Christine's Column

As the semester comes to a close and I prepare to write my final blog for this class, I’ve found myself looking back through all my previous posts. I’m not usually the sentimental type, but rereading them has been a fun reminder of where I was at different points in my college journey. Each blog captures a small snapshot of my life at that moment, and seeing them all together has made me realize just how much has changed over the years. This isn’t the first time I’ve kept a blog for a class. During the spring semester of my sophomore year, I took Principles of Social Media with Dr. Aggie, and we also wrote weekly blog posts. While scrolling through the blogs I wrote this past semester, I decided to revisit the ones from nearly two years ago. Reading them side by side has given me a rare opportunity to compare my younger self with who I am now as a senior at Ohio Northern. It’s interesting to see how differently I wrote back then. My sophomore-year posts felt a bit more unsure, almo...

As my last blog post focused on what I planned to do over Thanksgiving break, I figured it would be repetitive—and honestly a little boring—to recap the holiday again this week. After staring at a blank screen longer than I’d like to admit, I realized that instead of forcing a Thanksgiving-related topic, it made more sense to talk about where I am right now with school. At this point in the semester, I’ve made it through the biggest hurdles in my classes: the major semester-long projects. Most of you already know about my client project for this course, since we all tackled one. But because I’m a senior, I’m also juggling Capstone and PR Practicum at the same time. For anyone who isn’t familiar with Practicum, it’s essentially an extension of what we did in class this semester. We work with real clients, manage real deadlines, and get real-world experience in public relations. It’s rewarding, but it definitely adds to the workload. On top of that, I’ve also been completing a semest...

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. From the decorations to the costumes, there’s something magical about getting to be someone else for a night. In college, that excitement only grows during “Halloweekend,” when the entire campus comes alive with parties, themed events and plenty of creative costumes. Last year, my friends and I had to skip the festivities. My roo mmate’s dad got married that same weekend, so instead of celebrating, we traded costumes for formalwear and spent the weekend at the wedding. It was still fun, but it wasn’t quite the same as being on campus surrounded by pumpkins, lights and laughter. That’s why, this year—our senior year—we knew we wanted to make the most of it. It felt like our last big Halloween together before graduation, and we wanted to go all out. Two of our friends, Lilah and Ethan, attended Ohio Northern University with us freshman year but transferred after that. They live about three hours away in Indiana, so we don’t get to see ...

This past week was relatively uneventful, so I decided to focus on something that’s been both fun and meaningful — my group’s client for this class, Osborne Family Retrievers. The business is a family-run dog-breeding operation located in Alger, Ohio. On Tuesday, I visited their property to capture photos and videos for future content. While it was technically a work visit, it was also one of the most enjoyable assignments I’ve had yet — mostly because I got to spend the afternoon surrounded by puppies. A new litter had been born only a few weeks ago, and at just five weeks old, the puppies were small, playful and full of energy. We let them run around for a while, tumbling over one another and exploring their surroundings. Eventually, after all that excitement, every single one of them fell asleep in a pile of wagging tails and tiny snores. Lydia even let me stick around afterward for some extra puppy cuddles, which was the perfect way to end the visit. While I was there, Lydia ...

How is it already Oct. 23? It feels like October just began, and now I’m getting ready for Halloween. I love that time seems to be moving quickly, but with that comes the reality of senior year stress. Right now, I’m deep in the middle of several big projects across all of my classes. Between Capstone, semester-long assignments and client work, every week feels packed. There’s always something due or something that needs my attention, and sometimes it feels overwhelming trying to keep it all straight. Still, I remind myself that this busy season won’t last forever. In just a few more weeks, many of these projects will start wrapping up. I keep telling myself that if I can just push through this stretch, things will start to feel lighter. It helps to remember that once Thanksgiving break hits, the hardest part of the semester will be behind me. By then, I’ll hopefully be on autopilot, coasting into the end of the semester with a little less stress and a lot more relief. What’s kee...

After a week in Tallahassee, it was time to come home. In my last blog, I was in the airport about to start fall break; this week, I’m leaving the airport as my break comes to an end. I had a great time in Tallahassee. I ate good food and had some much-needed R&R. It was a great trip—until it was time to leave. My boyfriend flew back with me because his lacrosse alumni weekend happened to fall right after our break. We woke up at 3 a.m. Wednesday, which sounds dreadful—and it was—but I knew that by the time I got back to Ada, it would only be around noon. I’d still have the whole day to reset and get ready for classes again. For context, there are no nonstop flights out of Tallahassee, so we had a layover in Atlanta before landing in Columbus and driving back to Ada. While waiting in the airport, our first flight was delayed 60 minutes. That was fine since our layover was two and a half hours, giving us plenty of time to make the second flight. A few minutes later, though, ...

