My Birthday Gift

Usually, I frustrate my loved ones who want to shop for me. When my birthday rolls around or Christmas is approaching, I usually just shrug my shoulders when someone asks “What do you want?” However, this past birthday was different.

Months before October arrived, I had something in mind that I wanted for my birthday. Not since I was a kid had I found myself so excited about a potential gift. My giddiness for this certain present was so great that I spilled the beans this past summer.

I wanted a DNA kit.

This Ancestry kit came to my house last week.

Fascinated by how specific the results can be, I made it known that I wanted to find out the DNA makeup of my 32-year-old body. After researching reviews for both Ancestry and 23andMe, I decided upon the former.

The kit was a perfect present for my parents to get me. Because the tests are so easy to order from anywhere on the planet, the distance between us posed no issues with either locating the gift or shipping it.

A couple days prior to my birthday the kit arrived in the mail. The next day I provided the saliva sample, packaged it up (materials provided), and put it back in the mailbox. Now the hard part: the wait.

Now I have to wait. At least Ancestry.com keeps you updated on your status.

Ancestry estimates that results will take 6-8 weeks. I have my own internal clock counting down to late November. I hate waiting but I think the information will be well worth the wait. Today I received a text message notifying me that the Ancestry plant received my sample.

I go this text today notifying me that my DNA was received.

My mom is full Italian. My dad, however, calls himself a “traveling man” which means he has a lot of different blood in him. I want to put all the pieces together and find out exactly what I am. This information will be helpful in telling Sloan’s story as well. Also, if I am connected with some long lost relatives in the process, even better!

I will be excited to link back to this post in about 50 days. I plan to share some of the basic details of my DNA test right here on my blog. Until then, we will keep guessing on what I exactly am. Don’t Blink.

Here’s to 32

Oh my, these birthday blog posts are starting to get boring. Although I used to fret about turning older, my tune changed two years ago when I turned 30. I think my negative obsession with my advancing age stemmed from comparing myself to societal benchmarks that are thrust upon us. However, when I looked around me 730 days ago, I liked what I saw.

My outlook is the same today. I am content – no wait, let me rephrase that – I am blessed to have what I do at 32 years of age. How can anyone want more than a beautiful wife, precious daughter, great job, fulfilling church, strong faith, and a comfortable home?

An oversized card that Sloan (with a little help from mommy) made for me. It was waiting when I walked inside the house this evening after work.

Seeing another candle on the birthday cake doesn’t make me want to jump up and down with glee, but it doesn’t send me into a fit of depression either. Although we can’t slow down time, we can embrace the fact that God has given it to us in the first place.

To be honest, I don’t know what else to say. I think I am going to have to take a different angle on my birthday blog post next year because these perspective pieces are getting redundant. However, I can only deliver the truth.

Sid and I with the candy bar cake earlier this evening.

What a great birthday it has been. It is amazing how quickly the work day goes by when you have texts, calls, and social media messages transforming a regular Monday into something much more festive. Even better, tonight’s celebration was perfect. Sidney made me lasagna and a candy bar birthday cake. My in-laws attended the dinner and Sloan was beyond sweet the entire evening (a departure from her recent naughty streak). My family on the West Coast made me feel especially loved with Facetime calls and cards. As we wrap up and get ready to watch “Manifest,” I swear I am the happiest 32-year-old dude on the planet.

My birthday lasagna that Sid made me.

Can’t wait to see what this latest trip around the sun has to offer. I am not a fortune teller, but I have a feeling it is once again going to be pretty special. Don’t Blink.

Sophisticated Thursday Rundown

As I mentioned last week, September was tough in our area. Although many Carolinians continue to face hardships, I know a lot of people are happy that we have turned the page on a new month. Personally, I love October! Here we go with the Thursday Rundown…

National Taco Day – Next up in the line of ridiculous “National Day of _______” celebrations? Tacos! To be honest, I prefer a burrito, enchilada, tamale, chimichanga, or basically any other Mexican food item over a taco. Although I love Taco Bell, I don’t order the fast food joint’s signature item when I go there. So you will never see me write a blog post about my top 10 favorite tacos. With that said, if you wanted me to identify my only favorite type of taco, that is easy – the homemade ones we make at home! We have taco night about once a month at our house and I am more than happy to scarf those down. Happy National Taco Day!

Sidney eating a taco.

Massive Flooding – Our neighborhood was spared of major flooding. However, that wasn’t the case three years ago. On October 4, 2015, Sidney and I waded through the knee-deep flooded streets of Bellegrove. At the time, I had no idea that water levels could get that high on regular neighborhood streets. Thankfully the house never flooded and we didn’t get sick exploring the dirty water. Here is a YouTube video I made of the spectacle.

The flooding that the Bellegrove neighborhood received was insane.

