I know I can’t be the only one who thinks this is the worst positioning of copy from a huge corporation…
Then again…it was on 95 North heading into NE Philly… So maybe there was some strategy behind this …
RECEIVED THE BEST NEWS EVER TODAY!
I was selected as a recipient of a Scholarship Program in partnership with Nokia that will provide complimentary Campus Passes to attend Social Media Week in NYC. This program targeted startups, small businesses, non-profits & students.
What I Know Now: If you aren’t going to take risks and reach out, what makes you think you’re going to stand out?
(#Apple has the best shit & I recently read a study that said people who use the #iPhone are viewed as more attractive 💁)
If you happen to remember your Saturday evening….
Psh, some of you are probably probably posting a “#selfie” of you and your #bestie or #bro right this second
Remember you can always submit your own story at WhatIKnowNoww@gmail.com
If you think it is worthy of my time… (I’m taking 16 credits right now & involved with five million different things that I should’ve said no about in the first place. I work on limited time 24/7 & I don’t like to waste it. I don’t think that’s rude — it’s honest! I’m a busy fucking person) if there’s a problem with that….
I will be following back, retweeting, & if yours is the best story I will be choosing a submission as a featured guest post for later on this week
I have a few things to share with all of you & we have a lot of catching up to do, but I’ll save that for later…believe me you don’t want to miss this one!
What you should know about the college application process! I’ve been through this too many times to count over the past few years & this post shares some great tips!
I may add though: set all your personal social media to private. Admissions doesn’t need to know about the two wine coolers you chugged last weekend that got you “soooooooo wastedddddd.”
Just….don’t.
Hello fellow high schoolers, middle schoolers and late bloomers alike,
I’m here with a new series for y’all called: College Confusion Clarified (As you may have notice)
I’m here to help you, help yourself through the most confusing time ever. Whether you are in the time crunch of getting those app’s in by January (which is right around the corner so message me with any immediate help! info will be at the end!) or you still have some time, this series is for you!
Not to toot my own horn, but I’m 4 for 4 in the application process! I’ve been accepted into Le Moyne, Saint Joseph’s, Fairfield and Mercyhurst, all with scholarships! *END BRAG SHESH*
This first post is going to be about the essay. The dreaded common app essay.
If you can, you will want to get it done as early as possible. But if you are…
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(Thank fucking god, because I’m two seconds away from a mental breakdown!)
Which is basically that this shit takes forever to make & it sucks up ALL your time.
…but I don’t think that’s what my professor was looking to hear, so I had to actually write a legitimate paper without using the word “fuck” or making any references towards how much I drank last night.
So, as you can see this was naturally super hard for me, but here goes nothing:
The following is what I know now about “What I Know Now…”
Everybody, one way or another, is subjected to new experiences and those experiences allow us to obtain a new gained knowledge. These pieces of knowledge are things that we take with us after each experience can and should be shared, which was exactly why “What I Know Now” was created. There are many things I wish I knew in the beginning of this semester about participatory media that I know now. I created a blog on WordPress, which I used as my homepage, along with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. Being that I have never created anything like this before, everything was a learning experience for me. There are things I would have changed looking back and things I’m glad I was able to learn and incorporate, but the overall result I feel was a success.
These participatory media’s used for “What I Know Now…” allowed me to substantially expand my network, which was necessary in order for my opportunities of interaction to increase. The blog itself has gotten over 1,000 views and of those 1,000 views 70 of them have been from other countries. Without these participatory technologies, this would have been near close to impossible. A contributing factor for these statistics were small world networks that Shirky described. The “What I Know Now…” Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages had smaller groups, but more dense connections. The majority of these people were classmates, friends, or family that I had personally invited myself. These people helped spread the word about the project initially by posting to their own social media sites and I even had a few people send out e-mails to family, which jump started expanding my network. Not only did I use the “What I Know Now…” social media pages to promote my posts, but I also used my own personal pages, along with the WordPress community. By posting to my personal pages I had a large group that I was speaking to with hundreds of loose connections. A few of those loose connections ended up being people who were highly connected. These people contributed to a large part of these views when they posted the link to their own personal page, where then thousands of their friends then had access to my blog. The WordPress community also allowed for me to expand my network when two people reblogged my post “67 Things I Wish I Knew at 18…” which allowed their own followers to be referred to my site. I quickly realized that expanding your network is critical when using participatory technologies, but it is much harder than it seems.
