Random Topics That Somehow All Fit...

I think that it is important that while everyone is at college they not only focus on academics but they also focus on what makes them happy. How would they want to spend their time if they are not studying and hanging out with friends? I strongly believe that college is a time to “grow up”, figure out who you truly are, find out what you want out of life, explore and take chances, make mistakes (within reason), and let this be the best four plus years of your life. The first semester of college is almost over and we are going home this weekend for Thanksgiving break. We all are going to have stories to tell and we all have figured out what we need to improve. If you feel like you do not have either then either you do not get out or you are perfect. I know I have stories to tell (a lot has happened in the last couple of months) and I still need to improve on time management. I made the rule that I would have homework done two days before it is due that way I am not staying up really late the night before it is due. For me, everything seems to be due Wednesday so I like to have the majority if not all the homework done by Monday night and finish it up Tuesday morning. The only problem that is only feasible if I get a lot of homework done over the weekend. That is the hard part because I like breaks. I cannot wait until Christmas break.

As I was stating earlier, we should all find a club, an activity, or something that we look forward to every week. I look forward to swing dancing. It is so much. Last Friday night, the Solely Swing at Virginia Tech (the swing dancing club) had the Swingsgiving Dance in the Old Dominion Ballroom at Squires. They have held other dances such as the Halloween dance, the beach theme dance, etc. They offer free lessons for an hour before and then the social dance is after for $5. You do not have to stay but the only way to get better is to practice. What I mean by social dance is that you do not have to go with a partner; you will dance with tons of different people. It is a great way to meet new people and improve your dancing. The key thing about swing dancing is the guy leads and the girls follow. I hard as it is to lead it is just as hard to follow. The really good leaders are the ones you can dance with and not have a clue what you are doing but you are doing it right because they are leading well. The bad leaders are the ones that you have no idea what they are doing and you are trying to figure it out the whole song.

Random fact about swing dancing: the majority of the people I have talked to about their major are engineers. People think of the stereotypical engineer as someone who does not get out and all they do is homework, etc but there are not many swing dancers from other majors. Granted Virginia Tech is known for engineering so it is a pretty big college within the university.

Another random point, I do not know if you guys have heard but the Tidewater Area/ Coastal Plans, however you learned it in elementary school, had some bad flooding. All the public schools, Old Dominion University, Tidewater Community College, etc. were closed. If you know anything about that area you probably remember that they did not close down the Mid-Town tunnel for hurricane Isabel and it got flooded. Fishes were swimming in the bottom of the tunnel. Well last Thursday, they closed down the tunnel because the tide was supposed to be as high as it was for hurricane Isabel . After hurricane Isabel, houses were flooded, trees were in the middle of the street, houses did not have roofs, without power for eleven days ( I know some people were longer, actually some areas are not fully recovered yet from the hurricane it happened a couple of years ago), etc. The hurricane started heading towards Virginia Beach as a category five but then it went down to either a tropical storm or category one I cannot remember. It would not have done as much damage as it did if it were not for all the rains before it hit. That might have been the problem last Thursday because it was raining a couple of days before it really hit. I heard that Norfolk is flooded and the tide was as high as it was for hurricane Isabel. If you are not from that area you probably have a harder time understanding what I am talking about. The biggest point to get across is hurricane Isabel was nowhere near as bad as hurricane Katrina but it was bad. I watched trees fall on cars, watched two trees fall on one house and it cut it in thirds, watched trees fall right into the street, etc. The really good story about the tree falling on that persons house (they do not live there anymore, I have new neighbors) was the girl was in the room and the minute she walked out the tree fell right where she was standing. If she stayed there a minute longer then she probably would not be here today to tell the story. I know for everyone something big has happened while they were growing up. It ranges from natural disaster, the economy, to politics, to wars. Every generation has had one and future generations will get them.

What happened to us when we were little helped shape who we are today. Now that we are “on our own” it is time to make choices that will help shape the rest of our lives.