My First College Finals

Finals Week(end) is approaching very quickly, and I have quite a lot to do before them. My only motivation is knowing that I can head back home for Winter Break when finals are over. I have 4 cumulative finals, those being Biology, Chemistry, Biology Lab, and French. I also have a presentation and essay final in Inquiry Studies. At this point I am most worried about my Biology final and my IS final. Either way, I need to stop complaining about my finals and start studying! I have always been better than average on finals, because I have a great memory when it comes to school work. The best thing I can do to prepare for the dreaded finals week is to study a lot, and just go with the flow.

The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire

Along with MANY other people, over Thanksgiving break I was able to see Catching Fire in theatres. I viewed the first Hunger Games movie in theatres when it came out, and I really enjoyed it. I have not read the books but I've heard that they are very good too. Since I liked the first movie so well, I decided to go with my cousin to the 2nd one, and it was GREAT! They were both so good it is impossible to decide which one I liked better! If I ever have any free time, which is highly unlikely, I hope to read at least one of the books. The third and final movie, "The Mocking Jay" will most likely be release around Thanksgiving of 2014. I have no doubt in my mind that I will see that movie opening night as well!

Thanksgiving

Yesterday my mom's side of my family celebrated Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is usually held at my aunt Leanne's house, but this year it was held at our house. Luckily I missed out on all of the cleaning since I worked at my job at home from 9:30am- 4pm. We celebrated a 5pm, so I just got off work and got ready for Thanksgiving. We ate the usual Thanksgiving meal, consisting of ham, turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, baked beans, sweet potatoes, and an assortment of pies. After we ate, several of us went to play ping pong in my basement. After ping pong became boring, we played the game Scattegories, which is VERY fun! Everyone departed around 10 and then I went to bed. It was a very fun day, but unfortunately my grandparents were in Branson, Missouri with my great aunt and uncle, so they were not able to be there.

My Cousin's Surprise Party

Last Saturday, my extended family celebrated my cousin Colin's birthday, which was on November 21st. This was a surprise birthday party, and my aunt notified me that I should not tell him when I come back. The reason for this is because if he didn't know when I came home, it would be even more of a surprise. Luckily, I was able to keep it a secret but it was quite difficult, because the weekend before break, he came and stayed with me at Wartburg. Anyway, after our entire family surprised him in his own house, we had Casey's pizza, cake, and ice cream. My family enjoys playing board games, so we did that for a few hours before it was time to wrap it up and head back home. Overall, it was a good birthday party and I had a blast!

Intramural Basketball Game

Intramural basketball has officially started and our first game was last Tuesday. We have decided that we are just playing for fun, because I do not believe that there will be much winning. Unfortunately, there are only 3 people on  our 6 person team that played basketball in high school, and that is fairly obvious. Hopefully we will not get beat by an exponential amount of points every game, and I hope that it continues to be fun. In our first game we lost by quite a bit and it was not pretty! My goal is to try and stay competitive with more teams, and make this experience fun no matter what the outcome!

This Weekend

This week has felt like eternity and I just want it to end. The reason for this is because this weekend my cousin, Colin, is coming to stay the weekend with me at Wartburg! I am so excited and have been waiting quite some time for him to come and visit me. I have no plans arranged, but I believe we may go to the movie Thor 2 at the movie theatre in Cedar Falls, and go out to eat with a bunch of my Wartburg friends. Hopefully I can get all of my homework for the weekend done before he arrives on Friday, but the chances of that are slim. Either way I am looking forward to an exciting and eventful weekend!

Intermural Basketball

After participating in intermural sand volleyball, I decided that I wanted to continue my intermural career with intermural basketball. I enjoyed intermural sand volleyball so much, and my teammates became very close friends. Luckily, I have some friends that also enjoy basketball so we decided to start a team! Our first game is next Tuesday night at 10-11 pm. I do not like that this game is so late, but I am just excited that I am able to play basketball. On Tuesday I also have to work from 2:30pm-6:30pm, and find time for homework and studying for my biology test. Anyways, I am pumped that I get to play competitive basketball on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays for the next month, and I am even happier that I get to do that with my friends!

First Scholarship Day

Today marks the first Scholarship day working in Special Event Dining. We were required to serve 750 students and parents in a half hour time period. Luckily, we recruited Mensa workers to help out or there would have been no way we could have done it. Scholarship days are talked up to be very stressful and painful to work, but honestly it was quite fun! The people I work with are fun to be around and always make work interesting. Also, when there are big serves that require Mensa workers, I feel special because all of the Mensa workers come to me with questions, and ask what I want them to do (I promise I am not power hungry :) ). Other than being extremely tired, and not wanting to do homework, my first scholarship day with Special Events was fun and entertaining!

