Leah of the Pack

Hi and thanks for reading! When I first started this blog I wrote an introduction here but for recent  purposes I figured I'd give that intro a quick makeover.

A few things remain the same: I'm still Leah and I'm still writing but I'm shifting gears on this blog a bit to focus on my independent study for class this fall. As a journalism student I am always looking for real world writing experience or any writing experience in general. So while I'll continue to write posts similar to previous posts, I'll also be writing "articles" if you will, on the topics of my choosing to further enhance my learning. This blog is going to be a fun mix of buzzfed and news articles but a little less heavy on the hard news.

If you're thinking "why?," I am writing simply because in order to be a good writer you need to write! Does that mean I'm going to be writing in the future? Who knows, there are a million things I wish to do with my degree. I am currently pursuing a degree in communications with a triple emphasis in journalism, mass media and public relations. When I was younger I always saw myself as a journalist and while I still love writing, there are many other interests I have found in the realm of communications. I currently serve as the social media and marketing intern for UWGB Residence Life. I get to run all the social media for residence life as well as write blog posts for our website. As of this summer, I have gotten to be a part of the UCA Staff social media team which has been awesome. Working in social media after graduation would be a dream come true!

Now to the fun stuff.

I'm all about lazy Netflix days or spending the day getting a tan while reading a good book. I also enjoy spending money on over priced drinks downtown while having a great time with friends. I like a wide variety of music and I want to eat sushi 24/7. There are probably about a billion other things I could list here that helps define who I am but I'll let you figure that out for yourself!

Anything else you need to know or if you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions feel free to contact my by filling out the contact form at the bottom of this page. Otherwise twitter is a great way to get in contact!

Thanks for reading!

Turning 21 is a big deal: you can legally drink and no longer have the fear of not being able to get into a club or being asked to leave a pub or a bar when the night rolls around... unless you're one of the few {like me} that are look like you hardly can pass for 19 let alone 21.

Being part of the cheerleading team has a few perks and one big one is the opportunity to travel to the NCAA tournament to cheer on our team! This year, we went to College Park, Maryland to play Princeton in the first round. Although the outcome of the game was not in our favor it was a great experience and I'm so proud of our women's basketball team! Here's an overview of our trip as well as some snapshots!


Day One - Thursday: After the cheer team and pep band put our stuff on the bus to go to the airport, we headed over to the Kress Events Center for a send off pep rally for the team. Together with the pep band we created a tunnel for the team to walk through and played the fight song to get every's excitement rising and get their Green Bay Phoenix spirit up! Community members and students joined in the fun and some even brought signs. Once everyone was on the buses we had a police escort to the airport! From there it was wheels up as we flew into Washington D.C. After we had landed safely we had about an hour drive to our hotel in Maryland. Our team went out to dinner and once we returned to the hotel my friends and I had an amazing surprise waiting for us! Our friend Nellie used to work for the Women's basketball team but graduated last year and now attends UConn. She wasn't supposed to be able to make it to Maryland because she works for the UConn women's basketball team and they had a game the same day as ours. We made "Stick Nellie" so she could still come on our adventures with us. Somehow all the fates aligned and Nellie was able to make it to Maryland for the weekend and surprised us! It was the surprise of the century and I may have teared up a bit. Spending time with such a great friend was the perfect ending to the day!

It's one of the best times of the year: March Madness. I've filled out my bracket and although I am a die-hard Marquette fan, I've chosen Wisconsin to win it all. This year I get to take part in the action as our women's basketball team won our conference tournament and will be making their 15th NCAA appearance! I am really excited because the last time they made it to NCAA, our team got to travel to Louisiana, but I missed out on the fun as I was still recovering from knee surgery and was not cleared to cheer. This year I get to see what the hype is all about. Tomorrow afternoon we are headed to College Park, Maryland to take on the Tigers of Princeton on Saturday morning! Although Princeton (the 8 seed to our 9)  has had an undefeated season so far I think we can take them down! I'm super excited because on our off day we get to visit Washington D.C. and I have never been there before. Fingers crossed we can avoid rain. Can't wait for this great experience and to cheer on the Phoenix to victory!

