PDC

Public displays of communication.

Not only did I just witness one, I just engaged in one myself.

Don't act all oblivious. You know what I'm talking about.

The woman walking down the grocery aisle yapping to her girlfriend on her cell about her terrible date last night.

PDC is usually common among women. Arguably, PDC is disrespectful and demonstrative of a lack of social tact.

I say PDC is OK when kept to a minimum. Sometimes, you just have to tell that story and you know you're not going to be in the privacy of your dorm room for the next few hours. Fine, tell the story. But avoid divulging the dirty details. Also, avoid speaking in a tone that's too decibels too many. People are either listening to your conversation and judging you (and/or the person on the other line) or listening to your conversation and wanting to punch your lights out because they are annoyed.

get real, be real, and stay real,

tY

Funny how things work out

So, I'm very grateful for a conversation I had last night with a friend.

We sat back and talked about our childhoods and our families and just the different ups and downs we've both gone through. The astonishing point for me is that despite the fact that our lives have been polar opposites, we've a) managed to end up at the same school and b) managed to be friends.

Therein lies the beauty in life (or at least in college.) Despite our different upbringings, we can all end up in the same place. Hard work and faith never go out of style and by seeing the differences between me and my friend who both ended up at UMD, I learned that.

It's easy to shut down, form cliques, or pass judgments. It's much harder to open up and always work to put the pieces of the puzzle together instead of quitting when you think you're done. But, the latter pays off so much more and I think that's a lesson I began learning last night.

get real, be real, and stay real,
tY

R-E-S-P-E-C-T (thanks Aretha)

Woo, my first Project Reality post!! This is exciting.

I'm currently working a 6-9am shift at the front desk and I woke up to one of the most unpleasant sights.

I opened my door and there's vomit directly in front of it. I spent a minute being completely disgusted and another figuring out how to maneuver out the door with my things without coming into contact with this bodily fluid. Luckily, I was successful.

Ok, ok. I know. I'm in college. People go out and get totally wasted and throw up. Understandable. I'm not against that. If you couldn't make it to the bathroom, you're forgiven. But, if you couldn't a) attempt to clean up your own mess or b) call residential facilities so they could clean up your mess, we have a major problem.

This behavior is kind of surprising because I have about two weeks left. This is behavior you would expect in the first couple of months when people don't know their limits and are still learning how to respect personal space. But, in the last few weeks? Tsk, tsk, people.

BIG PICTURE

Respect for personal space is huge, especially in a dorm where personal space is limited at best. I may never discover the culprit of my early morning encounter with vomit, but I shouldn't have had to deal with their problem in the first place.

Get real,

tY

Welcome

For those of you who have been following Free Love, welcome to my newest blog!

If you ever start blogging, you will learn it's very much like getting a tattoo. It's addictive. I love doing it and I especially love getting feedback from my friends. Free Love is and always will be my passion because it's my baby! I've gotten so many great responses about it and I'm really grateful for that.

So, if you're what I like to call a "free lover," don't worry! Free Love isn't going anywhere. I still plan on writing about the ups and downs of relationships and well, life. But, it dawned on me recently that I have ideas and opinions on a lot more than just love (or lust or like or luck or however you see it.) There's a bigger world out there and I intend to learn about it and of course, blog about it.

So, welcome to Project Reality. Very much like free love, the name doesn't have any significant meaning. It's just my own personal project about real life and the day to day issues surrounding us that sometimes we are too busy or too oblivious or even too carefree to notice.

And, just a brief intro if you're not a free lover (yet): I'm Ty, I'm 19 years old finishing up my sophomore year at the University of Maryland. I'm a comm major (PR) and some days I know exactly what I want to do with my life and other days I'm a wandering nomad. I like it that way. I blog for fun. I could list adjectives about myself but I will let you make your own decisions based on what you read and not what I can say about myself. Thanks a million for reading this, it really means a lot to me.

get real,
tY