's been so many posts on Facebook lately about Starbucks and the fact that many people are upset that their cups this Christmas season are plain red instead of Christmas themed. According to these articles there have been many Christians that are upset about Starbucks not using Christmas themed cups and see it as an attack on Christianity and Christmas. Individuals who don't celebrate Christmas may see this as a way that Starbucks is including them, or they may not care.

I have no idea if these articles are accurate or if they're exaggerating the information. In my opinion the red cups fit into Christmas just fine. I also think that doing a generic winter cup with snowflakes or snowmen would have worked as well. Snowflakes and snowmen aren't going to offend any normal person.

Society is really being offended by everything lately. It's just getting annoying. I appreciate not wanting to discriminate but no one is trying to personally attack you or your beliefs with a red, disposable coffee cup.

Starbucks Holiday Cups.
New Starbucks holiday cups that will make everyone happy.
Posted by Internet Action Force on Monday, November 9, 2015

Google Alerts

Measure What Matters Chapter 6

Google Alerts is a great way to keep track of what people are saying about you brand as well as measure the public response to what you are doing. Setting up a Google Alert is super easy but sorting through all the alerts and posts can be a lot harder. Not only do you have to sort through all of the alerts to make sure that they are all actually about your company but you also have to make sure that your alerts are set up to give you the maximum amount of information.

After you sift through the alerts and have them set up correctly you need to take the information and organize it in such a way that allows you to utilize it to demonstrate what you're doing well and to figure out what you need to improve on.

Social media and the Internet can be hard to keep track of and it's very easy to miss information, Setting up Google Alerts is a great way to have information on the Internet organized and sent directly to your email or phone.

Yik Yak

Yik Yak is a social media app very much like Twitter but instead of having a username the entire app is anonymous. I first started using Yik Yak at the beginning of last year. It was just starting to become popular. About the only features were you could post short messages, down or up vote messages, and reply anonymously. I've watched the app slowly be updated and I'm really impressed with how they've improved.

One of the first things the app did was add icons to replies. Now if you respond to a yak multiple times your icon will be the same each time so people can tell it's still you. I thought this was a great idea as sometimes it would get confusing reading a long string of responses. I'm not sure if they're doing this for any other holidays but for Halloween they made the icons themed with clowns, bats, witch's hats, etc.

The app also added the ability to add pictures. Not many people do add pictures but it's a nice addition and I'm glad there is the opportunity. It could be used for anything from posting pictures of lost pets or phones to advertising an event on campus. When my boyfriend lost his phone I went on Yik Yak and posted what kind of phone it was and what it looked like. I got several replies about different phones. I also saw several yaks with pictures of phones that had been found on campus. I've also seen someone post a picture of a dog they had found. Anyone can see something on Yik Yak so it's a convenient way to reach out to the whole campus. Things like Facebook and Twitter are great but for those you have to have people choosing to follow or friend you. For Yik Yak it's visible to everyone and allows you to reach a much broader audience.

As Yik Yak continues to develop I'm interested to see how it does. From what I can tell so far it seems to go through phases where it's really popular and phases where it's not super popular. There also tends to be a wide range of topics posted so some people just avoid it entirely. I think it could be a really good tool to get the word out about campus wide activities and I'm hoping in the future there will be new updates that continue to make it a really cool and useful social media platform.

Say Something

I decided to something a little bit fun. I put together video that I took around campus and set it to music. The song I chose was "Say Something" performed by Pentatonix. They are one of my favorite groups and I love their rendition of the song. I also added a quote I really liked to the end of the music video. It's a quote by Henri J.M. Nouwen.

"Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain. The greatest pain comes from leaving. Still, if we want to avoid the suffering of leaving, we will never experience the joy of loving. And love is stronger than fear, life stronger than death, hope stronger than despair. We have to trust that the risk of loving is always worth taking."

I would love to hear what you think so please comment with your thoughts and if you would like to see more things like this.

Reasons for Measurement

Measure What Matters Chapter 3

When it comes to social media there are a few reasons why you would want to measure what happens on your accounts. Showing managers what you've been doing and how it's working can convince them to fund certain projects or just your organization in general. It can also show individuals that your organization is worth committing too as well. What works on social media can convince individuals but also showing what doesn't work can cause managers to change how things are going as well in order to improve measurements.

Not only is measuring social media important in order to know how things are going but it's also important to let others know and to move things forward. Improving social media communication and real-time is a great way to connect with your target audience as well as managers and higher-ups that need to know how things are going.

Social Media and Guess Who

Many times on social media an individual may say that they are one person but in reality are completely different and you would never know the difference. A simple Google search can find you pictures to send to anyone who asks for a picture and you can say whatever you want about who you are and no one knows the difference.

I recently ran into this problem where the person that I was talking to claimed to be a college age female. As I was talking to them I started getting the feeling that they weren't female at all. Now I could be wrong but from the way they were talking it seemed more like they were male. I'm usually very careful when I talk to people I don't know and in this instance I was even more careful as I was getting strange vibes from the way they were talking.

