A Year In Review...

Dear Ocean,

As 2008 comes to a close I'm going to attempt to remember the important things that happened to me this year. Because it was a pretty big year, probably my best so far I think. Don't read if you get bored easily.

January '08... Full of waiting and confusion- with all the stress of the USCGA and Webb Institute applications, and with the whole SAT drama on winter weekend. Winter weekend was super fun, Manute and I rafted on Lake Superior.

February '08... I turned 18! Best birthday ever. I started and ended an addiction to scratch card games, stayed out as late as I wanted, and signed my own forms.

March '08... ?

April '08... spring break trip to florida! SCUBA certification, toured FIT (with my Tshirt inside out) and Eckerd (too pretty). Unofficially made my decision. Got wait listed by USCGA and rejected by Webb and the UofMN. that sucked: boat building no longer in my future.

May '08... was sooo busy. Performance for dance at the Minnesota Dance Festival (jazz, modern, and pointe?) was really fun. AP tests were a joke, it was nice to be done with environmental science and Calc and basically everything else. It was horrible being stuck in the classroom for that last month of school, so Manute and I spent a lot of that time outdoors. Last piano recital ever. That was hard to be done with all those years of hard work on the piano.

June '08... GRADUATION! WE'RE DONE!!!! (and a rockin fun graduation party at my house) and I also had my last dance recital ever. That was really really sad. I think that's the first time I've seen my dad cry that much. It was so fun, but even now I'm getting really sad thinking about it, because that was basically a big farewell to that whole chunk of my life, which was a pretty significant chunk. I miss it. June also included my 4th and final Mexico Trip with St. Pats! It was great, lots of good times. I also got an unexpected visit from my cousins (awesome!), but because of scary conditions. Thank the lord so much for the health of my grandmother!

July '08... abbreviated family vacation up north, lots of summer stuff, getting ready for FIT.

August '08... sea kayaking trip on lake superior was crazy ridiculous fun, and a good way to end my summer. Sarah's wedding was stressful (I played the piano), but then it was really fun at the reception. Everything was so beautiful, and it was so fun to be with all my family. Then my mom and I flew down to Florida for orientation, where I lost a roommate, gained a bed, and felt like my head was a tornado for two weeks straight. I also fulfilled my biggest dare in August.

September '08... made new friends, experienced some hurricane weather, tried sailing, got hooked on latin dancing, started my job

October '08... came home for a weekend, more studying, more dancing, more new friends

November '08... thanksgiving away from home

December '08... survived finals, came home!

And somewhere in the midst of all of that I managed to figure out what I want to do with my life (somewhat), continue the dare game, pull off some awesome TSW's, have many adventures, and acclimate to a new world basically. Woot woot! Go 2008!

love,
whitney!

Is it april fool's day?

Dear Ocean,

This morning at 6:45 am I woke up, a little frazzled, to make it on time to my 7 oclock dentist appointment. No one likes the dentist, and especially not at 7 am. So as I'm driving there, my mother calls me and informs me that, she was wrong, the appointment was for 7 pm.

Thanks mom, I'm so glad I woke up at 6:45 to take a drive in a frozen car and start my day off right. That's just the best.

Happy Monday!

!!!

I went salsa dancing in Minneapolis last night. FINALLY!

You should check this place out, because it was pretty dang fun. I mean I didn't really have a [Xerxes, Luis, Joshua, Kermit] to dance with, but I had fun throwing myself out there on the dance floor. And I plan on going back every Saturday night I'm available!

It's a lose-lose situation.

So I'm starting to struggle a bit with the whole living in two places deal. Seriously, why don't more college kids complain about that? I'm very conflicted on what to bring to my temporary living arrangement in Florida, because although I want that to feel like "home", I don't want it to completely feel like home. I want all my stuff there, but I don't want to have to struggle with bringing it all back to my real home. For instance which would be easier, to be in Minnesota wishing I had something from my dorm in Florida, or to be in Florida wishing I had something from my home in Minnesota? I think the latter, right? Ok. Problem solved.

