Search results matching tags 'Greek life' and 'BUSF'

Deep Thoughts

LizM — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:55:00 GMT

So life is good these days. I'm finally starting to iron out my schedule and figure out which days I can stay up late, those that I can study for a bit but still have time to take a break or go to the HRC, and those few that I have to limit my socilization/facebook time and actually get my work done! This past week has brought up some deep thoughts. They aren't quite as entertaining as Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey (for the SNL fans) but as a prospective Butler student they might provide some insight:
1. 8:00 classes should only be scheduled if absolutely necessary.
Okay so I know I should be a big girl and be able to wake myself up in the mornings and be adultlike. But seriously. Noone wants to have to wake up that early--I mean, thats how early we had to wake up in high school! For some majors this is probably absolutely necessary because there are only certain classes available at that time. However, my 8:00 is PE 101. Not that I have anything against wellness or fitness, but I HATE walking over to Hinkle every Tuesday and Thursday morning! I usually get up, turn off the alarm, hop back in bed, and by the time I wake up again and look at the clock its 8:05 and not nearly enough time to get dressed and make the trek to Hinkle. I sound like a big whiner, its true. I could have something really difficult at 8:00 in the morning that I would need to be very attentive for. Even so, its no good. Heed the warnings of college students who have been there and don't schedule them that early.
2. Even though going to a million call out meetings can be tiring and time consuming, they are worth it!
Over the past two weeks I have been to numerous call out meetings for a zillion different organizations. There are volunteer ones, like College Mentors for Kids, student involvement stuff like the Student Foundation and Student Government Association, and just such a wide variety of anything you could ever be interested in, like mock trial, ballroom dancing, voices of deliverance, young life, intramural sports, sorority night etc. Its a great place to learn about the organizations but also to meet people. Even if you decide its not for you, at least you made the effort to be there and learn about the club. You could be a great resource as well because perhaps you could recommend it to someone you know that would be interested in the group. Don't be afraid to try something new!
3. Decide what you want to be involved in and be dedicated to it.
Let's face it: nobody can be in a million places at once. Sure there are always those overachievers who somehow end up in fifty clubs and are the President or VP of half of them, but personally I can't handle doing too much or I get incredibly stressed out. After finding out about the clubs and organizations available here at BU I've pretty much narrowed down the list to the things I know that I will enjoy and I know I will be dedicated to. I mean there's really no point to be involved in something if you aren't passionate about it and you aren't willing to spend time and effort to be the best possible member you can be. So far I have it narrowed down to SGA, Dance Team, IM soccer, and BUMPA. The latter is the organization for the PA program. Right now I'm an Exploratory major, but as of this moment I'm leaning towards the physician's assistant program...I don't know, we shall see. But I figured that would be a good way to get to know more about the program. I also would like to get involved in some community service stuff as well, not make everything about myself. Sometimes I tend to get caught up in my own little world and forget there are other people around here too :). But for now I like what I'm doing and I'm excited to see what else comes along the way.
4. Breathe and relax during interviews. Particularly group interviews. Deep breaths in and out.
I applied for BUSF, the student foundation here at Butler that promotes networking between alumni, current students, and future students. It seems like a great opportunity and very similar to an Ambassador Leadership Team I was involved in back in high school. I was pretty excited when I got offered an interview (I'm not sure if they gave one to everybody or what the deal was exactly, but regardless I was pumped). However, I hadn't been in an interview setting since way back six months ago or so when I had scholarship interviews. It's funny how quickly you forget how nerve wracking they are and that nervous feeling you get in your stomach walking into the interview. It wasn't as awful as I feared, but we did have to do a group interview where three other girls and I were interviewed by the officer board. I was so frustrated at one point because I was the last person in line to answer and all of the ideas I had in my mind to respond with had already been used. I think my face turned really red and my hands were sweating profusely--but i made it out alive! The nice thing about it was that I came somewhat prepared. Some of my friends pre-interview interviewed me and asked me some of the typical "whats your greatest strength," "what makes you a good leader," type questions. So it wasn't so awful. But breathing is really important, especially to avoid the embarrassing red face issue.
It's been a great week but I'm ready for the weekend. My family is coming in Saturday and I'm really glad they are coming. I haven't seen them since they moved me in here a month ago. I can't say I miss my hometown too much. Some of my friends, definetly. And my family of course. But I really like it here at BU and it feels like home! I think I'm going to stop by the Alpha Phi Bounce for Beats event tomorrow. My roomate and I had dinner there tonight and it was so much fun! I'll probably write more about the greek life in the next blog after I visit a few more of the houses and get more info about everything. Until next time...

And here's one of my favorite Jack Handey quotes, just for fun: I think there should be something in science called the "reindeer effect." I don't know what it would be, but I think it'd be good to hear someone say, "Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect."

2007: A year in pictures

ChristinaL — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 07:00:00 GMT

You may think I put tons of pictures up on my blog, but for every one I post, there are hundreds more on my computer. To celebrate the end of 2007, I picked out some of my favorite shots that you haven't seen before. Enjoy!

Bell tower in the snow, February 2007.

Snow day! The guiding spirit of our music fraternity was named Boh, so we made a Kappa Kappa Psi themed "Boh-man".

Our student foundation is known for our rugbies... but we stole the idea from University of Wisconsin. Our conference in Madison was a blast - it's such a cool city and we loved hanging out with the UW students!