This kind of ties in with one of my previous posts. Be careful what you say or post on the Internet. Not everyone is who they say they are and not everyone has good intentions. Stay smart and think before you do anything and you'll be fine.

Halloween

For the first time this year I was able to actually participate in Halloween festivities. Before this year I had never really dressed up, gone to a party, or trick-or-treated. This year I got to do all three. On Thursday my boyfriend texted me and said that the party he had originally planned on us going to wasn't going to work out so we decided to just invite some of his friends over and have our own party. Unfortunately this involved completely cleaning his basement. Since you couldn't see the floor when we started cleaning this was quite the chore but we managed to pull it off and had a blast. We even managed to bring two of his best friends together and now they're going on a date.

I also got to go trick-or-treating for the first time with my boyfriend and his younger brother. I actually had a lot of fun and got to talk to his brother more which was fun. We also ran into some friends of my boyfriend while we were out and walked with them for a while. Once they left my boyfriend decided it would be a great idea to run full sprint towards me and hug me. He somehow managed to completely tackle me to the ground in the process. Luckily we landed on the grass of someone's front lawn. A little while after this I realized that my phone had fallen out of my pocket when I fell. I remembered where I fell and was able to send my boyfriend back for it without too much trouble finding the phone.

All in all I think I had a successful Halloween. I brought together an adorable couple, ate lots of candy, and spent time with some really awesome people. Definitely something I will be trying again.

KIND

KIND is a brand of snack food that specializes in making gluten free, non-GMO foods with ingredients that everyone will recognize. The company makes various kinds of snack bars and granola snacks and some are lower in sugar for those that are trying to watch their sugar intake.

The company also focuses on teaching and encouraging consumers to be kinder. Both to their bodies and to those around them. One of the ways they accomplish this is through a program that gives grants to people in order to complete their socially-impactful ideas.

I'm always looking for quick snacks to eat on the go so I'm definitely going to have to try out KIND products. I'm very picky about my snacks though so we'll see if KIND passes the test.

Social Media and Tracking

Measure What Matters Chapter 1

Measuring social media is a necessary aspect of any organization or business that utilizes real-time and social media. Keeping track of pages, traffic and other information is vital to staying on top of what is going on and how to improve. This can be dangerous for customers. When a customer creates an account and puts their personal information on their profile it then becomes free game for companies to use when determining their target audience and finding ways to connect with customers. Nothing you put on the internet is completely private. Never put anything online that you wouldn't want a future employer to see and never put anything online that could potentially be used to steal your identity or incriminate you in any way.

My usual route is to only put necessary information and if you don't need to put it online then I don't post that information. It's just safer and easier to keep track of if I don't post things I don't have to post. I'd rather be safe and have to tell people things I haven't posted than post more than necessary and end up having someone use the information maliciously. The internet is a wonderful invention that creates tons of connections but you have to use it wisely.

Dressing Up and Getting Down

This weekend was formals for Kappa Phi. The theme was Once Upon a Time and it was great fun getting to decorate, dance and spend time with my sisters as well as my boyfriend who was able to come visit and go to formals with me. This weekend was the first time he was able to see me dressed up so it was kind of fun getting to see his reaction. He also was able to help set up for the dance which was a huge blessing and we managed to work together really well despite both of us being extremely opinionated which is a good sign. I was in charge of the center pieces for the tables and he made it a point to come over and tell me how great they looked which I really appreciated.

The day after formals I went home with my boyfriend to attend a concert he was playing in at the local community college where he lives. It was a lot of fun getting to see and hear him play for the first time and I got to spend some time with his family which was a lot of fun. My boyfriend also taught me how to play Magic over the weekend which was a lot of fun. He'd been planning to teach me for awhile but he finally got around to teaching me.

Overall this weekend was a lot of fun. The only downside was somehow my boyfriend managed to lose his phone somewhere on campus. We're not really sure how but hopefully it'll turn up as he needs the SIM card in order to upgrade to a better phone. Ironically he managed to lose his phone two days before he was able to upgrade. Here's hoping it turns up.

Books as Movies

Trying something a little different today. Created my first podcast. My thoughts on movies based on books and the differences between the original stories and the movie versions. I hope you enjoy!

Social Media and Expectations

Share This Part 8

As social media has become more and more popular it is almost always expected nowadays that an individual utilizes it to some capacity. Gone are the days when you would ask if an individual has a Facebook. Now the question is what is their Facebook. Twitter isn't as expected but Instagram is fairly normal as is Snapchat. Facebook is still the #1 though.

