Lake Hefner Sunset

Laguna Beach Wedding

Can you say, road trip?

4. My 21st Birthday.

Self-explanatory.

3. Spring Break in NYC.

Neeley Fellows New York City Trip.
Networking, internship-searching, and having a GREAT time in my favorite place on earth.

2. Summer in Laguna Beach.

Hopefully interning for a marketing firm in Orange County and spending another fantastic summer in my favorite little beach town. Bliss.

1. Traveling Abroad.

Studying abroad in France, Germany, and Spain.
Cruise to the Virgin Islands with my best friend.
& possibly Australia and New Zealand.

Bring on the new year.

The OKC National Memorial’s mission statement is meant to inspire, and indeed it does. It also, however, raises a troubling question:

Why don’t we know about this?

Growing up in Oklahoma City, the bombing was, to me, simply a fact of life. I was only 4 when it happened, but I remember hearing the blast. At the time, I lived less than 6 miles away from the Murrah building.

Fast forward 16 years. I’m now a college student at TCU and am currently taking a class titled “Cultural Memory.” Much of the course covers the OKC Bombing, and I was slightly shocked to find that the majority of my 24-person class was unaware that this attack even occurred. Within the few that did know about the bombing, only 2 or 3 had even the most basic facts right. Even I was unaware that prior to 9/11, this was the deadliest terrorist attack that America had ever seen. 168 people were killed, 19 of whom were children.

How is it that so much of our society is unaware of the second deadliest act of terrorism committed against our country? Why isn’t this being talked about?

My class took a trip to OKC today to experience this memorial. We heard from the memorial’s designers, Hans and Torrey Butzer, who were living in Germany at the time of the bombing. How can people halfway around the world be impacted enough by this event to design a memorial for it, yet we don’t even learn about it in school?

I took “Oklahoma History” in high school, and the bombing was never even mentioned in that course. Why have we forgotten about this? We know about Columbine and the VA Tech shooting, yet we don’t learn about what was at the time our nation’s deadliest act of terrorism, committed by none other than two former U.S. soldiers.

After visiting the OKC National Memorial Museum for the first time (I have been to the memorial before on a few occasions), I am even more concerned. The message of the museum–the images played on the news, the stories told, an audio recording of the blast from a building across the street–was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. It triggered abstract memories from the aftermath of the bombing that I didn’t know I had. I had to turn away from many videos that showed stories–those of survivors, and those of families who lost loved ones–because they were simply too devastating. I was in tears through nearly the entire museum.

What bothers me the most, however, is not the attack or its horrific aftermath, though this was without a doubt one of the most tragic events our country has ever experienced. What I can’t seem to resolve is the unshakeable question…

Why don’t we know about this?

Thoughts?

You’re Pre-Med.
Or feel inadequate for not being Pre-Med, because everyone else is.

I’m in Memphis with Kathryn! Actually we’re currently driving home from Oxford, Mississippi, where we went to the Ole Miss vs. Alabama game! My first SEC game ever! It was legit. The tailgating was absolutely insane, and there were somewhere near 60,000 people there. Intimidating, but legit.

It’s fall break!!!!! Yay! I decided to come home with Kathryn because TCU Family Weekend was last weekend, so I had just seen my parents, and Memphis just sounded like a toooonnn of fun. And it is! We roadtripped it down here yesterday with Alex… Kathryn drove for eight hours straight… crazy girl. Then we met up with some of their friends at Ben & Jerry’s, and I went home with Kathryn and had some of her mom’s amaaaazing cooking. And slept in a bed that wasn’t lofted five feet off the ground. It was amazing. Today we went to the Ole Miss game, and are now headed to her aunt and uncle’s house, then home to take care of some MUCH needed studying. Only Dr. Sawyer would give an Honors Macroeconomics test THE DAY classes resume. That class is somewhat kicking my butt. But I’ll make it. Then I have a PoliSci midterm (one of two tests I have in the class) next Tuesday, worth 25% of my grade. I have 50 single-spaced, typed pages of notes to study, plus several hundred pages of readings that I will be tested on (which we don’t go over in class). Soooo basically, TCU classes are crazy hard. Cool.

I know this is the first blog I’ve posted since moving, and I know that is completely unacceptable, but I’ll do better. And I’ll be sure to blog and catch you all up on everything that’s happened since moving to Texas. But for now, let me just say that I have fallen madly in love with TCU. I have never been happier than I am at this place in my life. TCU has already become my home, and I can’t even describe to you what it means to me. My friends are incredible, and the entire experience is just inexplcably perfect.

Hopefully I will have some time this weekend to catch you all up on everything. Until then, love you all, and have an amazing fall break.

Also, there is a strong possibility that I may not be home until Christmas. Hopefully I’ll find a weekend before then, but it’s not seeming likely. I had planned on coming home for homecoming this Thursday, but I realized I have Victory (formal) and a Frog Aides social that night, sooooo it isn’t going to happen. Also, cheer girls, I want to hear all about state. I miss you all like crazy.

