The Diary of a Traveller: More Than Just a Trip to Wisconsin

From dairyherd.com

Joanna Shipp shares the details of her 2024 journey from Virginia to Wisconsin as a full-time dairy farmer and mom. Along with her best advice for first-time travellers

For dairy farmers, show crews, industry members and enthusiasts alike, the trip to World Dairy Expo is a special one — maybe the biggest of the year. And for those making the journey from outside the Midwest, it’s an even greater adventure, complete with anticipation, excitement, preparation and careful planning.

Even for the seasoned traveller, the World Dairy Expo trip presents a handful of firsts and new experiences. As a member of DMI’s National Dairy Board, Joanna Shipp is a frequent flyer who can attest to the excitement, and challenges, of navigating a trip to World Dairy Expo for the first time in 2024. Along with her best advice for first-time travellers, she shares the details of her 2024 journey from Virginia to Wisconsin as a full-time dairy farmer and mom.

                                                                                                         (Photo Provided By Joanna Shipp)

Preparation and Packing

To-Do:

Book hotel: Plan well in advance for this one, and get in at the Sheraton if you can. Being able to walk over to the show each day is so convenient.

Book flights: The quickest and easiest, but often most expensive, is to fly into Madison. If you can’t get a reasonable flight there, you can likely connect through Milwaukee or Chicago. Both are within driving distance, too. For long flights, upgrade your seat if you can. I always prefer to check a bag instead of carrying on. Even if there’s a fee, it’s worth it. Keep in mind you need a REAL ID-compliant license or ID for both international and domestic travel now.

Make arrangements for family at home: For me, that means coordinating carpools for my 14-year-old daughter during that time.

Get milkings and chores covered: Starting about a month in advance, create a plan with family and employees for all tasks that will need to be covered while you’re gone.

Load up your phone: Download things to watch or read on the flight and get your plane ticket queued up for quick and easy boarding. Check out the World Dairy Expo app to plan your event schedule and purchase your admission ticket so you are ready for the show. Set up Apple or Google Pay, and you’ll have everything you need at your fingertips.

Passport and currency for international travellers: If you don’t already have one, start the passport process no later than August to make sure you have it well in advance of leaving for the U.S. Then, plan for your spending. Most times, you don’t have to bring along cash to exchange for the local currency because most things you’ll do will accept credit cards. Check with your credit card company on their international fees and policies. Mine makes it very easy, so I don’t mess with exchanging currency anymore.

To Pack:

• Comfortable walking shoes
• Business casual outfits (for working Trade Show booth)
• Weather-appropriate layers
• Cow-print attire (optional, but fun)
• Notebook and pen
• Portable charger and phone cord
• Headphones
• Reusable bag for Expo freebies
• A good book for the flight
• Neck pillow for flight

Tuesday, Oct. 1

Milkings and breeding are covered. Outfits are together for working in the booth. My daughter will get to everywhere she needs to go, thanks to my husband, family and friends. I’ve been on countless flights: This shouldn’t be any trouble. Getting excited!

Wednesday, Oct.2

OK, there was a little trouble. I was scheduled to fly from Roanoke, Va., to Chicago O’Hare to Madison, but the first flight was delayed, and I missed the connection. Lucky for me, there are flights every two hours from Chicago to Madison, so I was able to get on the next one. It’s an easy Uber from the airport to hotel. I should have arrived at 10 a.m., but it was 2 p.m. by the time I showed up to the booth. Some others from DMI and the board were very gracious about covering that time for me.

I went to the Dairy Girl Network event tonight, too. Note to self for next time: Wear some cow print! So many cute shoes, bags and jackets — some really stylin’ people here.

Thursday, Oct. 3

First full day at the show, and wow, such a cool place to be. Not sure anything else like this exists that’s exclusive to just dairy. There are so many who come every year. I enjoyed chatting with other farmers about what their dairy checkoff is doing and connecting with people from all over the country. Two for two so far on excellent ice cream flavors at the GEA stand, and I’m going to have a grilled cheese for lunch every day that I’m here. I also had a fun evening going out with a different group of farmers and people tonight.

Friday, Oct. 4

A big day: I spent the morning in the booth again, and then I was part of a Dairy Girl Network panel discussion. It was a fun and inspiring conversation with some lovely women about international dairy trends and women’s roles in dairy. It was an honor to be on stage with them!

I watched the Parade of Champions and selection of the 2024 Supreme Champion. Then, most headed home, so I got a quiet evening to reflect on my experience. There’ll be a Wisconsin football game in town tomorrow, so I saw the hotel entirely transformed from cows to badgers.

