Here is the link to my first semester video!
Month: October 2018
That’s a Wrap: Final Blog Post
Well, this semester has definitely been something I will remember. I had a lot of fun and also learned about myself, and got a feel as to how the next four years are going to be for me! The other day I had a meeting with my advisor about scheduling for next semester. After the meeting I finally understood why everyone told me the first semester is very crucial as to how the rest of college is going to play out. The first semester is where you meet your friends, maybe friends for life. It is where you make your first memories of football games, ice cream dates, and mental breakdowns from your first all nighter. Most importantly it is what sets you up for the next semester, year and years to come. The classes matter, the grades matter. Luckily I think I did alright with all of these things. I have made some really cool friends who I will be living with next year. I have been participating in clubs, and school events while balancing my school work. This coming semester I will be finishing some required classes, and my advisor told me that I am on track to be able to declare my major early!
However, it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. There have been nights that I have cried myself to sleep over missing family and friends. I have had to stay up way later than I should due to bad time management. I have had to learn how to deal with FOMO, and how to evaluate if going out with friends was really the best option for me. I even skipped a few days of classes. The semester isn’t over either, I am sure I will have a few more struggles to over come before I can call my first semester a success. I mean I still have to deal with finals (ew).
I am really grateful for the support I have gotten from my professors, advisors, friends and family. They have been there for me through it all so far. I also am weirdly going to miss being able to have an outlet to discuss my week freely. Maybe I will continue with the blogging when I can. My classes this semester have really taught me a lot about myself and given me time for self reflection. I hope I don’t loose that as a continue my time here at Penn State. Well here is to a semester of ups and downs and a lot of learning!
Week Nine of Freshmen Year
This past weekend I was able to go home for the first time! If you remember I was feeling a little homesick in last weeks blog so, this trip home was highly anticipated. This was a very big weekend for me because, our diamond ( the middle of our town) was completely re done. If you aren’t aware I grew up in a Hallmark movie town that is just “perfect”. The construction was finished and it honestly looks incredible. After soaking in the glory of my cute little town the rest of the weekend festivities were a go. (Here is my little town!)
First thing first, food. This is the best time of year to get food in Ligonier because. of the variety of food vendors that line the streets. My favorite stand is the Gyro’s. After I ate about three of those my next target was a pulled chicken sandwich. Which was absolutely fantastic. For desert I alternate between chocolate covered strawberries and cheesecake with homemade raspberry sauce. All in all a very well rounded meal for three days.
Secondly, this weekend was about seeing friends and family! Basically all my friends came home for this festive weekend. We ran the town as if noting had changed. Also, because we were all home we had a typical bonfire party at my friend Micheal’s home, which was awesome! This was all Friday night after wee attended the football game. Where, my best friend in high school broke a PA state recored! Saturday was a family day and I spent it shopping with my aunt and mom and loved every second of it.
This last weekend was a hard one to return to school from. Sunday night upon my return I received some hard news about someone that I really care about. It set the tone for the week to come. This past week included a lot of mental breakdowns and journaling. I am still dealing and deciding how to navigate and handle the current situation even thought time is dwindling. Today especially is extra difficult.
Over the summer one of my friends passed away unexpectedly, and today is his birthday. To celebrate I will be drinking a big glass of chocolate milk, as well as iced tea , and eating an entire bag of peach rings. These were my friend Joey’s favorite treats and they remind me of him every time I enjoy them. I know he is in a better place now but it is still difficult to understand. Hopefully remembering Joey will help me enjoy my upcoming week just like he would have wanted me to.
Office Hours
This semester I am taking a course called Global International Studies 101 (GLIS). This is a course all about understanding the interconnectedness of people on a world wide level. So far in the course we have discussed broad subjects such as colonialism, migrants, and human rights. One of the deeper topics we dove into in the past weeks is prostitution, and whether or not it is something that should be legalized in the USA. One requirement of this specific course is a group debate project. The class is split up into groups of 5 to have an organized pro and con discussion on a topic that we discuss in class. This prostitution question was my topic of debate and unfortunately I was only given a group of 4. This meant that instead of each person doing a specific part of the debate (intro, point one, point two, point three, and closing) one person (me) would be covering two areas. I was in charge of the introduction and the closing.
With the upcoming debate I was feeling a little nervous because of the group project aspect. I am fairly comfortable talking in front of large groups of people however, my teammates did not seem to feel the same way. My Professor, Henry Morello, luckily has office hours directly after our class so it is pretty easy to attend. I had met with him once already in the beginning of the semester to discuss a possible minor in GLIS. I figured that since I had my two sections finished for the debate I would stop by his office and have him it look it over in order to make sure I was doing all I could for the group. I also had a few questions on the individual and group grading aspects.
After class I just walked with him to his office and made some small talk. When we arrived he had me read my two sections out loud as if I were presenting to this class. He gave me pointers on a few of my facts and pointed out that my teammates points (which I address in the intro) needed to be altered. He also reassured me that my grade would not suffer if one of my team members was a little shaky. It was a very helpful visit and I was able to provide my team with the information he had given me. I felt very comfortable and really like Professor Morello a lot. If I do end up pursuing a minor in GLIS he will be a great contact.
