Mars Hill College Alumni!

Hello, from the Mars Hill College graduate!

I graduated with a degree in Biology on May 9th.
The week after graduation I went to Merritt Island, FL to visit my Aunt and Uncle with Kristina (my roommate from college). I took Kristina to disney for the first time! We had lots of fun. I also got to meet some fellow upcoming disney college program participants.
The week after that (last week) I subbed every day at the daycare that my mom works at. It was really fun, though I'm glad I have this week to chill out now.
On saturday was my graduation reception. It was great! I'm glad so many people were able to come to it.

I am going to do the Disney College Program on August 12th. Until then I'm just chilling out at home, learning to cook, reorganizing my life, and looking for summer work.

Tonight I cooked my first meal of the summer, chicken tetrazzini. It turned out pretty well, I definitely ate WAYY too much of it. I'm stuffed.

As we go on we remember...all the times we've...shared together.

On Tuesday I went to senior convocation and experienced my first real feeling of bittersweetness about graduating. Today was the last day of school! MY last day of school! What!? We also had graduation rehearsal today. That's when it all became real. I'm graduating in 9 days! I still have to pass my genetics and ecology final (so i can't REALLY relax until next Thursday, may 7th, when final grades are posted...but then it's official.)

It all happened so fast. I'm wishing I would have had more time to hang out with a lot of awesome people. There are so many people in my world here at Mars Hill that I always intended to or wanted to get to know better or invest more time in. It sucks that time has gotten away from me and any chances I have to be with these people are slipping away! I will miss my close friends here very much. But it's the acquaintances or friends that I didn't actually hang out with outside of classes, scholarship meetings, blueprint, or seeing them in the caf...that I'm lamenting even more. Those are the people who I might not have ever said much to...but they've meant a lot...just seeing them...having them in my bubble...around me....that's something I'll miss. It's the people that I would exchange a friendly (or sometimes flirty) smile with almost every day that I regret not having taken the time to invest in. The friends that I would say "yea sure...we'll totally hang out soon!" and then we never did...I feel pretty crappy about those relationships. I've appreciated having these people in my life so much...I just wish I could convey that to all of them!

There have been so many awesome memories...every semester has been a new and different experience. I'm so thankful for my time here and all the wonderful people that have put the color into my life.

In my newly forming adult life...I want to:

• invest in my relationships more
• make a recipe scrap book
• learn to cook
• read novels
• stop stressing out so much!
• be intentional
• life live on purpose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HDM3eYp4KQ

Burnt to a crisp...

Not only am I burnt to a crisp from this recent emergence of glorious sunshine....I am also officially burnt out from school.

Especially now that it's beautiful outside...it's getting increasingly harder for me to concentrate. I can't fully enjoy the sunshine...but I also can't fully concentrate on school. It's actually pretty miserable and has left me in constant panic and worry. I don't like it!

I have two tests tomorrow with I feel pretty unprepared for. Every time I've tried to study, my brain shuts down and I get wayyyy overwelmed. This is a bit scary. I would hate to make it this far (13 days!!) just to fail miserably and disappoint everyone around me including myself.

I can't think like that though. I will make it! I've come too far to give up now. I got this.

I finally went onto the roof of Moore Auditorium the other day (a Mar Hill College must for every student). It was pretty awesome. You have to climb this scary metal ladder wayyyy up and then you walk along the rafters and crawl out a door onto the roof.
I enjoyed that immensely :). So I'm officially ready to graduate.

I've been listening to that Graduation song by Vitamin C alot lately. Haha...good stuff.

I'M SO READY!!

New Experiences

I'm midweek through my first week back at school. It's great to be back and see everyone. I think I'm going to love my classes. I'm taking Genetics, Population and Community Ecology, Senior Seminar, Decorative and Wearable Arts, College Choir, and Voice Lessons. Yikes! That is alot! My schedule is crazy. I'm busy from 7-5 four days a week.

College choir is definitely new for me. My voice teacher suggested that I join. I was a little nervous going to the first practice yesterday, but it wasn't so bad. I'll definitely be learning a lot as I go. Who knew that musicians speak a completely different language!? It's a struggle just figure out where we are on the page based on all the musical jargon. It's an exciting new challenge though.

Also my Decorative and Wearable Arts class is going to be amazing...we're making collages, journals, rugs, and lots of other neat crafts. It is right up my alley.

Oh and I'm a bonner scholar...so I receive tuition money in the place of volunteering 140 hours per semester at non profit organizations. This time I'm the Intern in the Lifeworks office where all the scholar staff members work. I started yesterday. I'm basically just a secretary. I just entered stuff on the computer for four hours. I really enjoyed it though...I got to listen to my ipod and just zone out. That's definitely a fun new experience. I can remember pretending to be a secretary when I was little...I still feel like I'm just playing pretend hehe.

For the rest of my bonner hours I will be returning to work at a local day center for the homeless. I'm excited about going back on Thursday.

Anywho...this is my quick post just to say that I've been having a great week back. I'm keeping up with my routines and I've been working out (my body is exhausted!). I absolutely love how my schedule is so diverse. It feels very well-rounded. I'm excited about trying some new things and pushing myself through hard classes.

Even though I get nervous or anxious about trying things I don't know much about or being in hard classes...the satisfaction of sticking with it and looking back knowing I did that...is very rewarding. So go out and try something out of your normal box! It's great :)

Back to School...For the last time!!

I should be sleeping right now...but I've been struck with spontaneous motivation lately which keeps me up into the late hours of the night...the kind of spontaneous motivation that comes with every new year.

This sudden motivation boost is great...though it keeps me finding a million random things that need to be done and making never ending to do lists. As soon as I finish one list...I come up with more ideas of things that I "need" to do and I make a new one.

Eventually I'll run out of steam and probably slip back into procrastination land for a month or so...most likely this will be as soon as I get my first home work assignment. Isn't that always how it goes? Funny how that works.

Anyways I'm headed back to Mars Hill College tomorrow for my last semester! Crazy! I can remember the days of being bitterly depressed thinking I would never be done with school. I'm so ready. I'm not good with long term goals, so graduating is a really big deal to me.

I will be a college graduate on May 9th...then what? Who knows. I have lots of ideas though. I most definitely want to pick French back up. I took 4 semester of French at my community college. I was very good at it and really enjoyed it. After I transferred to Mars Hill and realizing they had no French courses, I got out of practice and forgot everything. So that's one thing. I have lots of self-improvement ideas for when I get out of school. I guess if I am unemployed for a while...at least I'll have that.

I've been trying to get my life more organized these last few days at home. I must say that iGoogle, Google Reader, and Google Calendar have really helped me out as far as organization goes. I highly recommend them. I want to start networking more as well. Not really sure what for...but networking is good no matter what I guess. Twitter is a helpful networking tool, as well as, Facebook. Sheesh...God bless the internet.

Oh and speaking of technology. My friend is giving me her used (and slightly cracked...but usable) iPhone! How amazing is that!?

Anyways, until I have something more to say...