Saturday, Oct. 5

An uneventful trip home. Everyone was heading into town for the game while I was heading out, so I had no trouble and was even early for my flight. To-dos are to get back on track in the next two or three days: review activity system records, catch up on breeding, enter handwritten notes into the herd management system and do laundry.

Feeling grateful for the trip, meeting other farmers and the crew who kept things afloat at home.

https://www.dairyherd.com/diary-traveler-more-just-trip-wisconsin 

My college diary

From middleburycampus.com

By Christy Liang

“You are a writer. Don’t tell your parents that.” My English advisor, Professor Robert Cohen, told me these words as I sat in his office, talking about my recent turn towards Buddhist thought and how I’ve unclouded my judgment of the outside world over the summer. 

Before college, I knew with an unshakable certainty that I wanted to be a writer. I’d browse through all the creative writing classes and imagine myself in them, enthralled and radiant with enthusiasm. All I wanted to do was turn my wayward feelings and swirling thoughts into words, to press permanence on what is bound to pass. Writing — both personal essays and short stories — always brought me immense joy and helped me establish in clearer, richer terms who I am and who I’d like to be. 

After a couple of lukewarm creative writing workshops at college, however, I found myself drifting away from the idea of writing as a career, or rather, writing as something that can be taught in an academic setting. Words have always come to me from deeply intimate corners of my selfhood, on their own accord or prompted by my overpowering disposition of inward searching. I love the way sentences unfurl like a stream from an unnameable, yet visceral center within me. In brief moments, as I write, the interior and the exterior coalescence. It is quite magical. I feel imbued with an aliveness akin to the feeling of a really good conversation, a long, meditative walk or running through the woods as the sun’s about to set.

Then I realized that writing is a deeply personal act to me. That it matters the most when I feel compelled to write, not towards an audience or to fulfil an academic task, but because my innate striving for meaning distilled from lived experience brings me back to the page, again and again. As a result, I thought I’d start journaling. 

                       Journaling by Lake Dunmore this past weekend.  Photo by Christy Liang | The Middlebury Campus

In late August, I stumbled upon Tao Lin’s My College Diary published in The Paris Review and had an absolute blast reading it. I found it so real, unfiltered, full of laughs and the poignancy of growing up. It captured the chaotic yet ultimately aestheticized tenor of college life so well that I immediately thought of doing something similar. 

For the longest time, I was sceptical about keeping a diary. I thought I’d feel stifled by the banality of writing down what happened, what I ate, or whom I talked to. But Tao Lin showed me something different, that a diary tracks the psychological undertones of your ever-shifting existence, that it could be terribly refreshing to look back on an entry a month, a year, or even a decade ago and think: “Wow that’s how I was feeling.” I  also thought about how these documentations of day-to-day happenings, moods and reflections may inspire future creative projects. 

So, I started journaling and keeping a digital diary simultaneously. I’ve found it to be a deeply centring and affirming act, one that reminds me I can always take root in my interiority, which is, in fact, infinite. To my pleasant surprise, I’ve also found that in these highly personal mediums, my language acquires a special lightness. Unburdened by academic jargon and any intention to impress, I write almost lyrically, with phrases running around like little rabbits on the field. The line between prose and poem often gets straddled; past, present and future converse with one another. Most importantly, what induces fear, anxiety, or sadness becomes invariably tamed after getting channelled out. 

Nothing lasts, after all. We’re just taking a seat in a theatre, watching as experiences happen to us. 

A couple nights ago, I wrote in my journal: “I feel like a thing, a lovely, shifting thing held all around by a porous membrane, floating soundlessly through the theatre of life filled with giggles, sparks of insight, and love ripening through avenues imaginable and beyond.”

May we all be seen and held by something larger, something gentle, something deeply within.

https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2025/09/my-college-diary 

Elton John’s indifferent diary reflections from the day he wrote ‘Your Song’

From faroutmagazine.co.uk

By Kelly Scanlon

When we think of a track as monumental as ‘Your Song’, it’s hard not to think about what was running through Elton John‘s mind on the day he wrote it. He probably jumped up with glee, excited at the fact he’d just landed on pure gold…right?

It was one of the first songs John wrote with Bernie Taupin. The initial seeds came to Taupin when he was having breakfast at John’s parents’ house, and he rushed to grab whatever he could find to write it down before he could forget. Caught on a “grubby piece of exercise paper”, as Taupin later described, the words were then taken to John, who came up with a melody in less than half an hour.

