Sprinting To The Finish Line

As this course comes to an end, we take this time to apply everything we have learned about consumer behavior and apply it to a real-world problem. I am so excited to finally be faced with something that can be applicable to the real world. All of my courses have led up to this kind of work.

The design sprint process is devised into 5 phases: Understand, Diverge, Converge, Prototype, and lastly Test and Learn. Reflecting back I sometimes had a hard time just going with the flow. An example being the Crazy 8's exercise. Being able to quickly produce something, anything, with little to no thought was something I have never done before. I don't understand why I was so terrified to try it, because it turns out I really enjoyed it! (Refer back to my ZMET experience)

In the beginning, we were asked to find a problem we wanted to solve for type-one diabetics. It was stated that it is easy to conclude with the solution, which I quickly saw become true. While giving our 3 minute critiques we all loved Tessa's idea of a watch that would allow type-one diabetics to check their blood sugar easily and discretely.

This project has made me understand how empathy is so vital for "success". I say that because at times it is okay to fail, and must restart on an idea. Trying to kill our baby of an idea was a lot harder than I thought due to all the work put into it.

According to Wikipedia, empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other being's frame of reference. Empathy is seeing seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feelings with the heart of another. 

The part I found the most interesting was learning about type-one diabetes, how many people this effects, and how our group put ourselves in a type-one diabetic's shoes for a day. We started listing tasks, activities, and emotional events everyone experiences and how it might be different for someone with this disease. After some more research we sought out friends and family members who suffer from type-one diabetes in order to gain a more personal perspective. 

Hearing stories of how difficult it is to go on a road trip, or enjoy an evening night out with friends made me realize how our product could really make a difference. Throughout college it’s been hypothetical scenarios to learn from, which have helped me understand how to approach a problem. However, this assignment was different all due to empathic implementation. This assignment has confirmed to me that this may be the line of work I may want to pursue. 

Growing up I always thought that doctors could help those who were injured or sick. That police officers fought crime. And that businessmen and businesswomen worked with money. Although I have a better understanding of how occupations interlink and all pertain to helping one another, this design sprint process and class has brought to my attention how consumer behavior goes beyond the numbers, statistics, and marketing tactics. Now marketing strategies that I have learned make more sense and have made a full circle. 

Why Is There A Febreeze Ad In My Snapchat Story?

For my Integrated Marketing Communications class I did some research about Snapchat to see if this would be a viable market in order to reach out target market we had decided to focus on. From what I found, 77% of college students use Snapchat daily. The average user is on the app for about 30 minutes! Which is insane. Snapchat has been able to adapt to there consumers wants quickly by offering so many features. But there is also one big thing I have noticed in my snapchat stories these days, and that would be ads.

Advertisements from Febreeze and Netflix have started to sneak in between my stories as I flip thought them. I'll admit, I enjoy that I can quickly tap out of an advertisement to continue on with my mindless photo scanning. However, I would not put it past Snapchat to someday make seeing advertisements a permanent and to not have the ability to bypass them anymore.

According to Snapchat's website, they reach 41% of 18-34 year olds in the USA! Thats insane. I think that was so smart (and a little random) of Febreeze to get into everyone's snap stories. It was a quick ad, to the point, and got the brand out there. Snapchat allows consumers to engage with not only there own brand, but other companies as well. Its kind of a win win situation, for now.

Black Friday Mayhem

This was the number of steps I took working on Black Friday.
Roughly 10 miles. 

Today was what many Americans consider a national holiday: Black Friday. According to Wikipedia, " The states which have official public holidays for state government employees on "The Day After Thanksgiving" include Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin." (AKA shop till you drop day).

So in these states, government employees have the day off to more than likely participate in the Black Friday "festivities". From what I noticed, Black Friday doorbuster sales started to take place on Thursday, which is not okay with me. First it was doorbuster ads for midnight Thursday night, then 10pm, then 6pm. Now it's as early as 3pm on THANKSGIVING DAY. The day we are suppose to remember what we are thankful for.

