The end of October on campus is both one of the most stressful and most exciting times of Fall semester. How, you might ask, can it possibly be both? Well, the stressful aspect is Midterm exams/assignments and the exciting part is the school’s first official break, Fall Break (really original name, huh?)

Monday through Thursday consists of normal class times and activities, but then there are no classes on Friday. It’s amazing how much stress can be packed into a short week. I had an English midterm exam on Tuesday (three essays, eight short answers), a Communication Theory exam and a Theology quiz on Wednesday, and finally an informative speech presentation for Public Communication on Thursday. As if my week wasn’t packed enough, I had to work on Monday night and Tuesday night which eliminated a good portion of study time from the schedule. I am so incredibly glad that I have a good memory because I ended up not needing to study at all for my English test, which was really nice. However, my Communication Theory exam was another question. I had so many terms and concepts to memorize! I ended up making a whole bunch of ridiculous acronyms and phrases to help me remember, like “Gnomes Create Super Snowy Mountains” for the five types of theories (general, contextual, special, symbiotic, and micro). I memorized and studied terms in between classes and on breaks at work. I actually think I did extremely well on that exam in the end, but oh man, studying for it was horrible. For my informative speech in Public Communication, I talked about homeless chilren in the U.S. In this case, that little thing called procrastination struck again. Because of my other tests earlier in the week that I had to study for, I waited until the day before the speech to do my research, write my outline, and practice. This was not a smart plan at all because I ended up giving my speech on only three hours of sleep and little confidence in my work. Moral of the story: Do not procrastinate during midterm week (or finals week for that matter, but that comes later).

When Thursday afternoon came around, it was a miracle! I was done for the week. Some people don’t consider one day off a break, but trust me, any amount of time off is the most amazing thing in the world to a student. Even more amazing is that Fall Break is usually the weekend of Halloween so a lot of people take advantage of that fact and go somewhere for festivities. For example, a lot of people go to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other out-of-state locations to celebrate the spooky three-day weekend.

However, this year, I was not one of those people. I didn’t travel anywhere or even go home for the weekend; I chose to stay on campus and take the opportunity to make some money. Since leaving campus over the break is popular, my on-campus job had a lot of open shifts needing coverage for employees that were leaving. I normally work Night Access in John Paul II (JPII), a female dorm on cmapus, on Thursdays, but this weekend I am working the Night Access shift on Friday and Saturday, as well as a shift at the JPII Desk on Sunday morning. That’s a total of 24 hours over a span of four days (Thurs-Sun) in the dorm. On top of that, I ended up taking advantage of some open shifts at my off-campus job at CVS. So you could say that I was one of the boring people this weekend by not leaving campus, but I will not regret it when I get my paycheck next week. College is a balancing act. You have to learn what your priorities are and how to divide time between school, a social life, work, and personal “me-time.” This weekend, I guess I picked work over everything else, and I am ok with that.

I am having a really good week so far! Here are some highlights:

Tuesday

Tuesday was my 20th birthday! I am no longer a teenager, which is still a strange concept to think about. Time is flying by!

My day started off with having to give a presentation in my COJO (Communication and Journalism) class on the proper uses of certain punctuation (yay…). My partner for the presentation ended up bringing cupcakes to class and got the class to sing “Happy Birthday” to me. I was so surprised!

After classes for the day, some of my friends picked me up, and we ventured to the Candyland in downtown St. Paul. Candyland is this amazing, old-fashioned, “mom and pop” shop where most of the chocolate and candy is homemade, and customers pay by the weight, not size or number, of the candy. There are three locations: Two are located in Minneapolis and the original store is in downtown St. Paul. Usually my friends and I go to the one by Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis because it’s only a few blocks away from St. Thomas’ Minneapolis campus, and we can take the intercampus shuttle to get there. For my birthday, we wanted to be different, so we drove to the St. Paul one. It was really fun, and I was excited to take a downtown adventure!

Then my roommates tried to be sneaky and surprise me with a cake and presents! I really appreciated this because even though all our schedules are hectic right now due to Mid-terms, they made a point to come together to celebrate my birthday. I was very happy!

 

The best part of my birthday was getting to see my best friend from home, Courtney! She came to campus to hang out with me because she never got a chance to visit last year. It was really nice just to hang out, watch a movie, and catch up on stuff. That was probably the best birthday present. I will be going home tomorrow to have Birthday Round 2 with my family.

