"Where did you go to school?"
"University of Pennsylvania."
"Why did you decide to go there?"

This is a conversation I have all the time. Here's the long version of my answer to the Why Penn? question.

In high school, I realized I had a passion for journalism, languages, and the humanities. I didn't have a dream profession just yet, so I explored schools with communications, journalism, creative writing, English, and French programs. Academically rigorous and distinguished programs rose to the top of my list. I also checked to make sure these schools offered the extracurricular activities that were most important to me (check out this 2001 Daily Herald article featuring me and my extracurriculars).

Location-wise, I wanted to push my boundaries. You don't get many chances to try living in another part of the country for four years with no strings attached. I would get to meet different people, experience another region's culture, and further develop my independence. Ultimately, I considered a handful of Midwest schools but focused primarily on the East Coast.

Once I had a list of schools that were a match for me academically and geographically, I continued on the search for the best fit! My parents and I drove East during spring break of my junior year to tour several universities. Penn was not one of them. Although I remember receiving a Penn brochure in the mail that year, it didn't click with me for some reason. However, after seeing other campuses and realizing that I preferred larger, more urban schools, my mom suggested we drive through Philadelphia on our way home. A traffic jam and pouring rain kept us from setting foot on Penn's campus that day, but I saw enough from the backseat window to pique my interest.

Later that spring, I skipped my junior prom to accompany my dad on a business trip to Philly. When he wasn't working, we headed over to University City to look around and take a campus tour. We both loved it. Everything about the campus just felt right; and the more I saw, the more I liked it. We brought Mom back to Penn in September to make sure it was the one for me, and we were all hooked. I came back to Illinois and started work on my Early Decision application right away.

My two application essays prove just how excited I was about the possibility of attending Penn. The first is my response to the famous "write page 217 of your 300-page autobiography" prompt, and the second discusses why I was interested in Penn.

Even years later, I am still absolutely confident that Penn was the right choice for me.

I'm training for my very first marathon (Chicago 2013!) and have joined Alex's Lemonade Stand's Team Lemon! Please sponsor one of my 26 miles to fund pediatric cancer research and help families going through tough times.

I'll be running for about 5 1/2 hours that day, so I'd like to raise enough money to fund at least 5 1/2 hours of pediatric cancer research ($275). Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated and will help get me closer to my goal.

Only 5 months until race day!

Yes, it's still a bit of a mouthful, but it gives a better picture of my job responsibilities and differentiates me from other Communications Office staff who have vastly different job descriptions. My primary job function is to project manage the redesigns of our websites, although I also do everything from newsletter editing to graphic design to public relations.

It's nice to finally have a custom job title that really fits!

Put a couple hundred of the brightest minds in digital marketing in one room, and... Go!

That was the scene at last week's Digital Marketing for Business Conference at the Raleigh Convention Center. This inaugural, locally organized conference featured a lineup of mostly local marketing professionals covering topics from social media to content marketing to storytelling. I spent two days alternating between sessions in its two tracks: enterprise and small business.

For me, these were a few of the conference's highlights (in chronological order):

• Keynote by Gopi Kallayil of Google (featured in the main post image above): I'm still not sure if I'll ever embrace Google+ for my own personal use, but Gopi helped me see that it's more than just a Facebook wannabe. He shed some light onto why it's worthwhile from a business/brand perspective and where Google hopes to take us in the future. Plus, Gopi works at Google, so he's clearly fascinating :)
• How The Pit BBQ Used Social Media to Make Magic Happen: This downtown BBQ restaurant has always had a cult following on Twitter, and now I know why. It was part of a deliberate strategic plan to target locals and turn them into brand evangelists. This was a good case study of small steps one small business took and how they are ultimately paying off.
• Video for People Who are Terrified of Video: As a former television editor, I didn't learn much here that I didn't already know... But, I did get a lot of pre-packaged golden knowledge nuggets that I can easily turn around and present to my coworkers in my ongoing uphill battle to bring video to the Judicial Branch.
• Keynote by Gregory Ng of Brooks Bell: One of my biggest takeaways from this, other than that Greg loves 80s cartoons, is that as technology evolves, so must businesses. Your chief marketing officer and your chief information officer need to be closer than ever... And don't forget the importance of your analyst!
• Content Marketing Art of War and Is Content Marketing the Future?: "Content marketing" is clearly this year's trendy marketing buzz word. But, these presentations reinforced that content is here to stay. The first presentation took us through some successful case studies, while the second was probably the most interesting panel I've seen in a while (panels tend to bore me).
• Social Media in a Big Brother World: Everything about this presentation spoke to me. Although Quintiles is in a different type of heavily regulated industry than my government employer, we face many of the same obstacles, and it was interesting to hear how they navigated the red tape and managed to plan and execute a successful social media strategy.