Side note: So I am really torn about how I personally feel about Black Friday. Because of Black Friday I haven't been able to spend Thanksgiving with my family for two years now. Along with everyone else that works in retail. I also do not condone how stores are open on a family holiday. However, with that being said, these sales are insane. Families who may not have been able to afford 50" televisions and life size barbie dream houses can. Its a double edge sword.

I work at Home Depot and over the holiday season we tend to carry things that are a little out of the ordinary for a home improvement store. When I arrived at 5am to start my shift this morning I walked around the store to see tents, food processors, and cookie sheets for sale along with our typical hardware. I asked a superior why we sell this odd ball stuff? His reply, " Because it sells".

Advertising has played a huge roll in all of the hype that goes towards Black Friday. The fast talking, upbeat music, and flashing of low prices are close to hypnotizing.Trends are showing that Black Friday sales are lowering and shifting towards Cyber Monday, as well as many special deals extending before and after the initial Black Friday. Consumers no longer enjoy waiting in long lines for deals that they can snag on the internet. The sales holiday is every changing, just like the consumers.

Mac Lover

So this year my Dell decided to go off the deep end and start to get super slow. It was so slow that I could get up and make a sandwich, eat my sandwich, and clean up the mess and my laptop would still be loading up all the programs. I had enough of this so at the end of last semester I cracked down and purchased a Mac Book Pro. I already own an iPhone so I was somewhat familiar with Apple products, however, not on this level.

This semester all I have heard about so far is about Apple products and how there's nothing that can compare to this company. Apple this, Apple that, Apple Apple Apple. Since I got my Mac at the very end of the semester, I haven't had a semester work load of time and data put into it till now.

I am very impressed with Apple, and now can completely understand the rave and praise about Apple products and see why its one of the top companies in the world. Once I became familiar with all of the functions and hand motions it allowed me to be more efficient than I have ever been before. I can flip through internet pages with such ease! I can send text messages, manage my calendar that is synced to my phone, and edit amazing pictures.

Something I have noticed now that I own two Apple products is that it is consistent on a phone and laptop platform. I feel that this also holds true for there commercials advertising this slick product. I recently got the iPhone 7 after waiting close to 3 years to for my next phone. And although this new phone offers new features such as the 3D touch, everything is still the same and I feel like I didn't get a new phone, just a different size. Apple has been able to identify what can change in order to keep there products fresh and new, yet be consistent throughout there entire product line. This balance they have achieved I believe is a big reason for there success.

Confidently Creative

I had the opportunity to read the book Creative Confidence (these are just chapter summaries that do not do the book justice) and it was such an easy and good read! We were given a quiz about this book and the last question was the following: Discuss one suggestion from the book you can see making a positive difference in your life from this point forward.

One thing in particular struck a cord with me. A story told by one of the writers and an encounter he had with a classmate during his 3rd grade art class. His class was in art class and the assignment was to create a sculpture with clay.

A student approach one of the writer's friends' who was sculpting with the clay and said that his figure did not look good to her liking. The friend proceeded to walk towards the bin to discard his clay, with the assumption that he never picked up clay again. All from one little girl's comment.

This story made me think how often I do not pursue something because someone else told me I wasn't good enough for it. How different would my life be if I pursued something else? Although this isn't something I dwell on, it give perspective of the situations and opportunities I have had. 

Another story from this book that resinated with me was about the authors acts of creativity being expressed and how having supportive parents fostered them into the positions they hold today. It made me realize how influential our parents can be, even throughout adolescents and adulthood. These two authors were constantly building and creating things- leading to things being broken, messes, and failures.

While reading this all I could think of is how my mom would have reacted. She would have yelled for the messes and probably tell me to never attempt this again. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom and family. However, my family was not as supportive as other families in my middle school and high school activities. I was the kid who always got a ride to games from the soccer coach and was last to be picked up from events my family did not attend.