Wednesday

Every week, my roommates and I have Roommate Dinner Night, a night where we make sure that all of us are present in order to have a meal together. This night is usually Thursday, but this week, we switched it to Wednesday. We have made chicken and onion rings, homemade pizza, etc. It’s always a fun, relaxing time. My favorite part of Roommate Dinner Night this week came after dinner: My roommates and I made a Gingerbread Haunted House and watched the first night of “13 Nights of Halloween” on abcFamily. I am a huge fan of Halloween (probably my second-favorite holiday to Christmas), so I was ecstatic to make a haunted house and enjoy the “13 Nights of Halloween,” especially with my roommates. The house had a pumpkin patch in front, a pile of bloody bones and body parts, and shingles made of candy corn!

Thursday

Today was the first day of Tommie Fall Days. It’s a huge Admissions event for high school seniors to come learn about St. Thomas, and all Tommie Ambassadors (that’s me!) are required to give tours. I’m not one of the regular tour guides, so this was going to be my first official tour. I was so nervous beforehand because I was convinced I’d mess up the tour route or completely forget to mention something important. I even had my roommate (who is a paid tour guide on campus) run me through everything a million times. BUT everything went really well. I had two great families on my tour that seemed to enjoy it, and I don’t think I messed anything up! It was more fun than I thought it would be- even though I still have to perfect the art of walking backwards. Now I have to give another tour tomorrow for the second day of Tommie Fall Days. I’m actually excited to give another one!

This past weekend was Homecoming on campus, and it was the best weekend I’ve had all school year! The Homecoming festivities began at 10 a.m. with a parade down Summit Avenue. Clubs and groups on campus make floats and compete to win the award for best float. It’s pretty tough competition, though, because the Seminarians usually go all out and win every year. After the parade, Taste of Saints took place in the J.P. Monaghan Plaza outside of the new Anderson Student Center (opening Jan. 2012!!). This event is like the Taste of Minnesota, except Saint Thomas-style. There were different booths for food, bookstore merchandise, free goodies from the Tommie Club, and other stands advertising their services. It is a fun event to attend to get pumped up right before the football game.

After the morning’s festivities, I went to the football game with my friend Michaela. Saint Thomas’ football team maintained its undefeated status for the season by creaming Hamline University 49-0. The Homecoming game always draws a big crowd so the fan section is always really fun to be a part of. The giant cheering section of Seminarians knows all the cheers and makes the game even more enjoyable. My favorite part of the Homecoming game is the halftime show. The women on the dance team always choose guys to perform a dance routine with them; the guys usually end up making fools out of themselves, so it’s pretty entertaining.

Saturday evening, I went to the Keith Urban concert with my friend Chelsie at the Target Center in Minneapolis. It was not originally part of my plan for the day, but Chelsie ended up having a spare ticket at the last minute and asked me to go with her. I was a little worried about going because I haven’t really listened to country music in about 5 years, and I thought I wouldn’t know any of the songs. Surprisingly, I knew more of the songs than I thought, and the concert was amazing! It was my first “big” concert, meaning my first well-known artist in a huge venue.  It was so much fun! I love having so many opportunities- like concerts- available within a few miles around the Twin Cities!

Then on Sunday, I went home for the day to help out at my church’s quilt bingo. It was really good to be home and to help out at church like I used to in high school. I even ended up winning one of the games and got to take home a gorgeous, blue-patched quilt!

Homecoming, music, friends, and a little bit of home. Perfect weekend.

It is that time of the year again. The season of chicken noodle soup, ever-growing piles of Kleenex in the waste basket, and curling up under the covers all day.

Yep, cold season has arrived here at St. Thomas. With the weird fluctuation in weather the past week or so and the impending amount of stress as Mid-term exams and assignments approach, it was bound to happen soon. The college environment makes getting sick inevitable. You’d think the common cold was like The Plague on a college campus. First, a few people start disappearing from class. That’s when you know the epidemic is going to spread. Then some of your friends may begin to show signs of illness, but you still think you can escape it. However, as soon as one of your roommates catches the disease, all hope is lost. There is no chance whatsoever of avoiding it. YOU WILL GET SICK.  You can scrub down every single surface with sanitizer wipes or even avoid getting within a ten-foot radius of your roommate(s), but it will not matter. Somehow, the disease will find you.

Last week, I was one of the ignorant ones on campus. I had been hearing people talk about how their friend or roommate has been sick the past few days or how they themselves have been feeling under the weather. Toward the end of the week, about one-third of the students in my Theology class were mysteriously gone, and a few of my friends had been sick as well. Everyone around me seemed to be getting sick, but I thought I could fend it off. Then two of my roommates got sick. I tried SO HARD to avoid it. I dressed weather-appropriate, constantly used hand sanitizer, and avoided using anything my roommates had used. Then my third and final roommate also got sick. It was spreading throughout the room, and the only victim left to be claimed was me. That’s when I should have known I was doomed.

