‘Tis not the end April 21, 2009

This is my last entry for all intents and purposes for my assignment. Though I do want and will try my best to keep updating this throughout the summer and final semester at USF. The experiments will hopefully grow. 

That is the only thing I am disappointed in with my experiment. I didn’t get to go as far outside of my box as I had planned and wanted too. True I took on quite an impressive and scary semester that many didn’t think I would be able to complete much less master! It looks that I will be receiving A’s and B’s for this semester. I took 5 core classes, with insane homework and assignment schedules. I completed it, stayed on top and learned A LOT. But the experiments I had wanted to achieve and do were quite extravagant. Like be blind for a day, go skydiving, a day without my cellphone ( I don’t know if I could of really done that) and others. It was just hard to put things together and achieve them while dealing with my academics. 

But I still feel like I was able to do things I normally wouldn’t do– even take 5 core classes and pass them while others thought I should and would drop or fail. I am very proud of myself and happy with my semester. I am happy with the progress I have made and look forward to growing and living more outside my box in the future. 

It is a bittersweet end. I am ECSTATIC the semester is over with the homework and assignments and crazy group projects, but I will miss the class time, my classmates who are now my friends, and even my professors. I have grown a lot, learned many skills and gained valuable experience and knowledge that will stay with me into my future classes and career. 

I am grateful to Dr. Burns for assigning us this great experiment. I know many of my peers enjoyed their social experiments as well and my friends all enjoyed being a part of pushing me outside my box, seeing how far I would go. 

So for now, for this assignment, farewell. But be sure to keep checking back as I WILL be continuing to try out different experiments and keep blogging on!!

Some people come into our lives and quickly go.  Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.  ~Flavia Weedn

 

Update to The Columbia post.. April 19, 2009

Quite soon after I posted my ‘review’ on The Columbia I was contacted by Richard Gonzmart, 4th generation owner of the restaurant and social media monitor. I was quite impressed with the prompt response to my blog along with a real life example of businesses and organizations monitoring what was said about their client, business, etc. It was quite a discussion to have in the classroom as well. You can read the comment he left on the blog on the post ‘The Columbia’. 

I just wanted to acknowledge what an awesome job Mr. Gonzmart was doing in monitoring the virtual chatter on his restaurant. 

~Kudos!

 

ABC Agency Tour with PRSSA April 11, 2009

I have been telling myself I needed to get more involved with the PRSSA @ USF. Time was just not my friend this semester. Lucky for me, I had a few of the board members (who are just AWESOME PEOPLE btw) in my classes and was able to keep up with different events and what not going on within the organization. I knew it was important for me to go on at least a tour or two of a PR agency of some sort. I missed quite a few due to classes and other time conflicts, but finally another one came up and I was able to go! 

Our group of about 20 PRSSA students went and toured the ABC agency (TV station)  in Tampa. It was amazing. We got to see all different behind the scenes activity, preparations and a live broadcast of the 12 o’clock news. It was incredibly interesting and we had a blast! We were able to learn different approaches of pitching (as PR students) to the broadcast media – what they look for, what they like/dislike, pay attention to, etc. 

It was a great learning experience and also learned about a few internships they offer. Which reminds me, I need to follow up on that ASAP!! 

What made this an “out of my norm” experience for me, is the fact that as I have been so busy this semester, any free time (ex. like when our class was cancelled) means more sleep or time to catch up on things that need to be done. I have forgone many opportunities like this because I am either lazy and don’t feel like making the effort to attend or be a part of them, or I get so caught up in what is going on in my life that I don’t realize all the amazing things just passing me by. I finally learned to sort (some) priorities and manage my time so that I could also include fun opportunities as this in my life. I also made lasting friendships this semester and made the time to hang out with people and pursue these relationships which I know will last and also benefit me in the long run. The contacts we make in college with our peers and classmates could always serve as a great help in the future. I stepped outside my bubble and lived. ~

 

      

Apologies – April 1, 2009

I am quite embarrassed that I have not kept up in posting to my blog about my adventures and new experiences outside my normal range of activities. I have kept track in my ongoing word journal, I just never had the time to upload them to my blog. This semester has without a doubt kicked my butt, but it is by far the best semester I have ever had. I have throughly enjoyed it and am thankful for the amazing professors I had. 

But enough about that. I plan to now update my social experiments

A sweet sushi addiction March 25, 2009

I just wanted to write about the fact that ever since I did my one of my first “outside the box” experiments and went to eat sushi, I feel in love and am utterly addicted to sushi. If this is even possible.

I have tried at least 3 other sushi restaurants around the Tampa and Brandon area and have yet to be disappointed. Granted it is an expensive addiction, it is just so delicious! I plan to continue on finding new favorite sushi places. I even have my mom interested and she wants to go with me and try some- as she has never had sushi before! So I am quite excited to determine my favorite sushi experience and let her enjoy it just as I have So if anyone has ideas of places I should try, please let me know! YAY SUSHI!!

An Actual Spring Break March 19, 2009

Now for most people spring break isn’t out of their social norms. For me, I have never had a good spring break. In all honesty, I have worked my spring breaks, had my car totaled on another, had my wisdom teeth pulled on another, and many more unhappy adventures. This year I told myself I would DO SOMETHING, go SOMEWHERE and have a real spring break. Making time for myself is definitely out of my box. I always put everyone and everything in front of me and before I know it, I am out of time . By making time for myself I hoped that I would be able to relax and somewhat calmly deal with life as it threw a new curve ball my way. I hoped I would be able to get in touch with the inner Jen and have fun with life.

