Attending Lynn University was probably the most life-altering decision I have ever made. I’ve met people I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and I’ve had opportunities that have been extremely beneficial to me. There are many people I want to thank before I leave.

First, I want to thank the entire English department, especially Dr. Morgan. The professors in this department had an immediate and extensive impact on my writing and analytical abilities. They reinforced my love of literature and have opened my mind to new methods of thinking, in addition to providing me with opportunities I would never experience anywhere else, such as sending me to the National Undergraduate Literary Conference last year.

I also want to thank everyone in charge of the blogging. Blogging has been such a unique experience for the past year and a half. I’ve gotten to record many of my college moments, as well as become more recognized throughout campus, which I can almost guarantee I would not have done on my own.

The library staff has been an important part of my life the past three years. I have always enjoyed working in the library, and the people I have worked with have always been wonderful.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has helped to remain at Lynn when I was not sure if I would be able to return. The Canarelli family especially deserves my thanks, and I will always remember them fondly for everything they have done for me.

I hope I’ll be able to come back and visit some time. I have loved this school, as well as Florida, and I will definitely miss it in many ways.

Why? Good question. I love Barnes and Noble; I love working there. However, I just landed an internship with the Palm Beach Poetry Festival that will be taking up a lot of my time. At first, I thought I could do two jobs and the internship (not to mention school), but when Laura, my liaison, emailed me my duties yesterday, I realized that it just won’t be possible. And I refuse to give up the internship. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will give me the chance to work with two published poets, Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari. My friend Christina, who graduated last year, has done the same thing, and I know, as much work as it is, that it is so worth it. So I sacrificed Barnes and Noble, but I definitely gained a lot more. Plus, maybe since I don’t work there anymore, I can actually hang out and look at books (if I can find some free time). You just can’t browse the way you want to when you work somewhere.

In other news….I’m attending the National Collegiate Honors Council in San Antonio, Texas, October 21-26. I have been accepted to a Poetry Masters Class, where I will get to work on my poetry with a few other students. I’m excited about that, too. The conference will also host many (many!) little workshops about how to improve honors programs. The President and Vice President of the Honors Colloquium, as well as Dr. Villa, will be attending with me. I keep hearing that San Antonio is beautiful, so I can’t wait to see it.

So I will try not to leave such huge gaps between blogs again, but you can see why it happened! Besides, I’ll have plenty to blog about!

 

 

So anyway, I got to experience everything that Christina used to do–minus shopping for snacks. Couldn’t fit it in anywhere…. Dr. Keiley did that instead. But I turned in the event proposal form and the financial form (so the coffeehouse could have money for snacks) to Jen last week. I made a flyer, printed it out, and made copies. Then I had to find time to put them up in all of the buildings on campus! I didn’t start putting them up until Thursday night, so I decided it would be smart to put them in all of the academic buildings first. That way, everyone who has class on Fridays can see them. Then, when I had time on Friday, I put them in the residential buildings. So hopefully as many people as possible saw them and will attend. Next time, I’ll have to put the flyers up sooner. When the coffeehouse is over tonight, I’ll blog about it again and tell everyone how wonderful it was!

Next, I thought I would try the ASSAF parking lot. I started to drive into it and noticed all of the puddles and potholes sprinkling the mulch lot. And I began to worry. What if my little bitty car gets stuck in one of these potholes? That would be so embarrassing and frustrating because not only is it pouring rain, but I would be stuck in it, and countless other people would be stuck in it because my car would be blocking there cars. But I didn’t get stuck. Instead, someone in another SUV drove around the opposite side of the lot and was facing me. Neither of us could move forward, because there is only enough space for one car at a time. We were in a quandary. I had very little space (and am not experienced with backin up any further than it takes to get out of a parking spot), so I was very worried about backing up. And getting stuck. The lady in her car came out with an umbrella and said that she had tried to reverse, but I guess because of the puddles, her car wouldn’t do it. So I persevered and made my way safely out of the lot, and drove to yet another parking lot. I was successful in that final attempt, and my only dilemma from that point was whether or not I should brave the rain….

First, I went to the Parking Office to get a decal for my car. The person in charge was at lunch.

So I decided to go to SAS to find out why I had a hold on my account that was keeping me from checking in. I almost had a heart attack when the lady I was talking to told me that I still owed a ridiculous amount of money. It turns out that she had forgotten to add my awards to the equation. We got everything worked out and the hold was taken off of my account.

Next, I went to ask the work study dept. how much money I had available for work study so that I could get my hours. They sent me back to SAS because they were missing paperwork. SAS told me the amount and talked to the work study dept., so that was cleared up.

My next trip was to the library to let Vesko know how much I could work. He was at lunch.

So, I walked back across campus to the nurse’s office. I had blisters and needed two band aids. She generously gave me four.

Then I headed to the parking office, and the guy was back from lunch, so I was able to get a red sticker for my car, which means I can park almost anywhere on campus! I walked to my car, and stuck it on my windshield.

Then, I walked to the College of Arts and Sciences in Frieburger. I talked to Sally, the secretary, and she gave me some tape to put over my band aids, which refused to stay on my heels. I needed to talk to Dr. Morgan, my advisor, about adding another class, because I was one short. He had left for the day. Fortunately, Dr. Goldstein was there, and she set me up for my new class. I’m taking Creative Writing Poetry, British Literature I, Abnormal Psychology, Scientific Literacy, and Computer Applications.

I decided to walk back to my car (where I rememembered that I had another pair of shoes!) and drove around to the parking lot behind the library, because I still needed to talk to Vesko about scheduling my hours.  However, he had a different award amount than what SAS had told me.

So I had to walk back over to SAS and find out why the amounts were different (Vesko’s sheet was done by semester instead of year, so it was less).

Then I walked back to the library and decided with Vesko what hours I could work with my schedule. We decided every Monday and Wednesday from 8:30-9:30 and 2-6. That will still give me time to work my other job at Barnes and Noble….

…Which was my next stop. I had to let my supervisor there know my availability so she could start scheduling me as soon as possible.

That ended a very productive day. I went back to my friend’s apartment and just relaxed for the remainder of it. I wanted to go to the Marketing Department and see Ashlea, Jason, and Debbie, 3 of my fellow bloggers, but I thought it should wait for a day when I was not so worn out. I might go over there on Monday to catch up with them.

Tributaries, the Honors Journal, is finished, and one of my duties as editor is to put it together–which means lots of stapling and lots of folding. If it’s possible to have a bruise on your palm, I will have one. I must have pushed that stapler down a good 300 times. Then, when I was done, I carried the box of journals from the library to Frieberger–my workout for the day! I could barely lift my arms after. But on the bright side, the journal is beautiful! The art in it is amazing, especially the cover art, which people from the graphic design department worked on.

Last night we had our last Honor’s Seminar of the semester. All we were doing was presentations. I don’t think anyone who wasn’t presenting went to class except for me, Brittany H., Alyssa, Renee, and one other girl who’s name I don’t know. So most of the class wasn’t there. I brought my laptop so I could do homework in between presentations, so that helped me a little bit. 

Tonight is the Leadership Banquet. Don’t ask what it is, because I don’t know. It will be my first time going, and all I know is that there is food (catered!) and awards are handed out. I might blog about it after (if I have time).

Hopefully, I won’t lose sleep tonight either. I still have two papers to write, one of which is due tomorrow, the other one sometime before the semester ends (but I prefer to turn it in tomorrow). Then I have two finals tomorrow, and the last one is Monday!