FALL BREAK!!!

It's crazy how fast the first half of the semester has gone by but even though it hasn't felt like I've been here very long, I was still ready for a much needed break. When I'm here I become so stressed out and forget that there is more to life than studying and getting good grades. That's why I look forward to going home so much. It's somewhere that I can go to just get away from all of this. Granted I love college and the people I have surrounded myself with but it 's a lot easier to relax and think about other things other than school when I am not in this atmosphere so the thought of fall break got me super excited. The minute my last class of the day got done on Wednesday, I hustled over to my car which I had already packed ahead of time and took off. Time at home over break was just what I needed. I got to see my family and other friends/coaches that I hadn't talked to in quite awhile. The time spent with my family  was probably my favorite though. I got to go shopping with my mom, carve pumpkins, and eat amazing home cooked meals with my family. As much as I looked forward to going home and spending time with my family, I did end up getting a little bored and was ready to come back to Wartburg by Sunday so I'd have things to do and people to talk to whenever I felt like it.

Work Study

When applying for financial aide, it determines whether or not you deserve assistance in the form of work study. As it turns out I qualified and my track coach, Coach Newsom, told me he would help me apply for a good job on campus. His idea of the perfect job was at the pool in the W since I am a certified lifeguard. I would agree with him that this job isn't difficult to any extent. All I do is sit and watch the pool, making sure no one drowns. Wrong! There is a lot more involved with this job than I knew at the beginning. The hours I work aren't very flexible. I work every Tuesday night from 6:15 to 8:15 which isn't bad except for the fact that I have track practice until 6:00 every day and sometimes it goes later so I have to go straight from practice to work. Also, we have to rotate weekend shifts. I understand this because it isn't fair to have the same people working the weekends every time but some times conflicts come up and you can't work. However, this is a big problem becaue it is really hard to get other employees to switch you times or have them work for you. No one is willing to help anyone else out even if you did them the favor previously. Lastly, being a lifeguard at the W demands putting aside time every month for inservices. Granted the inservices aren't too terribly long and they are only once a month but it has become repetitive and I don't believe any other jobs on campus require this. I know that this is the worst job there is but sometimes I wonder if it is all worth it. I work two times a week at the most and get payed minimum wage. At times I think about what it would be like if I hadn't decided to take a work study job. There are so many questions I ask myself like; How much more time would I have, is it helping pay off my tuition that much, is it even worth it, and so much. I guess for now I'll just stick it out and next year hopefully I feel like I am able to handle a more advanced job that maybe isn't on campus.

Dealing with Stress

With college there comes a lot of stress. A whole lot more than I have ever been used to and I'm not going to lie it wears you down, causes you to be more emotional than usual, and takes away from the fun of college. Everyone says that college shouldn't revolve around studying and homework, that students should make time for fun but this first semester I really don't feel like I have time for any fun. My classes require a lot of time and work and I just don't feel like I have time for anything else if I want to do. The sad thing is that even though I have been working my hardest and trying to study as much as possible it still doesn't always turn out the way I want it too. I could study for hours upon hours and still do bad on a test. It's hard to adjust to diffferent teaching styles especially in a class where the teachers switch every chapter or section. I am also involved in a sport and have an on-campus job that adds to my stress. It takes away more of my time which forces me to use my extra free time for homework. I can't wait until I get the teaching system down and understand how to use my time wisely and know what information to study for sure. I look at the upperclassmen and wonder how long it took them to become comfortable with the college life and how they deal with their stress because they always seem like they are relaxed and laid back. It's not fair!!! :) Hopefully I get this down soon.

Outfly Is Not A Rumor

So after the last couple weeks, a lot of freshman were starting to believe that outfly was a complete joke. It was just a huge prank put on by the whole school to get freshman excited about one day where all of our classes would be cancelled and we would be able to screw around all day. However, as of today these rumors have been put to rest (not that I ever believed that outfly was a hoax). Today I was woken up at 6:00 am by creapy music declaring it outfly and telling us to wakey wakey. At first I thought that it was just a group of kids that thought it would be funny to make it seem like it was outfly to get us to walk out to the bell in the freezing cold when it actually wasn't outfly. The reason I thought it was a fake was because I had always been told that people would come running down each hallway of the dorms with their underwear over their pants, banging on doors, and yelling, "It's OUTFLY!!!". I learned that I just needed to be patient. It wasn't more than 20 minutes later that it sounded like a herd of elephants running down my floor screaming that it indeed was outfly. The day was filled with many exciting activities. I went out to the bell to see them actually declare the day, went to breakfast, came back to the room and slept for a long amount of time :), and then when I woke up the fun began. A group of girls and I went to lunch which was delicious. Afterwards we went to the bookstore and played minute to win it which was super easy. I won and recieved 30% off a Wartburg item. Then we thought it would be fun to continue the tradition that most students follow on Outfly and we got piercings. I didn't do anything too crazy. I got my thirds pierced. We also made our way to the Wash House which is a salon uptown and we all got a pink extention put into our hair. The money went to the Breast Cancer Foundation so it was for a good cause. In the end Outfly was a lot of fun although it definitely would have been better if it had been warmer. Can't wait for it to happen again next year!