I don't regret the experiences I had, although I know that the activities I enjoyed would have different outcomes if my family were more supportive. But it's taught me to preserve, work hard for my personal goals I wish to achieve, to never give up, and to stand up, even if it means standing alone.

Will You Nudge On Over?

Everyone is faced with choices. There are choices that you acknowledge such as deciding what food menu item you would like, or placing trash in the proper recycling bin. Both are the results of nudges in our surroundings. The book Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, define a nudge as a concept in behavioral science and economics which argues that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives, and decision making.

As I've stated before, I try to go to Yellowstone National Park about once a month to get away for the weekend and disconnect. However, there are still nudges throughout the park and neighboring cities. An example of a nudge can be donation boxes that are in the parks general stores to encourage visitors to donate to the park.

Bear Cub in Yellowstone 16'

Halfway through the semester a majority of the park closes due to cooler temperatures and the chance of premature snow. So, the past couple of times that I have went there is only a couple of routes that I can go, make it a quick trip in and out of the park.


I decided to pull over because I thought that I saw something. And being the first to spot something before a stampede of cars and buses is huge in Yellowstone. Sure enough there was two cubs and a sow (female bear) rustling in the bushes. I whip out my camera just in time to snap some photos of them before they ran across the then full street of spectators.

As I was walking back to my car, this huge charter bus decided to attempt to parallel park next to me. At this point this mass chaos has been unleashed at this little pull out due to the bear siting. We manage to pull out and continue driving down the road. The mess of cars in the rear view mirror and seeing open places to park made me wonder why this huge bus decided to park right next to us when the driver could have driven only 100 yards further to park properly and have the occupants walk.

The bus driver, being the choice architect in the situation, was nudged by the location of the pull out areas to were to park. Although I was a little frustrated with where the driver decided to park, due to the limited amount of pull out parking spots, the closest spot was a nudge.

This experience just goes to show that it doesn't matter if you're in the wilderness with no services, nudges can still prevail to influence decisions.

Step Away From The Bag of Chips

When I was in 6th grade my teacher's son, who was a medic for the army, came to visit our class to talk about his experience overseas. I don't remember a lot of what he talked about except one thing. MREs- Meals Ready to Eat. The science behind them I found so cool when first being introduced to them. One food he brought was beef strew, and if he broke a certain area of the packet and mixed water with is the beef stew would come to life. I seriously thought that it was black magic.

He handed around samples of the beef stew for us to try and the entire class thought that they were pretty good. I remember it looking and tasting just as any beef stew that I had. However, when we were all done he made this comment," MREs get gross, fast." Well then.

To this day I have wanted to taste again a MRE and see what changes can be made in order to make it better. However for now I'll stick with my inconsistent meal plan of frozen food, ramen, and fruit. Every once in a while I find myself downing a case of Pringles with ease. I'll change my approach by taking one out at a time, to a small stack and then tell myself "okay, that's enough, Julia". It just kills me that a Pringle canister fits perfectly into a cup holder in a vehicle. Because that stack of Pringles went through a long growling process of what appeals to a consumers. The thickness, taste, shape were all considered.

I found the science behind our addiction to junk food really fascinating. The amount of time and dedication towards a simple food product such as spaghetti sauce was very interesting. Example being, it took months of research to learn what kinds of sauces were the most popular. Three categories were devised: Plain, spicy, and extra chunky. Discovering that Prego did not offer an extra chuck option took them by surprise. They revamped there formula and put them on the shelves. The thought process, simple data collecting, and implementation of Howard Moskowitz revolutionized the food industry thought process. oH

I will never forget the day I walked into a super market and saw Lays'  southern biscuits and gravy flavored potato chips on the shelf. A product from the "Lays do us a flavor" contest.  What kind of process did this flavor go through to become a thing? I am by no means dissing on someone's idea. The person who created this flavor, Hailey Green, won 1 million dollars for her flavor. However, I cannot see how empathy was applied to this process.

