Othreeoneone

Hello everyone. Yeah, the end of the week is here and beginning of Spring Break to boot! I look forward to the coming week but probably for different reasons than those of the traditional students. I am leaving my plans a surprise – not because they are so grand – but because I am using it as a base for my speech upon our return to school.

Not much happened this week for me as it was nontraditionally normal. I did have my last mid-term exam and got back a paper that I was anxiously awaiting. I got back one of my mid-term exams and was upset to see that I missed a couple of questions – don’t you hate it when that happens! But, I know the reasoning behind it – that would be the real life that happened just prior to the exam – so I am okay with it – c’est la vie!

You know I truly enjoy all of my classes – I am just weird like that. Of course this is because of the wonderful professors – they always make the lectures interesting and my ole’ brain work harder. One thing that is frustrating to me (and I can only image how it is as a professor) is when students don’t interact or even try to communicate during the lectures. I am not sure why this happens but I think it is an important aspect of learning. The opposite is true for me as I have to refrain from always speaking out because I feel like just a few of always speak out while the others don’t. Oh well, fortunately I enjoy class and interacting because it would be boring to never be challenged or encouraged. 

Also, this week I updated my resume and prospective letters for one of my classes. Even at my age (which isn’t too old is it?) I can always find something new to learn and apply. Revising my resume was interesting and uplifting because I had some good things to add. In April I will be looking into internships and hope that I can obtain one with CCU – that would be ideal!

At Toastmasters this week we had 2 more great speeches. Every week I am impressed by the students, what they have done with their lives and how they got to where they are now. The speeches are always interesting and inspiring in one way or another. When I return from break I will be giving my first 6-10 minute speech. Ew, scary (as my grandson Wesley would say) but I am actually looking forward to giving it. I declined to give my table topic speech this week and every since then I have thought about how I was not supposed to do that. You don’t have to do them but then again they are an important part of the meetings - the very reason we do them. . . point taken/lesson learned! 

The week following spring break is going to be a great one for me. I will be attending a meeting about a project that CCU has been working on for a while. I was surprised and honored to receive the invitation and am now anxious to go and participate. I will certainly share the project as soon as I learn the details. Also, I will be attending a session aimed to inform students about the essentials of navigating through their major and reaching their goals. Had this meeting not been brought up by one of the students I would never have known about it – seems to be a communication gap with things like this. It makes me wonder about all of the other events that nontraditional students are clueless about. Perhaps this is an issue that needs to be addressed – to whom is the question – I will find out and do my best to spread the word. 

Finally, I will say that I am really looking forward to my holiday from attending the campus for a week. My plans are exciting to me and I know that by the end of next week I will have had made some new fun and happy memories to store. If you are a student/professor I hope that you too will enjoy your break and come back refreshed and eager to move into the rest of the semester.

Until then, happy CCU trails!

Otwotwofour

Today I participated in the Nutrition and Well Being Fair today until 12:20. I got there early enough to help the  leaders and other participants to set up. The day was on the cooler side but it did not rain which was good as more students were able to come out and enjoy the various activities. 

There were all sorts of areas set up from a healthy food station, to playing games, to learning about healthy (and delicious) food options, to dancing , and many more. The students were able to earn tickets at the station and with which they purchased food and/or a t-shirt and exercise die. I assisted at the t-shirt/die tent and had a great time. The t-shirts had a drawing of people on the front stating that the beach is for every”body” – they were no sizes – and the back of the shirts students could fill it in: ”I love my _______.” It was fun to observe the way people looked for sizes and tried to find one that would best fit their body. Also, I enjoyed seeing how they filled in the blank – my favorite was “self” because not only was that a witty response the student was very creative and decorated it with bright/happy colors. Everyone seemed to have a great deal of confidence with their body – either that or they just wanted a free t-shirt.

The fun item we gave with the t-shirts was an exercise die – it was an item that I’d never seen before and I don’t believe anyone else had either. The idea behind it is to roll the die  and do whatever exercise it landed on, such as: go for a walk, yoga, etc. Of course for those who don’t want to use it that way it would make an excellent paper weight too but I hope that it is used the way it is intended. I know that, as for myself, many times I don’t really want to exercise and since I can’t decide what to do I just don’t do any exercising. So, for people with a similar need for that extra push the die is a fun solution. 

The Nutrition and Well Being Fair was a big success from what I witnessed, everyone seemed to benefit from at least one of the stations. This was my first official day of volunteering with the S.H.O.R.E. club and I look forward to the next event. I have to say that everyone was so nice, interesting, and fun to be around. I really enjoyed everything from the healthy snack, to watching the students earn their tickets, to the extra added bonus of watching the Trikers swerve throughout the fair. I found out that there is actually a class for Triking - imagine that! I bought one a couple of years ago but returned it because there were not enough places for me to ride it and I thought everyone would think I’d really flipped. I was lots of fun to ride though – you use the same principles of skating and riding a bike and skiing all rolled up into one piece of equipment. Anyway, I might have to check that class out – it would be fun to Trike around the campus for an hour.

In conclusion I have to say that I did not see or notice any other nontraditional female students or males for that matter. Once again I wonder where the nontraditional students are – there are a lot of them somewhere around CCU, I just have to find them. This reminds me that a Women’s Resource Center has opened up, Room 311 at the Wall Building – I hope it is a success and that all the women on campus will respond and take advantage of everything it has to offer.

Until the next time, happy CCU trails!