It always takes me a while to recover from a good conference. The intense concentration and high energy levels they require are exhausting, the mountains of work waiting for me back in the office are overwhelming, and the list of big ideas to explore and genius advice to implement is pages and pages long. So, with that said, I'm definitely still processing a lot of the big conference takeaways, but I hope to use them for good in the near future! I would definitely recommend this conference for anyone in the digital marketing space.

I'm a former journalist and television producer. My ears perk up at the words "breaking news," like a dog who just heard the words "car ride." This behavior is ingrained in my being.

I am also a runner.

When my husband texted me this afternoon with the news, I was sitting in a session at the Digital Marketing for Business Conference at the Raleigh Convention Center. After I figured it out that it wasn't some sort of sick joke, my attention span was shot. I should probably apologize to the session speakers because I don't think I absorbed anything they said. I was too busy wearing down my already dying cell phone battery trying to piece together the story via tweets, news websites, and text messages.

My first reaction -- as a runner, and as a human being -- was for my heart to sink down into my stomach. Then the journalistic autopilot took over. When the session concluded, this newshound sniffed her way to the nearest television to watch the details unfold live. A mix of adrenaline and shock kept any real feelings at bay.

Then, it started to sink in.

Runners are amazing people. We run through pain, through adversity, through the worst that nature can throw at us. We bond together, support each other, celebrate each other. We raise a whole lot of money for charity. We run to beat ourselves, never to beat down others.

I've been running for the better part of my life, and I will likely never see the starting line of the Boston Marathon. Boston runners are elite. Some of them have trained their whole lives for this, and they are the best in the world. Once runners qualify for Boston, no one can ever take that away from them; they become a "Boston Qualifier." They are making history. The Boston Marathon finish line is the dream.

For me, the more attainable dream is this year's Chicago Marathon. I've battled injury, I've sacrificed time and sleep and comfort and money, and I somehow made it through this year's registration debacle. October 13th is my dream. Now, though, there's a shadow of uncertainly and fear hovering over it.

I've also stood at many a race finish line -- many times as a volunteer or supporter. The finish line crowds are full of friends, family, parents, children, runners, fans, and well-wishers of all shapes and sizes. The finish line crowds are full of love and support and positivity.

Any attack on innocent people is unthinkable... But an attack on runners? An attack on the pinnacle of a harmless, incredibly positive sport that brings so much good to the world? Unfathomable.

If I know anything, though, it's that runners are resilient. They face pain, and they fight through it. They bounce back. How many times have you heard runners proudly complaining about their latest strains, sprains, or mystery ailments? Does that stop them from getting back out on the road? No. We see teams of doctors, plunge into bone-chilling ice baths, and perform self-torture with foam rollers and other bizarre therapeutic devices -- all in pursuit of the runner's high. There are runners who've shuffled, limped, and even crawled to the finish line. We don't quit.

Today we were shaken, but tomorrow we'll pick each other up, lace up our shoes, and keep running on. My thoughts are with everyone in Boston and all my fellow runners tonight. We'll get through this. We always do.

I mentioned this very cool "make your own font" idea from MyScriptFont.com, via Hongkiat.com, in my recent Around the Web blog post. I printed out the template, wrote out the alphabet a couple times in black Sharpie, scanned it, uploaded it, and here we are. Easy, right?

I may go back and take a second pass at it, being extra conscious of the heights and slants of certain letters. The bottom tips of a couple lowercase letters are just barely cut off, a few letters seem to float higher on the line than others, and I'm not a fan of how much certain characters slant to the right. All those minor deviations aside, it's a pretty nice font -- if I do say so myself!

You can tell a lot about people by the menial jobs they held early in their lives. Everybody has to start somewhere ... And, this is where I started.