While in deep thought it reoccured to me that's the point of consumer behavior. My ideas, thoughts, and motives are all based on the same notions . Everyones ideas, thoughts, and motives can come from the same question.  It is how someone applies there ideas, thoughts, and motives which differentiate us. Yeah, I kinda see biscuits and gravy chips as gross, unattractive, and pointless, but someone doesn't. Which is perfectly ok. Everyone's needs should be address.


P.S.- So I'm confident that I have a photo of a chipmunk in Yellowstone National Park snacking on a chip, but I can't find it. So Yahoo Answer user Pebbles will have to do. Till next time.

Say Yes To The Dress Your Friends Say Yes To

Most afternoons on Tuesday's and Thursday's after my last class of the day I head straight to the library to continue working on the numerous projects that have taken over my life. However, on this particular afternoon I was able to go home, eat something that wasn't ramen, and turn on the television. Flipping through the channels one show caught my attention that I haven't seen in a long time: Say Yes To The Dress.  

Seeing that no one was around to watch me indulge in the high fashion wedding dress industry, I decided to watch what kind of wedding dresses were out there. I decided to watch two episodes before going back to the library. 

For those who are unaware of how the show works, brides and there entourage come into Kleinfeld Bridal and "Say yes to a dress". Kleinfeld sells more designer dresses than any other store in the world. Friends and family come in to help the bride pick out the perfect wedding dress for her big day. Multiple women are featured in each episode, along with information about themselves, their fiancés, and the drama their guests bring. 

One bride in particular was back to get a fitting for the dress that she had picked in a previous episode. She brought her mother and a friend to see her in what the dress would really look like. Her comment moments before entering the dressing room was, " If my friends don't like my dress then I don't know what I am going to do."

Those words made me think a double take of what she said. Why would her friends have that much power over HER wedding dress? I always thought that it was suppose to be what you liked and wanted, friends would guide you but preferably just be there to have a good time. She had a beautiful dress picked out and it looked stunning on her. In the end, her friend did like the dress she picked. 

Her thought process on deciding what dress to pick reminded me of Predictably Irrational. " Overall, those who made their choices out loud, in the standard way that food is ordered at restaurants, were not as happy with there selections as those who made their choices privately, without taking others' opinions into consideration". 

So for Say Yes To The Dress producers, maybe they should recommend that brides come alone?Leave the mother-in-law, sister, cousin, aunt, girlfriend's options out of it. 

Persuaders Persuaders

I have always had an infatuation of NYC and in particular Times Square. The lights, screens, and nonstop movement of people is a far cry from the small town living I am used too. It truly is the city that never sleeps, and for that matter, the city that never stops advertising.

I sat at Cold Smoke and set my timer for 15 minutes to see how many ads I would see. I saw eight different brands of backpacks. Eight! Nike, Under Armor, JanSport, The North Face, High Sierra, Osprey, Swiss, and Dankine. Laptops varying from Apple to Toshiba, most being designed to the users liking. The popular Beats headphones and a lot of knock off designs. Flat bill hats that said Brooklyn ( oh how ironic) to the Patagonia ball caps. The further I go along in this list of my findings, the more disorganized and rather chaotic it becomes. The clutter crisis is here in Bozeman at a local coffee shop and is just as prominent as it would be in the heart of Times Square.

I get overwhelmed by life and everything that gets thrown at me. So I try to make an effort to go to Yellowstone National Park once a month to "unplug". I love the scenery during every season and watch how the circle of life will progress throughout the park. Here is a link with 32 fun facts about Yellowstone National Park: http://www.yellowstonepark-trip.com/fun-facts-about-yellowstone-park.php

However, their is all no service in the park as well as Cooke City- making a weekend trip seem long and unentertaining in the evenings. In a situation where telephone service and other internet devices are put to a mute, ads easily enter into the park. Car brands, bumper stickers, and clothing can be just as overwhelming as Times Square if you take a moment to point out ads in your surroundings.

