Thanks, Stacy.

Today I had a midterm conference with my written communications professor about a recent paper. At my school, that is a required course in order to graduate. We recently got a prompt that required us to research a problem at a local, state, national, or global level. Then we needed to analyze its solutions, etc. 
Anyway, today during my conference, she asked me if I had any journalistic experience, because my paper was written in a way that she felt as if she was reading a newspaper article. 
I asked, “Is that a good thing?”
She said it was for this paper. She said, “You were trained well.” 
I instantly flashed back to high school and thought of the person who helped me grow as a journalistic writer.
So thanks, Mr. Stacy! You taught me well, and I owe that compliment given to me, to you! 

 

Time to Grow Up

I wish you’d understand that you’re being so utterly selfish. The ball is in your court. I’ve already told you what you should do, and I know you know what you have to do, yet you still decide to not listen to me or do anything about the situation. I know you don’t like confrontation but you’ve got to grow up sometime. Now would be a great time seeing as you’re in college now. Sheltering yourself from everyone just because you don’t want to have interaction with one person is so childish. Not only are you hurting yourself but you’re hurting those around you. Not to mention you’re making the situation more awkward by prolonging the confrontation. I’ll always be your friend and try to be there whenever you need but you’re hindering me from being who I want to be. I feel like I’m your crutch, without me it’s like you disappear, you can’t eat lunch, eat dinner, so when I’m gone, talking to our friends, you go back home, or retreat so you don’t have to deal with anything. So please, I’m telling you as a friend who cares, suck it up, talk to her and stop being so stupid and stubborn.

 

Home

There’s about 6 days left in my first college Christmas break. Can’t believe a month has pretty much gone by– it feels like yesterday I was cramming for my first finals, shopping for gifts, and seeing cousins for Christmas. And now, I’m about to start my second semester of college.

Honestly, I’m a bit torn. I mean there is absolutely nothing like college, and I absolutely love it. But being home has been refreshing. I’m only about 20 minutes away from home while I’m in college, but I’ve missed this place. “Indepimpdence”, as I call it, is home. It’s where I’ve been all my life.

I know I have to go back to school, and actually I’m quite excited to go back. But I’m a bit saddened that I have to leave the place where I grew up. I don’t think I fully appreciated being here when I actually was living here.

However, now Jewell is also my home too. It is also where I belong. Now I can only learn from my mistakes and take in every moment I have there.

 

Adventures at Dim Sum

My aunt invited me to dim sum this morning. We had a table of 9 1/2 people. My aunt, my aunts’s client, her husband, their oldest son, his wife, their two of four kids, me, my cousin, and her new little baby girl. As we all started to make small talk, I found out that my aunt’s client’s husband went to Jewell (I think his name was Jim). And it also turns out their kids all went to Jewell too (I think they had 4 as well). Small world. And it really just made me miss being there, talking about all the buildings, the things they did while they were there, because it’s something familiar.

In other news, there was an Asian-Look-Alike of Forrest at dim sum too. He sat kinda caddy corner from our table. He dressed an awful like Forrest and his mannerism were somewhat similar, except Forrest is a lot more immature, probably. And his hair… oh my! Quite exquisite. Very good looking. Hehehe!

 

I Hope…

I hope, for your own sake, you look at your life and evaluate what’s important and what’s not. You’re going to be know as “that guy” if you keep it up. If it’s more important for someone to write on your Facebook wall and wish you happy birthday than it is to personally call you and wish you happy birthday, something is definitely wrong.
You used to be the complete opposite. I’m not sure what happened. High fame, fortune, mistresses? I have no idea. The only thing I’m definitely sure of– you’re not the person I used to know.
Life isn’t about the materialistic. There’s other things that are more important. Not how many people you can get to wish you a happy birthday over Facebook.

 

Cardinals

Cardinal is her color, Jewell is her name
High upon a hill she stands
We will fight to keep her fame
Loyalty, aligance, Alma mater true
We will love thee, serve the forever
William Jewell

 

I’m a lover of it.

I absolutely love tennis.
The US Open just has me thinking.
My cousin, Stephen, was probably the instigator for all of this tennis love. We used to be so close, hangout 24/7, and watch tennis. Federer, Roddick, Agassi, Hewitt, Hennman. He’d tape all of the Slams and he’d watch them over and over again, fast fowarding, rewinding to see that amazing backhand volley, or that point where Federer had an amazing tweener. Or even to watch Federer hoist that Wimbledon Trophy over his head. (He’d watch it in real time, then watch it again on tape. I’d be there to see it all.) My cousin would even get up at crazy hours in the morning just to watch the quarters, semis, and finals.
My cousin was/is an amazing tennis player himself. He was Varsity 1 at his high school back in the day. And his dad was/is also a great tennis player. I would even go watch them play tennis together at their local tennis club. Tennis was something I was always around.
So once I started high school, tennis was just automatically one of the things I knew I wanted to do, next to orchestra, because I was around it so often. Now if you’d ask me how good I was, I will tell you that I wasn’t great, or even good, or even average. I was good by my school’s standards, horrible by other’s.
I was a horrible player actually, I’d say. I’d say that I’m a better analyzer than I am a player. What I mean is that I can critique like no other. But I was never really athletic (the reason I suck!).
Professional tennis is what I’m all about (again going back to my cousin watching tennis all the time). I think just being around my cousin and his dad, and just hearing everything they said about the game made me in the the passionate fan of tennis I am today.  You should watch me watch a professional tennis match. Especially if it’s the big namers. I get so into it.
While others view tennis as a boring sport to watch, I find it the most interesting. It’s just so exciting. What other sport do you get to see an individual fight for him/her-self? Where there are athletes from all over the world who play this sport? Where you see spectators who travel to see these 4 grand slams and even other tourneys? To me, it’s just so fascinating. And I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

