This past Saturday at Columbia Mall in Columbia, MD, there was another mass shooting that followed a week of violent behavior in numerous universities around the nation. These shootings are becoming more and more ridiculous. They’re senseless and I will never understand why someone like Dorien Marcus Aguilar, the gunman who killed 3 victims in the fatal mall shooting, would result in killing someone because of built up sadness within. Counseling should be given free to everyone, courtesy of the federal government because there are too many teens who need help, and we’re not paying much attention to them.
One of the victims in this shooting was Tyler Johnson. I chose to write about Tyler because he taught me a lesson. I did not know him very well. In fact, I didn’t know him at all. But the week before the shooting, I saw Tyler at Zumies while I was shopping with two of my friends. He said hi to me. But the cruelness within my heart that day didn’t allow me to speak back. I actually was rude to Tyler, ignoring him each time he spoke. He said goodbye to me as I left the store, as well. I continued to walk out without saying nothing back, though I heard him. When I left Zumies, there was a feeling inside of me that made me feel terrible for not saying something, as a simple hello, to him. But I shrugged it off and went about my week as normal.
There’s a reason why I remembered Tyler’s face and that incident after seeing him only one time in my entire life. I believe it was to look at myself to see what I really am, a rude senseless individual, too. The only thing that made me different from the person who shot Tyler last Saturday was I did not shoot him. I never spoke and now I feel bad for being that rude person who walked in the store that day.
I wanted to publicly acknowledge the lesson I’ve learned through Tyler Johnson. There is no excuse to inflict how you feel inside onto someone else. I could’ve had a bad day when I saw Tyler, but that didn’t mean I could push my pain onto him. He didn’t know. He did not deserve that treatment from Dorien or me.
Though I know Tyler isn’t around anymore to see this apology, my condolences goes to his family and friends during this difficult time. My prayers are with them along with the other victim’s, Brianna Benlolo, family and friends. It’s a tough world we live in. I can only hope, as a human race, we can all become better to cure its cruelness.
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Vivid Visions is returning for artist like you!
When we last left Vivid Visions, Ryan Chance submitted to us his vision for his blog site. This year they’re coming back with more force and creative style for artist, writers, and people like you. Check out the team’s video below.
The relaunch will be this evening, January 25th, at 8 pm. Make sure you visit visionsvivid.blogspot.com when the time comes. How exciting! In the meantime, check out some of their promo videos posted during the course of this month on their YouTube Channel. We can’t wait to see what ideas they have in store for 2014.
Hop in my car and cruise to something that has hard base. The base has to be hard enough for my windows to look like they’re shaking. That’s the type of music the world should be driving to because it wakes you up and gets pumped to tackle your day. I mean, that’s why I listen to rap when I drive. Ha-ha! If you’re the type of music listener who likes a club banger kind of sound, you’ll be missing out if you haven’t heard about Young Wild & Reckless.
Last August, they submitted a video that was featured on Doc’s Castle Media. “Like Us” now holds a position of over two thousand views, which is way more than when it was first seen on Doc’s Castle Media. Tells us that they’ve been on their grind since we’ve last heard from them. They also dropped a mixtape last year, July 26th, named Young Wild & Reckless The Movement. The tape has over a thousand views so I had to do a review as a follow-up for my viewers.
Young Wild & Reckless The Movement is a tape meant for “turning up.” Similar to “Like Us,” the tape places you into a party scene that anyone could dream of being. You’ll be ready to grab your bottles and partake in other various recreational activities as you bob you heads to the base beat I mentioned above that you’ll love. My favorite song is “Like Us,” of course, with the addition of “What I Gotta Do,” a song highlighting that getting money is something these guys have to do to keep them fly. I’m sure many people can relate to that. I also like “Hood Rich Anthem” because it gives me that image of being a “boss.” The beat does that alone but with addition of these talented artist featured on the track, they reassure that they’re coming from all over the country, and different neighborhoods, to let us know about their movement. They’re taking over with extreme BOSS behavior.
Today is my lucky day, my special day, a day I will forever remember! Today is my graduation day! I, Taylor Walker A.K.A. Doc, is officially an alumna of University of Baltimore. Not, UMBC! I’m a graduate of UB. I am leaving this school with a Bachelors of Science in Corporate Communications. Man, am I proud of myself.
I don’t think many people understand how hard it was to get through college. It was not easy, especially when majority of the lessons that are learned and will stick with you throughout your entire life, aren’t even school related. These are lessons to help you grow into a brighter and much smarter adult. What I’m saying is that I’ve learned how to become an adult more than learning how to actually market an idea or commnicated for the media, which was what I came to school for in the first place. Attending college was nothing like I expected.
