Reminiscing on things past...

Today I am feeling a bit reminiscent.

Have you ever sat down and just begun to reflect on where you were a year ago? Well that’s exactly what I’ve been doing today. For some reason I am unable to keep my mind focused on the present and I keep drifting into the past, so I thought I’d share.

For those of you who don’t know, I spent six weeks last summer in Oxford, England studying abroad with the Grady at Oxford program. So (as I’m sure you can guess by the nature of this post) this time last year I was in Oxford!

Oxford wasn’t the only place I visited while abroad. I was also able to visit London, Rome, Paris, Edinburgh and Wales. Before this trip I had never been out of the country except for mission trips to Jamaica.

While in Oxford I took a class with Dr. Andy Kavoori. I believe the name of the class was, International Mass Communication. As our final exam, all of the students in class were told to create a sort of travel journalism portfolio. We were relatively free to do what we wanted with the project, so the results varied making the overall presentation very unique.

All of the projects were put together to create one large conglomeration of our Oxford experience. We called it the Oxford Diaries. As my mind wandered back to my days in Oxford, I decided to take a look at my own project. I called mine, the Eye of Tourism and I thought it might be something worthwhile for me to share since it is the sum of my 2007 European adventures.

I love to talk about this trip, so if you want to know anything specifically about the pictures or descriptions, or just about anything at all please feel free to ask!

Blogging Blogs

Over the past several weeks I have been working with eight other individuals to promote our campaign, Countdown to Kickoff.

At first we did the usual research, business visits and planning. Now we have gotten into the really exciting aspect… the actual implementation of our PR plan.

As a PR student, nothing is more exciting to me than actually DOING what I have been learning over the past 3 years. And so I was eager to play my role in the process of pitching media, etc.

I was assigned to pitch several bloggers in an attempt to have them mention our event in their blogs. As I was researching each individual blogger it became painfully apparent how pitiful my own blog is in comparison to these blogging gods!

As I looked further into the world of blogging I couldn’t help but notice that my own peers seem to be more in tune with the way the blogosphere should work than I am.

Perhaps my hectic schedule is a decent excuse for my negligent behavior towards my blog with my juggle of work, class, keeping the apartment clean, the puppy and my ever-so-important social life. However this excuse does not quite work, especially when looking at the blogs of my multi-tasking professors, Karen Russell and Kaye Sweetser, who put me to shame with their brilliant blogs.

So this is my desperate cry for blogging help! Paul Young gave me a great resource to begin with, but further input would be great.

Common Questions I ask myself about blogs:

• What in the world do I write about?


• When I write, how do I keep from looking like an idiot?


• How do I make my blog more aesthetically pleasing and usable?

These are just a few of the questions that plague my mind as I sit down to blog. With my newfound appreciation of how great and useful blogs can be, I would really like to become more proactive with my own.

Use your Wordles!

Check out my Wordle! I found out about Wordle thanks to Leo Bottary's blog. Wordle is an application that allows you to turn your text into art! I decided to create a Wordle for my current campaign, Countdown to Kickoff! Check it out for yourself and see what you think!

Coolest Summer Campaign Ever!

So, as I was Twitter-ing away I couldn't help but notice that my future PR campaigns professor has announced the client for this summer's class! The title of the blog which gave away all the details was titled, When college sports and academics collide -- in a good way.

The client is Countdown to Kickoff which is a fundraising event which benefits Georgia Transplant Foundation, Children's Tumor Foundation, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and the UGA Pediatric Exercise and Motor Development Clinic. The event is set to take place July 18-19, in Athens, Ga.

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I have been a Georgia Bulldog fan since I could speak. I'm sure if my father could have had it his way, my first words would have been "Go Dawgs, sic 'em!" So the idea of me spending my summer working with past and present UGA football players is so exciting, I can hardly contain myself.

On a more serious note, I strongly support the organizations which will benefit from the event. I have personally witnessed the negative effects that a severe illness can have on an individual's childhood. My younger brother is a leukemia survivor, and owes his life to organizations similar to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the Children's Tumor Foundation.

So this summer is looking like it may be the coolest summer ever! Mixing UGA football players with a great cause can only lead to a fantastic event, class and overall summer!

Social Media Anxiety!

Last night I went to a PRSSA meeting especially for seniors! There was a financial advisor and some young professionals who were at the meeting to give all of the seniors advice on how to survive in the "real world." One of the visitors commented that she knows a colleague who always says, "It's PR not ER."

When I heard this catchy phrase I realized that it was a perfect description of the nature of public relations. Most public relations practitioners tend to be Type A personality and over achievers to the extreme. However, sometimes I think that everyone (including myself) needs to take a step back and realize that it is PR not ER!

Along with my newly found favorite phrase and tons of stressful thoughts about Roth IRAs, living wills, wills, credit cards, etc. I decided to also stress out about my lack of involvement in the social media wave. Almost immediately upon returning home I created a LinkedIn account, a Twitter account this morning, followed by this personal blog this afternoon.

This being my first real blog, I decided that the most appropriate name for such a spontaneous creation should be my new phrase. "It's PR not ER." This is my feeble attempt to remind myself daily that, although classes are challenging and I am facing entering a work force where the field of public relations is incredibly competitive, it is just PR and not a life or death situation.

Being new to the blogging world, I would love any feedback that I can get advising me on what issues to write on and what other social media outlets I can utilize! But even just the fact that you have read this far is satisfaction enough for me!