Monthly Archives: August 2019

in the street.

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on the night before

the Barcelona – Napoli soccer match

takes place in the stadium

the streets close to cars

and open 

only to people

who celebrate  

with food and drinks

and especially music

 as martha reeves

belts it out

under the stars

for the happy crowd. 

 

‘i will always dance in the street.’

-martha reeves

happiness expert.

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the following job title popped up on my alumni website

and made me curious to learn just what a ‘happiness expert’ is exactly.

now that I know, I think that my definition is a very different one

though you can never have too much happiness.

 

Happiness Expert

Full-Time Position
Description

We do more than just provide a software product to our campus partners. We provide a full experience to ensure their happiness and success, and you’ll be right there with them along the way as their own personal expert.

What You’ll Do:

  • Develop a lasting rapport with our campus partners, from coordinators to directors, deans to vice presidents, and beyond
  • Learn the unique needs and challenges of each campus that you work with and develop strategies that are centered around our solutions to address them
  • Manage the orientation process for campuses using our frameworks and learning outcomes, while infusing your own unique experiences
  • Help out our Happiness Allies by responding quickly and accurately to inbound conversations from our campus partners to answer their questions, complete with plenty of emojis and GIFs
  • Efficiently solve problems that users encounter by recreating them in a test environment
  • Ensure the quality and functionality of our software by completing user testing of new features, enhancements, and bug fixes (you’ll be the first to see all of the cool new stuff we’re building!)
  • Facilitate customer growth and success by staying up-to-date on current trends in higher education.
  • Created with Passion by Former Practitioners – We help student affairs professionals and student leaders on college and university campuses across the world create better communities, campus cultures, and student experiences. As former student affairs professionals and involved student leaders, we have a deep understanding of the industry and its most chronic problems. We’ve lived them! We’re growing fast, and would love your help making it happen!
Qualifications- You just might be our next Happiness Expert, if:

You have:

• Worked on campus as a student leader
• An intimate understanding of, and passion for, our software and the problems it solves
• An affinity for all things technology. You love to be the first to try out shiny new software
• An uncanny ability to develop and maintain relationships with your new best friends (aka our partner institutions)
• The desire and ability to work with all types of people, both on your team and with our campus partners

And you:

• Are a great listener, challenge the industry status quo, and question everything
• Have an open mind — you love trying new things, generating new ideas, and don’t mind failing
• Get excited by meeting and talking to new people, building relationships, and helping out
• Have an exceptional eye for organization in everything that you do
• Regularly self-reflect, practice self-awareness, self-motivation, and setting strategy
• Take joy and pride in setting and exceeding goals
• Are excited to push our growth forward!

“some cause happiness wherever they go,
some cause happiness whenever they go.”
-oscar wilde

so old and wise.

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About Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise

Katherine Rundell – Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and prize-winning author of five novels for children – explores how children’s books ignite, and can re-ignite, the imagination; how children’s fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world. This delightful and persuasive essay is for adult readers. – Bloomsbury Press

Katherine Rundell says – “There’s something particular about children’s fiction, that can open up new perspectives for adults. The best children’s fiction “helps us refind things we may not even know we have lost”, taking us back to a time when “new discoveries came daily and when the world was colossal, before the imagination was trimmed and neatened…” There’s also something instructive in reading books that, as Rundell points out, are “specifically written to be read by a section of society without political or economic power”. In an age whose political ructions are the result of widespread frustration at the powerlessness of the many in the face of the few, this recognition of how emboldening and subversive children’s books can be feels important.” – Book Riot -Jamie Canaves

Yes to always making time to read children’s books, no matter how old or wise we may get – or think we are.

bobsticle.

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another of roald’s perfectly created words.

image credit: roalddahl.com

make a difference.

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neighborhood resource fair serving detroit and hamtramck residents.

 

*GLOBAL DETROIT is a nonprofit regional economic development initiative that believes immigrants and refugees are critical to job creation, regional growth, and prosperity. Global Detroit is revitalizing Metro Detroit’s economy by mobilizing its immigrant potential. We are an innovator and expert in connecting international talent with regional businesses’ unmet talent needs, catalyzing the growth and development of immigrant entrepreneurs, revitalizing neighborhoods, and building a globally-competitive and inclusive region.

In addition to our local efforts, Global Detroit has spearheaded the creation of the Welcoming Economies Global Network (WE Global), a ten-state regional collaborative
of 20 peer local immigrant economic development initiatives across the Rust Belt. WE Global Network is a project of Welcoming America, run in partnership with Global Detroit.

 

“make a difference about something other than yourselves.”

-toni morrison

 

thank you Toni Morrison, for your many inspirational words.

 

 

credits: *global detroit (image and story), WE global

 

 

please touch.

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‘PLEASE TOUCH’


 

too much.

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“there is too much bad news to justify complacency

there is too much good news to justify despair.” 

-donella meadows

 

 

 

 

image credit: bizjournals, dirk rietschel

late night snacks.

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hung out with four of the six-pack tonight

after

pool time

trampoline jumping

walking

scooter-ing

fast food-ing

bike riding

creating with clay

home spa nail painting

singing

hide and seek

a TV movie

rounding up the cats

baths/showers

pajamas

stories

building a giant sleep nest

no one is at all tired yet

the perfect time to bake brownies

and eat them as a late night snack

with some ice cream on top

their parents will never know.

“if we’re not meant to have midnight snacks, why is there a light in the fridge?”

-author unknown (pinterest)

surprises.

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I spent some time this morning 

creating the beginnings of a fairy village

in the front garden

of a friend’s little girl

who liked to come and visit my garden

when she got home

she discovered the surprise

saw the fairies had moved in

right in her very own front yard

and gave it her full endorsement

 

“the whole point of life was you couldn’t ever be sure what would happen next.

sometimes what happened was good, sometimes not,

but there were always surprises.” 

― veronica henry, author

grand symphony.

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sonic lunch

a free concert series

thanks to a collaboration between

a local radio station and a local bank

always brings the city together

for a shared experience

the light, the music, the bubbles, the dancing, the company

the break from work, stress, life, worries, routines

 at least for a little while

once each summer week

shaed performs for a welcoming crowd

 

“we are each but a quarter note in a grand symphony.”

-guy laliberte

 

 

 

 

 

liberty plaza, ann arbor, mi, usa – august 2019