Finals Week

It is finally here.  The dreaded finals are here to plague McKendree.  I just finished my first final a matter of minutes ago, so my brain is pretty much a puddle of mush right now.  The final was for my history class, and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Hopefully my other two finals are not as difficult as the previous.  All in all, I think I did an “ok” job on my first final.  There was some things I just flat-out didn’t know, but there was plenty that I did know.  My grade in that class was very good before the final so I hope it stays that way.

You can tell that finals are going on around campus.  There is sort of an eerie calm over campus.  Not a whole lot of people are walking around and everyone seems to be to themselves a lot more than they usually are.  Everywhere I go I seem people writing papers or doing some sort of studying. 

The good thing about finals week is the fact that it is the final week of first semester.  I, like everyone else on campus, can not wait for this week to be over with.  Even though the week is very stressful, everyone was sort of looking forward to it, just because it welcomes the holiday break.

Everyone just has to survive these last few days and then we are home free.  Another good thing about final week is some of the extras we get.  In the Lair students can receive different things throughout the week.  I believe it is open all night for the next few nights.  Students can get free food and hot chocolate.  I think tonight there is free peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with hot chocolate or coffee.  It’s a nice gesture that helps you relieve a  little stress.

Stress is the big thing around final week.  Everyone is stress, myself included.  I know a bunch of people are going to be sick next week.  All these high levels of stress makes people sick.  So it might be a good idea to start taking medication now if you’re not feeling to well.

I have so far taken one final.  I still have another tomorrow and then another on Thursday.  I’m sort of nervous about the one tomorrow.   It is my math final and is supposed to be open book.  At first I was excited to hear about it being an open book, but now I’m a little nervous.  I know I need to review some of the older course material.  On Thursday I have my psychology final, but I have no fears about that final.  I am 100% confident that I will do great on that one.

All in all, final week is here and will be gone before we know it.  It may be incredibly stressful, but it will be worth it considering the reward once it is done.  I wish everyone good luck during this week of finals.

Final Post of the Semester

I believe this will be my final post of the semester here at McKendree.  I’m just about to wrap things up for the semester.  These are my final few days before finals so all we are doing is preparing for next week.  The times for each final have been released and all seems to be in order for the next week. 

This semester just seemed to fly by so quickly.  I had a good time this semester.  I met a bunch of new people, played soccer, learned a lot, and just enjoyed my first semester of college.  I really do like it here.   I seem to have found my flow around here.  I can remember the first day I arrived at McKendree.  I was nervous and seemed to walk around in a panic trying to find everything.  Now, I feel like I’m at home.  Getting around is easy and talking to people seems to have become easier too.

All in all this semester has been great.  I believe this will be my last post, but I’m not 100% sure.  I still may do another next week, but if I don’t, I would like to wish everyone happy holidays from McKendree University.

Final Regular Week!

This week is the final regular week of my first semester at McKendree University.  I, like everyone else, am completely ready for Christmas break to start, but I still have to overcome some difficulties in the near future.  These difficulties would be finals next week.  I have been told that I have two finals, one for my history class and one for my math class.  I also have a text in psychology and a revision assignment for english.  Even though you can tell that finals are on everyone’s mind, you know everyone is ready for them to get here just so break comes that much faster.  I know thats how I feel.  I’ve been counting down the days for the past month.

I have been told that my math final will also be an open book final.  This makes me feel a little better.  The professor said the test was rather easy and that people have scored over 100% on it in the past.  Hopefully history repeats itself.  I have been doing rather well in my history class, but I have been told that the final is rather difficult.  I think I have a rather great amount of studying for that test.  My psychology final is just another test and so far I’ve done very well on tests.  I still plan on setting aside some time for each of my finals to study a while.  Better be safe than sorry.

I’m very excited about break.  I think everyone here would say the same thing.  It’s just going to be nice having a month to relax and just put school on hold.  It’s not like I don’t like school, its just that every now and then you need a break.  I believe everyone feels this way about break.  It’s just a nice escape.  It’s hard to believe that I’m already 1/8 of the way done with college.  I just got here and already it’s seeming to fly by, but that’s life I guess.