I was homeschooled throughout my entire school life up until college. Junior year of high school when I went to the high school solely for a theater program I was asked many times for my Facebook as I made new friends. They were all shocked when they found out that I didn't have one. I never felt the need to have one and because of my dad being concerned about security I just never got a Facebook. It wasn't till the end of my senior year of high school that I finally ended up getting one in order to keep in touch with my friends when I went away to college. I was disconnected from almost all social media up until I had almost graduated high school. I never had a problem with it. Any friends that I needed to contact I could just call or email. I would have to use the house phone to call since I didn't get a cell phone till junior/senior year of high school but I rarely called anyone anyway.

Social media is a great way of communicating with the world. Today it is expected that you communicate with the world via some form of social media. Let's not forget, however, that social media isn't always the best way to communicate. Sometimes it's best to put down your phone and close your laptop and actually step outside. Interact with people face to face, be active and enjoy the people around you.

Fall Break and Chicken

For fall break this year I decided to visit my sister at her school in Indiana rather than go home like I normally would during fall break. I hadn't seen her since the last weekend in August so it was nice to be able to spend some time with her. Unfortunately things didn't go quite according to plan but we still managed to have fun.

Friday after classes I left around 1:00 and drove the two hours to get to her school. After I got there we hung out and talked for awhile before deciding to get something to eat. Now let me explain something here, my sister's school is unlike ONU in many ways. For one thing, they have a giant student center with three different options for food plus a coffee shop. Well, one of the food options was a place that had Chick-fil-a. Now I like Chick-fil-a so I was like, that sounds good, let's do that. I got a chicken sandwich, waffle fries and a lemonade. Seems pretty normal right? Well, I'm eating and I'm starting to feel a little weird but that was the first food I'd eaten all day as I was busy earlier in the day so I figured it was just my body adjusting to actually having food as that is pretty normal for me. My sister and I went back to her room and continued to talk and as we did I felt steadily worse. I got chills, my stomach felt like it was doing somersaults, and I was so tired I could barely stay awake. Finally around 8:30-9:00 I told my sister that I thought I just needed to sleep and so I laid down. Well, I tried to lay down but that made it worse so I propped myself up on some pillows. After a half hour or so I thought I was feeling better so I said something to my sister who was reading on the other side of the room. She came over and was talking to me and then I realized that I was most definitely not better and ended up emptying the contents of my stomach into the bucket that my sister had wisely placed next to me. Needless to say, my chicken sandwich did not like me and I have the best sister in the world for helping to take care of me.

After that fiasco I felt much better and was able to almost drift to sleep before one of the girls that my sister shares a bathroom with decided to go into the bathroom and watch stupid Facebook videos, loudly, for a half an hour from 10:30-11 at night. I could clearly hear the videos. She then proceeded to take a half hour shower from 11-11:30 and listen to music. I don't know what you all think but in my opinion that is unacceptable and just plain rude. My sister said she didn't mind and not to worry about it but I had half a mind to go bang on the bathroom door and give her a piece of my mind. I guess that's the overprotective big sister in me.

The next day I felt better but still didn't have much of an appetite so around noon my sister and I went to IHop and I managed to get some food down. Then we went and got my sister a library card at the local library as she is binge reading books right now and needs access to more. I couldn't be prouder of the amount of books she's been able to read while still getting school work done. I couldn't do it. After that we just relaxed in her room for the rest of the day.

Sunday my parents decided to come visit since I wasn't coming home. They drove up and brought me some things that I needed from home as well as some things for my sister. It was nice getting to see my whole family after not having seen them for over a month. We went to get dinner at Applebee's then my sister took us to this gorgeous park near her school. It had gardens, ponds and bridges and there was even a wedding being set up. We chatted with my parents for awhile before they left. A little later my sister and I got coffee and strolled around her campus so she could show me some of her favorite spots. Monday morning we went to chapel then I packed up and came back to ONU so that I could get some things done before classes on Wednesday.

I definitely needed fall break this year. Not only because it was a break from classes but also because I got to see my family and I still have some time to work on homework and other things I need to get done. The chicken incident was unfortunate but thankfully it only lasted a few hours and then I was fine.

Social Media and Spreading the Word

I am in charge of fundraising for my chapter of Kappa Phi. Kappa Phi is a Christian girl's club here at ONU. Many times I will extend fundraisers to other chapters. The main way I connect with these other chapters is via Facebook. There is a group on Facebook solely for active members of Kappa Phi across the country. Posting fundraisers in this group can boost a fundraiser by almost 50%. I recently posted a fundraiser on the page and before I had even shared it with my chapter I had 17 people order at least one if not more products.

Social media is also a great way to let other chapters learn about our sisters. Every week I post five good things about three of our sisters so other chapters can learn about us and we can get the word out about us. It's a good way to connect with other chapters and let Nationals know about who we are and what we do.

Because of the distance between chapters social media is a great way to let other chapters know what we're doing and stay connected. We can share ideas and what we found that works or what doesn't work. Without social media our chapters would be a lot more separated and information wouldn't be able to be passed as easily between them.

