Strange Blog 1

Jake Strange

ENGL 254

January 14, 2015

Blog 1

Hello, my fellow classmates! My name is Jake Strange and I am senior advertising and public relations major. I’m a future dog owner (see also “Alaskan Klee Kai”), self-proclaimed music connoisseur and a person who truly enjoys meeting and interacting with new people.

It’s hard to comprehend some days, but this will be my final semester as a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Come May, I will graduate with a Bachelor Degree of Journalism. From there, I plan to work in an ad agency setting, specializing in account services, client relations and project management. Chances are good I’ll relocate somewhere where the winters aren’t as cold!

Outside of my classes, I work part-time as a project manager at Agent, an advertising agency down in the Haymarket/Railyard area (just a few doors down from Blue Sushi, to put a blip on the map). When I do get some free time from of classes and work, I greatly enjoy playing guitar and writing music, expanding my collection of vinyl records, spending time with the people who are close to me and getting the occasional video game session in.

I listen to a wide variety of music – it depends on the day – but my biggest influences that translate to my own style are individuals like Jack White, John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr. and groups such as the Arctic Monkeys and Band of Horses. Collecting records also affords me a fun way to get a healthy dose of old talent like Clapton, Led Zeppelin and Frank Sinatra as well!

Writing has always been something I’ve gone to great lengths to improve at, both academically and independently. One of the lines I shared with everyone in the first-day popcorn activity was “I write because it holds great weight in everything.” I stand by that. It is my belief that being able to write effectively directly correlates with such ideas one’s own professional skillset, intellectual capacity and overall well-being. In order to make something of yourself, you must write well.

So, yeah, that’s a bit about me as a writer and a person. On to the reading!

After reading Joseph Harris’ The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing, I drew some parallels between what he had to say and my own understanding of what a community is. Harris did a much better job of trying to wrest a finite definition out of the term, but, to me, a community is a group of like-minded individuals who dedicate their time, energy and skills to the pursuit of either a) a common end result, or b) a unified vision or goal.

So, for example, we (the students of this course) and the rest of the student body at UNL can be considered a community. We are all working toward the common end result of obtaining a degree and ensuing our viability and security in the job market. By being a part of a community, one opens themselves to experiences and people you may have never encountered otherwise. But that principle of working toward the same thing really drives home the ideas of solidarity and support that come with being a part of a community.