I could not escape it. The germs and illness finally hit me. I spent last weekend with my sinuses clogged and the need to blow my nose every two minutes. I went through about four cans of chicken noodle soup, three packages of Ramen noodles, and a whole carton of orange juice. I was miserable. I had no motivation to do homework or to go to class come Monday morning because all I wanted to do was lay in bed and sulk. Luckily, I was only really sick for a few days and my symptoms were almost completely gone by Wednesday. Now, I get to enjoy Homecoming this weekend without the need for a Kleenex every couple of minutes!

“Focus Kelsey, just FOCUS!” This is what I had to keep telling myself today. The first paper of the semester for my English 215 (American Authors 2) class was due today at 5pm. I will be honest, I waited until the absolute last minute to write it. But in my defense, I worked a lot over the weekend, and I had a bunch of other homework to do as well. These last few days, though, I have had a serious case of procrastination. Mainly, I was procrastinating because it was my first college English paper, and since the class is an upper-level class (past the core requirements), I was kind of freaking out and trying to avoid it.

 

St. Thomas requires students to take two English courses as part of the core curriculum, but I got both of those classes out of the way in high school. I took CIS (College in the Schools) Literature and CIS Composition through the University of Minnesota my senior year, so my English credits were all finished when I came to UST. However, with my recent decision to add an English major to my plan, I now have nine more English classes to take. Yay.

Looking at the assignment outline that my professor handed out a few weeks ago for the first paper, I realized I haven’t had to write a well-crafted English paper (thesis statement and all) in over a year and a half! I am all rusty! I completely forgot how to eliminate helping verbs (or what a helping verb even was for that matter- I actually had to look them up in Google just now) and all the adjectives to use instead of “good.” I used to be amazing at this stuff! Seriously. I remember kicking butt writing my literary analysis on The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien for my final paper in the CIS Literature class. Yet, here I am, in my second year of college, struggling to form a thesis statement. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? When did all this stuff leave my mind? I do not understand! This is why I put off writing the paper for so long- I didn’t know where all my writing skills went!

Luckily, I finally got my act together around noon today, and I just kept telling myself to focus. I managed to write the whole thing in about two hours, with another hour spent on making edits. I find it amazing that I put the paper off the whole week, even wasted some hours thinking about how much I didn’t want to write it, but when I focused, I got it done relatively quickly. I still do not think it was the greatest paper I’ve ever written, but it’s worth a decent grade, and most importantly, I submitted it on time! Number one rule of college: No matter what, get the assignment in on time, even if it is not completely done.

Oh, and if you’re curious, my paper was a literary analysis of the poem “next to of course god america i” by E.E. Cummings and how he demonstrated Modernist qualities in his writing. Check out the poem. It is pretty interesting. Also, I really enjoyed “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by Cummings too, if anyone wants to look at that one as well.

When asked about my favorite part of Freshman year, my response is always the Tommie-Johnnie game. I know many other students have this answer as well when asked to recall favorite memories as a  Tommie. This is because the football game against St. John’s University is the biggest event of the entire year, every year.

The rivalry between St. Thomas and St. John’s has been called Division 3′s best rivalry (at least according to this article I read earlier in the week). The big rivalry started with Ignatius O’Shaughnessy in 1901. He originally attended St. John’s and played football there. O’Shaughnessy was then kicked out of St. John’s, came to St. Thomas, and became the star of UST’s football team. After striking it rich in the oil industry, O’Shaughnessy donated a bunch of money to St. Thomas (which is why there are multiple buildings on campus named after him) and other local private colleges, except for St. John’s that is. Ever since then, the two schools have enjoyed the intense rivalry.

Last year, the Tommie-Johnnie game was at St. John’s University in Collegeville (outside of St. Cloud). My roommates and I woke up bright and early to make the hour-and-a-half drive to St. John’s and to get in line for game tickets. The long drive and the hours spent in line before the game was definitely worth it, though. The game was neck-and-neck the entire time, and ended normal play time with a tie. In the over-time showdown, St. Thomas scored and successfully kicked for the extra point, winning the first game against St. John’s in a few years. Experiencing that game, squeezing onto the overflowing bleachers, feeling the intensity in the air as the tied game went into over-time, and charging the field with hundreds of surrounding Tommies as St. Thomas claimed victory was the best moment of my Freshman year, no question. I will always remember chanting, “U-S-T! U-S-T!…” and seeing the St. Thomas flag being waved around in the middle of the crazy crowd that overtook the field after the game.

