By now, I think it's safe to say that most of the world knows about Micheal Jackson's heart failure yesterday afternoon.
Within a few days our world sadly lost four media icons; John Callaway, Ed McMahon, Ferrah Fawcet, and Michael Jackson.
Within minutes of each person's death, I was informed by a refresh button on my Twitter application. Tweets popped up with articles attached, informing everyone connected about the extreamly breaking news.
A popular Twitterer, iJustine, wrote a quick tweet when she heard of MJ's cardiac arrest. Her tweet circulated to other Twitter members, allowing me to catch onto the news via cell phone while I was at work.
iJustine: Whoa crazy.. Michael Jackson went into cardiac arrest! (19 hours ago from txt)
We knew what happened within minutes as the news went trickling down all of the media stepping stones; Twitter, facebook, blogs, text messages, websites, radio news, and TV news.
This morning I drove home-home, to the suburbs. It was refreshing to pull into my driveway and walk right up to my house, instead of the typical city routine of driving around trying to find parking, followed by walking blocks until you reach your location, followed by climbing sets of stairs to get into your apartment. And so this morning, I walked right up to my house and was greeted by a childhood memory; a newspaper wrapped up in plastic laying on my porch.
And even though I knew what happened, I knew what would be on the cover page, the emotion finally set in when I opened the plastic, unrolled the paper, smelled the ink, and actually held the news in my hands.
The printed widespread picture of Michael Jackson in his prime did something a computer or cell phone can not provide. It showed the sweat on his transformed face, the picture was huge, it screamed passion, and true entertainment. I sat down on my couch and read the endless pages of stories on his death.
It brought me back to my childhood remembering the mornings before school when I watched dad read his papers. I used to think it was the coolest thing, I couldn't wait to be an adult and sit down with my coffee and newspaper in the morning.
I realized that the trickling down of media ended right back where it all started; the newspaper.
Do we really need to know anything about everything right away? Would our world have changed drammaticalky if we didn't find out about these media icons deaths minutes later? Im beginning to think America is becoming ignorant of human emotion.
We have developed incredicle innovations and certainly have come a long way. And so I will leave you with this; yes, we found out about Michael Jackson's death minutes after thanks to new media communications. The faster, the better, right?
It takes losing something to gain something. But maybe the gaining is not always a good thing?
-- Post From My iPhone
Friday, June 26, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Lesson #15: Do what you love
They told me I would cry at Graduation. This was it, the end of what we've known, and the beginning to what we didn't. But I didn't cry.
During the three hour ceremony, I sat between two girls I never met during my four years of college. We whispered and giggled as if we had already been friends. Instead of crying, I laughed.
I thought about the only cycle we've known: school-winter break-school-spring break-school-summer vacation-school-repeat.
Today that would end, and a new cycle will begin.
I sat in one of the last rows, the seating was alphabetical. David Axelrod began the ceremony with a humbling speech. He told us to stop worrying about getting a job, finding a career, and making money and to do what we love, and the rest with follow.
For a moment I wondered if I did everything I should have done. Maybe I should have done things different so I could have been up there with special acknowledgments too. But then I caught myself comparing. I had been places and met people, and so had the two girls next to me, and so had everyone else in the auditorium.
All of us, including the Masters students, did what we were set out to do during that time in our lives. And during these years, during the cycle we've known, we experienced life as we knew it.
Today we are celebrating 20-something years of academics and graduating a significant portion of our lives, a quarter of our lives where we learned about ourselves. We met people we needed to meet and went places we needed to go.
The friends I have made, the friends I thought I had made, the crushes, the first kisses, the first loves, the heartbreak, the arguments, the teachers who encouraged us, and those who didn't care, the sports teams, the clubs, the hangout spots, the first jobs, the internships, service work, your co-workers, managers, and supervisors, the vacations, spring breaks, the first apartments, the roommates, the times spent alone, and times spent together, are you catching on?
These are the people you've met and the places you've been. These are the experiences that continued to mold us throughout the years.
My first day of kindergarten I asked a girl playing 'house' to be my friend. She said yes, and today we celebrated our third graduation together. I consider her family.
My best friend introduced herself to me after my first high school class, Freshmen Seminar. I cried when she left to go away for college, knowing that the next four years would be much different than high school.
And my boyfriend of three years sat next to me in my first college class, Discover Chicago. He had been the friend I needed most during these years and grown to be a special part of my life.
And now two and a half hours later, my row began to line up. It was time to receive our diplomas and our turn to stand at the front of the auditorium and look back at our fellow classmates wishing them the best. I gripped onto the railing as I concentrated on every step walking up those stairs, careful not to fall. And then my name was called, 'Carrie Schwebl.' I smiled big and walked across the stage.
Everyone felt something different during their moment, but once their moment passed, what did they feel? When I stepped down from the stage and back to my section, I knew this was it. And I wasn't nervous, I wasn't overwhelmed or thinking 'now what?'. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I felt free.
