COM0014: Blog #2 – Storytelling

I think being able to tell a story with your writing is really important. It gives your words character. It’s what will keep people coming back to read more. A story gives your words meaning instead of just writing for the sake of writing.

You should make sure you are setting the right tone for your article right from the start. How you choose to phrase your words (Passive v. Active) can change a person impression of your entire article. If you sound to dismissive in your writing, people tend to believe you don’t care about the topic but on the other hand sometimes writing to passionately can come off as too aggressive.

You also want to make sure that you have proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. Poor grammar and punctuation can be a turn off for the reader. It can make your writing hard to understand, which mean your writing will lose clarity.

In our lesson it also speaks about keep the end in mind. I think this is very important, you want to know what your end will be because otherwise you are writing blindly. While you could still write a post without knowing your end, writing without knowing your end can lead to you losing the clarity of your writing and the conciseness of your article.

There are many ways to write a really good post and even more ways to write a really terrible one, the only way to find out what works for you is to practice, practice, practice.

These are my priorities in writing, what are yours?

 

COM0014 – Blog #1: What I did on my Vacation

I’m not someone who travels often, so when I had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks in Europe with my best friend, I took it! We looked up tour groups and spent 18 days traveling from Dublin to London to Paris to Barcelona.

It all started with us spending two days in Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day. The entire city lights up in green the night before (known as the “Greening of Dublin”). Everyone dresses up and pubs don’t close. Its a giant party for a full 24 hours. It was the kind of day you have to experience to understand.

Jameson Distillery

While the holiday itself was reason enough to be in Dublin we also had a few more adventures we wanted before leaving the city. So the next day, exhausted from all of the events of St. Patrick’s Day we met with our tour group, piled into a bus and took off for the Guinness Beer Brewery and Jameson Distillery. Its a mark of honor to go to Dublin and learn the craft of properly pouring a pint of Guinness. They actually have a pouring class in the Brewery where you can get certified for it. After getting certified we hoped in a cab and took off for the Distillery to learn all about how whiskey is made. We ended the night at a pub watching someone traditional Irish dancing.

Ireland was busy and exhausting, but it was only the start of our trip. Next up was London where we tried to fit as many touristy excursions as we could into 3 days. There is so much to do in the city it is nearly impossible to do it all. We tried to do all the major one though, The Eye, Big Ben, The Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road. After getting through those we wanted to hot some local places and spent a day shopping through flee markets.

Still on the high of everything we had experienced so far, we jumped in with another tour group and headed off to Paris. It was a place we had both visited when we were kids but seeing it as an adult was a whole different experience.

Top of the Arc de Triumph

We shopped on the Champs-Elysees, climbed to the top of the Arc de Triumph, had lunch beside the Eiffel Tower.  We partied with the locals and learned more French in those few days than we had the entire time in school.

The tour group left the city as quickly as we arrived. With Spain as our next destination we didn’t mind.

This would be our last stop before heading home. We wanted see as much of the culture and history of the city as we could. This met hitting all the major tourist spot and trying to do it all in one day. From Sagrada Famillia to Park Guel to the Gaudi apartments, we got to see it all.

This was a trip of a life time and I am so glad I got to do it with my best friend.

 

Its not okay for them but it is okay for us

 

Like most of the world right now I am obsessed with the Olympics. For the whole two weeks it is on it is all I watch. I days are planned out based on what sports I can watch that day, everything just revolves around them while they are on. As a Canadian I also love everything hockey. So having Olympic hockey is just the best thing ever to me. So watching all the articles come out about the Women’s Hockey team was a little heart breaking. Not because I sympathize with the girl but because I couldn’t believe someone representing Team Canada would act that way.

Source: Wikipedia

In January during the World Juniors Hockey Tournament, a member of the Sweden team tossed his medal into the stands after losing to the Canadian Team. This player was heavily criticized by everyone for doing so. All over media you could find articles and opinions stating that is was disrespectful to the game and the winning Canadian Team. If he didn’t want the metal he would have waited until the ceremony was over and do something with it than.

Fast forward to this week where the Canadian Women’s Team lost to the US Team. During the metal ceremony a Canadian player first refused her metal, but was than told she had to take it. Only to have her remove it during the anthem playing. Everyone on social media jumped to her defense saying that she was just caught up in the moment, she wasn’t being disrespectful. But didn’t she essentially just do what the Sweden player did?  The only difference I see is one was a kid, and the other a grown women.

If the roles were reversed, if an American player acted this way if we won, we would all have had the same reaction?

Shouldn’t we be expecting those representing Team Canada to hold the same level of respect as we want to receive?

  : Its not okay for them but it is okay for us

: Its not okay for them but it is okay for us

Having it all together or barely holding together?

Being in my mid twenties I am finding my friends and I are at a weird place in our lives. Half of us have it all together. Every time I log in to my social media someone else getting married, having babies, starting out their careers, knowing exactly what they want in life. Than there is the other half, who are normally to drunk to remember where they last put their phone.

Source: @scousebird via Twitter

With the increased popularity of all forms of social media, knowing everything your friends are up to is only a click away. Its hard not to compare what you are doing with what everyone you know is doing.

 

I have never really felt like I had it all together. I never new what I wanted in life. I look at these friends and think when did you decide what you wanted? I keep being asked “when are you going to get married?”, “when are you going to start having babies?”. Since when did society decide at what age you are suppose to be doing all of this? I can barely make ends meet how am I suppose to afford taking care of someone else? Eventually you start to feel the pressure that you aren’t doing enough with your life. Even parents are say ” well why aren’t you doing what __________ is doing?”

