On July 2, 2011 six people were killed in an early morning fire that engulfed the Bohemian Bed & Breakfast on 3rd South and German Streets in New Ulm, MN. Bobbi McCrea, the owner of the Bohemian and a vibrant champion of the arts, culture and Gemütlichkeit in my hometown, died. Bobbi reached so many people with her kindness and creativity. The community rallied around her. Bobbi wrote a blog, and her last entry was written on June 22, 2011.
Web logs are created for a variety of purposes - to track project progress, to share ideas, to tell stories, to document life. Following the story of the tragedy in New Ulm, I found that Bobbi had a twitter account and a LinkedIn profile in addition to her blog. Her last tweet on July 1, 2011 from @thebohemianbnb described her life just hours before the fire: "providing shelter from the storm. more important, good company swept in. wow."
And all of it just stopped.
On July 7, I was "fired."
I am the Editor for my institution's social media and online presence. I curate content for our website and blogs, grew our connections from less than 500 to over 3,000 people on facebook and tweeted to the world. I am responsible to a large community from that institution to establish and build relationships, generate opportunities, share information, while supporting professional endeavors and fostering connections. I will be leaving this position to seek out new adventures very soon.
I'm not evaluating the two happenings up against each other in comparison; there's no correlation. But there is a parallel in the words I've chosen to form a theme from these two accounts: Creativity. Connection. Fire. Stop. But where my hometown champion's connections are now in a different atmosphere shall we say, I view the parallels I'm choosing to draw from these events as "road signs." So I will continue to seek out and facilitate connections to sustain and support my community. And I continue to blog - to track this project's progress, to muse, to share experiences in the hopes that one day this project will be complete.
Creativity, connection, fire... Go.
Web logs are created for a variety of purposes - to track project progress, to share ideas, to tell stories, to document life. Following the story of the tragedy in New Ulm, I found that Bobbi had a twitter account and a LinkedIn profile in addition to her blog. Her last tweet on July 1, 2011 from @thebohemianbnb described her life just hours before the fire: "providing shelter from the storm. more important, good company swept in. wow."
And all of it just stopped.
On July 7, I was "fired."
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| Just minutes before I told my husband my news, he had made this surprise investment. Perhaps, now, with this new mode of transport, we can "explore uncharted territory" not limited by the MTA. |
I'm not evaluating the two happenings up against each other in comparison; there's no correlation. But there is a parallel in the words I've chosen to form a theme from these two accounts: Creativity. Connection. Fire. Stop. But where my hometown champion's connections are now in a different atmosphere shall we say, I view the parallels I'm choosing to draw from these events as "road signs." So I will continue to seek out and facilitate connections to sustain and support my community. And I continue to blog - to track this project's progress, to muse, to share experiences in the hopes that one day this project will be complete.
Creativity, connection, fire... Go.
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