Social Media Has Changed The English Language

Ever hear a member of the older generation, perhaps an English teacher, say texting, tweeting, and facebooking are ruining our language? There is actually no proof that shortened text language affects our grammar. Facebook introduced us to new words with new meanings like 'friend,' 'wall,' and 'like.' Read more here.

A Letter to My Person

A Letter to My Person
After a successful surprise birthday weekend (I kept the surprise a secret for months!) of watching Jim Gaffigan at the Riverwind Casino in Norman, Oklahoma, and drinking at college bar "Logies" by Oklahoma University campus (Go Sooners!), I wrote an article about the person the birthday surprise was for. My Person. My person is also my boyfriend and my biggest fan, the love of my life and my biggest critic.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/502292164665357394/sent/?sender=45338602

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A Letter to My Person

Being a Country Girl in a City World: 4 Ways to Stay True to You

As an English major, I am passionate about writing. I obsess over errors I find in texts, and I love reading. Books are my passion. But the balancing act between work, school, and internships is difficult. To top things off, rodeo is also a passion of mine, a passion that is time consuming and requires a lot of money. This article explores the balance between to very contrary loves and how a country girl is supposed to make it in a city world. 
"For me, I had the duality of two oppositional interests—rodeo and horses; books and writing. The former fills my waking hours, my evenings, and weekends with manure scooping, hay tossing, and horse riding. The latter draws up images of New York City..."


http://www.whiskeyriff.com/2016/06/13/being-a-country-girl-in-a-city-world-4-ways-to-stay-true-to-you/

11 Signs You Attended Hastings College

Hastings College provides a unique experience for students. Not only do they have a wide variety of classes, they have a rodeo team, and many campus events including Mr. and Mrs. Bronco and Boars Head. The professors are personable and give one-on-one experience with all of their students. 

From drinking warm beer and cheap vodka, students in Nebraska get creative when it comes to entertaining themselves in the flat lands and cornfields. 

"Upon graduation, the government sends you a reminder that you owe at least your firstborn’s life in debt.

While I spoke of students earning a lot of scholarships, few received full rides. After four years, any amount of tuition adds up, leaving grads with a surmounting amount of debt to the government."
Read more here: 

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/signs-attended-hastings-college

Dreaming of the NFR

In a world where gender roles are changing, tensions arise between those that welcome the change and those that don't. A magazine article discussing the aspirations of a female roper to make the top 15 in team roping was shunned by male team ropers. In the rodeo world, men and women have the opportunity to compete side by side, yet a woman has not made it to the National Finals Rodeo in an event other than barrel racing. This fact has never been an issue until someone stated that women absolutely not make it to the NFR. Why? In my opinion, a statement like that is unnecessary. 

"Growing up, all rodeo competitors, including women, dream of making it to the NFR to compete under those Las Vegas lights and win the buckle proving they're the best."

Who's to say a woman can't?

Check out the rest of my article here. 

Tammy Meeske Fine Art
tammymeeske.com

The Lessons Rodeo Taught Me

Patience

The long, sometimes drab drives taught me the patience to sit for hours, along with the talent of entertaining myself while driving for hours.

Growing up in rodeo, a lot of people train their own horses. I learned how to barrel race and pole bend with my horse. Neither of us had any experience and we taught each other in our own way until we started winning. But that is one of the hardest parts, working with a horse. It's also the most rewarding. For some people, it comes natural, but as a little girl learning by doing is quite the process. Not only that, but a horse has so much personality. 

A horse has off days and on days just like we do. Days they don't want to work and days they have too much energy to contain. Relying on a living creature that weighs 1,000 pounds is a scary thing. Getting bucked off, trampled, and stepped on comes with the territory.

Read more here.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/glimpse-of-the-rodeo-road

The Craft of Beer Drinking

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/546976317215005985/

This article features stereotypes of craft beer drinkers and tips for those of us that like to drink, but know nothing about craft beer. 
"Craft beer in the United States has become just that, quite the craft. While wine has always maintained an aura of sophistication and snobbery, beer has slowly differentiated into varieties that stray from the piss-water-to-extreme-piss-water scale, the beers that you shotgun because life is too short to spend time sipping warm, light beer. Breweries crept up all over the United States, scattering across the state of Colorado with a whopping 230 craft breweries.

In 1982, Boulder, CO held 20 different brewing companies with a selection of 35 beers for the first Great American Beer Festival. Craft breweries cropped up in corn-fed Nebraska ranging from Thunderhead Brewery in Kearney to Zipline Brewing in Lincoln. Not to mention our very own Hastings, Nebraska is starting up First Street Brewing Company. In 2008, Smithsonian Magazine stated that “the best beers in the world today are being made in the US.”

So maybe you’re not the Tyrion Lannister of craft beer drinkers. Maybe you’re more of a Jon Snow: you drink, but you know nothing. Well, you're not the only one, but don't let it keep you from trying something a little different from your Coors Light."

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-craft-of-beer-drinking

11 Stereotypes of College Rodeo Kids

"Hastings College has a rodeo team. For some of you, this may come as a shock. But walking around campus I'm sure you could point out which kids are "rodeo". They're the kids that miss a lot of class (due to those long rodeo weekends) and walk in smelling like manure. Hey, it's hard making it to your 8 a.m. class after feeding your horses. Stereotypes are evident in all groups. Whether you rodeo or you've glimpsed bull riding on TV, here is a list of rodeo stereotypes you may have heard before.

1. If you rodeo, you're automatically a bull rider.

It is ridiculous the number of times someone asked if I ride bulls. I glance down at my paper-cut-out-thin body wondering how I would survive getting launched off one. Once I tell them no, they sigh in relief and lose any interest in what Barrel Racing or Team Roping might be. Bull riding is the most popular event to non-rodeo people, so I guess it's an easy mistake."

Continue reading here..

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/stereotypes-college-rodeo-kids

13 Stereotypes of College Rodeo Kids

Hey ya'll!
I've been writing on the stereotypes of the rodeo collective. Here's an excerpt:

"1. We’re rich.

People always look at me and say "Oh, your family must be *insert lucrative profession here*." I smirk and say, "Nope!" They stare at me wondering how to phrase the next question best. “You must have a lot of money, huh?” I smile and in a sing-songy voice say, “Just because we spend a lot of money, doesn’t mean we have a lot of money.” And with a flip of my hair —t hat is, if I wasn’t wearing a ball cap to mask the fact that I hadn’t showered and had just finished chasing a pen of steers — I stride away."

To read more click below!
http://theodysseyonline.com/hastings/stereotypes-college-rodeo-kids-part-two/461520