Its 2 am Friday morning, and I am currently sitting on top of a washing machine in the basement of Whitfield waiting for laundry to finish so I can start to pack for spring break. But I doubt this is going to be an ordinary stress free spring break. For the first time in a number of years, my mom and brother are on spring break the same time I am so I am actually going to be able to get to spend some quality family time. One thing that I am going to hate when spring break is over... is that my deadlines are all going to be closing in on me... and then graduation will become feasible. I titled this blog entry the woes of a graduating senior, but I have not gotten to that part yet. I think part of it is because as soon as I start to write about it... all the stress that left me for 2.5 will all be creeping back in. So here I go... letting loose of all the woes and troubles coming my way from now until May 7th.
1. Finding a job. This scares me half to death, I have been "looking" for awhile but have not submitted my resume yet. My initial goal was to have my resume completed and ready to send out to various businesses, newspapers and schools hoping and praying that someone will like what they see, give me an interview and then hire me. But I have not even gotten that far. I am still working on my resume, and that thing is more daunting and scary than I thought it would be. I am afraid that I will either have too much information, or not enough. And this is a major fear of mine because as I would like to a journalist or an editor, all of my experience comes from working within the theater. I have at least decided that I am not going to be spreading myself thin, I am going to cover all bases and go anywhere I am qualified with my English degree.
2. Job vs. Summer Internship. This has become a recent thought and something that I need to seriously pray about. For one thing, I don't have the necessary experience working in a newsroom being either a reporter or editor that I would like to have, and a summer internship would give me this experience. Another issue that I have is whether I not I should look for an internship at a newspaper, or if I should look for one in the theater (where I have the most experience in).
3. Documentary. Last semester, my assignment, along with J. Gooch (or Goochie Hootchie as I so affectionately call him) was to film the production of "The Taffettas" from start to finish and the ultimate goal being a documentary. The idea sounded cool and all, but it quickly became a thorn in my side for many reasons. (One being that I had a total Negative Nancy attitude about it and the second being that I had no flipping idea what I was doing). Tonight was my first initial meeting with David Harrell, (our IT guy at school who will help guide us in the editing process) and during our meeting, we came up with our story board and then proceeded to view 17+ hours of footage, crammed into 3 hours. And to be honest, the more we worked and watched footage the more I became excited about this project. I think this was because David complimented me on all the wonderful USABLE footage that I got, as well as some good interviews. But here is the kicker with this project... its date for viewing by the WHOLE school is March 31st. We can get it done, and I am excited about it but its going to consume a lot of my time following spring break. This is also something that is going to look spectacular on my resume, and also I get to do voice overs. :)
4. Bids and Invitations. The same week that the documentary will debute, I will also have to deal with getting bids out to the pledges for Alpha Psi Omega, as well as the invitations for the Jimmy Awards. With these two things being so close together, I have to make sure that all the invitations and bids get addressed and sent out in a timely manner. And the day that bids go out is always a big and exciting day.
5. Pledge Meeting. Following the delivery of the bids, I, as president of Alpha Psi have to lead and direct the new little neophytes. This in and of itself requires butt loads of planning and preparation. What sucks about this is that its not something that I can delegate off to one of the council members, its a meeting that I have to conduct.
6. Rush Week. April 4-8 is my favorite, but also my most hated week. Rush will be from 8-6 and its always real time consuming for me because not only am I doing the duties of a member, I also am planning other events behind the scenes.
7. Pledge Night. April 11th. The most stressful day ever. I have to make sure that tests get distributed, our ceremony goes off without a hitch, everyone knows what they are to do, and to make sure that there are no problems with the reception. Its also my favorite because its the night that the neophytes find out whether or not they get to become Alpha Psi members or not.
8. Jimmy Awards. April 14th. Right after finishing with rush week and pledge night, I have to make sure that everything is done and completed for the restaurant as well as on our end. I have to make sure that I have everyone's corrected food order, seating arrangements done, favors, and many more things. This night will be emotional, not only because its my last one, but I also have to deliver my farewell speech as out-going Alpha Psi president (of which I have served for 2 years, but also the end of being a council member since I have been on council since I was a sophomore), induct the new president, but the kicker is that this is the year that I receive my senior plaque. This is one thing that I have looked forward to recieving since I was a freshman, but its the one thing that is going to make me cry like a little girl.
