I am very excited to introduce myself as a Butler Blogger for the third time! I am, in fact, the longest-running blogger in the very long history of Butler Blogging (three years...haha) Now I am a senior, but I started this wonderful job when I was a sophomore, so if you want to know what is like to become an upperclassmen at Butler, become more involved at Butler than I could ever imagine, move away from Butler (to study abroad), come back to Butler, add a major, spend summer in Indy interning and then become a senior, then think of my blog archives as one long epic novel about a Butler career.   I also tell stories sometimes on my blog about being a freshman, so you really get my whole Butler experience! It's like having all 10 seasons of Friends on DVD : ) To see all my archived blog posts, click here.

So far being a senior has been exciting and scary.  Being an orientation guide for the new students and being one of only 3 seniors who still lives in my sorority house means I am around younger Butler students a LOT.  That makes me feel really old because many of them (and probably many of you reading this blog) were born in the 90s.  I think it is a symbol that I'm officially old when the children of the 80s are no longer the kids! The younger ones also make me a little jealous that I don't get to have all the annual college rituals ever again! I will never have another Welcome Week or undergrad Homecoming or move back into my sorority house, and that's hard when these and so many other things at BU are traditions I have grown to love so much.  

Old people have to hang out together.  I am on the far right, in the middle is another old senior - my friend Erikaa, and on the left is another old person we met while in Grapevine, Texas for Pi Phi national convention. : )

The nice thing about being a senior surrounded by younger students is that people actually seem to think I know what's going on! ; ) Really, I love being a resource for my younger friends as they start or continue their college journeys.  I know my older friends meant SO much to me when I was starting college. It is because of the people that were seniors and juniors and sophomores when I got here that I grew to love Butler so much.  They made me feel so welcome and immediately like part of the family, so I'm glad to be that older friend for someone else and pay it forward.

Well, that's enough musing about being old for one blog post.  (My advisor is about to turn 70 so he always makes fun of me when I complain about my age.)

I guess I will do a little introduction in case you are just joining us here at the wonderful Butler Blogs.  You already know that I'm a senior, but you might not know that I am a double major in English and Spanish with a minor in Gender Studies.  I am in the Honors Program and I will begin research on my thesis any day now.  I am very involved with Greek Life - I hold exec positions for Pi Beta Phi, the Order of Omega (Greek honors society) and the Panhellenic Association which oversees the sororities.  I also play clarinet in the band and am in a music fraternity, work with alumni through the Student Foundation and dabble in other clubs and committees as much as I can.  I work for NUVO Newsweekly, which is an independent newspaper in town... and thus supports one of my million potential post-grad plans: journalism.  I am from the Chicago suburbs (I went to Naperville North HS - GO HUSKIES!), but I've also lived around the Midwest and in Tokyo, Japan, and I studied abroad last year in Madrid, Spain.  Traveling is pretty much my favorite thing to do.  I also love volunteering, riding my bike, meeting new people, reading, dancing, recycling, and color coding my calendar.  Is that enough for now? I write infamously lengthy blogs, so I'm sure you'll get to know me, but if you ever have questions, feel free to comment or email me.  The only thing I love almost as much as traveling is TALKING ABOUT BUTLER! : )