Yeah that's right, I turn 19 this week, WOoOo Me!  Anyway this is my last blog and I wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and have a good break. Anyways I wrote a little something. See you in January!

Driving down a highway
For perhaps the thousandth time
In a past  few years of life
I hear her voice in my mind
Fresh as if I recorded her whisper
From many yesterdays ago

To wonder how long
Such occurrences have consumed me
As sites of lush green hills
And police men with radar guns
Repeat themselves like an old storybook

Parking the car a crow flies overhead
Never grow old of tracing its path
With my eyes wondering if it sees me
As free as I see it

A cold winter air bites through wool cloth
Hugging me like a loving mother
Perhaps not knowing of its effect
Refusing to let go out of fear

Retreating into a classroom
Surrounded by some dozen students
I'll wonder just how many share with me
This bitter sense of monotony
Perhaps I'll meet a pair of wandering eyes
And know my answer

Yet I'm fearful of the future
Letting go of what I've known
Maybe I've yet to realize
Its let go of me

Suppose I am just not yet comfortable
With my sense of everything I've lost
Of love and friendship and simplicity
If I ask you to do your best to help
Will you walk with me farther into confusion
Hoping to find an exit

Clock bells toll as my feet shuttle me
Towards an uncertain structure of time
So I may sit idly not knowing what to do
As my thoughts struggle to catch up

When they finally do
I pick up a pen and paper
Trying my best to recall who I am
But the best I manage
Is to remind myself not to take this so seriously

Tomorrow might see me an old man
Longing for memories of laughter and joy
To replace a failed construction
Of a perfect tale

I was up late last night studying for psychology while eating a nice hearty bowl full of ramen and a spark of interest came into mind and inspired me to write this:

Spread your wings out to fly.
Jump out into the existence.
Sweet misery tastes anything but sweet.
Disaster can only come so many times.
You will learn.
There's a way.
only one.

When you're viewing the world from heights unknown.
Vision suddenly is clear, the big no longer command.
All your mistakes are yours to own.
But make no mistake, they don't end up in your own hand.
Clarity is always one step to the left.
Misery is straight ahead.
Behind you is a world conquered.
Above. that's where it begins.

3 years that will test.
1 for the preparation
1 for the experiment
1 for the conclusion
Knowledge grows. Stupidity follows.
Here's to the finale.
I wish you the best.

Hey guys!

 

It is officially wrestling season!  The team kicked off the season this past weekend at the Eastern Michigan University Open Tournament up in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  We took about 30 guys up to EMU on Saturday to compete with some very tough teams. Most teams in attendance were NCAA Division I teams.  As some of you know, the Mount is a NCAA Division III team, so competing against Div. I is pretty exciting.  Not many Div. III teams get to see that kind of competition. 

 

The day started off early, with weigh ins around 7 a.m. and wrestling beginning around 9. The tournament was broken into two divisions, the freshman sophomore division (comprised of freshman and sophomores), and the open division (everyone else).  Being a junior, I competed against the upper classmen, facing four Division I opponents, three of which were starters for their team.  I ended the day with two wins, taking out the Cleveland State starter and his backup. As a team, we faired pretty well considering the competition level we were facing. We ended the day with about 25 wins total, which is pretty good in my book! We had two champs in the freshman sophomore division, Dave Harris at 149 and Corey McGrady at 184.  Congrats to these two!

 

The day ended around 6 p.m. and we had a 4 hour bus ride back home. I am pretty happy with the trip.  It’s always nice to compete against some of the best athletes in the sport and know you can hang with them, that’s how well head coach Casey Stouffer trains us here at the Mount. 

 

If you’re interested in the stats of the tournament and how the season progresses from here, you can check out our info on the Mount’s website under athletics and I thank you for your support!

 

>Eric M.

Cars. I hate them so much sometimes. So last year I was a commuter, and not once did I ever have any kind of car trouble. Like, none at all. The worst it ever got was when I took an hour and 15 minutes to get to school on the first major snow of the year and people were sooooo slow getting places on the highway. I got to class half hour later. That's the worst that I can remember... 

