Getting back into the groove

So yeah...it's been a long time since I posted! This semester has been just crazy! I am taking senior seminar, writing about Georgia's reaction to the Keating-Owen Act of 1916 which was the first federal child labor law...eventually it was ruled unconstitutional. I have to come up with 20 pages to write about...fun!

There are some other cool things going on too, I am about to go the China...oh yeah, CHINA! We leave for Beijing in like 7 days...I just can't believe that we are going there. We'll be there until the 31st so when we get back I pretty much have to hit the ground running with school work so that I can get it all done!!

Anyways, I will update more when I get the chance!!

Midterms, Reading and more Reading

Holy Crap! Midterms were killer. Let's just say that I finally have time to breath, but not exactly. I had 3 midterms all in the space of a few days, somehow the middle of the semester snuck up on me, there are only about 7 weeks left in this semester, which seems crazy to me, mainly because I have so much left to do! I have a research paper in 3 classes, two of which I haven't even started the research for and I have a book review for another class. My philosophy class always keeps me writing, our exam is due Tuesday but thankfully I am pretty much done, except for editing!

I've been thinking about the impending graduation...it is going to be here sooner than I think. This semester is almost over and all I will have left is 4 classes, which seems like a breeze compared to this semester. I am excited though because I think I finally narrowed in on what I want to study for grad school, which takes a load off my back. There is a professor at my school that is doing exactly what I want to do and he is specializing in what I want to study, so I took the time to pick his brain!!! It was a great meeting and as it turns out, I will probably be his research assistant for the spring semester. Yeah it is an additional class but all you really do is research and probably write a paper. It will give me great experience for grad school!

I have decided though, that for now I am planning on taking a year off before I start grad school, mainly because I am 75% sure that I am going out of state. I have a particular school in mind and I just have to get everything together....let's just say I haven't exactly been preparing for the GRE...not even a little bit...not even at all!!! I have procrastinated that for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!! It will probably bite me in the rear but I am super burnt out, I think taking a break will be good for me, give me time to think and gather my thought!!!

Not much has really been happening besides school, except my sabbatical from facebook, let's just say that I get SOOOOOO much more work done when I do not log on. I did have to get on today because it is the birthday and like 30 people wrote on my wall and I have to be gracious and thank them for the birthday wishes!! It's weird to be my age, I feel worlds apart from other people I will be graduating with, in more ways than just age. I have been so focused on school that everything else has kind of faded away into the background. I am looking forward to some much needed time off, as long as I can find a job!!!!

It all hit the fan...and broke it...

To say that life has been crazy would be putting it mildly. So much has happened over the course of the past few weeks and school work has piled up!!! So a couple of weeks ago we had a tragedy in the family...my bro's dog got hit by a car and she did not make it! It was terrible! Then the next day I was in a car accident. Some 17 year old ran a red light and took the front of my car with him. Thankfully no one was seriously injured but dealing with insurance companies have been a real pain in the you know where...life can suddenly get way out of hand sometimes!

On top of all that I am sailing into midterms next week and presentations...I want to graduate SO badly right now that I cannot put it into words. One cool thing that did finally happen was petitioning to graduate about 3 weeks ago! I should be hearing back really soon about whether or not I will have made the cut and filled all the requirements to get the heck out of here.

The scary thing about actually graduating is the fact that you are actually freaking graduating...and you just sit there wondering what the heck you going to do with the rest of your life. Thankfully I have a plan...graduate school! YES! Not! It is a necessary evil for me. I want to be a professor one day (really make the big bucks...) Then one day I'll get my good 'ol Ph.D, what fun! It's the scariest and most exhilarating feeling for a student. The pressures do not end with finals or midterms, it's about finding a job and a good one at that! I have plans but those are always subject to change and I haven't quite put my finger on what I should be doing right now and it leaves me with no motivation to finish what I have started. Don't get me wrong, I love what I am studying very much and I have a plan but there is this nagging feeling that there is something that I need to do that I have just not figured out yet...and it is really starting to make me angry. I know I will figure it out eventually....just after a few thermonuclear meltdowns...

