The election is important to me because this is the first time that we will be able to vote. So watching the debate is more than just a homework assignment like it was last time. I know who I am voting for, but I think it is ridiculous how people can act and how judgmental they can be when they find out who someone else is voting for. It annoys me how much it matters to other people, it should not. We all have our own ideas and beliefs and I will never understand why people try to force other people to believe what they believe and vote for who they say they should vote for. It annoys me a good bit.
This election is important also because no matter what, its going to make history. By the time this election is over we will either have a back president, or a woman vice president. Although Palin is not the first woman to run for vice president I still think it would be a GREAT accomplishment if McCain wins and she gets to the White House. SOME of the “old fashioned southern” (which I believe is just a nice term for closed minded idiots) men will not shut up about the “poor choices” on the ballot. God forbid it’s a woman or a black guy not matter what. And what bothered me the most about these particular people is that THEY DID NOT VOTE IN THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS. Gr.
This election is important to be so people like ^that^ will shut up and maybe the country can be better than it is today, not that it is bad, just that I am sure change and some improvements are going to be welcomed.

For my IDC midterm I plan to just re read as much of the material as possible without overloading on the not-so-important information. Dr. Brown has done a very good job in giving us the outline and layout of the exam and the proper things to study so we don’t study/learn stuff that we really do not need for the exam. I can’t believe the midterm is already here it seemed like just yesterday we were reading Gilgamesh. I did my study plan for converse 101 for my IDC midterm so I’m hoping to really stick to it now that I have written it down. Now that I look at it thought I’m kind of thinking, "oh yeah right" but I guess we'll see. I am also happy that we are having a review day, sometime she moves so fast that there are just some parts of certain works that i am still completely in the dark about, but i have a list of questions ready for the review day so hopefully that will help a lot. I have a philosophy midterm as well tomorrow, but we can use our notes on it and I’m pretty confident about my note taking in there, it is a difficult class but writing it down and working through all the unneeded confusing stuff that he says just to make matters worse, I can work through when I’m writing notes.

relationships

Since moving into Converse I have learned many things about not only other people, but a lot about myself as well. I am living with my high school best friend which has made this entire transition a little easier. I have realized that a lot of people make me nervous; I’m not a big fan of crowds at all. Being here I have been almost constantly around large groups of people. I have learned to adjust and make changes in the way I think when it comes to large groups of people. I have also learned that no matter how hard you try, there is always going to be some people that you just will not be able to get along with and that’s ok. Everyone must learn at one time or another that there will be people that you will have clashing views with, or just will not be able to get along with for whatever reason. After BS/LS week everyone on the hall has gotten much closer, simply from spending time together waiting out in the hall and being excited for each other when we got out gifts. The faculty experience here is different than what I experienced in high school. Being in the IB program in high school meant that we all had the same teachers for multiple years. There are only a few teachers in Rock Hill who are qualified to teach IB. So it was easy to establish relationships with those teachers, here it is weird to all of sudden not have those teachers I was so used to. It is not a bad thing, just different, but then again, everything about this place has been so different from what I am used to.

finding a good place is harder than i thought

After going to the library I realized that there were many places that I thought were ideal for me, a little noise, but not too much, and pretty much alone, but they turned out to be not-so-good places. I then realized that almost every place I found someone else had found, or I was in the exact place where (it seemed like) a million people needed their books. My favorite place on campus to study is either my room (at night) or in the lobby of Carmichael. I did not think that the lobby of Carmichael would be such a good place, but I spend all day, every day in there so I figured I had to find SOMEWHERE in there where I could spend my 30 minute breaks. There is not as much traffic in and out of there as often as I thought there would be. The perfect place for me to study is somewhere with a little noise and where I can be totally alone. I do not like when people talk to me when I am trying to do my homework because once I get started I always go all the way through it all, no breaks, because if I take a break, I will never get back to what I was trying to do in the first place.
Finding a good spot here at Converse was not as hard as I thought, I have found good places just to sit and read, whether it be for class or something just for fun.

honesty and irony

Being honest for a whole twenty four hours was a little harder than I thought it was going to be, I am always pretty honest, but I it just so happened that the day we were supposed to be being honest all day I just so happened to dislocate my hip. Which meant that I had to call my doctor and when he asked me if I had been wearing heels (I already have a fake hip, so usually heels for long periods of time are a no-no but I wore low(ish) ones to Convocation on Tuesday) so I had to say yes, I wore them for about 3 hours. That made the doctor not very happy. Other than that being honest was not that bad, I realized I thought a lot more about what I said and made sure it was the whole and complete truth. Academic integrity is very important to me and to this institution because it makes the environment we are learning in a more comfortable place to be in. I agree with what Anna said on Tuesday as well, I plan on being a teacher and if I were to cheat my way into an Early Childhood Education degree and felt as though I did not truly deserve it, I would be ashamed to stand in front of those children, and speak with their parents about the education I am supposed to be giving them and how I am not qualified to do so because I cheated my way through college.

Blog Entry 2

I really hope to get heavily involved with The Conversationalist because in high school i was very involved in the newspaper, i was news editor for a year and a half and i was editor in chief for all of my senior year. While i made plenty of mistakes in my approach to being in charge and regular jounalistic mistakes i learned a lot while i did it in high school and i think i am ready to do it at a college level. i love it and it one of a few things that i am actually good at. that is something that i am bringing with me from high school so i am going to try to find something else that i may be able to get myself involved in. Maybe something musically. i am a pretty good flute and clarinet player with a little bit of piano thrown in there too. i know that here at Converse someone can play in ensembles even if they are not a music major, maybe once things calm down and i get myself commited to a regular schedule ill be able to find time for that.
I went to the involvement fair today and there are SO MANY options here its hard to choose. i saw some interesting ones but i am not sure if they are really "for me." whatever, i guess ill find out.

Blog Entry 1

I expect my first semester of college to be the most challenging thing i have probably ever done. It has been getting off to a good start but it has proved to be difficult in ways i have not anticipated. Although I know its going to be different I'm still really excited because i know that because i am here at Converse i will be surrounded by support and some of the best traditions and social events around. I am living with my best friend from high school and i think we are both worried about the status of our friendship and how it will be affected by living together. So far, (even though it has only been two weeks) it is going great. we both have ample time to be alone but we both have that quality time where we can talk about anything. College has been great so far but i do find myself having doubts. Do i belong here? how am i supposed to fit in with a lot of these girls? is this the best place for my major? how long am i going to be able to be away from home? is the condition of my health going to make me leave this place? the last two questions are my biggest concern. I'm not really homesick, I'm fine here, but i know that i left my mom at home alone and i hate that. but i knew that i had to come to school where i wanted (or thought i wanted) to be. and the last question, I've had so many health problems over the last 2 years and I'm scared that it may end up interfering with this whole college away from home thing. Should be interesting, I'm excited, scared, thrilled, tired, amazing and ecstatic about my first semester in college.