After Months of Training....

Back in May, my sister and I were asked by a fellow Boy Scout volunteer if we would be interested in running. At first we laughed, but then we thought about how fun it would be to run a 5k race. Soon enough we were out at local park running a mile. A mile might not sound like a lot, but when you have never ran, except for those pointless mile runs in school where most people walked, it is a lot. Within a few weeks Ashley and I were up to a mile and a half without stopping! We spent the whole summer running 3 times a week. Each night we were scheduled to run, we met at a park and ran whatever distance was planned for that night. It was nice to run with other people and not by yourself. And it was also great to be able to tell people "oh, I just ran two and a half miles without stopping, nothing crazy" when asked what was up.

 

 

 

Finally, after months of training, Ashley and I signed up for our very first 5k race, the Four Seasons Parkway Run & Walk. We were told it was a really big and fun race, so we figured it would be the perfect first race!

 

 

The day of the race snuck up so quickly! We were so jittery all morning, excited to just go and run. Even though we had already picked up our race packets, we still got to Philly super early. We spent some time walking around before we met up with people on our team (we teamed up with a teacher from Ashley's school and his group). By time everyone was there, it was time to go to the starting line. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as I waited for the race to start. Finally the gun went off! And off Ashley and I went! I stayed behind her for a good 3/4's of a mile or so. When I passed the one mile marker the time was around ten minutes so I felt great! The area we ran around was pretty and I had so much fun running with thousands of people. After 3.1 miles, I crossed the finish line at just under 35 minutes! My official time was 34:11, an 11 minute mile! I never have felt so accomplished before! Now I am excited to run another 5k in October :)

 



First Month of College = Complete!

It's been a month since I moved into MU and I'm surprised at how much I've already accomplished! One thing that I really love about being here is that I'm never bored. My hall has so many activities throughout the week that I really can't ever sit still long enough to feel bored. Well, I guess I get bored while doing homework, but it's good to know I can always take a break and go do something fun for a bit before returning to my work. Here are a few examples of some fun activities my hall has had lately...

 

Thursday night we decorated coffee mugs with Sharpies! But instead of baking them, the RA is going to use spray Mod Podge. I'm really curious as to how they will turn out. She told us we would have to hand wash them, which makes sense, but I'm not sure if I would even drink out of a mug sprayed with Mod Podge. Is it safe? If not, it will be the perfect pencil cup!

 

 

Along with the coffee mugs, another RA hosted an activity at the same time where we made cute flower type balls out of tissue paper! After some pinterest searching, I found the exact directions we used on this blog. They were super easy and fun to make! I already have mine hanging around my bed. The purple really goes with my room!

 

 

Friday night my RA had a small activity where we wrote our dreams down on a big poster board labeled 'Hobbs Dreams' (Hobbs is the name of my hall, by the way). You could write down any dream or goal that you had. I chose to stick with my main goal in life, which is to impact the lives of children when I am a teacher. It was a small activity, but there was pizza! Almost every activity in the hall has food so we never go hungry!

 

So far everything about MU is great! I'll be sure to continue updating on here about my college life, especially the fun activities I participate in that allows me to show my creativity and crafty-ness!

It's been awhile...

Seriously. I feel like I just disappeared from here. It wasn't my intention. I actually had this plan to blog all summer about everything I did... then my computer crashed. Imagine spending a whole summer without a laptop. That is exactly what happened to me! By time I finally got my new laptop (that I am completely in LOVE with! Hello, touchscreen and Windows 8!), everything just started getting crazy busy. Flash forward a couple weeks and here we are with all the craziness over with and now I am living at school! My first week of classes went very well. I think I have a pretty good variety of professors this semester. I am just loving being away from home and experiencing new things! I think my favorite part of moving here to Millersville was the ability to make my dorm my own little cozy home. Here's a few pictures of my crafty mind concoctions!

Here is my bed with my absolutely adorable comforter set! I seriously fell in love with it the moment I set my eyes on it's beautiful colors and flowery pattern!

After spending a ton of time printing and cutting, I finally ended up with adorable polaroid look-a-like prints to hang from twine with mini clothes pins. Adorable!

This little cutie took more time than I had imagined. It's actually kind of challenging to take a pile of various sized photos and shape them into a heart. However, I was eventually able to make it look pretty so I feel accomplished!

 

This here is my little coffee corner! It may be the most important part of my room considering coffee is the highlight of my day!

 

I'll be sure to post more now that I actually have a laptop and occasionally have free time!

Class of 2013!

Last night I officially became a 2013 graduate of Gloucester County College! It still feels unreal that I have already completed my two years at county college and in just 99 days I'll be off to Millersville University to start a new chapter in my life. As the day I leave gets closer, I get a little bit nervous. I'm not sure what exactly I'm nervous about, though. Maybe that classes there will be much harder than I'm used to? Or that I'll get really home sick? As nervous as I am, the fact that I am about to basically start over makes me happy. I'll finally have a chance to go somewhere that I won't know many people and just start a new life. But of course I'll always have my friends and family back home. And my wonderful boyfriend who I'll miss quite terribly. Good thing we are pretty much pros at being at differenty schools. I'm not worried about our relationship one bit.

Dear Me Challenge: Day 14

Write to yourself about something you are struggling with right now, and how you think you can help it.

Dear Me,
Since it is the end of my last semester at my community college, I am struggling with keeping up my motivation to do well in my classes. It's really hard to sit down and focus on a paper when I really just want to go outside or focus on Millersville transfer stuff... So far I haven't found anything to help me besides just forcing myself to sit down and work on some of my homework for a little bit before getting distracted with something else. I really wish finishing up this semester and starting to get Millersville stuff together didn't overlap. It's a lot of work to do! But luckily in less than a month, I'll be done school and can just enjoy the summer so that's something to motivate me to get work done!

Dear Me Challeneg: Day 13

Write to yourself about your ideal relationship.

Dear Me,
This is completely unnecessary because right now I am in my ideal relationship! I guess I'll talk about that then? What makes my relationship ideal is that we are both her for each other 100%. If I ever need to talk about anything, John is there for me. We also get along so well and like most of the same things. We rarely argue over disagreeing with things. I feel like we're on the same track when it comes to thinking because we usually feel like doing the same things at the same time, like taking a nap or eating. The thing we are best at is being silly together. We can make any situation funny. He always has me laughing. We know each other so well and I feel like we have a very close and amazing relationship.

Dear Me Challenge: Day 12

Write to yourself about something you secretly really want to try.

Dear Me,
I honestly can not think of ANYTHING I want to secretly try... so I'm just going with something random. I would like to try living on my own to see if I could handle it. As a kid, I always thought once you graduated high school you moved out on your own, got married, and started your life. Obviously that isn't the case because I left out the part where I spend so much money for college that I can't afford to buy myself a place. I think it'd be so cool to live in an apartment on my own now, while I'm in school. It would really make me feel grown up and I could decorate however I'd like :D