Miscellaneous – Page 6 – thoughts of Melissa

Being a Story-Teller

Posted on October 31, 2015January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Every day in our lives is an adventure. Every day comes with a story. Some aren’t great; I’m not sure how many people would be interested in hearing about how you went to work, got gas to fill up your car, ate dinner and went to bed, with pretty much the same routine every day. But sometimes there are stories that are different, stories that deserve, even demand, to be told.

One of these stories: how I asked my now-fiance, eventual husband (whoa, wait, that’s scary), to marry me.

I’m not going to tell it here, because this is neither the time nor the place for that. But I think it’s interesting that people can have these stories deep down that you may never know about, and then all of a sudden, one day, boom — they have a reason to tell it.

I went to visit my old boss at work a few days ago. He knew that I was engaged, but it had been a while since we’d gotten a chance to catch up. He asked me how my fiance did it and said something along the lines of “Now it’s your turn to plan the wedding since he planned the proposal!” and I got to say “Actually…………”

I fumbled with the story a little bit, because while I’ve told it a few times to a small handful of people, it’s not widespread. His response? That it was awesome, and that I should “practice telling it, because years down the line, you’re still going to be telling it.” It was simple, but I thought that was pretty powerful. It’s crazy to think that when we’re celebrating our ten-year anniversary, we could still be meeting new people who might ask us about how it all got started. How someday if we have children, they might ask “How did Dad ask you to marry him?” and I’ll say “I asked him first! It was great!” How someday even our grandchildren could ask that question — and it’s up to me, up to us, to be the storytellers.

I guess my point in all this is that you never know what story someone has inside them… and I think that’s a pretty damn powerful thing.

Miscellaneous

Time Is A Funny Thing

Posted on August 5, 2015January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of time.

It’s such a subjective thing, in some ways; time can mean so many different things to different people living in different circumstances.

For instance, I just passed my seven-year anniversary at my workplace. When I mention this milestone to others, there are often mixed reactions. Some, who have been at the workplace for 30+ years, say something like “Oh, that’s nothing!” But looking at the bigger picture, seven years is approximately 29% of my 24-year-old life – and that’s a significant portion.

Another great example of this lies in relationships. My fiancé and I were dating for roughly nine months before we moved in together. To some people, nine months may not seem like a long time, at least in terms of dating and that sort of situation.

Continue reading “Time Is A Funny Thing” →

Miscellaneous, Social Issues

The Gender Gap in Newspaper Bylines

Posted on June 8, 2015January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Last week, I came across a survey about the gender gap between male and female bylines at major newspapers across the United States. Newspapers surveyed included The New York Times, The Denver Post and The Chicago Sun-Times, and numbers were compiled from about 27,000 pieces of content produced during three months in 2014. The survey was engineered by the Women’s Media Center.

The numbers were generally not great. Male bylines largely outnumbered female bylines at most of the newspapers surveyed, including a 68 percent to 32 percent gap at The New York Times.

You can access the full report here, but it really struck a chord with me. As a journalism graduate (hello, Buffalo State College, class of 2012), and a female in that subject, it’s quite depressing to see the gender gap here, especially at some of the biggest newspapers in the country.

My curiosity was piqued, so I decided to undertake this project on a local level. For the month of June, I’ll be looking at the daily editions of The Buffalo News and comparing the percentage of male bylines to female bylines.

For the first week of June, male bylines outnumbered female bylines by a margin of 354-155 at The Buffalo News. This is a massive gender gap, albeit in just a one-week timeframe. Male bylines outnumbered female bylines EVERY day, including 56-21 and 59-19 numbers on Wednesday and Thursday of that week.

In addition to tallying overall daily counts, I broke it down by section. Males outnumbered females in EVERY section, aside from Sunday’s special Home & Style/Travel section. Male bylines outnumbered female bylines by a 55-8 margin in the sports section, and by a 48-16 margin in the business section. In the “cover” section, which includes the biggest local news, as well as national and world news – often pulled from the wire and written originally by reporters from papers such as The Los Angeles Times – women were outnumbered 82-37.

Even in the opinion section, women were vastly outnumbered by men, by a 58-20 margin.

The section where female bylines appeared the most: arts & entertainment. But even there, male bylines outnumbered the female bylines by a 48-38 margin, including a 21-4 margin in Thursday’s special “GUSTO” section.

For a full daily breakdown of the numbers, check out this PDF: Gender Gap TBN June 2015 Week 1.

Miscellaneous

One Hundred Words

Posted on May 7, 2015January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Today’s writing prompt was again taken from the Internet. It was posted back in March 2015:

This week, write an essay using exactly one hundred words. Pick a concept you’ve been thinking about recently, like daylight savings time, or a personal story someone’s reminded you of recently, like when you learned to ride a bike. It doesn’t take long to write one hundred words, but you must make every one of them count.

Though I’m sure there were many routes I could go with this one, I think I’d like to go for the challenge of writing about happiness, something I’ve been feeling a lot lately. I think this a good topic, and there’s probably quite a bit I could write about this one. It’s certainly a challenge to write an “essay” in just 100 words, but here’s my attempt at it.

Continue reading “One Hundred Words” →

Miscellaneous

Hockey Fights Domestic Violence: My Pledge

Posted on January 29, 2015January 17, 2018 by melissaburgess

Just recently, I discovered a wonderful campaign of sorts that I’m excited to be joining. The project is called Hockey Fights Domestic Violence; according to its website, it’s:

“a loose-knit group of hockey-loving fans who have pledged donations to domestic violence organizations based on how their favorite teams and players perform.”

This is a great initiative that I’m more than happy to start supporting. The premise of the initiative is simple: pick a hockey player and a stat, and donate a dollar amount for every point/goal/whatever. I wish I had discovered this earlier in the season, but alas, there’s no better time than the present, right?

For my charity for this project, I’m going to donate to Crisis Services, a Western New York organization that offers a number of services, including services for those affected by domestic violence. Crisis Services also works in things including homelessness, suicide prevention and mental health, which is part of why I selected them as my designated charity. My proceeds will go to an organization that helps out in a variety of ways, and I can’t wait to get started.

My pledge for this project is as follows. Starting today, January 29, I will donate:

50¢ for every point scored by Rochester Americans forward Phil Varone
50¢ for every point scored by Toronto Marlies forward Connor Brown
50¢ for every hit by Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mike Weber
25¢ for every point scored by Erie Otters forward Dylan Strome

I hope that signing up with this allows me to make a difference, even if in some small way, and help out an organization and an absolutely worthy cause.

If you’re interested in making your own #hockeyfightsdv pledge, go for it! You can find more information about the initiative, as well as get an idea of what others have pledged and find some ideas for suggested organizations to donate to, on their website or by searching the hashtag on Twitter. Let me know if you’re planning on joining the cause – or perhaps you’re already joined it!