Sunday, August 30, 2009
A Little Poetry for Your Soul
After surviving the first week of classes, stressed by senior nostalgia (sad that I've already felt such sad things..) way more than the classes themselves, I worked all weekend, had a couple of random dance parties in the halls, and did a bit of reading and writing. I bid farewell to my weekend with a night run with my dear friend, Brittany Sehr tonight. I must say that it was the most emotionally refreshing runs I have had in a long time - so much so that as I was running, I was writing poetry in my head. It may be cheesy, so this is your warning to stop reading now if you don't approve of such things. What follows is the poetry that I spilled out after returning to my room at approximately 10:42 p.m. in no mood to do practical homework.
Night Run
10:00 p.m.
A cover of darkness
broken only by moonlight, streetlamps, headlights
and the cool breeze
that gives
life
to your steps
and carries you with song to another time, another place.
Music.
A random play list,
each song a new rhythm, voice, mood
strumming out a
memory
that you retreat to
and relive with the music, your steps, and your shallow breathing.
Run.
Pound out each memory,
running not from it, but to it, for it, and through it
until you find yourself
lost
in the realization
that life is a song, a run, a poem - beauty.
If that's not enough poetry for you, take two!!! :P
To it, For it, Through it
Get up and run.
Grab a friend,
don't be shy.
Make her step yours,
and his your guide.
Each pace is different
but fitting,
a story a struggle,
a plea, or praise.
Feel the pull
and reach to push.
Run it out,
finish first.
Breathe each smell,
smell them new.
As you take it in,
appreciate it too.
Keep on going,
you cannot stop.
Feel the energy
and run the dream.
Believe you can,
let each breath sing.
Look around you,
open your eyes.
The lights of a semi
a beautiful surprise.
The river holds the moon
reflected for you,
and the trees,
they are dancing,
celebrating too.
Listen to the sounds,
a song each their own,
playing to your step,
taking you home.
Your music is one
with the sounds of the night.
Run for now, for tomorrow,
and for all that is right.
Cross the threshold
and know that you are done.
Smile and rest
and wake to meet the sun.
OKKKKKK. That's all I've got for tonight (well this morning I guess it is now). I'm off to catch a bit of that rest I mentioned before week two of classes is upon me.
Night Run
10:00 p.m.
A cover of darkness
broken only by moonlight, streetlamps, headlights
and the cool breeze
that gives
life
to your steps
and carries you with song to another time, another place.
Music.
A random play list,
each song a new rhythm, voice, mood
strumming out a
memory
that you retreat to
and relive with the music, your steps, and your shallow breathing.
Run.
Pound out each memory,
running not from it, but to it, for it, and through it
until you find yourself
lost
in the realization
that life is a song, a run, a poem - beauty.
If that's not enough poetry for you, take two!!! :P
To it, For it, Through it
Get up and run.
Grab a friend,
don't be shy.
Make her step yours,
and his your guide.
Each pace is different
but fitting,
a story a struggle,
a plea, or praise.
Feel the pull
and reach to push.
Run it out,
finish first.
Breathe each smell,
smell them new.
As you take it in,
appreciate it too.
Keep on going,
you cannot stop.
Feel the energy
and run the dream.
Believe you can,
let each breath sing.
Look around you,
open your eyes.
The lights of a semi
a beautiful surprise.
The river holds the moon
reflected for you,
and the trees,
they are dancing,
celebrating too.
Listen to the sounds,
a song each their own,
playing to your step,
taking you home.
Your music is one
with the sounds of the night.
Run for now, for tomorrow,
and for all that is right.
Cross the threshold
and know that you are done.
Smile and rest
and wake to meet the sun.
OKKKKKK. That's all I've got for tonight (well this morning I guess it is now). I'm off to catch a bit of that rest I mentioned before week two of classes is upon me.
Monday, August 24, 2009
It Has Begun
The first day of classes is officially here!
