Letting Loose

I have discovered that there are very few moments in my life when I can say that I am completely relaxed. Most of the time when I try to forget about everything that is going on in my life I end up worrying more about something slipping my mind. This weekend I had the opportunity to turn off my commitments and just enjoy being a 20 year old sorority girl. Are there things that I should of taken care of? Yes, but I am learning that people understand. It might hurt me in the long run but right now I have to make myself believe that in the end as long as I am keeping up, people will understand.

This weekend, I finally lived like most 20 year olds. I had friends spend the weekend at my house, staying up until 3 a.m. watching chick flicks and talking about random topics. I got to attend my first wedding for a sorority sister and just enjoyed the evening with all the girls who I have come to love the last two years. The most surprising thing to me is how much you can relax while dancing to some of the best music at a wedding. I love when a couple finds a great DJ for their wedding because it makes the whole atmosphere so much more inviting and relaxed (if I can't use that word enough haha). It is surprising to me that I am coming back to music (I wrote about it in a previous post) because it wasn't until this year that I really discovered my passion for it.

Last night at the wedding reception, I let loose! I let myself dance to all those songs that the DJ was spinning and I realized that by being rigid, I am missing out on an experience. As one of my sorority sisters said, "everyone underestimates you". I am always the responsible one and it takes a lot for me to just give in. I am coming to believe that some people think that I can't have fun. I am here to admit that is completely untrue. Am I self conscious about breaking out of my shell? Yeah but I have come to believe that most people are self conscious about a few things. The benefits of breaking out of my shell and just letting loose far outweigh the cost of trying to follow my own personal rule book. And guess what? It's my own rule book, so I can say that rules are meant to be broken and things can change.

I am making an oath to try to let loose more often in the next few months. I am more conscious of how outside activities can effect my academic life, so I will have more of a handle on making sure that I make myself happy in my academic endeavors but I also realize that making yourself happy in all endeavors can be the best thing you can do for yourself. All of these thoughts were validated today when I realized that not allowing yourself to let loose can lead to much worse outcomes than any consequences that might come from not responding to an email within 24 hours. I am glad I got to enjoy this weekend :) I can't wait until the next time that I absolutely "let loose" and enjoy all the little things that life has to offer.




Delta Gamma Girls



Cleaning

I made it through the final weeks of the semester and even though I might not be overly thrilled with how my grades ended up, I can say that I made it through the toughest five months of my life. I will never have the opportunity to relive my sophomore year of college but I can't say that I really want to. I think that everything I have done in these past few months has been a learning experience.

My most recent learning experience came with the realization that some people don't know how to survive in the real world. I will preface with the fact that I in no means have my life figured out. I feel like I should be responsible enough to pay some of my bills or live on my own but then again it is just too easy to not have to worry about those things. I will say though that my parents taught me the right way to treat my surroundings. Even though I didn't like the fact that we got rid of our maid in my teenage years, I understand the importance of cleaning up after myself and consistently cleaning the room that surrounds me. How would I ever survive in the real world if I didn't understand those basic concepts? I got to see how some people do it by cleaning out a very large house over the weekend. We had a maid come on Friday afternoon and by Saturday evening there was two times the trash piled up on the back porch then what the maid had taken care of the day before. My mother would of been horrified if I had left my room in such a disarray. I hope other mothers would feel the same way if they saw what I had to clean up over the weekend. I guess it just shows me that having a little bit of respect for your surroundings can make a difference in the long run. Hopefully I can convey to people next year that respect for their surroundings is something that is expected not a happy accident.

Yes, that whole incident was a learning experience on my part and one that I will take with me if and when I get my own place but I am also learning the importance of purging your belongings. I don't really think I cleaned out my room last summer. I kind of moved stuff around to make room for some the things I brought home from college but mostly I just kept everything in the living room downstairs to be moved back to Athens in the fall. This year I decided that in the fall I am moving back to Athens with a minimalistic attitude. I also got home on Sunday night and realized that I no longer had enough room in my closet for all my clothes. Well after three days of looking through all my belongings I have about four trash bags worth of stuff to get rid of and still not enough space on my bookshelf or closet. How did I accumulate all of these things? I have enough t-shirts from my sorority to get me through a month without repeating. I am over stuff. There is too much of it but yet I know that I am still tied to it in some way. Everything has a meaning and it is not until that meaning completely wears out that I can get rid of something. I have been working for three straight days trying to get my room in order and it will still probably take at least two more to be completely finished. Hopefully after this purging session, I will be good for a while but who knows how much I can accumulate within the year.

