After one year at EMU…

• EMU is basically what I expected it to be. The people are great; everyone is friendly.
• The community around EMU is terrific; EMU has a lot of ties with the community. There is so much to be involved with; I’m a part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program, volunteering at the SPCA, and volunteering with the Salvation Army.
• I have made several great friends that I intend to keep for life. I’m planning on rooming with two of them next year in a suite in Northlawn.
• I’ve learned that it’s sometimes very difficult to have a roommate. It takes compromise, communication, and honesty…all of these things I have had to improve.
• College work load is much harder and bigger than high school work load. You can’t talk your way out of situations as easily as you can in high school.
• It is very helpful to take advantage of all of the things EMU offers. Clubs, academic support, theatre, work study, intramurals, and other activities will keep you busy and content. (And even help keep away the freshman 15!)
• Procrastination is NOT the way to go. But almost every college student does it.
• I learned that if I don’t get a really good amount of sleep, I’m grumpy, inattentive, and lazy the entire day.
• The people are my favorite part of college. I love hanging out with my friends, going to movies, making dinner, and relaxing with my friends often.

The memories I have made will stick with me forever, and I look forward to making more each year!

(I do NOT, however, look forward to my finals.)

But, I was sure I knew even before college. I wanted to be a business major with a minor in youth ministry, or even a double major. First semester started out great! I had only one business class and no youth ministry classes. All of the classes were very easy, and I ended up happy and satisfied with my grades and my newfound knowledge.

I think I must have been a little overconfident when I scheduled myself 18 credits; five business classes and one youth ministry class. This was my first mistake.

Mistake number two is that about half of these classes I signed up for were math classes. And I’m not so good at math. It’s more like I’m horrible at it and feel like I’d rather just use my calculator. Statistics, algebra, and managerial accounting are all pretty mathy. So that was a silly idea.

Then, I thought it would be great to enroll in macroeconomics, even though I knew it would be difficult. I thought I could master all of these classes at the same time.

I was wrong.

After doing very poorly on three exams in two weeks, I suddenly realized that I was not very good at business. At all. Then I realized that I didn’t actually HAVE to major in business. So, I went to my adviser, told him my troubles, dropped a class, and decided maybe I should put a stop on the business major. This was a very relieving decision.

And then I realized I had no idea what to do next; no idea where to go.

I started flipping through EMU’s course catalogue, looking for something to major in, and I just really don’t know what I want to do, which isn’t a good feeling for me. So for now, I’m taking it one step at a time. I’m going to take some random classes until I find something I like, and then hopefully stick with that. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up back in business!

The moral of the story is that it is very true that you don’t need to know what you’re majoring in freshman year. You’ve got a long time. Someday, I know I’ll get where I’m going, even if I don’t know where that is yet.

Take your significant other or friends out to dinner. For me, Red Lobster was the restaurant of choice. Though the wait was rather long, it was worth it. We even saw many other EMU students, including a group of about 15 girls!

Plan a scavenger hunt. This was the case with my roommate. She received roses and cards and candies hidden throughout EMU.

Go see a musical! EMU’s musical, “Cabaret” opened on Valentines Day, providing cheap, but good, entertainment.

Attend a rodeo. This was my favorite part of Valentines Day. That weekend, my boyfriend treated me to a rodeo in nearby Lexington. This event also came with dinner and shopping.

Send a brownie gram! Here at EMU, different groups sell “brownie grams” or roses. The brownie grams are delectable brownies with a note attached. You can send the brownies or flowers to the person of your choice, and it will magically appear outside their door on Valentines Day.

Starbucks. Sometimes it’s nice to get off campus, and Starbucks is a great place to hang out and relax.

Go see the movie in the science center! This is also cheap and fun! You can also get really good popcorn. (The most recent movie was “PS. I Love You”, perfect for Valentines Day!)

There are many other options of things you can do at EMU. You can even opt to completely ignore this holiday if you choose!