This documentary also made me realize how wording truly does change the emotion associated with the meaning. It was so fascinating to hear how Frank Luntz approaches problems his clients bring him and how the simple answer is to just listen to what consumers want to hear. 80% of our life is based on emotions, the rest is intellect. From there Luntz can bridge the gap to bring deep emotions to every conversation. From the Iraq war to the war on terrorism. I thought of one: college payments versus college tuition. Wording can completely change the way you think or approach a topic. To persuade you towards what they want you to think.

Every product and service is a representation of a brand that wants to leave an impression on you. After watching The Persuaders I came to this realization that their really may be no escape to ads.

Disney- A Human Trap Set Up By A Mouse

Hi again. So my twin sister has been off on an LDS mission for the past 17 months and will be returning home here shortly! Ah, I'm so excited. I was just flipping though some photos of our last adventure before she left.

We decided to go visit a mutual friend who lives in Maryland and got the crazy idea to road trip from Fruitland, Maryland to Disneyworld in one day. She told me it was only a 7-10 hour drive depending on the traffic. I believed her but as it turns out it was a 17 hour drive. I thought I was going to die from how people drive over there.

After a long day of driving we hit the parks. We went to a couple of Disney parks and Universal Studios over a 5 day span. It was during the heat of May, so I witnessed a lot of meltdown due to the heat side effects.  We were all literally melting in this heat. A bottle of Dasani water was $5 and the drinking fountain water was disgusting. My sister did some research before hand and decided to bring some water flavoring packets to offset the taste. That was a mistake, so we were inclined to buy the water bottles.

There was a point when it was so hot that one of my friends could not handle the heat anymore, and decided to buy one of those water bottle misting fans.

Guys, Disney was selling this water bottle misting fan for $18-19.

The salesman who had these water bottle misting fans was selling them like hot cakes (pun intended). Ice cream was upward of $7. We split meals in order to compensate for the money spent. You notice the trend here.

There are forums and blogs about how expensive Disney is getting. A year or two ago, Disney announced that they would raise there prices to over $100 for an adult ticket. And yet people are still buying tickets and taking family vacations there
.
Disney is one of the top companies in the world, and rightfully so. They have developed an experience that is nothing like you'll ever get anywhere else. With that being said, I feel that people are so infatuated with the brand and they are willing to pay anything with Disney involved, including during there time there. That is the ultimate goal of any company. Disney has developed the story of being the happiest place on earth.

Is This On Sale Or Regular Price?

Men do this too!

So the other day at work I was fixing up some product and I over heard the following conversation.

Employee: Hi, are you finding everything okay?
Customer: I have a question. Is this on sale or is it just regular price?
Employee: That would be the regular price.
Customer: *Proceeds to place power drill back down slowly*- Oh okay.

Would that customer really buy that power drill if it happened to have a sales sign on it? With  everything else staying the same, including the price the customer was looking at. I have always wondered...

Mattress stores, furniture stores, and outlet malls are always having a sale it seems. How can you forget the crazy dancing cartoon billowing in the wind. The word sale is a trigger, making whatever the product or service becoming more valuable. According to this website, "a sale is the old faithful of marketing words. While a lot of businesses use the word "sale", it has the power to motivate customers. Who doesn't love a good deal?"

There are times where I wonder if a sale item is really on sale. Did those sneakers really drop 50% in price? It appears to me that spending $130 on a pair of Nikes is just way over priced for a pair of shoes. However, if this pair, at the same price of $130 were on sale (↑) from the "original listed price" of $260, then this was such a good sale and buy! I am so guilty of purchasing thing solely because they are on sale. I'm sitting here waiting for the day a Professional Kitchenaid goes on sale. But my point being is if wording such as sale, everything must go, off,  and now are all just specific and strategically used words to trigger consumers into a buying mood?

