Procrastination is the key

The key to failure that is.... When I made my schedule for this semester I got really excited about all the free time I was going to have to study and relax. Five(?) weeks into the semester, I've realized that studying has been thrown out the window and relaxing/napping have taken over my life. I'm currently 3 chapters behind in Intro to Education and 1.5 chapters behind in Astronomy. I have a group project due in my online technology class that half my group hasn't bothered to start. Two of my education classes require 30 hours of observation; I've done none. (But I'll probably just end up using the preschool since it qualifies as diverse.) I'm taking 4 tests for my DCF Child Care certification tomorrow and I just now finished the modules. Oh, and I totally just bologna-sandwiched my Music tests (but I got an 88 on one and a 94 on the other) because they're due Sunday night.

I didn't realize how much I've been procrastinating until today in Astronomy. I was sitting there thoroughly confused (partially due to my having not read the chapters and partially due to the fact that my professor spends 45 minutes speaking gibberish) and I realized I don't know what my test (on Valentine's Day) covers. Yikes! I need to nip this problem in the bud before I seriously do start failing my classes. Maybe I should make a list of goals everyday and reward myself for accomplishing them. Or maybe I should deactivate my facebook until I get caught up (haha, yeah right). I'm not sure what I'll end up doing but something needs to change fast!!!!!

A couple side notes before I get back to studying....

+ Good luck to my Gemini Blvd friends tomorrow! Kick some ICCA butt!

+ The one accomplishment I made this week was deciding where I'm living next year. It's basically been confirmed (pending a tour with Keegan).

+ Glee comes back Sunday!!!! (yet another thing to distract me from studying)

(Not so) Shocking Statistics

Every year, UCLA does a survey of over 200,000 college freshman from 290 colleges and universities. The survey asks about emotional health, financial worries, political stances, and reasons for entering college. While this survey has been conducted for several years, I didn't hear about it until now. Apparently its results are making national news because of one area: emotional well-being. A record low number of students reported their emotional well-being as above average and a record high number of incoming students reported feeling overwhelmed before even entering college. Stress levels are up and so is depression. While the news is making these statistics out to be shocking and out of the blue, I personally can't see how anyone didn't see this coming.

Nowadays, high school graduates are expected to go to college. Anyone who decides to take a different path is often viewed as lazy or stupid. Movies paint college as a 4-year long party. No stress, no worries, just lots of alcohol and plenty of sex. Classes are optional, tests are easy, and studying is for nerds. No wonder college freshman are stressed and depressed! They get to college and try to live it like the movies but they soon find themselves failing classes, on academic probation, pregnant, or burnt out. I'm not speaking from inexperience here, I've seen all of these things happen. I know college freshman that have flunked out or had babies. I know what it's like to be miserable, but that's a completely different story.

Instead of dwelling on the terrible statistics, shouldn't we be trying to fix them? High schools need to do a better job at preparing their students for college. Teachers need to stop babying high school seniors and make them realize that a college professor is going to give you one due date. They don't care who ate your homework, what game was on last night, or who got broken up with. They just want your paper. The media needs to stop showing as much of the fun part of college and get real. Sure, going to parties is fun. But parties last five hours or so, leaving plenty of extra time that should be used for studying. Nerds aren't the only ones who study. I've seen basketball players in the library. I have to fight for a table every day just so I can put my stuff down in our crowded 5 floor library!

And if you're struggling with your emotional well-being right now, please remember that it will get better. It may not seem like it now, but I promise it will. It was only a year ago that I was sitting in my dorm room wondering when I'd be able to genuinely smile again. Now I'm happier than I've ever been. Isolate the cause of your stress and remove it.

I really don't know why I wrote all of this, I just felt like it needed to be said. /end rant.

Paranoia

I've been told multiple times in my life that it's a good thing I don't do drugs because if I did, I'd probably end up hurting myself due to my excessive paranoia. Ever since I was small, I've had irrational fears and odd mannerisms and as I've grown older, those mannerisms have grown ever more strange.

Take Friday for example. I was walking to the parking garage with my friend Gabe, and we were talking about gas stations and cars. I suddenly remembered a story I heard from one of my high school friends. Here's how the story goes.... There was a group of friends in Tallahassee who all contracted AIDS. These men were angry and decided to take their anger out on innocent citizens of Tally. They got syringes, drew some of their infected blood, and rigged the needles up to random gas pumps. When innocent citizens would come to pump gas, they would get stabbed with the needles and roughly 20 more people contracted AIDS. I told Gabe this story and then told him that I'm deathly afraid of getting stabbed when I go to pump gas. So now, instead of just pulling the pump out and putting it straight into my car, I grab the pump from the top, flip it over, and inspect it for needles before letting it anywhere near my car. I also told him about how I inspect the card reader for those identity theft devices before swiping my debit card.

But like I said, this paranoia isn't new to me. When I was younger, I slept with a little bat under my pillow. You know, the free ones you use to get for being one of the first thousand people at a ball game. I couldn't fall asleep unless my hand was under my pillow, gripping the back so I'd be prepared to bludgeon anyone who tried to kill me in my sleep.

If that's not paranoia, I don't know what is.

Interesting....

The English language really is the hardest to learn. Just try reading this poem.

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

Long Days and Longer Nights

I'm pretty sure I'd forget my own head if it wasn't screwed onto my neck. God did an awesome job designing that part of the human body. I've been running around like crazy for the past two days (which is completely my fault, no one else's) trying to get everything I need to do done.

