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Oh-oh Oh!
Oh-oh Oh!
Oh-oh Oh!
They're watching me, watching me fall.
In a previous entry, I ran a comparison of Quarters to Semesters. For the complete rundown, go check out January 29, 2009.
One of the big points in that comparison was that in Quarters, midterms happen all over the place. Many of my classes (I do a math/science-heavy schedule, since I am an Engineering major) have two midterms during the course of the Quarter. A Quarter is only ten weeks, plus an eleventh week of Finals (no classes in Week 11 though, thank goodness). So typically you have a midterm in week four or five, then another in week eight or so.
This latest round of midterms hasn't gone as well as last time. Physics was pretty good, Engineering was tricky. And Math (*DUN DUN DUN*) is on Wednesday. Suffice to say, I will be studying my eyeballs out all week.
This is not fun.
But I just tell myself that it's all worth it. I want to be an engineer, darn it. And having a thorough understanding of Calculus is rather important (phew, almost said INTEGRAL) to the whole engineering thing. So I will endure. And I will overcome!
...
I hope.
Take care,
Rob
Everybody knows-
It hurts to grow up,
And everybody does-
It's so weird to be back here,
Let me tell you what,
The years go on and
We're still fighting it, we're still fighting it.
Huzzah for good weekends!
Friday was a fantastic foray into childhood memories when I joined a bunch of cool kids over in Taylor Tower (the opposite side of campus from my home, Lincoln Tower) to watch good movies and generally chillax after a long week at college. The Lion King is ten times better with college kids. The inner child in all of us was singing along (out loud) with every single song, while the college kid in each of us took great delight in adding "That's what she said" throughout the movie. A bit immature? Yeah. But heck, it was awesome. We were about to start Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but I decided to turn in a bit early and catch some sleep.
Saturday I had an interview for Honors Ambassadors, which I was accepted into! More on that in future entries, promise!
Finally, there was Saturday night. I went to a Ben Folds concert! Ben Folds is an absolutely amazing piano player / singer. Before the concert, I was a bit of a fan. Now I'm definitely a huge fan. Great music, cool guy. And best of all, the tickets were only ten bucks, thanks to Ohio State University's very own ExploreColumbus program housed at the Student Union. This is the same program that's gotten me tickets to Columbus Jazz Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony.
Busy weekend, but definitely awesome.
Take care!
Rob
When I made up my mind, and my heart along with that,
To live not for myself, but yet for God, somebody said,
Do you know what you are getting yourself into?
With a campus of over 50,000 students, one can imagine that a lot of ideas, cultures, and even beliefs have to come together in relatively small space. Just walking around campus, it's easy to see the myriad of people represented here at Ohio State. And the cool thing is, people tend to get along.
I can only speak for my own personal experiences, but I know from that there are many different religious options available to students. A small sampling:
Muslim Student Association
Hillel
Campus Crusade for Christ
There's a large contingent of OSU students not dedicated to any particular religion at all, and they're definitely free to do that as they choose.
I can only speak of my personal experiences.
As a Christian at OSU, I spent the first few weeks looking into the various Christian organizations around campus. And let me tell you, there are A LOT! Every denomination is represented here, in a mix of formal churches around the campus area and different groups and student organizations right here on campus. They're each pretty cool, and it was mostly a matter of just finding what happened to fit me the best. I eventually landed at Campus Crusade for Christ, which meets every Thursday at 8PM for worship, fellowship, and learning. It's positively fantastic and definitely something I need to re-charge my batteries each week. Life throws all kinds of curve balls at me every week, and this is one place where I can feel at peace.
There are also Bible Studies during the week, which, alas, scheduling conflicts have not allowed me to check out. But word-of-mouth has told me many good things, so it's something I hope to check out.
The point of this entry is not to preach, and not to try to claim anyone's superiority. As always, I'm just a kid at OSU blogging about what daily life is like. And this is a pretty significant aspect of my life. :-)
The real important message here is that OSU is very friendly and open to all varieties of ideas, cultures, and beliefs.