HOMECOMING!!!

This past weekend was Wartburg's homecoming. Since this was my first college homecoming experience I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know how much the students would get into it, if they would decorate, what the parade would be like, etc. I assumed that it wouldn't be like my high school homecoming where each class decorated a window uptown, a hallway in our school, and their own float for the parade. In a way it kind of was. Students could pick up window kits, get creative, and decorate their windows with all different kinds of beat simpson sayings and cartoons. Then Friday night, there was the Kastle Kappers which was a talent show put on by the students. Some of the acts were amazing. At the end of the talent show, the homecoming king and queen were crowned then everyone walked to the gym from neuman's auditorium for the pep rally. At the pep rally there were a few different volunteer games and they announced who won the best window design. Saturday was full of activities as well. Being apart of the track team, we had to wake up early to set up and work the little kids track meet that we put on as a fundraiser. This was a lot of fun because we got to interact with the kids, keep them excited, and having fun. After the meet was over, I went to the Renaissance Fair for awhile. There were many booths set up selling all kinds of knick knacks and treats. I tried the chemistry clubs liquid nitrogen ice cream and surprisingly it was pretty good. My family always used to make homemade ice cream and thats what it tasted like to an extent. The track team also had a booth at the fair selling old clothing. I had to work the second shift at this and realized that I could make a pretty good salesperson :). After I was done working my shift, it was time to go to the football game. Our football team was doing really good going into the 4th quarter until they fell apart. The game ended up going into overtime and Wartburg lost by one point. Simpson it turned out blocked our field goal attempt classifying them the winners of the game. Kind of a bummer for homecoming but it still was a fun weekend full of many events.

Thoughts of a new major already

So currently I am majoring in Biology. I wanted to get my degree in Biology along with athletic training and then go onto Physical Therapy school. I have always been into sports and like staying physically fit so I thought that physical therapy along with some athletic training on the side would be really fun and interesting. I was soo excited about majoring in biology at first because I loved the sciences and I still do. I just am not sure if I love biology. I'm more of an Anatomy and Physiology person but anyways the reason that I'm not completely one hundred percent sure about biology is because of the way it is taught. I did fairly well on the first test but this second exam is over SIX chapters. That's alot in the first place but my professor has been flying through it. We are already almost done with the last chapter and the test isn't for another week and a half. He doesn't post his powerpoints before class so you can't write down the notes ahead of time and during class he'll leave the slide up for about two seconds then switch to the next one. I barely get three words written down. Plus he hasn't explained any of the content very well. I've read the chapters ahead of time before class but it still doesn't help much. I know that I am not the only feeling this way because I have talked to other students in my biology class and they agree with me too. People have also tried asking him to slow down but he just knows the information so well that it is hard for him to pace himself. Also there is this very intimidating lab exam coming up that all the upper classmen have made it sound like it is impossible to do well on so I'm super nervous for that. This week though, I found out about the fitness management major. It has all the requirements I need to qualify for Physical Therapy school. It contains athletic training classes, nutrtition classes, and some of the biology and anatomy classes but it sounds way more interesting to me. I love nutrition, athletic training, and anatomy. Plus I won't be set back at all if I switch because the fitness management major requires me to take the biology and chemistry classes I am taking this semester and the ones I am taking next semester. That is also another positive along with next year I wouldn't have to take organic chemistry! Another humongous positive about switching. So that is my feelings on it but I still need to run the idea by my parents and see what they think.