                                                                                                                 (Credits: Far Out / Alamy)

John initially believed that Taupin had written it about his then-girlfriend, but every time he suggested it, Taupin would get defensive. Maybe that’s a sign it was actually about just that, especially as Taupin later said it’s about “absolute naiveté in love”. But Taupin was also a teenager when he wrote the song, which explains why it feels like a simple yet all-encompassing kind of love. Or, as Taupin said, one filled with “extraordinarily virginal sentiments”.

Either way, something about it worked, and it unintentionally became one of their most popular hits together. And its simplicity is also what both Taupin and John keep coming back to. ‘Your Song’ could never be recreated, partially because it came from a youthful mind ruminating on young love. But also because, weirdly, the older John gets, the more he identifies with it.

That said, when John wrote in his diary in October 1969, the day they wrote the song together, he didn’t give much away. He didn’t seem as enthralled as he had all these times he praised the song; he didn’t share any emotion towards it whatsoever. In other words, you wouldn’t think his words reflected the thoughts of a man who had just written what would become his first major hit.

“9:00 Bobby Bruce,” he wrote. “Stayed home today. Went to South Harrow market. The session was hilarious. Didn’t do anything in the end. Wrote ‘Your Song’.”

The words are so casual that there’s almost hilarity in them. Almost like it’s hard to accept he didn’t actually know how great the song already was, and was reflecting on how good he felt after. Like when someone asks you how your day was, and you say the most important thing last for maximum effect. For comedic effect. But in this case, John bracketed it with indifference, “didn’t do anything in the end”. Except, write one of the best songs in the history of music?

John later said, “I don’t think I’ve written a love song as good since.”

He performed it at all of his shows. It’s a staple of his entire legacy. In some twisted way, maybe it’s understandable why he gave nothing away in his diary the day they wrote it. Maybe it said everything without saying anything at all, even if John wasn’t aware of its own poignancy yet. Because its success clearly crept on them a little bit, making those slower, less explosive moments feel even more special in the long run.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elton-john-diary-reflections-day-he-wrote-your-song/ 

Diary of a Gen Z Student: How a young person curates their Instagram profile in 2025

From irishexaminer.com 

By Jane Cowan

"You might think this is ridiculous, just another thing that the youth of today are overthinking. But your Instagram profile is the first thing people will look at if they want to find out about you."

My favourite technological invention is the WhatsApp story. Maybe it’s because I always have a vague inkling that any story on WhatsApp was posted accidentally. 

The people who post on WhatsApp are generally not avid social media users. I make that assumption because I’ve never seen someone my age engage in such social media posting. 

In truth, the chief offenders for posting stories on WhatsApp that I know of, are my parents.

The photo is usually out of focus or backlit so you can’t really tell what it is. But I respect it.

There’s a level of nonchalance about it that someone my age could only feign. It’s almost audacious.

                         Instagram, for gen Z, is a very specific art form. We have many unwritten guidelines. It must appear effortless

The social media platform you’ll tend to find me posting on is Instagram. 

And there is nothing laid back about what makes it to my Instagram profile.

Instagram, for gen Z, is a very specific art form. We have many unwritten guidelines. It must appear effortless.

You’ve just rolled out of bed, dragged a brush through your hair, and happened upon the most aesthetically stunning, golden lighting, which you document with a quick selfie; you didn’t even have to try.

Well, that’s how it’s supposed to look. The fact that you waited three hours for the sun to shine at just the right angle is no one else’s business.

If the picture is for your main Instagram grid — an old school Instagram post, as I like to think of it — then you can’t post just the one picture.

You’ve got to turn it into a carousel. That means you must take numerous effortless photos and post them all at once.

You want it to be a bit like a scrapbook. A highly curated and beautiful scrapbook. The collection of photos you land on must also be varied.

You could decide to post 15 selfies in one go, but you don’t want people to think you’re narcissistic.

Even if the only reason you’re posting is because you feel you look especially stunning in a particular photo, you must disguise it.

Dilute the self-love by including a landscape or two, maybe a coffee, a picture with your friends. This is the highlight reel for your life, so you should present it as such.

The Instagram story is a little less pressure. You only need the one flawlessly executed photo to warrant an Instagram story. But the details matter. 

If you’re adding a location to it, the cool kids know to only use the translucent location tag. The blue and white location tag? Even millennials should know better.

One thing’s for certain, though: whether it’s being posted to the grid or your story, you must find the perfect song to accompany any Instagram activity. 

That impromptu photograph can’t be posted in silence. Its essence, your mood, the vibes, however you want to think of it, must be captured in music.

This is the ultimate insight into someone’s personality, so that song is being painstakingly selected.

You might think this is ridiculous, just another thing that the youth of today are overthinking. But your Instagram profile is the first thing people will look at if they want to find out about you.

