Born this way

Let's be honest...will we ever be satisfied with where technology is at?


What an age we live in. Everything in the world you could ever want to know is basically within your fingertips, just a mouse click away. And the better it gets, the more spoiled we become. A prime example was on my way home from New York last weekend. Apparently they have wifi on airplanes now, which was news to me. That was just icing on the cake after a glorious weekend, especially because our flight was right during the Super Bowl. (I'm not even going to mention how difficult that was for me since it was the first year that the Saints had ever made it to there. WHO DAT). But as you would expect, the connection was anything but spectacular and the coverage we got was spotty at best. At one point I started get upset that we couldn't watch even one play without a glitch or delay. That's when I realized what it was I was actually getting mad about. Before this trip, I didn't even know that internet existed on airplanes yet, and yet within just a few hours I was already complaining about it. It was a great surprise to even get to see some of it.

The other reason I was thinking about this topic was because of a computer programming class I am taking. It is a lot of work to design an interface that works properly and allows the user to navigate without any problems. Basically, the purpose is to create something that allows someone to click on anything they want and not find any bugs or loopholes in the code. And the reason is because people, just like my experience on the airplane, demand perfection with technology and get upset with anything short of that. It made me think a lot about the difference between children and adults. Here's why:

At what point do kids stop wanting to discover and begin demanding timeliness. Have you ever seen a young child get frustrated that things don't work as well as they should? No, because they are just happy to have something in front of them. The only thing that young children get upset about is if someone next to them has something that they want, and that is typically just because they know they don't currently have it. We aren't born the way we are, that is something we learn from society. So, when do kids start to get that mentality? When do their values switch? When do they need more than a box with cut out shapes to fit in corresponding slots?

Let's be honest...I think we can all start to appreciate how far we've come this far, and start to appreciate the more important things in life. The next big "necessity" will be waiting for you if you change your mind or feel differently.

Empire State of Mind

Let's be honest...Where else you want to spend an all-expenses paid weekend?


I was thinking the same thing. L'oreal flew me out to NYC to interview for an summer internship in their luxury product division. It was amazing! I hadn't been to New York since I was like 12 years old, and we only stayed one night. I think it might be one of the only places that actually gets bigger rather than smaller the older you get.


There were about 75 students from all across the country that came for the weekend. They pampered us pretty much the whole time. This is right after we had dinner in Grand Central Station. There were students from all across the nation, places like NYU, Duke, Harvard, Howard, Northwester, and dozens more. It was awesome to hang out with kids from different places like that and see how their experiences are different than mine. While BYU is technically a fairly diverse campus in terms of where people come from, lets be honest...it lacks completely in the diverse category. I even got to explain our church's beliefs to some of the others at dinner one night and basically taught a first lesson.


The first night there, we went through some orientation meetings and got to know some of the head honchos of our divisions. And the best part was the cocktail party they held on the opening night. I had never been to anything like that before, so I was definitely a little out of place. But the whole night was designed to let us ask questions to people who worked there and get some interesting feedback. After that was all over, we had some extra time, so we met some of the other kids, one of which was from NYC, and he showed us around. Rockafeller Plaza, Times Square, and everything inbetween. It was awesome.


They put us in teams depending on the specific product division we were interested in for our Saturday events. I was a part of the Georgio Armani team. The whole day was dedicated to different case studies and basically planning a rough outline for an entire marketing campaign. They gave us very limited time for each case, so it was a lot of pressure. For each session, there were different employees there to observe and judge us. It was even more pressure for that. And then after that we would try and pitch our ideas to them in a logical, yet concise manner. It was an interesting element to be thrown into a team with people you have never even met before and be forced to collaborate with them. Think about taking a bunch of kids who have been leaders most of their lives, throwing them together in a room, with potential bosses looming over, and then watch them sort it out. It was quite the dynamic.


Part of our day was to go out and do some store visits. They wanted us to see first hand how their products reach the consumer and get some insights for our campaigns. This was pretty cool because we got to walk around the city and see everything. I think the biggest disadvantage was that our whole case was for a new women's fragrance for Maybelline. Needless to say, I was a rookie in this area. At first it was a challenge. But I think it actually worked out well because I made sure that everything we did was for the right reasons, because I had no preconceived notions about anything.

That night after all was said and done, we went to the ESPN zone in Times Square and watched the Jazz beat the Nuggets. Take that DENVER.

The next day was the big kahuna. It was our interview day. I was excited for this cause I think I could do better one on one than in a group. And it went really well. I felt good about it. And it felt like it went really fast, which seems like that would be a good thing, right? Well they are supposed to let us know in the next 2 weeks. So keep your fingers crossed til then...

Cause Let's be honest...Who wouldn't want an internship with a huge international company in the city that is basically the center of the universe?