I wanted to highlight four of the most important lessons I’ve learned while attending University of Baltimore. Here are my favorite:
Lesson One: It’s better to ignore negative people than to continue to prove that you’re correct when in a dispute about something very useless in arguing about.
I cannot stress this statement enough! During my freshman and sophomore year of attending UB, I had to learn the hard way. Two instances taught me this lesson but I’ll speak about one. I hung out with a group of friends. We had disputes quite a bit. A lot of those disagreements could have been rumors. I don’t understand why I felt the need to explain or defend myself when dealing with issues in that group. But I know that every time I chose to argue with whoever I was disagreeing with (and I disagreed with everyone in the entire group at least once), it never came out in my favor. Like I was the predestined enemy, I would never win. It actually got to the point where the entire group turned against me. I wasn’t anyone’s friend by the time I started my junior year. By going through my trials with them, I learned friendship offers compromise. No matter how much I reached out to someone to mend, compromise was never accomplished. I was fine with it, too. I don’t have to be anyone’s friend if they don’t want to accept apologies or seek to move pass useless grudges.
We would argue over childish things. It wasn’t until I realized that my word didn’t matter, whether we were cool or not. I decided to move on from that group of friends and the childish things we were arguing about. Afterwards, I made a promise to myself that I’d never be in a situation like that again. I wanted be positive so I made the choice to put all that energy into starting Doc’s Castle Media. I’m really glad that I went through all those problems with those “friends” because all that stress made me turn my anger into something worth my wild. Now I can say to any of those “friends” if they’re reading, thank you for helping me become better than what I use to be.
Lesson Two: School only teaches you the formula for how to do something. It doesn’t mean you know how to do it.
Like for real, this is a very important one. Majority of the academic lessons I supposedly should’ve learned in my major classes, I already knew from being prepared by a team of awesome teachers at Milford Mill Academy. Seriously, I literally question the purpose of taking up corporate communications as a major sometimes. I don’t want to take all the credit away from UB but the only stuff I can recall learning are from my general education classes because those classes taught me something I was far from interested in studying. Like in my African History class, I learned a lot about different African cultures that most Americans don’t take the time to learn about because of excessive exposure to stereotypes. I’m very appreciative for taking that class. But that wasn’t my plan. It was thrown on my schedule. Another class I could give credit to is my graphic design class. I knew nothing of it. So it was worth taking.
I learned more from my internships and volunteering for small businesses around Baltimore City than sitting in class. Working for multiple companies taught me the life of a professional corporate employee. I was taught through experience how to navigate the business world. I took it upon myself to value what I could be taught through first person encounters. I’ve gained so much wisdom and I loved every second of each opportunity that was given to me. I can’t wait to apply my new skills to whatever job that hires me!
Lesson Three: In many cases it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know. But what you know definitely gives a little push.
While working at all of those internships and volunteer opportunities, I met some very important people who led me to more important people. Their recommendation pushed me further along with my dedication and hard work. I guess, because I worked so well with them, they wanted to see me do better. I was never lazy when it came to learning from my opportunities so I know my dedication gave me that extra push. My drive meant something to those people I’ve worked for in order for them to recommend me to others. I would never say it was solely their word that opened doors for me. But when it comes to applying to jobs, I find myself seeking to build relationships and not only submitting an application. I do this while continuing to show how dedicated and hard worker I am. Relationships are very important. But that extra push shows credibility.
Lesson Four: Love can wait.
This is a more recent lesson I’ve learned that I feel may have to be a separate blog for me to expand more on. Love is too complicated sometimes at such an early point in anyone’s life. It’s definitely something a person shouldn’t draw a conclusion on if they’re uncertain of the love for their self. I’ve spent so much time with my attention on so many guys that I thought they loved me when I should have spent that time loving myself. Instead of seeking satisfaction from them, I could have read an entertaining book. A lot of those emotional roller coasters I put myself through could have been avoided. Trial and error taught me it wasn’t worth it in the end. I don’t have to add their sadness and unwillingness to be happy into my life to ultimately bring me down with them. Gah!
I’m way ahead of a lot of people who I tried to drag along with me. I can’t bring people with me who don’t want to willingly come, or I can’t want better for someone who doesn’t want to improve on their own. I learned to let things go. You can’t force anything! What’s meant to be, will happen so I’m free, I guess. I’m single and not ready to mingle at all. I talk to no one and I’m not lonely. I’m really happy. If a guy wants to join in with my happiness, he’ll have to prove that he’s not trying to force love for himself either. If he is, I’ll see straight pass his phoniness and push him away to keep myself content. I’m over being pushy LOL.
Mmm, check out my graduation cake in honor of Doc’s Castle Media!
With all these lessons, I’ve become humble and grateful for making mistakes. I’m not afraid of what’s next. But I do wonder why college molded me into this more than taught me marketing or communication. Oh well, it’s over! Amen to that!
