I See the Light!

Hello Everyone!

Today is the last day of classes!  Everyone here is so excited to be ending this semester and we're all ready to enjoy our summer.  Only 3 exams, 4 papers, and 5 more days till I'm all packed up and moved out for the year!  I could not be more excited for summer. I have big plans! First, on May 17th my roommate and I will be traveling to Lima, Peru for a month.  There we will be helping in an elementary school and a geriatric home.  Plus, not to mention sight-seeing! And did I tell you I hear the food is great??? Anyone who knows me will tell you that I LOVE food.  I love trying new foods and I'm especially excited to try all the food Peru has to offer.  Alpaca meat, anyone?  After Peru, I'll be returning home to, the best state ever, TEXAS.  Have I told you how much I love Texas?  Baltimore is great and I love Notre Dame, but nothing compares to the Lone Star State! Once I'm home I plan to sleep, visit with family, sleep, play with my puppies, sleep, see my friends, sleep, go to the beach, and maybe.....sleep!  Then in July, my mom and I leave for Europe on a trip to celebrate Girl Scout's 100th anniversary.  (Yes, I am still a girl scout)

This year has been wonderful.  Though at times I struggled and cried and just wanted to go home, I persevered and made it through.  College is hard, everyone will tell you that, but the things that really get you through it are your friends, family, awesome professors, and anyone else who supports you.  I cannot stress enough the importance of having great support and encouragement.  My family, friends, and boyfriend are some of my biggest supporters and they are the ones I turn to when I'm stressed and want to give up.  They tell me to be strong, be positive, and believe in myself.  I could not be where I am today if it weren't for them telling me that I can do anything if I put my mind to it.  Some other people that support me are the friends I have made here at school.  Coming from Texas, I was terrified that I wouldn't make friends but turns out, I hit the jackpot and wound up with the best friends anyone could ever have.  My friends and I are loud, obnoxious, completely ridiculous, and just plain silly.  We print out coloring pages and color until 3 am, drive to Wal-Mart at midnight, walk around Target in a taco suit, and order food at 1 am because we're up watching movies and not doing homework.

If there's any advice I can give to you, it's just to relax.  We all tend to stress out and worry about everything, but if you relax and pull yourself together, you can get everything done.  Also, plan ahead, study hard, and just have fun.  Not having fun may mean that you get that 4.0, but how great is that if you made no friends in the meantime?  You CAN have both! You want to look back at college and remember all the fun times you had. I may still have 2 more years but I'm already looking back on these past 2 years and remembering all the fun I had.

Good luck to everyone as yall finish up finals or get ready to graduate.  I hope everyone has a safe summer! Look for Peru pictures next month!

-Rachel

Almost the End!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I have not blogged lately, I have just been so busy with school.  We are almost in the middle of the 2nd to last week of classes in this semester.  You know what comes after classes, right? FINALS.  In my case, I'm pretty lucky on the exam aspect because I only have 3 exams.  However, this means that I have to write final papers. Those are not so fun.  Luckily, in most of my classes we've been working on them throughout the semester and gathering information so writing them shouldn't be too hard.  The hard part  is actually taking the time to sit down and write.  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am easily distracted and can't sit doing one thing for too long.  I definitely need to create a writing plan for myself so that I can work on paper #1 for x-amount of time, paper #2 for x-amount of time, and so forth.  If there's one thing I've learned here at college it's to manage your time wisely.  Time does not wait for you to catch up and you can never get time back, therefore if you love sleep and free time like I do, you need to plan ahead.  My best friend this semester has been my planner.  I write everything in it.  Meetings, work, extra-curricular activities, Skype dates, reminders, grocery lists, and anything else I need to remember goes in my planner.  I also color-code!  At the beginning of each month I sit down, choose a color that I like, and write in any upcoming events for the month.  This way, I know when the event is, what time it is at, where it is at, and I can plan ahead to prevent from being overwhelmed.

Speaking of planning, I need make that writing plan for myself! I'll be checking in again before finals week to give an update on everything.  Also, did I tell you I'm going to Peru????? My roommate and I will be doing service-learning in Lima, Peru!  We leave May 17th and come back June 13th.  This is just another great example of all that Notre Dame has to offer!

Talk to you soon!