Randomness

I wish I had more time to read books. I have several books checked out from the library right now, including one that looks REALLY interesting called "The Economics of Happiness", but I don't have time to read them. Hopefully I will get the time soon. I love reading.

I went on a walk for an hour and a half yesterday. I really needed it. Spent most of it off the Baylor campus, which was really, REALLY nice. I didn't realize how many apartment complexes were on the other side of the Baylor campus. Some of them looked really cute and were in closer walking distance of campus, but they also looked a little more ghetto. Part of me thinks that the ghetto-ness is worth having a front porch swing, though...

Over the course of my lifetime, I want to live in Denver, Chicago, New York City, and somewhere in Florida. I also want to go to Europe. I love traveling and different experiences.

Which is why I think God laughs when I think I'd like a lot of kids. Between all the stuff I want to do in life, I'll be in my 30s before I'll even have time to think of dating.

*Sigh*

Life is starting to come back into balance. Maybe I'll actually be able to make good grades while going to bed early, attending every class and still keep an active social life.

Or maybe not. We'll see.

Aaaaaagh...

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!! THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY!!!!

Oh. my. goodness. Last semester was nice...this semester is INSANELY BUSY!!!!!! Thank God that I don't have much in the way of social activities planned this weekend. Nobody call me to do anything. I have way too much to catch up on.

Random people I have been missing insanely lately for some reason:

*My family.
*Sarah and Tabitha Davies.
*Grace and Charity Chambers.
*Adam Hardy.
*Jonathan Snodgrass.

Y'all should move to Waco. Seriously.

*Cries*

Back at School

Thoughts on my first days back at school:

*Getting up at 8am every day: Not liking it...but it does pretty much guarantee that stuff gets done during the day.
*Spanish homework guarantees procrastination. I hate Spanish homework.
*Despite hating Spanish homework, I'm surprised at how much I am able to understand in Spanish class. Maybe this won't be as difficult as I thought...or maybe I'm just in for a surprise.
*Psychology and Christian Heritage look like they'll be really interesting classes.
*Anatomy and Physiology is probably going to be pretty time consuming.
*History could be easy or difficult, it's impossible to tell at this point.
*It's so nice being done by lunch.
*Why do almost all of the psychology and Spanish exams have to be scheduled for the same days?
*I am definitely an ESTJ.
*I LOVE SWING DANCING.
*Yay for having lunch with friends. Because, other than that and swing dance, my social life will pretty much not exist this semester.
*Stephen, Jordan, Taylor, Austin, Anna, Shane, Emma, Michelle. Best friends ever.

2008 in review

[X]stayed single
[] got kissed
[] kissed someone new
[] kissed in the snow
[] kissed in the rain
[] had my heart broken
[X] celebrated Halloween
[] broke someone else's heart
[] had a stalker
[X] lost a friend
[X] had a good [non-romantic] relationship with someone
[X] had a bad [non-romantic] relationship with someone
[ ] questioned my sexual orientation
[ ] came out of my closet
[ ] got pregnant
[ ] had an abortion
[ ] got married
[ ] had a divorce.
[ ] kissed someone of the same sex
[X] met someone that I will never forget
[X] did something I regret
[ ] lost faith in love for awhile
[ ] cried over a broken heart
[X] pretended to be happy
[] kissed under mistletoe
[] got a promotion
[X] got a pay raise
[] changed jobs
[] lost my job
[] quit my job
[] dated a co-worker
[] dated my boss
[] dated my boss's son/ daughter
[] got fired from my job
[X] got straight A's <---almost!
[] failed a class
[X] cut class
[X] skipped school
[X] did something I was proud of
[X] proved myself an idiot
[] embarrassed myself in front of the class
[] fell in love with a teacher
[X] was involved in something that I will never forget
[] painted a picture
[x ] wrote a poem
[X] ran a mile
[X] listened to music I couldn't stand
[X] double dipped
[] skinny dipped
[X] went to a sleepover
[X] went to camp
[ ] threw a surprise party
[X] laughed till I cried
[] flirted shamelessly
[x] visited a foreign country
[x] visited a foreign state
[] cooked a disastrous meal
[X] lost something important to me
[X] got a gift I love
[X] realized something new about myself
[] tried to gain weight<---who does that?
[X] dyed my hair
[] came close to losing my life
[] someone close to me died
[X] went to a wild party
[] got arrested
[X] read a great book
[X] saw a great movie
[X] saw a movie so scary that it made me cry
[] saw a favorite band live
[X] did something that I want to tell everyone
[X] experienced something new
[X] made new friends
[X]found out who your real friends are
[] lied to your parents
[] snuck out
[] kissed in a pool
[] kissed under the stars
[] liked more than 5 people at once
[X] became closer to people
[X] went to a party
[X] had the time of your life
[X] happy danced
[ ] fell out of love
[X] had a crush on someone
[ ] changed your sexual preference
[X] swam in a pool
[] made a snowman
[] went snowboarding
[ ] went sledding
[] slept in past 2 pm
[X] held someone’s hand [not romantically...]
[X] held someone’s hand that you care about
[] told someone you like them as more than a friend
[x] gone on vacation
[x] gone on vacation with a friend
[X] driven a car
[] played strip poker
[] danced in the rain
[] seen someone get in a car accident.
[] got in a fist fight.
[X] laughed until you couldn't breathe
[X] had an amazing year
[X] missed someone
[ ] got hit by car
[ ] blacked out
[X] feared the future
[ ] sent someone to the hospital
[ ] had to go to the hospital
[X] got sick
[] had a major surgery
[] got a new pet
[] mooned someone
[] went over your minutes on your cellphone
[] cut in a line of waiting people
[] kept your New Years resolution
[] remembered your New Years resolution
[X] met someone who changed your life
[X] given up on someone
[X] enjoyed this year overall

Minor changes become life changes

Wow. So much has happened over this Christmas break. In terms of events, socializing, etc., not much has been going on...but that has given me some much needed time to think. And read. I've been doing a lot of both lately, and I'm definitely making some changes.