But as soon as I move into the dorms! Then that's when the car decides to be a pain in the butt! Ugh... I've never had a real good history of cars so far... I tend to be on the paranoid side of cars and I mistrust them- especially when they make noises I don't understand. The first car my parents "bought" me- I had to pay for a quarter of it (combined with my brother, we bought half of the car)- was a 1997 Ford Taurus and it was a P.O.S. We ended up nicknaming the car "Lurch" for obvious reasons. It was literally lurch when it shifted from first to second gear on acceleration. We ended up having to learn how to take our foot off the gas at the right time, just like a manual car with a shifter, just so we could possibly attempt to have a smooth shift from one gear to the next. It was sooo annoying... We ended up having to sell it and we got another car. A 1998 Chevy Lumina (and later that became my car and my brother got a manual 1991 Honda Civic). 

That is the car I still have. It's a good car since it's 10 years old and it only currently has 60,000 miles on it. I've personally put on 16,000 miles on it since April of 2007. But we were doing good, changing the oil, filling the fluids up, changing blades, etc. and spending obscene amounts on gas. (So happy btw that gas is now $2.29!!! It's a drop of almost $2 in 6 weeks- it peaked at the time of the infamous "storm" and I think we all know what I'm talking about) But now its being stupid!!! Let me explain... 

On Tuesday night this past week, my friend Maria and I went out and on the way back, the car decided to "sputter" and jerk forward and back while I was driving. Kind of reminiscent of Lurch. I was riding on empty on gas so I eventually put in like 4 gallons on the way back but that didn't stop it from doing the lurch 4 or 5 times. Then I called my dad, who is not bad at diagnosing car problems, and he said it might be a dirty fuel filter. I fixed that on Wednesday morning and the entire day I drove the car, it didn't do anything. I thought it was fixed. Then on the way home from school I was driving along and I was turning left from Delhi-Fairbanks onto River Road and in the middle of turn, the car did the lurchy thing again. I freaked out. I decided to go slow- under 35 mph- and was gonna stick to slow roads to my house (there's a route through Downtown and follows the river to the East Side that I chose [River Road, Mehring Way, Eggleston, Pete Rose Way, Eastern, Kellogg). It did the lurching thing FIFTEEN (15) times before I had to pull over. On the turn from Eggleston to Pete Rose, I turned, it lurched and didn't stop lurching. At that point I figured out something wrong with the acceleration part of the car- something with the fuel pump or fuel injector. So I pulled over in a parking lot, called my mother, called my father, called my brother, and called a pick-up truck. My mom I had to call so she wouldn't freak out that I was pulled over to the side of a road; my father so he knew the car was going to the shop so he could pay for it ;) for me (we have a very trusty mechanic in Newtown so it's all good); my brother so he could come get me; and tow-truck for obvious reasons. 

The kicker of all this is the fact that my brother's car broke down two weeks ago. It broke down on a Friday, I picked him up, he was without a car for a week, got it back the next Friday and had it break down the following Tuesday. So he got it back on the Friday that my car broke down so we got to drive his car home after we got mine into the shop. Our cars just aren't doing well are they? 

So I'm without a car this week and I have places to go and places to be and I can't get there... :( I hate being without a car and it's annoying having to depend on others to get some place. I was lucky Tom (fellow blogger and a best friend of mine) went home this weekend so I caught a ride back with him on Sunday night. That's a great thing about living less than a mile from one of your best friends. :) 

After all is said and done, I'm without a car, I still don't trust cars, and I much more prefer the movie over the real thing...

 

                So the other day I went to Alan Drew’s presentation.  He talked about his book called Gardens of Water. It’s a very powerful book about two conflicting families who live two completely different lives. There are two families who live in Istanbul living in the same apartment complex. One family is American.  The other is Muslim Kurdish. There is strong tension between the two. One is Christian and the other was Muslim. The Kurdish family is opposed to American’s because they supply the Kurd’s enemy with weapons. Anyway, he wrote about a very  important message from the book that I would like to share.

“There are so many reasons, Sinan canim,” his father said. “Many complicated reasons that make no sense. People are afraid to lose things-power, land, oil, money- and all these people- the Turks, the Iraqis, the Iranians-think we’ll take those things away from them”. “I don’t understand.” “You will”, he said. “But for now, before it becomes confusing, remember one thing. None of these people are your friends- not the Arabs, not the Turks, and not the Americans.” “I don’t understand. The Americans are far away, across the ocean.” “No, they’re not. They’re in the guns the Turkish paramilitaries fire, they’re in the money they give to dictators like Saddam Hussein, they’re even in the ground, pumping out the oil.” His father smiled, but not a happy one. The Americans are never far away” (Drew 146-7).

