Is this for me?

Since January, my life has been consumed with an internship, homework and my sorority, Sigma Alpha. I pull twelve-hour days of leaving at 6 am and getting home around 5:30/6:00 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Then Tuesday and Thursday I spend all day in class and completing homework assignments. My evenings, when I am not in class or at work, are taken over by meetings and small groups. I am always exhausted.

So, I began thinking: is the public relations industry for me?

Here is my dilemma. I see the people at The Richards Group working their butts off for nine hours or longer every day and many times, they work on the weekends and from home. Most of the folks on my team do not have families and just appear constantly busy. The ones that do have kids have nannies and I don’t want my kids raised by nannies. When I shadowed a woman in a marketing firm in Houston it was the same thing – always busy, always working and never home.

I want a family. I want to be home with my kids and husband. I want to take them to soccer and ballet, pick them up from school and make my family dinner. Is it even possible to have a career and be the best mom and wife possible? Right now, I get off work and couldn’t fathom having to run myself around for errands, let alone run around any children. The long hours and working weekends doesn’t appear to compliment having a family – especially if my husband is working to.

On the other hand, I am only twenty and have no prospect of getting married anytime soon. So why is this something I am worrying about? I have many talents that allow me to be really great at public relations and marketing and I definitely do not want to waste those. So would not having a long career make my unhappy? I guess these are the joys that come with an internship; making you re-think your life goals. 

Internships make you question, ‘is this for me?’

Charlie Sheen: Winning

Who the heck is Charlie Sheen and why is he EVERYWHERE?

Just kidding. I know who Charlie Sheen is. Charlie Sheen is a rock star. He is always winning and is on the ‘Charlie Sheen Drug’ that only Charlie Sheen can take because it would kill anyone else that tried.

When Charlie Sheen started his twitter, within the first thirty minutes, he had almost one million followers. I’ve had a twitter for almost three month and have 69. Just a random fact.

Americans are so consumed with watching stars crash and burn into public humiliation. However, what makes Charlie Sheen more hilarious is how he is just basking in his fame (because honestly, he isn’t a great actor, so all he is really known for is drugs and prostitutes). If he knows how much public humiliation he is going through, he obviously doesn’t care.  Also, he is probably in the top five idiots in America.

Now, what does Charlie Sheen have to do with public relations?

Basically, Charlie Sheen exemplifies public relations. He is using media stunts and staged acts to capture free media coverage about his product (himself). He is engaging with his audience via social media and live broadcasting (SheensKorner). He is creating new trends such as ‘winning’ and ‘tiger blood,’ which gathers more free publicity. Charlie Sheen is not necessarily ethical or considered an opinion leader but he has opinions and is sharing them will zeal and passion.

 Charlie Sheen is doing public relations better than some professionals. He took the product of himself and made it a national trend in the span of a week. Of course, he does have the mania of a crazy person in his favor. But, in all honesty, Charlie Sheen is making a name for himself. Americans will continue consuming his dramatic and humorous antics we love them.

All publicity is good publicity. Charlie Sheen’s publicity is hilarious and idiotic. But it is still more publicity than I will receive in my lifetime.

Public relations could learn something from Charlie Sheen. Winning is everything.