I somehow managed to lug all of my belongings from the apartment back into my dorm room, sort through the ensuing mayhem of the closet-sized space, put my dorm room together (wall decorations included), and clean the apartment bathroom and kitchen for the moveout inspection all during few and far between spare moments of the beautiful chaos of last week.
And that leaves an orientation explanation to fill the big gaping hole of time you are uninformed of in my life. It's weird to think about because I feel as though I lost a whole week of my life on a retreat of some weird variety. We were so busy and saw the same people every day and I left campus only to go to my apartment so when the rest of Mount Marty moved to campus yesterday I was almost baffled by the fact that life had gone on outside of orientation and Mount Marty and I felt as though I had hundreds of errands to run and people to catch up with.
Despite the confusion, I am very glad I took the opportunity to be an orientation leader (OL). It was great and stressful and frustrationg and a blast all at once. It was great to spend a week with MMC students other than my closest friends and get to know them. I made many more great friends. It's also pretty sweet to walk around campus now and actually know who the majority of the freshmen are - definitely a different and exciting change from my past three years of knowing only the freshman volleyball players.
I only have a few minutes before I have to run off to my second class of my senior year, so I'm going to give you a very brief synopsis of my favorite OL moments.
I sprinted around campus with Becca and Jess (fellow OL leaders) during training to completely dominate a campus wide scavenger hunt, I carried piles and piles of lumber up four flights of staris to make the job of building lofts easier for the new faces, I saw a hypnotized nun and laughed until I cried, we held an OL dance party in Corbey hall before escorting the freshmen to bowling, Jess and I spent the majority of odd down time moments interpretive dancing and earning weird looks from the freshmen, I ate massive amounts of ice cream, I participated in a game of street ball basketball that lasted until midnight, and I had a great time with my OL partner, Heidi, even if we did have to do a bit of door-to-door knocking to track kids down.
Ohhhh, and on Saturday morning, Jordan Foos and I got up bright and early to run in the riverboat days 5K race. It was a beautiful morning to run and I had a great time. I've never run in a big mob of people like that before and it made the race seem so much shorter and manageable. It was a great time...very refreshing! I finished 93rd out of 269 (Jordan ran away and managed to finish 70th) and had a runner's high for the rest of the morning. I worked it off by joining the other OL's and the freshmen in walking the parade route (Jess and I threw in a few dance moves as well...)
I best be off so I'm not late for a class on the first day. Hold tight for more exciting details of the Fall 2009 semester!!
I somehow managed to lug all of my belongings from the apartment back into my dorm room, sort through the ensuing mayhem of the closet-sized space, put my dorm room together (wall decorations included), and clean the apartment bathroom and kitchen for the moveout inspection all during few and far between spare moments of the beautiful chaos of last week.
And that leaves an orientation explanation to fill the big gaping hole of time you are uninformed of in my life. It's weird to think about because I feel as though I lost a whole week of my life on a retreat of some weird variety. We were so busy and saw the same people every day and I left campus only to go to my apartment so when the rest of Mount Marty moved to campus yesterday I was almost baffled by the fact that life had gone on outside of orientation and Mount Marty and I felt as though I had hundreds of errands to run and people to catch up with.
Despite the confusion, I am very glad I took the opportunity to be an orientation leader (OL). It was great and stressful and frustrationg and a blast all at once. It was great to spend a week with MMC students other than my closest friends and get to know them. I made many more great friends. It's also pretty sweet to walk around campus now and actually know who the majority of the freshmen are - definitely a different and exciting change from my past three years of knowing only the freshman volleyball players.
I only have a few minutes before I have to run off to my second class of my senior year, so I'm going to give you a very brief synopsis of my favorite OL moments.
I sprinted around campus with Becca and Jess (fellow OL leaders) during training to completely dominate a campus wide scavenger hunt, I carried piles and piles of lumber up four flights of staris to make the job of building lofts easier for the new faces, I saw a hypnotized nun and laughed until I cried, we held an OL dance party in Corbey hall before escorting the freshmen to bowling, Jess and I spent the majority of odd down time moments interpretive dancing and earning weird looks from the freshmen, I ate massive amounts of ice cream, I participated in a game of street ball basketball that lasted until midnight, and I had a great time with my OL partner, Heidi, even if we did have to do a bit of door-to-door knocking to track kids down.