Cleaning is a necessary part of life. One that has become more apparent to me within the last week. I know from now on I will make myself take care of my surroundings and question myself more often when I want to buy something because I would really prefer not to have to get rid of something that still has the tag on it three years later. It's a skill that needs to be learned by everyone and one that I seem to be mastering pretty quickly. Oh the simple things in life :)

The "Final" Weeks

I am avoiding doing any productive work as well as planning my schedule for the next few weeks because I know that these moments of total waste are getting fewer and farther between. I am technically not completely wasting time right now because I am at work making minimum wage to sit at a desk but other than the money that is being earned right now, there is nothing going on in my life utterly pressing which means that I have been doing a whole lot of nothing lately. For the first time the whole semester, I am all caught up on reading. I still have a whole lot of problems to work but they are going to help me on the final exam so I can wait a few days to get started on them.

These past few weeks have been undoubtable easier than the rest of the semester for me. I believe that dropping one of my classes had a lot to do with that because it means that I have less reading and problems to do. I guess I will be studying that stuff all summer though, so it might not be as peachy as I think. Having a job has actually made me be more productive because I get pretty bored sitting at the desk, so I get most of my studying done in the morning. I always worry all semester about my grades in classes and then we get to the end of the semester and I just have to do decent on my finals in order to get sufficient grades in classes. I guess my stressing all semester gives me the luxury to relax a little bit during finals. Testing still gets me uptight though, so I will still strive to do the best I can on my finals. Peace of mind just makes my studying process easier. I just don't want to get too relaxed before finals because then I will just freak out.

I am trying to come to terms with the end of this year (another post for another day)! I have done so much in the past few months that I don't want it to end because I don't know how life can get much better. I am on the downhill swing of college. I only have two more years left to experience everything that this chapter of my life has to offer. I think I am going to make a college bucket list this summer. Every restaurant I want to visit, every activity on campus, and every place in the city of Athens that I need to see before I leave my home away from home. That's probably something I could be doing now with all this extra time on my hands but I know that crunch time is right around the corner. This post is actually making me worry about everything that I might need to be doing between now and the end of the year.

I hope that I have time to post within the next few weeks but my school work should come first. We are getting down to the wire and I am determined to finish out this semester strong!

Freedom

I learn something new every day in the Terry College of Business. Yes, I know I am in school and learning is why I struggle out of bed every morning, but I never realized how much learning takes place outside of books and tests.

We had a speaker in my management class this morning and he was telling us ways to succeed in the business world. All of his points started to make me think about my life as an undergraduate student and the life I want to have after I leave the University. I really have no idea what's in store for me when I enter the "real world" which makes my Type A personality go a little crazy. I want my life to be planned but each day I am in college I realize it's easier to have long term goals and just live my life to the best of my abilities each day to achieve those goals. I believe that my actions influence the opportunities that I am presented with on a daily basis but I also have to believe that there is a plan for my life that is out of my control.

All of those factors considered, I tend to question "life in general" fairly often. Will I be happy working in the business world? Will I be able to have the family I have always dreamed about? How will my dreams change when I do enter the work force? I have always had a picture of how I thought my life would end up but with each passing "lesson" I am realizing that my dreams and the path that my life is taking right now are different. Since I am unaware of what the real world has in store for me, I don't know when my dreams and the life I am living will cross paths but I know that when I get to that part of my life I will learn how to handle whatever life throws at me.

I think the lecture that I heard today was just the icing on the cake of a balanced week for me. Yes, I had a finance test last night that the professor had to apologize for after the fact because he didn't even realize how brutal it was before making us sit through it for 2.5 hours, but that is just one slot of time in a week that is made up of 168 hours. I also took time this week to reconnect with Habitat's overall purpose and help people I care about not lose their minds over preparing for this weekend. I am so content with my life this week that it makes me wonder what is lurking around the corner. Good or bad, I am ready for whatever comes next.

Moral of the story: one of my peers this morning asked our guest speaker "how do you measure success?" and our speaker replied that he had no idea how much he was worth but he knows that he has the freedom to do what he wants when he wants to do. I think that might be the perfect answer to that question. Who doesn't want the ability to travel the world on your own ticket without anything holding you back? Traveling the world is definitely not the first thing on my list but it's just the idea of knowing that you control your life because you have the resources to make your own decisions that is empowering. Now, I have to take these lessons and actually apply them to my life going forward...should be an interesting ride!

Spring Break 2011!

So, my big plans for spring break consist of me being at home for seven straight days of peace and relaxation! Go ahead and call me lame for not partaking in all the wildness that takes place on the white sandy beaches of the gulf! I fully plan on partaking in all that wildness next year when I can legally have a good time!

Coming home for spring break is exactly what I needed this year. The first two and half months of this semester have been a huge learning experience for me. I have had to figure out how to time manage more than I ever had to before and I haven't been doing that good of a job. It's really hard to live in a sorority house because there is always something else you would rather be doing. There is always someone around willing to procastinate with you. My living situation has been both good and bad for me because it has forced me to be more outgoing and get to know the people that I live with but it has also made me think that being social is the only important aspect of life and it is having negative effects on my performance in school.

