Northern Lights/ Omaha

My TPA ladies!

Last weekend was Theta Phi Alpha’s first dance of the semester, Northern Lights. There was music (with an awesome DJ), dancing, and some pretty darn good food (if you ever get the chance to go, try the French fries because they were amazing). I brought one of my friends, Paul, as my date and we danced for a solid three hours. We waited about ten minutes from the time we arrived at the venue to give everyone a chance to get food. But as soon as there was good music and people were back to their seats, we were off of our feet dancing the night away. I think I got enough exercise to last me the whole week in just one night. By the end of the three hours, I was wiped out.

Me and my date, Paul.

We will be having our second dance, the Sapphire Ball, towards the end of the semester, and I am so excited. My “Big Sister” could not make it to Northern lights, but she will be there for the Sapphire Ball. For those of you who don’t know, a “Big Sister” is someone who you get paired up with the sorority that helps you get adjusted, hangs out with you, and is just there to be friends. Most Big/Little pairs that I have seen end up being best friends by the end of college. I already love hanging out with mine and she has only been my Big for a few weeks. I even spent the night in her room after the dance because she could not come and we wanted the chance to hang out.

My Big and I accidentally wore basically the same outfit the morning after the dance

This weekend, I will be going on a road trip to Omaha with a few of my friends to stay at Sydney’s house. I have only been twice (as far as I can remember) and I didn’t get to explore very much. This time, we are planning to see the zoo, eat at some of Sydney’s favorite places, and just hang out. I can’t wait. It will be such a blast to have a girls’ weekend and just relax. I have been up to my ears in homework this semester, so some relaxation time is definitely overdue.

Retreat on the Rock

Retreat on the Rock is a spiritual retreat that Rockhurst has once a year in the spring.  I have been told repeatedly that it is very similar to Kairos and TEC although I never had the opportunity to experience either of those retreats. Due to my lack of experience with this type of retreat, I did not know what to expect out of the weekend. I came in with an open mind and absolutely no idea what would happen. When we arrived at the retreat center, we started with a few ice breakers and were told to set goals for the retreat. On the Thursday before the retreat that I would be an RA in McGee (an all-girls residence hall) next year with one of my best friends, Sydney, and a couple other girls I did not know…yet, so my goal was to get to know them. Once our goals were set, we were given our small groups. The groups ranged from 4-6 people and we met with them every few hours throughout the retreat to reflect. Mine could not have been a better group of people if I planned it myself. I was friends with two of the girls already but we were not super close. I had wanted to reach out to both of them, but had never known when or how to do it. The other two girls were my future coworkers in McGee. You can imagine my excitement when the names were called out.

Throughout the weekend our group met nine times. I grew to love each and every girl. They all showed such strength as they opened up and shared their troubles with us. They are all so beautiful and they inspired me to be better. I will always treasure all the memories from the weekend in my heart. I encourage everyone to go on Retreat on the Rock if they get the chance because it is unlike anything else you will ever experience.

Snow days!

School has just resumed after two snow days in a row. We received over a foot of snow and the temperature was so low that the salt wasn’t doing anything to keep sidewalks and roads clear. My friends and I braved the weather yesterday to get some lunch and we realized exactly why the closed school. The roads were horrendous and we were sliding all over the place. Luckily we got home safe, but we probably should have stayed on campus.

All bundled and ready to go!

I was not as productive as I should have been over the past couple of days. As I said in my last blog, things have been crazy and I always find myself with a lot of work to do. But, instead of doing homework I spent a lot of time with the other girls on my floor. We went night sledding (which was such a blast) on a campus hill, watched movies, attempted to do homework together (which just ended with us looking up interesting quotes or pictures of cute animals on Pinterest), or freaking out about our RA interviews. The interviews for being an RA (Resident Assistant) have been going on for the past couple weeks and we were supposed to find out about whether or not we got the job on Monday or Tuesday. Well, we didn’t hear anything on Monday, so we were pumped for Tuesday; however, all of the schools offices were closed for the snow days. Word on the street is we should hear sometime today because they are open again. I haven’t heard anything yet and I am keeping myself from checking my email again until I am finished with my shift in the tutoring center. To be perfectly honest, this blog entry is the only thing keeping me sane.

Although I didn’t get a ton of work done, I needed the small break to just relax. Plus, snow days are way better in college. In high school, you can’t go anywhere so you are stuck at your house all alone unless your family is off too or you are lucky enough to be within walking distance of your friend’s house (which I was not). In college, you live with all of your friends and it is like a big crazy sleepover. It is fun to day the least.

Getting Busier by the Minute

Sisterhood event: Movie night

Things are absolutely crazy this semester. The past few weeks have been a lot of fun, but I am definitely doing enough juggling to be a circus performer. Just to give you a hint of what I mean, here is a little run down of my schedule; I am taking 16 credit hours (5 classes plus a weekly piano lesson that I have to practice for 30 minutes a day), there are new member meetings every week for my sorority, I am tutoring in our Learning Center 6 hours a week, there is book club every other Thursday, Pasta and Prayer is every Tuesday, choir practice is every Friday, Yoga class is every Sunday morning, Mass is every Sunday night, one Monday a month LIFT (ladies in faith together) meets, I have had to prepare for and execute an interview to be a RA and there is a follow-up group interview tomorrow, my birthday was a little over a week ago and I celebrated that with my friends, my friend’s birthday was last night so we went out for that,  I have had “penguin pal” dates with my sorority sisters, I was out of town last weekend for a funeral so I had to find ways to squeeze in homework, I try to call my parents pretty regularly, and I am trying to balance multiple groups of friends. The last one is a nice problem to have but it is still stressful. Now that I joined a sorority I want to spend time with my “sisters” so I can get to know them but I also have friends I made during first semester that I want to make time for also because they are wonderful and I don’t want to lose them. I also didn’t really mention how much time it takes to do homework but I’m sure that you, whoever you are, are either in school or have been in school before and you have some idea of what the work load is like.

All dressed up for Matt's birthday!

While trying to balance all this stuff my planner has been my absolute best friend. I know everyone says this but it is so important for me to write everything down. Even social events need to have a spot in there because if I forget one, people have a way of getting angry and then my stress level can increase even more. But another thing I’ve found important is relaxation time. If you have trouble making time for this one, write it down in your planner. Make it happen. If it doesn’t, you’ll get burnt out quickly and there won’t be enough energy left for all the things you love.