Graduation, the Holidays and the New Year

Graduation 2012 (Carter Whitt, Photobomb Guy, Myself)

I haven't had a lot of time recently to update my blog, which makes sense considering the insane amount of coursework I've completed in my final semester at Georgia State University.

I'm glad to say it's over, but a twinge of panic has also crept into my daily thoughts: what am I going to do next? After consulting several professors -- and even in the face of the stagnant economy -- I've been advised to gain work experience in my field instead of pursue a master's degree. I'd rather do this anyway; I want to know what it's like outside of the academic world, and not just as a part-time barely-above-minimum wage worker.

I do a few things well, and I'd like to apply those professionally with the academic acumen and theory I have learned. Working for the Robinson College of Business' Office of Communications and Marketing was certainly a wonderful experience; I flexed my intellectual and creative muscles (the left and right arms, respectively), wrote press releases, interviewed interesting people for feature stories I was writing, and even ghosted an article. Some of my copy has been on the Robinson website, and will soon grace the pages of their quarterly business magazine. I'm ecstatic, but still a little green with anxiety. Everything in the adult world seems scarier than it really is, and every challenge I've faced I've gotten through with flying colors and a little more wisdom than before.

Finishing my undergraduate degree has been a culmination of a lot of people -- not just myself. Sure I wrote what seemed like endless amounts of research papers, trudged through a number of group projects, and managed to slip in a study abroad to Istanbul, Turkey on the way, but none of that would have been possible without the support of my family -- both financially and emotionally -- and some very special friends who at times had more faith in me than I had in myself.

While this has been a momentous and triumphant year for me, it has also been rife with stress, anxiety, and its fair share of loss. But what victory would be as sweet without adversity to conquer? So although I graduated and am now transitioning from the familiar world of college into the slightly more scary world of the professional, I'm not alone. I have a network of friends, family, and connections who believe in me and know, despite my own neurotic worries, that I will succeed.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me get to where I am today, and who continue to nudge me forward when my feet get a little cold.

Happy Holidays, and have a wonderful New Year!

Phone hacking scandals just aren't enough

Illicit reporting methods landed Rhodri Phillips, a reporter for News Corp.'s tabloid the Sun, the scoop of a lifetime – an arrest record.

Metropolitan Police arrested him early Thursday morning on suspicion of breach of privacy. The arrest, part of Operation Tuleta led by the Scotland Yard to pursue crimes such as phone hacking, alleged bribery and computer hacking, is a sour reminder of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. operations in the United Kingdom.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the media probe's detainment of Phillips is the first arrest at the Sun tied to Operation Tuleta. The Wall Street Journal reported Tom Mockridge, chief executive of News International, the News Corp. U.K. newspaper unit that includes the Sun, confirmed in an email to staff that a journalist from the paper had been arrested Thursday morning.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE:

As of July 22, the Financial Times reported Rupert Murdoch stepping down from all boards associated with News Corp.'s U.K. newspapers. Find the story here.

Obamacare Survives

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court upheld President Obama's landmark domestic policy requiring all Americans to have healthcare by 2014.




Mandating that all Americans obtain healthcare will bring about sweeping reforms for insurance agencies, allowing many with pre-existing conditions to obtain much needed care. However, many of the changes are still widely unknown even by supporters of the new law.





The women's rights political action campaign, UltraViolet, wrote a short list on why Obamacare is important not only for women, but for every American.











The Affordable Healthcare Act remains almost entirely intact -- as well as opposition to it -- from its original proposal. According to Fox News, Republican candidate Mitt Romney vows to repeal the law if elected.

Making a Memery of Myself

Big Floppy Sunhats at Cracker Barrel + Meme Humor = Win.

From "My Name is Red"

I don't want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning.

Illustration from "The Sultan's Perfect Tree" written by Jane Volen, illustrated by Barbara Garrison

-Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red

Celebrating Teachers Everywhere Who Believe This

Sevgi ile İstanbul'a (To Istanbul, with Love) -- or, Why Everyone Should Study Abroad

I spent only 10 days in Istanbul.

Bazaar. Istanbul, Turkey.

The flight was exhausting, I was nauseous most of the trip because my stomach is keen enough to collect all stress I might be feeling, and because much of the beef there didn't agree with me. I never slept. My average hours of sleep per night hovered around five. Fifteen of us were constantly corralled, shuffled, directed, and collected to numerous site visits and expected to absorb endless waves of information, implications, and impacts. The blisters from wearing heels --  in a city where 90 percent of traveling two to five miles is done by walking --  have only now nearly healed completely.

Spending 10 days in Istanbul has been the most unexpected pleasure of my short life thus far, and I have every intention of going back.

Study Abroad Group -- Istanbul University.

Since I've been back and slowly returned to a regular routine, I have found that my patience and stress tolerance have increased. I still grit my teeth, make a snap remarks, or squint my eyes in impatience and sarcasm -- but it takes a little longer getting to that point at least. My neurotic tendencies take longer to surface in difficult situations.

Impossibly small details still scream at me while I genuinely try to pay attention to someone talking about an inane topic, or being rude, or taking too long to get to a point. But, even while I'm struggling to maintain focus on them after already concluding what they need from me and what other things I could be accomplishing in the time they are wasting, there is a sense of serenity that has replaced the frenetic nerves of my mind as it outpaces my stumbling tongue. I don't move immediately to do what they haven't asked yet. I smile, listen harder -- accept that even if I understand already, they still have more to say to me.

At CNN Turk.

I appreciate familiar things more, which in turn gives me more patience for them. There is a noticeable change in my outlook. Somehow, experiencing the incredible differences and expansiveness of the world has made it possible to understand how things are more similar and united; the world is larger, but society is smaller.

I am more confident, more certain of who I am. I can laugh at the past, enjoy the present, and plan for the future. Tolerance has improved, and there is a feeling -- almost of benevolence -- at being able to adjust to others; other people, other places, other situations, other wills and desires than your own. I think this feeling is very close to humility.

Study Abroad Group, Milliyet Discussion.

Details cause less irritation, less nervous worrying and fretting. Relatively small issues that had such a large impact on my life before are recalled with embarrassment. How could it have mattered so much to me when it is so trivial in relation to so much else? It is more efficient, more impactful to disregard the trivial -- to recognize the trivial. Focus has moved from the tree to the forest.

Hagia Sophia.

Observations are more keen and less assumed. Friendly curiosity has replaced skepticism and doubt. You accept a lot more after this kind of experience. You accept it because you long to know, to understand, to feel the broadening of your boundaries, and the dissolution of your limits. You grow and begin to feel the connectedness and camaraderie of others -- you grow to be a part of it.

Brand is You workshop.

You will make so many friends. People you never thought you would get along with will reach out to you, accept you, and together you will build bonds based on shared experience, tolerance of differences, and the process of learning. You will find similarities in one another, but more importantly, you will be fascinated by the differences and hunger to know more about the unknown. They will not just be your friends -- they will be your peers. Later, when we graduate and find ourselves working in our careers, I will remember the discussions we had and the questions we asked each other. If I am so lucky, we may even work together indirectly, and the friendships we built will be invaluable to our work.
                                                                     

At TV8.

You grow, and you recognize in yourself the capacity to grow. It's the odd feeling of having a birthday, and years later discovering that somewhere along the line you have matured beyond thinking an age gave you that ability. Experience, and what you do with that experience, becomes the knot -- the hard, grainy place in a tree where a new branch emerged. After leaving the things you love and going abroad to learn all the things you need to learn there -- and falling in love and leaving the place you grew to love for the place you knew you loved -- you emerge.

 I did.