Take care,
Rob
But don't forget who's taking you home,
And in whose arms you're gonna be.
So darling- save the last dance for me.
Have I mentioned that I am a part of the OSU Swing Dance Club?
Every Tuesday night there are two lessons, one for intermediate and then one for beginners. These lessons are forty-five minutes each, and this is followed by another hour of open dancing. It's fantastic! At the beginning of the school year, I knew almost nothing about swing dancing. Now, I can hold my own on the dance floor!
It's been a lot of fun learning. The old members are always excited to see new faces, and the instructors are EXCELLENT! They're very helpful and are always happy to dance during the open dancefloor time with even the newest of beginners. I've definitely come a long way from my first swing club meeting.
Swing dancing is like my escape each week. It's my line in the sand. It's the one time where there are no deadlines and quizzes and problem sets and essays. There's just dancing and it is awesome.
This past weekend was an OSU Swing Dance Club roadtrip to Miami University. I spent all Saturday at Miami with my fellow swing dancers. There were people there from all over, places like Purdue, Rose-Hulman, Anderson, and a few other colleges. And of course, there were a lot of Miami kids. Some of whom were friends of mine from high school!
Familiar faces, some new swing dance moves via workshops, and tons of dancing. Excellent Saturday. :-)
Me and Sarah, a Miami student who went to high school with me, swinging the night away!
Take care,
Rob
We are family,
Get up everybody and sing!
I haven't been to my hometown in awhile.
It's only about an hour away from campus, so last quarter I went back a number of times. It was nice to get those DELICIOUS home-cooked meals, get away from the insanity of college for a bit, see my family, and play with my adorable-and-lovable-but-also-very-dopey yellow lab named Ellee. Going back there always felt good. :-)
And then Winter Quarter came along. Granted, I knew full well what I was getting myself into with 25 credit hours. The homework and studying has been.... daunting. To say the least. And there are always things going on on the weekends that have absolutely nothing to do with studying. Between all the cool clubs I'm in and the responsibilities I have here and the classload, I just haven't been able to be as in-touch with my family this Quarter.
Thus, when my little sister shot me a text message asking if I wanted my mail from home, I jokingly said a care package would be greatly appreciated...
Candy! Mail! Cookies! All from my family, with love.
It was an excellent precursor to Valentine's Day, if I do say so myself.
When ya'all get to college, I hope your families are like mine and send some love via care packages. Just make sure you remember to share from love with them via phone calls and the like. They deserve it!
Take care,
Rob
We are the champions,
We are the champions,
No time for losers,
'Cause we are the champions - of the world!
Last week I received a glorious e-mail from the OSU Athletic Department. These e-mails come to me regularly, though I'm not entirely sure why. A quick survey of my roommates confirmed that these e-mails don't go out to all students. My best guess is that I get them because I was fortunate enough to get football Season Tickets and (most likely) checked some box saying they could e-mail me with updates.
In any case, this e-mail was about a Sunday hockey game. After some further investigation, I found out that No.15 OSU was playing against No. 2 Notre Dame. Notre Dame had just beaten the hockey time on Friday, so the Buckeyes were out for revenge. That was all good and well, but the real bit that caught my attention was this:
-25-cent hotdogs and free haircuts (thanks to some sort of Great Clips sponsorship)
So it was, on Sunday I made a quick ten-minute walk over to the Schottenstein Center, just on the other side of the river. I met a couple of friends and we went in FREE to see the hockey game (not all hockey games are free, but this was a special promotion. Most other sports are free). Then I proceeded to enjoy a FREE haircut on behalf of Great Clips. We then grabbed a handful of 25-cent hotdogs. The free clapping-sticks were rather awesome as well.
Mmmmmmmmmm cheap hotdogs!
We found some good seats and proceeded to watch the OSU Men's Hockey team CRUSH Notre Dame 4-1. It was glorious. :-)
Me and Kristen watching the Buckeyes unleash the PAIN!
