As you know it is fall. fall is my favorite season, i don't know why. that's a lie. i do. it's because fall is when school starts. i'm a geek. i also love coats. and fall is the start of coat season. i also loves men's coat. on myself as well as on men.
anyway that's not the point.
The point is this; a few days ago i saw the most beautiful leaf in the history of autumn. it was hanging from a tree on campus outside of my old residence hall. all of the leaves on this tree were still green. and was walking past this building the way i have so many times before only i looked up and something stopped me.
there was leaf on this completely green tree that was changing. it was the only one. and it was turning this beautiful red color just around the edges. and it was magnificent. but i started to think to myself about changing.
i wondered what it must be like to be the leaf that changes first. it must be so hard to be the first one to do things.
then again i wouldn't know.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
MKT 350
I'm in a marketing class. it's called marketing 350- principles of marketing. did you know that i was once upon a time going to be a marketing minor? anyway that didn't pan out.
but i'm in this class with a professor named Dr. Linda Pettijohn, she's very chic and trendy and dresses very well. She's obviously quite successful.
anyway i'm in this class learning about businesses and business relationships. which, you guessed it, are a lot like people relationships. i'll explain.
one interesting thing that we learned about in marketing 350 in the concept of core competency. A business' core competency is essentially what they do best. For example the core competency of Starbuck's is their ability to make a good cup of coffee. Coffee is what they do best.
Once you determine your core competency you can determine your market. Your market is the group of people who want what you have to offer. The market for Starbuck's is people who want a good cup of coffee.
Core Competency defines your Market.
Now, intially when I thought about this i immediatly applied it to personality. Who are you at your core? What's the one thing that you do best? And in relation to that one thing who is your market? Who wants, or needs, the best you have to offer?
I asked myself. And the one thing that I think I do best is listen. I am a good listener. Which I know a lot of people would say about themselves. But I feel like I listen intensely. I am genuinly interested in every word that anybody has to say. Listening is my core competency. And my market?
Anyone who wants or needs to talk I guess.
I think I'm going into the right profession.
Then I started to thinking about a friend of mine. A young woman, very attractive and exceptionally spirited. This friend of mine is a "dater". She dates, and meets, and mixes, and mingles with what seems like a new guy all the time. Young men seem to really like her. A little too much too soon one could argue. And she always has a new "stalker", or new guy in her life. Although none of these relationships never seem to get off the ground, or last very long at all. Now as much as I like this friend of mine and think that she's lovely, I couldn't help but wonder:
What do they love so much about her initially? And how come it never lasts?
Because let's face it don't we all those people? The guys or girls who are always dating someone new. Always meeting someone new. Always finding themselves romantically involved with what seems like an endless parade of people all marching proudly, smiling as they wave, down the main street of this person's lovelife. All the while this guy or girl that we know is dressed as the parade grand marshal throwing candy down to us from their float as we sit alone in a lawnchair watching from the sidewalk.
Then I thought about something else that I learned in marketing.
It's very important to stick closely to your core competency. Be exclusive to your market. If you're Starbuck's and you make a good cup of coffee and you are doing really well with your market of good coffee drinkers, if you start offering too much, like hamburgers suddenly or soccer balls, people who just want good coffee maybe aren't going to feel so welcome at the coffee house. While you may think that the market will increase and you'll get more customers. The opposite is true. Those who once felt that you catered especially to them will think that you don't. And they'll go to someone who does. People want to feel that you have what only they need. Someone who doesn't want hamburgers or soccer balls may begin to feel out of place at a Starbuck's that sells them.
Because when you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one.
Those people we all know, the ones with the parades, the reason the line of people seems so endless is because they manage to interest everyone. But the reason that so many people are always coming and going is because these people get uncomfortable with so many others in the line. When you appeal to everybody you appeal to nobody.
And I think that the reason so many people want to appeal to everyone is because they are a bit unaware of who they are at their core. Or maybe they know completely and they're scared. My advice to them is this:
Never fear the person you are at the center of yourself. Because there are people in this world who want and need what only you have to offer.