Rainie and Wellman’s theory of networked individualism was described as an operating system, because it described the way in which people connect, communicate, and exchange information. “What I Know Now…” utilized all these aspects of networked individualism clearly and efficiently. Immediately after creating the participatory technologies I used for this project, I began to send out friend requests and searched hashtags, names, and topics so that I was able to connect with people and vice versa. Once I did this, I made a mistake. I didn’t go back to following people or searching for people who may have had similar interests for about a month. I figured people would both see my personal pages and spread the word by sharing them on theirs or somehow someway people would miraculously find my blog or other participatory technologies. I quickly saw I was wrong and this ended up setting me back in regards to communicating with people. I published my last post for this semester today and I have a grand total of sixteen comments. I did increase the communication towards the end of this semester by commenting several times a week on people who used some of the same hashtags or keywords as the “What I Know Now…” blog. Although it was tedious, it did allow me to gain some unexpected feedback through communication with these people who chose to participate with me. Several people that I connected and communicated with actually ended up sharing and exchanging a post I had written on Facebook or on Twitter close to 400+ times. Scrolling through my newsfeed one day I came across a screen shot with part of paragraph I had written on Instagram. Even two people from the WordPress community reblogged the whole thing all together onto their own personal pages. There were several exchanges going on throughout this experience. I myself could’ve done more for the communities I was involved in, but thankfully I had a network that was happy to help spread the word. Most of the networked individualism I experienced happened in a looser more fragmented network, which allowed for the barriers to break from my small groups to a broader personal network by using these participatory technologies.
Even though I exceeded all my personal expectations, “What I Know Now…” is still in an early developmental phase. In these early stages, it is vital that the virtual self is on that is well connected and accepted by the targeted online community. Virtual networks give you the ability to leverage the human resources we need to make these technologies work. Expanding my network and engaging in the process of networked individualism will allow me to continue to expand my audience and online presence.
I will forever kick myself for being too stubborn to listen to everyone when they said not to live with your best friend freshman year. Teachers, parents, other friends, strangers… I should have listened. I know some people whose freshman year living situations worked out fine but my experience was terrible. I lost a good friend because of it and created a lot of awkward moments for myself for the rest of my freshman year. Advice: You don’t know someone till you live with them… no matter how many sleepovers you’ve had. You’ll be left getting drunk with your friends crying over the letter she left on your bed about how she was leaving you.
Do not get attached. I met my first boyfriend move in day and dated him until March. Freshman year is a time for you to experiment, put yourself out there. Figure out what you like and what you don’t. I went into college with this plan to meet the perfect guy the first day, date throughout college and then get married. NO. A thousand times NOOOO. Do not do this. This will lead to you trying to take a shit-ton of Advil to try to function and end up getting sent home from to class after he tells you he cheated on you and while he “loves” you he was never “in love” with you. But hell, it’s not like you had a heart anyway.
If you ask any of my friends they will probably tell you that I’m one of the weirdest people they have ever met. In high school being myself only brought me unwanted attention so I tried to be more All-American. I shopped at the same stores as everyone else, I never truly spoke my mind, I was a clone. When I got to college I was excited to be who ever the fuck I wanted to be. Honestly I’m still working on totally being myself, but once I figured out that people would like me no matter what I started getting rid of all my old clothes and wearing what I wanted to wear. I took on more and more leadership roles and I spoke my mind. Everyday I take a chance that I might offend someone by being who I am. The truth is there is no better feeling than not wearing a bra.
WhatIKnowNoww@gmail.com
I’ve had my share of “what I know now…” moments this but but,
I felt this entry was appropriate.
My boyfriend and I were heading up to school on a Friday night to study with one of my friends…
yes you read that right. I was studying…on a Friday.
