The author with Thomas Mason

by Ashlie Harper

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Simple question, right? For many people it is. As for me, I’ve had a pretty clear understanding of what I’ve wanted to do for a while now, but it hasn’t come easily for me. Up until I was 18 I could not answer that question for the life of me. What did I want to be? I looked at a degree in college as a marriage…your stuck with it for the rest of your life so you better pick well. Sure, I had always loved reading books and writing stories, but is that something to make a career out of? It wasn’t until freshman year of college when it really hit me; everyone needs to communicate, so why not major in something that will perfect that skill? The sad thing is now, I’m no longer asked what I want to be, I’m asked why? Why would I spend four years and thousands of dollars to study a major that in many people’s eyes is dying? Why not go into Marketing or Business, a more “marketable” major? Those questions were answered very clearly for me in these last few weeks.

The author with Margaret Waters

I just finished up a two-week internship in Austin, Texas, where I not only helped edit and publish a photography and e-book, but also met with three very successful people who majored in English and went on to do some pretty amazing things. Take for example Tommy Mason, former General Manager of the Lower Colorado River Authority and an environmental lawyer. He got a liberal arts degree from the University of Texas and you know what? People questioned him as well. But look at him now. He taught me in just the short time we were together that the ability to write should NOT be underestimated in its value. He also told me to “do what you want to do.” Don’t shy away from something your passionate about just because others don’t see the value. If you can write and convey an idea well, you’re already ahead of almost everyone around you. Pretty inspiring, huh?

Then came Margaret Waters, a rector at an Episcopal church in Austin. She uses English every day in her job and has seen how beneficial the ability to write really is. She showed me that no other field of study truly prepares you like English does. When you learn how to read and write fiction, you are looking into the human heart. You are learning how to connect with others.

The author with Catherine Wildermuth

And then I met with Catherine Wildermuth, a woman with a Ph.D. in English and had a 25-year career with IBM. Her curiosity and love of learning made me realize I was right where I needed to be. She told me to never expect to do what you planned on doing in your life; better things will happen. Life is hard to predict, so don’t try to. Know that you can handle whatever comes along and change often. Be willing to change.

So long story short, I have the trump card as Reverend Waters beautifully put it. I am learning what many others will never learn to do in their majors: express emotions and communicate messages in a clear and understandable way. Why would anyone look down at someone who is studying how to communicate? Isn’t that what everyone wants? My only hope is that one day people realize how important words really are and instead of being asked what I’m going to do, I’ll be asked what I can’t do.

One of the top five days — so far — of my life, happened yesterday.

It all started with my — and my best friend Danielle’s —obsession with Oprah’s new network, OWN. Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes soon become our favorite show to watch together. Both of us were fascinated by not only how the show was run, but with how Oprah ran her life. It opened up our eyes to the inspiration she brings to viewers every day.

Since this is Oprah’s last season doing the show, Danielle had a great idea: try to win tickets to see her show. Obviously, it isn’t easy winning tickets considering the high demand of very dedicated viewers, and we soon realized our dream of going might never come true. So far we had received constant rejection when trying to get tickets. One day, Danielle, while searching Oprah’s website, came across an essay contest for viewers who felt they had an “Oprah and Gayle kind of friendship.” (Gayle King has been Oprah’s best friend for the past 35 years.)

Immediately, we started thinking of a great, heartfelt essay to write so we could be selected to see her show. And you know what? A few days after submitting the essay, we got an email saying we WON! Not only were Danielle and I going to see Oprah in person, but everyone in the audience would be people who were best friends who had written winning essays as well.

On the three hour drive to Chicago, we started dreaming about all of the things that could happen on the show. Would the camera catch us in the audience and we would actually be on TV? Might we possibly be chosen to sit in the front row? Dare we ask…could we win something? It all seemed very unlikely in our heads, but we knew that when we were sitting in that audience, even in the back row, we would be on cloud nine.

After long waits in line and a room filled with very loud and excited best friends, Danielle and I heard our names being called over the intercom. We had no idea what that meant, but we were excited to learn why our names had been called. We had been chosen to be seated directly BEHIND Oprah and Gayle, meaning we would be on television the majority of the time! Wish number one, granted.

Then the show started. It truly was magical. A room filled with excited ladies screamed, clapped, cried and danced as Oprah made her way into the studio. Gayle then quickly followed, and the stories of their friendship began to flow out of their mouths. It was so much fun to experience their times together on the Oprah show throughout the years and hear what they had to say about each other.