Social Media and Monitoring

Share This Part 5

Social media is a tricky thing sometimes. It requires constant attention and supervision. There has been many a time where I post something on social media and within seconds someone has already commented on it. If I don't pay attention or miss this it creates a missed opportunity for me to connect with a friend or other individual depending on if it is on my personal social media or an organization's social media that I am in charge of monitoring.

One of the ways I try and keep up with everything is by having different devices logged in to different accounts. On my phone I have my Facebook, Twitter and one of my Tumblr pages while on my computer I have a different Tumblr page, which is also on my iPad. My iPad is also logged into the Kappa Phi Facebook which I am in charge of posting on and monitoring. Doing this allows me to easily access all accounts without worrying about passwords or taking the time to log out and log in to different accounts on different social medias.

Stratford Shakespeare Festival

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada. I went once four years ago and I was so excited to be able to go back. We left early on Friday morning and arrived between 1:30-2 in the afternoon. We spent a couple of hours wandering around Stratford and going in various shops and walking beside the river. We also ran into an older man who asked us why the chicken crossed the road. He said it was because the chicken wanted to get away from Colonel Sanders! It totally made our night.

 After dinner we went to a showing of "Love's Labour's Lost" at the theater. It was a great production though from watching I could tell some of the actors were a bit off that particular night. There were some missed cues and lines as well as just a general air of being distracted from the actors. We all decided we were so tired after the show we all went back to the hotel and right to sleep.

The next day we went to a farmer's market which was really cool. Not only did they have to fresh fruits and vegetables there was also a deli with fresh meats and cheeses, people selling breads and pies as well as jewelry and handmade crafts. Afterwards we drove around some of the local neighborhoods. The houses around Stratford are absolutely gorgeous and I loved getting to see all the different styles.

While on this trip I also tried poutine for the first time. I had never heard of it before this weekend but I found out that it's probably one of my new favorite things. The basic poutine is just french fries covered in cheese curds and gravy then you can add other toppings and create variations as wanted. I had a meatball and marinara one as well as one that had cheddar cheese along with the cheese curds and gravy. Both were excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

We also went into a store and found out there was a cat sitting on the counter. We all took turns petting the cat while the others browsed around the store. Another really fun thing that happened is we went into a cafe for coffee when it started raining, I found a framed and signed program from one of the shows I went to the first time I went to Stratford.

The show we saw Saturday night was "The Taming of the Shrew," which I really enjoyed. After the show we decided to check out the Stratford night life and hit a few bars before heading back to the hotel and going to bed.

Sunday morning we got to take a backstage tour of the theater, which was the second time I have gotten to go backstage at that theater. It's a lot of fun because I learned different things both times and I never get tired of seeing the behind the scenes of how things work at a theater. It's really fascinating.

Before we started the drive home we stopped at this amazing bookstore. There were stacks and shelves of books everywhere. I told my friends when we went in that I hoped my house looked like that one day because I absolutely love books and hope I can have as many as was in this store some day.

I'm so glad I got to go back to Stratford. It's an absolutely beautiful town and the theater there is phenomenal. Hopefully I'll be able to go back more often, maybe even next year if I'm lucky.

Social Media and ONU

The ONU Twitter account was barely used during the homecoming festivities. Throughout homecoming there was one tweet containing the link to the schedule, one retweet from an alum and a tweet containing the link to pictures taken during the events. Those are the only tweets about homecoming on the Twitter page for Ohio Northern University. The university missed an opportunity to connect with alumni who were unable to attend homecoming.

The ONU Facebook was about the same with a post containing pictures, a video of the ONU marching band and a link to the days schedule. In addition they also didn't really post about homecoming the day beforehand. I have to assume that the University has alumni pages or something or else there is no real-time social media effort at all by the University.

My Storify recap of my first ONU homecoming experience.

Social Media and Lies

In my previous post I talked about the fact that many friendships and relationships are made over social media. Which is true, but this aspect of social media also brings up another point. Social media allows people to lie about who they are more readily then if you are in person.

Many times all you know about a person on social media is what their profile says. There are times where the person posting is nothing like what is posted on their profile or they hide certain things. Some individuals even steal others pictures and use them to create fake profiles.

When you are making friends on social media it is important to be cautious especially when giving out personal information. Always make sure that the person you are talking to is actually who they say they are. To be fair, many times they may be who they say they are but you just don't know certain things about them yet. And that's fine. The concern is people who purposefully try to deceive you.

Social media can be a great resource for many different things. But it requires a certain amount of common sense. Think before you post and you life will be so much easier in the future.

Social Media and Friendships

Share This Part 1

Social media has many different uses. It has changed the way people communicate. Many people use Facebook to connect with people they already know. But many people use social media to make new friends and many times those friendships are primarily online. Through social media there are now couples who meet online and proceed to meet up and have a wonderful relationship.

My best friend met her long time boyfriend on Tumblr. They started talking and eventually met up. They've been together for several years now and are planning on getting married once he can move closer to her. None of this would have been possible without social media.

