ShotwellHowe

[marthahowe]

[marthahowe]

My Video

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/0xud2nr51tauqnm/AACaoFT48ok4Cuei4CA4uEA5a/Martha.MTS?dl=0

[marthahowe]

Meet Max Lowe

[marthahowe]

Know Your Soda

[marthahowe]

Analyzing My Media Use

“Vvvvvv, vvvvvv, vvvvvv.” That not so calming vibration of my phone wakes me at a not so calming hour. As early in the morning as it is I actually consider getting up to solve the exciting mystery of who might want to talk to me. We all know that feeling, the excitement of human connection rather than rush of human contact. As humans we crave both, but lately the connection to someone else is much easier than seeing there face in this era. It has been an amazing transition and hypnotism that our phones, computers, iPads, iPods, etc. have created. With our email addressed plastered into so many different social media sites and having access right at our fingertips, it is amazing that we continue to have human-to-human interaction.

            For me, my consumption of personal media really depends on what my day looks like. For instance, over break on days that were not suited for skiing, I would find my eyes rolling over a Facebook news feed that I had already seen five times that day. We all do it, but why? It’s like the act of opening the fridge more than once; hoping that something you want to eat up will suddenly appear. During the school year, my busy schedule of workouts, classes, work and sports practice I barley have time to even check my email during the day. But once I sit down at my computer to work, it is rare if that is actually what I start with. Facebook, email, and Pinterest are all distracting pleasures for me.

            I posed the use of technology with my dad, Paul. As a photographer, he has deadlines to meet with his photos for the newspaper. This requires several hours of sitting and looking at a screen, which isn’t ideal for him since he is so active. But not all of it is bad. Technology has allowed him to be more productive with taking and ending his photographs. It has also allowed him to connect with more people through email and text message as well but even that can be overwhelming at times. He claims that sometimes while he is photographing he ignores his phone when it rings because he finds it a distraction at times. “I sometimes feel that I am getting too much information every day,” Paul says, “but I am a producer of content information too.”

            The effort to stay away from media and technology is more work than to accept it. We may not like how it is changing our morals, our social habits as Homo sapiens, or the future for out children but that is the direction the world is moving in and it would take a big force to stop it. It’s not the technology doing the damage, it is how we use it or abuse it. Like anything it life, there is sometimes too much of a good thing. “So like everything it is a balance to try to use technology everyday but also know when it is enough.”

[marthahowe]

The Heated Spark

“I was recruited to play soccer here at GMC.” That was Nate Laymon’s first reasoning for going to college in Vermont. When you look back at what you have accomplished so far in life, it is important to remember where it all started. Nate came to Green Mountain College with an offer to play soccer and to pursue something he has always had a place for in his heart. “I’ve always wanted to go into environmental management.” Nate said. “The thought of trying to manage land so that other generations could enjoy it the way I did is a good feeling.” Being in Boy Scouts a good part of his life and eventually becoming an eagle scout sparked his passion for the outdoors.

The Natural Resource Management (NRM) program here at GMC was a perfect fit for Nate. Before declaring his major he considered going strictly into Fish and Wildlife or Engineering, but once he learned about the NRM program they offered, he knew it was what he wanted to do. As Nate continued to get involved at school, he found himself having to learn how to budget his time well. Now, as a junior, he is a member of the men’s soccer team, the president of the student athlete advisory committee, a resident assistant, the graduate program assistant, runs the scoreboard for the basketball games, and has a girlfriend. With all of that on top of classes and homework, Nate is a very busy man, but it is rare if he complains about any of it. Everything he does for school work, at practice, and for his job he appreciates. He enjoys the learning process and is prepared to work hard to achieve his goals. Isn’t that what college is supposed to be about? Finding those passions you are willing to work for? This is one of the things Cheyenne Taylor was searching for when she came to college.

Cheyenne chose GMC because they offered her the best financial package and the vibe of the school and the students intrigued her. After debating with herself on what to pursue as a major, she finally decided on Communications. “In the end, I decided journalism could be a good path for me, or whatever else I could attain through a communications major.” Unlike Nate, Cheyenne is still searching for the thing that will make her tick. “Even with the major I declared I don’t feel passionate about it, as though I still haven’t found my passion.” I don’t think Cheyenne is alone on this one either. There may not be the perfect school for everyone and there may not even be the perfect career for everyone either. But should that be our biggest concern? We are so focused on everything we write, test, read, and think about for our future career that we tend to forget the other pleasures we can find through the college experience.

“I do have a passion for music, theatre, and creativity but I have been told that those passions cannot lead to a fulfilling life” Cheyenne says. Who’s to say what will make your own life fulfilling or not? Is your passion a nine-to-five job that will support you indefinitely? When I looked up passion on dictionary.com it read “a strong and barley controllable emotion.” We all know this feeling, but we may not have recognized it as passion before. It’s that moment that you get the perfect combination of passes in a soccer game, when every note in the song is played together perfectly, the scene in the play that everyone said his or her lines perfectly, when you reach that point in your run where you feel like you could run for hours. It’s that warm spark you feel in your mind and in your heart that sends you into a moment of euphoria that can’t simply be bottled up or written in a textbook. Whatever it is that makes you feel full of life, I believe is what passion feels like. And if you’re not full of life, you’re not living.