On the Eve of Junior Year
And just like that, summer's gone. Four months flew by in the blink of an eye and now I find myself sitting here at 11:07 pm on the eve of my junior year of college. In just 8 hours my alarm will sound and I'll wake up and catch the bus and start my third year of school and oh my gosh, am I excited! I'm in the minority of students who absolutely love school. Every thing about getting back to a schedule, eating in a dining hall and turning in assignments is something that I don't think I'll ever stop loving. Even as a twenty year old, I still adore the smell of new notebooks and the excitement that unboxing a new agenda gives me (and yes my Erin Condren came just in time!).
This summer, as I've mentioned before was full of nothing but work. I was lucky enough to spend two weeks (one in June & another in July) at the beach with my family and friends, but other than that I spent just about every day at one job or another. I worked retail at Lilly Pulitzer for about two months, blogged just about every day, waitressed, and interned at Rhoback all while working on a new project called Markley Prescott, that I'll slowly be sharing more of soon! If there was one thing this summer taught me, it's that I hate being bored. After having two days of not working, I start to go a little stir crazy - I feel a little useless! Even when I had a day off, I would schedule photoshoots for the blog, run errands with my mom, or organize my desk or closet. I loved working all summer long, but the schedules were different every day. It's nice knowing I'm getting back on a schedule where literally nothing changes for an entire semester.
I came back to school on Wednesday the 15th. I've had a little over 10 days to move-in, catch up with friends, and celebrating the end of summer. I haven't actually gone to work in those 10 days and I'm going out of my mind! JMU's FrOG week has pre-occupied my time though these last few days. Essentially, this week is the first week on campus for freshman where they get oriented with the campus, the rules on campus, how to live in a dorm and things of similar nature. Their days are packed with meetings and seminars, but for us upperclassmen we spend the week at the pool, at day parties, and going out with friends. It was truthfully like a little vacation and I'm ready to get back into a routine.
The one thing I love about FrOG week though is that I could dress up and take fun photos with my friends. We all already know this, but I love a good photo-op! Below are some pictures from FrOG week and a carousel of the clothes I wore!
Now that FrOG week's over, it's time to think about junior year. I'm finally fully invested in my major. For all you figuring out your major, a huge tip to know you've picked the right one is when you get excited talking about it, thinking about it, and going to class for it. I love my communications and public relations major. Truly it's the perfect thing for me. It's the perfect combination of public speaking, social media, writing, team work, and office work that I love. There are so many avenues to go down in the field to, I could literally work for any company in any area.
This semester two of the classes I'm really excited about taking is public speaking and presentations along with research in public relations. I've always said I would rather write a 8 page paper than take a 50 question exam, which is another reason why I love SCOM and PR.
On a non-academic topic, we are nearing the two week long craze that is formal recruitment. I finally, and I mean finally have all of my required outfits for recruitment and recruitment workshops start on Friday! I'm super excited to bring in some new PNM's and invite PC 2018 into ADPi, but I know we're all dreading the process a little bit. There's something about 3000 people coming in contact with one another that makes just about everyone sick as a dog 😅😒. Yes Mom, I've already started taking my vitamin C! Don't worry though, plenty of pictures to come over the next few weekends!
Also, it's just about time to start giving tours again! Fall tours, preview tours, early choices tours, football Saturday tours -- you name it, I'm excited! I can't believe this time last year I was so sad to be coming back here. It's incredible how much things can change in less than a year. When you open yourself up to the world, the world opens itself up to you. Take chances on people, things, opportunities, and experiences. This time last year I was so lost and afraid that I would graduate from a school I didn't love. I was terrified I wouldn't get into my major, and even if I did get in, I wouldn't like it and feel stuck. I was scared that I wouldn't be in love with ADPi anymore or would feel like it was smothering me in singular opportunity. I wanted for the university to open itself up to me, but that was impossible if I didn't look at it from a new lens.
I mean, hello! What an incredible 180 degree flip! I feel at home here, so much so I accidentally called it home when I was talking to my parents. I have made friends for life, learned incredible lessons in and out of the classroom, and have grown so much as a person. In just 365 days, my life changed for the absolute better.
So here's to junior year...even though I'm so excited to be back, I know there's work to be done. Happiness is never limited. Even though I'm comfortable with what I'm doing now, it doesn't mean I can't still approach my junior year as I did my sophomore year -- with an open mind and air of excitement. For my third year, I want to continue that excitement and grow my studies further. I want to work hard for and achieve academic success, grow incredible relationships with new and old members of my sorority, give double the tours I did last year, go on a tennis tournament with club tennis, and keep working hard at Markley Prescott and Daily Dose of Prep. Right now I want to really maximize my time here at JMU, but I'm already having so much fun. I just hope in the end, that I can make my junior year even better than my sophomore year -- and that might be hard to do!