Because it doesn't really fool me, but then again, it does.

The next time I go to Yellowstone National Park I will try to seek out if I see any sales, promotions, or liquidations that are attracting all the late season tourists. I'm sure there must be something with more and more parts of the park beginning to close. Reflecting back, I can't really think of any sales , so if something comes up I'll report it!

Choices Upon Choices

I just finished reading The Paradox of Choice  by Barry Schwartz. It was a very interesting read. Funny how the further along you get into your degree, the more enjoyable book assignments become. Anyways, the book's theme was based on choices and how many a consumer will face. It wasn't just about small choices such as comparing gas prices, but  big ones like picking a spouse.

The biggest take away for me was the discussion on finding the key to happiness. It is crazy how comparisons come into play when deciding if you are satisfied with your choice. Did my friend make a better choice? What will another friend think?  Schwartz discusses how everyone falls for the same price concepts, its how humans are programs.

This is the trend of Maximizers- a term used of those  who look at every avenue before making a choice. I found myself being a maximizer when deciding what kind of king mattress I wanted to purchase.  It was Labor Day weekend, claimed to be the best time of year to hit up the mattress stores for sales. I left my fishing trip early to commute back to Bozeman to research were to go and what is considered a good mattress. Store after store my list began to shrink, however, the mattresses all started to feel the same.

After looking at every store in town, I went home empty handed. Then I decided to look at online reviews and see what other people had said. First of all, it was extremely difficult to find the mattresses I tested out online. So find a review was impossible. However, I did find some that were similar enough and went off those reviews. All of them were good reviews, but one did stand out. After reading that review I walked into Mattress King and made the purchase.

After reading this book, I now can analyze how and why I make decisions. I'm sure I'll still succumb to bad decisions and make comparisons, but now I understand why.

This Is Halloween

Its the most wonderful time of the year! And no, it's not Christmas.

I feel that October brings the full swing of the holiday seasons. October = Halloween. November = Thanksgiving. December = Christmas. It makes the end of the year fly by as well, which at times isn't terrible to hurry up the semester.

Halloween starts the series of marketing campaigns that will be issued through the holiday season. For Halloween, ads for candy, costumes, and decorations will take storm. Each year, I've noticed that retailers are releasing product that is holiday related earlier and earlier. It is so noticeable with Christmas, due to the holiday music blaring throughout the stores. But for Halloween more and more stores are starting to try to sell halloween oriented stuff before October 1st.

Getting ready for Halloween 3 months in advance

According to Fortune, " Americans are expected to shell out for Halloween, with the cost of candy, costumes, and decorations expected to total $6.9 billion as the average American spends $74." I don't think that $74 is terrible, especially after see how expensive a big bag of candy is. Seeing the price of $20 made me feel a little bad for those neighborhoods who get slammed with kids though. So maybe instead of Christmas in July we will start seeing Halloween during Easter?

 I never realized how big the holiday industry was till I started paying more attention to the marketing efforts that were being made. The more I look around, the more industries I notice "being born" to me. Holiday industry, wedding industry, I wonder what I will come across next?

A Hike In The Woods

For the past two summers I've had the amazing opportunity to go adventure Glacier National Park. Can you believe this view is only a short 6 hour drive away from Bozeman? This photo almost didn't happen. Why? Because I was too scared to go hiking in the bear infested woods. After hearing story after story of how someone would surprise a bear with her cubs it did not sound fun at all. I was terrified when the idea was suggested. However, bear spray in hand and survival instincts driving my adrenaline, I went on this 2 mile hike. 

When I finally turned the corner and saw what lie ahead my jaw dropped. Look at the return I had just received in doing something I was not comfortable with at all! I enjoyed the most rewarding ham and cheese sandwich and snapped some of my best photography.

