I will miss everyone and everything here, but I will definitely just make the best of the last week knowing that I have my friends to look forward to next semester. So as this semester crawls to an end I have come to realize that this was the quickest 8 months of my life.  I guess my dad was always right when he said these next four years would be the quickest of my life.

It feels like just yesterday when he first told me that as he said goodbye on the front lawn. And now, it’s the end of the semester and they will be here to help bring my stuff home. One year is done, only 3 more.

I have 5 finals to study for over the course of the next week. Brutal, I know…It will be kicking my butt for sure, but I am ready for the challenge. I haven’t found a good place to study yet though which could be an issue.

I am worried that I will have too many distractions. Between Rock Band being in my room, guitar hero, and even a baseball game that my friend Eli and I can not be separated from is not a good combo during finals week. So with that being said, I am curious how these finals may turn out! At this point, I am excited to get them finished because it means I get to go home and work and make money.

But, wait a second…I have to have a job before I can make money! SOMEONE HIRE ME! Haha, I refuse to work in Leesburg where I currently work. The gas prices are too high and it’s just not for me anymore. I want to do something fun and exciting, maybe something outside. Who knows, I guess I won’t get a job whenever I can’t make up my mind on what I want to do for the entire summer.

I have little over 2 weeks left before I also head to California. That’s right, Sunny California baby! I am so excited! I have never been and I plan to go back a million times more. My brother in law is going out for business, and I am going for pleasure. Oh California, what will you bring my way?

Then I come home and leave for tour with my bands. Crazy! This summer is filled with lots, and I’m sure I have already mentioned this stuff before, but if not…then there you go. You now know my summer plans!

I think this will be the last journal you will see from me this year. Maybe next year you will see me again.

For those who read this, it’s been awesome and I hope I have been able to give you some laughs or maybe just some thoughts like “wow, this kid is ridiculous.” And if you chose to think I am ridiculous, I am okay with that. I have accepted the fact that I am weird =) Oh Summer, how you are right beneath my finger tips…

Let me fill you in with what is going on. Its hard to believe that in 2.5 short weeks we will be out of here for the summer. One year completely finished! I have so much planned for the summer in hopes to catch up my class load for next year. I think I am going to take some classes at my community college. However, I cannot decide. I have only a few weeks to figure that out…AHHH Help!

One thing that I have realized and has been the toughest part about college for me over the year in its entirety is finances. I really spoiled myself after taking two years off of school to work full time and live at home, because, I made a ton of money!

I worked for absolutely no bills except for my car. I was living the high life until I got here to school.

I forgot what it was like to be a poor kid and well, it is catching up with me harder than I had anticipated. I have had my bank accounts both here at school and at home bounce at least two times each, along with getting myself into a few hundred dollars of debt on my credit card.

I feel terrible because I am constantly going back and forth with my parents in asking for more money. I guess I forgot that not everyone is made of money and I cannot always rely on my parents to bail me out of situations I had gotten myself into.

Working at the school has helped a little bit, but it doesn’t pay enough to get paid once a month and the way that gas prices are and the way the economy is going. It’s hard to just make ends meet even when you are trying to be poor and manage money.

I guess, what it boils down to is that I have a lot of growing up to do this summer with my finances. I need to make sure that I save and save as much money as possible. It is going to be ridiculous for me to work and make money this summer and come back to school and have barely anything to show for it.

So with that being said, I am setting goals for myself. I am going to honestly save my money and come back to school with a new outlook on being the stereotypical poor college student. I am not going to travel around as much so will automatically save me money on my expenses with gas and everything. So, that is where all of my friends and everyone reading this comes in. Make sure next year when I am journaling that I am keeping my word about saving money!

I will updated more soon =) I got to run to do much needed homework since the semester is coming to a quick close!

But, I pulled it off thanks to basically all nighters. I saw maybe a total of 4 hours of sleep within those time periods of getting the assignments done. It was terrible that they were due so close to each other. Its already closing in on the end of March and I have no idea how to handle this.

I had my 21st birthday here on March 19th and I have already began looking towards the end of school. Classes are over officially on April 18th…That is crazy! Then finals week following. But in between this time period I have a lot to look forward to.

My band is playing a total of 3 shows coming up soon starting on April 1st. We play at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. They we are playing here at EMU Common Grounds followed by Bridgewater College. Its going to be tons of fun and help make these next few weeks left of school go so fast.