Zombie 5K Run

On Tuesday, October 29th, I went to a 5K (3 mile) run. This 5K run was not a normal run, there were zombies around every corner! This event was organized by Wartburg College Dance Marathon and was free to Wartburg students. If a nonstudent signed up for the event the cost was $20, and half of all proceeds went towards Dance Marathon. I attended this run with 5 of my friends (all from Wartburg). Luckily, haunted trail attractions do not phase me so I had a blast watching my friends get scared to death! The zombies did a great job, and my heart did race a few times. Other than a mildly rolled ankle I had a great time, and would definitely participate again. Also, participating benefits a great cause in dance marathon, so that is just another reason why I should run again next year!

Henrietta Lacks Convocation

Today I attended a convocation about our Readings in Common book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." This convocation was required by IS class, and took place during the IS class time slot. The first speaker at this assembly was a Wartburg College alumnus (I couldn't remember her name, something like Dr. Bacchus), whom now has her Doctorate in gynecological oncology, and is employed at the Mayo Clinic is Rochester, Minnesota. She presented a PowerPoint on Henrietta Lacks and her cervical cancer, in which she often compared to a normal cell. She went into great depth on the experiences she has had with HeLa cells throughout her studies. After she was finished with her PowerPoint, we were introduced to a panel of Wartburg faculty, whom also have different insights on the HeLa cell controversy. The members of the panel were Dr. Keith McClung, Dr. Jennifer McBride, and I can not remember the last members name. Dr. McClung is a professor of Biology at Wartburg and has used HeLa cells many times in his research. Dr. McBride holds the chair of Ethics on the Wartburg College Board of Regents. The last member of the panel was the previous Ethics chair holder in the Wartburg College Board of Regents (I believe, she didn't talk loud enough). This convocation was quite interesting, and I learned many things about Henrietta Lacks, HeLa cells, and cancer in general.

Fall Break

Fall break is a time that I was looking forward to for quite some time. I could not wait to see my family back home. Also, I was not required to work at my job at home so my entire break was free! As soon as I got home I went out to eat with my brother, Mike, and my cousin, Colin. Luckily, since I was the "visitor" we ate at my favorite restaurant, HuHot. After HuHot I decided to buy a new Xbox 360 game, so I bought Grand Theft Auto 5. The remainder of my break consisted of sleeping, eating, and Xbox 360. On Saturday I became bored and decided to plan a family game night at my aunt's house. My fall break ended on a great note, as my crazy (but awesome) family had an out of control board game night, and I loved every minute of it!

Study Abroad

On October 23rd for IS class I attended two meetings on study abroad and service trips. These meetings that I enjoyed the most was the study abroad meeting. This meeting briefly showed the process a student would take if they wanted to study abroad. The meeting also showed a cost breakdown, and scholarship options for studying abroad. There are two types of studying that a student can do. They can go abroad for an entire semester or just go abroad for May term. Prior to this meeting, I was interested in studying abroad during May term in my four years at Wartburg. This meeting just reinforced my interest, and made it even stronger. Since this meeting was quite short, due to time restraints, I learned many things but still have several questions. If I were to study abroad this May term, (May term of my freshman year) I would either study in Senegal or New Zealand, because I have always wanted to travel to these places.

My First Outfly Experience!

Outfly started off as a disappointment, because I was extremely tired this morning and was woken by Outfly screamers. Then I remembered that I had to work from 8am-10am, so breakfast was not an option. After work, I met some friends in their room and went with them to enjoy the blow-up obstacle course, bouncy house and the gladiator arena (I made up that name). Sadly, these blow-up items were able to entertain us for a of couple hours. After we were tired of jumping, we decided to go The W and go swimming until 7:30. From 7:30- 10pm was designated homework time, since my homework load has been weighing me down recently. Throughout the entire day, we were looking towards searching for the student-body President, Zach Sommers. The goal was to use the four clues that were announced throughout the day, to find Zach after 10pm in his tricky hiding place. One of the clues was directly related to Special Events dining employees, which happens to be the area where I am employed! With this edge, the next 2 clues lead me to believe that Zach was hiding in the Eisenach Room, which is a room near the Hagemann Castle Room that few people know about. Working in Special Events the creepy ballrooms are my specialty! As soon as the clock struck 10, we raced (without the 4th clue) to the Eisenach Room, where we found two girls investigating from the doorway, but they found nothing in this tiny room. I was still convinced that Zach was in that room, so when the two girls were out of sight I ran into the room and began searching with my friend Carly. We first searched the cupboards and found nothing. Carly next checked under the table that was in the room, and screamed! Zach Sommers was under the only table in the small Eisenach Room, and we found him! The reward for finding him was a $100 gift card to Wal-Mart. Despite the slow start to my first Outfly experience, it ended was excitement and happiness! Outfly was a success.