This story reminded me of how it felt being introduced to the ZMET  technique. (This technique is patented, so we did a variation) The process sounded really interesting at first. We were asked to collect a series of photos that related to life after graduating college from magazines. Simple enough. However, after collecting the pictures we were asked to describe what the represented to us. It gets emotionally deep very quickly. I went from a picture of a someone climbing stairs symbolizing " entry level" to Drake's " Started From The Bottom Now We Here" all due to having to describe sounds- with a little bit of humor. I was amazed when I received the nod of approval from not only my peers, but professor as well. 

That moment defined to me that A) it is okay to not make sense sometimes and B) understanding someone's notions tied to an image, product, celebration, and anything, is incredibly difficult to understand and beautiful. 

Dang Daum- Irrationally rational

When I was little, I was obsessed with movies. From a young age I made a deep connection with the characters no matter the part. One movie in particular stood out to me at the tender age of 12. That was The Devil Wears Prada. To watch a movie were a women was this power house boss who's breathe was law was inspiring and motivating to me. I wanted to be both Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I by no means wanted to go into the fashion industry. I wanted to move to New York City to become a broker. Growing up when someone asked me what I wanted to be I would reply " a New Yorker".

The time came to apply for university's, my life path changed directions and now I am attending Montana State University. When I first started college I hadn't lost sight on my goal of moving to the city that never sleeps in pursuit of a job. However, every semester I grew more and more attached to the Bozeman area and Yellowstone National Park. Now I am going to continue life in the mountains for little while longer, but I still reminisce what my life could be like if I were to move. The biggest thing that has held me back is the expense of living.

Many of my friends have either moved to a big city, or moved and then moved back home due to expenses. The sole reason I decided to stay in-state for college was due to the outrageous out of state tuition fees and scholarship offers that wouldn't cover enough. Growing up I was taught to only have water at restaurants, not to ask for change for the gum ball machine, and to watch a movie at home. So from there I felt that my dream of moving to a big city was crushed.

Although now I realize that I can achieve anything I want, reading My Misspent Youth gave me the perspective of what I might have experienced moving to NYC. My Misspent Youth is about the author, Meghan Daum, and her life experiences of debt.

During class we were asked to write two papers, one about Daum and her actions of money being irrational, and the same but rational. We first started with being irrational, and I really digged in on Daum's financial choices. Daum acquired thousands of dollars in debt. Most being student loans, which isn't unheard of regardless of where you attend. And she faced a medical bill. However, it can be easy to read between the lines of her essay to detect little effort of her trying to leave the city.

 I thought the city was the cause for all of this debt. She had always had roommates, however, decided to live alone which wouldn't help her financial situation. When she was seeking sympathy about how much her rent was, the result was " that's cheaper than what we pay".

The tables turned when asked if her choices were rational. For me, all I saw was the dollar signs on everything throughout her essay. It was difficult for me to justify her situation that she had ended up in. What I ended up saying was how you can never put a price on experiences you have gained, especially during college. However, I came up short on what else to say.

We later had a class discussion and I felt really guilty on my thoughts about how Daum was irrational. Only a few hands rose when asked if she was rational. My classmates responses about the matter were really enlighting. Daum became famous for this essay on her financial troubles. And in her conclusion, she decided to move to Lincoln, Nebraska.

Some of the responses were that if she had not gone to Columbia for her masters, she would have never made connections for other jobs. In the beginning of her essay she made it clear that she wanted to live in NYC after running an errand for her dad when she was 17-years-old. Her story is an example of how experiences and dreams should never have a price tag on them. She was well aware of her financial situation and never let that sway her away from her dreams.

It is always easy to identify why someone is irrational with their choices. Being able to see past the problems, can help us understand why consumers make choices they do. Example being, I spend money on an annual pass for Yellowstone National Park. Being a college student, there are so many other things I can put this towards, and I can leave those ideas up to you.