PFL Essay- May 2012

“To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you were created to be.”

This anonymous quote has been the driving force for my future as I strive to impact children and youth who suffer from low self-esteem. 

I first realized my career path when I enrolled in a public speaking class in my undergraduate university. One assignment was to pick an organization, research its mission, and prepare a speech that could be given to its target audience.  I chose a girl’s empowerment organization and researched teen pregnancy, substance abuse, self-inflicted harm, and other social issues among youth and how each related to one’s level of self-esteem. As I gave my speech, I felt as if I had found my life’s calling and I was eager to pursue it further.

After I graduated in 2010, I moved back to my hometown to find speaking opportunities in my community.  I began to understand how fortunate I was to have a mother to mold me into a confident young lady and made it my duty to give back to those who do not have positive influences in their lives. I use the above quote as the title of my speech and encouraged my audience to evaluate their personal self-esteem level. “How often do you wish you were someone else?” “Do you feel media and peer-pressure have aided in the reasons you are or are not confident in yourself?”  “What moments make you proud and how can you maintain that level of confidence every day?” I have spoken to several youth organizations and social clubs and have truly witnessed the impact of 20 minutes of self-esteem building. 

I will be continuing my education in August 2012 as a graduate student at Syracuse University. Although I do not know the exact logistics of my future, I see myself starting a non-profit organization that focuses on children/youth empowerment or partnering with an existing foundation. I have reached the point in my life where I love who I am created to be, and I look forward to helping others find that love for their own lives.

This post represents an application for the PrintingForLess.com Academic Scholarship

MIA

I have been MIA for about a month now; sorry everyone! But I must admit, the first reason is completely worth it! I have been vacationing in Hawaii with my mom and college roommate. Best graduation present EVER! We spent a week in Honolulu enjoying the beach, shopping, and hiking the beautiful trails that lead to waterfalls. I can not begin to describe how beautiful Hawaii is. Oh, I also learned how to surf so I’m feeling pretty special right now!

Second reason: After my trip, I came home and began the tedious process of job searching. I should not use that as an excuse for my lack of blog postings, but it’s the truth. I did not feel like writing about my day-after-day internet job searches on Indeed, Monster, etc. when I spent all day, (I mean ALL DAY haha) on those sites. Plus, I did not think anyone really wanted to read about that, but I could be wrong. It will eventually pay off though. So, now I am back on my postings and will be heading to Dallas in a few shorts days hoping to make some connections there. I know I will have some updates on that trip to let you readers get to know me a little more without every post being about social media. I will be posting again about social media I’m sure, but I’ll take a break from that until something great comes about!

Social Media Acronym

Here I am again, playing around with Prezi! I used an acronym and designed a short Prezi to share my definition of social media…

Social Media Acronym on Prezi

Prezi

I enjoy public speaking and have had a few opportunities to speak to young people on various topics. Recently, I spoke to a group of high school graduates on the very broad topic of college. I shared about my experiences and campus involvement and gave them the opportunity to ask questions so I could cover specifics. One thing that I shared with them was the presentation tool, Prezi. For those of you who don’t know what Prezi is, it is basically a visual aid (like PowerPoint) that is all on one canvas rather than several slides that gives your presentation a flow that will keep your audience intrigued. Prezi was introduced to me in an Innovation and Social Media class when I attended Lee University. I created Prezis any time I was giving a speech in class and it proved to help me stand out from the crowd, which is what every college students strives to do! So here is a look at the Prezi I made. It is my first one so there is not too much detail, but it was fun to play around with it. Obviously there was a lot of added content in my speech that will not appear on the Prezi canvas, but it should still be easy to follow. Have fun and make sure to make a Prezi account for yourself! You will enjoy it!

Persuasive Speech on Prezi

Transparency

So what’s all this talk about transparency in social media?

You have probably heard this from time to time, that social media should be transparent. So what does that actually mean. We should first look at the definition of transparent: something that is “easily seen through or detected.” So how does that apply to social media? The first thing that comes to my mind is relationships. We use social media to build and develop relationships. Whether its reconnecting with individuals from our past or building new relationships with those who will be in our future, social media is all about relationships. What’s interesting to me is that social media is not that different from any other relationship. In our everyday lives, we build relationships on trust (or we should) and in return, these relationships become more valuable. So, is it not logical to build our social media relationships on trust as well? This is where the transparency part comes in. We should realize that the concept of transparency holds a greater amount of benefits than that of false representation. But, why does this not seem to matter to some? Is it a case of the habitual liar? Or a case of the I-don’t-care mentality? Social media should be used as an opportunity for real people/businesses to build real relationships. Those will be the relationships that last even though they are virtual… So, now that I’ve put my 2 cents into the issue of “transparency in social media,” I’m looking forward to being transparent with each blog post as I develop a relationship with you as readers.

A little about me!

Since you are here, I’m assume you’ve decided to read my blog. But, what’s a blog without a person behind it? I’ll take this opportunity to share a little about myself.

My name is Noel Byrd. I am a recent college graduate with a degree in telecommunication and public relations. I love to write and have been keeping a journal of my life from a very young age. (I am an only child so I guess you could say it’s how I entertained myself as a child). I also enjoy classical ballet and other types of dance which evolved from my 13 years of dance training.

My passion in life is to motivate young girls in self esteem building. I have had several opportunities to speak on this topic and like to believe that I plant a little seed in each of their lives to help them believe that they are beautiful, confident, and worthy of life’s best.

My favorite quote is “To wish you were someone else, is to waste the person you were created to be.” I have not been able to find who originally stated this quote, but it is one that has impacted my life greatly! I love being me, and I hope you enjoy learning about me as you read my blog posts.

I will obviously not be talking about myself in every post, but I would like for you to be able to feel you are building a relationship with me as you read, rather than aimlessly reading my thoughts. Being that I am into PR and Telecommunications, I can assure you that a lot of my posts will be about media of some sort.

With that being said, welcome to my blog and I hope you enjoy this new relationship!

Hello world!

Well, I never really thought I would start a blog, but looks like I was wrong! Right now, I’m in the process of trying to figure out just what I want to focus on and how I want my blog to be formatted! Over time, I am expecting this to become something that I truly enjoy doing and hopefully all who follow me will enjoy my posts as well! So, look out for my upcoming blogs! Here goes….