Ohhhh, and on Saturday morning, Jordan Foos and I got up bright and early to run in the riverboat days 5K race. It was a beautiful morning to run and I had a great time. I've never run in a big mob of people like that before and it made the race seem so much shorter and manageable. It was a great time...very refreshing! I finished 93rd out of 269 (Jordan ran away and managed to finish 70th) and had a runner's high for the rest of the morning. I worked it off by joining the other OL's and the freshmen in walking the parade route (Jess and I threw in a few dance moves as well...)
I best be off so I'm not late for a class on the first day. Hold tight for more exciting details of the Fall 2009 semester!!
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Grand Finale
Awww... I write to you today on the eve of the first double-digit day of August. When Briana started packing up her belongings from our apartment last night and this morning, I finally agreed to let the realization that summer is officially coming to an end sink in. :( In fact, I travelled to Walmart with her at 10:30 p.m. last night to pick up moving boxes and then talked to the woman in charge at school and requested keys for my room so that I could officially create a mess of it on Friday. I even went so far as to stop in the bookstore and give myself the initial scare on book prices. I wasn't yet brave enough to throw the towel in and buy them though...maybe tomorrow. :)
Despite my promising steps towards preparing myself for the first semester of my senior (OH MY!!!....) year, I did not put any of those boxes together and actually pack up anything yet. I felt that after not working out all weekend I needed to take some precious minutes this morning to run around like a wild child and work up a sweat and a runner's high. Then, feeling very much refreshed I decided the sun and some beach time were in order (because summer is slipping away) so I lounged by the river for a bit over an hour and had a wonderful conversation with my sister who is leaving on a mission trip to South Ameria on Thursday! I'm kind of very much jealous. It was then off to work for me...I guess packing will wait another day...
Before I can pack, I need to order my thoughts. I need to back up and tell the story of my weekend! I traveled across eastern South Dakota with Briana and Sarah (my roommates) and Jordan (our fourth roommate...or something like that..) to Onida to visit Joey Stahl and surprise him and his mom for her 50th birthday! The surprise was a complete success and it was a great weekend. The four hour drive wasn't even bad. Jordan gave me the voice-over commentary on the South Dakota towns I had never seen before, we saw three of his houses (two past and one present), I was mesmorized by pretty sunflower fields and fricken huge wheat fields in central SD, and we had the whole gamout of music genres going on. Onida itself was a cute little town and the Stahls were a gracious and fun host family! We made a brief appearance at the Sulley County rodeo on Friday night and then sang some songs inbetween interesting conversations until about 4:00 a.m. On Saturday we lounged around, tried and failed to appear as good tennis players, and went out to the farm to shoot real guns. I have never shot a gun in my life or even held one, and I WAS SCAAAARRRRREEED!! But, beings Bill Stahl (Joey's dad) is a sheriff, I figured his instructions were probably safer than any I'd receive elsewhere. My first pulled trigger ever was from a 357 handgun (I think that's what I was told it was...forgive me crew if I am wrong..). I definitely gasped at the kick and it took me about 15 shots to hit the target (a Hawaiian punch jug filled with water). By the end of it, I was shaking quite thoroughly and when I finally hit it, I held the gun away from me and announced that I didn't want to hold it anymore! Before the night ended I also shot a rifle of some degree..a 223 maybe? That thing was heavy and intense, and I felt like a rebel shooting the thing. The guys all enjoyed the evening and they made a mess out of some interesting targets including an old fan, weedeater, mailbox, and frying pan. It was fun in a unique sort of way, and a very interesting experience, but I'm pretty positive hunting will not be my forte now or in the future! I was a girlie-girl and too intimidated by the deadly capabilities!