Biggest change first...I'm adding on a minor to my degree plan. This decision came about as a result of the fact that lately I've been feeling that I'm not really doing enough. Throughout my life I've pretty much always been an overachiever. I was the girl who, when told that she would hurt her GPA by taking a college sophomore-level lab science course as a junior in high school, said "I know this is what I want to do. Sign me up anyway," and, inside her head, thought "Bring it on. Just watch me make an A." And then did it. I was the girl who took Chemistry during the summer before her sophomore year of high school. I was the one who did 7th and 8th grade math in one year, then did geometry concurrently with algebra 1 and 2, and did calculus junior year. I was the girl who pretty much never said "no" when presented with the opportunity to take another class.

And I did it all on top of a lot of extra curricular activities. Swim team, speech, debate, piano, Awana, mission possible volunteer work...

But like any other student, senior year I got a terrible case of senioritis. I already had enough credits that if I had wanted to graduate after junior year, I could have. I was, frankly, tired of school. I still took my classes. I still got all A's. I just didn't feel the need to do any more than the bare minimum. I was still an overachiever, it just showed up in other areas-for example, I was definitely in the best shape of my life that year and won first place in a national speech competition. But school-wise, I just wanted to be done.

It was during this senior year "slump" that I had to make decisions about where I was going to school and what I was going to major in. I chose Baylor's nursing program. When I went to sign up for my first semester classes, I was happy to find that I had already gotten one of the classes out of the way through high school dual credit. I replaced it with a very easy class-beginning ballet-and took 14 hours this past semester. It was easy. I ended the semester with a 4.0. When I went to sign up for my classes this semester, I was still kinda tired of school. I also had one class out of the way for this semester, but instead of replacing it, I just decided to take four classes, 13 hours.

But then the end of the semester came. I started looking back at what I had accomplished. Sure, I had a 4.0. But I had only taken 14 hours. It hadn't been that difficult. I didn't feel like I was being challenged-and I like to be challenged. I also looked at what I would be taking for the rest of my semesters on the Waco campus, and saw that I would only need to take 13 hours on semester and 9 hours the other semester to complete all the nursing prerequisits. I chose a few electives I could take so that I would up those two semesters to 16 hours each-but somehow, I still didn't feel challenged enough.

I also started rethinking my choice of a major as well. All my old fears about being a nurse started creeping back again, that being "just an nurse" wasn't enough. (This was probably triggered when I found out that the chemistry course I took was for "non-science" majors. If I wanted to switch to pre-med, I'd have to take chemistry over again. This made me mad. Just go ahead and continue promoting the idea that nurses are inferior to doctors...). I started thinking about changing my major to something more...prestigious. Go the pre-med track...go into accounting and become a CPA...switch to University Scholars...switch to a business or economics major and go the pre-law track...all crossed my mind. I eventually decided to continue on with nursing, 1) because nothing else provides a career that is as flexible as nursing is, and 2) I still want to graduate in 2012. But even though I decided to stick with my major, I still needed to something so I felt challenged. Just adding a bunch more electives wasn't going to be enough. So I started looking into minors.

Psychology? Baylor doesn't offer a psychology minor. Spanish? Would take way too long to complete and would push back my graduation date. Business? Actually, that could work...AND it would give me an edge in the nursing management field...

So I'm making it official once I get back to Baylor. I'm declaring business administration as my minor. This is going to make a lot of changes, but I'm prepared to face all of them head-on. After all, I'm a girl who likes a challenge.

Change #1-I'm taking 16 hours instead of 13 hours this next semester. Not too big or too difficult of a change. It will still be five classes, just like last semester. So far none of the BA minor classes are available, so I added in Christian Heritage from 8am-915am on tuesdays and thursdays. 8am classes every day...not a change I want to deal with, but one I will deal with nonetheless.
Change #2-Instead of taking on class at ACC this summer, I'll be taking two. A literature class, and business computer applications.
Change #3-Summer 2010 is going to look really different. I had been hoping to study abroad for a five week session and then come home and relax before plunging into nursing school. Now it looks like I may not be coming home at all, nor going overseas. Most likely, I will be staying in Waco and taking two or three summer school courses to finish up the minor before heading to nursing school. I had really been looking forward to study abroad...oh well. It's not like I won't have plenty of overseas experience under my belt between the family month-long Australia and Malaysia trip last Christmas and the Africa missions trip this May, plus who knows what other missions trips and other overseas opportunities will come up in the future. And who knows-maybe I can still study abroad summer 2011.

This decision is going to cause a lot of changes in my life, but I love challenges and am ready to face these head-on. Look out, world. Shaney, the over-achiever, is back.