Sunday, November 11, 2012
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.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
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
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
Friday, November 9, 2012
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
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Right now, I should be writing a paper, I should be doing my math journal, I should be doing something productive, but I'm not and I have no desire to do so. Its been awhile since I blogged, so therefore I have deemed this to be of much more importance than doing anything mildly productive.
I've been having a dilemma. I'm at this point in my life where I don't know what I don't want to do with my life with absolute confidence, the only thing that I know for sure at this point in time is that I want to be a teacher, and a high school teacher at that. But what else? That's my dilemma. The last four or five years all I've wanted to be was a Family Consumer Sciences teacher, but now that I'm really doing it all, I've realized that as much as I absolutely FCS, the only reason I want to be an FCS teacher is because I know and love so many FCS teachers across the state and I want to be an FCCLA adviser and at this point in time, those reasons don't seem good enough. I'm just honestly so incredibly confused right now its not cool.
So I'm at a point where I'm trying to decide whether I want to teach history or math or if I should get both endorsements which will equal an ungodly amount of work. I always scored incredibly well on tests in English or Science, but for some reason I have no desire to teach them. I just don't know. I had a meeting today to try to get an idea of where I need to be for the next three and a half years and its crazy. You think you have so much time to choose what you want to do or what your major should be, but really there isn't that much time. The Social Studies teaching endorsement is 55 credit hours alone. That is the equivalent of taking over three semesters of strictly content area related classes and nothing else. If I wanted to go along with math, its 32 credit hours, and combined math and social studies equal 87 credits. Woah. That's OVER 5 semesters. Taking 17 credits a semester. And I'm a class behind in Math. Oh goodness. If anything has ever seemed daunting to me this is it. This. Is. Crazy.
I guess I have a couple more months to figure out what I really truly want to do and I'm sure it'll take all of those few months to figure it out. In the meantime I guess I'll just go out and enjoy the college experience. :)
I've been having a dilemma. I'm at this point in my life where I don't know what I don't want to do with my life with absolute confidence, the only thing that I know for sure at this point in time is that I want to be a teacher, and a high school teacher at that. But what else? That's my dilemma. The last four or five years all I've wanted to be was a Family Consumer Sciences teacher, but now that I'm really doing it all, I've realized that as much as I absolutely FCS, the only reason I want to be an FCS teacher is because I know and love so many FCS teachers across the state and I want to be an FCCLA adviser and at this point in time, those reasons don't seem good enough. I'm just honestly so incredibly confused right now its not cool.
So I'm at a point where I'm trying to decide whether I want to teach history or math or if I should get both endorsements which will equal an ungodly amount of work. I always scored incredibly well on tests in English or Science, but for some reason I have no desire to teach them. I just don't know. I had a meeting today to try to get an idea of where I need to be for the next three and a half years and its crazy. You think you have so much time to choose what you want to do or what your major should be, but really there isn't that much time. The Social Studies teaching endorsement is 55 credit hours alone. That is the equivalent of taking over three semesters of strictly content area related classes and nothing else. If I wanted to go along with math, its 32 credit hours, and combined math and social studies equal 87 credits. Woah. That's OVER 5 semesters. Taking 17 credits a semester. And I'm a class behind in Math. Oh goodness. If anything has ever seemed daunting to me this is it. This. Is. Crazy.
I guess I have a couple more months to figure out what I really truly want to do and I'm sure it'll take all of those few months to figure it out. In the meantime I guess I'll just go out and enjoy the college experience. :)
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Week 3ish
I've been at GV for nearly a month now and its crazy how much everything has changed and I'm loving all of it. At first I was so incredibly nervous and scared and sad but now I'm feeling so comfortable here and the city of Des Moines is absolutely fantastic...why didn't I move here sooner?! College is challenging me in ways I never imagined. Challenging me to think about the meaning of my life and what my purpose is. Its making me think about whether I believe in universal truths or how relationships occur and how they shape people into who they become. I'm reading Walt Whitman, Renae Descartes and Martin Buber and thinking about what they say about the world. I never believed I would be going through so much deep thought so soon. I expected to have to think about these things but I didn't plan on delving right into it. I'm also exploring the stores I like to shop at or the music I like to listen to. These didn't really change much, but as I explore I learn more and more that I do and don't like. For example, McDonalds used to be my absolute favorite place to eat (in Shenandoah, there weren't many options) but now that I'm here in DSM and I have thousands of options to choose from I ate there the other day and frankly I felt incredibly sick after eating there. Its crazy how your tastes change as you go through life. I find myself listening to more and more Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra as I do my homework and study and its kind of out of place here with all of the rap I'm surrounded by.
Des Moines is a crazy town to me. There are times where I feel at home but there are times I feel completely out of place. There are sirens all the time which is new to me, because back home sirens were a pretty rare thing and to hear them so often is weird. Its also really loud. I blame that on the fact that I live in a College Dormitory but still, its something I'm getting adjusted to. I love the city though and all of the opportunities it affords me. Des Moines is so full of promise and potential. There are help wanted signs up in most places I've visited, and its just incredible how much opportunity is here. It really is a fantastic, growing city and I love being around so much opportunity.
Des Moines is a crazy town to me. There are times where I feel at home but there are times I feel completely out of place. There are sirens all the time which is new to me, because back home sirens were a pretty rare thing and to hear them so often is weird. Its also really loud. I blame that on the fact that I live in a College Dormitory but still, its something I'm getting adjusted to. I love the city though and all of the opportunities it affords me. Des Moines is so full of promise and potential. There are help wanted signs up in most places I've visited, and its just incredible how much opportunity is here. It really is a fantastic, growing city and I love being around so much opportunity.
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