It was a great weekend! After church on Sunday the Stahl's treated us to a scrumptous breakfast and it was back to the highways. We took a much more scenic route back and stopped in Pickstown to drop Jordan off at his lovely home where we had a friendly, though brief, chat with his parents. Briana then thought it would be cool to show me the dam (which was BEAUTIFUL) and then attempt to find our fellow friend and MMC student, Cody, who works at the camp grounds. Long story short, we drove around on random campground roads and left after only catching a glimpse of his arm. :P When we arrived back in Yankton on Sunday I was exhausted and fell into one of those "I don't remember falling asleep and I have no idea where I'm at now that my alarm woke me up" hour naps before driving to Norfolk, NE to attend a wake service for a friend's sister.
And then I came back. And now I'm back to the stories of the beginning of my blog. And then I found $10 (just kidding...but this blog kind of turned into a play-by-play and I fear you may be bored..)
Tomorrow = work in the a.m., hopefully packing at least one box, and then driving home for the grand finale of my presence there before school resumes. Actually I need to drop off some apartment stuff and pick up the dorm room boxes and say farewell to a couple of good friends who are moving across the state for college. Wednesday and Thursday = work. My mom and dad are coming up on Friday to help me move and I work Saturday and Sunday. AND THEN>>> ORIENTATION TRAINING BEGINS!!! oh...and packing....???? um I'll just do it randomly in random moments between running around I guess... :)
Despite my promising steps towards preparing myself for the first semester of my senior (OH MY!!!....) year, I did not put any of those boxes together and actually pack up anything yet. I felt that after not working out all weekend I needed to take some precious minutes this morning to run around like a wild child and work up a sweat and a runner's high. Then, feeling very much refreshed I decided the sun and some beach time were in order (because summer is slipping away) so I lounged by the river for a bit over an hour and had a wonderful conversation with my sister who is leaving on a mission trip to South Ameria on Thursday! I'm kind of very much jealous. It was then off to work for me...I guess packing will wait another day...
Before I can pack, I need to order my thoughts. I need to back up and tell the story of my weekend! I traveled across eastern South Dakota with Briana and Sarah (my roommates) and Jordan (our fourth roommate...or something like that..) to Onida to visit Joey Stahl and surprise him and his mom for her 50th birthday! The surprise was a complete success and it was a great weekend. The four hour drive wasn't even bad. Jordan gave me the voice-over commentary on the South Dakota towns I had never seen before, we saw three of his houses (two past and one present), I was mesmorized by pretty sunflower fields and fricken huge wheat fields in central SD, and we had the whole gamout of music genres going on. Onida itself was a cute little town and the Stahls were a gracious and fun host family! We made a brief appearance at the Sulley County rodeo on Friday night and then sang some songs inbetween interesting conversations until about 4:00 a.m. On Saturday we lounged around, tried and failed to appear as good tennis players, and went out to the farm to shoot real guns. I have never shot a gun in my life or even held one, and I WAS SCAAAARRRRREEED!! But, beings Bill Stahl (Joey's dad) is a sheriff, I figured his instructions were probably safer than any I'd receive elsewhere. My first pulled trigger ever was from a 357 handgun (I think that's what I was told it was...forgive me crew if I am wrong..). I definitely gasped at the kick and it took me about 15 shots to hit the target (a Hawaiian punch jug filled with water). By the end of it, I was shaking quite thoroughly and when I finally hit it, I held the gun away from me and announced that I didn't want to hold it anymore! Before the night ended I also shot a rifle of some degree..a 223 maybe? That thing was heavy and intense, and I felt like a rebel shooting the thing. The guys all enjoyed the evening and they made a mess out of some interesting targets including an old fan, weedeater, mailbox, and frying pan. It was fun in a unique sort of way, and a very interesting experience, but I'm pretty positive hunting will not be my forte now or in the future! I was a girlie-girl and too intimidated by the deadly capabilities!
