The Struggle to Laundry

The thought of doing my own laundry, a couple of months ago, sounded unbearable. I never had to do that. Coming to college, one of the first things I did was scope out the laundry room. Now--I live on the 3rd floor, the top floor. Laundry is in the basement. Not that bad, 4 flights, right? Yeah, no, wrong. Just awful.
I had gotten a mesh-like laundry basket last summer to hold my laundry for the following semester but that quickly turned into a very bad idea. Over time, I saw myself getting lazier and lazier, waiting longer and longer to put loads of laundry in, therefore filling the basket to the top. (It held a lot of clothes). By spring break, the mesh had so many tears and holes in it, I'm surprised it didn't break before my very eyes... I got a new one.
Unfortunately, this one doesn't hold has much as the last. I've only been back to school for about a week and it is already filled to the very top.

That wasn't the only problem with laundry that I had today.

In the basement, there are five washing machines and five dryers. Now, keep in mind, there are three floors in this building, and three different wings. Somehow, five doesn't seem like a reasonable number. Especially when some of them decide to just not work anymore.
Luckily, when I went down today, there was a washer open. I put in my dark clothes, put my bag on top of the machine and left. When I came back down and hour later (the time it usually takes to complete the load), half of the clothes were still dry, the other half was soaking wet, and my tide pod hadn't even disintegrated. I really don't got time for that nonsense. So I ended up sitting there for like 20 minutes after putting in my second load, waiting for the first to be done.
It never finished. So I went to Bible study and prayed it would be be done by the time I came back.
......Nope.
A few girls in the laundry room told me that it was broken and I should just give up. Of course it's broken.

Long sob story short, it took me so much longer than I anticipated just to wash a week's worth of clothing. And the last load I put into the dryer ended up not even drying.
So, currently, I have become very innovative in where and how to hang wet clothes around my room (under my bed, closet, etc). I'm just really glad that process is over (for now).

I love that washing clothes isn't as hard as I was expecting. I don't love the inconvenience of the laundry room. You just can't win in this situation..

Anyway, here's a visual aid for ya. (And the only pictures I have of the laundry room.. feat. some friends)

How I Survived Spring Break

Not everyone has a spring break like you see on TV. I didn't go to Miami or have an incredibly active social life. I didn't go to the beach or have any type of vacation at all. But that didn't mean I hated it.
I think I was mentally scarred from winter break. That was a month and a half of utter torture. I did enjoy being home for a few weeks, but after a while I started to really miss living back at school. Because that set me off so much, I didn't think I would enjoy being home for a little over a week in spring. And yet, I survived.
I got to see a lot of my friends over the course of the week and that was really cool - just to be reminded that I have such good friends at home when it feels like I don't have any at school.
I visited my high school with some friends and got to see some of the teachers that really impacted my last 4 years. That was pretty nice.. And no, my old locker combination didn't work on my old locker. Darn. It was also really cool to hear about my high school friends' college journeys and how we're all getting through this together.
During most of the week, both of my parents worked and both of my younger siblings were at school. The house got pretty lonely. But at least I had Keeping up with the Kardashians to keep me company for a little bit. I can't say I didn't like the silence though. It was nice to literally do nothing after being so, so busy with school. I found it quite easy to occupy my time with things to do that kept me content and happy.
I discovered cross-stitching and thought it was pretty rad so I decided to try it for myself. After stitching a few pictures inspired by Miley Cyrus' Bangerz Tour, I liked it so much, I wanted to put it on a purse. I cut up an old denim bag from middle school, rekindled with my old sewing skills, and pulled together a quick little sling bag. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out.

(Pictured - front & back)

This past weekend was definitely the best part of break, though. My favorite band (Paradise Fears) was playing at TCNJ--just a few minutes down the road from my college. Of course, I was on break so I had to make the hour drive up to the show but I still think it was worth it. I got to spend the night with a few of my really good friends. Hardly anyone had ever heard of PF at the show and there were around 30 people actually there. I sat with 3 of my friends at a table in front of the stage and sang along to every song. It was really a cool experience.

The next day, I saw PF again, but this time on the last show of their tour (Battle Scars Acoustic & in the Round). Since the stage they played on was circular and in the middle of the crowd, I had Sam's (the singer) butt in my face the whole time. It was kind of hard to get into the music since I almost punched him like 17 times in one song. They played a brand new song that they hadn't played at any other show and they also passed out 200 cupcakes as a way to make the concert experience really special. As always, the show was phenomenal. 