This past summer a friend we met via Twitter was able to fly in from Missouri to visit for a weekend. My sister and I were able to meet her for the first time and spend a few days together. Along with her are a group of others who are all friend via Twitter. Many of them have met each other but that's only a few. Most of them have never met each other. Yet they still consider each other to be a support group and talk about anything friends that know each other in person would talk about. Many of them are even in long distance relationships.

Social media has created a way for friendships to form that never would have had a chance before. Opportunities that never would have occurred before are enabled by social media. Friendships, relationships, and other connections are made via Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Those relationships provide support and cultural sharing as well that wouldn't have been possible without social media.

ONU Homecoming

Despite being a senior at Ohio Northern University I have never participated in homecoming events here on campus until this year. This year I was in charge of organizing everything for Kappa Phi to participate in the homecoming parade as well as their alumni meet and greet table. I spent the week before homecoming creating decorations for the golf cart we would have in the homecoming parade. One of Kappa Phi's symbols is a pink rose so I found cheap vines and made roses out of plastic tablecloths and attached them to the vines. I also found a large dragon kite which we attached to the top of the golf cart. Another thing I designed and had made was a large canvas banner that could be used for homecoming as well as for other future events.

The morning of homecoming I got up early and went to where the parade was lining up and met some of the other sisters. We decorated the golf cart and divided the candy for sisters to pass out in the parade.

After making sure the golf cart was ready for the parade I made my way over to the tent set up for organizations to set up tables so they could connect with alumni that came for homecoming. We attached the banner to the table as well as set up a board containing pictures of sisters on it. There were also brochures containing information about Kappa Phi and small cards with the Kappa Phi Facebook information.

One of the tables next to us had a large banner held by a stand which kept blowing over in the wind. The solution they came up with was to use packing tape to tape the base of the stand to the grass. Surprisingly enough it actually worked.

All in all despite being stressed about having to get all the Kappa Phi stuff done my first ONU homecoming was a success. I got a lot of compliments on how the Kappa Phi decorations looked as well which was encouraging. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year as an alumni.

Here's a Storify recap of my live tweet from the day.

Blocking Social Media

Real-Time Marketing Chapter 13

Some companies and organizations block their employees from accessing social media. Some utilize the real-time aspects of social media and can't block the sites as they need them to communicate with customers. There are both pros and cons to both sides of this.

When blocking social media in the workplace you can increase productivity. Employees that may spend more time on social media when they are supposed to be working will be forced to focus on work. However, social media can be an integral part of an organization's interaction with customers. Blocking all social media prevents the company from having a real-time response to it's customer's needs.

If a company doesn't block social media access it allows employees to easily communicate with customers when a situation occurs or when a customer requests information. It also allows the company to quickly update the public on situations that may affect them. However, allowing employees to access social media may not only lead to employees being on social media when they should be working but may also cause workplace tension. If an employee posts something on social media during work hours that pertains to another employee it may be taken negatively and cause tension or hard feelings within the office.

Honestly I think the pros of using social media in the office far outweigh the cons of not using it but each company has to decide for themselves what they want to do and what is best for their company.

Marvel vs. Fox

I was reading an article the other day about how Marvel comics isn't happy about Fox having the rights to the X-men and all mutants. Fox doesn't have to consult with Marvel when making a movie and Marvel doesn't like that fact. Marvel's response? Stop making comics and products that involve X-men or mutants in general. No more new characters, no more new series. They'll continue with what they're currently working on but they're going to start killing off mutantkind. They're hoping this will cause Fox to give them back the rights.

Now, in my opinion, this is a really stupid idea. Let's think about this for a second. If a die-hard X-men fan, who loves the comic books, can no longer get X-men comics then where are they going to go? They're going to go to the one place that has X-men, Fox. So if Marvel basically starts boycotting X-men it'll actually push people towards Fox. Sure there will be the fans that are sticklers and won't watch the movies Fox makes but many will just want some kind of X-men.

Honestly I think Marvel shouldn't have given the X-men rights to Fox in the first place because they've done a fairly awful job with the movies so far. They've basically made the entire X-men movie franchise about Wolverine. Don't get me wrong, I love Wolverine, but it's the X-men franchise, not the Wolverine franchise. I'm pretty sure Fox would be able to still sell the movies if they chose a different main character. Or even, I don't know, made it about the X-men as a team rather than an individual character. There's a novel thought. Make a movie titled after a team of mutants about more than one character. Who would of thought that was a good idea? The X-men have always been successful because fans were able to relate to them. The X-men were originally created to parallel prejudice and the idea that sometimes people go through things beyond their control and they're not always liked. It showed a family who could come together to make it through any obstacle. It showed the bonds of family even when they hated each other sometimes and fought over the most insignificant things. It showed family didn't have to be blood and that is why I love the X-men.