Miraval Hotel & Spa

Then a video started to play of Gayle on a high ropes course at a hotel and spa in Arizona. As some of you may know, Gayle is deathly afraid of heights but conquered her fear for the sake of a great TV moment. As both Oprah and Gayle started to reminisce on that ropes course moment, I began reading the teleprompter—it was right in front of me. My stomach started churning. The words “…but you know what I’m REALLY excited to share with you…” started to scroll by in front of my eyes. This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a dream. “You are all going to MIRAVAL!” The entire audience screamed and jumped up and down; but the funny part was that no one knew what Miraval was. Turns out, it was the hotel and spa Gayle and Oprah had stayed at in Tucson, Arizona and where the high ropes course had been held. Every best friend couple in the audience had won a two-night, three-day trip to Arizona. Wish number two, granted.

The show ended, but the fun didn’t stop there. Both Oprah and Gayle stayed after to answer questions and talk to the audience. They both seem like such real, honest, smart, and sweet people. It was incredible to share a room with two women who have made a very big mark in the world. After they were done, Oprah began to walk away, but not before she shook our hands and spoke to us personally. Wish number three, granted.

The day was more than I could possibly imagine. Danielle and I had barely dreamed of meeting Oprah, let alone sitting behind her and shaking her hand. And the trip we won still doesn’t seem real.

Yes, it was one of the best days of my entire life. And I think I can speak for Danielle and say the same. As Oprah said after the show, “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. “

And all the class work Danielle and I had done and are continuing to do in college to learn how to write has now paid off in this surprising way. To paraphrase Oprah, for this we are very thankful.

I’ve been an active “facebook-er” for years now, but it was only in the last six months that I jumped on the tweeting bandwagon. Before I correctly learned how to use it, I found myself thinking Twitter was a pointless and unimportant tool. “Why does anyone need to know what’s happening in a short 140 character sentence?” I thought.

It wasn’t, then, until a few months ago that I really saw the potential of Twitter. Not only can I find out the latest news instantly — I follow such news sites as The Huffington Post and PBS News Hour — but I am now constantly connected with friends, coworkers, classmates, and even teachers. I’ve also found myself using it as a search engine, just like I use Google or Bing. If I browse my Twitter home page for just a few minutes, I’ll get the latest information in not only news and politics, but also celebrities, fashion, and friends.

The funny thing about all of these websites is, the more you use them, the more useful and more personalized they become for you. A couple of weeks ago, I started following the Twitter account of my college –Western Michigan University. By simply doing that, I could now find out on my phone and computer the latest news and information about what was happening around campus. The value of social networking is becoming more important by the second for schools because it connects thousands of students and faculty together who have a common interest –education.

But a tweet isn’t just about news. In a marketing class I’m taking this semester, my professor tweets a list of “to-do’s” for the next class period. It is a simple yet effective way to get an assignment out to mass amounts of students quickly. That’s why using Twitter is becoming more popular every day.

In the beginning of my Twitter adventure, I only talked about things such as what I was doing for the day and how I was feeling. But I’ve learned that using Twitter is about so much more than that. It’s about connecting with people you never thought possible, finding out urgent news with a few clicks of a mouse, and sharing the information you’ve learned with followers of the same interest. The internet is not just an entertainment tool anymore; it is about linking people together to create a more diverse and news-rich world right at our fingertips.

Inspirational and moving are words that just don’t cut it when talking about From the Plow to the Pulpit, a spiritual autobiography written by Tommie F. Harper, edited by Elizabeth Harper Neeld, and published by this press, Centerpoint. Tommie Harper, a country farm boy who finds God and love, speaks not only of obstacles, but the glory of God and the plentiful prayers that were answered in his life. The story follows a mean-spirited boy who ultimately turns into a devout preacher and who shares his story with readers hoping to gain faith and confidence in a higher power.

Honestly, the book surprised me. In the beginning, Harper started out by talking about the hard times on the farm while he was growing up. He didn’t have an easy life, and he definitely did not grow up in a religious home. He even called himself “mean” several times throughout the book and said he once almost hated God. When his mother would read him the Bible, the idea of death made him uneasy. But death sparked his interest in religion and “made a deep impression” in his mind. There was even a time in Harper’s life when a traveling itinerant preacher told his mom that “this one will be your preacher boy.” It wasn’t until after Tommie met his wife Rachel that the tone of his writing shifted and the way he lived his life started to change. It was as if someone shone a light in Harper’s life. His words began to change right in front of my eyes, and it was really interesting to see. He spoke about wanting to better himself for Rachel; and I think, with that way of thinking, he opened himself up to God.

