Starting off Right

Eight short months ago, I graduated from Boonville High School.  I was ecstatic to be out of high school and moving on into what I considered, ‘the real world’.  College was going to be a great time spent making new friends, hanging out with them, and having fun.  However, my only concern was not about my social life, I was also nervous about my classes and professors.  School work in college frightened me.  I was afraid that I was not going to have enough free time and that I would always be swamped with work.  My main concerns after graduation in May were, ‘How hard are my classes and professors going to be?’ and ‘Will I be able to get along with my roommates and make new friends?’

                My school related fears in college were tough courses and weird professors.  In high school, I worked hard for my good grades.  But, for the most part, none of my classes were too difficult and I usually pulled out an A, with the exception of Latin and AP Lit, though I got a B in both of those classes so I did not do too badly. I come from a small town, and both of my parents are teachers, so the teachers all knew me and I knew them.  It was easy to have relationships with the teachers because we already had somewhat of a history together.  I was never nervous to ask questions about grades or tests because they knew me and knew I was a good student.  However, in college, I did not know any of my professors and I was anxious to see how I would get along without having previous knowledge of each other.

                Once I got to college, I learned that most of my classes were not as difficult as I had expected and I just needed to work as hard as I did in high school.  Some of my courses are more challenging than others though.  A couple of courses I have learned require countless hours of doing homework and studying for tests, unlike my classes in high school.  Overall, my classes are not too difficult.  My nerves and anxieties have vanished since first coming here in August.  A few of the courses I even enjoy attending.    

As stated earlier, I knew all of my teachers in high school and their differences did not seem odd to me, but in college I had always heard some of the professors may be a little eccentric.  Who ever told me that was not kidding.  For the most part, I have no problems with any of my professors.  Granted, some of them are a little odd, but their oddities are nothing I cannot over look.  I established what I feel as a good student-teacher relationship over the course of the first half of the first semester.  I feel comfortable enough with all of my professors to be able to ask them questions after class, and sometimes even e-mail them.  I realized that I had previously worried over nothing and I am happy with most of my professors and am no longer skeptical.

                I have always had a group of friends that I usually hung around with in high school.  But, only a few of them were going to attend the University of Southern Indiana this fall, and one of my best friends that does go here does not live on campus.  I was scared that I was never going to see her, and then not be able to make any friends.  But, I think the root cause of my fear was something that had happen to one my friends from high school.  One of my best friends who is a year older than me headed to Indiana State last year and was miserable her first couple of weeks in Terre Haute.  She did not have a good roommate and struggled to make any friends and for awhile I thought she was going to come back home.  But, a couple of weeks into her year she made many new friends and hardly came home.    I constantly thought, ‘What if my roommates hate me?’, ‘What if I cannot make any new friends?’, and other ‘What if’s’ ran through my mind in early August before school started. 

My fears seem irrational to me now.  I have gained many friends over the past eight weeks and I think about how silly I was ever worrying about making friends.  I am absolutely in love with all of the friends I have made and I hardly go home anymore.  I was very fortunate to have been roomed with great girls.  We even hope to live together in the future.  I am also lucky that I have made friends with some of the girls on my floor.  I have even branched out and found new friends in the other dorms.  I have had the best time with all of my new friends and I laugh at myself know thinking about how silly I was being, thinking that I was not going to make any new friends.

Many people change once they enter college.  Usually, they change for the better.  I now realize that it is silly to worry over things in college, because no matter what, I will have to make the best of it.  College is one of the best times of a persons’ life, you just have to go out there and do what you do best.  I have worked hard on my schoolwork and I am succeeding in all of my classes.  I have made new best friends and hope to make many more.  I am grateful that my fears have been erased and I am happy to be starting a new chapter in my life.

Welcome to College

                Senior year of high school, graduation in May, starting college in the fall, these are all mile-stones in a young-adults life.  Four months seems like a long time to get everything ready for school, but in reality, you will never again have enough time to do anything.  Time is not your only problem in college, money is a major factor as well.  There are many tips and other ways to help save you some money.  Another great thing about college is new people.  In college you will have to learn to manage your time, your money, and your social life to have a great year, and hopefully three more wonderful years after.