Coldness, Surprises, and The Hopefuls

Sooo this week has been full of surprises! Jaclyn came home on Monday night, while Popko and I were at Meggin's. It was a wonderful time, and I'm so glad we're both home. Wednesday we helped out at church and got to hang out with church people, have a nice dance party with Timmy; the usual. For Jaclyn's birthday on Thursday we attempted to have a surprise party for her, but poor planning led us to a rather interesting situation. Friday morning I left at 4am to pick up Elliot from Indiana... which is how I spent the next 24 hours. Literally. Dad and I in the car for 24 hours, him doing most of the driving, but still. Talk about numb bum syndrom. Cookie baking on Saturday was good, and the sledding afterwards was way too cold. Last night I went to first ave which sort of brought me back to ninth grade-- because I went with Claire to see THE HOPEFULS. That's right world, they finally came out with their new album, and it was wonderful. Cheers to Rupert and his wonderful dancing.

... it's been 11 days since I've been dancing, and I have the jitters pretty bad!

home for the holidays!

I have successfully (I think) completed a semester of college life at FIT. Finals went alright for the most part, and I still managed to have some fun laying out in the sun on the parking ramp with Xenia, dancing with Luis and Xerxes, beaching it by myself, going to orlando with Alberto, baking parties at Armando's, and making early morning biking trips with Jonathan and Kuran(sp?). All in all, a fun week. A HUGE downer though was that I had to clean my room and divide it, so right now in florida my dorm room is half awesome and half empty. So potential new roommate, if you're reading this, please decide to transfer before you even get here. Or else, please be awesome. (but not too awesome, because I don't want you to be more awesome than me)

love,
whitney!

Study Days

Last Thursday and Friday were study days for the upcoming exam week.
Wednesday evening at our regular "latin dance class" at clemente center, Sheree, Danielle, Kermit, Xerxes, and I stayed there dancing like crazy until Kermit and I realized we had a chemistry assignment due at midnight. So we left at 11:30 and I managed to finish part of it in time. On Thursday I got some work done at the library in the morning and then helped with the water exchanges in the lab in the afternoon. Thursday night I went to the Carribbean Student Association's party near campus which was a little uncomfortable because, well, I'm not carribbean. I only got a chance to sleep for 30 minutes before going to the 8am chem review session on Friday, studied some more, went to the mall, and then had a fun evening with Xenia. We got together our books and (after discovering the library was closed) took a blanket to "the Box" (the raquetball court, with an open roof, next to the tennis courts, with a little willy wonka door) and had a study party. It was perfect: extremely quiet, well lit, and just the right temperature. Luis ended up joining us there, we had a pizza delivered to us, Jared brought us cookies, and life was good.

Take ownership of your education

In my oh-so-not-interesting Composition and Rhetoric class the other day, my professor started rambling about education in this world. And actually, it was pretty fascinating. The point was brought up that, come time for college, you would think that students would finally be able to take ownership of their education. I mean, we have a big task in our hands, of making sure that we learn what we want and need and find interesting to learn. However, there are so many road blocks in the way of making that learning experience what it should be. For example: we are in chemistry class and we're doing a lab involving the recycling of aluminum. I raise my hand and say "yo professor, how practical is this recycling process? Is this what they use in the industry? Is this the most effective way to recycle aluminum? ect. ect." because I AM INTERESTED in the topic. The professor most likely would reply "you silly student, that is not in our curriculum. Finish your lab and study for the quiz tomorrow." Ladies and gentlemen, that professor has just completely lost an opportunity to TEACH and LEARN and help a student LEARN and why are we here? TO LEARN! Institutions need to lessen up on their "curriculums" and "requirements" and "graduation standards" (ok that was kind of joking) in order to allow students and teachers to develop meaningful learning in the classroom. I really think we'd all be a lot happier. But I'm not complaining, just rambling. 8 DAYS TILL I'M HOME!

Don't even try to argue

To conclude my Intro to Space Science course this evening, Dr. Oswalt wanted to end on a big bang of excitement....
Pluto is not a planet!
And in case you were wondering, Dr. Oswalt was one of the 500 some people to vote on its status.
Therefore, I just took 3 credit hours a week with a celebrity.