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Taking Back Happiness

Shayla Harding, 41, is a wife and mother of five girls ranging in age from twenty-one to three. As she walks around the house in her gray sweatpants and baggy t-shirt, she picks up after her three and six-year-old. Her hair is in a loose, messy bun on top of her head, and she multi-tasks by cleaning up and prepping for tonight’s dinner, a work-life balance all too familiar to stay-at-home moms. Her husband Charlie walks into the house to grab a quick lunch, complains about how disorganized the house is and how sick he is with the mess, all while not offering to lift a finger.

 

Shayla and Charlie Harding were high school sweethearts and were married 21 years ago when the unexpected pregnancy of their first child, Marie, caused the couple to say their vows. “I’m almost positive that we would’ve gotten married anyways,” Shayla noted. Through the beginning years of their marriage, they had Ashley, 19, and Kayleigh, 16. Shayla thought that they were done having kids, even though Charlie had still wanted a son, and that narrative had stayed true until 2012, when Shayla found out she was pregnant with Jaclyn, now 6. “Jaclyn was kind of an oops,” Shayla said laughing. “After we had her we decided we should give her a friend.” Three years later, Bailey was born.

 

On the outside, Shayla seems to be content with her life, but in reality, she’s about to make a huge lifestyle change for her and her family. Shayla is filing for divorce from her husband of 21 years.

 

Shayla and Charlie’s marriage got rockier and rockier over the years. Shayla claims that her and Charlie fought a lot about insignificant things, but money most importantly. According to Shayla, Charlie buying a small business did not help with the marital stress. In 2012, Charlie bought a small town restaurant with a connected bowling alley, with no real experience on how to run one. The family still owns and runs the business today, although Charlie threatens to sell it whenever they run into financial problems. “Dad’s funny that way. Whenever we get in a rough spot his reaction is to yell and try to run away,” Marie, the oldest of the five, said.

 

Although Shayla has not yet served Charlie a divorce petition, she is sure about her decision to leave him. She’s positive that the divorce will not be an easy one and that custody of her younger children will be a huge battle to be fought. Still, Shayla is ready to take back her happiness and live life a little for herself.

 

When asked outright about why she’s filing for divorce now, Shayla said, “I love my children, and I know that a divorce is hard on a family, but for 21 years, I have been living for my family and putting myself last. I want to start living for me, all while still taking care of my babies.”

 

“I’m happy for my mom,” Ashley stated. “I’ve known that she’s been unhappy for a long time, and I love my dad – don’t get me wrong – but it’s really the best for them and the best for us.”

 

For now, Shayla continues to take care of her family and keep the house as orderly as she possibly can in her sweatpants and messy hair. Even though she isn’t as free as she’d like to be, Shayla is always looking forward to the day that she finally takes back her own happiness

Mega City Mall Explosion

An explosion occurred at the Mega City Mall at 9:50 am today in the southeast section of the mall by Gun Land. Less than 100 people have been injured and two fatalities have been reported. The identities of the fatalities have not been released.

Police officials are still in a preliminary investigation of the explosion and say that there is no clear indication of why this explosion happened. Electrical issues and power surges have been reported in the mall in the past month. Kaitlyn McShane a custodian at the mall, had this to say about the electrical problems, “I have heard from others about the problems but not in that area in the mall.”

Several witnesses have come forward with their accounts of the event. Diego Marques, a Penny Dreadful employee, recalled the event: “All I heard was a BOOM and everyone started running.”

Daniel Ver Steeg who was shopping in the mall at the time said, “I heard the sound from behind me and when I turned around I just saw a big ball of smoke.”

Sergeant Fuglsang of the Mega City Police Department has given a statement saying that there is a video of the incident that has not yet been analyzed by officials. Homeland Security has been informed of the explosion and the Mega City Police Department has established a special team of investigators that will work alongside federal law enforcement agencies. He also stated, “There are no indications or evidence that this is a terrorist attack.”

The mall’s gas has been turned off as a precaution and will be temporarily off limits to everyone until the structural integrity of the building can be assessed and is not expected to be reopened until after Saturday.

Weekly News Comment 16 – “Airbnb will start designing homes.”

Airbnb will be building modular homes that can be designed and configured to meet their renters’ needs and also allow for more homes to be rented out on Airbnb itself. This is one of many trends of companies who used to use other people assets investing in themselves to produce their own assets to sell. Uber and Lyft are letting drivers lease cars from them to then drive for the company, and ThredUp is designing its own clothing lines to sell instead of borrowing from other brands.

As a business student, this article and the business moves by these companies made a lot of sense to me. The article itself is long enough to get its point across while still being short enough that I could read it in between exercises in accounting class. There also wasn’t very much jargon in this article when I know that there very well could have been, so the author either isn’t very educated when it comes to business or they wrote it with the thought of their audience maybe not knowing many business terms.

Midland Zoo mourns the death of Homer the Polar Bear.

