B is for Bachelor's Degree

Bachelor's Degree : a first degree at a college or university; B.A. or B.S.

[According to the Cambridge Dictionary]

Back in May I graduated from Ohio Northern. I received my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in marketing. It's such a crazy time to think back on because at that point, we were all at the end and we knew it. We were all trying to spend as much time together and make the most of our final days - knowing that life as we had known it for the last four years, was coming quickly to an end. Definitely makes me a little sad - a lot sad - to be thinking back on it.

I think it's so interesting that after four years it all comes down to a piece of paper. It symbolizes all of the hard work and late nights that you put into the books and at the bar - college wasn't just about the classes and the degree. It was about growing up and making friends and making your way in a new place, even if that place was the cornfields of Ada.

I wouldn't give up a single memory from that place, good or bad and I cherish each for different reasons. Whether they're lessons - like don't try to ballroom dance with drunk boys because you'll end up with a black eye before Christmas; stories - like that one time when I dumped my beer on a boy at a party, or just the littlest, most random things that make the biggest impact - like nighttime talks between bunk beds, playing drinking board games and Country music before heading to the bar or listening to Christmas music while working on projects late at night in the business building, hiding from security to not get kicked out. 

Graduation. That was almost eight months ago! That's insane! I can't believe how quickly life passes and how everything changes in what seems like the blink of an eye. To those of you who are still fortunate to be in college, I'd like to say this - Quit your bitching! Seriously the "real world" is nothing like college and it's such a huge change. 

Enjoy the fact that you can take naps and can pull all-nighters and don't have class until 10. Take advantage of all the breaks you get between semesters and Summers! I don't ever get a summer break Ever Again! Spend as much time with your roommates and take advantage of every opportunity and adventure that you're lucky enough to come upon. But if you don't, that's on you and I hope you don't regret it once you get your fancy piece of paper and are trying to make it on your own out here. Just don't take it for granted.

Until next time

    -~- B.

Just Tagging Along

In Chapter 9 of Paul Gillin's book, New Influencers, I learned some pretty valuable information on tagging. Gillin told us how to properly tag blogs and videos and podcasts, and he explained exactly how tags worked and how they could be used effectively. Before I read this chapter, I would just pick out some keywords that I used throughout my blog and use those as my tags. These tags are used so search engines and websites can judge the content of your blogs and make them available to the people who want to read about that subject.

When checking out my tag list - the list of all the tags that I've used in my past blogs - I found that I have used 64 different tags! Of course most of them were only used once, but a few of them, like AdRants, AMA, New Influencers, ONU, viral and social media were used a couple times. YouTube, however, has been tagged in 5 of my blogs.

My list consisted of pretty general terms, and after reading Chapter 9, I realized that I could actually get more in depth in my word choice and tags don't have to necessarily have to be topics. Gillin used Volvo as an example and they tags that he used would be, "Volvo, car, sedan, Eurpoean, 4WD, snow, safety, vehicle, upscale." If I would have written an article about Volvo, I never would have thought about using those words as tags.

After gaining a much better understanding for the usage of tags, I have a better idea of what to do and plan to implement that to increase the effectiveness of the tags that I use for my blogs.