It has almost been a week since I moved to college. This blog is started with the intent of giving my friends and family a glimpse of college life. I will begin the post by thoroughly explaining what happened Tuesday and then offering some of the highlights from the rest of my week.
Tuesday:
This past Tuesday (8/19) marked one of the most significant changes in my life thus far. Early Tuesday morning; my mom, dad, and I, headed out into the wee morning hours with our minivan packed full of necessary college stuff. Despite all my need packing, the car barely held my 2 over sized suitcases, 3 pillows, 2 large blankets, 5 plastic stack-able drawers, and other miscellaneous stuff it almost left zero room for me. According to my schedule we were supposed to check in between 9-10:30 a.m. With my dad's race car skills we arrived around 10:20. It should be noted that we did not break any speed limits, but rather that zero time was wasted during breaks, etc. We were on a mission. My initial impression was that we would arrive and check in and have access to my dorm by noon. However, that was not the case. Upon arrival I received a seven point checklist. For this checklist you had to register with all the individual stations and receive an official signature before you could move on. By the time my checklist was completed it had taken a total of 2 hours. Around 1:15 p.m. I was finally able to move my *junk* in. Next, my parents and I headed off to Jersey Mike's, a sub restaurant. After lunch I returned to my dorm to begin the daunting task of unpacking. During those couple hours I met my other 3 roommates even more stuff arrived. At 5 p.m., dinner was scheduled in the gym with parents. For dinner we had; corn on the cob, BBQ pork sandwiches, baked beans, and apple crisp. After all the evening speakers had spoken it was around 9 before I returned back to my dorm. Despite all the packing that remained, I got ready for bed and fell asleep.
Wednesday:
When I awoke the next morning it was pitch black, so I assumed that it must be 5 or 6 a.m.. Unfortunately, my roommates alarm never went off, and by that time it was 8:30. Breakfast was from 7-8 and mandatory chapel began at 8. Ooops. What a fabulous way to start your first day of orientation. :( In the scramble to get ready and get to our first session at 9, we didn't get anything to eat until 12. :(
The final closing ceremony was at 5:30 p.m. Our R.A.s (resident assistants) did 4 skits, one of which had me laughing hard. After that they had the parents pray over their children. I'm not usually a crybaby except that night. I don't like crying in front of everybody, so I do math in my head and it usually can keep me from crying. The good thing was that it worked for the most part. After such a stressful night, one would think that students would be dismissed to bed, but instead we had chapel at 9:15. At 9:15, all the students gathered outside, and had a worship service with several contemporary Christian songs and at least 3 passages read from the Bible. In between the songs, the students were encouraged to pray out loud if they felt led by the Spirit. Unfortunately, tears began to come to me during the latter half of the worship. One thing I love about here, is that the student body is so compassionate and filled with the love of God. One of the students came and personally prayed for me. It was so sweet. The worship was great except that it lasted until 10:30-45, and when you are already tired and stressed it doesn't help to be out so late.
Thursday:
We almost missed breakfast again. Our schedule said that breakfast was until 8:30. The dining hall doors were locked. So we asked someone from the kitchen and she said that it was closed but we explained and showed her our schedule as evidence. It took about 10 minutes, but she returned and admitted us. Once again we were crunched for time and only had 5-10 minutes for breakfast.
Some of the other crazy things happening are, my student ID functions for everything except unlocking my dorm. :(
Before coming to school, I had requested one of the desks in our room. When I got to school and saw the cramped quarters, I switched my desk for one of the cubicles that my roommate had. The cubicles are in a separate room between dorm wings. After she moved the stuff out of her cubicle I was not notified. So another student claimed the desk. There are only a limited amount of cubicles in the room, so I was out a desk in the room and in the study room. :( I talked to my R.A. and was told that I could study in the library or the lounge. While that is not a bad option, I really wanted my own desk!
Later that evening, as part of getting to know the incoming Freshmen our RA and our brother wing went out to get frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog. It seems odd that a frozen yogurt place is named after a frog, but it actually stands for "Fully Reliant On God." The layout of the store is odd, because it is all self-serve. You pick the flavor of yogurt and fill your container and then go to the bar and top it with any toppings. I topped mine with; blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, whipped topping, and Reese's Pieces. It was so good!