 

Well I'm sitting here listening to Coldplay and one of favorite songs comes on.It called warning sign off their "A Rush of B-s to The Head". It made me think about my situation at school. One thing about college is being held accountable for your own actions. Well I recently received an early warning report from one of my teachers. This is basically telling you that you aren't doing well and the report contains details about how to change that. So upon receiving this I realized that I have to turn things around. It wasn't because I wasn't studying or that I'm not smart all I needed to do was change how I study. I realized waiting until the test comes then cramming isn't very successful. I now study my notes every day and things seem to be working out. It only takes about an hour or two which I used to spend online or playing videos games. Setting a schedule of days has also been helpful for me and it leads me to not do anything wasteful when I should be doing something that's important. I came to the point in my life were I really have to grow up because trying to find a job without a college diploma is extremely hard. I had to sit out a spring semester and trying to find a job or at least a good paying job is nearly impossible unless it's backbreaking work. I commend those people but that isn't my future and if I keep slacking then I will soon run out of chances. The college has given me that second chance and I really can't afford to blow this wonderful opportunity or I'll end up in a place, I don't want to be doing something I don't want to do.

So it's almost 2:00 in the morning and I'm bored and can't figure out what to do. I wrote two weeks ago about time management. Well that certainly looks like it's going well. I'm mean I'm up in the late hours with nothing to do, no homework. I can't sleep for some reason so I think I'm going to do some midnight scribbling. Here something I came up with

As we walk between the lines
Of right and wrong and black and grey
We seem to subdivide the world outside
From the thoughts that we create

And as the sun rises, fades into black
Its our minds that seem to ride a different track

For once can we just accept the ride
Without feeling a need to hide
In the shelters of ourselves
As a world floats bye

So I sit back, shut my eyes
Waiting for what comes my way
Not fearing if I fade away

Because there are only so many
Of these sun passes overhead
And it seems the more you hold on
The faster it comes to an end

So just sit back and enjoy the ride

Hey, what’s up everybody!

 

Life has pretty much returned to normal here in the tri-state area since the “hurricane” hit.  I’m pretty sure everyone has their power back now, although I did hear that some people just got it back TODAY, a week and two days after the storm! That would be terrible! There still is some visible damage to some of the houses around town. My prayers are still with those people.

 

On a different note, college is truckin on and most people are just taking or getting grades back from their first exams of the semester. Let me use this time to offer up some advice to potential college students, and this doesn’t just apply to Mount St. Joseph’s students:   

 

           DON’T

 

                             FREAK

 

                                          OUT!

  

A lot of students usually flip out when they are preparing for their first exams. There hasn’t been a lot of time to get to know your professors and identify their teaching style, let alone their assessment style.  True every class is different in the way exams are administered and the types of tests given, but usually students overanalyze the information being tested.  The most important thing to do is ask the professor how the test will be made up. If that doesn’t help, first off, just breathe and then start with studying the broad topics of the information being tested (this especially helps if you fall behind in your readings).  Then if you still have the motivation and time to study, focus on the more in-depth concepts being assessed. 

 

Just remember that you can only do as much as you can do. That makes a lot of sense, right? But it’s true! If you try to push yourself too hard, you will get stressed and forget half the stuff you studied, and that is just pointless.  So when taking your first exams, relax, take breaks when studying (and often: this keeps you focused), and just do as much as you can.  And worst case scenario, if you do terrible on the exam, you have the rest of the semester to work hard and bring up the grade, because you’ll know what to expect on the next exam!

 

Life’s too short to stress out over an exam!

 

>Eric M.

We're in our second week of school, about to start the third and I'm already starting to feel the pressure of school weighing down on me. I have homework out the wazoo and so many things for CAB and Dateline that it's driving me insane. I'm sure I don't want it any other way, I get bored way too easily and if I keep my work load heavy then I won't get bored and I'll be able to have a lot of fun doing a lot of things even though it doesn't seem like I'm having that much fun- but I totally am. :) LOL

 But this was a good weekend for me! I went to the Mount's first home football game yesterday and we beat the Wilmington Quakers 21-7 so that was pretty awesome! I went with my friends Sam, Jimmie, Tom, Nicole, and others. We had a ton of fun hanging out in the perfect 80 degree weather! :)