In the meantime, life goes on and we do the best we can. Senioritis is getting to me more this month than ever before between my personal issues and all the school work that goes undone. It never ends, especially when you have 5 classes..there is more than enough homework to go around....yippee!!!!

Burning the Candle at Both Ends...

All I have to say is...thank goodness for Labor Day!!! It was the break that I desperately needed...for reals. I spent all day Sunday reading a book that had nothing to do with history or any of my classes...it was BEYOND nice. I went to see my family and it was so worth it. I wish they lived somewhere a bit more exciting that Mississippi, like Fiji, or something like that...but alas, getting out of the state for a while was a huge help.

So as I was reading one of the assigned readings for one of my history classes and it was quite interesting. It is Chinese Historiography (for those who may not know, historiography means...the examination and critical writing of history) and we read about Empress Dowager...she was straight up crazy, and had a lot of people killed because she was power hungry...and trust me, that is putting it mildly. As I was reading it, I was highly entertained by some of the things she had done..and other things she done were more horrifying, like killing a bunch of people. At least it was more interesting than some of the things that I have read. I know reading is a major part of my field of study but somethings are just plain old boring. When I am a professor, writing fantastic books and making tons of money off book royalties, I will at least make it more interesting. Most people think that it is easy to write about history but I am here to tell you that I am not.

So to make this blog a bit more stimulating I am going to find something about college to talk, or complain about. Today, it just happens to be parking. Why to people lose all their common sense when coming into, or leaving a parking deck. It boggles the mind people, boggles the mind. Today this poor woman was trying to back out of her parking spot and someone was insistent on getting that spot but she pulled up in such a way that the woman backing out could not, or was too scared to pull out. It was seriously a 5 minute stand off and finally the woman trying to take the spot had to give up. The deck that I park in is just waaaaay to small for the amount of students trying to park there everyday. So be warned, always show up early because you cannot count on pulling into a spot easily. It is kind of like being in a safari, the spots are the prey and we are the predators...and people will play dirty...

That is my complaint today...I am looking forward to being done with school and the crazy parking situation.

BEST day on campus EVER

So, if I ever complain that school is boring, please remind me of this post. So this weekend I did not get as much homework done as I needed to and I was dreading going to class today. My STUPID alarm is about to die, I have been so exhausted lately and my alarm is just not cutting it anymore. So I set it to go off at 5:45am to get a shower and get ready for class at 8am, and when it went off I quickly decided that that was WAY to early to wake up. I reset my alarm for 6:30am and I would just take a really quick shower. Well, somehow my alarm just got all jacked up. I rolled over and looked at my alarm clock and it said that the time was 7:31am and I freaked. I looked at my cell phone and thankfully it said 6:50, so I rushed to the shower and got ready. After running to the bank I barely made it to my American Revolution class. I was DREADING this class because it was discussion day and I hadn't done the reading AND I remembered that I had a map quiz at 11am. Super fun!!!

I made it through my first two classes and started my 3rd class at 11am. We got started and did our quiz, naturally I made a 100, mainly because I am awesome and I am better at memorizing things. So 30 minutes into our class some student comes pounding on the door and said "did you know you have to evacuate the building?" and naturally we had no idea, so in a split second our professor went into protective mode and told us to grab our stuff and get out now! We all scrambled out and NO ONE would tell us what was going on. After about 30 minutes of standing outside they told us that the building would not be opened up again for a couple of hours. We finally found out that some old Civil War Era ammunition had been gifted to the Social Science building and someone had (magically it seems) discovered that the ammunition was still live. Needless to say most people just left, like myself.

So yeah, if I ever say that being on campus is boring just remind me of this day. It was just so funny, everyone thought that it was just a drill because no one was telling us anything. We figured if it was a gunmen then they wouldn't be sending us out into the open...hopefully not. I kept saying that if it was legit then helicopters would be flying around....well 20 minutes after being outside the helicopters finally showed up! As exciting as it was, hopefully this will not be that regular occurrence!!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

So I was in class today, minding my own business and actually paying attention to the lecture when all of a sudden the wheels in my brains started turning. Now I have been talking a lot about having senioritis and wanting to be done with school, and mind you that is true, but I have also come to love learning. It is kind of addicting to me, I just love learning new things and really applying myself. I never thought I would say this but I LOVE studying history! Typically I am never excited at 8am in the morning but every Monday and Wednesday I look forward to my American Revolution class, and trust me, it is not because there are any hott guys in there...it is because I love to learn.

