It is already day 2 of finals week, or as it is better
known, hell week. Just kidding. What good Christian kid would say that? Not I
that is for sure…
I don’t know about you, but the past week has seemed strange
to me.
The last week of classes has been full of last minute
projects, final papers, and constantly checking eclass for an updated grade
(don’t even deny it). I got to end my week with one last chapel of Freshman
year. This chapel was kinda weird in itself because there were all of 10 people
there. Okay I’m just being dramatic, but it was still weird to see the back half of all of the sections roped off so that people would be forced to sit
closer to the front. And it was a free scan.
That makes more
sense.
Okay so I admit that I studied all of 40 flash cards the
entire weekend, and was out experiencing San Diego like it was the last time
that I would be able to. Because it WAS my last weekend here….until September.
Okay okay lame excuse, but according to Facebook I wasn’t the only one trying
to pretend like finals were a myth.
Which they aren’t.
Finals. Suck. No. Matter.
Who. You. Are.
Why must teachers cram so much of your grade into one long, mind numbing, packet of papers and call it a final. Why? I will definitely feel like I made it out of the Hunger Games after my last final on Thursday...
I find it funny how the entire look of the school changes
during finals week. I can see that everyone already broke out the uggs and
comfy sweats, and I’ve even the occasional person in the dressier than normal “celebratory”
outfit. Congrats Loma, you officially look like most other college students on
a daily basis.
According to my lovely study partner, I should probably get
back to studying for my death sentence final tomorrow morning.
Get some rest, remember to exercise, and stop stress eating
Point Loma.
Six days until Easter break! Is it sad that I am already stoked for this break even thought it feels like we just came back from Spring break? Oh wells, it's almost summer. I'll blame that.
So tonight is the first ever masquerade here at Loma. The tickets have been sold out, time after time, and the plans for the big night have been finalized. What am I wearing to the big formal dance you may ask?
I'm not going. With all of the whiplash from the ticket sales I decided to plan the next best thing for my Friday night, anti-prom. Didn't do it in high school, might as well start it in college right?
Anyways,
During this time of frantic fancy dress prep, extravagant dance plans, and just plain school craziness I've been thinking a lot of just how much I am blessed.
I do Wednesday night outreach every week, but this week was different. This week I truly felt what is was to count your blessings. While walking around the streets of downtown San Diego with our sack lunches, I frequently caught myself worrying about dances, and having the right clothes, and especially my phone (curse you snap chat!). My "aha" moment happened when I was sitting on the sidewalk talking to one of the homeless men with a couple of my friends from the group. During this fairly lengthy conversation we talked politics, family history, past experiences, and even family pets (he honestly had the sweetest pit bull named Brutus!) all the while people were walking by us laughing, chatting with their friends, and talking on their cell phones, not even paying attention to what was happening on the sidewalk in front of them. At one point in the conversation I looked up at the billboard above us which ironically was an ad for a cell phone. It was at that point that I realized that everything that I was preoccupied with at that moment didn't matter as much as the attention that I wanted to give this man who had worked so hard in his life, only to be left with practically nothing.
Other things that have been stealing my attention this week are tests and grades. Okay, I'm not saying that I should quit paying so much attention to them because that's false. I just have realized that the OCD perfectionist little girl in me always takes so much offense at a lower than average grade or a harder to comprehend class. While I'm devoting so much energy to being negative is when I fail to look outside and remember the paradise that I am fortunate to afford and live in.
Who knows why God has certain people in certain circumstances. I may not understand that question right now, but I hope that someday I will.
As for now, I'm going to refocus my attention and keep on trying at this little thing called college.
"“The deep truth is that our human suffering need not be an obstacle to the joy and peace we so desire, but can become, instead, the means to it. The great secret of the spiritual life, the life of the Beloved Sons and Daughters of God, is that everything we live, be it gladness or sadness, joy or pain, health or illness, can all be a part of the journey toward the full realization of our humanity." -Henri Nouwen I'm also going to get ready to get chocolate wasted next weekend. Stay classy Sealions, Em #MyLife@Loma
Spring break is over, school is back in full swing, and the
fog has rolled in. Thanks for that welcome Point Loma.