                Time is always of the essence.  The first few days on campus it will seem like you have all the time in the world to do things.  Classes will not have started and sometimes you do not want to attend some of the functions the school is holding.  But, after orientation week, you will soon find yourself wandering where that time went and can you have it back.  Classes in college are vastly different than high school classes.  The first day or so you jump right into your topic, you do not do any ice-breakers or play games, in some classes you start on notes the first day.  Be prepared to have homework your first week of school, and the homework will continue in the weeks to come.  Managing time is a lot harder than anyone has told you, or you have ever even considered.  In college there is usually something going on around campus therefore it is easy to get distracted and wanting to go to the event instead of study or work on school work.  But, you will soon find that that was not the best decision when you enter class next time and realize you did not prepare yourself for the questions your professor fires at you.  You will learn eventually to prioritize your time and accomplish everything that needs to be accomplished once you get into your daily routine. 

                Money goes faster when you do not have your parents sitting next to you.  When you look and see that your wallet is empty, you will begin to learn to manage money.  If you are lucky, you can find an on-campus job, or off-campus, or be able to keep your job back home.  But, since you are a full-time student, the income does not flow as well as it does in the summer when you are not attending school, even if you do have a job.  What I have found works best for me is having cash and not relying on my debit card.  Studies have shown that people who use cash rather than debit or credit cards often save more.  I agree with the study.  When I see my cash flying out of my hand, it makes a greater impact than swiping my debit card through the machine.  I have also found it nice to check my statements on my ‘munch money’, which is printed on all of your receipts after a transaction.  I then have to think of how many more weeks I need to be able to get by on that kind of money and then I say, ‘I can only eat out on Fridays,’.  This helps me budget my money without ever really freaking out.  Another easy tip is to rent your textbooks.  My ‘Intro to Visual Arts’ will probably not be needed after this semester, so instead of buying it, I rented it from a local textbook renting store and saved around $100.  It was simple, easy, and saved me some extra cash.

                Last, but certainly not least, is managing your social life.  Starting college is an exciting, but also nerve racking time.  People do not know you in college, which can be good or bad depending on how you look at it.  Roommate assignments are also fun and scary.  The best thing to do is facebook them right away.  The sooner you make contact the better you will feel about rooming with them for a year.  I was lucky enough to live close to my roommate and we scheduled a time to meet and have lunch together to get to know each other.  Luckily, we stayed at Steak and Shake for three hours talking and getting to know each other.  It was a great way to introduce and I felt a lot more comfortable knowing that I liked the girl I was about to be rooming with.  Establishing contact right away helped a lot and took a huge weight off of my shoulders.  But, since I live in a suite, I had two other roommates.  I did not get the chance to meet with them before school started, but we were friends on facebook and that was a good start.  We messaged each other on there, and I found that the Internet is such a wonderful invention, because without it I would have been scared to meet my roommates.  Luckily, my roommates are the best.  We have our own routine set up.  We have movie nights every Thursday, and meet for lunch on Fridays.  We do a lot together, even work-out and study.  Another good way to gain a social life is to try and talk to the people on your floor and try and have dinner or lunch with them.  Do not confine yourself to just your roommates, meet new people and hangout with them as well.  Going to some of the on-campus events, joining intramurals, and clubs are also great ways of meeting new people and making friends.  I have made numerous friends by signing up for intramurals and participating in on-campus activities. 

                College is mainly about going to school and earning a degree for a future job, but do not forget to form new friendships and have fun.  Take advantage of every opportunity you can get.  But do not forget to watch your time, budget your money, and make lots of new friends.

Serving it Up

The sun beams down onto my black uniform.  I grip the racket tighter and bounce the ball twice before I toss it up and go through the arm motions and serve the ball over the net and in the court.  After the rally, I move to the opposite side of the hash mark at the end of the court and serve again.  Tennis is a tedious, sometimes monotonous sport.  Tennis takes a lot of time to improve on, both physically and mentally.  When I first started playing my junior year in high school, my dad would keep telling me that tennis is probably the most mentality based sport I have ever played and that is what I would more than likely have to work on most.  Needless to say, he was right.  Changing the way you think about a sport is a hard task, though not impossible. 