So other than being crazy busy this month, I haven’t really had much else go on. I wish I did, but, I don’t. I will definitely be updating more in the next few weeks with many of these new activities happening…so check back and for those of you that are perspectives! You almost are finished!

Hang tight because these next few months for you are going to be the craziest, most fun, most sad, and most stressful months. But, in the end…its graduation time and you get to move on with life! Enjoy it while you can.

I can’t lie, after coming to school I have completed missed my bed, it was so perfect. I am a little bummed that I did not choose to do one of the trips that EMU has to offer here for Spring Break.

I am missing out on a chance to go to Florida or many other places. Instead, I am going to be stuck at home in the cold weather and probably rain and snow. I guess I shouldn’t complain, I will just make the best of it.

So this semester has gone well thus far, no complaints except maybe one. My macroeconomics class is kicking me in the butt now after our second exam. The entire class either got an A or an F. There was no middle ground what so ever. There was also only 1 C. That can only mean one of a few things.

1. The students didn’t study well enough for the exam,

2. The lectures are not efficient enough or cover the proper material, or

3. We just need to have more lecture time rather than worrying about other things or talking about current events for 25 minutes out of our shortened period already.

I can’t believe that this semester is already at its halfway point. It is crazy to believe that we are already almost finished with our first year of college! I look back and think, wow, even though I took two years away from school after high school, I have not had this much fun in awhile just having the freedom that I have had.

Don’t get me wrong, I pretty much came and went when I was living at home because I was over 18 and owned a car and was working a full-time job, but this experience is different.

I am so excited for April to come and for me to officially and successfully complete one year of college! The countdown is on and I will make sure to remind everyone how many days we have left of school during every journal I write from here on out. I will update you guys on my Spring Break next week while I am sitting at home being a lazy bum!

For example, last night, my roommate and I watched 8 episodes back to back of Family Guy because we didn’t really want to do anything else besides relax and watch some television. It was horrible, because we both then realized we had assignments due online before 1am. You can imagine how our evening turned out. Luckily we were able to finish our assignments then kick ourselves in the butt a few times to make us wake up and realize that our work needed to be done first.

But it doesn’t stop there for me and my distractions. Having access to the computer and the internet at all times is the hardest part for me. After taking two years away from school, I lost all of the any study habits I did have. It’s harder for me to grasp the time frame of when I should be doing work rather than playing around on the internet. I blame it on being in two bands. Because being in bands, it takes time and effort to promote your music all over the internet. Sadly enough, I have begun to slow down a bunch with the music but I have realized how much I miss it. So lately, it has become quite a distraction for me yet again. In case you haven’t noticed from my picture, I am a huge music fanatic. I cant get enough of music no matter what type it is. I could spend all day playing my guitar and writing music or even just sitting at the computer with my head phones listening to all different types of music.

Distractions, they are going to be the death of me one day. I feel as if I have horrible ADD. That cannot be a good thing considering I am in college and can’t afford to have ADD.  Usually, any other typical guy would have the distraction of females. Ha, well, lucky for me I still do not have to deal with that problem. I guess that is a very good thing to considering Valentine’s Day is less than 2 days away! WOO, I get to save money. See, that is my prime example. I just got distracted from telling you my distractions to talk about saving money on Valentine’s Day. Ha, wow, someone please suggest what I do to keep my distractions minimal. So what this boils down to is that I need to decide what is more important.
Gaining a BA in Business Management or watching countless hours of Family Guy. You be the judge. I cant make that decision!

Oh, distractions. Maybe I will write a song about you..

I don’t really have much to say this time around. I have been sick with the flu for the past few days and it has not been fun at all. I guess I caught it from one of the million people that had it on campus! It is the crazy weather changes. It has to be at least because one day it will be 30 degrees and the next it will be 55-60. I am tired of having so many inconsistent weather changes. Let’s just stick to winter and summer and spring and fall.

So with me having the flu I have missed about two classes. And that is going to bite me in the butt because I will have to make up the work. It also sucks having the flu because I have two exams this week. Not fun at all!

Hopefully next week something exciting will happen to where I will have tons of ideas and stories to tell the world =)

Anyways, so we have established we are in the second semester. Are things rolling for me? Yes, because after having the first semester under my belt I am well aware of the study habits I need to maintain or change for this new semester. I need to focus on staying ahead rather than playing catch up the whole semester.

