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Born on Third Base

For this assignment, I read the preface and part of chapter two of Born on Third Base by Chuck Collins. I particularly enjoyed the preface because it gave me a feeling for the author. In this section, Collins shared a story on why he decided to give all his wealth away. When he was 26 years old, he visited a mobile home park that made him realize how far communities are willing to go to protect their own. He saw the community pull together everything they had and risk it all in order to save their park and set themselves free from the property owner. Because of this, Collins decided the only reason he was better off than them was due to sheer luck. He decided it was better to give away all his wealth, despite his dads pleas to keep some money for insurance. When disaster struck, his mobile home community showed up at his door step to help. This section made me smile due to Collins faith in society. Many people would call him foolish for giving away the money that could offer him ...

NextEra Energy Investment Proposal Draft

TO: Professor Clark Hansen, CEO, AMDP FROM:   Katherine O’Connor, Research and Development DATE:   March 8, 2019 SUBJECT:   Investment Recommendation - NextEra Energy As a member of AMDP’s research and development team, it is my job to search for opportunities to invest in profitable organizations that have core values similar to ours. After extensive research, I have concluded that NextEra Energy, a publicly traded energy company, is an optimal investment opportunity due to its impressive history, strong commitment to the community and the environment, and their promising future. AMDP Standards AMDP is committed to doing business with socially responsible organizations. Because of this, I would like to reiterate the four principles that we, as a company, consider essential when investing in another company. Triple Bottom Line Triple bottom line is a concept that goes beyond the traditional financial measures of profits and return on investment, to...

The Ted Bundy Netflix Series

This President’s day weekend went differently as planned, to say the least. Everything was seemingly normal until Saturday morning, when norovirus hit three of my roommates, one after the other. I spent the whole day traveling from apartment to apartment to escape my friends who were dropping like flies to the disease. Currently, I am spending the night in a hotel while my apartment gets disinfected. Because I’ve had more time alone than usual, I resorted to Netflix to cure my boredom. After some browsing, I decided to watch “Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes”. Once I started, I couldn't stop. Embarrassingly enough I had never heard about Ted Bundy, the serial killer, and I was extremely disturbed by how he fooled so many people and was able to escape prison on two separate occasions.  The first thing that intrigued me about the documentary was how much our technology has advanced since the 1970s. Although the police sometimes had blood samples, and witnesses ...

How to Dance Like No One’s Watching

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Katherine O’Connor How to Dance Like No One’s Watching  And Know You Don’t Look Like an Idiot Everyone has that one friend that is notoriously bad at dancing. The one everyone loves to laugh at from afar when they are attempting to shimmy on the dancefloor. Well, unfortunately, I’m that friend, and chances are you are too if you’re reading this. If you're  that  friend, then you know the immediate discomfort that arises when someone suggests that everyone go dancing at a bar or club. It’s easy to say “relax”, or the cliché, “dance like no one’s watching”. But the reality is, you know some people  are watching, and it's normal to want to look good while doing it. So, from one non-dancer to another, these are the tips I’ve learned along the way that will successfully transform you from a terrible dancer into an average one (with confidence). #1 Throw out Your Preconceptions about Dance The first key to mastering dance, is knowing that you can’...

My Life on the Road

I was pleasantly surprised by Gloria Steinem’s novel, My Life on the Road . To be honest, I wasn't completely sure how moved I would be by the life of a traveling feminist (in the most general terms). I couldn't see myself being able to relate to her life in anyway, as I have had comfort in having a place to call home and I am not that passionate about politics. However, from the moment I read the first page, I knew I had greatly underestimated Steinem, both as an activist and as an inspirational writer. When I read the title of the first chapter, “My Father’s Footprints”, I knew I was going to have more in common with Steinem than previously thought. The chapter was filled with memories of her unusual childhood on the road, which had worked to shape her into the person she is today. Although she originally was embarrassed of her ‘weird’ upbringing, and longed for a less impulsive father that could settle down, she later realized how important it was in forming her charact...

My Life as a Retail Salesperson

Retail Salesperson  Because I am young student, I haven’t had a lot of work experience, especially in the business field, which I plan to take part in after I graduate. However, when I was a junior in high school I briefly served as a retail salesperson at a boutique called LF. Although the title is pretty self-explanatory, I am going to briefly explain what my life was like for a few months as a salesperson.  A retail salesperson is someone who serves customers by helping them select products that they like and feel confident in. We tackle several different job responsibilities that are centered around selling as much product as we can and making sure our clients know about our new clothing arrivals and markdowns.  There are three jobs that help to sum up the responsibilities of a retail salesperson:  Stylist  Cashier  Marketer I’ll describe these positions using examples of what I did on a daily basis.  Stylist The work of a...

Excited to Read!

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To be honest, when I first saw that I had to read an entire book I wasn't that excited. Immediately, I researched the three options to find out which book was the shortest and least painful to read. The first option was How I Killed Pluto by Mike Brown. After reading the book summary, I found out it was about the discovery of the tenth planet, Eris, which lead to Pluto being being demoted to a from a real planet to a “dwarf” planet. The thought of reading a scientific book brought back the nightmares of my 15 week-long class on Earthquakes I took last semester. I couldn’t survive reading about any more historic rocks. Then I looked up the second option, Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land by Kurt Timmermeister. I learned it was about how Timmermeister turned four acres of land into a profitable farm. This book was more interesting to me from a business standpoint, but I wasn’t looking forward to reading about where the food I eat comes from. Fina...