What ill miss most about college

I can’t believe that I am almost done with college.

I have spent the best four years of my life here. I know this is cliché but I truly have learned so much about my self during these years. High Point University has been my home for so long it’s going to be so hard to say goodbye.  With graduation literally two weeks away I honestly don’t know how to feel about it. I have been having such anxiety about these two weeks and graduation but I am also really excited for what I am about to experience. The last week of school will be such a great bonding experience for the senior class and I am excited to go to all of the events they have planned for us.

These are the things I’ll miss the most about college:

• Never having to look nice: This morning I got out of bed for my 7:50 at 7:40.  I put on my leggings and my teeshirt and I was out the door. I have a very impressive wardrobe but I seem to always be wearing workout clothes. I love my workout clothes and I am not really ready to have them only be worn at the gym.
• Walking: Though I have to admit I’ve only started walking around campus this year, I will miss it. Not only is it absolutely beautiful, its nice to get exercise in and be outside. I don’t have a job yet but most likely I will be sitting at a desk for the majority of the day. How horrible
•  Free gym membership: Have you seen the Slane gym? It’s basically a fit girls paradise. I don’t have a job yet so as of right now I am flat broke. I cannot afford $40 a month to go to the gym. I’m upset I didn’t take full use of Slane gym my freshman and sophomore year…. Its free
• Free food: Technically not free but when your parents are paying your tuition you are not dishing out your own money for food. A salad in NYC is at least $10 for lunch. Ill miss my magic meals the most and I wish that they were a real thing outside of HPU
•  My house: I live in the best house. The seven girls that live here are actually really close. No cat fights! I have my own room and lets be honest its probably bigger than I will ever be able to afford in NYC. We have a huge full kitchen, our own laundry room in the house and even a big back yard. 855 Centennial will be hard to say goodbye too.
• My senior class: I will obviously miss my friends that I am the closest with but I will see them. We are all heading up north after graduation and are within a few hours from each other. We will of course plan times to see each other and all will be okay. There are some amazing people in the senior class that I am not as close with. They will do amazing things and I will probably see their names in the new but it will be surprising if I ever see them again.

I’m still not sure I am ready to leave this place just yet but whether I like it or not graduation day is May 9, 2015.

Alma Mater

Last night there was a food and wine dinner at Prime, the steakhouse on our campus. This was a senior’s only event and I went with three close friends. Whoever was in charge of this event did a lovely job and we had a great evening.

This was the menu that we were presented with. I love how they paired wine with food and let us try all the wine. For someone who loves wine, I thought they were all very good. Through out the night several people stood up and talked to us. One woman who really caught my attention was a graduate from the High Point College class of 1963. She and her husband both came to talk to us, which was really quite adorable, they met at High Point. The main point that stood out to me was stay connect to and give back to your Alma Mater.

We spend 4 years of our life here; going from class to class, moving out and moving back in, making good and bad memories. When we leave here on May 9^th all we will have is an earned diploma and a ton of memories. The thing I have realized is that you can’t just leave this campus and put it all behind you. Staying in touch with alumni relations’ office is really important, to know what is going on at the school and with your classmates. I also believe that giving back to a school that gave you so much is extremely important. Someone once explained my diploma to me like stock. A stock rarely stays at the same value that you bought it at, it will increase and it will decrease in value. It is important to watch your diploma grow with value, and that means giving back to the school. Giving back to the school does not always mean donating money, this could mean helping students receive internships and jobs after they graduate. For me right now not having a job I want to give back with money. I have already given High Point University $100 of my own money and I plan to do that every year. Hopefully I can increase that in a few years!!

Whatever you choose to do remember where you spent 4 amazing years of your life. Once you leave this campus it should not be a forever goodbye, more like a see you later!

Instead of talking about my life, about gradation, or work; I’m going to talk about something that is important to the field I’m going into. Snapchat, a popular social media platform, has recently come out with some updates that have everyone talking about it. I have come here to explain the updates and share what I think.

For a little background for those of you who don’t have the app: Snapchat was launched in September 2011. Snapchat is a free photo messaging application and can basically be used on any mobile device.  This social media app has does not have a computer website, it is only on your phone. In my opinion Snapchat did not really become popular until 2013 but now, there has been 60 million installs of the application.

In the past few months I would say Snapchat has really taken off. It has not only become a place for you and your friends but for marketers too. There are a few updates I want to talk about that really led them to this growth.

1. Starting back in August they launched the live events, these are found on your Story page. This is really awesome because you can see snaps of live events going on. So people who are at the events whether it be celebrities or average people take snaps and they go to a location where people (like me) can watch them from here in NC. For example the most recent ones were: Easter at the White House, Spring Break, Final Four. At first there wasn’t too many but now I feel like there is at least a few a week so I’m sure they got positive feedback from this feature.  Most recently these Stories have had advertisements weaved into this so that’s another good opportunity for companies!

2.  In November they launched “Snapcash”. This feature is a cash feature that you can send money to someone through Snapchat. All you do is go to the chat tab of the person and enter $ and then the amount to send money. You have to enter your debit card information once and then they will just take it directly from your bank account. I have not heard of anyone using this feature, but I do think that it’s not necessary. There are already so many apps that you can easily transfer money to people, why would you use Snapchat? Snapchat is a social media app, it’s not a serious app like your banks app. Honestly I wouldn’t trust this app enough to send money like that.

3. Snapchat has also been developing more and more Geofilters. A Geofilter is a special overlay for your photo that can only be accessed in certain locations. At first there was only ones for big cities like NYC, but now even HPU has its own Geofilter. I think these have been a HUGE hit. I know my friends and I were so excited when HPU had one. This is just another fun feature that has been contributing to Snapchat’s growth.  

4. In January Snapchat launched a new feature “Discover”. Snapchat Discover is a new way to explore Stories from different editorial teams.  The Discover tab can be found in the right corner of the Stories page. On this page you can find articles from favorites like CNN, Cosmo, People, ESPN, Food Network, and a few others. I think this is a smart idea for Snapchat because I’m sure these companies were fighting for this spot and pay them a lot of money for this. This advertisement for them is seen by millions of people a day. It would be stupid for publications not to want to be on this page. I personally do not take the time to read them and I know a lot of others that don’t. I do know some people that do enjoy the articles so I have to say its smart for both businesses.

5. The newest update that has everyone in frenzy is the emojis next to friends. A while back Snapchat got rid of their best friends list and users were more than upset. As of about two days ago emojis and numbers have been showing up next to our friends. The best way for me to explain it is by showing you this picture below, it will tell you all you need to know about them.  I honestly do not like the update, I think people were getting over the best friends thing and did not need this. To me it looks stupid and out of place.

What do you guys think about the newest update? 

I think Snapchat is officially a huge player in social media. To me Snapchat is not going anywhere anytime soon.