Big Decisions

I'm at that point in life where I have to start making those big decisions about my future and I'm not taking them lightly. Its scary to realize that the choices I make today, tomorrow or next week are going to be affecting my future in such a major way. I've been doing a lot of thinking about myself, my thoughts, feeling and beliefs lately to figure out where they would fit best and I think I've figured it out I just hope I'm right, otherwise I'll be wasting a lot of time. I'm not going to talk about what exactly those decisions are until everything is officially decided but I've been thinking a lot about what the right path is for me and I think I've figured it out.

I've been working my tail off lately to try to get all of this last-minute work done for the end of the semester, and its killing me. I have lost the majority of my motivation and thinking of spending three weeks back home is not sounding like the most fun. I love being home, don't get me wrong, but I LOVE to learn and as much as I'm looking forward to break I'll miss good ole Grand View. A break from homework though is sounding really enticing.

I wish there was a lot more known about next semester's schedule right now, like who our Logos prof. is or who my sociology prof. is going to be just because I like to know those things, and the two Logos classes show different books on the bookstore website...it's a dilemma.

Philosophical Thoughts

The other day I heard someone bring about that "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" idea and it got me thinking. The dictionary defines sound as, "Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear." and when you think about it, if there is no person or animal around (which is probably impossible, but in these instances we will assume that there is no person or animal around) there is no sound. Its the fact that there is no one around to hear it because so the vibrations go nowhere. Crazy, right? I started thinking more about ideas like this and came up with a similar idea: if you're in a completely pitch black room (can't see your hand in front of your face) and there's furniture or something in it (you can't see it) is it there? I could argue no, due to the fact that for you to truly know that something is there (without walking around) is to see it (which according to Descartes, is debatable). If you can't see it, then who is to say you aren't imagining it. The senses deceive according to Descartes and on that notion you will never know if that tree in the forest made the noise or if there is anything in that dark room. These are my deep philosophical thoughts right now. Any comments?

Thankful

Well, look at that. I forgot to do the last eight days. Man, I'm great at this, aren't I? Just kidding! I guess I have eight things to be thankful for now!

12: I'm thankful for my car, without it I wouldn't be going home tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and I wouldn't be able to drive around town to go to stores or out to have any fun.

13. I'm thankful for having too many points left on my meal plan. Its quite the hassle to try to use them all up in these last few weeks of the semester, but its kind of fun to buy all kinds of ridiculous things from Stacks.

14. I'm thankful for my FCCLA family. I love that I can talk to those guys about anything and everything. I keep up with my FCCLA friends from high school more than the actual people I graduated and that means a lot to me.

15. I'm thankful for Des Moines. As a city its fantastic. I've learned a lot about the differences between people in small towns and people from the city in the last few months with regard to how they treat you. Here people don't make as much eye contact and at first it was really awkward, but I'm coming to get used to it. Its a city of SO much promise and I'm thankful for that promise. As the city continues to grow, it will provide numerous jobs for so many people who need them.

16. I'm thankful for Pandora, because without it I would not get my daily music fix. I swear, every day I'm on Pandora listening to music. I'm in LOVE with Michael Buble's music, Frank Sinatra helps me study, and sometimes I'll turn on my Today's Hits radio just to pump me up.

17. I'm thankful for Saturdays to relax. Last Saturday I took the day and enjoyed my relaxation and did absolutely nothing, I barely left my room. It was glorious. I watched the entire second season of The Big Bang Theory. I'm obsessed now. Saturdays are just great days, because I love sleeping in and they're great to write papers that are due on Monday. ;)

18. I'm thankful for opportunities I have with the President of my University. A select group of us get to spend time with him and discuss various topics, and last night's topic was Vocation. It could not have come at a much better time. It was really interesting to learn about finding vocation in our lives and figuring out what exactly we were meant to do with our lives. It was really interesting.

19. Today I'm thankful for my Logos class. Its one of my favorite classes in an I love to hate it type of way. It has made me think about so many different abstract topics that I never would have thought of otherwise and I love those challenging thoughts. I also love that tonight we went and saw the movie Lincoln as a class and I have a new favorite movie. Abraham Lincoln is now one of my favorite presidents. (I seem to be asked quite frequently whom my favorite president was and now I have a solid response) regardless of party affiliation. It was so interesting to see how the political ideology of the time was so different when compared with ours. I'm thankful for that chance to see a movie I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Veterans Day

Day 11: I am thankful that I get to live in the greatest country on this planet. I'm so thankful for all of the veterans that put themselves in harm's way to defend my freedom. Thank you to all of the veterans that have served, those who are continuing to serve and those who will serve in the future. I'm thankful for each and every one of you.

Day 2

Yesterday I started my November days of thanks and today I move on to number 10.