For every core competency, the market is vast.
but i'm in this class with a professor named Dr. Linda Pettijohn, she's very chic and trendy and dresses very well. She's obviously quite successful.
anyway i'm in this class learning about businesses and business relationships. which, you guessed it, are a lot like people relationships. i'll explain.
one interesting thing that we learned about in marketing 350 in the concept of core competency. A business' core competency is essentially what they do best. For example the core competency of Starbuck's is their ability to make a good cup of coffee. Coffee is what they do best.
Once you determine your core competency you can determine your market. Your market is the group of people who want what you have to offer. The market for Starbuck's is people who want a good cup of coffee.
Core Competency defines your Market.
Now, intially when I thought about this i immediatly applied it to personality. Who are you at your core? What's the one thing that you do best? And in relation to that one thing who is your market? Who wants, or needs, the best you have to offer?
I asked myself. And the one thing that I think I do best is listen. I am a good listener. Which I know a lot of people would say about themselves. But I feel like I listen intensely. I am genuinly interested in every word that anybody has to say. Listening is my core competency. And my market?
Anyone who wants or needs to talk I guess.
I think I'm going into the right profession.
Then I started to thinking about a friend of mine. A young woman, very attractive and exceptionally spirited. This friend of mine is a "dater". She dates, and meets, and mixes, and mingles with what seems like a new guy all the time. Young men seem to really like her. A little too much too soon one could argue. And she always has a new "stalker", or new guy in her life. Although none of these relationships never seem to get off the ground, or last very long at all. Now as much as I like this friend of mine and think that she's lovely, I couldn't help but wonder:
What do they love so much about her initially? And how come it never lasts?
Because let's face it don't we all those people? The guys or girls who are always dating someone new. Always meeting someone new. Always finding themselves romantically involved with what seems like an endless parade of people all marching proudly, smiling as they wave, down the main street of this person's lovelife. All the while this guy or girl that we know is dressed as the parade grand marshal throwing candy down to us from their float as we sit alone in a lawnchair watching from the sidewalk.
Then I thought about something else that I learned in marketing.
It's very important to stick closely to your core competency. Be exclusive to your market. If you're Starbuck's and you make a good cup of coffee and you are doing really well with your market of good coffee drinkers, if you start offering too much, like hamburgers suddenly or soccer balls, people who just want good coffee maybe aren't going to feel so welcome at the coffee house. While you may think that the market will increase and you'll get more customers. The opposite is true. Those who once felt that you catered especially to them will think that you don't. And they'll go to someone who does. People want to feel that you have what only they need. Someone who doesn't want hamburgers or soccer balls may begin to feel out of place at a Starbuck's that sells them.
Because when you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one.
Those people we all know, the ones with the parades, the reason the line of people seems so endless is because they manage to interest everyone. But the reason that so many people are always coming and going is because these people get uncomfortable with so many others in the line. When you appeal to everybody you appeal to nobody.
And I think that the reason so many people want to appeal to everyone is because they are a bit unaware of who they are at their core. Or maybe they know completely and they're scared. My advice to them is this:
Never fear the person you are at the center of yourself. Because there are people in this world who want and need what only you have to offer.
For every core competency, the market is vast.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
earrings
anyone who knows me knows that i like to wear earrings. a lot. i have a million pairs and, i don't know, their kind of my "thing". i blame my mother.
i have this one pair of earrings. they are really cool looking. i paid about 99 cents for them at a beauty supply store about 2 years ago. they are lovely. silver round and they have these little cutouts in them. when i bought them i thought they were beautiful and interesting. everyone else i knew really liked them as well.
i have lost these earrings twice. and each time i find them. so not only are they pretty and cool, i also think they're lucky.
another thing i loved about these earrings was that i could where them with absolutely anything! no matter what i was wearing or where i was going i could put on these earrings and they always looked good. they always worked. I could wear them everyday with a t-shirt, they looked good for a night out. they were my absolute favorite. every single time i put them on i felt like myself. these earrings were perfect.
these earrings always fit.
somewhere along the line in the last few months something changed. i have tried to wear these earrings on several different occasions. with t-shirts, with cute tops for a night out, anytime really just like before. but every time they haven't been right.