9. Preparation for finals and graduation. I have no words other than I am not ready to think about this yet.
10. Getting my soul back from Garrett. Sarah, CJ and I plan on going over to Garrett and writing our list of things (plays and roles) we have done in the BMC theater since our time there. This is going to be one very bittersweet moment. I have lived in Garrett since my freshmen year (figuratively, not literally) and when I sign the wall, I will finally have my soul back. Its going to be a bittersweet day.
So as it stands, I have a full plate of things coming up and its slowly killing me. I have decided that next year's Alpha Psi president has no idea what they have gotten themselves into, and I hope they can become fast friends with stress because its the driving force behind everything. I am excited about everything, but at the same time its all very bittersweet... this is when reality of leaving Blue Mountain really starts to set in. I am ready to face it.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Random Thoughts for the Day
I was awoken this morning at about five thirty this morning and was completely unable to go back to sleep. And during this time of sleeplessness, my mind was running from 90 to nothing on some of the most absurd and random things ever. Although I do believe that amidst all of sleepless thoughts that I did have one very strange dream. But more about that later... but write now I think I want to write/talk about a thought that has been running through my head all morning, and its a thought that I think really does not have a point to it.
To begin this random thought I had this morning, I must cover the back story of where this thought might have come from. Last week sometime, my little brother (a senior in high school) was assigned to write a 1-2 page paper about evolution being taught in the public school system. To me, this seemed like a very absurd homework assignment because for one, my brother attended a private school; two, he, unlike my sister and I, has never attended public school; and thirdly, a good many of the people in Chris' Bible class had probably never stepped foot into a public school a day in their life... so their perspective on the topic would have only been objective, not subjective. (I hope I got that wording right) But anyways, my brother called me last week while I was in rehearsal begging for my help on his paper. He told me the assignment and told me that he only had about three-fourths, to a whole page written, and he just needed help in finishing it because he was stuck. (My brother hates writing, and bless his heart, its definitely not his strongest point). So being the good big sister that I am... good big sister who is earning an English degree... came to rescue sweet little Christopher who was in dire need of some help.
I got back to my room that night, prepared to help make something up in order for my brother to receive a passing grade. But also in doing this, I had a perspective about the topic that my brother did not have, I was subjected to the teaching of evolution in the classroom. I, unlike my brother, had attended public school from kindergarten until the seventh grade. (My brother started Briarcrest when he was in the second or third grade). I had the perspective on the topic that my brother only imaged about. While writing, I had to reflect back on my years in public school and try to remember how several of my middle school teachers approached the topic of evolution in the classroom. In the paper, I wrote about how "I" thought it to be important that children are taught both Evolution and Creation, only because I see it to be important for kids (and ages beyond) to form their own beliefs and opinions. But it was also stated in the paper that, not only is it important for them to form their own opinions, but for us as Christians to fully understand both points of view. i.e. Philosophical or religious debate when someone (namely a Christian) is trying to explain the creation story to an Evolutionist... thus being able to know all the theories or information on evolution in order to refute it and to back it up with Biblical principles and verses.
But Charles Darwin and his theories of Evolution is not what kept me awake this morning, it was the simple word... evolution. Not the science of it but the process or formation of growth. And this is the thought that kept me up this morning, kept my mind racing. It got me thinking that I am evolving... everyone is constantly evolving. We are all growing, hopefully, into better versions of ourselves. And then this thought set off a whole new cycle of events... I am evolving from being a college student, into an adult... and then it went into the thoughts of the cycle of growth we all go through from birth until adulthood... and then it got me thinking that I am evolving as a Christian... I am not the same girl that I once was on October 26, 2010. I have evolved from the girl that I was once was into the woman that God has me to be. I am guessing this whole cycle of thoughts all came from my brother's paper, and also from all the baby developments since Sunday (Jen and Goldie).
I am not sure if I was going anywhere with any of that, but its a thought has been brewing and growing in my mind since about 5:30 this morning, and I thought my blog would be a good outlet to finally get that thought out and into words.