Social Media Interpretation

Today while I was on Facebook I shared a post to my timeline. I tend to do this a lot and I liked the post so I didn't think much of it. I usually get a couple of likes on a post and that's about it so when I received a comment on the post I was surprised. When I went to look at it I found that one of my friends from church was disagreeing with the content of what I had shared. I had no problem with this and saw where his disagreement came from so I responded to him explaining how I had seen the post differently from him. He then responded with the fact that he didn't believe the original poster had interpreted it the way I had. My response was this " In this society almost anything can be misinterpreted or interpreted differently than how the original person who said it meant it to be interpreted. If you go by that logic then anything is dangerous to post and everyone should just stop saying anything."

After a few more comments back and forth he commented that no one was going to get the interpretation out of it that I did. I thought about that for a moment before responding and saying my Facebook, and my social media in general, is a way for me to express myself and share what I like or think is relevant. If others don't see it the same way I do or don't like the same things I like then that is fine because they are different from me and as such have a right to their own opinions and interpretations.

Another friend of mine then jumped in and proceeded to say that one of the other guy's comments was ignorant and made broad assumptions. I thought this was a little out of place as I had the situation under control and I was trying to explain my views without saying that the other was wrong because it wasn't. That's what he thought and he had a right to that opinion. I'm a firm believer in the idea that if you can explain your thoughts and beliefs without saying someone else is wrong then you should feel free to express your thoughts and opinions. Saying another person is wrong is the single quickest way to make someone never want to believe what you believe.

All in all I was happy with how I handled the situation and wish that my other friend hadn't jumped in with a more judgmental and accusatory statement. I also hope that I was able to clearly explain what I thought without disregarding the other person's opinions.

Social Media and Gaming

My boyfriend and his best friend like to play games together so they decided to create a Twitch account and stream when they play their games. So far they've only played "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare." I'm not sure if they plan on playing more games or not. They also created a Facebook page for their account in order to share it with their friends and hopefully expand to others. Warning: Live streams and videos may not be appropriate for all ages.

Since I'm already in charge of my sorority Facebook page I figured it wouldn't be that hard to add another page as well. I offered to help them manage their Facebook page since they would both rather play the game than manage the page and they aren't quite sure what they're doing in regards to managing a Facebook page. I'm hoping they will grant me admin privileges so I can add things to the page and post for them so that I can help them gain followers and watchers.

Twitch is a really neat site that allows people to live stream gameplay from PC or consoles and then save those videos. It also gives a live chat feature that allows watchers and followers to participate in the live stream. It's a really cool platform that helps the gaming community connect in a way that just recording and posting video can't.

Focus and Social Media

Over the summer I found myself on social media a lot less than when I am school. Other than work I had very little to do so I had larger amounts of time that I could spend reading a book or cleaning my room. When I'm at school I spend a lot more time on social media because it becomes a way to procrastinate. I tell myself that I will just go on Facebook for a few minutes before doing homework but end up spending a lot more time than I anticipated. Social media can be a great way to keep in touch with friends or stay updated on news or company information but it can also be a source of distraction and procrastination.

One of the ways I keep myself from being distracted by social media is by setting specific times I can go on social media. I also will decide I can only go through my Facebook timeline once before I have to go back to doing homework. That way I can still check social media but also make sure I get my homework done.

This world is full of distractions. Everywhere you turn there is social media, videos, TV and friends that can distract you. Our entire society is built on the idea of always being connected to the rest of the world. It takes a concentrated effort to stay focused on a singular task when we grow up learning that in order to survive you have to multitask. Everyone has to find the system that works best for them in order to be productive and stay focused.

Reward Current Business

Real-Time Marketing and PR Chapter 10-12

Many companies and businesses have specials, deals and other rewards they use to entice people to choose their company when they have a need. Join now and get a deal on this or that service or product. It's a very common thing but is it the best option? Who has the most influence on new customers? Many times it's your current customers who are able to influence your potential customers the most. If a current customer is unhappy they can write reviews or tell their friends about their experience and that can turn people away from your company.

A good way to ensure you maintain current customers and have their help in engaging with potential customers is the reward those who are loyal to your company. Sending out deals and rewards to current customers as well as engaging them when they have issues will ensure they remain loyal and they will recommend your company to others.

Rewarding new customers is also a good idea but you don't want to get bogged down in the new customers and forget about your loyal current customers. Your current customers are the one's who uphold your company in the present and if you lose them then your company will go downhill. There is no way to gain new customers fast enough to make up for losing all of your current customers. So take care of you current customers and they'll repay the favor.

Smart Stress

The theater department at my school decided to bring in a speaker to talk to us about handling stress. I wasn't sure what to think going into it. I've always coped with stress in my own ways ever since I was a kid and most of the time I do pretty well. The anxiety on the other hand I figured was too big and there was no way he would be able to help with that.

Dr. Bill Crawford did a four hour talk split into two sections. The first half was about handling your own stress. The second half was about dealing with high stress individuals or difficult people. I really enjoyed his presentation and I think I'll really be able to utilize a lot of the tools he gave us.