ONLY because we had plans Saturday night and I wanted to have a good time “guilt-free”…
I had stopped at little corner store in town before we left and grabbed a few lollipops and an energy drink to give myself a severe sugar rush, so I could somehow manage to teach myself all 88 constellations … which by the way is near close to impossible…incase you were wondering.
I started heading out of my town and I happen to glance in my rearview mirror
to see that there’s a police officer behind me…
Now…I don’t know about anyone else, but anytime a cop is following me I feel like I either have one of the following in my car:
a dead body
or
massive amounts of crack …
So, naturally I get nervous, but my boyfriend reassured me there was no way I was getting pulled over, because I had done NOTHING wrong.
The light turns green
…and the cops lights go on.
FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK.
I grab my registration and insurance (the usual stuff they ask for) and wait for the officer to walk up to my car. At this point I’m convinced he must have seen how ridiculously good looking I was (considering he was riding my ass the whole time down the road) and was pulling me over for my telephone number.
The officer walks up to my window and starts his small talk. Anyone under the age of twenty-five should know what I mean what I say this …
Officer: Hey how’s it goin’
Me: uh (awkward) alright I’m just about to go up to school to study…
Now, I guess I should’ve known that probably sounded shady, because what college student studies on a friday? I’ll tell you who…a college student who wants to get wasted Saturday and doesn’t want to spend all day doing homework on a Sunday hung-the-fuck-over.
We’ve all been there, done that, and it’s the equivalent to water torture.
ANYWAY.
The officer asks if I have any warrants and of course I say no. I’ve never even had a traffic ticket. In my life. EVER. I was pretty positive he was going to write me a little warning with his number on the back with a wink face and a little message that says “call me”…
Small talk police officer struts back to my car and asks me to step out of the vehicle.
… LIKE WHAT?! STEP OUT OF THE VEHICLE, FOR WHAT?!
Now at this point I’m thinking, “Shit, I must have a taillight out…”
Now pay attention because this is where things get even more shady
than sitting under an umbrella at the beach…
He brings me on the SIDE of his police car….
They are supposed to bring the person under question in front of the vehicle so that their little video camera can catch everything on tape.
The officer proceeds to tell me, not ASK ME, but tell me that my car smells like “weed”
…and what do I have to say about that?
I just stared at him for a second and said…
“you mean weed as in like something you pull out of your garden right?”
The officer did not find this funny. I mean that is a pretty objective statement. We all have different noses. Personally, I thought my car smelled like Burberry Britt (the best smelling perfume ever), but I digress…
As the conversation with the broken nosed officer continued, a brand new mercedes pulled up and a younger man hopped out. I noticed that he had the same “strut” as the officer in uniform and OF COURSE he introduced himself as an undercover.
Now, at this point I’m not even mad that this is going on. I’m more mad that my parents pay all these ridiculous taxes year after year so that undercover cops can drive around in 2013 Mercedes Benz’s.
The uniformed officer explained to the undercover the “situation” (as they called it)…
The undercover began to tell me that he knew I had “weed” in my car, because he saw me buy a “blunt” at the store I was at earlier (remember the convenience store I stopped at?)
Now, for you “older” generations reading this apparently kids these days buy one of these to roll up a joint..
ANYWAY…
As I said earlier I had bought a few lollipops and an energy drink and most defiantly not a “blunt”…
So I explain to the undercover and the uniformed officer what was purchased in the store and that
EVEN IF I HAD BOUGHT A BLUNT IS IT ILLEGAL TO PURCHASE TOBACCO NOW?
I wasn’t aware that the laws had changed over night…
By now you all should know… I have a mouth on me and it gets me into trouble from time to time. Both of the nosey officers did not like that so they proceed to explain that they are going to search my car…
NOW HERE’S SOME ISSUES WITH THAT:
1. The officer must ASK to search the vehicle, not demand that your vehicle be searched
but the even bigger issue was …
2. WHERE THE HELL IS THE PROBABLE CAUSE HERE?
So, being that I have nothing to hide… I sign a few papers for the DICK HEAD undercover
(oops sorry didn’t mean to say that)
the paper work had a few statements such as, but not word for word:
1. you may stop the search at anytime
2. anything found in the vehicle you are responsible for
3. and a bunch of crap about finding weapons….