• After a few weeks into a new semester, students are starting to realize that it’s not all fun and games and we actually have to start working.
• Pretty much every prof decided to give an exam either this week or in the coming week.
• The flu is making its way around campus. First, it dominated all of Roselawn, and its next stop is my floor of Elmwood, then to the rest of Elmwood. This flu has the ability to make people miserable, sleepy, and miss classes. This is not good when exams are days away.
• This weekend is a Campus Visit weekend, meaning lots and lots of wonderful prospective students will be on campus for tonight and tomorrow. However, this does mean that the caf will serve better food.
• An ice storm has been predicted for tomorrow morning. This could potentially interrupt prospective student activities. But, it could also lead to another snow day, which I would happy about because I have two exams tomorrow.
• Volleyball and lacrosse intramurals are keeping people busy and lasting until as late as midnight.
• Work study and off campus jobs also keep students busy. My job in admissions takes up 7 hours of my busy week, but is also somewhat relaxing because of the terrific people in the office!
• Royals Society, a student hospitality team, keeps me writing postcards one hour a week.
• And lastly, my busy week consists of a few hours donated to giving plasma. There is this cool place about 15 minutes from school where you can donate plasma, which is a part of your blood, and get paid for it! So while I’m donating, I study and make money at the same time. It’s great.

Though college life is a little stressful these days, I love it. It’s a fun place to be, and I love the friends that I am surrounded by that help me get through these times!

However, sometimes the students here at EMU get very lucky. On the 17th of January, after the accumulation of a few inches of snow, school was closed at 11 a.m.! I was just getting ready for one of my classes when I heard all the girls in my hall rejoicing and celebrating. This was truly a joyous occasion!

There are many different activities to keep you busy and happy on snow days. For example:

• Admissions counselor Michael enjoyed his day by taking a nap, going for a jog, playing racquetball, and watching a movie.
• First Year student Krista Miller stayed inside out of the snow and cold and watched TV and drank hot cocoa.
• My boyfriend and I decided to stay out of the cold as well. We headed over to Hillside suites and watched a movie, and then I used the rest of the day to catch up on sleep and lots of homework.
• Or, if you like the cold, you can join admissions counselor Mark who went sledding on the hill with a bunch of other EMU students. Snowball fights were also a common activity.
• Common Grounds, the campus coffee shop, remained open and provided lots of warm and tasty beverages for thirsty students. The gym was open as well for those that wanted to use their extra time to burn some calories.

Other options include: catching up on much needed laundry, playing Dutch Blitz with friends, watching movies under the warmth and comfort of blankets, baking cookies, cleaning your room, drinking strawberry banana smoothies provided by the cafeteria, and enjoying a few extra hours of sleep.

Snow day turned out to be a very relaxing day, and I think all of us here at EMU are hoping for another one!

Well, Christmas break came and went. I thought I was going to really hate being home for so long, but I was not ready to come back to school by the end. Break was fantastic. It was really good to see a lot of friends from high school and to not have to worry about school work at all. Overall, it was very relaxing.

However, coming back to school was not so much relaxing. Unfortunately, I waited until the last minute to buy books, and now I’m still waiting for one of them to come…and I have homework due from that book in 3 hours. Oops. My semester load is gigantic. So right now I’m kind of overloaded and hoping I can make it through the entire semester at this pace.

But! Last night was late night bowling, which is basically just a lot of people from school going bowling for cheap. So that was a great way to get back into hanging out with people and the college life. One of my favorite things about EMU is that there is always something to do. This weekend, for example, the movie “Dan in Real Life” is playing at the science center. It’s just helpful to have things planned out instead of sitting around trying to figure out what you and your friends want to do.

So basically right now I’m realizing that school is flying by, way faster than I want it to be. It’s ridiculous to think that I only have 4 months left of my first year of college. The first semester was great, and I have high hopes for this semester as well!

Thanksgiving break was no help, teasing me with a small break from work and fun times with friends from back home. Christmas break is sounding good right about now, and the thought of a new semester of classes is exciting!

Though this semester has flown by, it has definitely been full of memories. I’ve learned a lot about being a college student, about EMU itself, and about myself. And it seems like as we approach Christmas break and the end of the semester, there is more and more to do! This weekend is full of activities like a production from the book “Blue Like Jazz.”