I don’t know about you, but the closer the breaks get to summer,
the harder it is for me to come back. Don’t get me wrong, I still love this
college life and all, but I don’t know how to describe this feeling.
Today was especially hard. Maybe it was just the crazy
fog/sun/more fog weather. Maybe it’s because of all of the exams due this week.
Maybe it’s because it’s Tuesday. Who knows…
Anywho, I guess that’s all I feel like blogging about today.
I guess I’m just trying to see if there are more of us non-Seniors who have
senioritis upon coming back to school.
For all of those out there, remember these:
Call home.
You will be alright.
Seven more weeks.
Philippians 4:13- I
can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Go outside. You go to
school in the paradise of San Diego.
Also! First FORMAL school dance! Go, dress up, use the
excuse to wear a mask (not saying that you need one…Not saying that).
For the first time, I’m the last one in my hall to leave.
Granted, I should have been leaving Thursday night, but I love Loma too much to
leave so early.
That’s a joke.
I’m actually waiting on a friend who is going home with me.
He had a rugby game this morning, so alas I am still here. Oh and a little
shameless plug for the Loma rugby team. Short shorts, beat downs, and boys. Go
watch a game.
Well it’s that time of year again SPRING BREAK! Midterms are
conquered (unless, like me, they were moved to the week that we come back) and
awesome travel plans are underway. Not to mention the weather! Hello soCal
Summer! To all of you out of state kids who are going home….at least you’ll be
home right?
And when everyone gets back WE WILL HAVE JAMBA JUICE! Yes!
And make sure you download that crazy little app called Tapingo. Looks dumb, is
actually simple to use, and saves you time and money. Solid college investment
characteristics right there. And a lot of campus dorm renovations are underway.
Well at least there are in my dorm. Either way, I think that everyone, students
and faculty alike, are ready for a nice week off. Oh and thank you Point Loma
again for scheduling it right before everyone else and their dog is out for
break.
Whatevs. We get Easter.
Anywho, have a safe break everyone! And as Point Loma would
want you to remember, be safe! Don’t drink and drive! (Just pretend you’re
still at school ;) )
Well, I’m off to go pay one last visit to Adal’s and catch a
rugby game…
Okay so I'm already lagging this semester... Bite me.
I've actually not been really busy with homework yet, it's just been kind of slow here at Loma. Everyone has their friend groups situated, everyone SHOULD have picked out all of their classes, most everyone changed their meal plans (uh yes!), and everyone knows the drill here by now: study, chapel, study, eat, chapel, sleep, repeat. Seriously.
This week/weekend has brought a few surprises to campus...
1) MLK weekend! Sun! Literally EVERYONE and their dog went to the beach over the weekend. Who could blame them when the temp was in the 70s all weekend! Haters gonna hate, but we knew what we were doing when we chose this school. I hope everyone had a memorable holiday whether they were here on campus, or somewhere else. I for one had a very relaxing weekend!....Too bad it makes it that much harder to do any type of homework. Including RIGHT NOW! Four words. Eclass. is. a. joke. So frustrated!
2) Encuentro. Go Point Loma for increasing diversity! I feel like Nease was the only dorm hosting them.... It was cool...and different. If you live on a floor in Nease that had students, you know EXACTLY what I mean. But hey, the caf had a pretty sick taco bar this weekend...
3) And finally, COED DORMS! Yaaay. I can hear all of the parents gasps and comments of distaste now. Let me just say this:
Congratulations freshman class of 2016! You got the first ever school dance (rave) AND next year you will have been the last freshman class to have known Hendricks to be the only coed dorm. Good luck class of 2017, Nazerene colleges as you know it have now changed. Not much will change for me next year. My options are all girl dorms or Young. Yeah right. AND my dreams of living in Klassen have officially been crushed. Point Loma Nazerene University, crushing dreams since 1902. Kidding....Kinda.
