Capstone Blogs

Capstone Conversation:
Earlier in the year (I think in September) I went to The Naked Roommate by Harlen Cohen.  Much to my surprise, the event that was supposed to start at eight was supposed to be over three hours long!  As much as I enjoyed his presentation, my friends and I had to leave early -- we had a big chemistry test the next day.  However, while I was there, I found Harlan Cohent to be really funny.  He approached even the most sensitive topics with comedy, which had us all at ease.  He made fun of a few people, and I found the whole event to be really entertaining and fun.  After going, I wanted to read the book.  I actually had forgotten how much I wanted to read the book until I went to do this blog.  I'll be requesting it at the library soon! :)


Capstone Cinema:
Throughout the semester, I've been to two Capstone Cinemas.  The first one was about a boy with a muscle disease (I think) who ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.  His friends took him on a journey across the United States to find the TV show Pimp My Ride.  They were hoping the show would pimp his wheelchair.  Sadly, I can't remember the name of this movie though. The second movie was Zomebieland!  It was a great, really funny movie and Capstone ordered Insomnia cookies and milk to go with it! The cookies arrived fresh and hot.  This was by far my favorite Capstone event I went to, because the movie was a less serious topic and obviously the cookies were amazing.  There were these chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks -- definitely my favorite.


Capstone Social Event:
All of the Capstone social events are on Friday afternoons and every Friday I go home to see my friend Megan, so this particular requirement was hard to fulfill.  My classes end at 10 AM on Friday, so I found it pointless to sit around until 2 PM when I could go ahead and leave and spend the day with my friends.  One day I did though, and I got to Hot Cookie Friday at 2:20 PM.  The cookies were already gone.  Epic fail.  Jessi (my roommate) and I were extremely disappointed, although at least we got the Social Event point.  After about five minutes, we decided to just go ahead and leave and go buy our own cookies.  We went to Gibbes and used our lunch meal plans for 4 cookies and a drink each.  I'm pretty sure the check-out lady thought we were crazy, but oh well.

Blog #26: LAST ONE!

When our class originally got the service learning assignment, I was kind of dreading the experience.  I figured we'd end up with children who were difficult and didn't want to work.  However I was pleasantly surprised when I got my assignment.  My mentee is respectful and hardworking; she just had a few areas of weakness.  I found it interesting that our personalities matched up so well.  Her weaknesses (math and organizing) so happen to be my strengths.  I don't know if that was done purposefully or not, considering I didn't put anything about math on my application, but I think it would prove beneficial to match mentors and mentees up with their strenghts/weaknesses in the future.  I chose to continue my mentoring throughout the rest of the semester and possibly throughout the spring as well.  One of my favorite parts of this whole experience was seeing the difference I have made.  She came into this with F's in almost all of her classes.  Now (from what she's told me) she has a B in history, her biggest accomplishment.  Sam and Danielle attributed that to me, which was an awesome feeling. :)

Blog #25: Thanksgiving, again?

Over Thanksgiving break, I had wanted to focus on family and friend time.  I planned on writing my reflection paper #3 today and I've gotten a good bit done.  However, because I know next week I will be focusing most of my energy on studying for chemistry, I will probably be spending a lot of time over this break working on my U101 final. 
One of my best friends goes to Clemson and will be visiting! I'll get to spend some of Friday with her, I hope.  Today and tomorrow both include family lunches.  At least tomorrow's will be at Carolina Wings.  Saturday is my boyfriend's birthday, so I'll be at his party Saturday night. Sunday I'm hoping to escape my house and come back to the dorms around twelve or one.  Then I can focus better on school work for a little while before the majority of the people come back from break.

Blog #24: Sustainability

When I think of sustainability, the first thing that comes to mind is school work.  Throughout high school, taking multiple AP classes at a time was definitely a challenge.  There were plenty of people who couldn’t keep up with the work load.  Being sustainable, to me, is being able to get through something difficult – like the workload multiple AP classes.  Not only was it important to keep up with the work, it was also hard to balance homework time with social time.  So overall, I do think I live a sustainable lifestyle.  To become more sustainable throughout my life, I will need to put more effort into choosing the foods that I eat, as well as exercise.  I’m great with those types of choices in the summer, but when I have school every week day, it’s difficult for me to keep making healthy choices in those areas.

Blog #23: Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving I'm going home to Irmo (about 15 minutes away) and spending most of the break with friends. Other than that, there are three family lunches I have to attend on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, one of which is in Greenville.  
Growing up, I've always known I wanted to be a nurse. Both generations before me on my mother's side have been nurses as well.  In elementary school, I went through a phase where I wanted to be a teacher though.
I think a nursing internship would be a great opportunity over the summer. However, my family goes on several trips so it would be hard to find an internship that would let me go on my family's outings.
I had no idea that the USC website had information on how to complete a resume and helpful tips for interviews. That was the most useful part of the presentation, by far.

Blog #22: Financial Responsibility

Although I do not have a personal budget right now, I still see myself as financially responsible.  I have a checking and savings account.  Twenty percent of every paycheck goes into my savings account, no matter what, and I haven't used my savings account for anything yet.  I'm saving it for emergencies, etc.  I like to keep a certain amount of money in my checking as well.  Once I get below that certain amount, I stop spending any unnecessary money until I can build it back up.  I plan to put off getting a credit card for as long as possible.  It'd be nice to never get one, but I feel like eventually I'll need it to help get a house or something big like that.  While the video in class suggested keeping your credit card in a freezer, I highly doubt I will do that, but I do plan on keeping it somewhere at home -- like a jewelry box or something -- where I can't get to it when I'm out shopping.

Blog # 21: Stress Management

School in general stresses me out, especially around exam time.  Overall though, papers have the worst effect on me stress-wise.  I almost always wait until a few days before to start, and then go slowly from there, knowing I still have a few days to complete the assignment.  Come the day before the paper is due, I am stressed beyond belief and trying to write my paper as fast as possible to just get it done.  I deal with stress by listening to music, usually.  Working out helps as well.  However, when I’m pressed for time with an assignment due soon, I block everything out with loud music, sit at my desk (as opposed to on my bed), turn off my phone, and completely focus on whatever assignment is due at the time.  It works well, and then I turn my phone back on when everything is completely finished.