It’s been months since I have had much time to get back into my blogs. College is wonderful for showing you what you need to learn and what skills to master for the real world. So far, I have realized that I need much better time management skills. I need to learn that I can waste energy focusing on things that are not important in the immediate scheme of things. After getting all settled in at home and saying hi to everyone I left here in Southern California, I am ready to blog once more!
So many things have happened since September. I audited a class, I made it into a Fraternity, I grew a massive beard, etc. All of this is yet to come 🙂 Let’s start with the audited class. Back in the middle of October, both my classes and my pledging period were in full motion. It was then that I really saw how bad my time management skills were. I was beginning to lose precious hours of sleep to stay up and to my stockpile of homework (not the Fraternity’s fault, mine for not using my time wisely) until one day in class, my Microeconomics teacher offered the class a solution: auditing courses. I had honestly never heard of this option before, but it sounded like an angel had just saved me from failing a course. Auditing, for those of you who don’t know, is when you opt to take the course, but get no credit for it. It is not the same as dropping the course, however, because you still go to class and listen/take notes (or whatever you do in class). I chose to take the credit loss and audit my Microeconomics class, because it was my lowest grade at the time. This choice was difficult at first, because I did not want everyone to think I was a quitter and because I was afraid I would think about myself as a quitter, but I can honestly look back now and say it was one of the wisest decisions I made for my classes this semester. I was able to almost every class of the semester, so I have already gathered some knowledge about the course. Now, all I have to do is take it again and I will begin to master the course content this second time around. If I can make a suggestion to every student who just has a schedule that is too full, because we all overload ourselves sometimes, auditing is a great way to “preview” a course if you honestly want to take it, but simply don’t have the time yet for the entire class’ workload.
After auditing, my next big thing was Sigma Pi. After eight weeks of devotion, I was finally initiated into this amazing brotherhood that I am sure will be one of the greatest decisions of my life. My brothers have become my extended family since I have left home for Embry-Riddle. I will always be able to catch up with them and have a great time, even if we have not spoken in years. To everyone who has the time and willpower, find a brotherhood or sisterhood. It will change your life for the better.
After becoming a brother of Sigma Pi, I was a little less restricted on time. This made it easier to make up some of the work I had fallen behind on. Also, by this time it was November. I have never heard of this tradition before, but apparently it was “No Shave November”. I decided that this was a great idea, and instead of shaving, I just began to watch in awe as my face transformed into something new and unusual to me. By the time Thanksgiving rolled around at the end of the month, my beard was in full bloom. It was funny watching people’s reactions when they saw me looking so different from what they remembered.
So now we arrive at Thanksgiving day. Sleep in till about 2 p.m., wake up and rush to get ready because we are supposed to eat dinner at 4 p.m. For a long time, my family has had two Thanksgivings, one at our house with my mom’s family and one at my Aunt and Uncle’s house across town with my dad’s family. This year, we only went to eat with my dad’s side of the family, because my mom’s family couldn’t make it. We were still there before dinner started, so my mom took a few pictures.
After socializing and finishing up the food preparations, it was time to feast! I ate and ate and ate until I pretty much passed out on the couch in the living room. I woke up twice, once to say goodbye to some of my family that was leaving, and once to leave with my family. My mom chose to take a picture of my while I was sleeping, but I’m not sure when…
After Thanksgiving, it was time to shave the beast. November had come to an end and I was more than happy to get rid of my beard. I was so excited, in fact, that I shaved Thanksgiving night. Due to the fact that my beard was almost an inch long, I had to use hair clippers to shave it off.
This would be my hair after it left my face haha. I also got a haircut, since I hadn’t done that in over a month as well. If that had been in the dustpan as well, it would have been completely full!
The next major speedbump I hit came on Sunday, when I was coming back to school to finish up the semester. I had a flight on Great Lakes straight into Prescott. The only problem was this: I was on an overbooked flight and guess who the last passenger to check in was? Yup, you got it right, I was the 20th person on a 19 seat flight. After sitting around for over an hour waiting to figure out if I could get on another flight, I got put on a flight to Phoenix through Continental Airlines. Instead of being back at school at around 1 p.m. I arrived in phoenix at 2:40-ish and had a 2 hour drive back to Prescott. After my long day, I went back to my room and crashed for the night.
After making it through Thanksgiving, it was a smooth two weeks until the semester was finally through: NOT! In the last two weeks of the semester, I was busy cramming for finals and doing homework. I didn’t see some of my best friends for days at a time because I was always busy doing something. Those last two weeks were quite dull and I am sure most of my friends know exactly what I was doing until the snowstorm hit. I have never been in a storm as violent and hectic as this storm had been. Lightpoles outside kept going out and turning back on in the wind, which was blowing at about 80 miles per hour according to one of my friends. I was trying to sleep during the storm, but when it started to snow EVERYONE in my hall and the other halls were running around freaking out at the snow, slamming doors, etc. and I was definately not able to go to sleep…so, I ended up sitting out in the lounge with my friends until it was just me, my roomate, and one other dormie. When it was about 5:30 a.m., we looked outside and decided it was the perfect time to go out and take some pictures of the snow before anyone messed it up the next morning. After gearing up in warm clothes, we went outside and got a picture by my new powder coated car.
It was while we were taking pictures that we decided it would be fun to try and ride down the hill in the parking lot in the snow. We all chose different modes of transportation: snowboard, longboard, and scooter.
We didn’t make it very far before deciding that the only good mode of transportation was the scooter, so we went back to the room and got two more scooters. We rode down to the library, walked back up to our hall, rode all the way to the student union (best hill by far), walked to AC-1, made snow angels, rode down to the fields and towards the gym, walked up to mingus, and rode back to our hall. It was one of the best times I have had in years and I will never forget it.
So yeah, that is where I’ve been these past few months. I hope everyone did great on their finals and congratulations to us all for making it through a semester! See you all next January!