We were told to go out and live what we have dreamed of since we were children. Follow the dreams that we've thought about following, travel to the places we thought about traveling to, this was the time to do it.
This chapter has closed, Sunday June 14 at 11:34am. And now for this new chapter of our lives, we will meet people we need to meet and go places we need to go.
Congrats you guys! Enjoy round two!
-- Post From My iPhone
During the three hour ceremony, I sat between two girls I never met during my four years of college. We whispered and giggled as if we had already been friends. Instead of crying, I laughed.
I thought about the only cycle we've known: school-winter break-school-spring break-school-summer vacation-school-repeat.
Today that would end, and a new cycle will begin.
I sat in one of the last rows, the seating was alphabetical. David Axelrod began the ceremony with a humbling speech. He told us to stop worrying about getting a job, finding a career, and making money and to do what we love, and the rest with follow.
The students graduating with a Masters degree walked across the stage to receive honors and individual applause. After hearing professors talk about these students it was no doubt they have been places and met people that would lead them to a bright future.
For a moment I wondered if I did everything I should have done. Maybe I should have done things different so I could have been up there with special acknowledgments too. But then I caught myself comparing. I had been places and met people, and so had the two girls next to me, and so had everyone else in the auditorium.
All of us, including the Masters students, did what we were set out to do during that time in our lives. And during these years, during the cycle we've known, we experienced life as we knew it.
Today we are celebrating 20-something years of academics and graduating a significant portion of our lives, a quarter of our lives where we learned about ourselves. We met people we needed to meet and went places we needed to go.
The friends I have made, the friends I thought I had made, the crushes, the first kisses, the first loves, the heartbreak, the arguments, the teachers who encouraged us, and those who didn't care, the sports teams, the clubs, the hangout spots, the first jobs, the internships, service work, your co-workers, managers, and supervisors, the vacations, spring breaks, the first apartments, the roommates, the times spent alone, and times spent together, are you catching on?
These are the people you've met and the places you've been. These are the experiences that continued to mold us throughout the years.
My first day of kindergarten I asked a girl playing 'house' to be my friend. She said yes, and today we celebrated our third graduation together. I consider her family.
My best friend introduced herself to me after my first high school class, Freshmen Seminar. I cried when she left to go away for college, knowing that the next four years would be much different than high school.
And my boyfriend of three years sat next to me in my first college class, Discover Chicago. He had been the friend I needed most during these years and grown to be a special part of my life.
And now two and a half hours later, my row began to line up. It was time to receive our diplomas and our turn to stand at the front of the auditorium and look back at our fellow classmates wishing them the best. I gripped onto the railing as I concentrated on every step walking up those stairs, careful not to fall. And then my name was called, 'Carrie Schwebl.' I smiled big and walked across the stage.
Everyone felt something different during their moment, but once their moment passed, what did they feel? When I stepped down from the stage and back to my section, I knew this was it. And I wasn't nervous, I wasn't overwhelmed or thinking 'now what?'. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I felt free.
We were told to go out and live what we have dreamed of since we were children. Follow the dreams that we've thought about following, travel to the places we thought about traveling to, this was the time to do it.
This chapter has closed, Sunday June 14 at 11:34am. And now for this new chapter of our lives, we will meet people we need to meet and go places we need to go.
Congrats you guys! Enjoy round two!
-- Post From My iPhone
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Curiosity and the bad guy
When you hear sirens flying down the expressway, or when a dozen squad cars swarm in front of a shopping center, or yellow caution tape is draped around a house down the street, it is human nature to be curious.
And maybe the same goes for relationships. We are curious. It always seems to be a girl who falls for the bad guy—the asshole—the rebel.
He doesn’t pay attention to her; it takes him days to return the phone call and hours to return the text message. The simplest things are typically aborted to these types of guys. But we love it. The attraction pulls us in, just like the caution tape, the sirens, and the swarms of cop cars.
Is it the curiosity that gets us? Maybe that’s what keeps us hanging on.
My girlfriends and I were talking over strong martinis the other night. I explained to them my thoughts on the relation between men and caution tape. They laughed, but understood.
We want to know what's behind the un-attentiveness, we want more. And the yellow caution tape tells us there’s more. Are you catching on yet?The guy=caution tape, sirens, squad cars.
He will dish out the “oh you’re so beautiful”s, flirt with you, promise you the world, and then forget to call you later that night. So this type of behavior creates a type of warning sign, and a curiosity, 'why didn't he call me?', and we hate to love it.
So what do we do?
We become the caution tape. Stop giving so much information. Instead of the entire, "Oh I'm going to dinner with Susan, Laurie, and Anne tonight at the Blue Iguana and we're going to have sushi and drinks, I should be home around ten."
Stop that.
Try making them curious. You become the caution tape, let them ask the questions for a change. I'm not saying to ignore your man, I'm saying to worry about yourself first. You do not have to share every last detail with him.
They will ask, eventually.
Let them use their imagination. After all, when you see caution tape, you use yours.
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