Now don't be fooled. I freaking have senioritis...I am ready to take the next step in my academic career. I had my plans all set, at least somewhat set at best, and I had finally picked out a school...which took the longest time to decide, but once I did I wasn't going to back down. I toil over my decisions, but once I set my course I ruthlessly follow it. That has been the case with history. I have pushed myself harder during the last year than I have at any other time in my life. I have managed to pull my GPA up from a 3.19 to a 3.4 in just three semester, and that my friend is hard freaking work. I demand a lot of myself and truth be told I do get burned out, easily, but deep down I enjoy the work and at the end of the day I know that I have earned every single grade that I have been given.

Now back to my class, it was my geography class. I have always had a passion for traveling and a desire to go everywhere humanly possible, and I mean everywhere...even one of those cruises to the Antarctica. So when we had a guest lecturer come to talk about the southern portion of South America I wondered why the heck I never considered Geography for a major...everything else seemed to cross my mind, but not that. I know you can see where this is going...I am considering extended for a year and earning my B.A. in Geography. It would only add around 11 classes, which I could take over the course of 3 semesters, Summer 2011, Fall 2011 and Spring 2012. It would only delay graduation for one year, which really isn't that bad...I talked to my adviser and he said that it was really up to me and that if it was not required for grad school then it is something that he would not consider. It is not really required for the program that I want to do but I think it would make me more knowledgeable going into grad school which would make me a more well rounded student. He did say though that if I would never have to opportunity to do it again then it would be worth it. Once I am done with undergrad, I am done and there is no going back. I think this would also be a good way to help my chances at finding a job when I graduate...which is never a bad thing.

See, these are the things that you have to think about as a senior...the things that you cannot put off. This is the rest of your life that you are thinking about...whatever you can do to help yourself advance is in your own best interest to do. It's a lot to think about and this stuff is everything that a person with senioritis does NOT want to think about...which makes me wonder, why am I thinking about it at all...

On that note, I think I will end this post...I am way too tired to think right now!

I'm baaaaaaack

So week one of classes are officially over and all I can think is....when is gradation? For real though...it is going to be a tough semester, I knew that with 5 classes it was bound to happen. The only thing that keeps me going most of the time is the fact that I will be done in two semesters. Most of my classes are awesome, like my American Revolution class and Geography of Latin America and the Caribbean. I sound so nerdy but the classes are pretty cool. My Historiographical Debates class is going to be tough, we are talking about how people have written history and how they are still writing it. We have started off with Herodotus and Thucydides, always fun!!

The long list of things that I have to do is just daunting. I have 3 papers to write, 3 outside class assignments for my geography class and midterms, finals, exams, exams, exams. This semester is everything a senior year should be, freaking busy. The summer wasn't too bad, I made 3 A's and a B which boosted my GPA to 3.4 which is so close to my goal of 3.5, Cum Laude. For real, I want to graduate Cum Laude so freaking bad, for reasons that I am not even really sure of myself. I have no idea why I am pushing myself this hard. I hope that it is worth it, sometimes I do not think it is. I think mostly we stay is school because they keep telling us to stay in school and wait for the economy to get stronger but I am genuinely pessimistic when it comes to the economy here in the US.

You know what else makes me pessimistic? Freshmen. Seriously, Freshmen. I have this precious freshman who sits next to me in my Philosophy class, who has no idea what is going on. She is a nice enough girl and is optimistic about her college career but she has no idea what is going on and what college is actually about. The only redeeming quality about freshmen is when they get lost and are trying to figure their way around the campus. I will always maintain who funny it is to see freshmen get so lost that they look all confused. Seriously, so funny!!

Well speaking of school I should get to work on some reading. I finally have Internet at my apartment so I will be able to update more!!