The Wait for Outfly

The wait for Wartburg's notorious holiday, Outfly, has been a terrible experience. Everyday I have to make the tough decision of whether or not to do all of my homework. The reason for this is because if Outfly is the next day, my homework will not be due! Unfortunately, no one but the student-body president, Zach Sommers, knows what day Outfly is scheduled for (sometimes I don't even think he knows). I have given up on trying to decide what day Outfly will land on, and have decided to do my homework everyday regardless. My upper-classmen friends have tried convincing me that Outfly is non-existent and is just a joke that they play on freshman. Luckily, I can see through their lies and am not quite as unintelligent as they believe! Anyway, whatever day Outfly lands on (hopefully tomorrow) I will be a very happy camper, but will probably spend most of Outfly doing homework (Seriously though, if Outfly is not tomorrow I will probably drop out! :) ). A day off classes will be great no matter how I spend it!

The Walking Dead

The premiere of the 4th season of the TV show The Walking Dead aired tonight, and I had been awaiting this premiere for months! The thrill and storyline along, make this show my favorite. Although I was extremely excited to watch it today, it was a bittersweet experience. At home, I would go to my cousin's house every Sunday night to watch The Walking Dead with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. This is the first time that I watched it while not being at their house, and it made me miss home. Good thing fall break is in a week or so! On a happier note, the episode was great and I can't wait for next Sunday!

First College Homecoming

My first college homecoming has come and passed in the blink of an eye. I was able to attend Kastle Kapers, and the homecoming pep assembly. I was unable to attend the Renaissance Fair and the remaining homecoming festivities, due to my work schedule. I really do enjoy my on-campus job, working in special events, but whenever there is a large-scale event, such as homecoming, I am required to work. If my co-workers and my bosses were not so easy going and awesome, I probably would be much more upset. Luckily, I attended the majority of the homecoming events that I had planned to, so my first college homecoming went as planned. Now that homecoming is over, fall break is next on my calendar!

The Color Run

On Saturday, October 19, I plan to attend The Color Run hosted by Clarksville High School. I have previously attended a color run in Kansas City, Missouri, and had a blast! I went on a road trip to Kansas City with a group of  friends to participate in this event. The Color Run is a  is a 5K, but no rewards are given for who finishes first. Therefore, the run allows a variety of people to be involved, including kids, adults, people in wheelchairs, and so forth. Color zones are located at every mile point during the race, where the runners get sprayed and splattered with the colors blue, orange, purple, and red. The goals of The Color Run consist of promoting healthiness, happiness, individuality, and giving back. Participating in The Color Run gives me a great feeling of satisfaction, and I'm looking forward to doing it again in a couple weeks!

Sand Volleyball Intermural

Tonight marked the first night of sand volleyball intermural games. I have been patiently awaiting for this to start. I had a tough time being productive today because I was so excited for tonight. The games started at 7, so when I arrived 3 out of the 4 teams were there (including us), so we were the team that was granted a BYE. I was excited because our record is already 1-0 without even playing a game, but I was also upset because I was so excited to play my first game. Instead of leaving, our team just stayed for awhile playing 3 vs. 3 with each other. We did okay, but it was probably good that we didn't have a game because our skills were sub-par. Now I have to hold my excitement in until Thursday at 7 for our first actual game. I can't wait!