So Spring break 2009 rolled around and plans for a cruise fell through. I was devastated. Luckily my friends and I had a back up plan. We decided to go down to Siesta Key beach in Sarasota and stay down there for a few days. Didn’t know what do do once we were there, we just wanted to get out of town and go to the beach. Early Monday morning we set out with a FULL Mustang (it was quite a sight) and began our spring break adventure.

Overall, I had an amazing time. I went out of my box and actually went away for spring break. I threw cation to the wind and went with the flow, no real planning, no agenda, just a ‘whatever’ mindset. It was quite liberating. We even went bar hopping for spring break where we didn’t know the bars. Normally we stick to our routine bars or favorite hangout spots, but since we were not in Tampa, we just randomly picked a spot to spend St. Patty’s day at. We took pictures with random people, had a blast, shared stories, drinks and dance moves. We even got a rookie cop to pose for a photo with us. I had never just lived on a whim like that and it was a blast.

Later that week, literally out of no where, my friend and I decided to go to a reggae concert featuring “The Wailers”. TOTALLY NOT our scene but it was SO MUCH FUN. The concert was at 9, we decided to go around 7 pm. It was such a last minute, no planning decision, another out of the box experience for me. And it was a blast!

By doing this experiment I have seen myself grow and expand in ways I had always wanted. I let go of my strict loyalty to being responsible and had fun. I didn’t act stupid or wrong, I just lived. I had fun. I let myself go, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

My flickr account isn’t working right, so I am going include photos from our SB’09 adventures in this post.

First IHSA competition!! March 1, 2009

So not only did I go out of state to compete at a horse show ( INSANELY OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE) but it was against other colleges–my peers. EVEN MORE UNNERVING. I can ride against random people – older, younger, etc. and represent myself, but here I was representing USF as a team sport in a way and against other schools like UF, FSU, UM, SCAD, Wesylan and others! 

It was quite an event. We were the smallest team represented by far! SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) had about 15+ riders. I know I was EXTREMELY nervous. They have it set up where the trainer of each team draws out a random slip for each of their team members. The slip has the name of the horse the rider will compete on. Its quite difficult to do this actually. Equestrian competitions are about building yourself and your horse up as a team. The two of ‘you’ are one in the ring. You have worked together countless hours on different exercises, both mentally and physically to prepare you both for competition. But in IHSA it is ALL based on the rider. And anyone who rides knows just how difficult this is. You could have the best or worst horse, doesn’t matter. It is awesome and hard as hell! 

The show went impressively smooth and fast. We had to put a rush on it as where we were, Statesboro, GA, was expecting hail, tornados and snow! The weather was quite crappy to say the least, and COLD. But all decked out in our gear, it wasn’t horrible. All in all it was an amazing experience. I had a GREAT horse and out of 15 riders I placed 4th. Which is AWESOME for my first IHSA competition. All 4 of us placed and brought home ribbons SO PRETTY! Unfortunately it was the last competition we are able to compete in for IHSA this semester, but you better bet we will be back next semester in FULL force with hopefully double the team members which means double the ribbons, double the points and double the rank of the USF Equestrian team HOORAY!!

 

     

The Columbia in Ybor February 23, 2009

I had never been to the Columbia restaurant in Ybor. And I wasn’t trying to do another food type outside my box experiment either. But when the chance came to join some friends for dinner, I thought why not. 

This place was GORGEOUS. The entire restaurant takes up a whole block! The decorations and architecture is simply amazing and breathtaking. We only got to see a few of the rooms on our way to the table and I can’t imagine what the rest of the place is like. 

The food was spectacular and we also got treated to a show of Latin dancers, which lasted for a good 30 minutes or so. The dancing was amazing! 

There were a few negative aspects of this sudden experiment I wasn’t happy with. First we had a reservation at 8:30. We didn’t get sat until 9:30, an hour after our reservation. Also, they asked us if we were waiting for a show or not, we said no. Later when we were sat and the show came on we were surprised, but still enjoyed it. Till we realized when the bill came that we were charged for it. Third the server was very nice, but when it came time to split the bill, he had quite a difficult time and ended up charging all of us wrong. 

Now I did throughly enjoy my first time experience at the Columbia, and for the food I would consider going back. But I can’t say it would be my first choice.

Taking on Treasurer responsibilities. February 20, 2009

I am making room in my already insane schedule to become more involved in a club that I believe in and that I am passionate about. I decided to accept my nomination for the treasurer position of the Equestrian Club at USF. With our new executive board I can really see this club going far. I have never held a position in a club before and really haven’t gotten involved with anything on campus in my collegiate career. I decided this needed to change and finally found my niche at USF. I could of just maintained basic membership status, but I really love the equestrian sport and feel that I can bring my experience both from the equestrian industry and academics and help this club grow.
Not to mention I eventually want to pursue a career somewhere in the equestrian publications industry. Just being a treasurer might not land me a job, but the contacts that I know I will encounter along with learning the ropes of running an organization will definitely be a plus.
Already we have been contacted with magazines and newsletters wanting articles and photos. I am excited to put my skills that I have learned in the class room to the test of the ‘real world’.

Fingers crossed. I hope that I will be able to handle the responsibilities of this club along with my heavy course load of classes.

 

Flickr doesn’t seem to want to add more photos to my photostream so here are a few of my new fellow board members, club members, team mates and friends

  

Failure February 18, 2009

I am having a hard time coming up with ideas and actually following through. My schedule has been crazy hectic and I feel like I should commit myself to a padded room…kidding of course. But I haven’t been able to maintain a new experiment every week. But this week isn’t over, so cross our fingers