Well I'm done ranting for now. I hope that everyone is well here. Enjoy that sun while you can!!* cough cough* the rain is coming*
And just like that winter break was over, and spring semester has begun.
I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed my break. I am going to miss:
24 hour caf -AKA my fridge.
My own bed that doesn't remind me of a summer camp bunk bed.
My. Car.
No alarms needed. Ever.
Access to a gym that didn't frustrate me more than the workout itself.
MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS FROM HOME.
But, alas, all good things must come to an end. *tear*
On a brighter note... SECOND HALF OF FRESHMAN YEAR HAS BEGUN! New classes, new classmates, new material, and new chapel attendance to be filled! Come on, you know you're excited. Plus, all of your Loma family is here to catch up with. Now those are some people that I desperately missed over break.
Upon arrival back to my lovely home away from home, I've been met with a few new things:
New students? What?! Transfers, returners, NSOhmy!
The...caf? Cool setup, but I for one can't work those gosh darn soup pot container things.
The weather. Is freezing. Now you colder region dwellers don't get mad at me. I'm strictly speaking "sunny San Diego" sterotypes here.
Well, I'm off to finish my homework...
Home work on the first day? Lucky me!
That's right folks. In just 7 short days, we will all be officially done with FALL SEMESTER! That feeling of sitting in a class for the last time is pretty awesome. Okay well we will have to go back one last time to take a test, but that is just technicalities....
You may realize that I haven't posted in a while. I actually went back home again this past weekend to surprise my mommy for her birthday. If I had to throw out just a few words to describe my entire weekend it would be these: love, family, relaxing, stressful, productive, and vacation. But with that great extra time at home comes these words: sadness, laziness, and, if there was a word for it, so over school. Maybe it wasn't a good idea because I seem to have had so many last minute assignments thrown at me this past week. It wasn't all that bad because it gave me the opportunity to go out with some old and new friends to a 24 hour coffee shop named Lestat's. Besides the CRAPPY wifi connection, it was a very productive place to work. The first time experience was worth it in and of itself.
And now, it's time to enjoy all of the festivities that Loma has to offer. Dorm Christmas parties, karaoke night, and Christmas swing dancing are just some of what has been offered here this week, although I haven't attend many myself. I just spent the last 5 hours cooking probably the most ghetto birthday dinner with some of my greatest friends here at school. And by ghetto I mean that it was college adaptability at it's finest. We are talking steak lemon pepper pasta, buttermilk mashed potatoes, salad, and "garlic bread" made with cookie sheets as pot lids, container tops as cutting boards, and cutting boards as plates. And at the end we all held a lit candle so the birthday boy could blow them out. Oh and shared some ice cream. Yes, you could say that if they gave a final on "life", we would do very well.
Speaking of finals, WHY MUST ALL OF THE FACULTY AT POINT LOMA TRY TO SCARE US WITH FINALS!? I mean sure they are a longer test, but all of this talk about stress relief dogs, extended library hours, massive amounts of studying, and late nights is all a bit scary. WE WILL BE FINE! I mean heck! There aren't even classes, so we have 12 hours tops of test taking time in our entire week. We can do this!
Also a quick thing that I learned in my FCS 101 class this week... Treat Yourself Right
Set Goals
Eat Healthy
Be Active
Sleep
Get Involved
Prepare
Peaceful Place
Manage Time
Make Right Choices!
Just remember that in this upcoming crazy week.
Well, I should get to sleep now. Or at least do something productive...
I'll probably post one more time before the actual end of the semester. Oh freshman first semester...
Long time, no post. Who could blame me though! It's been a week full of breaks, relaxation, and homework catching up. Just kidding on that last one. On a serious note, the Thanksgiving break was awesome. I don't know about you, but the first long break of Freshman year has been the hardest for me. Being home for more than a weekend is awesome; therefore, going back to school after not being there for more than a weekend is the complete opposite of awesome.
Word.
