Michael-Carson's Blogs

Instead of following the Dawgs this weekend to Jacksonville, I am taking a trip with my boyfriend down to my favorite place, New Orleans. Growing up, I spent half of my summers in this area of Louisiana. With it being my boyfriend's first time in New Orleans, I have laid out all of the must-see locations and experiences. Often, my friends ask me where they should go and what they should do when going to New Orleans as well. Even though there are many lists like this online I figured I would give mine. Here are the "must-do"/"must see" things when going to New Orleans. 1) Bourbon Street I just want to start with this to get it out of the way. Bourbon street is a magical place that smells like beer and puke. While the smell is horrible, it can be a fun place to explore. It is one of the most tourist-y places and is line with stores that each have the same cheap t-shirts and shot glasses inside. I have been many years and the content is the same each time. Howev...

In the middle of the summer 5 years ago, right around midnight, a group of friends and I entered the Mall of Georgia theater to watch the premier of "The Dark Knight Rises." It was an amazing experience full of popcorn, candy, and people dressed up as their favorite characters. As we left the theater, we turned our phones back on and reality took over. Many states away, a shooter entered a theater similar to the one we had just left, and opened fire on the crowd. That night is one that I will never forget. It was too close and too real of a feeling that people had been in a movie theater just as I had and ended up losing their lives. That next morning, as the news coverage of the event played in the background, my mom wanted to talk to my brothers and I about something important; how to be prepared for a shooter. Since that day, my mom has stressed the importance of knowing where your exits are in any given environment. Sometimes in the movie theater before the movie starts...

Two years ago I was jokingly pestering my mom each week about sending me stuff to college. Whenever someone at the sorority house would receive a care package from home, I would walk up to it and take a selfie with a pouty face and send it to her with captions like “still don’t see one with my name on it.” Once, she tried to create a care package for me—I think just to stop receiving pouty pictures—and she set it down in somewhere in the guest bedroom and forgot about it for months. After being teased for that and STILL receiving the annoying messages every week, she had had enough. My mom found a loop hole for her needy daughter. She signed me up for a monthly Ipsy subscription. Without exerting any effort my mother now sends me something once a month. So what does me being needy have to do with marketing? Well, I’ll tell you. Ipsy is a monthly subscription that people sign up for and they receive a cute bag that’s filled with 5 beauty products that are tailored to their pref...