marcotkm

To say I’m stressed would be a major understatement. With so much work to do and so little time, i just want this week to be over with. Flashcards, highlighters, books on books; it feels like I’m drowning.

The only thing getting me through this is knowing that i will soon enough be home with my family and friends and get a chance to relax and detox from the fumes of eraser shavings and pen ink. I wish everyone the best of luck and soon enough we will be home in our beds ready to get some good and very needed long hours of sleep.

This Thanksgiving was like one I have never had before. It was such an amazing experience to be able to come home and see so many people who’s faces I hadn’t seen for months.

Unfortunalty with such a long time a part i was ask multitudes of the same questions over and over again “how’s college” “how’s the roommate” “did you find a boyfriend” “how are the grads.” It felt like i was the star a very annoying game show.

Despite all those questions i can honestly say it was worth it for the amazing food. Thanksgiving will always be my favorite holiday and the distance I have had from family and friends just made it that much better!

My favorite holiday is just around the corner. Its a day full of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and of course PIE! It also is a day with family and friends and my uncle’s dog. I love Thanksgiving because its not a day based on presents and superficial activities, but it is more about giving and being simply surrounded with the people you care about most. It is a time to relax and just be thankful for all the great things that each and everyone of us are blessed with and let the good out weigh the bad.

It is so devastating to hear such terrible news about the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. Its hard to sit and watch the chaos unfold right before the worlds eyes. All I have currently is the constant misunderstanding of people and why they do what they do. I am so confused how this even could happen in such modern times. The more I look into these attacks and the motives of ISIS it just confuses me more.

This attack to me is a wake up call, that there is so much more going on in the world then the simplicity i know in my bubble called JMU. As i sit here and reflect all i can think about is how lucky I am to be in a safe environment where these types of dangers are not nearly ever going to be likely. my heart breaks for all the families who have to endure the pain of the unfairness life can cast, but i do believe that with time Paris will be able to rise again just like they have many times before. The main objective for the world at this time is to move forward and end terrorism as efficient as possible. I know this is in no way a simple task but it needs to be a priority that nothing like this should ever happen again to anyone, anywhere.

Going home last weekend from JMU was such a new experience for me. I have never been apart from my family and town for that long before and it was it made me really appreciate the life i used to have, but also appreciate the life I’m currently living. Yes it is inevitable that human beings are resistant to change, there is just no way around that theory, but I could not be happier with the new and exciting changes I have experienced in these new stages of my life.

I have made new amazing friends, I am learning in a very different way, and I have found new place to call home. I love it here and even though the 410 will always have a place in my heart I’m happy to say change isn’t always a bad thing, but its probably always going to be hard.

I never thought I would be the homesick type, and for the most part that is accurate. I love being independent to the point where I keep myself so busy that I don’t really notice a bunch of things.

This past weekend i decided to make a spontaneous trip home to see my family. I wasn’t really planning on this trip, but since most of my friends here were going home i decided that maybe it be a good weekend to do so. I saw my mom and dad along with my older brother and younger sister. This trip was a surprise for them too, because  I told them I was coming home on my way home. My mom made me all my favorite foods and I got to sit and watch football with my dad. I went shopping and to church with my brother and sister. I had this great feeling that I haven’t had in a while of feeling of personalized care for lack of a better word.

My family made me feel welcomed and made me not want to go home so soon. I mean i can’t complain about JMU dining but I can promise you my mom’s food is 10000x better. She wanted to sends me plates of food back but little did she know i have a ride the size of a shoe box. I am so glad that I spontaneously decided to go home because it made realized how lucky I am to be blessed with an amazing family.

I feel like college is a balancing act and I’m about to fall down hard. I am well aware I am a freshman and learning a whole new time management is normal, but I’m counting the seconds until I catch on.

I came into college wanting to do everything and challenge myself right away. I was of course being extremely naive because college may look on paper as “manageable” I can testify by saying not everything is as it seems. I want a lot of things for myself and I want to be the best version of myself I can be, but unfortunately I am extremely impatient. My brain is so wired to think I NEED instant gratification which is a terrible burden to have. I am fully aware i must work for everything I am going to get, but gosh it is harder than you’d think.

This writing class gives me the opportunity to allow myself a break from the numbers and theories that weigh me down day after day. I have an amazing opportunity to be a kid again even if its just for an hour and fifteen minutes. In this class, creativity and being yourself is encouraged and I have the opportunity to learn about myself. In the past month I have learned that you can get so much out of just your average day writing and texts. thanks to WRTC I believe that in this hectic balancing act of college I have a stable home to express on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Not going to lie I was extremely nervous about the transition from high school to college classes. As most other people I am very reluctant to change. I have always loved the comfort that came with very structured high school assignments.

This assignment was something new for me because we were given a good amount of leeway and were expected to express our tone of voice. The differences in all our writing styles were emphasized. I thoroughly enjoyed making a parallel from a situation in my life to one of my favorite childhood disney characters.

I never thought in this way before. It made me really appreciate the way these movies were outlined. They were made to connect to the viewers. I realized it’s not hard to be able to make a connection with the characters and situation I know and love from my childhood.

Inspiration for this post came to me when I began to reflect on the insanely hectic and ridiculous week I just had while rushing for a sorority this weekend. This week I engaged in this farfetched process where I was told in a matter of five days I would find a sisterhood and all my dreams would come true. Can their actually be people in their right mind who can honestly say they believe in this mumbo jumbo?

Anyway for this one week I put all reason behind me and decided to give in to the constant chatter I heard amongst my hall mates who believed being in a sorority could figuratively and literally make all their dreams come true.

The week started with an orientation where we were told a summation of what we were to expect out of the week. We were told there were strict rules starting with dress codes. They had a slide show of pictures to explain what was “acceptable” for each and everyday, but contradicting enough emphasized that this whole entire process is based on our value and character. It was just a hard concept to wrap my mind around.

The days went by and I met dozens and dozens of girls and could barely differentiate one sorority from the next, not knowing if they liked me or if I could possibly make any kind of impression in such a short time frame. Girls were being crushed day by day being dropped by one…two…three of their favorite sororities. I watched as so many young women questioned their worth because so many of them were told they weren’t good enough in such a short time. The system to this day makes nearly no sense to me, but I have on the other hand witnessed girls finding their “homes.”

I accepted a bid from a house I really enjoyed and was dropped like many others from houses I wanted to love me, but never did. This concept of Greek Life still confuses me, but I guess it’s time to ride it out and see if I’m meant to “Go Greek.”

I am extremely excited for this class this year! The energy and vibes are very different than any english class I have ever taken before. I find it interesting how I can actually say I learned a new perspective about writing on the first day of class. I now have a clearer picture that writing is not just Shakespeare or Ernest Hemingway, but infact can be my mom on Facebook or my sister over text. It gave me something to think about and honestly gave me an opportunity to look at something I’ve known my whole life as one thing to think of it as something very different.

Previously to this new idea I used to think my simple everyday writing could not possibly count as writing, but by definition it is. I learned that my writing is a piece of me and we all have our only individual tones which can be transformed in to many different works when it comes to written communication. Everyone’s writing is a fingerprint and no ones is technically better than the other in terms of value and meaning. I really like this new idea that writing is so much more than the majority of people would think.