spread a little light
“So…. how much time should we wait before we just…. leave?”
“In my school, if the professor is late, we give them 5 minutes for every degree they have.”
“How many degrees does the professor have?”
“He definitely has his doctorate.”
“So….15 minutes then?”
I inhaled deeply, trying to drown out the complaining of the other students with sound of my breath in my ears.
I should have brought my headphones.
Continue reading “Costa Rica; Worry Less, Live More.”
This post if for all of you who have officially been diagnosed with the Travel Bug.
Symptoms may include: restlessness, addicted to tumblr travel and beach porn, or compulsively shopping for flights, luggage and bikinis.
It’s okay.
We’re all in this together. Continue reading “How to Travel Like a Champ.”
This is a letter to the United States of America. My country. A country that I don’t even recognize anymore… Continue reading “Different Humans are still Humans.”
Time is money.
Right?
If I had a dollar every time I heard that phrase, I swear, I would have so much more time on my hands.
More time to do things, the more things you do, the better you feel, so eat your beans with every meal right?
Something like that.
Except then why are our anxiety levels so high in the United States? Why are people in the United States constantly exhausted, depressed, overstimulated and overwhelmed?
More than 1 out of 20 people age 12 and older have reported being currently depressed. 18% of the United States population have some kind of anxiety disorder.
Then why hasn’t my grandfather heard about Anxiety Disorders?
Why don’t I know anyone over the age of 35 that has ADHD?
These are questions that I have been asking myself for a long time… And I suspect the answers are much bigger than a simple blog post could ever express – most likely involving complex systems of industrialized working and consumer based cultures – but I digress.
In the United States, one of my professor’s favorite sayings is:
“If you’re not early, you’re late.”
Well here in Costa Rica, if you’re on time, you’re early, and if you’re late, you’re on time.
Weird, Right?
Yeah, well it totally rocked my world.
After spending some serious time in cities like Paris, New York and Philadelphia, where you have to walk fast just to fit in, I was speeding past the poor Ticas and Ticos (Costa Ricans) on the sidewalks, blazing my way to the next destination.
I would find myself stirring in my seat when we had no plans or a simple trip to the store took me 2 hours instead of 20 minutes.
“Why are we rushing? Are we in a hurry?”
Well, no but…
“Is there something that you have to do later?”
No, not at all, but…
Words so sweet and smooth, that struck my heart.
Why am I rushing? Why do I need have an itinerary? Why can’t I just enjoy the here and now?
Peace isn’t productive, and production is King.
In order for us to be as productive as possible, the United States has reduced our lunch hours to 30 minutes, expected our employees to answer emails after work hours, limited vacation time and personal days, and recorded hours worked down to the minute.
Everything has a schedule; everything has a time and a place.
Sounds awfully industrial, right?
More and more studies are being released proving that taking time to relax increases productivity. More and more countries are catching on to the fact that more leisure time makes people happier than money every could.
Unlearning fast-pace of lifestyle isn’t easy. It kind of feels like unwinding a chord from around my chest, opening my heart up to the possibilities of the everything – and the nothing – that comes along with taking your time.
But I am so happy and excited to be doing so.
“Have you traveled much?”
The sweet Dutch girl asked me as the airplane had finally pushed off from the ground and into the air. She pulled three packets of tissues out of her carry-on and pushed them into the seat-back pocket in front of me; her nose red from constant blowing.
I swallowed, and shifted in my seat. The last thing I wanted was to be sick.
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Wait… Is this a serious question? Oh it is!
Sorry, I’ll just get on with it then.
Social media has alway come naturally to me. As a millennial, social media was just a way of life for me as a grew up along side of it. Myspace and AOL fell away to new giants like Twitter and Facebook, and I followed along with the wave of people.
Throughout my Mobile Social Journalism course, we have been familiarizing ourselves with not only social media, but the way that journalists are able to take advantage of this new medium and to aggregate and disseminate news.
I used to work at a summer camp every summer. It was called Camp Rushford, a Department of Environmental Conservation run camp, where children were able to come and stay for a week in the Allegany wilderness to experience the importance of protecting our environment.
During these weeks, children (well, 11-14 year olds) were instructed to leave their cell phones in their room (not that we had cell service in the Allegany Mountains anyway) and instead were obligated to bring a reusable bottle of water with them everywhere they went.
“Hydrate or die!” Us councilors would always say to the kids who didn’t seem to be sipping their water bottles fast enough. But the fact is, water is essential to the health of an individual. Continue reading “Hydrate or Die.”
The classroom of Williams 225 on Ithaca College campus buzzed with excitement and creativity as the e-board and performing members of Spit That! , Ithaca College‘s only spoken word poetry club, prepare for the upcoming Annual Spring Showcase. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Spit That! as an organization within Ithaca College and the club members are eager for this year’s guest performer Jaylene Clark Owens.Continue reading “Ithaca College Spit That! Club prepares for Award Winning Actress Guest Performer”
Last Friday, our Mobile Social Journalism class had a Skype session with Christina Loman, an Ithaca College alumni who is currently working for Syracuse.com .
Christina’s supervisor Katie Kramer was also a part of this Skype session. She discussed how recently, Syracuse.com made a serious transition, as most newspapers have, from print writing first to digital, online and social media first.Continue reading “What I learned from Syracuse.com”
Sunshine Chronicles