Homer the 16 year old polar bear passed away this morning at the Midland Zoo in Townsville. He was the oldest of three bears in the polar bear enclosure. “Homer was a very curious and playful polar bear and we will miss him terribly,” said zookeeper Sara N. Getty.

The zoo has also been recovering from the death of a 10 year old bobcat from renial failure, and a 6 year old giraffe.

Polar bears in captivity rarely live past 15 to 18 years in captivity. Although the cause of death is not known for Homer, zoo officials are investigating the bears death to ensure the welfare of all animals in the zoo. Chris P. Bacon, Midland’s Zoo Director said, “Animal welfare and the preservation of species are our primary goals here at the zoo.”

Weekly News Comment #15 – “Who is J.D. Power, and what do his associates do?”

J.D. Power was a man with automotive and advertising expertise who started J.D. Power and Associates out of his home in 1968. He and his wife sent surveys out to homes and discovered which automotive makers were putting out the best cars. When they were mentioned by Subaru in their Superbowl XVIII, they became a household name and have been used in car commercials ever since.

This article answered a question that I didn’t know I wanted to be answered until I read the title. For years I have just accepted that the J.D. Power and Associates award meant something, but now I know why it does. The article is pretty lengthy but it answers the range of questions a person would have about the firm: who is J.D. Power, how they conduct their surveys, and why people trust them.

Article here.

Conversation

This morning I had a meeting with three associates from Antidote 71 and two fellow students, Anna and Abby, to talk about the agency and ask questions about a career in advertising. Antidote 71 is an advertising agency here in Sioux City that focuses on digital marketing as well as some traditional media.

Skyler Bauer was the first associate in the room. He was wearing a flannel shirt buttoned up completely except for the top button holding an iced coffee. While waiting for his coworkers to get there, we talked about John Kolbo, a very eccentric professor at Morningside. Skyler had Kolbo in classes during his time at Morningside and asked us questions about him. “Does he still talk for all of the class? Typical Kolbo is talking long enough to leave ten minutes left in class to work.”

Jesse Glade and Jeff Gordon came in together to the conference room. Jesse was wearing an American Eagle button up shirt much more relaxed than Skyler. Jeff was wearing a yellow plaid shirt and had a full head of grey hair. They told us about their work and their typical day at work. They then let us ask them questions.

I asked about the culture of Antidote 71. Jeff, the creative director, replied with, “We are laid back but structured… We don’t have a foosball table or ping pong, but we try to have fun.”

The questions continued for around an hour and then Anna, Abby, and I were all questioned out. We exchanged business cards and I left the conference room with Abby to go to class.

KGLR News Now Broadcast

Weekly News Comment #13 – “Bad product photos can hinder a small business. This company is trying to help.”

Small time sellers in the business world are having a hard time presenting their goods in the best light. Cameras are everywhere today, and almost every one has one in the form of their smartphone. While these cameras are great, that doesn’t make them the best out there. Many small sellers are having a hard time getting the right picture of their products in order to sell them efficiently online. Square/Weebly has developed a new side business, where people send in their products to have them professionally shot for the web, hoping to alleviate some of the difficulty that comes with running a small business.

This article is showing the reader the need for a business like the one discussed. It gives examples of small sellers taking bad pictures compared to what places like Amazon can do for its products. It introduces the main idea early on and gives the solution to the problem.

I chose this article because I want to have my own business in the future. I will most likely be selling small products, so having information like this is good to know for future reference.

Article here. 

Daniel Ver Steeg Profile

Daniel Ver Steeg, a sophomore at Morningside College from Orange City, Iowa, stepped out of his comfort zone and opened up to new possibilities on election night. As a part of Mass Communications on campus, Daniel works at the KSMC radio station, reporting sports news for the listening public. After graduation, Daniel hopes to become a play by play radio sports broadcaster. Before November 6th, Daniel had never covered politics or any other kind of story before besides sports and was very use to radio broadcasting. Election night was a new story for Daniel to tell.

Election night coverage was airing on MCTV and Daniel was going to be in the anchor chair. Daniel was very nervous about going on air. He had never been a broadcaster on TV before and had grown comfortable in his radio routine. He admitted that he would’ve been much more comfortable doing the election night coverage on the radio.

Daniel shared his experience: “The first 20 minutes before going on air I was just building up nerves… The first five minutes of the broadcast were kind of the same way… But then as the night went on I realized that it was just like radio except you’re looking at a camera.”

The experience as a whole has changed Daniel’s mind about broadcast television and opened his mind to a career in television.

Profile Article/Video

A sculpture named Anna Coleman Ladd used her talents after World War I in order to give soldiers with facial injuries normal lives. She used pictures of these soldiers in order to craft and hand paint masks that resembled their features from before the war.

The frame of this story in the video is definitely about Anna’s work and her contribution during and after the war. It also is sort of a testament to her legacy and her work.

They take pictures from Ladd’s work and use details in order to give background about the time that everything was taking place and why her work was so important. They talk a lot about how her previous work was very much unlike what she was doing for the soldiers.

Article/Video Here.