The Semester Ending is Always BitterSweet

Two more days, six more classes, four exams, and three projects.  This is all that stands between me and my summer.  I am so ready for Summer to finally be here.  The end of the semester is always a weird feeling.  I am completely over going to class and doing homework but I love some of my professors and hate that this could be the last class I have with them.  I am ready to be home and spend a little time with my family but I am nowhere near ready to be away from my friends for the entire summer.  Oh summer, I cannot wait for all the crazy adventures that it will bring.  I just have a little more school work and a few exams then I end my semester off right with a zoo trip with my co-lil and Class Day with all my best friends.  Class day is the day before graduationing that honors the seniros.  All the sophomores get up crazy early and go pick ivy.  Then we at breakfast together and start to build our epicly long daisy chain.  We get a break in the afternoon where we all go get in our new white dresses and shoes and get ready for the evening.  The actual event is the sophomores bringing in our daisy chain and singing for the seniors.  We then lay the daisies down in an “11” since our graduationing big sis class is the class of 2011.  It is one of those you really just need to experience it traditions that sounds crazy but means a lot to the people here at Meredith.  I am leaving right after Class Day.  While I am home, I get to celebrate Mother’s Day and my niece’s 10th birthday before I head out for Leadershape! Leadershape is a week long leadership retreat where you find out who you are as a leader.  Leadershape blends directly into Rockbridge which is the Intervarsity end of the year camp.  Rockbridge is an amazingly relaxing week with friends where I also get my training for being next year’s Large Group coordinator.  When I get home from Rockbridge, Ihave three days before I fly out with my best friend to Guatemala.  We will be in Guatemala for a month working with a team of missionaries.  I am very excited about this!  I have been to Guatemala three summers before and I love going.  I love the culture and the relaxed atmosphere and the people.  I always feel like I am leaving my family behind when I leave to come back home.  I get back to the States in late June and start in on preparing for next year’s Intervarsity.  I am helping lead a group of youth group students to Fort Caswell for a week, hopefully going to Warped Tour, and my roommate might come spend a week with me in my home town! Then it’s back to school for JUNIOR YEAR!!! Soooo excited.  So this is my last blog for the 2010-2011 school year but I will be back in September for 2011-2012. I hope to see you around campus next year!

My Crazy Weekend.

Have you ever had a weekend that was just so completely busy and unusual that you will probably remember it for a long time? Well, that is how my weekend this week! Friday was just a crazy day full of responsibilities.  I got up and walked over to the library with my roommate for our research class.  I am taking this class to prepare me for my thesis next semester, it is crazy to think it is almost time to write my thesis! I researched The Bell Jar and Sylvia Plath for the hour of class and then we headed over to Harris for the end of year Meredith Recreation Association meeting! The meeting was a lot of fun because last years leadership was honored and next years leadership was announced! I will be taking on my second year as publicity co-chair with one of my best friends! It was also a plus that there was breakfast at this meeting.  After MRA, I headed off for my next three classes: British Literature, Advanced Grammar, and Earth Science.

After a full day of classes I walked over to the science and math building for an Intervarsity planning meeting because I am Large Group Coordinator for next year! After my meeting, I met up with a few girls from my beginning golf class to head over to the NCSU golf club for a field trip of sorts.  I golfed my first real game and it was fun but I did an awful job! I arrived back on campus after golfing to pack and eat a quick dinner before heading out for an Intervarsity leadership retreat! Like I said, Friday was crazy! The retreat was a lot of fun as I got to know a lot of the new leadership team.  We had a bonfire, played games, and sang songs.  It was a great way to end a busy Friday!

Saturday is where things began to get interesting. As I left the retreat, I could tell that it was getting ready to rain.  I hurried back to school to avoid the rain and to get ready before going to my roommate’s dance performance.  My friend, Matt, arrived and we walked over to the auditorium for the show but it had not started to rain yet. Kaylee’s first dance was probably my favorite of the whole show, it was a rendition of Super Mario and it was just a lot of fun. The show was moving along pretty well until about half way through when the lights flickered a little and I received a text and a phone call from the MC Alert warning the students about possible tornadoes.  They stopped the entire production for a while as they let the storm pass and then the dancing continued.  Come to find out after the show that a tornado has touched down in downtown Raleigh and really messed it up! We were so extremely lucky to be completely fine with a tornado so close by! It was really scary and kind of exciting! I finished off Saturday by celebrating a friend’s birthday then hanging out with Kaylee and Matt and my boyfriend and another friend.

Sunday was pretty uneventful.  A friend who is a freshman at ECU came to visit and we all just spent the day hanging around campus and doing homework.  The day was beautiful and calm which was a strange and welcomed change from the day before!

Tea for Two and Two for Tea

One of the many traditions at Meredith is the mother-daughter tea called Tea for Two.  All of the sophomore girls dress up and head over to the Marriott with their moms.  There is a nice lunch with dessert, an alumni speaker, a slide show, plenty of picture taking opportunities, and a nice surprise.  We sat at a table with my roommates and their moms so it was a good bonding time not only for mother and daughter but also for my friends.  The speaker was really interesting.  She spoke on the importance of female relationships and how the bonds you make at Meredith will last forever.  The event was really fun and my mother had just as great of a time.

 

 

The other thing that I did this past weekend was to go home for my best friend and future lil sis’ senior prom! My friend Erin deposited for Meredith this week, which is really exciting! Her prom was Saturday so I drove directly from Tea for Two to take pictures for her for senior prom!

 

When I Grow Up I Wanna Be…

a teacher.  Yea, I know it’s a little different than the song but it’s the truth! At Meredith, You do not start taking your education classes until your sophomore year.  So this year I have taken Foundation of Education and am currently taking Educational Psychology.  Last semester, my field experience was with a middle school, English as a second language classroom which was interesting but not quite what I want to do.  This semester; however, I am in two high school English classes which gives me experience in exactly what I want to do! I observe every Tuesday morning and then I work with a student on Thursday afternoons.  Observing is pretty interesting but I love getting to work with my student.  She is a really sweet and really smart ninth grade girl who just has a little trouble with grammar, which is perfect for me since I am taking Advanced Grammar this semester! Education can be frustrating.  The process to get admitted is long and sometimes tedious, tutoring can sometimes be a hassle, and I have had an exam and a presentation this week for my class but the satisfaction of watching a girl who didn’t know what a clause was understand why that sentence is a fragment makes it all worth it! It is so great getting involved with my field early on and learning the ups and downs of school systems and education in general.  I love that you start your experience as soon as you start taking classes in the field so that you can get a sense and a feel for what you are preparing for and is it really worth it to you! Don’t get me wrong, I love the English department as well and my English classes have been my favorite classes here at Meredith but the experience from the education department has been priceless!  Now you are probably thinking, “Who would want to be a teacher with the economy the way it is?” and you would not be alone; my parents frequently ask me the same question.  Teaching is not about the pay check or even the satisfaction of a student learning, because you won’t always have a student who finally gets it, but teaching a child more than just academics; it’s about teaching that student to be ready for life after high school, no matter what that may mean to them.  I have found what I am passionate about and have been lucky enough to pair teaching with something I love like English.  I sincerely hope that you get that lucky, as well; and hey! why not check out being a teacher?! I bet it won’t let you down.