The Calm Before the Storm

Hi All,

This week is the calm before the storm of midterms and projects. Some people talk about having a midterm week where all their classes have exams the same week that is not the case for me this semester nor has it ever been the case for me. I am really lucky in that regard most teachers don't want us to have them all the same week and work around when others are. For most of my classes we either have 2 or 3 exams a semester in them. I have never had a class at Rockhurst with more than 3 exams.

Also, this week weather wise we have seen all seasons I am pretty sure from 30 to 70 and back to 30. Almost all of our snow has melted. We will see what this week has in store for us. I have a feeling we are due for at least one more winter storm at some point. We shall see though! Today I ran the most I have ever run in one day in my life 15.7 miles. I ran 3.4 miles then I had to go do an SI session for Managerial Accounting that I do then I went back to. Then I ran 12.3 miles with a friend. It felt great.

On Friday at my internship my boss gave us all little snow globes because of how snowy the conference I planned was. Here is a picture of mine. We also had a pizza lunch. I had a pizza craving I had not had pizza in such a long time! It tasted so good! I also, went to the Y for a swim that evening. That felt nice I have not been swimming much recently but I have been going more than I have the past few years.




Also, because it is the month of love to all who are in a long distance relationship here are a few quotes:

The ups and downs of life

Hi All,

The semester keeps flying by week after week. Pretty soon it will be spring break then before long it will be graduation. This week there is the graduation fair. It is crazy, but also exciting to start thinking about it. We get fitted for our gowns this week as well as make sure everything is in order to graduate. It has started to warm up... it is supposed to get up to 60 this week! We will see if that actually happens haha. I am not convinced we are out of the snow and cold weather yet

This week is when the first tests of the semester happen. I have my Christian Mysticism test this week. Christian Mysticism is so interesting of a call taught by an awesome teacher. It a really interesting subject to dive into. I was supposed to have two other exams this week but they got pushed back because of the snow days we had.

Last weekend I had an amazing weekend. I drove to Des Moines to see a friend of mine I had met at a conference. She is amazing. We are both majoring in Nonprofit so it is fun to share that as well as a lot else we have in common. It was so much fun to do something out of the routine and go spend the day with her. We went to see the movie Labor Day which was a really interesting moving. It dwelt with some interesting moral decisions. But for most of the day we just spend talking, enjoying each others company and wandering around the mall (The mall is West Des Moines is one of the biggest malls I have seen in a long time). On the drive to Des Moines I got one of my class.

To all those who were at competitive scholars day last week best of luck! Good luck to everyone making college decisions in the coming weeks.

The down side of life is friends who you have a really short string with. You feel like anything you do you say one wrong word or they take one thing the wrong way and run away before you even have the time to explain it kind of frustrating. But hey thats life. I guess you cant take anything too personally.

So true. Have a great week!

SNOW DAY!!

Hi All,

Happy snow day to all those in Kansas City! Hope you stay safe and enjoy playing in and shoveling the snow.

Snow days in college can go one of two ways:

--You are super productive and get ahead in all your classes

--You are not productive in anyway at all. You go outside play in the snow and enjoy life.  Sliding is such a big thing to do in college. So many college students love to find a piece of card board and go sliding. I never thought till I got to college that it would be such a big thing to do.

--When you live in the dorms snow days are huge movie watching days. I, a person that like to be productive whenever I can, watched at least two full movies while I was living in the dorms one snow day.

For me, snow days serve as a great opportunity to get caught up and get ahead on assignments. In this final semester on top of the regular class work, I also have to be job searching. That is what I have been doing this morning. There are so many job boards out there to search and so many leads to follow.

The funny thing is when we woke up this morning there was not hardly any snow on the ground but by the end of the night we are supposed to have 10 inches of snow. Which is a small amount when compared to how much snow I have gotten back in my home town of Chicago. Chicago has gotten more snow this winter than they have for years past. I do not remember a winter when it was this bad in Chicago. Anyway, we are in Kansas City (where they are a little slower at plowing snow than in Chicago).

...Exciting news this Friday is competitive scholars day here at Rockhurst. I remember coming for competitive scholars day 4 years ago. I am still friends with some of the people I met 4 years ago at competitive scholars day. Good luck to all those who are coming in for it!

Focus

Hi All,

Hope everyone has had a great week! I just went for a fantastic 6+ mile run. It was a perfect day for a run, 45 degrees and jammed out to some great Christian music.

I have had a great day and had the occasion to run into two friends who I have not run into in a while so it was great to see them! It is a great feeling to be done with classes on Thursday. Thursday's this semester I only have one class as well so it is a great way to end the week. I am becoming more and more of a night student this semester. I have 3 night classes this semester. All of them are very interesting I have to admit.

The night classes I have this semester include Auditing, the American Novel and Individual Tax. I already do taxes but this will have some more knowledge and not having to just rely on the tax software!

I am finally getting into a rhythm of the semester which is great because that is the biggest thing for me each semester! It is definitely my key to success! How about for you? Is finding a rhythm vital for you?

Everything is getting up and going here again at Rockhurst for the semester. The Greek organizations have their new classes and all the organizations are up and running again! It is exciting.

Oh! Exciting things were going on in the cafe today! It was vendor sample day! We have never had one before according to my memory but a lot of the vendors who sell products in the cafe were offering free samples of their products. It was a fun way to get a little dessert after lunch. Fun fact from high school we actually had the same cookie vendor as we do at Rockhurst. They do have the best cookies!

Here is a fun quote for the week!

Choices

As a new semester gets underway, there is an opportunity to make choices...

Take a few minutes to meditate on this... I will be back shortly with a blog to update all on the happenings at RU!

Haiti

Hi All,

Sorry I have been so mia lately. Last Tuesday I got back from a week in Haiti. See below for some pictures from the trip. The pictures are really worth a 1000 words.

FOCUS

Hi All,

It has snowed twice here in the last week! I cannot believe it. The last few years KC has has such a mild December.

Well as this post is titled....FOCUS. It will be the theme of this week for me. In case you have not heard this coming Thursday starts exam week at Rockhurst. I am lucky I get to take all my exams this week and go home this weekend instead of having some next week also. With the conference I am planning coming up in January and finals ending later than normal it will be nice to have those extra few days of break.

Last week, I found out I got exempt from one of my finals. It was such a good feeling because I had worked so hard all semester. It was a really challenging class but I had poured so much time into studying in that class that it felt good to have my hard work finally pay off.

Additionally, last week I also got my philosophy exam done and my term paper in the class turned it. It is such a great feeling to be finished with a class. I enjoyed this philosophy class a lot more than I enjoyed the one I had last year. This year I took Ethical Theory. It is part of the core required by all students at Rockhurst.

This week I have
-Wednesday: Operations Management Final
-Thursday: Study Day!
-Friday: Corporate Tax and Business Law.

With all the Christmas activities going on and hearing Christmas music on. It is extra hard to focus.  Last night Rockhurst had their annual Christmas Concert. I was unable to go but I heard it was great!

Keys to finals week:
- Focus---Give yourself study breaks
-Keep the end in sight- As Father Curran says "This too shall pass" for some finals week may seem so long but it is really not.
-Take it one final at a time
-Eat Healthy
-Get a lot of sleep
-Enjoy finals week. For me I actually enjoy finals week there is a lot of extra time to study and everyone is excited about the upcoming break.

What keys to finals week do you have to add?