  This past week I started my senior year of college, and I still can’t quite believe how fast time has gone. It feels like I was just moving into my freshman dorm, nervous and excited about what was ahead. Now I’m pulling up to campus for my last first day. People always say college goes by in the blink of an eye, but I don’t think I truly understood that until now. Walking into classes this week carried a different kind of energy. In past years, the first week was about finding classrooms, buying the right textbooks and settling into new routines. This year, though, there’s an added layer of nostalgia and anticipation. Every first is also a last—my last first syllabus week, my last first icebreaker introductions, my last time setting up a schedule that only lasts one more year. Part of me feels like I should have everything figured out by now. The reality is, I don’t. College has been full of surprises, challenges and opportunities I never could have predicted. I know this ye...

 As my first blog back, I thought I would walk you through my very hectic last month of summer. On Aug. 2, my mom told me she was moving in 30 days. She was very excited about it, and I also thought it would be fun. However, I quickly realized that I was leaving for Florida on Aug. 13 and moving back to school almost immediately after returning. That meant I had about a week and a half to go through everything I owned. It’s also important to note that I am not moving back home after I graduate in May — I’m moving to Florida. So it wasn’t as simple as packing and moving my things. It was a cleanout of everything I owned. I don’t know how I managed to get it done, but by the time I left for Florida everything of mine was already pitched or packed. I then, thankfully, went on to have the most relaxing vacation. My boyfriend and I are long distance — he lives in Florida — so we decided to have a little getaway before we both begin our last years of school. Naples Pier, FL We went t...

              As I wrap up this week, I am so so so so SO excited to leave. But that’s obvious, I’ve been talking about leaving for summer for the past four weeks. Anyway, to share my last week here at ONU for my sophomore year, I’ll have bring you all back about a week. Last Thursday, my mom came down to Ada and took my boyfriend and I out to dinner. It was amazing to see my mom because I haven’t seen her since  I went home for my birthday, which was a little over a month ago. That was also the last time, and only time actually, her and my boyfriend saw each other. So, dinner was really nice to catch up on, especially considering on my birthday there was a bunch of people out with us, so it wasn’t the easiest to converse with one another. This week's flowers!             The rest of the week has been spent preparing to leave. Not so much ‘packing’ as in preparing, I still have not...

              As the semester winds down, I can't help but feel a sense of relief washing over me. I've nearly completed all of my major assignments for the semester, and it's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of endless papers, presentations, and projects, but I know it won’t be long before I won’t have to think about school anymore – or for a few months at least. However, just as the stresses of school have left my mind, I find myself with a new worry. I have absolutely no idea how I am going to get all of my stuff home. As I look around my room, I constantly think to myself, “This is not going to all fit in my car.” I am more worried about the bigger things, such as my fridge, my chair, and my TV. But, luckily, my brother lives in Ada so I am hoping I can just leave those things at his house until the weekend following move-out, since my family will be here for his graduation. Even b...

               One thing about me, I absolutely hate, hate, HATE, the cold. I am meant to live where it is warm, I am not meant to live in Ohio. If I could never see snow again in my life, I would be so incredibly ecstatic. My mood is very dependent on the weather – when the weather is nice, I am nice and vice versa.             Since the weather has been so nice the past few days, this week at ONU has been so much fun. My roommate, Remi, and I have been laying outside by the pond, soaking up the sun and doing homework. Although, neither of us seem to get far in any homework because we always end up closing our laptops and talking. Anyway, it is very refreshing to be able to enjoy the warmth and get some vitamin D after surviving winter in Ohio.             The sunshine makes me eager for summer and over all things school. I ...

                                For weeks my boyfriend and I have been talking about going to Otherworld in Columbus, Ohio. Otherworld is an interactive light museum with rooms to walk through with different displays of LED lights and puzzles to play with. Well, we decided to make the trip this past Saturday to check it out and it did not disappoint. All the rooms and displays were very cool and a little trippy.             There were rooms filled with mirrors, creating the illusion that there was multiple of you, rooms with different themes such as under the sea, secret tunnels in each room that would lead you to different rooms and so much more. Every room was lit up with colored lights, some rooms even had displays that would glow and play a pitch when you hovered your hand over the different shapes. One of my favorite rooms was the i...

