Matthew Tackles Social Media Strategy and Campaigns

Who would have thought we’d be here? Not me... Not me...  For real though, I absolutely could not have predicated we would be here right now. Before coming to campus, I was looking at the COVID-19 numbers per county in Ohio and I assumed we would be leaving for online classes a week after we got here. I had no faith we would survive more than a couple weeks. To my surprise, we finished an entire semester!  I am really grateful we finished an entire semester in person. I was able to regain confidence as a singer, actor and dancer through my training as a musical theater major. I didn’t think I would be able to learn anything in my Shakespeare class with a mask on with everyone six feet apart, but I ended up learning so much! The same applies to every class I’ve had this semester. I learned a lot in my dance classes this semester! At the end of the semester one of my teachers told our class how proud she was for how quickly we were able to pick up on combinations by the end of t...

This past Saturday, I was on a run with my boyfriend after we went to the gym. Both of us did not workout throughout the spring or summer, because of coronavirus fears. However, coming back to school we felt comfortable enough with the new rules put in place to keep us safe, like a limited amount of people allowed in the gym and temperature checks at the door, to begin working out again. We have been working out almost everyday since getting back on campus. We usually work on biceps, chest, triceps, shoulders, and abs, but we recently started adding more cardio into our routine.  At first we thought the dance classes we were taking would be cardio enough for us, but with no rehearsals in the evenings, we decided to up our cardio by picking up running again to lose that little bit of weight still left over from five months of sitting at home. Anyways, as I was saying, we were running on Saturday around campus and we ended up by the track and I was suddenly taken back to my cross cou...

For this week's blog post I wanted to share some of the pictures I have been taking these last couple of weeks. I've been thinking a lot about how this is my last year at Ohio Northern University, ever since getting back on campus five weeks ago. I realized I will soon be shoved out into the real world, much like a mama bird pushing her baby out of the nest, and be forced to support myself financially and take on all sorts of adult responsibilities. I also kept in mind how quickly everything could be taken away like last spring if we happened to get another outbreak of the new coronavirus. With this in mind, I told myself I was going to soak in every last moment I had on campus, and try to appreciate the beauty this campus has to offer. I want to be able to remember the four years I spent here because I met some amazing people and learned so much, so I started whipping out my phone and snapping a picture of anything I found beautiful. I frequently do this when I see a great vie...

Hello! My name is Matthew Brightbill, and I just started my senior year as a musical theater major at Ohio Northern University. Welcome to my blog dedicated to passing one of the last classes I need to get my public relations minor. It feels surreal to be back in a place that I had to evacuate due to the outbreak of COVID-19 five long months ago. It feels surreal to be back with my friends and peers again after spending all of March through July strictly seeing my immediate family every day, with visits to see my boyfriend on the weekends. It is tough starting this year knowing my friends are again so close to me, but also knowing it is unwise to get too close to them or spend time with them as we would in previous years because they just came back from all over the country and they could transmit COVID-19 to me without even knowing they were carrying it. With all this being said, it still feels good to regain some semblance of normalcy in my life. It feels good starting a new normal a...