Since there hasn't been much class activity, it has just been a lot of getting back into the swing of "college life". You know, like DECORATING FOR FREAKING CHRISTMAS! I don't know about the other dorms, but Nease has gone above and beyond my expectations. We are talking wreaths, decorated trees in all of the lounges, Christmas lights EVERYWHERE, and there is even a "days until break" countdown at the front door. Plus, all of the halls have done what they can to make their hallways festive. My hall just put up our decorations yesterday. Can you say tree scented hallway? (thank you Bath and Body wallflower!)
All in all, I think I speak for everyone when I say that, although it's been three months, these next three weeks can't go quickly enough. These finals are going to be great...
Yeah right!!
Anyway, at least there are a lot of festive activities to choose from from now until that dreaded week. (Uhm free food? Enough said.) Like :
-Holly Jolly Jive
-Roots of Giving
-Cider Celebration
-Handel’s Messiah
-Christmas Karaoke Musoffee
-Balboa Park’s December Nights
Go to them. Just go.
Well, I had better get to my interview. Campus tour guide. School spirit. Lots of talking. School pride. Oh. Yes. Plus, I need to get out of here. Here being my new favorite study spot. Where might you ask? Not telling, but here's a hint.
It starts with "R" and end with "room"... Well it used to anyway.
Well it's here! THANKSGIVING BREAK IS TOMORROW! Who's excited? EVERYONE.
Bags are being packed, driving arrangements are being finalized, and laundry bags are growing. Now, not everyone is going home for the holiday (thank you stingy Point Loma for the 3 days. Really.). Those not going home are getting creative and making their makeshift plans for Thanksgiving. Thanks to all of the wonderful professors here at Loma who are all opening up their homes for the holidays; they're great. I'm almost tempted to try that out sometime. Who knows, maybe I'll go to my lovely writing professors house, just to say that I survived. All you Evarcuties out there will understand the joke.
Speaking of writing, RESEARCH PAPER DONE BEEZIES! Most of you guys in Writing 110 understand this relief. Congratulations guys; it's all downhill from here! :)
Now I'll just recap the weekend for all of you who were or weren't there for our "Tide to Our Pride" homecoming extravaganza 2012.
Wednesday- Powderpuff. Hah. Haha. Cue nervous laughter for this one much? First off, I'm so grateful to have been a part of such a cool and fearless Fr/So team! Putting in all of those hours of practice and prep for it all to come down to a short 40 minute game is ridiculous. I hope that we can continue playing throughout the year! If you haven't gotten the message by now, my team was slaughtered. On the bright side we got tacos churros, and a WHOLE bunch of junk in the caf after! Yeah Point Loma, reward us with food. Oh and I could never forget the halftime performance. Definitely freaking HILARIOUS! Well done guys, well done. And I really dig the highlighter shorts. Shout-out to my good friend Drew, you were the best male-cheerleader out there ;)
Thursday- Concert band. Okay I heard so many good things about this! But alas I was not there. I was off gallivanting around the Mission Mall area waiting to see BREAKING DAWN PART 2! Thanks to the great line watching employees who wouldn't let us line up when we got there. Whatever. Experiences and whatnot. All in all it was worth it and my hall mates and I had a great time. Personally, I slept like a baby when I got back. So much so that I slept right through chapel. Whoa wait, did I say that? I mean.. duh I went to chapel. Yay, homecoming chapel...?
Friday- CORONATION and variety show! Two words. Revolving. Stage. Yes, be jelly. All the the homecoming court looked AMAZING in their formal wear, and the stage setting was super pretty too! The variety show itself didn't disappoint either. Point Loma has mucho talent (who really thinks that I know how to say talent in Spanish, I mean come on.) Chip and his brother's Emceeing was really funny and pretty cooligan. You don't get the reference? Shame on you for not catching on. Shout out to my lovely Hawaiian hall mate Kaili Kinoshita and my fellow fashion merch major Marissa Hernandez for performing! They were both AMAZING! It was a great school pride kind of night. And the night didn't end there for me. After all of that I went with a few friends ....downtown. To this place. With music. And dancing... Yeah it had dancing, sorry Point Loma. Late night take two much?