Talking to the band after the show is always a pleasure. They're 6 of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. Michael (keyboard) remembered me by my Twitter handle and we had a lovely conversation about sunshine and blaming things on me. Jordan (guitar) recalled seeing us the night before and called me Emily because he read it on my necklace, not because he remembered. Sam was mobbed by people as always but he's still one of my favorite people to talk to. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk to Marcus (bass) and had to rush with Lucas (drums) and Cole (guitar) but I still got a bunch of great pictures.

That show definitely ended my spring break on a positive note.

Yesterday (Sunday), was my sister's 16th birthday so we celebrated with Red Lobster. Then I was shipped back off to Rider to commence with classes again, today.

I definitely wouldn't have complained if I had had another week of break back at home to do absolutely nothing (especially to recover from a great weekend). But, of course not. It was still a great break and I'm glad it happened when it did. : )

To close, here are most of (actually, practically all of) my pictures from Saturday.

How to Survive Midterms...

It's that time of the semester again. Although spring break is starting tomorrow, don't get too comfortable. One of the two tests that us college students dread all semester is coming up: Midterms.
I had my first one last Tuesday (History) and my second one today (Sociology). They both weren't that awful, which is surprising. It's only really intimidating and stressful because a lot of classes only have 2-3 test grades the entire semester. Like, that sounds like a ton of pressure. I'm paying for these classes! Cut me some slack!
Last semester, I took a "World History to 1500" course and I totally thought I was going to blow my brain up because me and history don't really get along. I didn't do so well on the first test but it was a learning experience. Then I pulled a B+ on the midterm after studying for a week straight, every single day... Usually sitting at Starbucks. That gave me a lot of hope. My professor expected a lot from us and I felt like I finally delivered. (I ended up with an A on the final, whut).  I even decided that I kind of enjoyed that class quite a lot.
The great part is, a lot of my classes don't have cumulative tests.. so the information I studied for on the midterm won't even be on the final. I can push all of that out of my head and never have to remember it again right?! Well, yes, but I end up remembering it anyway. Is this what learning feels like?
Anyway, I got back my history midterm today and.. yikes. I didn't quite get that B+ like last semester. The only time I really studied was the night before with three other people from my class. We sat in one of the dorm lounges for like, five hours, going over everything. Or maybe it's because, in the essay part, I wrote "the struggle for Indian goods was so real." He circled that sentence and wrote "what does this mean?" I don't think he appreciates modern day slang very much. Either way, as soon as I pass this class, I'll be done with history FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.
The Sociological Imagination midterm I took today was actually a joke. Crying over this class with my roommate, Delaney, has become a weekly thing and we were insanely nervous to take this test. My professor makes us do these weird online test things every week and they're the hardest, most irrelevant things in the world. So, of course, we thought the midterm would be literal hell.
Spoiler alert: it wasn't.
Luckily, Delaney is in the class before me, so she was able to tell me what was on the test before I took it. Somehow, I still feel like I would have left that test very confident if she hadn't.
Midterms (or, any tests for that matter) are a lot less scary if you tell yourself you know what you're doing.
As far as my other classes go, the only one I should be really worried about is Spanish. The only test grade we've had so far was a take-home test. That's probably the only reason I didn't fail.

If there's one thing I've learned so far from this whole "college" thing, it's that studying doesn't have to be painful. Go grab your laptop and head to Starbucks. Or the library. Study with friends. Make flash cards. Color code your notes (if you're into that stuff). Find a place that makes you feel comfortable and study there. It doesn't have to be your 10 x 11 foot dorm room. Most academic buildings are open for student use all day long--take full advantage of that.
Going into studying with the mindset that you are going to fail is not helping you. It's hurting you. So stop that.

So grab your favorite Starbucks drink and get to reading!

P.s. I have to share this great story with you. So today Delaney tweeted about go to the health center and I was like "what". So I texted her, you know, like any concerned friend would do. She texted back like, an hour later with "I got bit by something"....... I'm sorry what. Anyway, when she comes back to the room, she shows me her hand and yeah.. ouch. Something definitely bit her and it started spreading down her arm. 

My roommate may or may not wake up tomorrow as the next spiderman. I'll keep you all updated.

