The Five People You Encounter on Every Flight
The Five People You Encounter on Every Flight

I've been on ten flights in the past year—a mixture of international and continental, large airlines and budget airlines, small planes and airbuses. Around the fifth flight, I began to notice patterns in the people sitting around me, and so, like the good writer I am, I started to people watch. And I realized, though the specifics changed, many of the fellow travelers I saw on these flights could be cookie-cutter replicas of one another. These are the five types of flyers I noticed most frequently:

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TravelHannah Schultzfive, people, encounter, flight, airplane, toddler, kicking, armrest, stealer, personal space, grandma, family, coach, first classComment
First Impressions of a Minnesota Blizzard
First Impressions of a Minnesota Blizzard

That brings us to this message that popped up on my phone last weekend: the forecast for my first Minnesota blizzard. And folks, it was a good one. As promised, it snowed bucketfuls overnight Sunday into Monday. Before I fell asleep, MSU called off classes for Monday for severe weather conditions (whiteouts are no joke). When I awoke, everything outside my window was a blindingly bright pure white. The roads were untouched, yards blanketed in smooth marshmallow fluff—that oddly satisfying vision of unblemished perfection. 

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NatureHannah Schultzfirst, impressions, minnesota, blizzard, snow, snowstorm, kentucky, february, 2015, march, january, mankato, Minnesota State University, msu, mnsu, plow, snow dayComment
What Going Out of State for Grad School and Reality TV Competitions Have in Common
What Going Out of State for Grad School and Reality TV Competitions Have in Common

ANTM is Tyra Banks' passion project: a "cycle" of contrived drama and cringeworthy product placement that allows aspiring models to kickstart their careers. It's over-the-top and laughable, but as I strayed into the [too high] hour of watching models cry about haircuts and lack of sleep, I noticed some striking, uncomfortable similarities to the reality of my life.

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EducationHannah Schultzgrad school, graduate, out of state, reality television, tv, competition, survivor, great british bake off, america's next top model, Minnesota State University, minnesota, mankatoComment
Luna the Bully: Life as the Alpha Dog
Luna the Bully: Life as the Alpha Dog

In my household, our female dogs have always been the boss. Diamond, our border collie mix, was the first alpha, always trying to herd our other dogs (or even us kids). When she passed away, Tinkerbell, our feisty Chihuahua, became the top dog (no pun intended). Tinkerbell had secretly been waiting for this moment to seize power, like a teeny tiny dictator. She reveled in her absolute power over Coco, our cairn terrier, constantly yapping in poor Coco's face when she committed the ultimate sin of trotting out the door before Her Majesty. But soon enough, Tinkerbell was once again forced to slink into the shadows by a new alpha: Luna the Great Pyrenees. 

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PuppiesHannah Schultzgreat pyrenees, luna, alpha, dog, puppy, toys, food, bedComment
A Tour of Buffalo Trace: The Oldest Continuously-Operating Distillery in the U.S.
A Tour of Buffalo Trace: The Oldest Continuously-Operating Distillery in the U.S.

Located in Frankfort, Kentucky, the mid-point between the much larger cities of Lexington and Louisville, Buffalo Trace Distillery looks dingy in the gray light of December. This can be attributed to the black fungus clinging to the trees and buildings—a fungus almost entirely unique to distilleries. The "angel's share," bourbon that evaporates from the barrels during the aging process, serves as a food source for the fungus and allows it to thrive. 

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TravelHannah Schultzbuffalo trace distillery, kentucky, frankfort, bourbon, tour, oldest, national historical landmark, prohibition, barrel Comments
Let's Get Sappy: Ryan's 25th Birthday
Let's Get Sappy: Ryan's 25th Birthday

This weekend was my fiancé's 25th birthday! Ryan is so old now! (You know I'm joking, but does anyone else feel like they were just 15, or is it only me?) Anyway, because this weekend was made for celebrating Ryan, I have composed a list of some of the things I love most about him—the things that made me certain I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. 

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LifeHannah Schultzryan, fiance, birthday, 25, things, i, loveComment
Strange Things About Minnesota that I've Learned from my Students
Strange Things About Minnesota that I've Learned from my Students

This past Friday was my last day with my first class of Composition kiddos! As a Kentuckian in the north, where knowledge of Kentucky is severely lacking, one of my favorite classroom activities this semester was discussing the merits of Kentucky vs. Minnesota. I often found myself having to explain things that I thought were common knowledge (like lakes not freezing all the way through, even during the winter or, more importantly, sentence diagramming), and they taught me all about the strange things Minnesotans do and say to keep themselves sane in the frigid north. So here are some of the weirdest things I learned about Minnesota from my students:

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TravelHannah Schultzminnesota, weird, strange, duck duck grey duck, hot dish, casserole, ice house, ice fishing, frozen lake, driving, snowmobile, waterComment
The Tale of Escaping from a German Grocery Store via Chocolate Chickens
The Tale of Escaping from a German Grocery Store via Chocolate Chickens

Each year, the end of the semester and beginning of the Christmas season brings three things: an insatiable desire to travel after barricading myself in my apartment to finish final projects, beautiful Instagram posts of festive-Europe, and Facebook advertisements for discount plane tickets. It's a perfect storm of stir-crazy and wanderlust that compels me to research trips that I know I won't have time to take or the money to afford. So instead, let's reminisce with a tale from a 2016 European adventure with my fiancé, Ryan. This is the story of the chocolate chickens that saved us

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TravelHannah Schultzdortmund, germany, travel, International travel, signal iduna park, chocolate chickens, grocery, language barrier, zoo, atmComment
Gratitude for Grad School & Why Higher Education is at Risk
Gratitude for Grad School & Why Higher Education is at Risk

In the 2017 Thanksgiving season, I am thankful for many things—not the least, friends who are willing to drive almost 2,000 miles to visit me, a fiancé I can Skype every night, and family who sends me care packages. But one thing stands out in my mind this particular year: my gratitude for graduate school.

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EducationHannah Schultzgrad school, graduate, thanks, gratitude, thanksgiving, higher education, MFA, Creative Writing, gop, tax, plan, tax cuts and jobs act, grad student tax, tuition waiver, stipendComment
Life Without a Cellphone: Thoughts on [being disconnected]
Life Without a Cellphone: Thoughts on [being disconnected]

Over the past month, my iPhone 6 has slowly been fading to an untimely death. After the iOS 10 update, the battery decided it would stay charged for shorter and shorter periods of time. Two weeks ago, my phone was on life support—it needed to be charging pretty much 24/7 to work. It frequently died at 60% or even higher. And with class and teaching schedules being the way they are, I would often spend half or more of my day without a cellphone. Then, suddenly, early last week, my phone decided to completely give up. It died and could not be resuscitated. 

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Thoughts on: [Things]Hannah Schultzcellphone, technology, communication, disconnect, motorola razr, blackberry storm, iphone, iOS 10, update, battery, dead, apps, snapchat, gps, 911Comment
Baby Argos: The Story of the Most Pitiful Puppy of All
Baby Argos: The Story of the Most Pitiful Puppy of All

When we picked up Luna and Argos, they were fat, squirmy little babies. They were the biggest puppies I'd ever seen, like polar bear stuffed animals come to life. They lived the first few weeks of their life in a barn surrounded by sheep, and you could smell it on them. We gave them a bath that night, and every single week that month, and with each bath, the smell of wet sheep slowly dissipated. 

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PuppiesHannah Schultzpuppy, puppies, great pyrenees, luna, argos, baby, pitiful, pyrenees, Pyr, needy, clingy, dog, dogs, Giant breed dogs Comment