So, you want to be cautious about what makes the cut. That guy you met on a night out and have been on three dates with? 

If you wouldn’t introduce him to your parents, he shouldn’t be on your Instagram. You have to earn that kind of real estate.

There’s some fun in it, too. The best part about posting is checking your phone every seven minutes to bask in the likes and comments. 

Anyone who says they’re not doing that, is lying. With every like, you get to swipe through your photos and admire your creativity from the perspective of the person who just liked it.

Lap up the adoration. The worst part about posting an Instagram story is only having 24 hours to do that good work. People may say that this kind of behaviour makes my generation self-obsessed.

Maybe that’s true. God knows there’s a serious amount of validation to be gotten from people liking your post, even if you couldn’t pick those people out of a lineup. It still counts. 

Kind of like those random people sliding into your Instagram DMs looking for a sugar baby and offering to pay your college fees. I have no desire to respond, but it’s not bad for my ego.

When I grow up, I might achieve the social media presence of my parents on WhatsApp. No curation, song choice, or scrapbooking.

Just vibes.

But I’ll have to get back to you on that. It feels too reckless for now.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/people/arid-41702453.html

Her Teenage Diaries Were Never Meant to Be Seen. Now Millions Are Reading Them on TikTok

From ca.news.yahoo.com

Betsy Lerner, 65, has been writing since she was a kid

NEED TO KNOW

• Betsy Lerner has been writing since she was a kid

• Through high school and into her 20s, Lerner filled journals with reflections about her life

• Now, at 65, she's sharing her old diary entries on TikTok

Betsy Lerner has been writing since she was a kid, inspired by The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Like Frank, she longed for a place where her thoughts and feelings could be understood.

Through high school and into her 20s, Lerner filled journals with reflections about her life. She still remembers her very first diary: beige with a tiny lock — chosen because it felt “more serious” than the typical pink ones.

"All my diaries through high school got stolen when my car was stolen, but I have a very strong visual memory of that first diary," Lerner tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Lerner later earned a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Columbia University before shifting into publishing. Her journals, meanwhile, sat tucked away in a crawlspace — until she rediscovered them thanks to TikTok.

"I got really interested in TikTok because of BookTok," says Lerner, now 65. "I wanted to see what it was all about — the influencers and why so many books were suddenly moving off shelves, especially during COVID."

At first, she posted small literary thoughts without showing her face. But after a friend encouraged her to create something consistent, Lerner decided to share entries from her old diaries.

"The first one I did went viral, and that was all I needed to keep going," she recalls.

                                                                                           Betsy Lerner and her diaries

Today, Lerner has more than 46,000 TikTok followers. She says the real reward is hearing from viewers who relate to her experiences.

"So many people said they connected with my diaries — about depression, loneliness, and figuring out who you are," she says. "These are really big, common themes in your teens and twenties."

When it comes to deciding what to share, Lerner avoids the most painful entries. Instead, she focuses on moments that are relatable, funny or even a little surprising. Sometimes she’ll stumble across boys’ names she no longer recognizes.

"It blows my mind," she says. "When you’re in your 20s, you think every relationship is the biggest deal of your life and you’ll never forget. But then I also remember certain things very vividly when I read the diary."

That mix of clarity and distance has also shaped her work as a novelist. On Sept. 2, Lerner will release her newest book, Shred Sisters, which she says was influenced by the voice of her diaries.

In particular, the character Amy — a scientist — reflects some of the struggles Lerner once faced.

"I wanted to create a character who believed in facts and the empirical world, not just feelings and emotions, which rule a lot of your life in your 20s," she explains. "She feels very neglected within her own family. She’s not me — but she embodies some of the things I struggled with."

"One of the things about Amy is she has to learn from the mistakes she makes," she adds. "That’s what propels the plot: is she going to figure out how to deal with all the things she doesn’t like about her life? My hope is that the ending feels hopeful — not tied up in a bow, but hopeful."

Looking back, Lerner says she wishes she hadn’t been so hard on herself. "I’d tell my younger self to trust that you’ll figure things out," she says.

It’s the same advice she now offers to anyone curious about keeping a journal. "Try to write a little every day," she says. "It doesn’t have to be profound — it could be a list, a goal, even something you overheard. Once you get in the habit, it gets easier."

Her own journals were often part diary, part scrapbook. "Sometimes I’d write dialogue I overheard, or a list of things I hated," she says. "I also taped in ticket stubs, candy wrappers, notes from friends. Especially in the early diaries, those little visual things bring the memories back vividly. There are so many ways to capture your life."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/her-teenage-diaries-were-never-180022566.html