Advising

Kind of like having a guidance counselor in high school that you are forced to talk to every now and then, we have something similar for college. Except, they don't have to listen to your problems, or care about you in the slightest way, for that matter. This person that you are assigned to is a professor in your department of study that you may or may not have in your four years. He or she is your "advisor". Basically, the only time you will ever see them is the week before you have to schedule classes for the following semester. After this 15 minute (or less) meeting with your advisor, they will "greenlight" you--meaning, you are ready and eligible to pick next semester's classes when your time comes (usually at 7 a.m. on a random day of the week--yay). There's no avoiding this encounter. Everyone has to do it.
Of course, as a first semester freshman, I was terrified. Because, with my luck, I would be stuck with that man who doesn't speak English and doesn't know how to answer my questions or forgets about my appointments and doesn't show up. This person is supposed to help me map out my future. That's like, a lot of pressure.
Last semester I met with mine for the first time. Just as I expected, he didn't speak English very well. And he sat on the phone for like 10 minutes, as I sat awkwardly staring at his animal sculptures and paintings around the office, before deciding to deal with me.
The rest of our time went, surprisingly, very smoothly. He was extremely helpful to me and answered all of my questions perfectly even in my desperate state of freshman naivety. That took a huge weight off of my shoulders.
Today, I met with him again to schedule for Fall 2014. It was great. Being the oh-so-wonderfully-prepared-and-organized human that I am, I created a schedule with all of the classes I would like to take next semester in a nice little word document table. He loved it. I think I surprised him with how prepared I was.
He told me that I shouldn't have a problem getting into any of these classes (as I did the semester before) and that made me feel pretty darn good. The only problem I might have is with the night class I plan on taking--Fundamentals of Video Production. That's a little weird though. It's a night class. I didn't think anyone still took those.
Either way, if all works out, I'll only have one class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday! The thought of that freaked me out at first because I'd have 4 classes on Tuesday and 3 on Thursday. Talk about being busy. But my advisor proceeded to tell me how he loves teaching every other day and getting it all over with. That gives him a lot of time to get a lot of work done on the days he doesn't have much to do. His words were really comforting and made me feel so much better about the situation. I just realized that I really like helpful, supportive people.
We talked for a while about my minor (Spanish) even though he is only there to discuss my major (Communications) which was kind of awesome. Being a freshman placed in Spanish 3 is rare and he was really interested in knowing why I am so good at it...  I'm not though. Any doubts that I had about keeping my minor were gone after that conversation. If you're good at something, and you enjoy it (even only a little bit) then go for it. He said he was going to tell his daughter about me because she is considering AP Spanish next year at her high school. That was pretty awesome. I felt kind of important.

While all of my friends and everyone I talk to is busy complaining about how lazy and useless their advisor is, I can be happy knowing that I actually (for once in my life) lucked out.

Be nice to people. They'll appreciate it.


P.S. Look how rad my campus looks covered in snow!!

Undecided

In high school I honestly never thought I was going to find something in college that I enjoyed. I was never really good at any subject in school. But I did like math. Being one of the very few people in the entire world to actually really enjoy calculus, I kind of decided I should be an accountant. Yes, that was my logic. Then the fear of hating my job, and my life, after graduating was always in the back of my head. That quickly became a big fat no for me. I swapped between lawyer, algebra teacher, marine biologist and chemistry every single day. I was just confused.
How could I take what I'm actually good at and do it?
I applied to two schools--both as an undeclared major. I was undeclared up until the day I attended "admitted students day" with my mom at the school I currently attend. We were sitting in the chairs under the "liberal arts majors" sign. All of the other schools (business, sciences, etc) were all grouped together, and then there was me--a reject. As they called each of the groups to go tour their department, I was desperately searching for something that sounded interesting to me. I didn't want to graduate college with a degree in liberal arts. That didn't sound appealing to me.
Finally, the announcer called for the communications department. I never knew what communications was, exactly. That's why I never ever considered it. My mom was the one to speak up and suggest we follow that tour. Since I don't exactly excel in the math or sciences, a more creative, technological route is the one I should be taking.
They brought us to the Fine Arts building for a tour of where we would be taking a majority of our classes for the next four years. The final stop on the tour was the TV studio. I don't know why but I fell in love. It's not a huge studio--the group (of maybe 10 people) I took the tour with barely fit into the control room. I think I loved how much everyone around me loved it. Or maybe it was because every college I had toured, I didn't bother looking at their communications department since I still hadn't a clue what I was doing. But I did think this one was special.
Just as a little back story, I almost didn't even tour this school in the first place. Carrie Underwood forced me to. Yup. Carrie Underwood. My church youth group was taking a college road trip to a bunch of really cool Christian colleges on the east coast and I wanted to go so bad. If I did, however, I would miss a Carrie Underwood concert that I was attending while they were gone. I don't know why I chose to go to the concert instead, honestly. But I did. And since I wasn't going to be looking at colleges with them, my dad thought it was only fair that I tour Rider University. I knew it was a mad expensive, private college and that was about it. I don't think he ever intended on me actually liking it (I rejected about 80% of the colleges I looked at, as soon as I toured them)--it was just to get a feel for the tiny, private school atmosphere. Well, I walked off that campus highly considering applying. And so, I did. Why not, right?
Anyway, picking from two schools was really, really hard for me. One is commuting distance from my house and the other is about an hour away. I wanted to live on campus, that was for sure. I just wasn't sure how close I wanted to be. Plus, I had already fallen in love with one of them.
Something in the back of my head always told me Rider was the right choice but it felt like everyone and everything around me was pointing in the opposite direction. Of course, I went with my gut--this was a huge risk for me. I felt like I was letting everyone down for not choosing what seemed more logical at the moment--less expensive, closer to home, larger student body, you name it.
Even today, Rider just feels right for me. I'm not sure where I got the feeling from in the first place but when I knew, I knew. And I wasn't going to let anyone change my mind.
Over the summer I sent in the email to the admissions department to change my major. I'm a "Communication Studies" major (with a minor in Spanish). This means I chose a major, but I didn't choose a major. There are so many things about this department that I love that I haven't chose a specific one yet (journalism, public relations, radio/ tv, graphic design, etc). That's a lot further ahead than I was this time last year, for sure.
I love my school. It's been a tough adjustment and I didn't exactly get the grades I was hoping for in my first semester, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.
I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else.