He started out talking to us about how the brain reacts when something that could be seen as stressful comes up. It has one of two options, either send it to the brainstem or the neocortex. When it sends it to the brainstem we encounter reactions such as anxiety, inability to sleep, worry, frustration, anger, depression and being overwhelmed. He told us that he wanted to teach us how to send those signals to the neocortex instead so the brain could handle it rationally and in a way that resulted in reactions such as peace, confidence and happiness.

There's no way I can do justice to his presentation in this post but the basics of what he told us to do was that when we realize our situation could result in stress or we are already stressed, we needed to stop and do one of two things. One option was to do what he abbreviated as BRAIN: Breathe, Relax, Ask, Imagine, Notice. Breathe and Relax were pretty self explanatory. Ask had to do with the series of neocortex questions he gave us.

• Was this thought or emotion, or action chosen on purpose? 
• It is working for me?
• Is it making a statement I want to make about who I am?
• Would I teach this to someone I love?

Next is Imagine the situation the way you want it to be. How do you want to respond? Then Notice the changes that are made by this.

The other option he gave was PIE. Perceptions/Beliefs, Interpretations, Expectations. Many times things aren't as bad as it seems at the time or our perceptions of certain things can skew our view or cause misunderstandings. Taking a step back and viewing the situation in this way can sometimes make things seem clearer.

A lot of what Dr. Crawford talked about had to do with mindset and making a choice. A choice to be happy and live stress free. The part of the brain, the brainstem, that handles feelings related to stress is a very reactionary part of the brain. It doesn't stop and think. It just reacts. Stopping to think or choosing a different outcome in a stressful situation forces the brain to use the neocortex. The brain and imagination are very powerful and simply choosing to react differently to a situation can change everything. Waking up in the morning and deciding it's going to be a good day can actually make the day better because your outlook is better. If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see then choosing to see the things you like or just ignoring your inner critic and saying aloud you are pretty can start to make you believe it.

Another thing that Dr. Crawford talked about was how to eat whatever you want. His tip was to only eat when you were hungry. Not when you were bored, depressed or simply wanted food. Because it takes 20 minutes after you consume enough food for the brain to tell you that you're full he suggested an alternative. He suggested when you are no longer hungry to stop eating. So hunger helps you determine when to eat and when to stop eating. He also was a huge supporter of dessert after every meal. But there was a catch. After every bite of whatever your dessert was he said to gauge the taste on a scale of 1-10. When the taste gets down to about a six he said to stop eating. If it no longer tastes amazing then what's the point in eating something that isn't that good for you anyway?

Here's some of the notes I took that really stood out to me.

• I need to take 100% responsibility for what defines me in every situation
• Negative situations don't define/control us
• Don't give others the authority to define who we are
• When our purpose becomes avoidance out life becomes a void
• Never tie another person's state of mind to your peace of mind

Social Media Voices

One of the things social media has given students specifically is a voice within their university. Many student bodies have developed hashtags in order to catch the attention of faculty and administration. Whether it involves living conditions, school closings or just general information, social media, especially Twitter, allows students to communicate with each other and the faculty and administration to push for changes.

One example of this is a few years ago here at Ohio Northern University the school sent out an email to the student body giving tips on how to stay warm in the winter. The forecast was for -30 degree wind chill so the University thought it would be appropriate to help the students stay warm. There was also a frostbite warning if you were outside more than 10 minutes. The University came up with #PolarBearUp to try and inspire students and be "hip". Needless to say the students were not amused. They immediately took to Twitter and Facebook and used the hashtag to explain that a -30 degree windchill was unacceptable walking conditions. Many students had a 15-20 minute walk to class and the 10 minute frostbite warning concerned them. Memes were created as the students gained more momentum. Many sarcastic jokes were made as the students attempted to get their frustration and concern across to the faculty and administration. After four hours the students were still taking Twitter by storm. Eventually the University did decide to cancel classes for the next day and the students rejoiced.

Another example of students using Twitter and social media to communicate with faculty is Howard University. The students were concerned about conditions and the tuition they were paying. They created #TakeBackHU to express their concern to the administration. Alumni also put in their opinions saying that they experienced many of the same issues. The president finally responded that he was going to work to fix many of the problems. Hopefully he follows through on his word.

Civilian Journalists

Real-Time Marketing and PR Chapter 6

With social media playing such a big role in modern news the ability for civilians to share news has become a really big part of how we get our news. Many times a journalist or reporter will get information from Twitter or Facebook in order to do their news story. Places where mainstream media aren't allowed are accessible by the general populace who then post pictures, videos and stories on social media to get the word out about various things that are happening in the world.