Saturday- WAS THE BIG HOMECOMING GAME! Green and gold for days on Saturday. The caf was decorated with school pride to the T. It was my first really school pride type of experience so I was a little shocked and how into it people got. Alumni and current students alike enjoyed all of the pregame festivities that the caf had to offer. It was actually really cool to see the wide array of ages represented. Once a sealion always a sea lion I guess. And a question to all of the people who thought it was cool to paint their whole faces, was it a fun time when you had to get all of that off? Thought so. First the women's team played and then the men. Let me just say that Point Loma isn't exactly a athletic based school. Good thing we are smart AND talented. Nice try guys, solid effort. Oh, and we can't forget halftime! Oh Loma cheerleaders... Quite possibly one of the coolest stunts that I've seen from them was lifting up the mascot Roary so that he could "swim" across the court. Very clever girls. I can say that it was all pretty entertaining. And being immersed in the green sea of students on the bleachers, yelling (sometimes unnecessarily...), booing with news papers (kudos to the older people who thought that they were for reading during the game), and pointing in unison was a pretty awesome experience. Even though they won in points, we definitely won in spirit (haha double meaning right there!).
So that was homecoming week(end) in a nutshell! Now, the posters/banners/decorations are gone, and everyone has put away their ridiculous green and gold. All is normal again.
And with that I am off to correct my final draft of this gosh darn paper.
A fond farewell to all of my pride (get it? Sea LIONS? Pride?). Okay I'm done now,
-Emily
#MyLife@Loma
(Photo creds to WIll McNeill Photography. Will is awesome by the way.)
Eight days, folks. Thanksgiving break! Speaking of breaks, I seem to have caught one in my crazy homework load. Granted, I crammed out a research paper and midterm in COM last week.
Oh, did I mention that I went to another debate this past weekend? Before I go ranting on about that, I won't. Because I have officially debated for THE LAST time! Fifty points? Mine.
Points, grades, test cramming sessions, they all seem to be adding up. Figuring out about GPAs, and then worrying like mad about those grades seem to be the trend lately. You know what? Honestly I'm just ready to have more than a three days of vacation. Thank you pilgrims! And God (a big one to you of course)!
It also seems to be that time of year when, coming down to the end of the first semester, that awkward "so...roomates? With me? Next year?" question is asked between first time roomies. My poor roommate struggled when asking me that question a couple of days ago. She actually thought I would say no! To quote my debate teacher (yeah seriously) "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Good luck with crossing those bridges when you come to them guys!
Well, HOMECOMING WEEK is upon us! It all kicks off with the annual fr/so vs. jr/sr POWDERPUFF game! Be there or be square! Girls playing flag football, boys cheer leading at halftime in highlighter track shorts, FREE BBQ, cotton candy, and ice cream? You've been warned. #player6 <<<<My number in case you didn't catch that. In all honesty, I probably won't even play all that much. I'm all for the experience, okay?
Thursday is the concert band concert. Friday is CORONATION! Get your votes in! A quick shout out to my good friend Ryan Lamonde for winning Homecoming Prince (?) in the Junior class.
So proud :') AND the variety show! Yeah, yeah my school is pretty talented. NBD.
Thursday night is the big TWILIGHT BREAKING DAWN PREMIERE!!! I'm so excited :) I know what you are thinking. She's one of those dumb vampire girls. Yes, yes I am. Haters gonna hate. You can go and play your zombie nerf war game. Oh yeah, I went there. And as fate would have it, my Friday classes were all canceled. Meant to be!
Saturday is the BIG GAME! Women's basketball followed by the Men's homecoming game! Tickets and spirit wear on sale in the caf Saturday afternoon :)
Well, I think that's enough information for one post. I'm going to go put on three more layers. Curse you Point Loma. So much for a beach weather winter...