In high school you are suppose to be able to decide what career you want. The courses you take in high school dictate what options you have for courses you can take in college/university. That’s a lot of pressure and decision making to be placing on 16 year old. I think I changed my mind on a career choice at these a dozen times and not one of them is what I ultimately decided to do. Kids are taught that they are suppose to go to school, get married and have kids. That’s the way you live your life. But why should they be taught there is only one “right” way to live? Now a days you ultimately don’t even need to attend college/university to get a solid career.  In this article on Huffington Post they talk about some real reasons you don’t need schooling.

This year I learned to let go of all the pressure I put on myself and what I felt being placed on me. I learned to ignore what society is saying I should be doing at my age. It has made making decisions about my life that much easier when I don’t care if someone approves of my choices. Have you felt pressure from society or any one that you should be further along in your life?

: Having it together or barely holding together?

: #letthekidsbe

I can’t go anywhere without my phone

The power of the internet is unbelievable. From connecting with families and friends to shopping to building a business you can do everything with the internet. Smart phones make it all that much easier and so does social media.

The saying “there is an app for that” has never been more true. If it wasn’t for my retail job I don’t think I would ever have to set foot inside a store. I can shop for whatever I need not just from a computer but also using my smart phone. I don’t have to leave my home and don’t even have to leave my bed to go shopping now.

source: Promises.com

 Just about every company has created their own personal app that gives you access to everything they have to offer. You can buy clothing, furniture, electronics and even groceries from the apps and it all gets delivered right to your front door. This makes being addicted to your phone even worse. It’s hard to put the phone down when now my whole life is on it. With the more you visit different websites to purchase, your browser remembers where you have been. This information is fed to your social media pages and that’s how you get your sponsored posts on places like Facebook and Instagram. They create posts for things you might like based on what you have already been searching for online.

 

For someone in their twenties I find it so hard to disconnect from my phone. All of my social media is on my phone, any phone number I might need.

source: Pumpic

 If I forget it at home before leaving the house it’s like I left a piece of me behind. There is very little my phone can’t do for me. Which is also the worst feeling in the world, being so connected to such a small object.

 

Cellphones weren’t even something I grew up with, I didn’t have my first phone until I was 17. So when did it all change for me? how did I get so addicted to this piece of technology? and how do I stop? These are honestly questions I go through every day. Have you ever felt like you couldn’t go somewhere without being connected to your phone?

 

: Are we to connected with being connected?

: #ineedmyphone

Trying to live outside of my bubble

I have spent a lot of my life living in a bubble. Not a physical bubble but a metaphorical one. I had a sheltered childhood, which began to create a sheltered adulthood. I was never allowed to go to parties, or hang out with boys; I was the definition of a “good Christian girl”. Now I don’t mean that those whom do those things aren’t, I’m sure they are all lovely people, but that I was living a stereotype. I went to school everyday and came straight home to do homework, I got good grades, I went to church every week and Sunday school. My parents rarely allowed me to be in situations where I was meeting new people which made me not only painfully shy but socially awkward and I don’t mean in the sense I would say something weird but I would just stand there silently because I didn’t know how I was suppose to act. As I got older it all got harder for me. Kids in my high school didn’t understand why I was so quiet, or why I had so little friends. It made me an easy target for bullying and even harder to break out of my shell.

“She was the first actual friend I ever made”

So I created my own little bubble to live in. It made me feel like no one could touch if I stayed inside of it. I stayed to myself, I didn’t talk to anyone and eventually the bullying stopped.  On the first day of grade 10 I saw a new girl in my class who looked as sad and lonely as I felt. She was the first actual friend I ever made, and to this day is still my best friend. As the school years went on she became more popular with other classmates and they all tolerated me because she wouldn’t go anywhere with out me. Being her friend was the first step I took outside of my bubble.Even though I took a step outside of the bubble I created I still very much lived inside of it. I was my self defence mechanism, my “safe place”. As I started to get into my 20’s, I started to realize how much my bubble was hurting my self development. I had a hard time connecting with people at work and in classes at college. I tried really hard to step outside the bubble again (it went so well the first time what could go wrong?). I very quickly discovered how much my bubble was hurting me, in the form of panic attacks. I started having panic attacks just at the mere thought of meeting someone new. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Again I was rarely in situations with new people so I didn’t know what to say to someone I didn’t know, what if they don’t like me? What if we have nothing in common? What if I say something dumb? What if they don’t want to talk to me? What if they make fun of me? All of these things ran through my head every time I wanted to attempt to make a new friend. I am also aware many of these things run through a lot of peoples head when making a new friend and they don’t panic at the thought. But at the time because I was so sheltered, my parents never pushed me to make new friends (frankly, I don’t think it bothered them that I only had one friend)  but wanted me to focus on school only, I didn’t know these were normal thoughts. I thought I was different, not normal. Everyone else had so many friends so how could they possibly have these thoughts too?

When I discovered the world of social media, it was a game changer. I found people online who were like me. It was easier to express my thoughts to people online than it was to someone in person. Soon I realized I wasn’t the only one out there like this was the biggest eye opener. I started to open up to people, and make more friends. I found a new “bubble” with these people. I found a sense of community and support with them.

It took me years to get myself out of my bubble, to make friends, to be okay in social settings, to try new things. Now at 26 I am finally in a spot in my life where I am actually living. I still do panic sometimes in social settings, or over something I said to some one new. My friends are really good at just telling me “everything is okay”, which doesn’t immediately stop the panic but helps calm the thoughts. I decided I wanted to spend my life helping people like me. I know I am not the only one out there like this and I think if just one person told me when I was 20 that I wasn’t different, that its okay to have a hard time making friends, it wouldn’t have taken me so long to finally get to a good place. The power of social media helped me and now I want to use it to help someone too.