Career Center and Thanksgiving

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

The career center speech was interesting and after listing to it I feel sure that I will try to do an internship next year during fall or spring. The numerous resources available at the cent were interesting and I am happy that I know about them now so I can take advantage of them. The most useful was the information that freshman should prepare resumes as early as freshman year which was interesting to me because I had no idea we should start so early. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up and be three main things. One was a soccer player, two was a hockey player and three was a photographer at different times. My thanksgiving plans are complicated as I will leave here on Tuesday at about 2:00 and go to Myrtle Beach to my mother’s house. I will have thanksgiving at my grandmother’s house and then Thursday night I am going home to New York for the weekend to see my family up there. I can’t wait as my favorite parts of the year are the times I get to spend back in New York!!!

Finance

“If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.” -Earl Wilson

I see myself as a financially responsible person. I do not spend money often and when I do I usually try to make sure it’s on something I really want. Sometimes I find I spend some money on some things that are somewhat frivolous but I try not to do it too often. I do not really prepare a budget but I have my bank account set up to divide up my weekly check into different categories with only  part of my check going to my checking account which I consider my actual spending money. As far as when I graduate I hope to have a little bit of money to get off on a good start but overall I am not that worried. I have always had the opinion that even if you finish college with a large amount of student debt as long as you majored in something that you enjoyed and will get you a job in something that you want to do then debt will not matter because you will make enough money to pay off your student loans.  I do hope to not have any debt outside of student’s loans however and I plan to do that simply by working for most of my college experience and buying everything I need with cash. Also depending on what I do after college I can find ways to get part of my debt taken away through programs such as teach for America.

Capstone Social

I have attended numerous Capstone socials this semester and enjoyed all of them. I feel like the social events are what really contribute to the feeling of a separate capstone community. The social events are awesome places to meet new people. The Shack is a great place to have the events as it is close to capstone and also a unique place for just capstone scholars. Having are own hang out area is great and the events there are cool because of things like the Wii and snacks. Overall the social events are one of my favorite parts of the capstone program especially the “everybody’s birthday party” because it involves free cake what more could you ask for.

Capstone Conversation

The Capstone conversation I attended featured Professor Dan Fowler and was one of the most interesting events I have attended on campus this year. Professor fowler is the former head of the DNC and is extremely knowledgeable on the subject of Government and Politics. He spent a lot of time talking about his thoughts on the economic downturn and also on his beliefs about the tea party movements. His ideas were interesting in that they were somewhat novel ideas and ways of thinking that I had not thought of before. His emphasis on the tea party not being a lower class unemployed movement but a movement of middle class rural families was exceptional because it changes the dynamic of the tea party and allow someone to better understand why they make the demands they do. Lastly Dr. Fowler’s leadership in the DNC was interesting to me because of my own liberal democratic leanings. Overall I am extremely happy to have met and listen to Professor Fowler during his conversation.

Stress

In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.  ~ Lee Iacocca ~

There are several things that can stress me out on any given day. School work, work, class, family and personal problems can all stress me out at times if I let them. I have a couple of ways that I like to deal with stress personally. Sometimes just sitting down and relaxing for a bit can help but most of the time it just stresses me out more. A lot of what Mr. Medlin did in class seemed to help some of the other students but it really did not help me much because I feel that I am the type of person that gets over things by doing them. If I am stressing out about work the only way for me to become unstressed is to actually go to work and get it over with. Or if I have a paper do and I am really stressing over it then I can only get over it by actually writing the paper and getting it over with. I don’t really see how you can become less stressed about something if you still have to do it. If I feel like I am totally going to go nuts however there are two things that I often do. One is form a calendar list with the times and days when things are due so that I can plan ahead a bit. The other thing that I always do is listening to music. I think that listing to music may be more of a way of forgetting about the stress for a bit until I have time to get done whatever needs to be done.

Time Management

Make use of time, let not advantage slip. ~William Shakespeare ~

I feel like I have done an okay job of time management this semester but I could have done batter. I always see time management as a work in process meaning I can be really good at it for a while and then really bad. I feel that I should try ad work to keep a middle line but that when I realize that time management is not really something you can perfect and be good at forever because sometimes…. Stuff happens… which really can throw of any time management you might have had. I feel that as long as I try my best to continue to work at my time management then I can improve next semester. The things I did not have time for this semester were a lot of the events and conversations that happened on campus. Due to my work and class schedule I was unable to make most of those events so next semester I am changing my work days around and taking more early classes so that by the end of the day I have plenty of time to attend the great programs offered by the college.

Health and Friends

Water, air, and cleanliness are the chief articles in my pharmacopoeia.  ~ Napoleon

I consider myself a somewhat healthy person. I try to eat right mostly and stay away from the grill part of the lunch room.  When I was a kid my grandparents babysat me a lot and they are big on eating right so naturally I grew up loving a lot of healthy foods. I never really get sick as I always try to stay healthy and have a good immune system from growing up in a house where my mother worked in the hospital which led me to develop a good immune system.  I love the campus of USC which has a lot of trees and open areas that can be extremely refreshing in the morning or after a long day. I have formed a lot of new friendships at USC and as far as my success I have not had a lot of big success moments so far but I believe when the times come they will be supportive. I love the quote by napoleon though because whenever I am feeling bad or sick a shower and a walk outside with some music always makes me feel better.

Religion -vs- Spirituality

"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." Karl Marx

         Religion, Spirituality and faith are very different to me. Religion is something man made used by people to express how spirituality makes them feel. Faith is the tool used by the religious elite to persuade the people to follow their beliefs and have faith in what they say is right. Spirituality is a true heavenly feeling felt by people in certain people and moments of time in my opinion. Spirituality is truly unique in that it can only be felt but not understood. I feel like spirituality does not have to be explained and that religion is just the futile attempts of certain people to make sense of what they feel.  IN my opinion spirituality is the closet one can come to feeling a godly presence and otherworldly feeling. Therefore I tend to believe I am a spiritual person with my own morals and set of beliefs but as far as organized religion at this point in time I feel capable enough to understand my beliefs on my own without the need to have someone else try to tell me what they cannot truly understand themselves because in my opinion no matter how hard one studies spirituality it can never be truly explained or understood and that is what makes it special. The south is interesting in that it is very religious but often in my opinion I see religion used in the south, as it is often used elsewhere, as an excuse some people use to be able to try and explain their hatred and ignorance on some issues such as minority rights and racial intolerance. I think USC is nice though because there is such a blend of cultures and religions that create a somewhat welcoming environment for people of all races, religions, cultures, sexualities and nationality’s.