All in all, everything seems to be rather good at the moment.  No more large projects or tests.  Baseball is just about finished for the year and finals are just around the corner.  I seem to have everything in order for the next few weeks, but after that, I have no idea, which is a great thing.  You can’t have a set plan going into Christmas break; not having a plan is half the fun of being on break.

 

Planning the Week

It is officially the week of Thanksgiving!  Which means this Thursday is the big day.  I can’t wait for Thanksgiving.  I have classes here at McKendree on Monday and Tuesday and then I’m home for five days, which is going to be great.  I must first, however, make it through these next two days.  It shouldn’t be to difficult.  I turned in a paper for one of my classes this morning and later today I have to do the same thing for another class.  Then after that class I have baseball conditioning.  That will conclude my Monday.  Tuesday is pretty much the same thing, classes in the morning and afternoon then baseball conditioning.

After baseball on Tuesday I am free to do whatever I wish.  I know I’m going to go home that night, but I’m not really sure what I’m going to do.  Tuesday night and Wednesday are open and then I have plenty to do on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday will be may Thanksgiving, which will consist of food and football.  Then Friday will be Black Friday, which will be all sorts of craziness.   There’s plenty to think about and plan, I’ll probably just let things happen on their own and take them as they come.

Well, this seems to be the plan for the week.  It’s nice to have a plan going into things.  Last week I had to make some serious planning to organize my class schedule for next semester.  I decided to change a few of my classes to better compensate my time.  After my final outline was made I had to make sure that I got all the classes I wanted, so I checked all the class openings online.  Freshman can’t register for classes until a few days after the upperclassmen register, which means that some of the classes that I wanted to take already were filling up.  I saw that in two of the classes I wanted to take there were very few open spots to fill.  I decided to register at the earliest time possible.  This happened to be at 4 a.m., so I set my alarm and actually got all the classes I wanted.

I’m really glad I did what I did.  I was talking to another freshman that registered for classes really early in the morning.  He said that he registered at 4:30 a.m. and was on the waiting list for three of his classes, I was really glad I registered when I did.

Besides that hectic night, everything else has been going pretty great.  The semester is wrapping up in a few weeks and all my classes are going great.  Hopefully the good fortune continues.

 

A Good Week for McKendree

A lot has happened this past week at McKendree.  The biggest event that happened had to be men’s basketball coach Harry Statham winning his 1000th career game on Friday.  He is now the first men’s basketball coach to win 1000 games at the four-year college level.  I was unable to attend the game due to a sell out crowd of 1,600, but I was able to watch all the highlights on the news while seeing a bunch of people I knew.  That was pretty exciting.  I would like to tell coach Statham and the basketball team congratulations for this great accomplishment.

There is also some good and bad news for the men’s and women’s soccer teams.  We will start with the good news.  The women’s team was awarded the 11th seed in the NAIA National Championship and will host a first round game against Midland Lutheran College on November 21.  The bad news is that the men’s soccer season has ended with an upset loss to Park last week.  Both the men’s and women’s teams have had great seasons however.

In other news, this is the last full week before Thanksgiving break, which I am very excited about.  We have class this week and then Monday and Tuesday of next week.  Next Thursday is Thanksgiving and the day after that is Black Friday.  I can’t wait for those two days.  Thanksgiving is always a great day.  My family and all my relatives meet up at my grandparents house and then celebrate the day.  Then there’s Black Friday.  I believed I talked about his day in my last post, so I won’t repeat myself, but there is another good thing about this day besides the great deals.  This would be ”Thanksgiving sandwiches”.  Nothing beats a Thanksgiving turkey sandwich.  They even made an episode about such a sandwich on “Friends” all those years ago about it.  I believe that proves my point. 