Informed Delivery – I recently signed up for a great feature that the U.S. Postal Service started offering this year. Called Informed Delivery, each morning I receive an email from USPS showing me the letters (and bills) that will (or should) be in my mailbox when I get home in the evening. Every piece of mail is photo scanned and inserted into the email, giving me a complete visual on what I can expect. Although it does take away the element of surprise when I open my mailbox, the security it gives is worth it. If a piece of mail that I viewed in my Informed Delivery email isn’t in my box, I know I have been a victim of theft. I can then receive assistance immediately. The service is FREE so make sure to sign up!

Informed Delivery is a really convenient and free service.

Sophisticated Sloan – Thought I would slip in the below photo of Sloan. The latest funny thing about our daughter is that she has proven to be quite sophisticated. She likes to carry around her purse and keys. You see, she was so obsessed with our own keys that we gave her a ring of keys that we don’t use anymore. She will strut around the house with her accessories and encourage us to follow her by saying “Come on.”

Sloan with her purse and keys.

M&M Television – Sid and I are currently watching two new television shows with one-word titles both starting with the letter “M.” The first one is “Manifest,” the highly promoted series about a commercial plane that disappeared only to land five and a half years later. When the aircraft touched down and the passengers got off, no one had aged a day. The people on the plane felt as if it was just a normal flight and no time (except for the intended flight duration) had passed. How is that for a plot?! So far, just two episodes in, the intriguing premise is backed up with intriguing episodes. Watching the passengers re-adjust to everyday life is fascinating as they face both major and minor issues resulting from the time lapse. The series is only going to get better as questions start to be answered.

We are also two episodes through a series called “Maniac.” A Netflix exclusive starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill, this one is probably more difficult to figure out than “Manifest.” All I know right now is that both actors are participants in a health study. I wish I could give you more info but I can’t. Reality is blurred and I am pretty confused…giving me even more of an incentive to watch!

“Manifest” and “Maniac” are both creative, interesting shows.

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Tonight, let’s pray for those battling terminal illnesses. May God provide these individuals with comfort and their families with acceptance. Don’t Blink.

Talking Social Media Customer Service

It is International Customer Service Week. At Coastal, we have an extremely innovative service excellence department called Feel the Teal. Each year, Feel the Teal marks this week with events, recognition opportunities, and training sessions.

For the second consecutive year, I was asked to speak to the campus community regarding social media customer service. It is always an honor to talk with my colleagues and our students about this topic so I always enthusiastically accept the invitation. Today, inside the training and development conference room, I delivered my “Social Media and Service Excellence” presentation.

Acting cool moments before my presentation started.

The speaking engagement couldn’t have come at a better time. Fresh off our Hurricane Florence/flooding response that saw social media activity to our main accounts skyrocket, I had numerous examples of customer service opportunities and challenges to share. As you can imagine, when a catastrophic storm is forecasted to impact your campus, you can count on plenty of students and parents who will need compassionate customer service during a difficult time.

Besides recapping our Hurricane Florence social media response, I also gave examples of bad social media customer service (hello Wendy’s) and stressed how social media service excellence is similar/different to other forms of customer service.

However, the crux of my presentation consisted of my “10 Ways to Provide Great Service Excellence on Social Media.” If you want all my tips, please contact me and I would be happy to send you my presentation. For the purpose of this blog post, I want to briefly share just three of them.

Always Respond – It is imperative to respond to every honest inquiry you receive on social media, especially those that are critical in nature. In a time of crisis or for those of us managing large digital audiences, this can be a tall task – but it is important. Audience members need to know that they can turn to their favorite social accounts for both answers and respect. Nothing makes a social media user feel more valued than when an organization/university/company responds to a question/comment, especially if the user already values the entity he is engaging with.

Have A Certain Mindset – I always stress that when you respond on behalf of your employer on social media, you must do so with a certain reality in mind. Respond knowing that anything you post can and will be screenshot for thousands, if not millions, of people to see. Any entity with any type of a social media following will have trolls looking for slip ups. Having a bad day and accidentally respond in a snarky or frustrated manner? Someone will take a screenshot. Guaranteed. It is imperative for social media professionals to put the pressure of possible public humiliation and job termination on themselves each time they respond. With this in mind, there is no way you can provide anything but immaculate customer service.

Know When to Continue a Conversation Elsewhere – Most of the time, if someone asks a question on a public thread, a simple response will prove adequate. However, sometimes an issue might need some hashing out. Although a back-and-forth conversation on a public Facebook post or tweet might showcase transparency and dialogue skills, I think it is in the best interest of the user if it is shifted to a direct message format. Specific details and personal information start to surface once conversations get more in depth. But you also might want to take a conversation to a private forum for another reason. It is sad, but any account with a large following will have users who will try to instigate and embarrass. Questions that can’t be answered or that are asked simply to make the account look bad are often posed. Don’t take the bait! Respond publically that you would like to continue the conversation via direct message and leave it up to the user to comply. If not, move on.