Okay. Will blog later.
Love you all.
Go listen to “Walking in Memphis”!

Anyways…

I’ll start with last weekend.
Saturday: Spent the ENTIRE day shopping.
J. Crew, where I haven’t aaactually purchased anything as of yet, just picked out some things… you can probably guess why.
Dillards. Oh my goodness. Found the Lily Pulitzer section and went crazy. Got an orange/pink sundress for day 2 of rush, an all-white dress (needed for initiation), and another pink strapless dress with some cute white embroidery at the top… just because. Then, I ventured on in the store and got a verrrry cute bikini on sale, my first maxi dress (also on sale), and a cute green tank top (also also on sale).
You better be forming mental pictures of all of these, since I am unable to show you them. Perhaps I will take photos.
Then, we went the Cayman’s, my favorite store in Norman. Got some Rock&Republic jeans (Marcus brainwashed me into loving this brand), a cute dress that I’ve wanted for several months that was finally on sale, and some green and yellow Juicy platforms. Also, I had a gift card so that justifies much of my spending.
Also found some cute coral platforms on sale at the Webb.
Then I went to Gil’s and got some Citizens ripped skinny jeans (my daddy was a bit upset that I paid for jeans that he could “distress” on his own working in the vineyard…oh well!)
Bought my first pair of Toms! But I don’t like them, so I’m going to return them. But I ordered others online.

Yayyyy!

Sunday, I went to church, went to lunch with the Luxes, and workedworkedworked on my room. It’s getting close to being all organized! Eek!

Today, I got up, took some clothes to be altered, then went to a doctor’s appointment. I have been having stomach problems and having stomach pain after everything I eat, so I needed to get that checked out. Apparently, I either have acid reflux disease, liver problems, or gallbladder problems. Goodie. We’re hoping for acid reflux, so I’m starting Prilosec OTC for four weeks to see if it gets any better. However, I have to go in tomorrow to get blood work done so they can see if anything is irregular. I’m also getting my blood sugar tested, so I can find out for sure if I’m hypoglycemic. Also, I told my doctor about how my wrist that I sprained in September hasn’t healed. She said it could be serious and made me have another x-ray done in case the first doctor missed something when I did one in September. She also sent me to a physical therapist, who I saw today also. She worked on my wrist, which made it burn really bad, so I had to have an ultrasound (no, I’m not preggo) on it, because apparently, that reduced inflammation and pain, which it did. After my wonderful medical experiences, my mom and I had lunch together and went to Akins and looooaded up on organic vitamins. So I’m going to be that person that takes like twenty pills a day. YAY. Then, I came home, packed/organized some more, and went with Travis to Hideaway (yummmmmyy fried ravioli) and to see Harry Potter (yes, for the third time). Yay!

I fully expect an entire blog post dedicated to me. Okay? Okay. Thank you.

I miss you an incomprehensible amount. Love you best friend.

But here we go. I’m going to make this a series of posts, because I don’t see how I could possibly tell you in one night about seven days in London. But I will at least get started on it.

I suppose I should start with orientation.
Who all has been through orientation? Anyone? Yes. Okay.
Well at TCU, orientation is a two-day process. It’s kinda fun in some ways… you get assigned to a small group and go through various workshops about many different aspects of college life. You spend the night in a dorm room with a roommate (or, if you’re like me, with an empty bed next to you because your roommate never showed…). But the point of the whole thing is to pick your classes. Obviously. Ah, classes. Fairly important things, I’d say. Some might even go so far as to say that they just might be the most important thing you do in college.
Why, then, do they make the process of signing up for classes THE single most frustrating thing on earth?
First, you go into a little room and vigorously tear through a class catalogue, desperately trying to find the classes you need to stay on track in your major (if you are a business major like me, this is especially vital).
Then, you make your own schedule with all the classes/times you plan to sign up for. But oh wait, there’s a catch. Obviously, with three hundred people at one orientation, some classes are going to fill up while you wait your turn to register. So it only makes sense that you choose a few alternate classes just in case the ones you want are full. TCU suggests having ten alternate classes. The difficult part about that is, how do you plan a well-timed schedule when you could have any combination of fifteen classes?
I’m rambling, I know. And I’m sorry. But I’m still bitter about the whole orientation process, and blogging is becoming a fantastic way to vent.
So, my fellow business majors and I go in to a little room with a bunch of computers, ready to enroll. Fortunately, what I lack in schedule-building expertise I make up for in computer savvy, and I get a few seconds’ jump start on the others and hurriedly enroll in the coveted Honors Macroeconomics course that is sure to fill up first. The room’s tension level is high, and it only rises as classes begin to fill up. What will my next choice be? Applied Calculus. Yes. A necessary class to continue on as a business major. I somehow miraculously get into a 1pm MWF class.
I then search for the remaining classes I want, and, shocker, they’re all full.
Fortunately, a miracle happens. One spot has opened up in Contemporary Issues in Nutrition w/ Lab, a class that I’ve been wanting since I first started looking into classes four months ago. This class satisfies 3 core curriculum requirements, is required to graduate with a Nutrition minor (which I plan to do), and has been full for the past two months (I’ve been checking).
Things continue going well, and I also enroll in Survey of Theatre, Honors Religion: Texts & Ideas, and Beginning Tennis. I will therefore be taking 16 hours. I will most likely drop tennis, because without it, I will only have one early class.
Therefore, my schedule, without tennis, will be:
Monday:
11-11:50 Contemporary Issues in Nutrition (counts towards Natural Science, Global Awareness, and Lab requirements; also required for Nutrition minor)
1-1:50 Applied Calculus (fulfills Math requirements; required for Business major)
3:30-4:50 Honors Macroeconomics (counts towards Social Science and Honors requirements)