…like come on, do I look like somebody who is carrying around an AK47 in my car? No. Didn’t think so.
He also explained to me that there is a “new” law that was recently put into effect so that if anything illegal is found in my car I can go to jail for months, have my car impounded, and I would be kicked out of college.
Also, I should remind you again that I was with my boyfriend. They had separated us from the beginning, which I understand is typical protocol for a search of a vehicle. Now, my boyfriend has the upper most respect for authority, but when he feels like he’s being violated…he’ll make sure you know that he feels that way. Before my car was searched, being that all the officers present were male they were not able to search me, but they did search my boyfriend… ALL OVER. In places I don’t even want to type … GAG
So as the undercover starts searching my vehicle my boyfriend walks over to me and tells me I’m an idiot for not wearing my seatbelt.
Now…my father got into a horrible car accident when I was younger and almost lost his life due to not wearing a seatbelt, so I ALWAYS wear mine. It’s like automatic as soon as I get into my car.
I NEVER, EVER, EVER drive without my seatbelt on.
At this point I start to realize something isn’t right here… and I can feel a freak out coming on…
So, I start screaming
“STOP THE SEARCH, STOP THE FUCKING SEARCH RIGHT NOW”
The little undercover cop walks (or should I say struts) over with a big smile on his face thinking I was going to admit to something to make his life easier.
WRONG SIR.
I kindly asked “I’m just wondering why did I get pulled over in the first place?”
The undercover literally started stuttering.. “Uh, well, uh, um, you didn’t have your seat belt on…”
You should know when I know I’m right…which I usually am…I will end up making you look dumb…
and he asked for it.
I replied, “No, I had my seatbelt on. I always wear my seatbelt…so that is a lie. You told me you that I was pulled over due to a purchase you “saw” me make”
The obviously corrupt undercover officer argued with me for a few minutes, until my boyfriend chimed in and said “you said that you pulled her over because she wasn’t wearing a seat belt…”
SO OBVIOUSLY SOMEBODY IS LYING HERE…
So I tell the corrupt undercover officer that if he is SO POSITIVE that I didn’t have my seat belt on and since he was SO CLOSE to the store that he saw me purchase a “blunt” then we should take a look at the little video camera in the police car.
the uniformed officer that pulled me over just so happened to not have his camera on
…I agree, pretty convienent given the situation at hand.
I wish I could explain to you what I said next, but I basically blacked out and started screaming about how ridiculous and illegal this situation was…
So, I calmed myself due to the fact that it would be really embarrassing to get arrested for screaming at a police officer. I mean if I am going to get arrested I would’ve liked to had a better story, something with more substance other than me just screaming “liar liar pants on fire” to the officers.
So at this point the corrupt undercover officer SCREAMS at my boyfriend and I to get back in my vehicle…and we’re both just sitting in my car totally clueless as to WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON
As I sat back down in my car I just couldn’t even fathom how unreal this whole situation was…
so naturally…I waited for Ashton Kutcher to come out
… but he didn’t. Instead the uniformed police officer walked up to my window handed me back my belongings and with all seriousness said …
“Next time…just don’t let him search your car”
I WAS GIVEN A CHOICE ASSHOLE.
So, what do I wish I knew then that I know now…
Don’t buy lollipops or soda at a convienience store, certain police officers are obviously blind and can’t tell the difference between tobacco, a piece of candy and a drink….
It was like the Travyon Martin case except that I’m white, a girl, and I didn’t buy skittles…
I bought a lollipop.
Shit. I’m gonna get hate mail for that, but it’s the same type of situation. I was profiled.
Not all cops are good cops. I mean obviously we’ve all heard the stories of the corrupt police officers, but a small amount of them for some reason believe that they are the law of the land. They are there to enforce the law, not make up new versions of the law to trick citizens.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!
I can’t stress this enough…If I had known even just a few basic laws
most of this situation wouldn’t have happened…
I mean at the very least…watch Legally Blonde and learn some shit
What i know now... 