friday takeout

Sprintsocial.com published an online article in late December that highlighted the top New Year's resolutions for 2021. The social media analytics resource (this is not a product endorsement) recorded chatter about the dominant resolutions being shared as America and the world eagerly awaited the promise of a New Year.

In the company's data gathering on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit, the most prevalent ideas to emerge included motivation, fitness, persistence through a global pandemic and spending time with family (or not quite as much time!) in 2021.

Writing Club starting! Join Northeast Iowa Community College communications faculty member and published author, Keith Lesmeister, for a chance to harness your inner voice and write your family stories. Here’s your chance to stay accountable to any goals you’ve set for writing MORE in the New Year. Keith will send prompts weekly and encourages us to write for a minimum of 10 minutes. Begins Jan. 25, 2021 and will run for a minimum of eight weeks. Sign up with Keith at lesmeisterk@nicc.edu.

Here’s an example of Exercise 1- Think of a recurring childhood memory or memories -- those images or moments that pop up every once in a while and maybe for no specific reason. The memories don’t have to be grand events or lessons. They could simply be smaller events that for whatever reason keep coming back to you.

Katie Valenti

Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) Instructor | Dubuque Center

Who is your favorite comedian?

My favorite comedian is Michael McIntyre. He's a clean comedian, and he stands out to me because he takes the most ordinary, simple things of everyday life and makes them hilarious. He has a great ability to laugh at himself and his own habits, too! I also really enjoy Gabriel Iglesias' comedy routines -- also clean, also able to make the simplest things really funny.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? If you could go on a fun adventure or date with them, what would you do?

My favorite fictional character is Lizzie Bennet, from Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice. I feel I can relate to her in so many ways, and our personalities are so similar. We're both opinionated, outspoken, loyal, family-oriented ... if I could do anything with Lizzie, I'd want to be there when she turns down Mr. Collins' proposal, and before that, when she meets Mr. Darcy for the first time!

Is there a book you’ve read that you love so much you’ve read it twice, or even multiple times?

This goes with my previous answer, but Pride and Prejudice is a novel that I fell in love with when I read it for the first time at 14, and I've read it so many times since. I feel like I learn something from the book every time I read it.

Name one country or region in the world you have never visited that you someday want to visit, serve or spend a vacation?

I've been blessed enough to travel to several foreign countries, and if I could revisit any one of them for a vacation, I'd want to go back to Ireland. I come from a very Irish family, and we can trace our ancestors back to County Cork. I did spend 10 days in Ireland with my family back in 2014, and I'd love to revisit the country for a longer period of time, to see more of the country and get to know the people more.

If you had one million dollars to build anything you wanted, what would you build and why?

If I had one million dollars to create anything I wanted, I'd create a scholarship program to help underprivileged students go to college. I've seen firsthand, as all of us here at NICC have, the power that education has to change lives, and if I had the financial means to play a larger part in that, that's what I'd want to do.