As I approached graduation from college, I reflected on my years as a college student. Above and beyond the memories and life-changing experiences, there were 5 specific things that I took away most. Here’s that list…

1. Follow your passion:

Being in college is the perfect environment to test out ideas, take risks, and pursue your passion. Whatever you do, don’t just be a normal college student who goes to class and hangs out with friends. Build something! Create something! These 2-4 years of your life are great for asking the big questions and finding the big answers, such as “What do I REALLY want to do?”. Asking these questions may lead to finding a major that really fits and it may lead to a lot of opportunities down the road. I found my love for design and business while in college. I made it my goal to explore all of my creative interests. This led to me deciding on a major in Marketing, which was the best fit for me. Most students go to college and fail to leverage these years to their advantage. They end up graduating and are forced to look for a job that may be entirely outside of their passion and interests. Finding your passion while in college not only brings true fulfillment to your life, but it also sets you up to beat your peers who will eventually be competing with you in the job market after you graduate. You’ll have years of experience in your passion along with your degree while they’ll only have a degree.

It is obvious to see that our current educational system is not in the business of creating leaders, thinkers, artists, visionaries, innovators or revolutionaries. I’m a college student. And I go to class everyday and sit in rows with a bunch of assimilators, all fighting to fit in. Fighting to get all the answers right and afraid of taking risks. Fighting to wear the right clothes and own the right computer (ie. Apple). Fighting to join the right clubs and organizations. Fighting to be like everybody else. Fighting to score the job. The job that we have been guaranteed for a century if we follow the system. The job that has guaranteed us safety, security, benefits, insurance, and a retirement plan. The job that takes care of us if we are obedient and follow the rules. The job that promotes thoughtless employees; factory workers. People who are given the instructions and are told to execute accordingly. People who don’t have to bring anything unique to the table.

As I walked through the halls of Georgia State University today on my way to class, I paid close attention to the countless soda machines and water fountains. I couldn’t help but hear this statistic running through my mind…

That’s 1 billion+ people.

Like most Americans, I have the privilege and luxury of accessing clean water whenever and wherever I want. I can buy bottled water, drink from a local water fountain, or choose from a variety of beverages altogether. It’s convenient. Yet, the thought of 1,000,000,000+ people not having access to clean water at all just freaks me out.

For those of you who use WordPress to promote your business or personal blog, here are some killer plugins that I would recommend for your site. These are plugins that I’ve used personally and for clients. They’ve each helped me expand and grow my business and personal blog.

Plus they’re all FREE!

1. My Brand – Lets you create your own custom login page with your own custom logo. Great way to personalize your site. Also a great tool if you build WordPress sites for clients.
2. Under Construction – Lets you work on your site behind the scene while visitors can only view your “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” page. It also gives you the option to fully customize it.
3. WPtouch – Automatically transforms your WordPress site into an iPhone app theme. Great way to allow mobile viewers to visit and view your content on your site conveniently from their mobile devices.
4. WordPress.com Stats – Lets you track the number of hits and pageviews to your site daily. You can monitor which pages get the most traffic, where traffic is coming from, and more! You’ll need to enter in your API key once it’s installed. The rest is smooth sailing.