So how was CHRISTMAS!? I am sorry for the lack of journal entries, but I sort of got into the swing of the whole finals week and leaving to go home for a few weeks that I simply forgot about writing for the world to see. Christmas for me was great. I got to spend a lot of quality time with the friends that I don’t get to see all of the time down here and spend time with the family. Even though, I was hardly home for the entire break. I got to travel to Indiana for my band and play some shows out there and meet a lot of cool people, spend a lot of money and just live it up.

My parents sort of got mad at me for not being at home much during the holidays but I couldn’t resist when I was at home because my friends and I began to develop an addiction to Rock Band! Oh how that game is GREAT! I really suggest playing it once because once you do it you will not want to stop.

I will update this thing more frequently now since my schedule allows. I have a sweet schedule for this semester. I guess that is the bonus of picking out the right classes. So if you’re reading this and want to come to EMU…Make sure you know what type of schedule you want so you can get it. Most people here love the 8am classes so they are done by noon. Me on the other hand…I only have one 9:25 class and the other days I could sleep in till noon and still be finished by 1:30 if I really wanted to sleep that long!

Okay, I’m leaving. I have class! See you all next time.

Meaning I need to succeed on my finals. This is what I talked about last journal to you all but its finally here. Its no more waiting game. The wait is up and it is the 9th.

Guitar Hero 2 has really come out to haunt my hall the last three weeks of the semester. We have all been trying to study so hard but find ourselves wanting to unlock the next song on the game … This happens a lot.

We have really been distracted by so many different outside things that has kept us from truly focusing. This is why myself and my roommate have started to go to the Library. Believe it or not…I have spent more time in the library the last week then I have ALL YEAR! Actually, come to think of it I dont really think Ive been in the library since freshman orientation! Haha! That is terrible!

So what this boils down to is. Will Christmas break be good? Or will it be miserable while I bite my nails every second of each day until I Find out my grades! AHH I hate that feeling! I just want this semester to be OVER so I can start completely fresh on the new semester with all brand new classes and new people!

It’s Crunch time. Its time to put away Guitar Hero and its time to sign off of AIM and just time to get my work done! Finished! Completed!

Alright, so I ran out of ideas for this journal…haha that would explain why I am going crazy at the end of it! SAVE ME! FINALS ARE TAKING OVER!

Like a baseball game, these next few weeks are going to be very crucial in the sense that everyone here is going to lose the social life we all have come accustomed to and be stuck inside of their rooms to study for countless hours.

Finals are quickly approaching us and planning their sneak attack. This is why I am freaking out. I hate tests because I know the material perfectly up until the very second the test is placed right in front of my face. This is why I am coming up with some sort of strategy for my study habits over the course of the next two weeks.

You might be asking “Chris, what is this strategy that you have planned?” GOOD QUESTION! I have no clue and actually I will probably not have a clue because I will not come up with a strategy even though I want to so bad.

Basically what it comes down to is what I mentioned above. Have no social life and be committed to my books. This seems like the only logical reasoning behind my question that I pose to myself. So I wonder…Will I come out of the bottom of the 9th inning successful? Or will I crash and burn and fall just short of the title that I want so bad?

Did you get your midterm grades and feel as if you were ready to pack it in and go home? Yeah, me either. But, I know there are some people that might. But don’t worry! Even though the stress is starting to kick in you have many options to do.

Most of your professors if not all do not want you to fail their class. So why would you? Set up and appointment to go talk to your profs and see what they have in mind for you to bring your grades up!

And as much as you hate to hear it, don’t go out every single night with your friends for hours on end. Spend some alone time with yourself and study…really study hard. It will pay off, I promise. I have done this the last two weeks and I have pulled all of my grades up.

Maybe it’s not the grades that have you stressed? Maybe its missing home, or a lady friend. I can tell you again first hand. Its better off to try and be alone right now to make sure you get through your first semester stronger than ever. If you miss home, just call your family daily and just let them know you were thinking about them. Soon enough it will be thanksgiving break…

We all know stress is terrible. But I promise you, it will get better. If you need anyone to talk to then come to me because I will be more than happy to sit down and talk to you one on one and help you through your situations of stress…