#17: Tide to Our Pride

November 19, 2012:

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.)

#16: Falling Into Place

November 12, 2012:

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...

Until next time,

Peace Loma

#MyLife@Loma

#15: Coming Full Circle

November 5, 2012:

WEEK ELEVEN? Seriously?

So the home stretch begins. Research papers are being researched (or not...). Thanksgiving plans are being made. And it's dark at 5 p.m. now! <<< Winter is coming.

Last week was pretty eventful.

First college Halloween here at Loma. You can take the the kid to college, but you can't make the kid grow up. Can you say Trick-or-treating? Tons of candy? Blistered feet? It's okay if you can't, after that night I couldn't either. Jokes aside, I'm getting too old for this...

Princesses, toddlers in tiaras, "nothing"s, and slutty whatevers abounded that night. Nothing unusual. Except that it was all done on a college budget! Wooohooo! ;)

Then the next day was the first PREVIEW DAYS of the year! I, of course, volunteered my lovely roommate to help set up for the event, and we hosted a preview student that Thursday night. Hey, she got a pretty awesome shirt out of it okay? Geeze. HUNGER GAMES was the featured "movie at the Greek" that night, and it was okay. The movie is awesome and great and all, but they could have AT LEAST turned the Greek light off so we could see 80% of the stinkin' movie! Anyways, we kept it real with all of the random outbursts of laughter, commentary, and the occasional volunteer tribute. After all of that, I ran back to go meet my preview student. Mind you I could have toned it down and not been so hyper, but I wasn't about to lie to these girls. Dorm life is loud.

Our student's name was Haley and she was a junior. We spent the night answering her questions, talking about Point Loma, and filling her with In-N-Out at 2 a.m. Oh, and only giving her 5 hours of sleep. You know, just preparing her for college life. All in all this first preview weekend of Freshman year was pretty cool. Remembering my last preview day, which was exactly a year ago, really made me realize just how far I have come in the past year.

Well I should cut this post short, because I have a mile high stack of homework calling my name. Or maybe it's someone else's name...

Until next time Loma,

Emily

#MyLife@Loma

#14: It's All Downhill From Here

October 28, 2012:

So it's the end to another Sunday night. Homework is frantically being finished, coffee is brewing, and phone or Skype calls to loved ones back home are being made. I can honestly say that this past weekend has been one of my favorites by far here at Loma. Here's why...

1) It's nice to take a weekend off. Just relax. Get the homework out of the way and forget about it. When you're in that mindset of feeling the need to be busy doing things EVERY weekend because " I work hard and study all week so I deserve to have fun", it's good just to take a weekend off to do nothing but rest. By that I mean go with the flow. Don't plan things, just let them happen. Like going Halloween costume shopping with good friends. Who said getting excited over Halloween was just for kids ;)

2) Experiencing "first"s with people is a great feeling! Especially when that person is your roommate :) Whether it be Chick-Fil-A, timeout, or froyo, go do it! Making new friends along the way is also a bonus. You won't be sorry.

3)FAMILY WEEKEND! Okay so I didn't have my family here this weekend, but I'm still happy for it. It meant FREAKING GREAT CAF FOOD! Sure Loma is just sucking up to the parents, but hey, we get great food out of it! Can't wait until preview days start, more sucking up!

4)Lomapalooza. Sounds like a carnival, actually is a pretty chill outdoor BBQ with great music. Meg & Bryan headlined it, but there were a few other great opening bands too! Sitting out on the lawn, eating with friends, and enjoying great music on a perfect evening is definitely my definition of Point Loma Nazerene University. Eat your heart out UC's!

5) Watching your friends play intramural dodge ball. Aaaaah intramurals...I love those ninjas :)

and finally

6) Walking around campus on a Sunday afternoon. By yourself. Quietly. Just do it.

And that was my relaxing weekend in a nutshell. This week wasn't so bad. And you KNOW everyone is counting down the three weeks until THANKSGIVING BREAK! YAY!

And with that I will leave you with this. Courtesy of my freshman core values class :)

Peace Loma!

