What Else Can Be Said But, WOW!

Posted by Laura

Wow. What a semester! The past three and a half months of my life and time have been full of so many new experiences. From walking on campus for the very first time, lost in your surroundings, compared to taking shortcuts that get you exactly where you want to go. From introducing yourself to new faces hundreds of times, compared to saying goodbye to friends that you have learned and grown from. From opening a fresh stiff book knowing that the journey of hundreds of hours of studying begins with that first word, compared to reading the last page of a heavily used and highlighted book. There is so much that happens in a such a short amount of time.

A once-in-a-lifetime experience happened to me the last week of class. There was a American Heritage drawing that took place, where all of the names of the students who completed a course survey near the beginning of the semester were entered to win prizes. I had assumed I lost because it was so long ago, but I got an e-mail notifying me that my name had been drawn and that I won an iPod! Whoot whoot! It was so exciting, my roommates opened the Martinelli's bottle they had been saving for the last day of class and a party began. It was quite the event to see and so exciting. I felt pretty lucky that day.

As I have talked to people about finals week, I have heard lots of different opinions and contrasting advice. One of my roommates thinks it best to just buckle down and get finals out of the way, so starting at 10 tonight, she will be celebrating Christmas break. Some have all of theirs scheduled and have to be done cramming, ready or not. I had half of my finals in class last week, and the other half are unscheduled. I have it planned out that I will have one each day and be finished on Thursday. I have actually felt pretty proud, taking a step back and looking at all that I have learned in each class.

I know that my prayers were truly answered this morning as I completed my first religion final and got 100 percent on the memorization section. I hope that if I put the time and effort into studying harder than ever, then all will all work out. It has been a great semester, and I am excited to finish finals, enjoy Christmas break, and start a fresh semester with some experience behind my name.