First Four Weeks of College

Whenever I have nothing to blog about I resort to telling you about college so far. College has been a great experience, and I love everything about Wartburg! The only thing that I have disliked is the fact that I feel so disconnected with the outside world, but that is just an effect of college (I should probably watch the news more, as well). I come home to find out that there has been many big subjects in the news that I have not even heard about! Anyways, time to change subjects. Last week was crazy for 1st year Biology majors! I had a Bio 151 test, a Chem 113 test, and that lovely IS paper. I'm surprised that I was able to complete all of my assignments on time! I believe that knowing that I was going home on Friday pushed me to get everything done quickly and efficiently. Overall, the first four weeks have been great, and I would not trade them for anything! I enjoy being pushed to my maximum potential, and college is doing a fantastic job at that! :/

Last Weekend

The weekend of September 27, 2013 was the first weekend that I was able to visit home. I left immediately after classes on Friday and was in Riverside, IA around 6:30. As soon as I arrived I went to my high school's football game against our rivals, Lone Tree High School. My cousin starts varsity so I was able to watch him play. We lost, mainly because our football team is sub-par, but I sat with my aunt and uncle, who asked many questions about college. After the football game I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with my brother and one of his friends, which concluded my Friday night. Saturday morning I went to my high school's cross country meet, which was a blast! I was so excited to see my coach, and my old teammates! Although they didn't do as well as planned, it was still fun. Saturday night I picked up a shift at my job at home. It was a concert night, and the band Foreigner (I assume that you know of them) was playing at the casino I work at. After work I went home and immediately fell asleep. Sunday morning I left to head back to good ol' Wartburg!

Writing Blogs

What to write a blog about? This is a question many new bloggers (including myself) ask themselves before writing. Due to the fact that my mind was spacey, I had no ideas! I decided to ask my roommate Andrew (not Andrew Jordan), and he said that I should write a blog about writing blogs. So here it goes. People who read blogs do not want to read a novel--make it short and sweet. When blogging, the thing you needs to worry less about is grammar. Only worry about grammar when you have a English professor grading your blogs. Luckily I have a science professor reading mine, so grammar is not an issue...right? Next, try to be comical, but not overly funny. Unless you are blogging about Wartburg squirrels, EVERYTHING they do is funny! Lastly, don't overthink your blog post, write it nonchalantly as ideas pop into your head. Blogs seem to be more exciting and amusing when they are written this way. That concludes my blog about writing blogs. Tune in next week for two more blogs, both just as random as this one! (Warning: These tips will not improve your blogging ability. In fact, they may make it worse...)

Biology Lab 9/19/2013

Last Thursday in biology lab, my lab group took a field trip to the Cedar River to investigate what kind of macro invertebrates were present. We used a tool called a mini-surber sampler to catch the macro invertebrates. This tool works very similar to a regular net, but you have to make sure that the bottom of the mini-surber is touching the bottom of the river, and then you disturb the rocks and soil immediately in front of the mini-surber. This causes the macro invertebrates to be pushed with the current of the water, directly into the netting of the mini-surber. Next, we put any macro invertebrates that we caught into a one gallon tub that was filled halfway. After rounding up a diverse group of macro invertebrates, we used forceps or a plastic dropper to move the invertebrates from the tub to an ice try for identification. Lastly, we identified the organism using a small poster with many different macro invertebrates on it, and recorded what we found. I really enjoyed this lab, because we did something outside of the classroom, and saw some pretty sweet looking bugs!

First Two Weeks of College

Transitioning into college was a rough, but interesting ride. Now that I am all settled in, I am ready to take in the whole college experience. The first two weeks of college have come and gone (faster than expected). I have met so many new people and reminisced with some old faces. So far my classes are going well and I oddly really enjoy French class. But, who doesn't enjoy the language of love (or whatever French is called). I am also debating whether or not I want to spend may term out of the country. I was told about a trip to a small country in Africa during may term through Wartburg, and am very interested. Although I cannot remember the name of the country, I have always wanted to travel to Africa with Doctor's Without Borders, and help out the African people. This trip would be a stepping stone toward that goal. I believe I have got off subject, and rambled enough for one blog. The moral of the story is that my first two weeks of college have been very interesting, and I have learned many new things!

What is the value of an educated life?

An educated life can mean the difference between an individual reaching his/her goals and passions. An educated life means abundant knowledge and usually higher chances of success. Personally, education is a necessity, and those with an education should be overjoyed with the opportunities they were given. Many people are unable to obtain an education due to social standing and limited resources. An educated life also helps many get their dream job, while for others, lack of education is the single most important roadblock standing in front of their dreams.  We are all here for a reason, and I hope that working the drive through window at McDonald's is not our reason for existence. An educated life helps many find their reasons, whether it be a doctor, teacher, etc., most professions require an educated life. An education is not something to take for granted, and is a key factor in many individual's callings.