The Way Education Works

This week for my IS class we were supposed to read a piece written by Barry Schwartz. He talked about how much harder people will work at certain things if they know that there is a reward or some kind of feedback in the end. Some teachers have tried doing experiments on this exact idea by telling their students on the very first day of class that they will get a B in the class no matter what. They could be handing in A+ work but would not recieve that grade. They didn't have to show up to class at all if they didn't want to and they would still obtain the B grade. This experiment showed that people are more obsessed with their "grade" than what they are actually learning and obtaining. Another study was conducted by telling young students that they would recieve a prize if they read the most books out of their class so of course the children started reading non-stop. However, when one of the mothers recieved a compliment about how much her child was reading, she responded by explaining how her daughter has now started picking out the shortest books possible with the largest print and she most likely isn't retaining a thing she is reading because all she is concerned about is completing this book to move onto the next so she can win the prize. I feel that this analogy is sadly correct. I enjoy learning. Yes there are days that I dread going to class but overall I like acquiring new information. I can't deny though that all through my years of schooling I have been more focused on recieving the "good grade". My grades and grade point average meant alot to me especially in high school when I was involved in sports and starting to apply to colleges and for scholarships. They, along with my parents and teachers, put sooo much emphasis on getting good grades. In a way I think that kids are almost brainwashed into thinking that having a good grade reflects on how much you have learned. Although this may be true in some cases, I also believe that it is ficticious. In my anatomy classes in high school, we basically took notes (which were definitions of certain body parts and processes that occurred throughout the body) along with a few random point outs over certain systems of the human body. I rocked at this class. I was good at memorizing definitions. I would study the night before the test, go to school the next day, ace the test, and then I would forget the information until the semester test came. Then I would rememorize the vocabulary and ace the semester. Granted I didn't forget all of the information. A good majority of it stuck but my point is alot of students just memorize what they need to for the time being and forget it when it doesn't seem important to them. This isn't the way education should be portrayed. 

Out Fly Rumors

Wartburg has this awesome day (almost like a holiday) where all classes for that day are cancelled. The student body president and President for the whole school pick a date and keep it a secret until the day finally comes. On this day, a group of people will go around banging on our doors at the wee hours of the morning announcing the day as Outfly. Now for the day to actually be declared Outfly at least two-thirds of the student body has to show up at the bell outside the W at 6:00 in the morning. At first that doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun but then you realize that you have the rest of the day to do whatever you want which could include sleeping. A supposed tradition of the students is to go get piercings and tattoos (not required but quite common). Anyways Outfly tends to fall in October before Homecoming or so I'm told. Well this week just happens to be the week before Homecoming so starting Sunday everyone was trying to predict what day it was going to be. First it was Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, and now that Thursday is the last day of this week it could possibly be they for sure think it is then. I'm not going to lie, every morning this week that my alarm clock has woken me up instead of a knocking on my door and a yelling of Outfly I have been disappointed. :) I don't know why I get so bummed about it though because honestly I don't know what I would do on Outfly. I don't want any new piercings and I definitely do not want a tattoo (I don't have a high enough pain tolerance). I most likely would get some sleep and get my homework done. Also since I am part of the track team we have a work out to do but we can do it on our own time whenever we want so that would be a definite bonus. Another huge plus for having it on Thursday would be that it's my birthday so it'd be nice to have a day off to not have to worry about school sooo much. Well I'm going to head to bed. Who knows, I might have to get up tomorrow morning at 6!

Chelsey:)

Relaxing Weekend

Since I have been at college, I have felt like I have constantly been doing something. I always have homework and then on the weekends when I finally have time to sit and relax my friends always have something that they want to do. I'm not one who likes being a party pooper so of course I go along. This weekend however basically everyone on my floor went home besides me. I stayed here at Wartburg and got so much done. I sat in my room and studied, caught up on my homework (even worked ahead), and had quite a bit of time to relax. I watched a couple movies, cleaned my room, and went to church. I was so pumped to have all this time to myself. I could do whatever I wanted and didn't have to feel rushed to be somewhere else. As much as I was loving this weekend, by Sunday afternoon I was starting to get bored. I wanted my friends to come back, for the hallway to be loud again, and for there to actually be a reason for me to leave my room. As nice as relaxing in the room was for most of the weekend, I was ready to get out. Relaxation I think is something every person has to take advantage of every once in awhile. I don't see how some people can hole up in their rooms all year long though. I enjoy having time to myself every once in awhile but I think I have had enough relaxation time to myself for awhile. Plus I don't think I will be given the opportunity for it anytime soon with a couple tests coming up along with some papers due. It's going to be a hectic week. Well I better get to work. Until next time....

Chelsey:)