The End of Freshman Year

Summer is almost here! This week is my finals week and I have my last final on Friday. I cannot believe I have almost completed my freshman year of college.  Everyone said that college goes by faster than high school and this year was done in the blink of an eye. I have truly learned a lot this first year away from home. I am apart of the honors college here on campus and as part of the requirements for the course we had to take two critical thinking classes. The classes were very challenging, but I have been able to discover myself through the course. For my second critical thinking class, we created a website for our final project. This project allowed me to think about who I am as a person and how I find meaning in the world. Not only have I learned a lot in my classes, but I have met a lot of wonderful people. My roommate, Rachel, is a great person who is always there for me and is a very supportive friend. I am excited to see our relationship grow throughout college. I have also become a lot closer with my teammates. I enjoy running with each and everyone one of them. They all listen to me and are such a fun group of people to see everyday. I will truly miss them over the summer.  They all make longs runs, workouts, and daily practice enjoyable. I will have run three races this outdoor track season. I was red shirted for the season, but it was a great experience to get out on the track and race. This upcoming Friday, I am running the steeplechase for the first time. If you are not familiar with the steeplechase, one jumps over 5 barriers, similar to hurdles, each lap. One of the barriers has a water pit underneath it. It takes a lot of practice to be able to transition to jumping over the barriers on the track. It will be a new challenge and experience for me. 

I did not join many clubs on campus this year because I did not want to be overwhelmed this first year. However,  I did write two articles for the Key Magazine on campus. I enjoyed writing for the magazine and seeing my work published in a magazine is really neat! Here is a link to the online magazine, my story is on page 10 and 11. http://issuu.com/keymagazine/docs/key_spring_2015_internship

The past few weeks the flowers have been blooming on campus, and I cannot help but stop and take some pictures of the gorgeous flowers that add color to the sidewalks.   

I thought I would take a study break and give everyone a brief update on the exciting adventure that I will soon be embarking on. I will be heading home on Saturday and be home for the weekend, but on Monday I leave for Italy! I am studying abroad for two weeks in Italy with the education department here at Bowling Green. I was not planning on studying abroad this year, but the opportunity presented itself and I decided to seize the chance that I had. I knew I wanted to study abroad during my college years, but with cross country and track it makes things a little more difficult. I have never gone out of the country before and I am ready to go and explore the world! I have been researching all of the museums, monuments, and cities that I will be visiting. As part of the study abroad course, I did some research on some famous Italian artists and their artwork. I love learning about the meaning behind paintings and sculptures. We can all easily stand in front of a piece of art, but gaining knowledge about the people in the painting, symbols, and interesting facts makes the paintings much more meaningful. Throughout my journey, I will be updating my blog. Hopefully I can manage to type on my cellphone! 

Have a great day!