a college rant.

people keep telling me lately that "it's all about who you know" and that college is  about "networking". in no way do i disagree with this statement. i know that is important.

but.

do i really have to become "buddy buddy" with my professor?
i've found that my student-teacher relationships have developed naturally, without having to feel like i'm brown-nosing.

i always semi-struggle with this because i feel that my professors deserve a lot of respect. i have a hard time breaking those boundaries. Yet some students can go into Dr. Smith's office saying "HEY BOB!" to ask how their weekend was. BAM! here's an internship.

or there are those people who jump on the bandwagon. if you know one person you instantly know another...also something i struggle with. like, "hey i'm jane i work with rob who is your executive assistant's son." BAM! instant letter of recommendation.

or those people that instantly walk into the room and have made 50 new friends. BAM! new member of 7 clubs on campus.

sometimes i feel like  i am far away from being that student. sometimes i feel like i am surrounded by those students (which is NOT in any way a bad thing). in fact, i am envious of those awesome students who are able to make connections with professors, staff members and other students so quickly and easily. i truly think it is a talent.

i have been extremely lucky to have had some pretty incredible experiences so far at SUU. i couldn't be more grateful for them.through these experiences i have met many influential students, professors and staff who have impacted my educational goals.


this is not in any way a pity post.
this is a resolution.
i need to work on being bold and creating honest and sincere relationships with people who can help me find opportunities to grow and learn.

because isn't that what college is really all about? isn't that what they've been telling me?

and i don't need to call my professor bob or know her executive assistant's son or have 50 instant friends.

i just can't let fear stand in the way of a new experience.

my sister brynn

meet my sister brynn.

today is her birthday.

you know i'm talking on the phone with her when there is an excessive amount of words like "girl" and "shmoozy".

she ROCKS at teaching third grade.

any third grader who gets to "fly to canada" complete with pretzels is obviously lucky to have her as a teacher. not to mention making up their own class song titled friends, friends friends.

she enjoys decorating and planning fun parties.

her wardrobe is absolutely the classiest in the world. she can make any outfit look good. you may or may not have seen me wearing some of brynn's clothes.... (sorry girl, they'll be returned. eventually).

she is a great writer and can edit like a champion. lucky for me, she is always willing to help with editing my research papers.

she likes chick flicks (such as you've got mail) and anything vintage.

she introduced me to favorite artists like sara bareilles and the weepies.

she enjoys tubing on glass at hebgen lake and screaming "oy noy!" when we go over a bump.

meet my sister brynn.

today is her birthday.

H      a      p      p      y

B      i      r      t      h      d      a      y

hope it's shmoozy!

shed a little light

Let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Shed a little light, oh lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh lord
Wanna stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh lord
Wanna walk it on down
Shed a little light, oh lord

Can't get no light from the dollar bill
Don't give me no light from a TV screen
When I open my eyes
I wanna drink my fill
From the well on the hill


Shed a little light, oh lord
So that we can see
Just a little light, oh lord
Wanna stand it on up
Stand it on up, oh lord
Wanna walk it on down
Shed a little light, oh lord

There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest

Oh, let us turn our thoughts today
To Martin Luther King
And recognize that there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood

the good, the bad, and the ugly: facebook pet peeves

well i "deactivated" my facebook account on sunday night. it was a new years resolution to do less facebooking and quite frankly the lovely social network was becoming a problem for me. too much time was wasted away on it last semester so i decided i could live without it for a few months. although i will be quick to confess that it's only been 2 days...it's pretty hard not to just log on out of habit. 
of course, facebook wants to make it as hard as possible to deactivate your account. first it gets you with pictures of 5 or 6 of your friends saying "jessica will miss you", "courtney will miss you", "brynn will miss you" , "spence will miss you" etc. really? well  all of these people happen to have my phone number so if they really miss me that much, they can call me. 
 then they want to know why you would ever dream of deactivating your account with a survey. then the window comes up. "are you sure you want to deactivate your facebook account?"
bottom line--i have subconsciously been compiling a list of reasons for my love/hate relationship with facebook. 

facebook pet peeves

-status updates about the weather changing. when it's snowing: "SNOW!! Finally!" when it's not snowing: "why can't we have snow?!" sometimes it's just better to NOT state the obvious. we all want it to snow, we all love when it snows. do you really need to post about it along with the hundreds of other people that go through my news feed?

-constant status updates about sports teams. "eleven seconds left! go hedgehogs!" a few seconds later... "INTERCEPTION! 7 seconds!"  and so on. look, if we wanted a play by play, we would actually be watching the game. similarly, posting things about specific athletes like "TEBOW TRAIN!" thats great...but did you realize that everyone else was posting about tebow too? did you just want to fit in? or are you really a tebow fan? it's debatable.

-telling everyone about your day. "great day! woke up, ate some breakfast and now i'm going to class!" you know, that's interesting...hmmm where have i heard that before? oh yeah! that's exactly what i did today too! if something unique happened during the day that you feel like sharing, more power to you--but you don't really need to recite your daily routine to the masses.

-"that awkward moment when..." posts. people have really caught on to these lately. "that awkward moment when you go to the store and you forget to buy something..." or "that awkward moment when you trip on your way to class..." you know i don't find that situation super awkward...that's what i call everyday life.

-excessive tagging. i am actually a fan of the tagging feature. it's nice to be able to include friends in your posts every once in a while. but when it overpowers a status update, it can be flat out annoying. "Thanks to @John and @Sally for a great night out tonight! Tried the new restaurant in town @The Barnaby Cafe! @Celia, @Mike, @Laura, @Andy have you ever been there? We should go sometime."  if you have to tag that many people, maybe you should just have a private conversation with them instead of letting your 506 friends in on the conversation.

-taking a billion pictures of yourself in the mirror and putting it in a "me! :) <3" album. we love you, but taking all of those one handed photos can be unnecessary.

-pointless mobile uploads. it's fun to see pictures you've taken on your phone that mean something or deserve to be shared. ...i'm just not sure if taking a picture of the kraft mac and cheese you just made with the caption"dinner!" really constitutes a meaningful mobile upload.

-using a hashtag when you aren't posting through twitter. "threw up this morning #sooosick" if you have a twitter that is connected to your facebok updates, then by all means hashtag away. but if you don't, i'm fairly sure you could have said you were sooo sick without putting a hashtag there. tweet about it later.

-liking semi-obscure things. "playing pickle-ball in the rain" or "boys who open doors" yes, we all like these things. but do we have to "like" them? what kind of updates are you hoping to get from the "playing pickle-ball in the rain" page?

i write these pet peeves of mine out of complete love because let's be honest, we've all done the majority of these at one point or another. and of course i exaggerated most of them to make my point. the truth is, i like facebook. (no pun intended) it allows me to keep in touch with friends who live far away, even others who i never thought i could or would keep in touch with. share memories, photo's, causes i believe in or interesting articles i read. spread the word about an event, find someone to cover my hours or find a ride home. but for now i'm very much enjoying (what will be) a nice long break.

as a result-- lucky for you, i'll probably be blogging more.


what pet peeves would you add to my list?