Moral of the story: free/cheap = awesome. The taste of victory? Even better.
Methinks I need to go check out some more OSU Varsity sports.
Take care,
Rob
Whooah, we're half-way there,
Livin on a prayer.
Take my hand and we'll make it - I swear,
Livin on a prayer.
And now, at the end of Week 5, Winter Quarter 2009, I find myself at a remarkable point in my college education. This is the official midpoint of Winter Quarter. Which is the midpoint of the typical academic year at The Ohio State University.
That's right- I'm halfway done being a freshman at OSU.
Didn't I just get here? Leadership Collaborative, Welcome Week, Beat Michigan Week, Final Exams, London, Snow Day...
Ladies and gentlemen, to quote the immutable law of Nationwide: Life comes at you fast.
This thought process really got started because this morning I volunteered at the Maximus Competition. Maximus is a scholarship for incoming freshmen at OSU who meet certain eligibility requirements, as found at the link above. Since I'm an Honors Student, I volunteered and got to seat the HS seniors as they came in this morning.
This was an odd experience for me because one year ago, I was a Maximus student. I remember very clearly the essays I had to write for the competition. I remember some of the people I met (one of the kids I ate breakfast with that day is actually (coincidence) my roommate!). But I think most off all I remember how OSU impressed me. Like, I really wasn't planning on going to OSU. But Maximus allowed me to see what Honors at OSU really is all about. There are a million opportunities at OSU to take advantage of, and I felt like Maximus really opened a lot of those doors for me.
And here I am, one year later. Already halfway done with my first year at The Ohio State University. If you read this blog much, you know I keep rather busy.
But today I thought more about where I saw myself now, back then. You know, where the senior HS kid version of me thought I would be by now. And now I'm here. I'm doing well in school (much better this Quarter than last!), I've made a ton of new, really spectacular friends, and I'm very involved in activities that I love doing. I've met E. Gordon Gee (twice), Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Mabel Freeman, and many others. I've sung "Carmen Ohio" in a London pub and I'm going to do an Energy Audit at an orphanage in Honduras in the Spring. I've gotten help from some amazing professors. I've witnessed people jumping into Mirror Lake. I learned about C++, AutoDesk, Taylor Inequalities, Charles Darwin, poverty in Honduras, and a million other things. I can Balboa like a fiend.
And I'm only halfway into my first year. :-)
Take care,
Rob
And all I can do is read a book to stay awake.
And it rips a little of my life away, but it's a great escape .
It's truly amazing how much better classes go when I actually read the darned textbook.
Don't get me wrong. I use the textbook for homework. And before quizzes and tests, it's always nice to flip through the book for useful formulas and the like. But actually READING the book, BEFORE the lecture about that topic... Well it's amazing how much easier school is.
The downside to all this textbook reading is the resultant lack of free time. I've had to step away from some of the clubs and activities that I rather enjoy (au revoir ballroom dancing club, adios Project Manager position in Theme Park Engineering). I still get my dancing fix at Swing Dancing Club though, and through the magic of the internet I've been able to help out a bit with Theme Park Engineering Group. And I love Serving With Honor, and RealLife, and Leadership Collaborative and Leadership Ohio State and a few other things I stay active with. :-) Just not as much as last Quarter.
Ditto on the random friend hangouts. Crossing campus to Taylor Tower (on North Campus) and/or Bradley (on South Campus) doesn't happen quite as often as it used to. I think this has more to do with the cold weather than the raw studying, though both are factors.
The upside to all this? My GPA is flourishing! I pwned a Physics midterm, dominated an Engineering midterm, am ahead of schedule for my Engineering 367 writing-intensive course, and (this is a really big deal for me) actually feel PREPARED for my Calculus midterm. Oh yes, studying is a good thing.
Just remember that when you're in my shoes, you mix up the work and the play. They're BOTH important!
Take care,
Rob
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