This year’s big event took place on Saturday, held here at St. Thomas. After last year’s amazing victory, the anticipation for Saturday’s game was uncontrollable; the Tommie-Johnnie game was the only thing on people’s minds for the entire week. My roommate even updated her Facebook status early in the week saying, ”Extra seating is being set up for Tommie-Johnnie as I type this. I am sooo excited. Why is it only Monday?!?” Unfortunately, the game was not as exciting as everyone had hoped because it was not a close game at all. However, it was still a great day because THE TOMMIES WON!!!!! In fact, St. Thomas creamed St. John’s. I am pretty sure all the Johnnies and their fans went home feeling embarrassed. The score was 49-0 at halftime, with a final score of 63-7. The victory was amazing, and I’m positive that nobody will ever forget the year the Tommies brutally crushed the Johnnies.

 

 

 

My favorite part about any St. Thomas football victory is when the team and Coach Caruso run up to the fans in the stands and sing the St. Thomas Victory Song. I remember thinking it was so cool that the team sang to the fans the first time I heard it at a game last year! I recorded it after the Tommie-Johnnie game on Saturday, and here is the link:

St. Thomas Victory Song 2011

I already cannot wait for next year’s game!!

I’m really excited to be writing about my experiences at St. Thomas for you all. For starters, I want you to get to know me!

I am from a small town that you have probably never heard of. That town is Loretto, Minnesota. It is located in the West Metro of Minneapolis, just outside of the city of Plymouth. The population is about 650 people, and someone can drive through town on the main street in about 20 seconds. Loretto is the average small town: there is a Catholic church at the center, a post office, a gas station, a big baseball field complex, 6 bars/restaurants, and too many useless auto shops. I absolutely love calling Loretto my home, though. Most people know each other so it is a very friendly and community-based town. Plymouth is only a 10-minute drive away, so it’s not exactly in the middle of nowhere, which is what most people think when they think of small towns. Since Loretto doesn’t have its own school system, I went to Delano High School. I was one of those rare people that actually greatly enjoyed high school. I had amazing friends, good relationships with my teachers, and an overflowing amount of school pride.

I am in my second year at UST and am double-majoring in Communication and Journalism (aka COJO) and English. Ideally, I want to be a book editor, but job openings in that field are rare these days with the advancement of technology. For that reason, my COJO major has a concentration in Public Relations, which is a field with more and more jobs being created every day, and I think it will be a perfect back-up career for me. Along with the double-major, I am also getting a Business minor through the Renaissance Program , an amazing program at UST in which I have to take 6 various Business-related classes and do my choice of an internship. The really awesome thing about the Renaissance Program is that once I am out of school, if I choose to, I can come back to St. Thomas and take more business classes for a major for free. FOR FREE! I definitely recommend this program to everyone because business is useful in any sort of career.

 

In my free time, I love to hang out with my friends, play board or card games, read, listen to music, and make arts and crafts. Whenever I need a break from homework or have nothing to do on a rainy day, I love to sit and watch episodes of The Big Bang Theory or Friends. I have all the seasons of both shows because I love them so much. My favorite books are the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games trilogy, and most Jodi Picoult books. As far as movies go, I love movies that make me cry (weird, I know), but I also enjoy comedies, Disney, and a good thriller every once in a while. Some of my favorites are Big Fish, Secondhand Lions, and Elf. I am also a huge Minnesota Twins fan. Even though their season this year has been a wreck, I’m still a proud fan. I grew up in a family of softball players, and I even played until 10^th grade, so softball/baseball will always have a place in my heart. My sister Terri and I have been trying to make it a habit to go to more Twins games at Target Field. Also, when I am home I like to spend time with my mom, usually at the movie theater or the occasional trip to the casino.

Other random things I enjoy: Dogs. Quotes. Post-it Notes. The color orange. Flowers. Pasta, Polka dots. Holidays, especially Halloween and Christmas. Singing.  Traveling. Musicals. Rain. The Renaissance Festival. Colorful sunglasses. Laughing.

At the moment I have two other jobs. I work as a Night Access/Desk Attendant in one of the all-girls dorms on campus. Basically, I check in boys that come to the dorm after specific hours and make sure they leave by curfew. It’s pretty easy, and I get a lot of homework time at that job. Off campus, I work at CVS/pharmacy as a Shift Supervisor. I worked at the store in Plymouth for a long time in high school and on college breaks, and I recently transferred to the West St. Paul store to work during the school year. Having multiple jobs, schoolwork, and being involved on campus can be hard to juggle sometimes, but I wouldn’t have my life any other way than busy and hectic. At the end of the day, I enjoy every minute of it.

There you have it. That is me in a nutshell.