Race to the finish

ChristinaL — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:34:00 GMT

Hello everyone! What a CRAZY week it has been... I have alternated between nights of almost no sleep, trying to meet deadlines, and then nights when I slept for nine or even eleven hours straight, trying to catch up.

Here's is what's keeping me busy:

1) Course scheduling: I think this actually gets harder as an upperclassmen when I get to register first! The reason? SO many upper level classes are in the late afternoon/at night. Great for sleeping in. Not great for the fact that they overlap and I have to make tough choices about what to take.

As of right now, I am signed up for Philosophy of Feminism (requirement for my Gender Studies minor), American Women's Writing (my research seminar for English Lit), Hispanic Masterpieces (300-level survey course for my Spanish major) and Media & Cultural Criticism (will count for Gender Studies... but I'm mostly taking it because this is something I can see myself using in my writing career. For example, last night I went to a play downtown and I'm working on a review for it for my NUVO internship right now).

I know that's not a lot of classes (only 12 credit hours), but I can also get 3 credit hours for writing my honors thesis. I think it will be a good idea to block aside that time so I don't get too stressed writing my thesis! There is also a program I am considering where I could be a "writing fellow" and assist a professor with teaching their First Year Seminar class (part of the core curriculum) and help out the first year students with adapting to college writing. I already do this for my job as a Writer's Studio tutor, but it would be nice to get some classroom experience in case I decide to go to grad school and have to teach undergrads.

2) Volunteer work: takes up time... but is definitely the stress relief in my busy schedule.

For my Panhel position, I have been advising a group of new sorority members from all the houses called Junior Panhel. They have been hard at work planning a week of service projects and they went so well. We focused on helping different groups - on "Animal Day," sorority members went to the Humane Society and Animal Care & Control. On "Elderly Day" we went to nursing homes, and on "Kids Day" we went to after school programs. I volunteered for one of the nursing home projects and it was SO much fun! We did a craft with some elderly ladies and got to talk with them. They really love having activities scheduled in their days, and I like getting advice from people who have seen it all. My craft buddy, Pat, wants to tell all the women out there that it is VERY important to get a job with your own benefits - don't rely on a husband's benefits to support you in your retirement. Good advice! It was also so much fun to meet some Greek women from other sororities that I didn't know before. It was awesome that we could all come together and make new friends while supporting a great cause. Snaps to the freshman women who planned these excellent opportunities!

On Friday, several brothers from my band fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, spent the evening remodeling our band storage room in Hinkle Fieldhouse. We had to dismantle the old shelves, carry the heavy scrap wood a long way to the dumpster, and then build the new shelves that we had raised money to order. It was definitely a learning experience... we had three shelving units to assemble, and we did each of them in a different way! It took a while, but we were really proud to have finished this project - it will be a huge help for all the band and cheerleaders who use this room regularly. Here are some before and after shots:

3) HOMEWORK! There is so much to do!

I have spent a good chunk of this weekend (whenever I wasn't catching up on my sleep) reading and doing research. I am reading novels for two of my literature classes and a very dense history book. It is fascinating though, because it's about immigrant working women in New York who organized all the factory workers to demand unions and better wages and rights for working women. I am also in the middle of doing research on these women, because I'm writing a big paper about how these women contributed to the women's suffrage cause. They were very inspirational ladies! If this interests you, I recommend the book we're reading: Common Sense and a Little Fire, by Annelise Orleck.

So, these things have been keeping me busy, and I have a meeting and event packed week ahead of me. April at Butler is always crazy busy, but a good time. I hope I can keep a decent balance between work, fun and sleep this week/ For now, I'm going to get back to that theatre review, find some dinner and then more research/reading.

To my high school senior readers, I know that this can be a stressful time in your life, too, as you try to make a college decision, so if there are any questions I can answer for you, please send me a message or comment here. Good luck!

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Race to the finish