The night Harper got converted was when the tone of the book completely transformed. It was extremely inspirational to read about a man who did not travel an easy path to find the glory of God. He did not grow up in a Christian home. He was not dragged to church with his parents at a young age. God found Harper, and used him in numerous ways. His world changed right in front of his eyes when he became a Christian. He even said, “Everything around me had changed. The people looked different. The surroundings looked different.” God had opened Harpers’ eyes to the beauty of the world; and, after that, hope and faith began to show in Harper’s actions as well as his words.

The book was also filled with Harper’s dry humor and was quite funny at times. As Harper starts to have a family, the children bring in some humor as well, along with stories of miracles. He talks about the time when Rachel and he were struggling to have enough milk for their first born, Elizabeth. Carnation milk was the only type of milk that she could drink and she had finished their last can. Tommie prayed to God to help him. Shortly after that prayer, a woman came to Harper’s house with a can of evaporated milk…and that can of milk was Carnation! Stories like that fill this book, and lifted my spirits. It made me believe that anything was possible when you have God on your side, as Harper clearly did.

All and all, this book was not only enjoyable, but also filled with faithfulness and the idea that God can do anything. If you’re looking for a book that doesn’t just talk about the good in life, but also the everyday struggles that happen in people’s lives, this is the book for you. Harper shows that even when negative things happen, the light of God is always more powerful.

For more information about From the Plow to the Pulpit and to purchase the book, click here.

Yesterday, I went to a seminar held by CareerTrack that spoke about grammar and proofreading. My parents and I thought it would be a great opportunity to expand my skills with the English language, especially since I hope to become an editor one day. I walked into the chilly conference room at 9:00 a.m. with high hopes. I was excited to learn more about the language, which I was so deeply in love with, and also to brush up on the grammar skills that I have slowly began to lose since freshman year of high school. What I didn’t expect was to walk out of the Ramada Hotel with a new understanding of literature and the importance of a simple sentence. So many people don’t think twice about writing an email and pushing send, trusting that spell-check caught all the wrong words. But do you ever think about the words spell-check corrected? Do we learn from our mistakes or do we rely on a computer to fix them, forgetting them in mere minutes? I think people should appreciate the language and the rules of English and notice what they’ve been missing this whole time.

I have a quick quiz for you. Stare at the next paragraph for eight seconds, and eight seconds only. Count how many times the letter “F” is used.

Go.

FINISHED FILES ARE THE
RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC
STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF YEARS

Now stop! No more peeking. How many did you count? Three? Four? Five? I’m guessing many of you didn’t reach the number six, which is the correct amount of times the letter is found. Our eyes see only what we want them to see. We skip over the small words, like “of,” and focus on the big picture. The seminar made me realize that we need the basic knowledge of English to understand what were missing.

I want to ask you one more thing. How many of you have ever noticed the arrow on a FedEx truck? I know I didn’t. And even when staring at it for over a minute, I still had no clue. Take a look.

See it? In between the E and the X, where they connect? This is proof that the small things in life may not be the most important, but are worthy to take a look at. I want to immerse myself in the smaller details, and start truly seeing what I’ve been missing all along.

by Ashlie Harper, Intern

The world is changing quite rapidly. It seems as though cell phones are as permanent as limbs to most people, computers are no longer for the technically inclined professionals but rather anyone who can click a mouse, and books seem to be vanishing into thin air because of the powerful technology of a Kindle or iPad. ebooks, the text stored in one of these reading devices, are rapidly taking the place of a home library. Instead of buying an expensive hardcover, lugging it around everywhere you go, and eventually losing it in the shuffle of life, technology has now given us an option to buy a book online and store it in a place we will never forget. But what does this mean for the future of books and bookstores? Are people really ready to say goodbye to the crisp smell of fresh paper and say hello to an LCD screen?