I am also taking some of the hardest classes that I have ever been in this semester. No one can really talk until they actually start to get into their major classes. Learning what you are actually going to be practicing in the real world is a whole nother ball game than just memorizing facts for a required lower level class. I don't want to be the Accounting major without a life though. I refuse to only focus on my studies because in the end that is not going to make me a better person. I need to learn how to interact with people as well as how to give back to my community because both of those things can only add to my career later in life. I want to succeed but I also want to make sure that I enjoy the ride.

I needed to come home for Spring Break to rejuvenate my life. I need to get caught up on school work so that I can go back feeling confident about the rest of the semester. I also just need to rest and reconnect with people I haven't talked to in a while. Taking a break is what everyone needs once in a while.

Today was my first day of spring break and it was a day of perfect balance. I got to catch up on sleep, catch up on some of my tv shows and started the process of catching up on school work. I am so looking forward to this week! I know that might make me a nerd but I don't care. Taking care of yourself is the most important aspect of your life and this week of balance is just what the doctor ordered!

The name of the game is taking care of yourself, because you're going to live long enough to wish you had.” - Grace Mirabella

Sisterhood Retreat 2011!

I am guessing that the title of this post is somewhat unfamilar to some people. Sisterhood in the form of a sorority is not something that everyone chooses to par take in. I wasn't even sure if being in a sorority was the right thing for me when I first joined. I knew that I needed a small group of people on campus because I am really shy and I wouldn't have been able to meet people on my own. Jumping into something like a sorority the first week in college is a lot to handle, but I came to college telling myself that I was going to take what life threw my way. I didn't realize that being in a sorority would be the best decision that I made coming into college.

That decision is reconfirmed everyday that I spend in Athens. I never thought that I would have a 150 girls yelling "Dang" every time I walk into a room or the confidence to get over my shyness. Being a part of a sorority and living in the house has made me realize that there are so many people in this world. I would never have come into contact with most of my sisters because (a) UGA is a huge place and (b) we all comes from different walks of life. All my sisters have shaped the way I deal with people and life in general. I feel blessed every day that I get to spend with each and everyone of my sisters.

Today, we had our sisterhood retreat and I learned so much more about why I love Delta Gamma! I was almost in tears at the end of the retreat because everyone takes something different from their experience with Delta Gamma yet we all wouldn't be the people that we are today without each other. My sisters are some of the most important people in my life and I can't do anything without them. I know that two years from now when I have to say good bye to this part of my life I am going to be in tears but I will have to look back on college and say that Delta Gamma made my four years worth it.

I always go back to the idea that I am living life one day at a time. Delta Gamma affects me every day and it is something I would never be able to live without and I love the fact that I am reminded on a daily basis how much Delta Gamma means to me.  Shout out:  PC 09 got that boom boom pow!!

Dance Marathon 2011

"There's a little bit of insanity in dancing that does everyone a great deal of good"

It's that time of year again! It's that one day in which UGA students come together to give back for 24 straight hours. It's 24 hours filled with a morale dance, numerous performances, food and fun! That's right it's UGA Miracle's Dance Marathon.

I have been a part of Miracle for the last two years. Last year I was really involved and raised well over my goal for fundraising. When it came time for Dance Marathon, I was a little hesitant about how I was going to stay up all night, but the DGs made a great team and stuck it out. I will never forget the closing ceremonies in which the total fundraising amount was announced and we all got to cut off our hospital bracelets because we had given 24 hours of our busy lives to the kids! I was literally in tears and knew that those 24 hours had forever changed how I view the world.

This year, my life has changed a little bit. I am more involved with Delta Gamma, Habitat for Humanity and my school work. I also have a job that prevented me from attending the Team Member meetings for Miracle last semester. I have been out of touch with Miracle for the whole year, but I knew that I needed to show up at Dance Marathon to show my support. I got up this morning and treked on over to Tate. As soon as I walked in the door, every memory from last year came flooding back. Those 24 hours in which I heard from numerous children about how they beat their illnesses...continually hearing that they would not be alive if it weren't for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Children's Miracle Network. Throughout the past two years I have met numerous people who are Miracle children. This program has been going on for years and you never realize how many people it affects until you start talking to others.

I regret not being more involved with Miracle this year. I have been fortunate that no one in my family has had to use the services of Children's Healthcare but I have learned through Miracle that no one knows what tomorrow is going to bring. UGA's efforts are making a difference daily in the lives of children and I will be forever greatful that I had the opportunity see our efforts pay off. I wish that I didn't have to study for a test this afternoon or try to sleep off whatever sickness is dragging me down. I would love to be at the marathon dancing the night away with children who have gone through so much more than me in such a short period of time.

I can't say enough about the impact of 24 hours. Next year will be different. I will once again be at Dance Marathon for the whole 24 hours in order to show my support. I am thinking about all the people who are there now and praying that their experience is just as worthwhile as mine was last year!

No matter where my life leads me I will always remember the impact that UGA Miracle and Children's Miracle Network has on the UGA's campus and the rest of the world. I will always be FTK (For The Kids)!!! 

"Miracles happen to those who believe in them"