Here's a picture of me and my rad roomie, Delaney!!!!

Homework?

It's a Sunday night, 7:18 p.m., exactly. I have nothing to do. Delaney left to work on homework. I finished all of mine. For the first time I think, in the history of my existence, I have no homework to do on a Sunday night before 11 p.m.
I wrote 4/5 pages on my 2nd paper for the semester yesterday, sitting in one of the academic buildings for hours and hours. I wrote the final page today and it feels pretty darn good. Last time I handed in a paper for that class, it took me the entire weekend up until at least 11:58 p.m. on Sunday night. But I did get a B- on it. He's supposedly a really, really tough grader - so that's good I guess.
I also finished my media writing class, usually something that keeps me up all night. It's all about writing news releases. I love that kind of stuff, it's just stressful to be graded on it. Especially when she expects us to email her the homework before class in the morning.
My third and final class on Mondays is Spanish. I shouldn't hate it. But I do. Spanish my minor. I am realizing more every class that maybe this was a really bad decision. It's just really hard and time consuming. I feel completely lost during every class. Not to mention, it's an hour and a half long. Thank God it's only twice a week. So yeah, I probably have some sort of homework for that class, but I never do it. It's not necessary. We usually just go over it in class while I cry internally and promise myself I'm going to drop the class as soon as I get back to my dorm... Haha. Not a chance.
Then, of course, there is Sociological Imagination. It's a weird title for a class, right? Yeah, it's basically just a fancy way of saying Sociology. I've accepted it. But anyway, I have a midterm on Thursday. So there's that that I should be studying for. But my professor isn't handing out the study guide until Tuesday. Good thing I went to SI (Supplemental Instruction - It's basically like extra help/ tutoring for a specific class). He gave our SI leader the study guide. There was only 5 of us who showed up. It's not very helpful though. It's a little too broad and I don't know how I'm going to study everything off of there by Thursday. But, ya know.
I'll start studying tomorrow. ;)

I guess I'll go waste away my life on photoshop until I pass out. Peace.

Also, here. Have this picture of me, Sam Miller and two of my best friends, Alex and Megan. Because I get to see at least one of them in a few days :-)

Hello world.

So I decided to try this whole blog thing because why not.
I mean I guess I've always liked writing and I guess I've always been kind of good at it but now I want to start writing about what I want to write about.
Starting college in September was a huge change for me and now I've decided that I should start to document the experiences while I can.
My first semester moved a whole lot faster than I was expecting. I don't want the rest to slip away so easily. So here it goes. Welcome to my brain. For the next four years--and on. Hopefully.

Here goes nothing.

Thank you for reading.

- Emily
p.s. here's a picture of me and my roommate, Delaney, having a blast at the Oscar's. Enjoy.