For me, there is a perfect recipe for a great book. Get a big bowl and stir together a cup of great writing, a dash of well-written one-liners, a tablespoon of a big comfy chair and a quarter cup of a unique personal experience. Now bake it in the oven for 20 minutes and voila! You have the perfect book. But if you add a computer screen to the mix, are you left with an impersonal read? It doesn’t sound like many people mind, says Ken Auletta in his article Publish or Perish. ebook sales have soared in the last twelve months, and while only taking three to five percent of book sales in the last year, “their sales increased a hundred and seventy-seven per cent in 2009, and it was projected that they would eventually account for between twenty-five and fifty per cent of all books sold.” It’s a convenient, simple, and nicely priced way to read and an increasing number of people are getting on board with the idea. Just like the future of newspapers, books are going to be more easily accessible on a computer, especially with the on the go lifestyle of most people nowadays. A good friend of mine once asked me if I thought hotel rooms would replace the standard drawer Bible with a flash drive version. Is that too extreme to think? You decide.

So I ask myself, if I can buy a book for a nice price in the comfort of my own home, and in less than a minute have it conveniently downloaded onto a device for my reading pleasure, why would I want anything else? I guess my answer is simple. I want to grasp the text in my hand and wait for the ink to fade onto my fingertips, hoping that the brilliancy of the writing can one day fade onto me. I need to have the smell linger in my nose hours after I have finished reading so when I go on with my day, I can pretend I’m still inside that world. And lastly, I want to see a room in my house filled with the great classics and favorite poems so I can pass those down to the people who share my passion. We are putting too much importance on effectiveness and innovation, and less on tradition. I don’t want books just to be read on a screen, but rather felt with the hands and heart.

by Ashlie Harper, Intern

Dealing with grief? Having trouble finding balance in your life after loss or change?

After over 20,000 books in use, Centerpoint Press is happy to announce a new printing of Seven Choices: A Pocket Guide. Research, stories, narratives, and helpful ways to deal with grief, along with practical insights for people rebuilding life after change, make this concise guide useful in a wide variety of circumstances.

You will find that Seven Choices: A Pocket Guide

• Contains seven chapters about the key points of grieving
• Paves the way for finding positive outcomes
• Offers advice on how to deal with the wide variety changes we experience in life
• Emphasizes the significance of the healing cycle
• Provides a detailed map of the active grieving process

Others have this to say:

A profound book in many ways because the author really cares about people…deeply compassionate and very wise. This is a fine, sensitive book written by a very intelligent person. Extremely well done.

–The Coast Book Review Service

Readers will welcome Elizabeth Neeld’s Seven Choices…offers sound advice on how to adjust to change and form new life patterns and human bonds.

–Publisher’s Weekly

Seven Choices: A Pocket Guide can be purchased from this website and from Amazon.com and other on-line book services. Your local bookstore can also order the book.

The Possibility of Actions

by Ashlie Harper

It’s an amazing feeling to be surrounded by a room full of accomplished women when you are a young girl, just starting to figure out your place in the professional world. Not only does it open your eyes to see the possibilities in life that seemed like impossibilities in the past, but it also shows that nothing is ever unattainable. A dream, a passion, or a hope can turn into a goal and an accomplishment if you truly believe it is the right thing to do. Sheryl Cates, the honoree of the afternoon, demonstrated all of these things in one short lunch. The air was not only filled with honey chicken and sweet potato hash, but also the feeling of respect and admiration for a very dedicated person. Cates did not know long ago that this is what she would spend her life’s work doing, and did not set out early on to fight against domestic violence, but simply saw her sister under attack by domestic abuse and knew it was a problem worth fighting for. With such an enormous and seemingly unreachable goal, she still allowed herself to fall, with hopes that the women she helped in the process would be kind enough to catch her.

And they did.

There are no boundaries in the world except for the ones you set for yourself. You are the one keeping yourself from accomplishing anything. It is not about the amount of money, publicity, or nation-wide recognition, but the overwhelming feeling that you helped someone, even if it was just one person in need. One may seem like a small number, but the world only needs a single person to feel an impact.

The luncheon wasn’t just about the hard work of one woman, either. It was about each and every person sitting in the banquet room in the Westin Hotel in Austin, Texas. It was about realizing the impact of one’s actions. It was about respect, and knowing that every woman has a voice that can be heard, if you remember to shout loudly enough. It was about the audience, and the responsibility of sharing a message with those around you. It was about using your abilities, strength, and intelligence to get a job done. Let something spark your interest; allow that to flame into motivation, and use that fire to burn into passion. Nothing is an impossible task, and know that with every action, there is a reaction, and hopefully that reaction makes everything worth while.