"maybe it's my new haircut" i've said to myself. but i don't believe that. it has to be something else. because i have other earrings that in my opinion look just as good as they did before if not better. the shape of my face hasn't changed. and neither has my sense of style ...really. or has it?
it must be something about my perception. something in the way i see the earrings has changed, and something in the way i see them now has made them stop working for me.
when i realized this is stand in front of the bathroom mirror stunned by this earring dilemma and it's parallel to my present life.
my life is changing. sooner than i think anyone knows, even me. it's even stranger because i feel as though i cannot wait for this change to happen. i cannot wait for the next part of my life. so much so that embracing my present life has become very difficult.
and all i can think about is how things used to be. how a used to be happy with my life. everything about it was great. i was doing everything that i wanted to do, learning all that i wanted to learn, enjoying all that good about my life. and recently something changed. and you guessed it, it was my perspective on life. on my life.
i started to think about the next phase of my life and as it got closer at the very same time it got further away. and instead of being excited about the next part of my life i got upset that it wasn't here yet. and that's when everything all at once started to feel different. everything i thought about my life changed. and suddenly it isn't what i want.
it doesn't fit.
i want something different, new and exciting. and it's so upsetting because, just like the earrings, i'm used to living a life that works for me all the time, no matter what. if it doesn't i make a change. but this time i can't. i just have to wait. i have to wait and wear earrings that don't make me feel like myself anymore.
and it's astonishing. because with the earrings, i still have them. and i still like them, though not as much as before. i am grateful for my life and all that it has made me. i'm grateful to be where i am in life, though not as much as before. and even though i do believe that one day i will find another pair of earrings that are my new favorite, and one day i will live a life that makes me very grateful again, the question i ask myself all the time is
"what do i wear in the meantime?"
i have this one pair of earrings. they are really cool looking. i paid about 99 cents for them at a beauty supply store about 2 years ago. they are lovely. silver round and they have these little cutouts in them. when i bought them i thought they were beautiful and interesting. everyone else i knew really liked them as well.
i have lost these earrings twice. and each time i find them. so not only are they pretty and cool, i also think they're lucky.
another thing i loved about these earrings was that i could where them with absolutely anything! no matter what i was wearing or where i was going i could put on these earrings and they always looked good. they always worked. I could wear them everyday with a t-shirt, they looked good for a night out. they were my absolute favorite. every single time i put them on i felt like myself. these earrings were perfect.
these earrings always fit.
somewhere along the line in the last few months something changed. i have tried to wear these earrings on several different occasions. with t-shirts, with cute tops for a night out, anytime really just like before. but every time they haven't been right.
"maybe it's my new haircut" i've said to myself. but i don't believe that. it has to be something else. because i have other earrings that in my opinion look just as good as they did before if not better. the shape of my face hasn't changed. and neither has my sense of style ...really. or has it?
it must be something about my perception. something in the way i see the earrings has changed, and something in the way i see them now has made them stop working for me.
when i realized this is stand in front of the bathroom mirror stunned by this earring dilemma and it's parallel to my present life.
my life is changing. sooner than i think anyone knows, even me. it's even stranger because i feel as though i cannot wait for this change to happen. i cannot wait for the next part of my life. so much so that embracing my present life has become very difficult.
and all i can think about is how things used to be. how a used to be happy with my life. everything about it was great. i was doing everything that i wanted to do, learning all that i wanted to learn, enjoying all that good about my life. and recently something changed. and you guessed it, it was my perspective on life. on my life.
i started to think about the next phase of my life and as it got closer at the very same time it got further away. and instead of being excited about the next part of my life i got upset that it wasn't here yet. and that's when everything all at once started to feel different. everything i thought about my life changed. and suddenly it isn't what i want.