 Then today we went to the Newport Aquarium. When I say we, I mean the executive board of the CAB (Campus Activities Board). There was: Ally the president, Brittany the VP, me as publicity, Molly our secretary, Brittani our Cincinnati Connections Chair, then also James and Justin our 'assistants', then also Tim Bessler, the Assistant Dean of Students. We got to go on a private tour of the Aquarium. We were checking out the space for the upcoming Spring Formal on April 18, 2009. Dates fill up fast for functions at the Aquarium so we had to act fast and we had a ton of fun this morning! We were seeing things most people don't get to see on a normal trip there and we were talking about some amazing things we can do for our dance. One thing that I know I'm super psyched about is the animal encounter. We have the chance to get a penguin or two to come and hang out with us during the dance! They come in a little wagon that says penguin mobile on it and then we can take pictures, pet, and 'play' with them in about 25 minute increments. I am SO excited about that! I mean I know the dance is a fars way off and we have to get through Homecoming first (October 24th) but this is just so exciting and so different from what the Mount is used to that I am just dancing out of my skin trying to be patient and wait for this to happen! This is gonna be one THE premiere events that CAB will be putting on this year and I am just SO excited! (Can't you tell!? Alright, alright. I'm shutting up! lol)

 Later tonight I get to hang out with my family as they come to visit me. My mom really misses me and even though we talk every day, she still misses me. Dorming is different than living at home, obviously. But it's different in the fact that I feel like I'm living in some sort of weird hotel kind of thing and that if I want to go home, I can at any time. I just really miss my pets (two cats, Milo and Domino, and my dog, Ranger) and sleeping in my own bed... But this is where being busy comes in and that way I don't have too much time to think about all those things and those people that I miss the most...

 It's a goregous day outside and I can hear through my open window the soccer game going on in the stadium across the way. I feel like going outside and doing whatever I feel like... So go out and enjoy the sunshine and blow off some start of term steam! :) 

 

 

 

 

 

The first is me and Tom at the game. Tom's a fellow blogger. The second is the final score of the football game. The third are two of the penguins that could visit us at Spring Formal. And the last is part of the ballroom that the Aquarium has that we can use if we so decide to. :)

Anatole France, a French novelist, once wrote: “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” I’m starting to realize how right he was.

It’s really that way about school this year. I do want the school year to end. I need a break! Finals and everything really wears you down by the time you get out. But, at the same time…I’ll miss so much about this place. After being so busy for so long, when I go home and have nothing but my summer job to do.

I’ll miss how much art I make during the school year, that’s for sure. I do assure you, I’ll be doing plenty of my own art over the summer! But I’m never as productive on my own as I am in a group setting. Thankfully I’ve found that my roommate, Jimmy, doesn’t live too far away from me! So I think we’ll probably be hanging out a bunch over the summer. Maybe I’ll get him to work on some art with me over the summer. Maybe we’ll both keep each other working!

I’m sitting in the art gallery now, working my last Saturday this year. And it’s a beautifully sunny day outside. I can see the quad from here, and everything’s in bloom. It all looks so beautiful! I wish I had time to walk about campus a few more times and take another look at all my favorite spots.  Living on campus is sort of like having a really big, really nice front yard. I’m going to miss the convenience of having room to throw a baseball right outside my door. I’m definitely going to miss being able to see the river from my window!

Also, the end of any school year always comes with goodbyes. Maria, my RA who has been so wonderful to us this entire year, is graduating. I don’t know how we’ll get by on the 6th floor without her. I know she’ll do wonderfully I whatever career she finds herself in. Good luck, Maria!

Also, our good friend Sarah is moving on to Bowling Green. She’s been with us all year, and I was so disappointed to hear that she was leaving. I know that she’ll do well though. Good luck, Sarah, we’ll miss you!

And all of our seniors that I’ve gotten to meet and work with this entire year, including a few of our bloggers! Good luck to EZ, Jodi, and Kristen. I know you guys will do well in whatever careers you find along your path in life. Good luck to each one of you. We’ll miss you here at the Mount.

But of course, with every ending there comes a beginning. We’ll have a brand new class of Freshman coming in this fall. And hopefully a few people reading this now will be joining us! I’m looking forward to starting our new clubs and organizations and performing in new plays and musicals along with newcomers from the incoming class. I know next year will be even better than this one.

And with that, I’ll leave you folks! Over this summer there’s a lot of work and preparation to be done…I’m already looking forward to next year!

I hope you all had a wonderful school year, and I hope you all have an even better summer. And I hope to see you all next year, right here at the College of Mount St. Joseph!