To begin this random thought I had this morning, I must cover the back story of where this thought might have come from. Last week sometime, my little brother (a senior in high school) was assigned to write a 1-2 page paper about evolution being taught in the public school system. To me, this seemed like a very absurd homework assignment because for one, my brother attended a private school; two, he, unlike my sister and I, has never attended public school; and thirdly, a good many of the people in Chris' Bible class had probably never stepped foot into a public school a day in their life... so their perspective on the topic would have only been objective, not subjective. (I hope I got that wording right) But anyways, my brother called me last week while I was in rehearsal begging for my help on his paper. He told me the assignment and told me that he only had about three-fourths, to a whole page written, and he just needed help in finishing it because he was stuck. (My brother hates writing, and bless his heart, its definitely not his strongest point). So being the good big sister that I am... good big sister who is earning an English degree... came to rescue sweet little Christopher who was in dire need of some help.
I got back to my room that night, prepared to help make something up in order for my brother to receive a passing grade. But also in doing this, I had a perspective about the topic that my brother did not have, I was subjected to the teaching of evolution in the classroom. I, unlike my brother, had attended public school from kindergarten until the seventh grade. (My brother started Briarcrest when he was in the second or third grade). I had the perspective on the topic that my brother only imaged about. While writing, I had to reflect back on my years in public school and try to remember how several of my middle school teachers approached the topic of evolution in the classroom. In the paper, I wrote about how "I" thought it to be important that children are taught both Evolution and Creation, only because I see it to be important for kids (and ages beyond) to form their own beliefs and opinions. But it was also stated in the paper that, not only is it important for them to form their own opinions, but for us as Christians to fully understand both points of view. i.e. Philosophical or religious debate when someone (namely a Christian) is trying to explain the creation story to an Evolutionist... thus being able to know all the theories or information on evolution in order to refute it and to back it up with Biblical principles and verses.
But Charles Darwin and his theories of Evolution is not what kept me awake this morning, it was the simple word... evolution. Not the science of it but the process or formation of growth. And this is the thought that kept me up this morning, kept my mind racing. It got me thinking that I am evolving... everyone is constantly evolving. We are all growing, hopefully, into better versions of ourselves. And then this thought set off a whole new cycle of events... I am evolving from being a college student, into an adult... and then it went into the thoughts of the cycle of growth we all go through from birth until adulthood... and then it got me thinking that I am evolving as a Christian... I am not the same girl that I once was on October 26, 2010. I have evolved from the girl that I was once was into the woman that God has me to be. I am guessing this whole cycle of thoughts all came from my brother's paper, and also from all the baby developments since Sunday (Jen and Goldie).
I am not sure if I was going anywhere with any of that, but its a thought has been brewing and growing in my mind since about 5:30 this morning, and I thought my blog would be a good outlet to finally get that thought out and into words.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
New Kid on the Block
So I am new to this whole blog/blogger world, and thought I would give it a whirl. And why not start a blog during the most important season of my life... my journey to becoming a college graduate. This journey I think will be the basis for this blog. Before I start bemoaning about the world and the scary future ahead of me, I thought it might be best to have my first blog posting to me about why I chose the name that I did: Not Your Ordinary Emmalee.
When I first thought about becoming a blogger, or whatever the proper wordage and verbiage is, I knew I need a catchy and memorable name. Then it hit me... my name. Emmalee (or Emma-Lee, depending on the day of week of my mood). Emmalee... slightly generic, yet not your ordinary spelling. I am not your ordinary Emily... I am Emmalee. I set myself apart. And if you (that special reader who loves me enough to read this) knows anything about, you know that there is not a single ordinary thing about me.
Now enough about that... on to the important part of this. My ramblings. Since this is my first post, I am not exactly sure where I am going with this just yet, other than I want to get my first post done and posted... get my feet wet. One thing though that makes me slightly nervous about this blogging thing is that there is no grammar corrections and minimal spell check. As an English major, this scares me. Fragments and run-ons are an absolute nightmare, and I don't have the comfort here of being "called out" if I did commit the cardinal sin of writing. So I will hence fourth write all my further postings in fear of these two cardinal sins. I have come to notice, that as I write this... there is absolutely no point to any of this so far, I have not gotten to the meat of the matter. Right now, it is the equivalent of verbal salad... all lettuce and no meat.