-Emily

#MyLife@Loma

P.s. Did you watch that tsunami? LAME.

#13: Home Is Whenever I'm with You

October 22, 2012:

Two months behind us!

Midterms. Done.

Hundreds of trees were killed to provide the massive amounts of notebooks, pencils, and flashcards used in this one short week of exams. Index cards and a cup of something filled with caffeine were a common sight in practically everyone's hands. The library got a lot of love and use too!

SO glad that that's over with.

Because after all of those wretched tests, we got fall break! No school on Friday equaled me hopping on a bus Thursday afternoon headed for my home. Now you may remember that my first trip back home in September didn't end up being everything that I had hoped for. This time was exactly the opposite. Maybe it was the longer stay? Or maybe homesickness had finally set in? Either way I felt that my weekend was perfect. My weekend was packed full of scary movies, down time with the fam bam, full nights of sleep, 24 hour access to food (take that caf!), Sunday service at my home church, shopping, and a trip to Disneyland with my little sister. Oh did I forget to mention homework? Good, because I did none. I truly felt that this weekend flew by. So much so that I "missed" my bus back home and caught a different one 4 hours later. Oops! A big thank you to my good friend and travel partner, Michael, for keeping me calm during those bus rides. I may be getting used to public transportation, but like the age old saying states "you can put the girl in the bus, but you can't take the nervousness out of the girl."

Through this weekend I've not only learned how much I value my education and the experiences that come with it, but that I value my family and time spent with them just as much. Going home and seeing life go on like it always has is kind of hard. Then I see the people who ended up staying home for college or not even going to college at all and I'm grateful that I'm going to the school of my dreams, even though it may take it's "academic excellence" a tad too seriously. I'm also grateful that I'm apart of that "middle ground" of being just far enough away that I can't go back every weekend, but I'm not too far that my only time to go home would be Thanksgiving or winter break. I'm now realizing that this will be good for a comfortable level of independence.

Also, a big shout out to you out of state kids. I don't know how you do it. Kudos!

A huge plus of coming home after a weekend like that is seeing all of your dearly missed hall mates and your adorable roommate in a room FULL OF SNACKS! Yes, I think life is good when you have sugar and caffeine on your side. Plus I got to bring my winter wardrobe back with me :) Thank God for spacebags!!!

All in all I hope that I've had enough rest to get me through this upcoming week. So far it's been a manic Monday, and to top it off I'm off to see my writing professor about my paper that she literally wrote DELETE all over. Bummed? Upset? Me? Nahh..

Later Loma,
Em

#MyLife@Loma

#12: That's Debatable

October 13, 2012:

Another week in the books!

I feel like I say that every time. Life around here has gotten into such a routine, that it’s practically a countdown. And for me, it’s a countdown to next weekend. Fall break.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love Loma. It’s the actual realization that, behind the entire lure of college life and being independent, there is a lot of stinkin’ work involved! Case in point: this weekend, the weekend before midterms. For the record, THEY’RE MY FRIST MIDTERMS EVER. So this should be interesting…

Speaking of a lot of work and the weekend let me tell you about mine so far.

I’ve spent it at a debate tournament.

Now, I hope you don’t take what I’m about to rant about the wrong way. For the record: 1. I LOVE Loma’s debate team. All of them. It’s been a pleasure getting to know them. 2.Debate takes WORK. Don’t ever count debate out as a sport, because it definitely works your brain out like one.

With that said, here it goes.

In the beginning of the year when I got my class assignments, I was honestly excited that I would be ABLE to debate for a grade. I love arguing, so this would be my thing, right?

WRONG.

I’ve been in the class for 7 weeks now and have learned a little bit more about how this “game” of debate is played. Note the word, “little”. Debate really is a game, but it’s a game that I don’t really think I was meant to play.

And to top it all off, this class REQUIRES two completed tournaments for necessary points for your grade.

Yay. Outside classroom hours. Boo.

Since I haven’t been able to attend previous one day tournaments, (hey, I had XC meets geeze.) I needed to attend an overnight tournament in Irvine. Can you say “goodbye weekend”? But like any good student, I toughened up and decided that I was going to try my darndest to be ready for my first ever tournament. Was I prepared? Not in the slightest.