Last night was a Gonzo theatre performance, which is where anyone can submit poetry, short plays, or monologues, and then anyone can direct a cast of students. However, the director only has the script for a day and their actors for an hour before the performance. It’s a good time. Saturday night is the semi-formal, and the campus movie, displayed in one of our auditoriums.

I have determined that this weekend, I’m going to get everything done for the rest of this semester. Saturday, I’m going to sit down and make myself do that ten page paper I still to write. Then, hopefully, I will be free to relax the rest of this semester.

Though this year is flying by, I like the pace. It’s exciting, occasionally stressful, and full of memories.

I don’t really know how, but somewhere along the journey, I ended up exactly where I never thought I would. Contrary to most beliefs, Mennonite College is not just like Mennonite High School.

• Many Mennonite High Schools, or at least mine, are associated with having a lot of drama. I was very excited to get away from drama when I came to college. And luckily, I have been able to escape drama here.  The nice thing about college is that there is more than one building. There is such a difference from being in one building all day for four years and seeing the same faces constantly. Here, there are several different buildings and I am still constantly meeting new people.
• EMU is very diverse. I was very used to everyone having the same opinions and ideas in high school. It’s really cool to sit in classes and have discussions with people who barely know anything about being Mennonite or aren’t even Christian.
• The workload and courses are completely different. Instead of book reports and questions out of a book, you’re constantly reading or writing papers that make you really think. There is a variety of classes to pick from, and you can study things you care about.
• You aren’t restricted by your parent’s guidelines any more. And that changes a lot. You are free to make your own decisions, come and go as you please, and sleep whenever you want.
• I have found that the environment here at EMU is completely different than in high school. People are genuinely excited to be here and to be alive. I have found incredible friends, the professors love their jobs, and it is a bubbly place.

So just because you’ve gone to a Mennonite high school, or even been Mennonite schooled your whole life, don’t throw out the idea of a Mennonite college yet. You just may find yourself here!

• “Ethics in the Way of Jesus” is one of my favorites. A highlight of this class is being able to openly discuss major controversial issues with other students from different backgrounds and beliefs. We talk about things from abortion to homosexuality, war to life or death situations. This class always leaves me thinking.
• In my “Financial Accounting” class, our teacher likes to take time before we start to show us pictures of her family.
• My psychology class is sort of like a work at your own pace class. Once a week, you have a 15 question quiz on a chapter. Whenever you’re ready for the quiz, you go to the psychology lab, take the quiz, get it graded, and you’re done with class for the day. Most weeks, we only have one actual 50 minute class.
• “College Writing” is required. I consistently find myself writing papers the night or morning before they are due. But, we occasionally have fun in this class by arguing which is better- summer or winter, a cabin in the mountains or the beach?
• “First Year Seminar” is also required. But in this class, you get to read great books like “Blue Like Jazz” and “The Color of Water.” You write papers about your own life, and watch movies and have discussions. It’s fun and easy!

I have loved being able to choose most of my own classes, and actually study things I like. I’m excited to see what other great classes I end up with!

The amount of students is perfect; there aren’t so many students that it is overwhelming, but it’s not such a small number of students that you know everything about everyone. It’s amazing what you can find!

• I have a friend who almost always challenges all of my Mennonite beliefs and makes me really think about why I believe what I believe.
• I have friends who are really involved in drama and theatre and music. It is a great idea to make friends with drama kids- it’s always a good time with them.
• I have friends who have become like family.
• I have a friend who comes into my room at least once a day just to ask how my day is going.
• I have super athletic friends who play every intramural sport and are extremely competitive.
• I have friends that go get piercings when they’re bored.
• I have friends in the admissions office who let me talk to them while I should be working.
• I have a friend who I meet at Common Grounds coffee shop every Thursday night for coffee, a bagel, and a good time.
• I have a friend who can beat me left-handed at ping pong, but he still plays with me.
• I have a friend who would do anything for me, even if it involves hosting a student at the last minute or folding my laundry.

I’m so excited about the friends I’ve made and I’m sure I will continue to make over the next few years. It is definitely a highlight of college!