Which is it?

Over the course of my college career (which is coming to an end much sooner than I want it to), I have had a variety of majors. I started out thinking that elementary education was the one for me. Then I jumped to journalism, which I have always been interested in. Next I hopped over to English and am sticking with it. Going to grad school to get a Masters of Art in Teaching is much easier with an English degree than a journalism one and they overlap quite a bit in the professional world.

Until today, I hadn't really noticed how much each one of them influenced my writing style. Journalists have a straightforward edge in their style of writing that great poets and literary writers have never felt the need to recreate. Somehow I am stuck in the middle with no clear idea of how to integrate the two methods.

During my sophomore year here at UNC, I took a news writing class. For 3 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays beginning at 8 am, I was forced to write news articles with speed and accuracy with little to no room for creativity. Adding to the stress of this was the problem of trying to eliminate as many words as possible because newspapers have to pay to print based on the amount of words in an article. In fact, the best grade I ever got in that class came on a day when I felt so defeated by the blunt way of writing that I failed to put any personality into my article.

However, English classes require basically the opposite of that writing style. Ever since taking that newswriting class, I haven't quite been able to get a grip on the creative writing that I used to love so much and did without realizing it. I'm still stuck thinking about ways to eliminate words and stick to an unbiased view on the subject when my writing should be full of personality and spirit.

Yesterday, I worked on and completed a paper that's not due until tomorrow. It was a close reading of the final paragraphs of the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Partially trying to show off and trick my teacher into thinking I am more of an overachiever than I have ever been in my life, I quickly became humbled.

After looking my paper over, his response was "It's a great start but..." and told me all his criticisms of the paper. The first thing he told me was that my paper was too coherent and clear. TOO COHERENT AND CLEAR?! I didn't even know anyone could complain about that. He explained by saying that my writing just wasn't analytical enough and that if to make this paper more elaborate and introduce new ideas, I had to sacrifice some clarity in the paper, he would fully understand.

So now I'm sitting outside at one of my favorite places in Chapel Hill, Foster's Market, trying to figure out how to make my paper more obscure and less orderly. It might be the most odd task I've ever had to perform on a paper.

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." - Confucius

Shoes of TOMorrow.

A couple of nights ago, I had the privilege of hearing Blake Mycoskie, creator and founder of Toms Shoes, speak at UNC. At just 33 years old, Mycoskie has developed six businesses but the one he has fallen in love with is TOMS. With the slogan "One for One," Toms Shoes donates one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair it sells. To date, Mycoskie said that more than 400,000 children have been given shoes.

I have been hearing about TOMS for the past year and fell in love with the idea of the company as soon as I heard about it. After hearing Mycoskie speak, I respect him and the company even more. Throughout his speech, he explained a lot of things about the company that shocked me.

One of these things was the fact that the disease, podoconiosis, which children often catch as a result of going barefoot in contaminated soil is resolved just by giving a kid a pair of shoes. Blake also mentioned that while the disease is serious, its aftermath is the hardest part for students.

After getting the disease, the legs of these children swell up to look comparable to those of an elephant, as Mycoskie described it. When this has happened, children are no longer allowed to go school or public places anymore. Even more appalling is that many of these kids end up committing suicide...all because they didn't have a pair of shoes.

Another interesting point of Mycoskie's speech involves the financial aspect of the company. TOMS is not a non-profit organization, which surprised me. However, Blake went on to say that if he had enough money when he began the company to pay for 40,000 pairs of shoes. By making this company for-profit and investing that money, he has been able to supply nearly half a million children with shoes.

One other thing that Blake said frequently confused people was the name of the company. When he started the company, he wanted to call it Tomorrow Shoes because if they were bought today, a child would get a pair tomorrow. But as he and his friends began designing the shoes, they realized that most other shoes had a little label on the back and the word "tomorrow" would never fit on one. So he shorted it to TOMS!

The TOMS website has more information on the foundation of the company and how people can support the company and get involved. Blake mentioned that the easiest way to get involved is to buy a pair of TOMS. He has a theory that every person who buys a pair is responsible for 10-2o kids getting shoes due to the free advertisement- so you should order some today!

When Animals Attack

Since last week, I have become somewhat fearful of animals. I began reading "Moby Dick" and this is when the fear began. As I read through this classic tale, I am astounded at how much damage one whale has done to so many characters in the novel. Ahab, the Captain of the ship, has dedicated his whole life to getting revenge on one whale who ate his leg years ago.

Thanks to the novel itself and this picture that my teacher put up on the big screen in class one day, I now walk around with the fear that a great white whale could attack me at any minute.

This past weekend, I had a few more run-ins with animals that lead me to think they are all up to something.

On Sunday morning around 5:30, I was driving to my parents house. On the way home, I had been counting how many deer I had seen. I was up to 7 and that doesn't include the ones I saw before I started keeping a tally. On the way home, the thought flashed in my mind that of how lucky it is that I had never hit a deer before. Oh how shocked I was when I felt something crash into the side of my car. It was a deer. Thanks NC Wildlife for keeping me modest.

My next encounter occurred just yesterday when I went to the doctor and found out that I most likely had Swine Flu over the past week without even realizing it. So sneaky, you guys.

The combination of all these things has got me thinking...what if "Pinky and the Brain" wasn't just a cartoon? WHAT IF THEY TAKE OVER THE WORLD?

I love Kanye's big ego too, Beyonce.

Beyonce and Kanye?! I can't imagine a better duo. Not only is their new song,"Ego," catchy but it gives Beyonce another chance to whip out her moves in the video. Normally I don't go for self-promoting songs (a.k.a. anything by the Pussycat Dolls) but there's just something charismatic about this pair.

I found this quote from the song all too appropriate for the blog today:

"Could've been anywhere in the world but you're here with me
That's good for my ego, ha ha, me and my ego."

Happy Labor Day weekend!