Tumblr is a prime example of a community that takes getting news into their own hands. If you want something important or controversial spread quickly then just put it into the hands of a few Tumblr users and watch it explode. The biggest problem that I've found with Tumblr is deciding what is true, what is false and what has been exaggerated to make a point. Tumblr is a very passionate and outspoken community. There are, however, individuals who want to put out false information or make something fairly insignificant seem bigger so they elaborate or create stories. Checking facts is always a good idea when civilians, or even mainstream media, post a story. 

Here are some resources and descriptions of anxiety that helped me when I first figured out that I had anxiety. They helped confirm for me that I actually did have anxiety and helped me determine that what I was feeling was legitimate and needed to be addressed. These are also good resources for those who know someone with anxiety to try and understand better what the person is going through. I will add more as I find them. Feel free to comment with any that you find.

10 Signs You May Have Anxiety

15 Things Anyone Who Loves A Woman With Anxiety Should Know

A Letter to Those Affected By My Anxiety

Sharing Speed

I'm in charge of the Facebook account for my sorority, Kappa Phi. It amazes me how quickly people can see the information but also how quickly it dies. I can post something and within several hours it can hit it's peak of traffic and then maybe get only a couple views. There isn't a huge audience so it's traffic peaks a few hours after I make a post and then quickly tapers off.

Even with a much larger organization I would assume it would have a similar outcome. A peak in traffic during the first day or two and then traffic would taper off. This really shows the importance of being on top of social media and making sure that you post regularly and stay on top of the posts you make. Not responding within that window can cause traffic to taper off and crucial potential members or customers can miss whatever information you present.

Being in charge of a Facebook page requires me to remain organized, be cognizant of when I post, how it's presented and make sure I keep track of any comments I may need to respond to on a daily basis. I also like to keep track of when people may be posting about the organization or on the Facebook wall so that I can respond as needed.

Social Media Rising

Real Time Marketing & PR Chapter 1-2

What struck me about these chapters was the immediacy of what happened. Within days of Dave Carroll posting his first video both Calton Cases and Taylor Guitars had responded in appropriate ways. When talking to my grandmother about it over the weekend, it was interesting as I tried to explain what social media and news had evolved into. My grandmother grew up in a time where news traveled slowly so the concept of real-time was very different for her. 

I explained that my generation was very much about instant information. We don't like to wait around for our information. If something happens we want to know the information in real time. Because of this news tends to become old news within hours. 

If a company doesn't respond to something that is posted on social media it can be devastating for the company or organization. It can cause customers or potential customers to not receive answers to questions or it can prevent problems from being solved. This can turn customers away or prevent new customers from choosing that company.

Why So Anxious?

The days when I walk into my first class of the day and have an anxiety attack are days where I just want to curl up on my bed and watch Netflix. The last thing I want to do is go to class surrounded by other students. I don't want to go through the day worried about having an anxiety attack. Dreading the moment when the tightness in my chest returns, my breathe becomes short and I feel like running as far away from everything as I possibly can.

When I told my friends that I was having anxiety attacks I got one question. Why? Why was I having anxiety? That's the funny thing about anxiety, you can't always determine a specific reason for an attack. Or it could be because of the smallest trigger. Sometimes for me it's just being around too many people that triggers my anxiety. Many people don't realize that anxiety is something that comes in many versions and at random moments for random reasons.

I have had anxiety hit me at the most unexpected moments. It has hit in the middle of class, in the shower, or even standing in a circle of girls. Many times it is triggered by a feeling of claustrophobia or being in a stressful situation or around people feeling stressed. There's no rhyme or reason for my anxiety attacks and yet still people ask me why I'm having them. They don't understand that I don't know why and asking me about it is just going to make it worse.

Sometimes my anxiety is triggered because of something that happens the previous day and then I feel stressed the next day. My 25th birthday came and went with very little excitement which may have triggered the multiple anxiety attacks the next day.

Some days are good and others aren't so good. Some weeks are good and then I'll have a day where I get three or four attacks throughout the day. They sneak up on you and attack when you least expect it. I do my best to push through but sometimes I just need to stop and breathe. Remind myself that everything is okay and that I have people who love me and support me.

Along with the anxiety attacks always comes the overthinking. My brain kicks into overdrive and creates these ridiculous thoughts about whatever is going on in my life at the time. Whether it's attacking my self esteem, telling me that my life is horrible or just coming up with the worst possible scenarios for my life, my mind loves to run to the darkest corners and dredge up horrible ideas.

It's wrapped around my spine,
Squeezing.
It's under my skin,
The only way to get it out,
Is to tear the skin away.
It's behind my eyes,
Pushing, growing.
It's in my head.
I can't stay still,
I can't move.
I want to scream,
I want to cry,
But the sound won't come.
The tears are forbidden to me.
The sun hurts,
The dark stings.
It's hot. It's cold.
I can't breath.
I want to dig it out with my nails,
To seize it and pull it out,
Kicking and screaming.
To rip my flesh away to get to it.
There's pain.
There's peace.
It won't let me be.
The muscles scream.
The nerves sing.
I don't know what's happening to me.