Softball umpire: As soon as I was eligible (age 15, I believe), I signed up for umpire training for Elk Grove Girls Softball -- my first real job other than babysitting! I'd been playing in the league since second grade, including a few years in its fastpitch travel program, so it seems I knew at an early age to pick a job I love! Calling balls and strikes for 8-year-old girls while being terrified of getting beaned with a flying bat wasn't the easiest job, nor was getting screamed at by their hyper-competitive parents. But, I took my job seriously. I memorized the rulebook, was always on time (even if I had to ride my bicycle to the field in a rainstorm), wore the heavy equipment in the summer heat, and always tried my best. As far as first jobs go, it wasn't a bad gig.

Movie theater cashier: I have always loved movies, and a friend recommended I apply to become his coworker at Classic Cinemas Elk Grove Theatre. I got the job and started as a cashier, which meant I did a little bit of everything! I manned the ticket sales booth, cleaned and stocked the concession stand, sold popcorn and drinks, tore tickets, swept empty theaters, scrubbed restrooms, and even voiced the recorded "moviefone" message each week. I learned a lot about customer service, integrity, teamwork, supervising and training coworkers, managing intense situations (i.e, an understaffed concession stand at 7pm on a Friday), hitting deadlines, and even manual labor. Plus, I watched many movies and ate free popcorn. I loved it.

Government procurement clerk: As my movie theater days wound down, I scored a great summer position with the Department of Justice: U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Illinois. I ended up spending my summers and winter holidays there from 2001-2004. As a member of Office Services, I spent my first summer in the mailroom and supply room. I was the only clerk our manager trusted with hand-documenting the location of important case files in our storage rooms. I also processed FedEx packages, burned court case files to CDs, delivered supplies to attorneys, sat in on press conferences and trials, and did all number of odds and ends. After that, I moved into the Procurement Office, where my responsibilities included single-handedly documenting, reorganizing, and maintaining inventory and telephone records for our office of over 300 employees.

Video store associate: As a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I got involved with Video Vault, the video rental store run by Penn Student Agencies. As an associate, I was often the sole employee in the store during my shifts. I was responsible for managing rentals, returns, and purchases; serving customers; organizing inventory; and supervising the cash register. Eventually, I was given my own key and the honor of both opening and closing the store. Again, I love movies, so this was another natural fit.

From there, as they say, the rest is history! These may have been relatively simple jobs, but I learned a lot and developed a work ethic that continues to serve me well in my professional career.

• Content Marketing Ninjas: Raleigh SEO Meetup (virante.org): @marktraphagen's live blog of the 3/26 Raleigh SEO Meetup
• 43 ideas to effectively level up your content marketing efforts (steamfeed.com)

• Turn your own handwriting into a font (hongkiat.com)
• What your favorite political sites looked like 10 years ago (buzzfeed.com)

• 22 Things Happy People Do Differently (Successify.net)
• If you're busy, you're doing something wrong: the surprisingly relaxed lives of elite achievers (calnewport.com): "Do less. But do what you do with complete and hard focus."
• Why I left news (allysonbird.com): every ex-news professional will relate

• 5 Instagram secrets for health brands (crttbuzzbin.com): also relevant to a wide range of businesses and non-profits
• 16 ways businesses are using Twitter Vine (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• Hack-proof your company's social media (http://blogs.hbr.org/)

• Tips for Google Reader users migrating to Feedly (blog.feedly.com)
• Basecamp Personal (basecamp.com): project management software for use outside of the office
• Are Google Alerts dying? (mashable.com)
• PowWow (powwowapp.net): schedule user research without testing your patience

This isn't your old college library.

I recently took a tour of N.C. State University's brand new Hunt Library with the N.C. Association of Government Information Officers (NCAGIO). The technology, innovation, and design of this library blew me away.

We started at the BookBot: a several-story tall, automated storage and retrieval system that holds most of the library's inventory. Then, on the main floor, the circulation desk has been replaced by an Apple Store-like "Ask Me" alcove, where students can borrow everything from flash drives to laptops to storage lockers. Throughout the building, the architecture and furniture work together to create a simple yet high-tech atmosphere. The walls near stairs, elevators, and bathrooms are color-coded for easy findability; and group study rooms, media rooms, a video game laboratory, and 360-degree customizable galleries are all outfitted with the latest technology. A 3D printing lab is even available for students to design and create 3D models. Built through state funds and private donations, the Hunt Library is on the cutting edge and will serve as a cornerstone of student life on Centennial Campus.

The best part is that the library is open to the public (hours), with free tours each week. Definitely go check it out!

• The James B. Hunt Library
• Hunt Library in the news
• My #HuntLibrary
• Video of the BookBot in action

Watch video at YouTube.com