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Excellent customer service is imperative for any person who is running a brand social media account. Thanks to the typical grind of a higher ed social media professional, I have had my fair share of practice. However, I am still learning. Let me know your social media service excellence tips! Don’t Blink.

Be Tolerant, Be Respectful

There is no doubt that the current state of politics is toxic. It doesn’t matter what side you are on, it seems as if a dark, angry cloud of venom hangs over it all.

My point? None of us can claim that whatever party we happen to support is taking the moral high road. There are enough crybabies and instigators to go around.

I have brought up this reality before. So what’s different tonight?

I just want to stress tolerance.

As someone who tries to keep an open mind, I notice how social media users, whether it be a Facebook friend or a Twitter follower, chastise others for having a different opinion than them.

If someone supports a certain party or a certain candidate, it doesn’t make them a bad person. It doesn’t mean that a label needs to be thrust upon an individual. Whatever happened to respecting differences?

Have compassion and respect for those who are different than you. Even better, let your acceptance for the political views of others be underscored, either by a response or a lack of response, on social media.

We all need to do better. Don’t Blink.

Moving On, Learning From Florence/Flooding

Finally, some normalcy.

Today, students reported back to class here at Coastal Carolina University. A few miles away from campus, Sidney reported back to work at Palmetto Bays Elementary. Although she will be without students today, Mrs. Reser will be joined by her second graders tomorrow as Horry County Schools will resume instruction across the district.

It has been quite the 21 days, a passage of time that definitely did not fly by. But we made it. In tonight’s blog post, I wanted to share 10 quick tidbits from this unprecedented Hurricane Florence/major flooding period.

* Sid’s students have been out of class longer than they have been it. She says that they will be essentially starting over.

* Our President at CCU organized a “welcome back” gathering for our students today. Hosted on Prince Lawn, we provided lunch and had all of our campus services available to help our students get back into the swing of things. These cool #CCUStrong shirts were handed out as well  

Today we had a welcome back event on campus. We gave out these #CCUStrong t-shirts.

* The weekend that Hurricane Florence hit our area (Sept. 15-16), my parish, St. Andrew, took the extraordinary step and canceled all masses for that weekend. With the church extremely close to the ocean, it was a necessary decision. Luckily, thanks be to God, our beautiful place of worship received little damage.

St. Andrew canceled masses during the Hurricane Florence weekend. Thankfully, the church was unharmed.

* Hurricane Florence/flooding didn’t keep Sloan’s daycare out of commission for long. Seriously, Oxford Children’s Academy is the best. Although its policy is to follow the lead of Horry County Schools, our daycare opened up on Tuesday, Sept. 18, and stayed open the remainder of the month.

Thanks to Oxford Children’s Academy for offering great hours and doing what a lot of other daycare centers wouldn’t.

* Sidney’s school came to the rescue. Not wanting its students to feel disconnected from their teachers and classmates, Palmetto Bays staged an event at a Bojangles location for the school community. Families were encouraged to attend for free food and the opportunity to say “hi” to the teaching staff.

Sid and some of her other teachers back at school after the Bojangles event.

* Local and regional businesses helped out. Many hotels in the Grand Strand area offered reduced room rates to people displaced by flooding. Organizations around the South offered perks for those impacted by Florence. For example, the Atlanta Braves and Florida Gators both offered FREE tickets to North and South Carolina residents. The Jacksonville Zoo provided our family with discounted admission passes.

The Jacksonville Zoo offered us discounted tickets.

* Our football team made headlines. The Coastal football team was on the road for nearly two weeks, spending a bulk of the time in hotels in the Jacksonville area. The Chants made the best of it, winning two games, including a Wednesday afternoon matchup that was changed at the last minute. Out of all the articles written about the experience, I enjoyed the USA Today story the best.

* My relatives reached out. Things started to look pretty serious when the national news networks started to forecast a direct hit on Myrtle Beach. I had relatives and old friends reach out to check on us. When the forecast turned especially bad, my poor mom had a tough time keeping it together at work when people would ask her how we were doing.

* We were so fortunate. I can’t say enough how lucky our little family was. Things were looking pretty bleak at one point so to come away unscathed was truly a gift from God.

* We are #CarolinaStrong. I learned a lot about the resolve of this area. People and groups have gone out of their way to help others, demonstrating how special this part of the country is. I couldn’t be more proud to live here.

I am proud to be #CarolinaStrong!

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Although our family can move on, many others must rebuild. As we continue to live our lives, it is important to remember those not as fortunate as us. Don’t Blink.