                Growing up, I had always played team sports.  Basketball, softball, volleyball, and pick-up games of football, you name it, I probably played it once.  When playing team sports, my teammates and I had to work together to solve problems on the court and figure out a solution together.  Another thing team sports taught me was that when someone messed up, everyone was to support them and help them improve.  But I learned quickly that playing singles tennis was nothing like that.  When I had a problem, I had to figure out what I was doing wrong and fix it myself, without help from a teammate.  If I kept messing up, I was the one who had to deal with it, because I was only hurting myself when I did something wrong.  That switch was strangely hard to me.  I had never really had to deal with something like that before, being completely on my own on the court. 

My junior year I did not catch on to the mentality until late in the season.  I was constantly beating myself up over little mistakes and other things that it was hard to shake it off, but I finally learned.  But, that next fall I played volleyball and my teammate mentality came back quickly and naturally to me that everything I learned in tennis the previous year flew out the door.  My senior year I tried hard not to let things bother me, which was a complete 180 from junior year when everything bothered me.  My junior year if I did something wrong, my face read that it was the end of the world, but my senior year, I hardly looked like I cared, which was not the case at all.  It was difficult for me to find a balance between caring too much, or caring very little.  It took a lot of time and effort during practices and matches to find my equilibrium again.  The end of my senior year I felt steady during matches and I cared enough, but not too much.

Mentality was not my only tedious task in tennis, the physical aspects were just as tedious.  I never played tennis as a competitive sport until I was sixteen.  Not to brag, but I seemed to pick up a racket and be able to play competitively without any prior training, (I do not count gym class as prior training).  But my junior year when I decided to play tennis instead of softball I was able to take lessons from one of my brother’s friend who had played tennis in high school and he even made it to Regional.  I was excited because I thought it would not be hard and I would be naturally good.  But, to my dismay, I was only average and doing everything the proper way felt awkward and unnatural.  I would go home complaining to my parents that I was no good and I could not do anything right.  They told me that I would not be able to pick up a racket and automatically play like Nadal, even he needed lessons when he was younger.  So I stuck out the lessons and improved tremendously before the season. 

My junior year I played #1 junior varsity singles, beating out a senior who had played since her freshman year.  I continued to improve and I even saw some varsity action.  All of the tedious hours I put into tennis paid off and I was actually pretty good.  My senior year I went back and forth between #1 and #2 varsity single and I had a blast.

Sports tend to be tedious work, especially if they are new to you and you have never played another sport like it.  I took some lessons before trying out to make sure I was qualified, I went to the courts on some weekend to play with my dad, I would even arrive early and sometimes stay late to improve.  I would constantly do the same drills over and over again to improve.  The drills were monotonous, but paid off in the end.    

The annual Fall Festival

I am eighteen years old.  I live forty five minutes away from downtown Evansville.  I have been to the West Side Nut Club’s annual Fall Festival a handful of times.  I do not remember the first time I went, but I have been going for a long time.  When I was younger my family and I would go during the day, considering it was less crowded and easier to take a young child to walk around.  Once I got older my friends and I would head to downtown Evansville and scope out the night scene.  The difference between day and night at the fall festival is astounding. 

                In southern Indiana, the beginning of October can sometimes still feel like the summer months.  The sun beats down on you and you may even see that your skin develops a redish tone, indicating a sun-burn from the sun exposure you may experience while walking around the fall festival.  In October you may think you need jeans and a sweatshirt, but not on the west side.  During the day at the fest you may even start to sweat from the piercing sun, the light crowd of people, and the heat from the food cooking in the food booths.  The weather during the day is a considerable difference to the night.

                Though the October days feel like summer, the nights can get frigid.  When heading out to the fall fest after about five in the evening I always grab a jacket and am wearing jeans to protect myself from the unpredictable weather changes.  It is not unusual to see the festival goers in jeans and sweaters.  On an especially cool night people pull out their winter jackets, bundle up and buy hot chocolate for the long night, fun night.

                During the day, there is a crowd of people walking around, but they are usually the business people who come during their lunch hour from their Evansville job.  It is easy enough to take children and big groups during the sun light hours because the amount of people is not great.  It is easy to walk straight up to a food booth and be served right away in the afternoon early evening.  Though around five o’ clock in the evening, the crowd begins to show.

                Once the sun goes down, Franklin Street has a whole new atmosphere.  More people start to head out to the west side to join in the food, rides, and games.  Especially on the nights during the weekend, the street starts to become crowded and packed.  It is almost impossible sometimes to walk side by side with the person you went with to the fest.  Both sides of the street are filled with people walking, talking, eating, and having a good time.  Once the crowd starts to pour in it is more difficult to walk straight up to a food booth and be served quickly, more than likely you will have to wait about five minutes to get up to the window and order. 

