Responsibility.

My mom works at a day care teaching two year olds. The character quality that they are learning for this month is "responsible". Last month my mom and I were chatting on the phone and we were trying to come up with a simplified definition of the word "responsible". Here's what we came up with...

Responsible: Doing what I know I should do, even when I don't want too.

Pretty good, eh? I think it pretty much sums it up. In my case...I need to be responsible as I enter the last few weeks of the semester so that I can get all my work done. I am having to do what I know I should do...homework...even when I don't want too.

My current responsibilities include:

• Genetics
• Population Community Ecology
• Senior Seminar Project
  
• Decorative and Wearable Arts (including various craft projects)
  
• Senior Bonner Internship in the Lifeworks office
  
• among various other long term responsibilities to myself, my family, my friends, and God.

Things I have to do before I can graduate (in no particular order):

• Correct Population Community Ecology (PCE) Paper
• Write a second PCE Paper
• Write the remaining reading reports for PCE
• Two more tests and finals in PCE
  
• Finish Senior Seminar Experiment
• Finish Senior Seminar Short Film
  
• Write Senior Seminar Paper
• Senior Seminar presentation
• Senior Seminar poster
  
• Two more tests and finals in Genetics
  
• Make a purse for Decorative and Wearable Arts (DWA)
  
• Refurbish an old purse for DWA
  
• Plan a tree planting for earth day for Lifeworks
  
• Finish the senior bonner handbook for the senior class
• Bonner Banquet presentation

Am I forgetting anything? Yikes....so much to do...only 45 days to do it in!

I'm feeling pretty ok about it all today...we'll see how I feel tomorrow though.


Here's a much happier list....

Things I'd rather be doing:

• Spending time with friends that I won't always have around :(
• Hanging out with Megan Anderson!
  
• Spending time with aquaintances I always meant to hang out with more
• Cleaning and organizing my room (seriously lol)
• Making sure everyone I know here at Mars Hill knows how much they've meant to me
• Enjoying my last weeks as a college student
• Spending time with my nephew
• Reading
• Watching Full House
• Making cards for all the friends I'll miss terribly
• Enjoying spring
• Going to Looking Glass Falls and Sliding Rock one last time!
• Being silly
• Appreciating/encouraging/building up my friends
  

All of this is kinda on hold until further notice. Unfortunately some things are time sensative like once I do have time...it will be too late. I just hope I can get enough quality time in with all the important people in between all the work I have to do.

Oh how I love my list making... :)

Jump Right In!

A lot has happened and changed in the past few weeks.
Good things...Bad things...in between things.

I am so incredibly ready to be moving on. Not necessarily moving on from the people..(well...)...seriously I will miss most everyone I've had the opportunity to know here. Mostly it's just that I am ready to move on with my life in general. This section, the "college-student" part, of my life has expired. As a friend would say, "I've expended my resources here." I'm ready to take on the next stage.

I'm the senior Bonner intern in Lifeworks (the career development center at my college). I work there on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons. I'm coordinating a career fair, making a senior handbook (a book of all the seniors' experiences as bonner scholars), and arranging a tree planting for earth day. I am thoroughly enjoying this work. Everyday I work in there I am even more excited about getting a real job. It's the closest thing I've ever experienced to a real job, where I have my own responsiblities. It's as if I'm still a lowly college student on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I get a preview of my life to come...a life with no school. I can not wait.

I spent an hour on the phone with my dad just now talking about my future plans and discussing all the bills I'll be taking on once I get a good job. I'm excited to be taking over all that stuff. It will be pretty neat to have a steady income. I mean...providing I get a steady job somewhere either over the summer or after I complete Disney College in January (if I get in). If I don't get in to Disney College I might see if I can take over the Americorp Vista job at my school. That would put me working in Lifeworks as an actual employee. I'm sure I would enjoy this job because it will just be an amplified version of my volunteer job there.

I should know about Disney College by the end of the month...though it could be as late as the second week of March. I just want to know one way or another so I can make plans accordingly.

The countdown has begun....there are 78 days til I graduate.

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 :)