KKPsi hosted Salsa Night last year - here's two of my friends dancing. At Butler, we love ballroom dancing (everyone's favorite PE credit!)

In front of the house with my Greek family after I got initiated into Pi Phi.

Sweet 16 game vs. Florida! Butler showed it on a massive screen in Clowes hall. We may have lost, but we're winning in this picture

When our team arrived home from the Sweet 16 in St. Louis, we were there to cheer for them when they got off the bus.

Sigma Nu's World Vision Bowl (sorority football tournament) is one of the most popular Greek events all year. Check out our team captain getting tackled in the middle! Those girls were intense!

All the music & dance fraternities & sororities teamed up this year for a pirate-themed formal. Everyone else pretty much wore normal dresses and suits, but three of my friends who were the DJs for the evening really got into it.

At our District convention in Cincinnati, my Big Big Big Brother Eric won the highest award a collegiate member of KKPsi can get! We were so proud. It was an exciting convention because my big brother (and blogger) Alex was elected district secretary/treasurer, our former chapter president Jeremy was elected district president, and our chapter was selected to host the next convention in Indianapolis! I feel so lucky to be part of such an outstanding group.

So my friend Julie was studying abroad last spring in Australia, but before she left she had a life-size cardboard cut-out made of herself! We took it to all of our KKPsi events and tagged "her" in all our photos of so she could see what we were up to. In this shot, she's hanging out in Cincy with us. Only Julie...

The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life is a huge event at Butler and so much fun. Last year some of my friends and I dressed up our buddy Paul for the Miss-ter Relay beauty competition. Makeup, shaved legs, panty-hose, jewelry... "Paula" was the real deal. She raised a bunch of money for cancer research and so we won the competition!

Once upon a time, we were cleaning out the band storage room in Hinkle when we found a box. My friend Nate said, "Hey, I can use this!" He took the box home over winter break, and when he came back... Boxbot was born! After that, many late nights were spent doing Boxbot photo shoots around Ross Hall...oh the freshmen dorm life. Nothing like it!

I know this isn't the greatest quality picture, but no record of 2007 would be complete without Steak n Shake. This photo is from a special trip with my "family," but I think we went about once a week. Oh frisco melts - how we love thee!

Finals Week - Spring 07. Somebody soapified Star Fountain!

I absolutely loved my freshman dorm room in Schwitzer. I was so sad to leave it that I went on an insane picture taking spree during the last week of school. It was pathetic... but now I can probably do a great blog post on what a Schwitz room looks like!

I spent my summer performing with the Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps from Casper, Wyoming. We toured the whole country and performed 3 or 4 times a week - so much fun. Here's the colorguard, aka the people I spent ALL my time with and love soooo much! Most of them are from Texas... I miss them!

Check out how tan I was by the end of the summer!

Even though I was all over the country this summer, I never felt too far away from home because there were always Butler friends around. Chris (the guy in the BU sweatshirt) is a drummer who marched with me for 2 summers in a row (and helped convince me to go to Butler!). Evan, in the middle, is also a music major at Butler and is the drum major for a different corps from South Carolina. This photo was taken right after he was named best drum major of all the corps in the nation! Go Bulldogs! : )

Drum Corps International Championships were in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl this year, so we got a day off to enjoy Cali. We spent an afternoon at Santa Monica Pier where MTV happened to be filming an episode of Next (see they bus behind us?) And yes, it is as fake as it looks on tv. The producers tell all the people what to say!

"Make new friends but keep the old"... even though I'm not home very much, I'm still close with some of the same friends I've had since junior high. Ashley (who goes to Augustana in IL) and Sarah (who goes to GWU in DC and took this picture) and I had a campout on my back porch before we all headed back to school in August.

Back at Butler, finally! Block Party is my favorite part of Welcome Week because you can find out about all the awesome student organizations. Here I am at the Butler Student Foundation (BUSF) table with Forrest (president) and Sara (secretary).

BUSF always helps out with Homecoming and this year Kate and I worked at Blue's Family Fun Fair - of course we had to test all the games ourselves before the kids got there!

My Big Sis Ariel was our Homecoming Queen candidate for Pi Phi. Here we are at the football game - she's the greatest!

Living up my nineteenth birthday with two of my best friends, Amy and Betsy.

Pi Phi and Sigma Nu teamed up to plant trees for Keep Indianapolis Beautiful this fall and had such a blast. My friends Jon, Ariel, Ross and I were an amazing team - we planted four trees and named them all after characters from Finding Nemo. This is Sharkbait!

Fall at Butler is so beautiful! I love our campus.

One of my favorite things about being a sophomore is getting a Little Brother for KKPsi. I first met Jimmy at camp when he was 16. Last year when I heard he was looking at Butler I was so excited that I did everything in my power to convince him to come here. Not only did he choose Butler, but he joined my fraternity and now he's my little!

The BUSF exec board puts so much hard work into creating a great experience for Butler students, alumni and prospectives, so it was so sweet that our advisor rewarded us by taking us along to Chicago to help with her conference. These three people with me are some of the most involved student leaders at Butler and I admire them all so much. I feel so lucky to consider them great friends, too!

Basketball was one of the greatest parts of 2007, and it looks like 2008 could be even better! "DAWG POUND! wooooooosh!"

Wow, 2007... my first full year at Butler and such an amazing one. So many great people, good memories, late nights, long days, and fun times.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful 2008 and that I'll see some of you at Butler this year!