I was scolded by my grandmother because I haven't updated this lately. So grandma, this post is for you.
Random note: Kevin took me bowling this week(I know me going out on a school night is almost unthinkable) and I've come to realize that I need more breaks like these more often. I think Angel calls it "filling your bucket". Thank you Kevin even though I know you don't follow blogs, facebook, or anything of that sort.
This semester at SLU(Saint Louis University) is going by very quickly, but it's been packed with new experiences and new ideas. I absolutely hated the winter here and the first day of what actually felt like spring came with open arms. However I do have some great memories of winter such as walking to the metro in the snow and slipping all over the ice covered side-walks, ice-skating and hockey games with kevin even though he tends to take that stuff very seriously, getting to express my love-affair with scarves everyday, and having a couple snow days off of school. Regardless, I still think I could do without winter. California has ruined me, I just love the sun so much. Kevin and I had our first picnic in Forest Park just last week, we loved feeling the rays of the sun after such a cold winter that we stayed as long as possible, too bad we didn't think to wear sunscreen. I feel like I can just smile more when the sun is out and flowers are blooming all over campus. Spring is good.
Other Random Note: I go all the way to Washington D.C. and all I come out of it with is a deep appreciation for cupcakes (just kidding, but seriously)
I did get some traveling in so my travel bug can rest for awhile. I won an essay contest for an all-expense trip to Washington D.C. to participate in the annual meeting of the organization, Citizens for Global Solutions. It was a blast and the people were just amazing. The first day was full of speakers from different organizations such as the United Nations, the French Embassy, and so on. In that one day, my views changed completely and I realized how blind, naive, and maybe a little ignorant I had been. Here I am supposed to be this political science major and I never even took the time to fully consider other view points than my own. Sure I had addressed them and dismissed them, but never had fully understood or wanted to understand. It is critical that we make the effort to relate to one another and give others a fair shot. Afterall, we're all human and in this world together. And no, there is no "us against them". Trust me on this, just take a minute, just one minute to try and to make a connection to someone who has different ideas or beliefs than you. I can gurantee that you will see they are facing the same challenges, same joys, same insecurities as anyone else. They won't turn out to be some crazy lunitic that believes that everyone should eat their first-born child(or maybe they will be but in that case it's proabaly best that you find that out as early as possible so you can run in the other direction while calling the police). I really believe that making the effort to reach out to someone different can help you grow as a person. Now that I've gone on this crazy tangent, I'll get back to the conference. The second day was a lobby session where we met with the staffs of Senators and Congressmen on the behalf of Citizens for Global Solutions. It was really great to see the inner workings of the government and to see how we, average citizens, make this poltical system function.
I just applied for a summer research position in Texas and I'm crossing my fingers hoping that I get it. Realistically there are a million other candidates in this country more qualified than myself, but like my parents always say "you never know if you don't try." I've also heard that if you aim for the moon then at least you will land among the stars, or something to that effect. Here I go trying to be inspirational again. Ok, ok, here's the scoop on my life. I'm taking one day at a time even though I'd like to jump about two years ahead, I samefully admit that I let my stress turn into anger, I eat about a cookie a day(sometimes more), I try to work out but that doesn't happen, I'm active in school events, I've become a great networker and use every(even shameful) opportunites to make connections...let me re-play an occasion... a speaker who would be a good connection comes to Saint Louis, I arrive super early, I "make" the speaker (I like to call this spotting who I think the speaker probably is when they also arrive early outside the venue), I strike up a casual conversation maybe about their music they are listening to on their IPOD, then when it is getting closer to the event they get up to go in, I say "oh you're going to this thing too", bada bing bada boom, connection made...ok it didn't really happen like that but it could have, anyway as you can tell I've been busy and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Next trip: Sneaking in Andrea's suitcase on her trip to Europe. I just have to get done to 50lbs so I don't get charged extra.
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