               This past week, I had two things going on that were a little nerve-wracking but thankfully, turned out good. The first thing was my 20 th birthday. Now you might be confused why my birthday would be nerve-wracking, but I had planned to go out and celebrate with all my friends at home. My coworkers, high school friends, some of each of their friends and even my mom were all there. So, there were a lot of people. Mixing friends wasn’t the worry, it was that I was bringing my boyfriend home to meet all these people for the first time. More specifically, it was that he was meeting all my friends’ boyfriends, and we all wanted them to be best friends – so there was a lot of pressure on the guys here.                It was a great night and a lot of fun to have everyone in one place to catch up and see each other. It was especially fun that my mom was there because all my f...

                 This week started off like any other, until Tuesday. Tuesday morning, I was woken up to my boyfriend asking me, “Do you know your toilet’s clogged?” No, I did not know that. So here I am confused and barely awake, trying to figure out how the toilet clogged while everyone was sleeping. Emphasis on ‘confused’ especially because there was nothing in it to have clogged it, the water level had simply just risen. My roommate and I did not own a plunger because this hadn’t happened before, and frankly we didn’t think about buying one when we first moved in. I told my boyfriend to just let it sit because he and my roommate had class soon and I had to leave to go to my nail appointment. There wasn’t anything we could do at this time, so I planned to just stop after my appointment and pick up a plunger to fix it.             I then go to my nail appointment which is always ...

               On Friday, March 22, Ohio Northern University’s PRSSA hosted its annual Social Media Workshop. The day started with hearing from the keynote speaker before breaking to begin the first session of the workshop. The workshop was split into four blocks, with each session having two speakers presenting simultaneously – one speaker would be in the Activities Room while the other in the Bear Cave.              Amy Hertsenberg, the keynote speaker, gave what I found to be one of the most interesting presentations. She discussed all things AI – the powers of AI, how she uses it as a tool in her work, how we can use it, how it is changing the way we work, etc. Hertsenberg puts an emphasis on the idea of ‘hyper-personalization’ using AI technology throughout her presentation. This idea stems from the fact that AI has changed the way we gather information of a customer base. Thi...

This week honestly has been super uneventful for me. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what to blog about that I did this week but there hasn’t been much of anything. Over the weekend, I wasn’t feeling good, so I pretty much was in bed Friday until Sunday. I did go to Lima on Sunday though, and spent way too much money at Ulta. The rest of the day I hung around while doing homeworking and watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta. I have been very hooked on this show lately because all the drama is entertaining to watch. I also think it is funny to watch all these women (who are mostly NFL and NBA wives) fight with each other of miniscule things and without a doubt it gets out of hand every time. I just saw an episode where one of the housewives pulled the other one’s wig off because she didn’t attend her fashion show. The rest of the week was basically the same as the weekend, except it included going to class. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, which was probably the o...

     When I came to Ohio Northern my freshman year, I didn’t know anyone. I was the only person from my school to come to ONU and the few people that are from my area I had never met before coming to college. Luckily because of social media I was able to find a roommate, but we still didn’t know much about each other before we moved in. My roommate, Remi, and I ended up becoming very close within the first couple of days and now she is my best friend at ONU. Her and I even got matching tattoos of our freshman dorm number on our ankle. To this day, we always talk and make jokes about how we got lucky finding each other because we were both stressed about not having a roommate or having a roommate that we didn’t get along with. But in the end. our whole roommate situation could not have been more perfect. Having her made navigating freshman year, and the transition of college in general, so much easier.              A couple months ...

     As college students, I feel we have all heard people say, "Changing your major is common." or "It is not a big deal to switch majors." or anything else along those lines. Perhaps that is true for some, or even majority of people, but I personally felt this was a very stressful and nerve-racking decision to make for myself.      I originally came to Ohio Northern University as a psychology major and I never thought that I would change my major. I always knew I wanted to study psychology and go into that field; both the subconscious and the conscience parts of the brain and how emotions, experiences, and other factors influence human behavior/decision-making has always been very interesting to me. Even throughout high school I took many different psychology and sociology classes, and always imagined myself in that field of work.      By the end of the fall semester my freshman year I found myself very anxious about my future and my career ...