Wednesdays, I spend between 10 and 14 hours on campus. I leave my house at 930 am and arrive home anywhere between 8 and 11 pm. I only have class from 1130-430, but I choose to stay on campus/in Orlando for the other 4-6 hours so I can drive with Chris and hang out with Keegan. It's actually a lot of fun and each Wednesday is a little different than the last. Yesterday, for example, I left home at 930 (after having to turn around because I forgot Chris' CD), got out of class early (around 3) and went to meet Keegan and Chrissy at Keegan's dorm. We spent the first couple hours teaching Keegan music for our theory class and then decided we were starving so we headed to Waterford. Why didn't anyone tell me how delicious Crisper's is?! A mini-veggie burger, a broccoli-cheddar baked potato, and chicken noodle soup. YUMMM. After stuffing our faces, we went searching for a dress for me to wear to my God-brother's wedding in February. The search came up empty so I'm still on the hunt. By the time we gave up on our search, it was already 7-ish so we headed back to campus, dropped Chrissy off at her car, and went on the computer looking for houses to rent. Figuring out housing is stressing me out more than my classes are. After searching for an hour or so, Chris was done with rehearsal and it was time to go home and do some homework, which I had forgotten about.

Today, I went to work, came home, ate lunch, lost my purse in my room, forgot my financial aid reimbursement, went to the bank, and got my nails done. Right now is the first time since Tuesday night I've gotten to lie down and relax. But in a few hours I have to get up and go babysit my favorite 6-year-old twins. At least that's something I'm looking forward to doing (unlike getting up for astronomy tomorrow).

Calm before the storm

Right now, I'm sitting at my computer burning a CD for Chris and looking for music I want Gemini Blvd to do (side note: I want to learn how to VP, preferably from the guy wearing number 55). I'm also waiting for this "intense storm" to hit, probably knock out my power thus leaving me internet-less and forcing me to read the chapter I have due in Diversity tomorrow. Right now, it's calm outside. No wind, no rain, nothing. I find this kind of weather oddly relaxing. Knowing that something intense and scary is coming soon while also knowing that after the storm, everything will be okay. It's kind of like God is reminding us that, even though scary times lie ahead, He will always be with us.

I'm currently apartment/house hunting in the Orlando area. It's a very exciting and scary process! It's also a lot harder to find a good, safe place than I thought it would be. Apparently, all the apartments near the university are dangerous. People have been known to get mugged, robbed, raped, and killed. Scary!!!! I think my friends and I are going to try to avoid apartments altogether and look for a house. That way, we can control how much we pay each month and we don't have to worry about getting assaulted. (which is always a good thing).

I'm definitely ready to move out to Orlando. While I do love living at home, I want to be closer to the action. It's a pain in the butt to have to drive to campus every time something is happening and I feel bad always asking to sleepover at friend's houses. And even when I do move, I'll still be close to home. I can drive home whenever I want to see my family or need a T-ville fix. (does anyone really need a t-ville fix??).

Anyway, the CDs are done now and the wind seems to be picking up, so I guess I should log off and unplug everything so I don't get electrocuted or something like that.

Revivals

I've been having the urge lately to write. Not to write a book or a poem, but to write about my days and how my life has been going. So here I sit on my warm bed in my comfy pajamas reviving my old blog. I'm not sure how many people still follow this or will notice something new, but I don't really care. I'm just writing for myself.

I guess I should start by updating everyone on my life at UCF. Last semester was amazing. It was full of football games, old friends, new friends, fun, adventures, and oh yeah, classes. I ended the semester with a 4.0, partially due to easy courses and partially due to extra credit. I'm really glad I made the switch from Flagler; I haven't regretted it for a second. I can't remember if I mentioned that I have a job now. On the two days I don't have class, I assistant teach a class of 2-4 year olds at a local church preschool. I absolutely love my job and my students never fail to put a smile on my face. I'm blessed to have this opportunity to work with a group of amazing women!!!

On to this semester I suppose. I'm currently taking 5 classes (which is a full load), 3 on campus (Astronomy, Intro to Teaching, Diversity for Educators) and 2 online (Enjoyment of Music, Technology for Educators). My online classes are fairly easy. Enjoyment of Music is basically a review of AP music theory and Tech for Educators is a piece of cake. My on campus classes may prove to be a challenge though....

Astronomy is a lot harder than I expected it to be. My original professor had a reputation for being easy and fun, however it's just my luck that the professor would be changed the day before class began. My new professor is both confusing and bored. I spend most of the class time completely confused. I think this is the first time in my life I've actually felt stupid. Everytime the professor opens his mouth I could swear he was speaking Greek! The good news is that I have the class with my cousin Elise, her friend Gabe, and my friend Whitney. This group will come in handy when it comes time to study for a test. At least we'll all fail together...

I am in LOVE with my Intro to Teaching professor. She's had a variety of jobs in the education field since she graduated from UF in 1993. Her experience comes in handy when we're learning. She loves to tell stories about her life and she also loves to make football references. She's basically a really fun lady who not only wants us to learn, but wants us to have fun with it. I'm expecting to learn a lot in her class.

Diversity for Educators is also a lot of fun. My professor is a little crazy Polish woman who loves to travel. She's planning on retiring soon and moving to Costa Rica! This class will probably be pretty easy since she lets us control almost everything. We even made our own syllabus complete with assignments and teaching methods. On the list: playdough, music shows, show & tell, and a trip to Epcot. I also met a couple really nice girls in this class, Rebecca and Kristin. They're both a lot of fun and I love hanging out with them during and after class.

All in all, I think this semester is going to be great. I already have a lot of plans and I can't wait to see what the world throws at me this year!