10. I'm thankful for my roommate. This week I've been incredibly sick to the point that I missed the majority of my classes for the first half of the week and didn't get to enjoy my family day weekend last week, but my roommate was a doll and took great care of me. She made me soup, got a wash cloth for my face and went with me to pick up my medication. I greatly appreciated it. :)

Hayley

Give Thanks

I can't believe its already November. I was flipping through my trusty agenda today in one of my classes and realized that we only have 5 weeks left of the semester, with one being Thanksgiving break. Can you say shocker? I still feel like I just got here and it blows my mind to think that in just about a month I'll be going home for Christmas break for nearly a month and won't be near any of my friends from GVU...I don't know if I like this idea...but I must say I'm really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Thanksgiving break can't come soon enough, but Christmas break can slow down a bit...make sense?

Well, since its November and I spent the first half of it sick I haven't gotten around to posting a facebook status a day or a tweet a day about what I'm thankful for so I figured, what better place to go than my cute little blog? We're nine days in so I guess I'll come up with the nine things I'm thankful for...here goes nothing!

1. I'm thankful for the incredible experiences I've had in my life. From all of those FCCLA conferences to the new experiences I've had in college, without them I wouldn't be the person I am today. 

2. I'm thankful for my family. I may get mad at them at times or disagree with their actions and decisions, but they are my rock. I don't know where I would be without such a supportive family.

3. I'm thankful for the opportunity to attend such a fantastic College and to have the great professors that I do. I can't even begin to imagine what my college experience would be like without such great faculty at GV.

4. I'm thankful for all of the friends I've made at school and for having such awesome floor-mates to hang out with during my free time.

5. I'm thankful for my health. As ironic as it may seem since I've been sick lately, I'm truly thankful for the fact that I was able to rebound and get back on the horse. 

6. I'm thankful for homework. No, you didn't read that wrong. If I didn't have homework, it would mean I wasn't going to school and to think of my life without the stresses of homework (which, yes at times is ridiculously irritating and I could easily wish for it all to go away most of the time) would mean I wasn't achieving my goals and dreams and that is what I'm thankful for next...

7. I'm thankful for my dreams. One of my favorite "mantras" is Wish it. Dream it. Do it. If I didn't have such big dreams I wouldn't have gotten to the point where I am today in my life. I feel like every person is able to achieve their dreams if they set their mind to it, and I'm thankful for how big my dreams are and how hard I'm going to have to work to achieve them. 

8. I'm thankful for all of my role models. I look up to many people, many of whom are ordinary, normal people who live normal lives. Barack Obama is a pretty big role model right now, but so is J.K. Rowling, FCCLA leaders I've met, congressmen I've had the opportunity to meet with, professors, and friends. I'm thankful that there are so many great role models out there for me to look up to and whether they know it or not (obviously, the President doesn't know that he is one of Hayley Ellis from Iowa's role models) I'm incredibly thankful for them for guiding me along the path I am meant to follow.

9. Finally. Today I am thankful for the grass. I was walking back from class yesterday and they were mowing the grass and man it smelled great. We haven't had the opportunity to smell freshly cut grass very often this year due to the drought but it really was fantastic. I started thinking of the beauty of nature and how no matter where you are in the world, nature connects us all which is an idea of the poet Walt Whitman in Song of Myself (which I so did not read on my own, it was for a class). The leaves of grass connect us all, the living and the dead, the rich and the poor so therefore I am thankful for it.

What are you thankful for?

Hayley

Congratulations Mr. President

Well, in case you haven't noticed, (perhaps you live in a hole in the ground or in a tree or under a rock, I don't judge) the election is now over. Thank goodness. As much as I love our political system, I was ready for it to be over. No more ads. No more emails. No more annoying phone calls. It's done and man am I elated from the results. Quite a few people were skeptical about the President going into the election, and I'll admit, so was I but as soon as he won Pennsylvania, I knew it was over.

I believe that everyone should have the chance to experience what I experienced last night when the race was beginning to be called for Obama, and I can't even begin to describe what I experienced. I'll give a quick run-down of my night to try to explain.

Election coverage on NBC began at 6:00 (central time) so I set my laptop up with my TV because I didn't want to watch the local news channels, I was more focused on the Presidential race versus the congressional races. Around 7:00 we decided to grab dinner, and around 8:00 I took a shower. I've been incredibly sick the last few days so it was a big deal to be able to get up and moving yesterday! Then around 8:30 I zoned in to the election full force for the next hour and a half. Just after 10:00 I started falling asleep so I turned the TV and computer off and tried to sleep. I couldn't. I gave up and saw that my phone had ten texts about the election. I read the first one and was confused. I couldn't figure out how in a matter of 10 minutes the race could change so drastically. As soon as I read those I was awake. I started texting and posting on social media and watching the news.

As all of this is unfolding as the news of President Obama's reelection is spreading, I hear cheers across campus and in my hall of "OBAMA!!" and in that moment I began laughing hysterically (to the point my roommate was giving me some weird looks) and I was so incredibly proud of the work that our young people have done and the amazing job that the Obama campaign did. My first election. My first vote. All for someone I truly believe will move our country forward. It might sound cheesy, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.