Before we know it this semester will be over and next semester will have started.  I’ve already made my schedule for next semester.  In a few days I will actually be able to register for classes, hopefully I will be able to get all the classes I’ve signed up for.  To insure this, I plan on registering at the earliest time possible, 4:00 a.m.  I know other people are planning on doing this too, but I doubt that a lot of people will be doing this.

All in all, everything has been going great at school.  The classes are in “final mode” and everyone is getting ready for break.  It’s been pretty good as of late.

Final Preparations

The end of first semester is quickly approaching here at McKendree.  It’s hard to believe that in a month I will have completed my first semester of college, but with Thanksgiving break and preparation time for finals this one month gap is actually shortened to a little more than two weeks.  That’s even harder to believe.

With Christmas break in the near future, final preparations have been starting to occur in many of my classes.  We have been talking about finals much more in many of my classes.  The next test in each class is going to be the final, which is hard to believe. 

My English class has just about wrapped up.  I believe I have one more essay to write along with a revision of a pervious paper.  In my math class we have one more quiz and then a folder due with the whole semesters worth of homework in it.  I’m a little behind on the homework, but I’m not going to worry about that just yet.  My history class is remaining rather consistent with a quiz a week and two essays due by Christmas break.  Psychology is a little different situation, but still rather manageable.  I have a rather large project due next week and a quiz this week.  We also have a few mini-assignments along the way aswell, but I’m not worried about them at all.

So, as you can see, I pretty much have my entire next month planned out.  Of course the hardest thing about the next month will have to be the week of finals.  I have actually already started some planning for the week before finals.  Since I’m new to this whole “college thing” I’m not really sure what to expect on the finals.  I’m assuming it’s similar to my high school finals, but I’m not certain.  So with that in mind, I am planning on using the weekend before finals as a “cramming weekend”.  Thats when you lock yourself in your room and devote your time to the preparation for finals.  I’ve never done this while I had a roommate, so I’m not really sure how thats gonna work.  I may have to just hit the library.  Regardless, thats the plan.

I’m not gonna wait for that weekend to study though.  I’m gonna filter some study time within the next few weeks just to prepare for that dreaded week.  Hopefully all goes well, but hey, if it doesnt’ then I know what to change for next semester.

A New Month

A new month has begun here at McKendree University.  October is in the rear view mirror and stress of November is in the headlights.  November is pretty much the month when it hits you that finals are only a month away.  The first two weeks of December are finals here at McKendree.  I’ve been told in one of my classes that there will be no final, which I am extremely thankful for.  That’s not the same story in three of my other classes however.  So I believe that I have some preparing to do, but then again, that’s what November is for.

November is also for Thanksgiving of course, which I look forward to greatly.  Even though three weeks is a long time, I can’t help but feel a little excited.  Another thing I’m really, really excited about is “Black Friday”, or better known as the day after Thanksgiving.  Nothing beats $3 DVDs in my opinion. 

Enough about the future, we live in the present, so I will talk about the present.  Like I said, we just entered the first week of November.  The weather has been pretty junky as of late but it seems to be much better now.  There are more leaves on the ground than on the trees and the temperature has dipped quite a bit.  I’m done with soccer, but the varsity is continuing to dominate the competition.  Keep it up boys!!  And baseball has gone indoors for conditioning.  This basically means that I’ve slowed down a bit, which is a nice change of pace.  When you’re really busy for a long time and then all of a sudden the load lightens it’s quite nice, even though I loved what I was doing. 

This “usable time” that I now have can now be used for other things.  Hopefully I’ll be able to check out events happening around campus more often.  I’d love to go to the Hett in the near future and take part in some of the activities there.  Of course some of this time will be devoted to studying for finals, and also to a side project I’ve been working on, but that’s another story.

All in all, everything has been going great as of late.  Hopefully the good fortunes continue.  With each day comes new challenges and rewards, so only time will tell i guess.