                The nighttime crowd is also different in the aspect of how the people look by their certain dress or style.  During the daytime people are in casual clothing, jeans and a t-shirt, but at night people’s outfits and styles become more unusual the later the night goes on.  At night the guys your mother tells you not to bring home, ones with piercings and tattoos, start to emerge from the converging streets onto Franklin Street.  I always try to stay with the people I went with, and stay close to them the entire night.  My friends and I are always close and will not let anyone out of our sight, though I am sure the ‘scary’ people we see are nice enough, their looks just put us off.

                I have found that during the daytime, the noise is at a minimum, unless some of the elementary schools are having a field day event there.  Since there are not as many people, you can only hear murmurs of conversations from the slight crowd.  Though, if you go down on the right day, as I stated earlier, there are local school competitions going on and you hear the emcee and his play-by-plays of the occurring event. 

                At night the decibel of sound ringing in your ears is at a high as the crowd of people starts to arrive.  People are yelling conversations all around you, and you even seem to find yourself yelling to your friends as well because so many people are talking and screaming around you that you are sure your friends cannot hear you if you talk to them normally.  Music is blaring from the local radio stations and people must talk louder again to be heard over the music.  The voice of the emcee on stage rings throughout Franklin Street.  People are crowded around the stage to see the event, though it is just as easy to hear the event on the speakers up and down the street.  The murmurs heard during the day at the fall fest turn into screams and yells to be heard over the chaos on the street.

                The best possible thing about the annual fall festival is the food.  The smells do not necessarily vary from day to night.  If you ask me, the smell is just as enticing no matter the time you arrive.  The walking tacos, fried Oreos and cookie dough, funnel cakes, and other various items’ fragrance are smelt throughout Franklin Street all week, and even the week after the festival.

                No matter what time of day you go to the fall festival, it is going to be fun if you go with the right group of people.  If you like less noise and crowd, go during the day, but if you prefer more chaos, loud music and lots of people, the nighttime is just for you.  Either time, I am okay to go, since I only seem to go to taste the delicious food that comes once a year to the west side of Evansville.  The annual West Side Nut Club Fall Festival is the place to be the first full week of October.

Wintertime Food

                When the weather starts to get cool outside, the leaves begin to fall, and you wake up and your car winds are frosted, you know it is autumn turning into winter and you are already sick of it.  I am not a big fan of fall and cold weather.  If it were up to me I would have it 80 degrees year round and have it snow only on Christmas Eve and Christmas.  But, these decisions are not up to me, so I must suck it up and enjoy it.  There are a few things that I like about cold weather.  For example, I like my birthday in November, Christmas in December, and wearing hoodies and sweatshirts.  Though, I am leaving out one of the most important things about wintertime:  food.  My two favorite winter foods are pazelles and party mix.

                Pazelles are a type of cookie my mom always makes during Christmas time.  She usually makes them and gives them to the church for their annual cookie walk.  Sometimes, my mom and I leave a few out and eat them ourselves. They are flat cookies that my mom makes in a something that looks like a waffle maker, but it is specifically for pazelles.   I am not exactly sure what they are but my mom usually puts either powder sugar or cinnamon on top of the cookies.  They are a wonderful treat that reminds me of the holiday season and I am always excited whenever I walk into the house and smell the powder sugar in the kitchen.

                Ever since I can remember, in the fall and winter I eat party mix.  Party mix is a lot like chex mix.  You have the different chex crisps, cheerios, pretzels, and anything else you want to put in.  The seasonings are a certain sauce, onion salt, garlic salt, and seasoning.  After you put the right about of ingredients in, you then put it in the oven and bake it for about an hour.  It is a delicious blend of goodness that I cannot even describe because you would just have to try it for yourself to understand.  There is only one major downfall to the delicious mix, your breathe reeks after eating any of it.  But, I have learned to overcome that and I just tend to brush my teeth more often to hide the awful after-taste it leaves in my mouth.