And even though I’m not playing it regularly anymore, I miss it dearly. And as cliche as it sounds, it has a rather large spot reserved in my heart.

Just some of my thoughts for the day.
-ML

 

First week of college: complete

It’s been about a week since I first moved up to the Hill, as it’s known. And it’s been pretty great so far. I’ve met a lot of new people, and I’ve kept pretty busy, with orientation for 4 days and doing all sorts of activities, and now class– I’ve even done a quite a bit of homework.

The food is great here at Jewell. The pizza is so hard to beat, and the salad bar is absolutely amazing, even though it’s something I could just go to the store and make. And my classes so far seem to be going smoothly. Chemistry will be interesting but the professor is sooo nice! And I’m glad to be playing my violin again. I’ve missed it quite a bit.

I am getting a little homesick though. And even though I’m only 20 minutes or so away it’s like the new chapter of my life, or whatever they like to call it– it just feels weird since I was so used to starting school and being at home and being at school for 8 hours everyday. But this college thing is something I need. It’s a good thing.

I’m so glad I chose Jewell.

 

Karma

Okay so maybe it wasn’t a good idea to make fun of Derek and how if he gets home at 4 in the morning then his mom will think he doesn’t respect her.

On Tuesday, my birthday, I got my cartilage pierced without my mom knowing. She found out today because my grandma noticed it the other day and called her to tell her. She told me she doesn’t trust me as much as she used to. Ouch. :(

 

Summer’s Almost Over

Yes, it was about 3.45AM when I got home this morning from the late night festivities we had. And actually this is been the norm for a couple weeks, despite the dislike from all of our parents.

Tonight was Morgan’s going away party/meet the Sandberg’s new AFS student! It was a great oppurtunity to see some old high school friends/aqaintences before summer ends. And at the end, it ended up being the same bunch that hangsouts until the wee hours of the morning.

Slowly the group got smaller as time went on (also the norm). It ended up being the usual crowd– me, Derks, Morg, Kaitlin and Nick, but minus Kens. :( But then it ended up with just me, Morg and Derks today sitting on Morg’s couch talking and looking up weird articles on Yahoo.com around 2.30ish. But all of these late night shenanigans ends tonight, most likely. Most of us are leaving this town of IndePIMPdence this week, if they haven’t left already (meaning Mariah!). Hahaha!

Out of the six or so people in our little possy, Kendyl was the first to leave this week. KL, my roommate, just moved into our dorm yesterday. Her soccer practices start this morning. Tomorrow, Nick and Morgan leave. One will be about an hour and a half away at Mizzou. The other will be two states away in Colorado. Then next will be me, moving in Saturday. Kaitlin starts classes sometime next week at Blue River/UMKC. And Derks moves in the following  Thursday at NWMSU.

This summer has probably been the best. I probably say that every year but honestly, I’ve had the most fun getting to know this group of kids. Whether it was because of gossiping about someone we hate (hot potato), or watching old episodes Shark Week, having a spaghetti dinner, playing sardines, taking me hostage from people I didn’t want to be around, playing late night tennis, jumping on Nick’s trampoline, getting millions of mosquito bites talking outside, playing CatchPhrase Jr. for 3 hours straight, late night talks about anything and everything, or even the late night soccer games, or any of the other activities we did, I wouldn’t have traded the summer for anything in the world. I’ll miss it very dearly. We’ve all grown so close in just these past few weeks. And while I know I’ll see these guys again (hopefully), it just makes me sad to see us go separate ways. I guess that is just what happens with change– we’re growing up! Gosh that makes me sound old. But I’m ready for it. Ready for college, and living on my own. I’ll always remember these nights, driving home at 3 or 4 in the morning, sleeping in until noon. Then we’d start the whole night over at 8 or 9. And we’d make fun of Derek and” how his mom will think he doesn’t respect her by getting home at 4.” Or how Morgan’s or Nick’s or Kaitlin’s parents will call them to get them to get home right then.

These were some great nights (and even days!!). And I can only hope for even more of these nights in the future.

I’m so grateful that God has blessed me with such great friends. I’m not sure what I would have done without them this summer.