It was a great weekend! After church on Sunday the Stahl's treated us to a scrumptous breakfast and it was back to the highways. We took a much more scenic route back and stopped in Pickstown to drop Jordan off at his lovely home where we had a friendly, though brief, chat with his parents. Briana then thought it would be cool to show me the dam (which was BEAUTIFUL) and then attempt to find our fellow friend and MMC student, Cody, who works at the camp grounds. Long story short, we drove around on random campground roads and left after only catching a glimpse of his arm. :P When we arrived back in Yankton on Sunday I was exhausted and fell into one of those "I don't remember falling asleep and I have no idea where I'm at now that my alarm woke me up" hour naps before driving to Norfolk, NE to attend a wake service for a friend's sister.
And then I came back. And now I'm back to the stories of the beginning of my blog. And then I found $10 (just kidding...but this blog kind of turned into a play-by-play and I fear you may be bored..)
Tomorrow = work in the a.m., hopefully packing at least one box, and then driving home for the grand finale of my presence there before school resumes. Actually I need to drop off some apartment stuff and pick up the dorm room boxes and say farewell to a couple of good friends who are moving across the state for college. Wednesday and Thursday = work. My mom and dad are coming up on Friday to help me move and I work Saturday and Sunday. AND THEN>>> ORIENTATION TRAINING BEGINS!!! oh...and packing....???? um I'll just do it randomly in random moments between running around I guess... :)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Surviving the MCAT...but not the the after-trials...
Oh my..I feel as though it has been since the ice age since my last post due to all that has happened between then and now.
First things first: the MCAT was disgusting, but I definitely survived. I have to tell you, I left with a very odd feeling. I admit that after sitting there in such deep concentration for a solid five hours I had a massive headache, but for some reason I wasn't nearly as frazzled as I thought I might be. In fact, I think I may have psyched myself out so well and so humbly prepared myself to bomb it that when I actually took the exam it was unfazed and I was simply dazed and therefore left feeling as though perhaps it wasn't as bad as I expected. When I find out my scores in 30 days though, that anticipated frazzled feeling may very well hit me full force. Time will tell.
The MCAT day itself, however, was an utter and complete disaster! I wanted to go to the mall after the exam and purchase birthday gifts for two of my best friends, but found that I was too drained to even know or care what store I was in. I intended on going to a friend's residence for supper, but suddenly felt very angry and lost and so while wandering hopelessly through the stores, I called her and told her I was going home. After surviving the drive back to Yankton, I gathered an armful of belongings from my car and headed into my apartment. I proceeded to dump some water from a cooler into the grass outside the door, but aimed poorly and dumped it into a dirt bed and thus managed to shower myself in mud. I simply stared and then took a step and watched my phone slip from my fingers onto the evil cement below my feet. Of course it hit the horrid material perfectly and snapped literally in two - we're talking a flip phone turned into flip and keypad, two separate beings. I remember picking up the pieces in a daze and walking into my apartment where I sat down two feet inside the door and wiped the mud off of my legs and feet before actually letting the horror of my destroyed phone sink in. Once I realized the magnitude of my problem, I drove around town for an hour attempting to find a friend who was not working or gone for the evening so that I could at least notify my mom of my dilemma. I then decided to go for a long run to clear my head but discovered that my mp3 player too had decided to take a crap and it remained frozen and dead to the world. Completely devastated and overwhelmed, I stole my roommate's music and ran the entire length of the bike trails in town before walking the remaining few blocks back to my apartment exhausted, tearful, and in pain. Needless to say i walked into a low hanging tree branch and got nailed by a couple of sprinklers. I crawled into bed fighting off tears of frustration.
To sum up the remainder of that horrible string of events, I had to make a special trip to Norfolk, NE to get a new phone because when Verizon bought out Alltel, the Yankton Alltel store became useless for 402 numbers such as myself. I had to pay full price for a new phone beings I had no insurance and my contract was not even close to expiration. The lady sold me the wrong car charger (found that out yesterday) but I left feeling reconnected to the world and the owner of a new LG phone.