Friday:
Friday morning we had to take 2 assessment tests. One was a mini SAT and the other tested your ability to navigate the library and related research skills. After lunch we returned for 2 more tests. The first one was an essay and the other was a multiple choice about U.S. history, philosophy, general history, etc. The question on the essay asked whether or not technology was too dominant in our lives. While normally I would agree with such a quote, this time I decided I wanted to turn the tables. So I disagreed with the quote. As I was writing my essay I began to agree more and more with the opposing side. I said that technology is not invading our lives because; it has simplified our lives especially when it comes to communication, it has helped doctors and response teams to save many lives, and lastly it is not invasive because technology is not knocking at our doors, but rather we are knocking at its doors. Anything can become invasive, it all depends on whether or not you let it. The moral of my essay was, it is your responsibility on whether or not technology invades your life. I scored high on my essay so I was pleased. The other tests I have not received my scores.
Saturday:
Normally, I am not someone who enjoys sleeping in, but after all the exhausting and boring orientation, I was adored sleeping until 9. I would have liked to sleep more, but couldn't so I decided to begin some of my pre-class homework. So I began reading Genesis 1-11. In an hour I read 7 chapters. After I finished that. we didn't have anything to do until 1, which was a 2 hour session on how to survive the academics. After that I came back to the dorm and crashed until 5:30. At 6:30 that evening there was a Freshmen talent show. I had signed up to audition on Friday, but when I got there it said to email for a different audition time. Later that evening I emailed them. I didn't see the email until next morning. They wanted to know what act I wanted to perform. After I told them that I didn't hear anything about an audition. So my roommate and I went to dinner and then the talent show. When we arrived at the show I was discovered and asked if I would still perform. I said sure even though I hadn't practiced at all that day. There was only 10 acts out of 90 freshmen. I was the closing act of the show and performed "Final Journey" by Emily Bear. On the last page, there is a passage where the music goes from the key of G to B. For some odd reason I messed up the key change, but it was not even noticeable. :) After the talent show there was an ice cream social. I had a delicious strawberry ice cream. :) Then later that evening one of my roommates and I went to Walmart to look for more storage for our crammed dorm. We found some great drawers and shelves and got back around 10:30. Saturday was probably the best day of the whole week.
Sunday:
I slept in again until 9. It felt really good. This was my first Sunday church hunting. I decided on a local, non-denominational church to attend with one of my roommates. We were planning to drive, but my roommates's brother took the car and we had decided to walk. As we were about to leave campus the bus showed up and took me and my roommate and 8 other students to church. This church is probably within 3 miles of campus. I had wanted to walk to church today because I have literally done nothing in the way of physical exercise all week. College has been okay so far, but I cannot stand all of this sitting around. I don't mind studying, but I need to move with a purpose! I can't wait to find a local barn where I can ride.
I finally took some pictures of my dorm and desk. I am pleased to announce that after living in here for 6 days we have most everything all organized and put away. Yay! :) Here is our dorm:
Upon entering our room, the closets are on the left side and each of us have our first initial on the front. Unfortunately, the closets are really small, but they are workable.
The college doesn't allow full refrigerators, but we found a way around that with two mini fridges. :)
Upon entering, this is the mat below my top bunk bed. :) Gotta love DD!
The top of my bed is covered in Duck Dynasty sheets! Oh yah!
I even have a poster of the Duck Dynasty crew right above my bed.
We just bought this shelf last night, and it is wonderful! Behind the black shelf are 2 desks back to back, neither of which are mine, but that's okay because I love my desk more.
Behind the desks is our living room. As you can probably guess the camo chair is mine. It is the most comfortable thing in the world!
This is Sara, one of my lovely roommates. Sara has to cute soft pink and black polks dots bed and Kristen has the one below with beautiful pink flowers on it. It is funny because their beds are pink and more pink while my other roommate loves blue just like me.
Here is my desk until they install more cubes, but considering the view who would want a cube? I have my horsey calender and my pictures of my horse at center. With all the rumors of insane homework anything that calms me down is good. :)
The hallways of our dorm wings are all decorated and here is one of the great quotes right outside our room.
Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, texts and emails. They all mean so much. Keep them coming please! :)
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