A reminder for today. And every day. Embrace the wins. Embrace the losses. Keep trying. Keep growing. Keep making the world a cooler, kinder, more colorful + creative place.

via @abigilman.

When I’m not wearing my stylish-social-media-maven hat for Bon-Ton Stores, making Instagram-worthy memories with my favorite people or exploring Milwaukee by bike – I get to spend my time molding the next batch of young professionals.

This semester I’m teaming up with my once-upon-a-time boss, mentor and friend, Dennis Jenders to teach a course on Emerging Social Media Trends at Marquette University.

Throughout the course we explore various social media networking sites, discuss the platform’s influence on society and learn how brands leverage these networks to create relationships with consumers. Each student is required to maintain a blog and publish content on a weekly basis aligning with our course material.

To kick things off, we asked students to complete a Q&A for their About Me page. I fell in love with some of their clever responses. (Abby’s made me LOL. Sarah’s and Dena’s reminded me of me. Maddie’s inspired me to go on an adventure. Janise’s and Kayley’s intrigued me. Christian’s had great advice.) In the spirit of things, I joined along to share my own answers.

This is my second semester returning to Marquette as an adjunct professor. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was in my students shoes trying to decide what my professional path would be. Social media curriculum was non-existant, Facebook had no advertising platform, and Pinterest, Instagram and Snapchat were all just lovely little ideas.

I truly am honored to have the opportunity to work so closely with the students and give back to the digital marketing community. Throughout my career I’ve had incredible influencers and mentors to coach and lead me  – being able to return the favor is the greatest gift. (P.s. Don’t tell the students… but they end up teaching me give-or-take a million things too!)

Stay tuned for more updates on our adventures as we explore social media trends throughout the semester!

I adore this quote from Ira Glass. In fact, I made it my desktop background as a reminder that it’s normal to want more, to not be satisfied, to have a constant craving.

Every day, I try my hardest. Some days I end the day feeling like I’ve overcome huge obstacles, thought way outside the box and conquered great things. Other days, I leave feeling like there’s still so much work to do. And that’s okay.

Ira, thanks for the reminding me about that “killer taste” that got me into the game.

Get the desktop background by Design Love Fest here.

Check, one, two. Is this thing on?

Abi here. Blogging live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Follow along as I adventure through the cyber world. You’ll get some random life updates, retail + social industry observations and #adpr4300 updates. It’s going to be real fun.

TTFN.