Time for a fresh start.

So, here it is. Brand spanking new blog. I'm actually very excited about it, seeing as how I just viewed my old one and was amazed at how much I've changed since I started it.

I started that old blog about a month into my freshman year at Salve and I wanted people to know what I was up to. It became a place to write sad poetry about someone who is no longer a part of my life. I don't want this to be either of those things, well, except that I do like to write about what I'm up to. But I have no intentions of this being a diary in the sense of it becoming "Dear Diary, today I walked to Wakehurst and they had free hot dogs"...which is indeed what happened in my life today.

In a year from now I'll be getting ready to graduate from college. I want to think about the memories here, and give musings about the person I've become. I want to discuss feelings, yes, but differently than I did before. I want to do tributes to people who have really made a difference in my life. I also want to talk about my interests: my Catholic faith, performing, New York (obviously), Salve (obviously, again), my Salve clubs and organizations, going out to eat, HOUSE and GLEE, journalist related activities, and you know, girl stuff.

I want to be able to look back at this in a year from now and see what's happened in a year, see how I've changed, similarly to how I've been looking at my old blog to see how I've changed. I want a place to preserve the memories and my thoughts....because God knows I have a lot of them.

So, for a musing for this evening (aside from the fact that I should be writing one of my two papers due next week): It's the end of spring semester. I'm shocked that in two weeks from now I'll be packing up everything that I see around me right in this moment. I'll be back in NY, even happily, but I'm starting to get this feeling: did I make the most out of this school year?

Well. In terms of campus leadership, student involvement, and the realm of academia: I can say yes with confidence. Here comes the part when I talk about what I've been up to lately. This was my first year on Sigma Phi Sigma, the Salve chapter of a Mercy honor society. I've wanted to be a member of Sigma since I was a freshman; I saw a few kids at academic convocation wearing these special uniforms and I can remember thinking, I WANT TO BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE. I was ecstatic to be nominated. This year I was actually on probation; I wasn't a full member until March when the executive board of the group could see that I'd "proven" myself. I finally got to wear that special uniform at a campus event, and although I was placed outside in 40 degrees with a skirt and no stockings, the feeling was incredible. I got to wave to cars coming into an admissions event with a friend and we laughed away the deep freeze. Someone came up to us and said, "Don't they give you Sigma parkas?" The joke was funny, but the look of respect that he gave us was worth it.

I couldn't be a member of Sigma without credentials; I started a second major this year in English communications (BIG surprise that I'm a blogger) and continued with both my Religious Studies major and music minor. Voice lessons were pretty difficult this year; I took on some of the most challenging pieces that I've ever witnessed. I was selected for the annual Honors Recital which ended up being cancelled, but just to be selected was a big milestone for me. I've also been working on Salve's re-accreditation process through NEASC, which is a New England association of colleges and universities (though I can't remember what the exact acronym stands for). It's been a lot of work. I dealt with what could have been the worst catastrophe of my college career back in February, when I had to give a presentation for my NEASC committee and my computer crashed the night before. I am on a committee with two professors (one of who recommended me to work on the committee), the dean of graduate studies, a graduate professor, a staff person who has been working on a database that will change operations at Salve, and a member of the Board of Trustees. And me. Little ole me. Needless to say, I was a wreck when my computer crashed! But, we fixed it. I actually look back and laugh about the phone call I made to my father at 12:30 AM, on the verge of tears, begging him to talk me through the troubleshooting process that didn't end up working. I prepped the presentation for two hours in the library the next day. It went very well.

Mercy Center, SGA Parliamentarian, staff writer for Mosaic news, English Guild, three choruses, the VIA program, local community service, retreat team, and a mission trip for spring break were also all a part of my year. Sometimes I really don't know how I do it. I also received some very exciting news today...I'm being PUBLISHED. Not in a journal or anything, but an article I wrote about a Salve grad who founded an orphanage in Kenya will be appearing in the orphanage's next newsletter.

All of that being said (and I'm proud of what I do!), I have one very, very big regret about this school year. I know people say not to have regrets, and over Senior Week when I will really have nothing to do except pack, I may be able to make up for this. I don't think I had nearly enough fun this year. Once I got adjusted to college life during my freshman year, I had plenty of fun, even if it was just through hanging out in the hallway with my dear friend Claire and our friend Rachel who ended up transferring after freshman year. This year, I lived in a single dorm. I didn't have a roomate, and I was only close to one person on my floor, my RA. I didn't have people over nearly as much as I would have liked, because I usually came home from meetings at 9 or 10 and then had to start homework. Over and over again, my friends would call me to have take-out or go for a coffee run with them and I felt as though I just NEVER could...I had to go to SGA, or I was in chorus practice, or I was working on a paper, or I had to do an interview. Interviews, as much as I love conducting them, are exhuasting on the time management front. You need to pick a time that's good both for the reporter and the subject, and believe you me, that's no easy task. Once the interview is scheduled, I'm actually excited for it...but when people don't return calls and you wind up knocking on the door of a church rectory begging for an interview...you wonder, in that moment, why you would EVER want to go into journalism. Then you go back to class. And you remember.

Anyway, I digress. I did get to have SOME fun...though a lot of opportunities for fun were trumped by extremely busy weekends. The last time I had a free weekend was the beginning of February. I'm totally serious. Between two concerts (one solo and one choral), spring retreat, going home for Easter, the spring break mission trip, Sigma inductions, Salve's first-ever student exposition (where I sung solo and presented a paper), and an absolutely fantastic all-night fundraiser for Haiti relief, weekends were pretty much SHOT. I didn't go to sleep until 6:45 AM after the Haiti fundraiser; my friend Evan was one of the people to spearhead the effort and did a truly fantastic job of keeping a bunch of college students awake all that time! It was one of the best experiences of my college career, and it was FUN.

So, to answer my own question: I'm really not sure if I had enough fun this semester! I'm not sure if degree of fun is something that can be measured. I may not know until the summer...which is bound to be some of the most fun I've ever had in my life.

I'm not sure how long my other posts will be, but I have to go write a paper! I hope you enjoy reading about my musings of my life experiences. That's a lot different than simply listing what's happening.