And this week...work...work...work...angry voicemails from a job that I have shoved to the back corners of my mind since starting my job at the pharmacy... :(
On Monday night after work, a friend and I drove to Hawarden, Iowa to surprise my very good friend Lindsay on her birthday. She has moved there to prepare for her first year head volleyball coach and high school history teacher position beginning this fall.
I returned to Yankton yesterday afternoon and after doing a few miscellaneous work things, joined Briana (my roommate) and Kelly Olmer, another MMC friend, for a completely random and awesome kayaking trip. It was fabulous! I've always wanted to kayak on the Missouri and after three summers in Yankton, I finally did - AND I didn't even flip the thing! :)
The remainder of the week holds more work and then a big weekend...more on that later!
First things first: the MCAT was disgusting, but I definitely survived. I have to tell you, I left with a very odd feeling. I admit that after sitting there in such deep concentration for a solid five hours I had a massive headache, but for some reason I wasn't nearly as frazzled as I thought I might be. In fact, I think I may have psyched myself out so well and so humbly prepared myself to bomb it that when I actually took the exam it was unfazed and I was simply dazed and therefore left feeling as though perhaps it wasn't as bad as I expected. When I find out my scores in 30 days though, that anticipated frazzled feeling may very well hit me full force. Time will tell.
The MCAT day itself, however, was an utter and complete disaster! I wanted to go to the mall after the exam and purchase birthday gifts for two of my best friends, but found that I was too drained to even know or care what store I was in. I intended on going to a friend's residence for supper, but suddenly felt very angry and lost and so while wandering hopelessly through the stores, I called her and told her I was going home. After surviving the drive back to Yankton, I gathered an armful of belongings from my car and headed into my apartment. I proceeded to dump some water from a cooler into the grass outside the door, but aimed poorly and dumped it into a dirt bed and thus managed to shower myself in mud. I simply stared and then took a step and watched my phone slip from my fingers onto the evil cement below my feet. Of course it hit the horrid material perfectly and snapped literally in two - we're talking a flip phone turned into flip and keypad, two separate beings. I remember picking up the pieces in a daze and walking into my apartment where I sat down two feet inside the door and wiped the mud off of my legs and feet before actually letting the horror of my destroyed phone sink in. Once I realized the magnitude of my problem, I drove around town for an hour attempting to find a friend who was not working or gone for the evening so that I could at least notify my mom of my dilemma. I then decided to go for a long run to clear my head but discovered that my mp3 player too had decided to take a crap and it remained frozen and dead to the world. Completely devastated and overwhelmed, I stole my roommate's music and ran the entire length of the bike trails in town before walking the remaining few blocks back to my apartment exhausted, tearful, and in pain. Needless to say i walked into a low hanging tree branch and got nailed by a couple of sprinklers. I crawled into bed fighting off tears of frustration.
To sum up the remainder of that horrible string of events, I had to make a special trip to Norfolk, NE to get a new phone because when Verizon bought out Alltel, the Yankton Alltel store became useless for 402 numbers such as myself. I had to pay full price for a new phone beings I had no insurance and my contract was not even close to expiration. The lady sold me the wrong car charger (found that out yesterday) but I left feeling reconnected to the world and the owner of a new LG phone.
And this week...work...work...work...angry voicemails from a job that I have shoved to the back corners of my mind since starting my job at the pharmacy... :(
On Monday night after work, a friend and I drove to Hawarden, Iowa to surprise my very good friend Lindsay on her birthday. She has moved there to prepare for her first year head volleyball coach and high school history teacher position beginning this fall.
I returned to Yankton yesterday afternoon and after doing a few miscellaneous work things, joined Briana (my roommate) and Kelly Olmer, another MMC friend, for a completely random and awesome kayaking trip. It was fabulous! I've always wanted to kayak on the Missouri and after three summers in Yankton, I finally did - AND I didn't even flip the thing! :)
The remainder of the week holds more work and then a big weekend...more on that later!
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