Dear Senior Me:

I am writing this letter as a freshmen and am two days away from completing my LEAP summer semester. I had a great 7 weeks here up at University Park. I took Mass Media and English 15 as my two summer classes. I had a great experience and made a lot of friends. I made very good habits and learned my way around campus. I survived a summer without air condition and learned what it was like to manage my money and do laundry.

I hope to have accomplished quite a bit by the time I am reading this in May of 2019. I hope I really got involved during my time at Penn State. I hope I spent 4 years playing intramural basketball. I missed the sign ups in the summer of LEAP but have been going to the gym a lot and playing in pickup games. As long as I stay healthy I want to continue to play because it will help me stay in shape. I hope I get involved in THON, possibly study abroad, and possibly ski club. I am not sure as a freshman what all I will participate in, but I want to look back without any regrets. The more I get involved in the better my time in college will be, so hopefully I got involved.

I hope to have seen every single football and basketball game while here as a student. They are two of my favorite sports, and I am full of school spirit. I hope to tent out in Nittanyville at least once.  I hope Christian Hackenberg stays for his senior year and takes Penn State to a National Championship. I also hope I have took part in many internships while being a student here. I know as a freshmen I think that the State College Spikes would be a great place to do an internship and hopefully I participate in a bunch so I learn valuable experiences and pack my resume.

I hope to have had a job or two during my time on campus and also hope to have made many important connections. It is important to network when looking for a job so hopefully Penn State got me started and on my way. I hope to have graduated in four years and hope to have a job lined up after I graduate. I hope to find an apartment somewhere close to home or even possibly in Arizona. Arizona is hot but is such a pretty state and seems like a good home. It might be more beneficial to stay close to home though as I have to pay off a lot of money thanks to college and other expenses.

I want to thank my friends and family for all that they have done to help me graduate from college. My family has been nonstop support and gave me encouragement from day one. They pushed me to strive for excellence and be the best person I could be.

Dear LEAP Freshmen 2016,

Are you ready to have one of the best summers of your life? You will learn so many things and experience so many new experiences during your summer session. LEAP is a really good program that help will help you get adjusted to campus and the “college lifestyle”. I met some really good friends as a result of LEAP and we got to go to participate in some fun events.

I’m sure you are pretty nervous to start college. It really is not bad at all. I knew my roommate from high school but adjusting to living with a roommate is actually kind of fun. The work load during LEAP is a lot, but definitely is manageable. If I were to give you advice, I would say don’t put things off and work ahead as much as you can. If you aren’t on the ball with schoolwork, it will pile up quickly.

I’m sure you also heard that there isn’t air conditioning. When I found this out, I freaked out. Just make sure to buy a big box fan to put in the window. My roommate and I had 3 fans in our room. The room was still brutally hot, so make sure to keep your door open as much as you can. There will be an occasional night where you can’t sleep due to the heat, but for the most part as long as you have the fans on full blast, you should be fine.

College is very different from high school. Nobody is going to make you go to classes. Just beware skipping class is wasting your own money, so only do it if you absolutely have to. Leaving friends and family is difficult but you will adjust. My family called me 2-3 times per week and I still texted my friends from home occasionally. The independence you get being in college is one of the best parts. I no longer had my parents telling me when to eat, shower, do laundry, and other chores. I often shower at like 1am when I finish my school work and that wouldn’t have flied if I tried it at home. I eat whenever I feel like it and not during designated time slots. You will have to do your own laundry, so start learning while you have the time. I have let mine go for a while before and eventually the mountain of dirty laundry overflows. It really isn’t that much work and is easy.

Another thing you will learn to do is manage your money. Try not to spend money unless you absolutely need something. I often would just go to the dining hall because it was cheap and was prepaid. I went to Target probably three times during the summer to pay for groceries for the dorm room. Just avoid going downtown to eat every night or going to the mall a lot.

My last piece of advice for you is just to make the most of your time on campus. Enjoy the campus being semi-empty. You will make good habits, meet new people, and learn your way around campus. Have a blast!

Enjoy my video explaining how my summer at PSU went!

Also available on youtube.com

Click Here

Netflix is set to debut in Japan on September 2^nd. This will be the first time that Netflix is attempting to launch in an Asian country. They plan to include numerous Japanese TV shows and movies. Some of these are “Marco Polo” and “Daredevil”. Netflix is trying to debut in as many countries as possible. By the end of 2016, Netflix plans to have debuted/launched in 200 countries. Japan has a few other streaming companies already that will try to compete with Netflix. This is important because once it has become a hit in Japan, I think many other Asian countries will also want to have Netflix in their country.

Netflix was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in California. The company has really taken off in the past couple of years and has a total subscriber count of 65 million! Netflix is worth over 7 billion dollars and has plans of launching in as many countries as possible. I know that personally, I use and love Netflix. It has introduced me to TV shows like Lost, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead. The thing that Netflix does is it lets you skip the commercials. This is really convenient and helpful. Netflix is very dangerous in the fact that it does become very addicting. I would end up binge watching  TV shows and it took up a lot of time. I wouldn’t be able to just stop watching a series. The fact that the next episodes are all online just waiting for you to watch them makes you just want to continue watching.

My first Netflix addiction was Lost. It is about a plane crashing on an Island and how the survivors banded together and lived without resources or the ability to contact for help. This show originally aired in 2004 and lasted until 2010. It is known as one of the greatest TV shows of all time. My next show to move on to once I finished Lost was Breaking Bad. The plot in this TV show is a high school teacher gets lung cancer and has to sell meth to be able to support his family and pay for his treatments. This series starts off a little slow, but I guarantee it picks up. This show started in 2008 and lasted until 2013. The series finale episode is unbelievably good. (Not spoiling it). Lastly, I watched the TV show Walking Dead. This is quite the contrast from the first two shows I watched because this is very violent and potentially upsetting. This is for an older audience and shows the world once zombies have taken over. It shows a group of people out in the wild trying to survive by any means necessary. There is a lot of killing in this show but it is just as addicting and invigorating as the other shows. The first episode was launched in 2010, and the show is still going. Season 6 starts on October 11^th which will be a great birthday present. (My birthday is October 10^th) Netflix is good to watch movies, but I would definitely recommend watching TV shows. The ones I listed were all hits and I loved binge watching them. I think Netflix spreading to Japan and worldwide is a great thing!

Link: http://variety.com/2015/digital/asia/netflix-japan-launch-date-1201556207/