Lets Be Real . .

College and the perks that come with it are really starting to take a toll on me physically, mentally, and emotionally. Yes, this particular blog will be a little on the more personal level. Things have changed and the people have changed and it's hard to handle sometimes. Staying focused on schoolwork is difficult when there are a million things going through your mind especially when people LOVE to start rumors.

On that note, rumors is so hard to get away from in college simply because people believe everything they hear without getting the information from the person it's about. Since I've been here, I've heard numerous rumors about myself which are very far from true. It sucks because people judge me off of what they hear instead of what they know. You can someone 10 million times that what they heard isn't true, but if more than one person told them, they'll call you a liar and believe what they heard. Now I'm the type of person that owns up to what I do, so I personally have no reason to lie. Why do it if you're ashamed or embarassed by it? Its life. People make mistakes.

Now as far as the people we come across and deal with in college can be difficult to handle to. Because people like to spread rumors and such, it causes drama which causes even more stress on the person. I've had somebody look me in my face and tell me that I said something that I know I didn't say because they heard it from somebody else. Of course the person isn't going to want to give up the source of the information to protect themselves from looking like a snitch. So now we have trust issues to deal with.

The point that I'm trying to make is you must have a backbone and patience when you come to college because people are going to assume the worst and say bad things about you everyday, but you must know how to deal with it and sometimes even ignore it. If not, you'll never have the chance the enjoy your college experience. Let people say what they want to say. As long as you know the truth, thats all the matters.

FOOOODDD!

Hot food, cold food, wet food, dry food, food here, food there,

I LOVE FOOD!

I could go on about food all day, yesterday, and tomorrow. I just love it! Then again, who doesn't?

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Food can be the best friend that you never had. A lot of people rely on food as a comfort zone and don't even realize it. When you're sad, you grab a spoon, some icecream, a bag of Cheetos, and a Sprite. When you're mad, you hop in the car to calm yourself down and find yourself in a McDonalds drive-thru. But people don't always rely on food for bad situations. When you're happy or excited, you might find yourself snacking on something sweet like some candy or drinking some wine, or apple juice in my case.

If we all took the time out to think about what we are eating, it would explain a lot like the obesity epidemic and high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Since I've came to college, my already BAD eating habits got WORSE. All the fast-food because we slept through dinner and eating junk food in the middle of the night while we're up finishing work cannot be good for our bodies. I didn't realize how much junk I was eating until I looked at my bank statement. Spending $100 on snacks in Wal-Mart and every other charge was either for

McDonalds, The Cookout, Dominos, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, the chinese place, or Mr. Hibachi, plus a few other places that I just didn't visit often. I quickly realized that what I'm putting into my body cannot be good.

As a college student at Claflin University, as well as those South Carolina State Univeristy, it is EXTREMELY hard to get away from the junk food. There's a fast-food restaurant on every street corner, at every stoplight, every passageway, and the cafe food isn't much better! Business at fast-food places are constantly booming because everything is in an arm's reach. Most of the junk we eat can even be found on campus. There's grease, calories, cholesterol, fat (saturated and unsaturated), sugar, sodium, fiber, and carbohydtrates in the food we eat and not enough calcium, vitamins, and iron!

 As much as I want to eat healthier, I really don't think thats going to work out for me or a lot of other college students. I know that I'm going to suffer from it from in the long run, but its so hard to care when that shake from The Cookout, that Big Mac from Mcdonalds, and that chalupa from Taco Bell is goign down your throat!

Twitter vs. Facebook

This blog is going to be based simply off of my opinion.

 Now, let's start with Twitter . .

Twitter has evolutionalized a lot over the past few years. When I was first introduced to Twitter about 3 years ago, it became the main social network that I used and slowly, but surely, knocked Myspace off of the meter in my book. At first, I didn't understand the purpose of Twitter. Telling the world what I was doing every waking moment of the day was a little irrelevant to me. Once I got to tweeting, that irrelevancy was non-existent.

At the time, I had a Facebook page, but I barely took the time out to use it. For one, Myspace was a lot more popular for teenagers my age. We thought of Facebook as a site for the "older" crowd. Just as Twitter did to Myspace, Facebook knocked Twitter off the map. Facebook started becoming used to reconnect with old and new family and friends. After using Facebook for a while, it started to become almost addicting! It was an all day, everyday, I can't live without it type of social website. Then, problems arose. Being that we're teenagers, petty stuff turned into big problems over what people would see and hear via Facebook. It led to fights, dramas, break-ups, etc. within teenagers and even adults!

Once I came to college, Facebook was a great way to connect and keep up with the new people you met. It was also a great way to find out who went to your university and meet them. It was great when it came time for me to campaign for freshman calss vice president and it worked . . I WON! After a while, I decided to get back on my Twitter game. Twitter became pretty much the main source of spreading news around campus. If there was a party or campus activity, you were bound to see it on Twitter. It then stole the Facebook spotlight of a great way to meet new people.

THE DEBATE!

Which one is better?

OR

 From my opinion, I believe that Twitter is better for communicating because its simple and straight to the point. Its quick, its easy, the word gets around fast, and anybody can do it . . In 140 characters or less, that is.

 Facebook is better for advertisement because is has more options to post things than Twitter does. It also better for keeping in contact with people and to stay updated on what their doing. Its also great at helping you remember those birthdays you forgot!

Facebook and Twitter has its pros and cons. Both of them are great when it comes to communication and getting the word out their to the people. All around awesome websites, although I'd prefer Twitter, but I'm sure they'll continue to grow as an social network enterprises throughout the world. 

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All in all, there can't be a winner in the Twitter vs. Facebook debate simply because it depends on how its used. Its what you make it. You can make it fun and interesting, or you can "tweef" and be a "Facebook gangsta". Its all up to the person behind the computer, the cell phone, the tablet, the whatever.

Dear Mom & Dad,

Let me start of by saying you've raised a very intelligent, outgoing, charasmatic, and responsibile young lady and now its time that you let me go on this journey called life leading my own path based on the directions that you've both given me in the past.

Now about college . . Ahhh, where do I start? I managed to enjoy myself, make new friends, become Asbury Hall and Freshman Class Vice President, and still found time to bring home all A's and B's at the end of the semester. I can assure you both that I don't regret not one decision I've made so far. No mistakes, just lessons learned. Everything that has happened to me, for me, or against me was for a reason. I know I can call on you two to give me some words of wisdom or a little bit of advice whenever I need it and I thank you for that. I know that my attitude and my impatient ways can be a pain and a headache to deal with, but neither one of you has let that hender the love that you have for me. I promise to do my best in school and in life. I mean, $22,000 is a lot of money that CANNOT be wasted and I only have one life to live so I might as well do it right. I can't promise that I'll be perfect, but I can promise that I'll be ME and thats not to far from perfect. *chuckles*

Lets continue to add memories to the pages of our storybook of life.

I LOVE YOU [♥].

Sincerely,
Ashleigh.