Our debate went very well, we ended up winning the class vote! I took all of his suggestions and my teammates did as well. After the debate Professor Morello usually goes through each team member and critics them however, when he got to me he didn’t have anything bad to say. He complimented my public speaking ability an my overall statement. I think it really did help going to see him and it was something I overall enjoyed!
FYE Student Choice
COM Lecture with Hunter and Mary-Kate!
Week 8 of Freshman Year
This week was pretty boring and a little stressful. This past weekend I went home with my friends I have made on my floor. This was kind of an odd concept. It was the first time I left campus and didn’t return to my home town. It was also interesting because I haven’t really known these people for too long I was going to have a sleepover at their house. The thing that was definitely the weirdest though, was the fact that I didn’t have to ask or even tell my mom or dad I was doing this. We went Friday night and it was so fun, his parents were so kind and their house had an incredible view. Saturday afternoon we came home and my friend Gianna and I had a very relaxing rest of the weekend. I needed to prepare a lot due to the fact I would be traveling home that coming Thursday.
A lot of people have been asking me why I am going home the weekend of home coming? Well the answer is every year my home town has a fall festival the weekend of October 12th to honor a battle that was fought in our town during the French and Indian War. This festival includes vender booths, food trucks, renacments and everyone ever coming home to catch up. The high school football game’s attendance is higher than homecoming and always falls on senior night. AKA it is the biggest weekend of the year for our little town and I could not miss the opportunity to see my friends and family.
So, because I would be leaving Thursday night I would be skipping my first class on Friday. That brought a lot of stress. I had to get all my work done for the coming weekend. I decided to do my future self a favor and even got ahead in a few of my classes to lessen the post stress from my busy weekend to come. This past week was filled with early gym visits, and late study sessions in order to accomplish all of my goals. I even set up a new time schedule that would allow me to finish all my work with enough time to eat, sleep and work out. I even fit in an ice cream break!
Overall although this past week was packed full it gave me reassurance that I can actually handle a lot more than I thought. It encouraged me to even try to stay ahead in my classes in order to have more success. I cannot wait to see what this weekend brings and will definitely be writing about it next week!
Here is a picture of the Awesome view of my friend Hunter’s back deck! 
Learning Center
Today I went to the learning center as a part of required assignments for this class. I decided to go for drop in hours rather than making an appointment because my last class ends around 3:20 and I really had nothing else better to do. Oh, and my last class happened to be in Bouke (very convenient right?). So, after class I went to the learning center building and told the receptionist that I was there for drop in hours concerning writing. She pointed me in the correct direction and I signed my name on the check in bored. After that I sat down or tried to but my tutor was already calling my name before I could. I was impressed by the wait time because there was none. My tutors name was Marissa and she was very friendly and talkative which was nice and eliminated any awkwardness that could have come up. I decided to have her assist me with on of my previous blog posts for this class because none of my other classes require writing of an essay. (Except for Spanish but we aren’t allowed to get help on our Escritoras). We went through the blog post together. She had me read it out loud and suggested that I do this with any writing assignment that I have because its easier to find mistakes in grammar or word. choice. After we corrected the basic grammar mistakes we went back and went through the post for continuity and flow. She helped re-write sentences that made the entire post sound better and transition easier. Overall my experience with this tutor was wonderful she helped me in a timely manner however she didn’t do it for me. She sort of held my hand in a way that showed me I can do this on my own. I definitely think I will go back to the Learning Center because of how easy it was to get assistance and how beneficial it was overall. I also liked at the end of the session when I was asked to fill out a survey because it shows how the center cares about the individual experience of each student. They truly do want us to succeed in all that we do. I think the Learning Center is a great tool that our university provides for us in order to reach our full potential and be great students.
Week 7 of Freshman Year
This week started off a little rough, and by a little rough I mean very rough. I guess I will start by addressing the great loss our entire community faced on Saturday. Although I wouldn’t trade my first white out game experience for the world I wish the outcome was a little more favorable for PSU. However, a major win for me from this weekend is that my dad came to the game! So, I got to tailgate with him and his friends and of course because it is the beginning of Fall my mom sent up four loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread! YUM! My all time favorite fall treat. Also my friends got to meet my dad and they loved him and I loved that because he is my bestie. After the weekend however, my week had a slow start Monday and Tuesday I was feeling pretty lethargic and didn’t get a lot done. I mean other then the fact that I advanced in a season of Pretty Little Liars but I don’t think that would be considered productive. Wednesday however I woke up feeling good. My first class on Wednesday is at 10:10 however, I woke up at 7! I did a quick in dorm workout, cleaned my room, did laundry and even finished some homework due Friday! After classes I came back to my hall grabbed a blanket and laid in the sun outside while doing some reading for a few of my classes. I had actually gotten ahead and was feeling very good about the rest of the week. The only thing I was feeling nervous for today (Thursday) is a debate I have next week in my GLIS 100 class. I really have no problem public speaking but the debate is a team project and I am worried that my teammates might not care as much about their grades as I do. Our last team meeting went well but I am still a little skeptical. However I guess we will just see what happens and hope for the best! Also this weekend I am going to Altoona with some of my friends (they live there) for Friday night and I am very excited. the rest of the weekend includes lots of hot tea and scary movies. Next weekend I get to go home for our fall festival and I am very very excited! I have a feeling this next week is going to be a good one! (my friends and I at the game!)