My Birthday Blog

Today is October, 26, better known as my date of birth.  I turn 19 today.  Creator of “Family Guy” Seth MacFarlane and Hilary Clinton also have thier birthdays today.  That’s the random fact of the day.  This is my first birthday I have had away from home, and it’s sort of odd.  It doesn’t really feel like my birthday at all today.  I’m not a big fan of celebrating my birthday.  I don’t know why, I just feel like it is unnecessary.  I’m sure many people would disagree with the way a think about birthdays, but hey, you’re entitled to your own opinion.  So if anyone wants get me something, feel free to swing on by.  I’m only kidding of course.

I wish I felt a little better on my birthday.  I’ve been fighting a bug lately and it doesn’t seem to be going away.  No, it’s not the swine flu, but my brother back at home actually had it.  It seems like a lot of people have been becoming sick lately.  It’s just that time of the year when pretty much everyone gets sick at one time or another.  It has to be all those changes of temperature.  The weather is perfect for a few days in a row and then it is terrible for around a week.  I wouldn’t mind if the weather is crummy, as long as it is consistent.

Hopefully the weather is great for this Saturday, which is of course Halloween.  Halloween is my favorite time of the year.  All the leaves change color, Halloween specials are always on tv, and there’s all sorts of candy out there.  The best part about November 1 is all the discount Halloween candy at Wal-Mart.  There is nothing better than 50% off Reese’s.  This is surly a fun time of the year for me.  There’s so many things to do.  I’m not sure, however, what my plans are for Halloween, so if anyone knows of something fun, I’m all ears.  Regardless of whats going on, I’m sure I’ll make the best of whatever comes up.

Homecoming

This whole past week has been homecoming week and there is more homecoming stuff thats going to happen in the next few days.  Tomorrow morning is the homecoming parade which will have many different floats and will feature the McKendree Homecoming Royalty.  My room mate and I also made a little part of one of the floats, someone had to represent the second floor of Baker.  I think it turned out pretty good; it’s just a small part of one of the floats, but it took us quite a while.  The parade should be pretty fun.

Later in the day there will also be the homecoming football game.  In my high school we didn’t have a football team, so we had a homecoming basketball game.  It’s just not the same unless you have a football game.  After the football game there are a bunch of different things happening around campus.

At 9:30 p.m. the actual homecoming dance is going to take place at the Four Points Sheraton in Fairview Heights.  I haven’t decided 100% if I’m going to attend, but I probably will.  Dances are usually pretty crazy and fun.  When else can you act like a complete idiot and not be judged?  I think I’ve made my point.

To wrap up my weekend here at McKendree, on Sunday I have both a soccer game and the alumni baseball game, so this weekend is pretty well packed with plenty of things to do.  Staying busy won’t be a problem this weekend.

Rainy Days

The weather lately at McKendree has been a little on the wet side as of late, and by a little I mean pretty much no stop rain for a week and a half.  Let’s just say the rain has put a damper on a lot of things for me.  I’ve been sort of getting used to getting rained out of practices, which is never good.  Looking ahead to the rest of the week, the rain doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. 

Speaking of bad luck, I got my first dose of a fire drill last night.  I’ve got nothing against fire drills, but when they happen when it’s night, drizzling, and cold I’m not a big fan to say the least.  Also, let’s just say flip flops werent a good choice of footwear for the situation.  Nevertheless, after about five minutes passed we were let back in the building. 

In other news, a group of students and faculty members are heading up to Springfield tomorrow for a rally  to help save the MAP Grant.  I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to make it up there, but I’m going to try.  Hopefully the MAP Grant doesn’t get slashed because I know a lot of people here at McKendree rely on this grant to help pay for school.  I know I do.  My fingers are pretty much crossed at this moment in time because I’m not really sure how I’m going to get the money for school if I do lose this grant.

On a more positive note, school has been going rather well.  Quizzes seem popular in some classes while papers in others, but it’s nice have some variety.  So far I haven’t had to many problems in any of my classes.  I seem to understand what we’re talking about, and so far I haven’t missed any classes or assignments.  Hopefully this continues.  I believe that as long as I continue this trend I should be in good shape for the rest of the semester, but then again, you never know for sure.  Before you know it, the semester will be over and the second semester will begin.  Talk about time moving fast.