Service Learning Wrap Up

Looking back on my service experience at Cocky's Reading Express, I enjoyed going to Hand Middle School the most and seeing the kids picking up their books.  They were so excited to see Cocky, and seeing their smiles was really rewarding.  Going on this small trip made the other days of volunteering seem better because on the other days, all we did was put stickers in books or hung up flyers.  At the beginning, this work seemed kind of pointless and boring, but it was definitely worth it all to see the kids so excited about reading.  I plan to volunteer next semester, possibly at Cocky's Reading Express, or I was thinking about volunteering at a Family Homless shelter.  I found out about this when I attended the Homeless for the Homeless event through my church.  The flyer said the shelter needs help decorating for holidays, celebrating birthdays, painting, and doing yardwork.  I feel that this opportunity will also be very rewarding, and if I have time in my schedule next semester, hopefully I can participate in this and Cocky's Reading Express.

Personal Challenge

My personal challenge for this semester was participating in a Homeless for the Homeless event.  I attended this overnight event through my church, Midtown at Columbia.  The night began by splitting everyone into groups, and walking through a series of stations where they played videos of real homeless people explaining their situation and how difficult life was for them.  After that, our group sat down with a homeless man in person and heard his story.  We could ask him questions, and his story was so touching that we all gave him hugs afterward.  We also received a lot of information about volunteering at homeless shelters here in Columbia.  That night, everyone slept outside on the grass or pavement at the building we were at...but the program had picked the coldest weekend ever to do this event!!! It got down to 28 degrees!! (I didn't get much sleep, if any!)  In the morning, we got up, set up, and served breakfast to homeless people who came to the site.  We also sat down and talked to them and connected with them.  This was somewhat hard for me; growing up, my mom always saw homeless people as dangerous drug addicts, would lock the car doors when we drove past them, etc.  It was hard for me to get over my previous ideas, but now I know that not all homeless people are drug addicts--especially because of the economy today-- and that it's definitely worth talking to them, getting to know them, and helping them!!

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow I am flying home for Thanksgiving!! I am so excited to go home--I haven't seen my family or friends since August!! My best friend's birthday is tomorrow, so I will probably see her as soon as I can.  Most of my other friends at college are coming home Tuesday night or Wednesday, so we will probably have a lot of get-togethers.  Thursday is Thanksgiving, and my family is all going to my grandma's house; she just moved, so I can't wait to see her new house!  I have four cousins who are all six and younger, so they are always a silly handful.  I work at American Eagle back home, and Black Friday is the busiest day of the year, so I will be working for eight hours on Friday, and then my other best friend's birthday is on Saturday.  Sunday I'm going to drive back down to Columbia...it's about a ten hour drive, so that will take pretty much all day.

Sustainability

I think that sustainability is being able to uphold the values that you feel are right or moral, and to not give in to things that you do not thing are acceptable.  I feel that I do live a sustainable lifestyle, even here at college.  It is definitely more difficult to do here than at home with my family, but I still think I do a pretty good job.  My grades reflect that my work ethic has not changed; if anything, I work harder because I am paying for college, and I know I need to do well and take the initiative to do my work--no one else is going to make me do it.  I also know that if I still want to go to law school after I graduate, I need to be near the top of my class in order to get accepted into a good law school.  To be more sustainable, I could make a greater effort to make it to church every Sunday here.  I really like the church I have been going to, but there are so many other things to do or work I have to get done that sometimes I put off church.  It's also hard though because I don't have a car, so I need to get a ride from someone else who is going...so if a driver isn't going, then I can't. 

Career Center Presentation

For Thanksgiving, I am going home for the first time!  I can't wait!!  I'm flying out of Charlotte on Monday, and I'll be home Monday night.  We are having Thanksgiving dinner at my grandma's house, but I'm especially excited because she moved to a new house since I've been here and it was still not even built when I left, so I will get to see it!!
Growing up I changed my mind about what I wanted to be all the time.  I first wanted to be a cowgirl, then a teacher and a writer- when I was younger,I used to write stories and parts of novels and then I got tired of them and would start a new one. 
I would definitely like to do an internship, but it would be hard to get one this summer, because I planned on going home for the summer, so I'm not sure where I would live if I got one here in Columbia, or how that would work.
I found the website and all of the links on resume building, job shadowing, and career counseling the lady showed us from the career center website.  I had no idea that there is that much personal attention and help that you can get from the career center-and it's nice that the building is so close to capstone too!

Financial Responsibility

I see myself as pretty financially responsible.  I currently do not prepare a budget because I do not have an income right now.  I also don't get an allowance or any money from my parents regularly, so it's hard for me to make a plan to budget my money.  Right now I have money saved up from working in high school and over the summer that I use to buy things, but I try not to spend too much of it. I hope to get a job either next semester or next year here at the University so that I will have some more money to budget, spend, and save.  I might begin working on an undergraduate research project and apply for one of the scholarships you can pay yourself with, or tutor next year.  When I graduate, I know I will have college debt.  Right now I have a scholarship to come here, but I still pay a good amount of money since I am an out-of-state student.  Additionally, I want to go to law school, so that will be another three years of graduate school after my four years here as an undergraduate student.

Stress Management

I get stressed out when I have a lot of school work, tests or papers all due at the same time.  I also get stressed when my roommate or my family and I aren't getting along very well.  This might sound kind of weird, but when I get stressed, it helps me calm down if I clean or organize things.  I also calm down if I take a nap, go to yoga class, or just go for a run.  When I have a lot of homework to do, I make lists and cross things off as I get them done.  This makes me feel like I have accomplished something, and it encourages me to keep working on all of the things I have to do.  My service site has not been stressful at all.  Each Wednesday when we go to the library to volunteer, we simply listen to music and put stickers into books.  This past week, I got to go on a trip with Cocky's Reading Express to Hand Middle School, but it was not stressful either.  It was great to see all of the kids excited when they saw Cocky and when they got to pick out their books.