Service

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a good week. Classes started on Wednesday and the class reading assignments have already started to pile up but hey what would college life be without them. I am excited to have this be a full week of classes so I can get back into a routine. For me routines are really nice and help me to keep a low stress level.

Anyway, I wanted to take this blog post to reflect back to what I did last Sunday. As some of you may not know every year as part of freshman orientation all the incoming freshman along with community members and upperclassmen participate in the Finucane service project. This service project was a part of orientation my freshman year that I really enjoyed!

This was my fourth year participating in the Finucane service project. We went to a community garden where we helped them clear bush out from around fruit trees that are growing. These fruit trees are for anyone in the community to come pick the fruit from which I think is a really neat concept. Father Curran, the President of Rockhurst even came with our group. I really think it is so neat that father still participates in the service project. Make sure to check out the pictures at the bottom of this post from our service project site.

I think it is really a great way for upperclassmen to set an example for the freshman going along with them to do service projects. A lot of the sports teams and greek organizations on campus also participate in the Finucane service project.

What a great way to instill one of the Rockhurst's core values in the freshman by doing this service project. It also introduces them to a wide variety of organizations in the community where they can go to do service learning projects for classes in the years to come. Since the freshman go to sites by orientation groups likely they have friends in other groups that went to other sites so that each one after sharing their experiences with their friends in other groups now knows about 4 or 5 places to go to volunteer in the community at least.\

Reflection is also big here at Rockhurst. To end our time at the service sites the orientation group leaders, lead the group in a reflection which is a really nice thing to do because it can be so easy at times to loose sight of who you are doing the service for.

Quote for the week: "True courage is taking another small step each day toward achieving your vision"

My goal for Senior Year... Magis

Hi All,

So as I have been blogging I have been thinking about how cool it would be to have a theme for senior year.

For those of you who don't know how this works is Rockhurst every year picks a theme for the year to focus on and this year the theme for the year is Magis or "More". So it is a pretty broad theme and the university will have an easy time incorporating the theme.

After reading the book "The Time Keeper" on our family vacation to myrtle beach and reading through a website that listed the best quotes from the movie I found this: “There was always a quest for more minutes, more hours, faster progress to accomplish more in each day. The simple joy of living between summers was gone.” 

My goal, wish and prayer for this my senior year (my final year, my last harah, my final chance to leave an impact on Rockhurst, a community that has given so much to me over the years) is:

-To live each moment present to those around me and always striving to use them for the "Magis" and the greater glory of God our father.  

I have a habit of misusing time in ways that do not further this and this year as Honors Program and Nonprofit Student Association President's I have the chance to really leave a mark on this university and set those programs in director of the "Magis".

The Honors program is all about the "Magis" of knowledge and intellect. 

The Nonprofit Program is all about the "Magis" of serving others  and wanting more from life.

A quote from the book, “He cried that night for all that he had lost, but he would say it taught him a valuable lesson: that holding on to things "will only break your heart.”. There are some things and past relationships in my life that I need to let go of they only break my heart keeping them. I have also tried to simply my life in terms of the amount of stuff I have. 

I have given myself this goal of living this year for the "Magis" and making the most out of my time here.

As a friend of mine who is the Residence Director in McGee said that they are putting the "Magis in McGee"! 

Unpacking

Hi All,

As I sit here writing this blog it is hard to believe that I am back for my final year at Rockhurst. 

Where has the time gone?... Time there are some points in life when time can not go bye fast enough and there are other times in life when time cannot slow down enough and we wish we have more time.

On one hand I am excited and ready to be done with college and get out in the world to see what it has in store for me. On another hand I can hardly believe this is my last move in day. Hard to believe. As I told people my sister was moving in to school for the first time I thought to my self this is the last time I'm moving onto a freshman campus. This is the last year I get to help welcome new freshman to campus and see them all say goodbye to their parents as they wish them well on the next part of their life's journey. 

But life is a journey and part of that journey is accepting that in some stages in life you have to accept that they come to quick ends but that is only because the next stage in life is that much more exciting. I hope that makes some sense to you as a reader. 

Over my past vacation we listened to a book on tape called "The Time Keeper" by Mich Album. I really liked the book. It has a slow start. 

Here are two quotes from the book

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” 

“As mankind grew obsessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart. People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life’s moments had led, inevitably, to counting them down. Soon, in every nation and in every language, time became the most precious commodity.” 

Wow where has summer gone?

Sorry this was supposed to be published weeks ago it just never happened. Haha.

Hi Everyone,

It is great to finally have a few minutes to take a blog. I have been meaning to blog for the last few days I have just never had time to. Sorry I have not done it sooner. I cannot believe we leave for vacation this week. We are headed out to South Carolina to do some exploring (mostly just relaxing at the beach) is what it will most likely be.

It has been a perfect weather weekend here in Chicago. I think it was like 81 here out.

I have been busy with my summer internship for the nonprofit leadership studies and trying to start getting ready for another year. It is hard to believe my last and final school year is almost upon me. My sister is applying for a desk assistant position at Loyola which is cool that she is following in my foot steps of being a desk assistant at Rockhurst. Still being a desk assistant at Rockhurst was one of the highlights of my year!

Well sorry this is a short blog but I should go run literally!