Now this experience could take PAGES to explain, but I’ll save the time and shorten it up for ya’ll ….

-Debate/ debate tournaments are not like any other “tournament” that you’ve ever been to. NOTHING like them!

-“debaters” are a special kind of people. No, not that kind of special! Speed writing, critical thinking, speed thinking in general, and eloquent (or way too fast!) speaking are all normal things to them.

-They have sweaters!

-Other teams can be vicious. Someone should tell them that whole bit about sticks and stones breaking bones…

-I knew NOTHING and just when I thought that I had finally started climbing up the ladder of success, I was still on the ground.

-I may not have liked debating, but I sure as heck got fired up at the judge’s scores that were just handed to me! Robbed I tell you…

All in all, we debated all day Friday, had a GREAT dinner, slept in a super fancy Hilton, some debated/did their speeches all day today(while the rest of us just waited around ALL DAY), had ANOTHER great dinner, and now are finally going home.

All of these travel meets and tournaments are really getting to me. Really.

Finally I would like to close with some words of wisdom that I have acquired throughout this crazy week…

Take every opportunity to hang out with someone new.

It may be going to PBC for a break from the caf with a hallmate who you never really see, or befriending the girl who sits behind you in writing class, who just happens to be on the debate team AND was homeschooled (yes! There are more of us! Homeschoolers unite!).

You never know what you may find out about them. Plus, if you feel like your life is just a big routine, it never hurts to shake things up a bit.

Well, I’m almost back to Loma so I’ll end now.

Keep it classy Loma.

-Emily

#MyLife@Loma

P.S. First days of rain on campus this week!!!

 

#11: Dawn of the Dead and Sleep Deprived

 October 8, 2012:

Week seven begins...
I meant to blog about last week LAST WEEK....but alas I caught a nasty cold. Me and probably a good chunk of the student body.

Welcome to fall flu season and community guys!

Anywho, last week was my first ever glimpse into a real life zombie apocalypse! (haha real life...zombie...funny.) Yellow cation tape and orange bands were a common sight around. Also nerf guns and cardboard swords in the caf cubbies became a norm. I for one was going to play....I swear I was going to play! I even had my bands, but when I saw how intense it got and how people literally lost sleep and became paranoid from playing.

Crazy college kids...

And then it all came down to storming the Greek on Friday! Five p.m. zombies and human survivors alike flooded to the Greek ampitheatre to one final face-off. By the end of it there were about 15 humans who officially "survived" the apocalypse.

Then on Saturday, the final event was an "Acapocalypse" acapella concert here on campus at the Crill auditorium. I was so stoked because
1. I'm super into acapella right now. Like Pitch Perfect? Saw that. Glee warblers? Loved them.
2. One of my best friends from my home town (a FRESHMAN mind you!) made the school group "Pointless". So proud of that kid. He's the only freshman ginger in the group might I add ;)

It was great. The songs were FANTASTIC! "Home" and "She Will Be Loved" made me cry. Pointless KILLED it. Key Of Sea (our newest ALL GIRL group) made their debut. Shout out to my friend Sophia! Great job girl :]

AND THE BEAT BOXING COMPETITION. Who knew all of those sounds could be made with JUST you mouth?!? Mind. Blown.

Yes, I really was sick this weekend. Yes, acapella concerts, zombie apocalypse fights, midnight scooter rides, random trips to the movies, and kayaking trips are my medicine. With a school like mine, "carpe diem" is a way of life. All day, everyday.

Well, I better wrap this post up. Gotta get to an ASB meeting....

Peace and Love Loma,

Em
#MyLife@Loma

P.s. here are quite a few visual aids....and some (crappy) video. Sorry about that. But please do enjoy the lovely commentary on the Zombie/Human showdown video done by my crazy cool and super funny hall mate, Kaili Kinoshita!
And another thank you to my blessing of a roomate, Marissa Loera, for all of the funny "human" photos;) I love all 4 ft. 9 in. of her!