I think the fourth paragraph is now a good place to be cleared of the verbal salad, and on to the meat of the matter. Life. Today was Super Bowl Sunday, and a lot of important things have happened beyond the Packers winning the Super Bowl. Today, one of my dear sweet friends, Jen Smith, gave birth to her first child, the beautiful Abiella Kaitlyn Smith. But also today, within an hour of finding out about Abbi's safe delivery, I got a phone call about another dear sweet friend, Goldie, will be expecting her second child. All the news of babies today, has set a lot of things in perspective... namely the fact that I am getting old. People all around are getting engaged, married and popping out sweet bundles of joy. Its scary to think that some of my friends that I spent many of my college years with are now mothers. My friends are parents. Thats weird to admit. I am excited for them in all aspects, but nervous for them at the same time. I guess this is because all three of us, myself, Jen and Goldie, are all entering new seasons of life. I am about to become a big kid and embark on my own with a job, and bills to pay and an apartment to keep up. (But right now, it looks like the apartment won't be a reality until the end of the year.) Then there is Jen, who is entering a new season of life... being a mommy. I am beyond words excited for her and Drew, and also for baby Abbi and to get to see her grow up. And then there is Goldie, who already has August (my favorite one year old) who is expecting her second. Goldie is just one lady who I absolutely admire. I have gotten to watch her grow up and mature... and see how much her life has changed drastically since August of 2006 when I first met her. With all this being said, I admire these ladies and its scary to think that I will be where they are 5-10 (hopefully not 10) years from now.
All in all... I am not ready to escape my safe bubble of Blue Mountain College, but at the same time, I am ready to. I am ready to put my mark on the world, and make a name for myself. So I am going to allow this blog to document my journey in my final semester of college, and as I prepare myself to make my mark on the world.
I think that is enough ramblings for now. :)
When I first thought about becoming a blogger, or whatever the proper wordage and verbiage is, I knew I need a catchy and memorable name. Then it hit me... my name. Emmalee (or Emma-Lee, depending on the day of week of my mood). Emmalee... slightly generic, yet not your ordinary spelling. I am not your ordinary Emily... I am Emmalee. I set myself apart. And if you (that special reader who loves me enough to read this) knows anything about, you know that there is not a single ordinary thing about me.
Now enough about that... on to the important part of this. My ramblings. Since this is my first post, I am not exactly sure where I am going with this just yet, other than I want to get my first post done and posted... get my feet wet. One thing though that makes me slightly nervous about this blogging thing is that there is no grammar corrections and minimal spell check. As an English major, this scares me. Fragments and run-ons are an absolute nightmare, and I don't have the comfort here of being "called out" if I did commit the cardinal sin of writing. So I will hence fourth write all my further postings in fear of these two cardinal sins. I have come to notice, that as I write this... there is absolutely no point to any of this so far, I have not gotten to the meat of the matter. Right now, it is the equivalent of verbal salad... all lettuce and no meat.
I think the fourth paragraph is now a good place to be cleared of the verbal salad, and on to the meat of the matter. Life. Today was Super Bowl Sunday, and a lot of important things have happened beyond the Packers winning the Super Bowl. Today, one of my dear sweet friends, Jen Smith, gave birth to her first child, the beautiful Abiella Kaitlyn Smith. But also today, within an hour of finding out about Abbi's safe delivery, I got a phone call about another dear sweet friend, Goldie, will be expecting her second child. All the news of babies today, has set a lot of things in perspective... namely the fact that I am getting old. People all around are getting engaged, married and popping out sweet bundles of joy. Its scary to think that some of my friends that I spent many of my college years with are now mothers. My friends are parents. Thats weird to admit. I am excited for them in all aspects, but nervous for them at the same time. I guess this is because all three of us, myself, Jen and Goldie, are all entering new seasons of life. I am about to become a big kid and embark on my own with a job, and bills to pay and an apartment to keep up. (But right now, it looks like the apartment won't be a reality until the end of the year.) Then there is Jen, who is entering a new season of life... being a mommy. I am beyond words excited for her and Drew, and also for baby Abbi and to get to see her grow up. And then there is Goldie, who already has August (my favorite one year old) who is expecting her second. Goldie is just one lady who I absolutely admire. I have gotten to watch her grow up and mature... and see how much her life has changed drastically since August of 2006 when I first met her. With all this being said, I admire these ladies and its scary to think that I will be where they are 5-10 (hopefully not 10) years from now.
All in all... I am not ready to escape my safe bubble of Blue Mountain College, but at the same time, I am ready to. I am ready to put my mark on the world, and make a name for myself. So I am going to allow this blog to document my journey in my final semester of college, and as I prepare myself to make my mark on the world.
I think that is enough ramblings for now. :)
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