Last night at cheer practice we had a mini photo shoot to take pictures for a skills video that we are putting together. There were some pretty cool shots so I thought I'd share my favorite.. and it seems like I have a lot of favorites. S/O to our fabulous photographer Terri, she's the best.

Everyone has these preconceived notions of what Valentine's Day is supposed to be about. If you wear pink, red or purple then everyone thinks you're only wearing those colors as a symbol of what day it is. If you don't wear those colors then you appear not to remotely care about this holiday. And if by some mistake you find yourself wearing black then suddenly you're a hater of love. If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend you're supposed to drop tons of cash on a fancy dinner, flowers, perhaps going to a movie, and some chocolate. If you don't break the bank, onlookers judge you saying you must not really like the person because you didn't go borderline bankrupt just to prove your love. If you're single, you're supposed to find yourself pour glass after glass of wine, eating takeout while binge watching Netflix in an act of bitterness for being alone. Why do we all come to believe these things need to be true? Regardless of the answer, here are the people you will see on Valentine's Day.

The Social Media Maniac  
While this could be a guy, chances are this girl will wake up on V-Day posting a picture of her and her significant other with some drawn out caption were only 30% of viewers will read the whole thing. As the day goes on they will post everything from their dozen roses to a cute text message on Instagram with another cringe worth caption. Think you're safe because you don't follow them on IG? You're not. You can bet every post is linked between social media platforms. Hello overload. There is no escape. *insert heart eyes, kissy face, red and pink hearts*

Everyone's Valentine
This guy think he's Mr. Smooth but in reality he's just super thirsty and desperate for a girl to hang out with on Valentine's Day. You can spot him prior to V-Day as the one tweeting "who wants to be my valentine?" On the actual day of love you can count on him to be sending tweets out saying things like "this goes out to all the pretty single girls on Valentine's Day, you're not alone" or "Why do we need one day to show how much we love someone, a real man would do it every day" and other things of this nature. Translated his tweets mean "I have no girlfriend, not talking to anyone but I'm really desperate to get some tonight so I'll literally say anything."You may think you're being smooth but Sir, we're on to you.

The PDA Couples
On a normal day, public displays of affection are irritating and when walking through the halls between class you can always count on that one couple to make you want to vomit your lunch. On Valentine's Day, that specific couple gets so much worse. This is PSA: there is no need for a full on makeout session in the hall between class. You will see each other in 55 minutes. Thank goodness V-Day falls on a weekend this year.

Miss Independent 
On Valentine's Day all the "independent women who don't need no man" like to make their presence known. You can spot them in the crowd because their the ones vocalizing on twitter how they don't need a man to make them feel special, buying themselves flowers and posting selfies with an empowering quote. And you know what? There isn't a damn thing wrong with that.

Single Girls
There are two types of single girls on Valentines Day: the ones that make the best of the day and the ones that are bitter as hell. Both take a different approach to the day but chances are both result in the consumption of alcohol. For our purposes lets divide them in to the categories of sugar and spice.  Sugar implies sweetness and these girls just want to have a good time! The day is probably a mixture of shopping followed by a nice dinner with the girls. A girls night is necessary so pop in some chick flicks and whip up some margaritas and you're good to go. A instagram selfie of you and the girls is guaranteed to be posted. #girlsrule  If you're on the spice side you may find yourself dressing in black and taking snapchats of every couple you see with cynical captions. Your night doesn't consist of sangria and Reese Witherspoon but you will find yourself with boxed wine getting good and drunk. And everyone will know it too because you'll constantly be updating your snapstory and sending out not so suble subtweest about the guy you thought you had a chance of spending the night with. Face it, you're bitter.

Happy Valentine's Day.