                It is not just my mother and I that make party mix, my grandmother does too.  I do not think that it is a recipe that has been handed down for generations, considering the recipe is on just about any chex crispy cereal box, but nevertheless we have all made it for as long as I can remember.  My grandmother’s party mix tastes different than the one my mom and I make at our house, though it still tastes great.  I am pretty sure the difference is just in some of the type of seasoning we use. 

                As far as I am concerned, I think party mix is one of the best food creations ever, though my father would highly disagree.  My mom and I always make a batch when he is not home, though he can still smell it even after it is out of the oven and is not pleased with our snack.  I am stumped as to why he does not like it, I think he does not like the smell of it and if that is the case I think he is crazy because to me it smells amazing.  But, it is his loss, not mine.  On the plus side, that leaves more for my mom and me to eat.  If my mom and I were to make it on a Sunday, I can almost guarantee that the batch would be gone by the next Sunday.  It is just that good that I can hardly stay away from it!  I went home over the weekend and told my mom that in the next couple of weeks we are going to have to make a batch because it is getting cold outside and party mix is the perfect solution to the cool weather.   

                Pazelles and party mix are the smells that fill my house during the holiday season.  Party mix is by far my favorite snack in the winter time and I am not sure why I only crave it during the cooler months, but I do and I do not plan on changing that now.  I can hardly wait until we make the first batch of the season, it sounds so good right now I would like to go home and make some if I could!  The holidays are a time for tradition everywhere and in my household that means pazelles and party mix baking in the kitchen.

Rec

At a campus with over 10,000 students, around six different colleges, and many different buildings on campus, I tend to spend a lot of my time at the Recreation, Wellness, and Fitness Center, or what the students call it, the rec.  I try and make my way there at least once a day to work out and stay in shape.  I have played some type of sport for as long as I can remember, and I do my best to stay in shape, therefore the rec is my second home compared to the dorm.

                From the outside, the rec looks like another concrete building.  It does not look very big and if you have never been in it, you may not think that there are a lot of things that you can do in there and you may not see why it is a big deal.  But, what is in there is seen after you walk up six concrete steps and entire the rec.

                Stepping in the foyer of the rec and looking to the left and you see that there are different table games, such as Ping-Pong, foosball, and billiards.  To the right, there are tables and chairs for people to relax after a workout.  The last thing is the counter where you swipe your card and are to enter the rest of the rec.

                Downstairs you here the bounce of the basketball, guys screaming and running around, to your left where all of guys are playing basketball.  To your right are the locker rooms and people are coming and going in and out of the locker room.  If you keep going to the left you see the rock wall and smell the odor of all of the equipment and all of the sweaty people in the glass room with the rock wall.  Past the rock wall you hear the slamming of the free weights on the ground or against the metal of the stands.  If you look to your left you will find various rooms, where if you go at a certain time you will hear pop music and feet scraping the floor trying to Zumba or Cardio Kick.  If there are a lot of people you also get the lovely smell of sweat and other body odor.  Sometimes the odors combine from the rooms with the people doing the free weights.  When actually going into one of the rooms for group exercise, you see all of the mirrors lining the wall and hear the heavy breathing of the workout going on.

                Back on the main floor, past the foyer, are all of the equipment and machine weights.  You can hear the belt of the treadmill as people run on it, you can hear the music blaring from various ipods, and see different shows on multiple flat screens that you can also listen to.  There are always people in there working out shaping their bodies.  If you lean over the rail you can see the courts below and still hear the basketball players running around, but now it is easier to see their game.

                The final level of the rec is just a flight of stairs from the equipment.  The four lane track finishes off the rec.  You hear the stomping of people running and their ipods cranked up to get them fired up to run their best.  Sometimes you even see people walking at a brisk pace to just get their heart rate up.  If you stop and listen a little harder you can hear the runners and walkers breathing harder and their lungs gasping for oxygen.  Leaning over the rail again, you can now see just about everything.  You can still hear the belts of the treadmills, the sounds of the basketball games, and ipods in the ears of the students.  You see people pushing themselves on the equipment and the sweaty guys pushing each other around on the basketball court.  The smell is still that of sweat and other body odors, not terribly refreshing, but the smell of the good workout.

                From the outside, the rec may not seem like a good place to get a good workout.  It looks so small and unforgiving with all of the concrete.  But, once inside, you see the multiple places to go and workout and some places to even relax and hangout with your friends and roommates.  Once leaving you feel good about yourself and you are ready to take on the world with your new body and confidence.