it doesn't fit.
i want something different, new and exciting. and it's so upsetting because, just like the earrings, i'm used to living a life that works for me all the time, no matter what. if it doesn't i make a change. but this time i can't. i just have to wait. i have to wait and wear earrings that don't make me feel like myself anymore.
and it's astonishing. because with the earrings, i still have them. and i still like them, though not as much as before. i am grateful for my life and all that it has made me. i'm grateful to be where i am in life, though not as much as before. and even though i do believe that one day i will find another pair of earrings that are my new favorite, and one day i will live a life that makes me very grateful again, the question i ask myself all the time is
"what do i wear in the meantime?"
Sunday, June 15, 2008
i wish i could call jennifer anniston...
because for starters i am one of those people who sometimes can't help but feel like celebrities are friends of mine. i honestly still can't believe that Halle Berry has yet to send me a baby picture.
but jennifer anniston, i feel like she is distant aquaintance. not a bff or anything. more like a girl i had a class with a few semesters ago and never really talked to again. but every now and then (now that i'm watching The Breakup) she comes to mind. Like when i see her in an advertisement for SmartWater and she looks fabulous, in my mind i literally think, "oh that's my friend jenni (yes with an 'i'), i've been meaning to give her a call and maybe get drinks."
mainly because i'm worried about her. i wonder what she's going through. in some ways i think i know. while she's wildly successful, talented, beautiful and yet i feel like i can tell she wants something more.
i think she wants to be married. of course she does, she got married once before so that was a life she chose. i mean we all saw the wedding photos, just lovely. (i wonder what she did with them.)
i think what she wants now is a baby. and of course this is all hearsay because as much as i wish we were girlfriends we are not. and even if we were i haven't called her in months.
and of course it's all made worse because she has to watch Brad Pitt have baby after baby after baby with what's her name. Whom i do not hate either. and i'm sure that jenni doesn't hate her. i'm sure she's a big enough person to be happy for them and their family. i wish i could always be so big.
it isn't so much that she's jealous of what they have or what anybody has because she's smart enough to know that she has plenty (the water helps). she probably just wishes that things in her life were really working out as well. and i know the feeling.
me and jenni would have so much to talk about.
i wonder if she has facebook.
but jennifer anniston, i feel like she is distant aquaintance. not a bff or anything. more like a girl i had a class with a few semesters ago and never really talked to again. but every now and then (now that i'm watching The Breakup) she comes to mind. Like when i see her in an advertisement for SmartWater and she looks fabulous, in my mind i literally think, "oh that's my friend jenni (yes with an 'i'), i've been meaning to give her a call and maybe get drinks."
mainly because i'm worried about her. i wonder what she's going through. in some ways i think i know. while she's wildly successful, talented, beautiful and yet i feel like i can tell she wants something more.
i think she wants to be married. of course she does, she got married once before so that was a life she chose. i mean we all saw the wedding photos, just lovely. (i wonder what she did with them.)
i think what she wants now is a baby. and of course this is all hearsay because as much as i wish we were girlfriends we are not. and even if we were i haven't called her in months.
and of course it's all made worse because she has to watch Brad Pitt have baby after baby after baby with what's her name. Whom i do not hate either. and i'm sure that jenni doesn't hate her. i'm sure she's a big enough person to be happy for them and their family. i wish i could always be so big.
it isn't so much that she's jealous of what they have or what anybody has because she's smart enough to know that she has plenty (the water helps). she probably just wishes that things in her life were really working out as well. and i know the feeling.
me and jenni would have so much to talk about.
i wonder if she has facebook.
those bumps on your tongue
you know those little bumps you get on your tongue sometimes?
they are really irritating. they sting and hurt.
my granny used to say that you got them from lying. she calls them lie bumps.
i never knew you could get them from lying to yourself.
they are really irritating. they sting and hurt.
my granny used to say that you got them from lying. she calls them lie bumps.
i never knew you could get them from lying to yourself.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 2008
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