Tuesday:
12:30-1:50 Survey of Theatre (fulfills Fine Arts requirement)
2-3:20 Honors Religion: Texts & Ideas (counts towards Humanities requirement and fulfills Religious Traditions requirement)

Wednesday:
9-10:50 Contemporary Issues in Nutrition Lab (fulfills one of the two lab requirements)
11-11:50 Contemporary Issues in Nutrition
1-1:50 Applied Calculus
3:30-4:50 Honors Macroeconomics

Thursday:
12:30-1:50 Survey of Theatre
2-3:20 Honors Religion: Texts & Ideas

Friday:
1-1:50 Applied Calculus

Yes, I do only have one, one-hour, one-o’clock Friday class. :)

So after all the stress and insanity of creating “the perfect schedule” and then having it ripped to shreds, I somehow survived and made it out with a surprisingly decent schedule. I’m satisfying quite a few core requirements and not having to get up at an insane hour. Who wouldn’t want that?
And next semester, supposedly honors students get to enroll before anyone else, including seniors. Score!
So I suppose I shouldn’t criticize the system too much, because it did, in the end, work out for me. I know others, however, who weren’t quite so lucky. Maybe that’s something we can try to change while we’re at TCU. Who knows.

All I know is that I just made you read over eight hundred words about enrolling for classes after fooling you with a title that promised wild adventures from London. You’re probably bored out of your mind and absolutely hating my guts right now. :)sorry. I will continue with actual London stories tomorrow. Promisepromise.

For now, I am going to bed. Goodnight moon.

Update:
I just looked right below this post, and under “Related Posts” there was a link to a post titled “How Pole Dancing Made Me Sexier.” What I’d like to know is:
1. Who in their right mind blogs about pole dancing?
And 2. HOW ON EARTH is pole dancing related to college orientation?  Noooot really sure about that one.

We live in a world of doers. Our society is a “do” society.
Our lives revolve around what we do, what we accomplish, what things we attain.
But should they?
Success is measured by our accomplishments.
But should it be?

Of course it should. After all, accomplishments are what truly matter in life, aren’t they?
Getting into the “right” college, landing “the perfect job”, getting that promotion, having a “happy marriage.”
These are the things that matter, right? If we have these, we have truly attained success, haven’t we?

Well, that’s what we are conditioned to believe, anyway.

But what happens next?
College ends after four years (or five, or six, or, God-forbid, seven…), the once-perfect job eventually bores you, the promotion you received just leaves you wanting another. And let’s say your “happy marriage” ends in divorce.
Where does that leave you?

I am the queen of doing things.
You name an activity, I’ve been involved in it.
Often, I do things just for the feeling of accomplishment.
I enjoy knowing that no matter how screwed up my life may be, at least I’ve done something that I can stick on my resume and be proud of.

Okay, what’s the problem?
Well, unfortunately, we are human, and as such, we will never be satisfied with any accomplishment, no matter how great.
And yet these accomplishments are what we place our entire self worth upon.

Why do we do this?
Who the hell knows.

What is the solution?
Now there’s something to think about.

What we, as a generation, need to realize, is that who we are is infinitely more important than what we do.

Why do we put so much emphasis on what we accomplish, instead of who we are as people?
After all, what could be more important than being of good character?
Accomplishments are fleeting, but character follows you forever.

I firmly believe that being a genuinely good person is the most important thing one can accomplish.

When you’re ninety-five years old and looking back on your life, you’re not going to care whether or not you graduated with honors. You’re not going to remember the pride you felt when you were chosen over your co-worker for that coveted promotion.
You’re going to remember what kind of person you were.

So who will that be?

Someone who was so busy “doing things” that you forgot to develop yourself as an active, contributing human being?
Or will it be someone you’re proud of? Someone who stood up for their beliefs, someone who took the time to say “thank you,” someone who learned to love himself and to love others.

As most of you know, I’m going to college at TCU next year.
TCU’s mission statement is “To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.”
Shouldn’t this be what we are all trying to accomplish?
If we think and act as ethical, responsible human beings, everything else will fall into place. When we learn to place our focus on becoming good people, we will, in turn, accomplish great things.

We have our entire lives before us.

The choice is ours.
Who will we become?