Tag: volleyball

Mid-Term Evaluations: What is College Really Like?

Hello and welcome back to The Grow Up Project! Us college students have been getting hit with midterms the past few weeks, and I thought that this would be a great time in the semester to point out the differences I see between college and high school. I’ve put together a list of 5 things that stand out to me at this  point in college.

My First Year Experience Class (also known as the McGilley House) won the first house competition-trivia!
  1. Meetings: College is all about meetings. I know I’ve said it before because I was amazed at the amount of meetings that I have to go to. Meetings for my volleyball team (on top of practice), weekly student government meetings, professors want to meet with students outside of class. If you want to talk to someone who is not a student while in college, you have to schedule a meeting.
  2. Tests: I have had all of 1 test (max) per class this semester. ONE. I’m scheduled to have about three total tests in most of my classes, including the final. It’s weird not having a test after every chapter or unit like happens a lot in high school.
  3. Teachers: I don’t know about you, but most of my high school teachers didn’t have a PhD. Almost all of my college professors do. And surprisingly, these people are honestly very lenient. They take attendance at my school, but not at most bigger institutions. They almost always let us out of class early (there’s a few exceptions, of course). A lot of my professors are hilarious, too.  The thing that I like best about the professors at my school is that they care. One of my teammates was going on a visit to a different college this week, and my theology professor called (yes, like on the phone) her to try to convince her to stay.  That’s dedication.
  4. Living Conditions: Okay duh Reagan. But hear me out. Yes, clearly I’m in a completely different place than I would be at home, but it still feels like home to me. I feel like I live in a giant apartment building where I know all my neighbors. Where we hang out and watch scary movies in the lounge. Where we have the loud side of the hallway and the quiet side. Where there’s music playing at almost all hours of the day. Living in the dorms is actually pretty fun if you make it that way. That’s the thing about college, it is what you make it.

    My house won the second competition, too! We Escaped!
  5. The People: At my little school in Kansas, we have a lot of people from California. The first few weeks, our dorm hosted several meet and greet opportunities and a lot of people showed up. People from California repeatedly told me that people from Kansas were “so nice”. That we weren’t super judgy or materialistic. Now, despite what some may  be thinking, I actually agree with them. And my college showcases that well. I have met some of the most amazing people here on campus. People are really nice because everyone is in the same boat. At the beginning, no one knows each other, then the friend groups form, but for some reason college students are extremely open to meeting new people and trying new things. It’s honestly a great atmosphere.
  6. BONUS–The Homesickness: I am only 45ish minutes from home. But I have friends who are 2, 3, 4+ hours away. If I get homesick, I know they must, too. Going away to college has its appeal, until you’re there. It is weird being “removed” from your old life. I  notice how much I’m missing when I do go home. My siblings are growing up, my pets are getting older, and my high school has changed a ton. You take for granted all of that when you are right in the midst of it. But when you’re gone, even for just a few weeks, a lot does change. And goshdangit, it is really hard to shop for presents for people you aren’t around all the time!

College so far has been all it’s cracked up to be. I love the people here, classes aren’t bad at all (right now), and this is for sure one of the best experiences of my life.

I also want to let y’all in on a little secret. Well, I’ll give a hint.  A few of my friends and I had an idea over breakfast for dinner (at 11pm). It involves cameras. Stay tuned next week for the big reveal!

 

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College Rule #1: Take Care of Yourself

This was the week that the professor’s hit us with tests, papers, and lots and lots of homework. Which hits us college students with lots and lots of mental breakdowns.

Honestly, reflecting on my week helps me to actually realize that it goes much better than I think during the rough situations. It’s weird how the bad always pushes out the good. You could be having the best week of your life, one thing goes wrong and it becomes the worst week. Odd.

But now that I think about it….

Last week was busy. Very busy. That is probably why this past weekend, my body felt like it’d had enough. The cool thing about our bodies is that if we don’t stop to take the the time to properly care for ourselves in every sense, physically and emotionally, our bodies force us too.  Sunday evening I began to get migraine symptoms. I don’t use the term ‘migraine’ lightly because it bothers me when people refer to a headache as a migraine. In my opinion, they are not the same at all.

Migraines don’t hit me very often, maybe once a year or every two. The last one that was pretty bad hit my freshman year of high school, so it’s been awhile. First, I’ll wrap up my week so you can follow and compare the events that led up to this. Feel free to skip my weekly wrap and head to my main point at the bottom.

Monday: Early morning position sessions for volleyball, practice, cafeteria, and a soccer game. I really should have been starting a paper, but that’s beside the point. Not a bad day all in all.

Tuesday: The volleyball team had an away game, and I didn’t travel so I got the evening off. After class that day, I started reading the chapter for next theology class. And I woke up and hour and a half later. Looking back, that was the first sign that I was tired and needed to pay a little extra attention to myself. I proceeded to stay up late that night to finish several homework assignments.

Wednesday: quiz over chapter that I fell asleep reading (don’t worry, I did finish it!) and then practice. Then bible study, then more homework, another late night.

Thursday: I looked at my planner and stressed about all the things I needed to do and wouldn’t be able to because of our home volleyball game. Those who know me know that I stress out pretty fast and it consumes me. Don’t be like that. I am currently working on it.

Friday: 6:30 am morning practice at which we ran SO MUCH. Literally, probably the most I’ve ever run in any practice of any sport for discipline reasons. That afternoon, my management class was cancelled and my day was made. We had a test (which I of course was stressing about) and because class was cancelled, it got moved to Monday! I was so happy that it was finally the weekend and I could just relax. I sat down that afternoon, wrote a paper, felt super productive, and allowed myself to stay up into the early morning hours watching a Netflix show. (I highly reccommend The 100!)

Saturday: I got up and and drove back home with my boyfriend to watch the Husker game and stop by my house to pick up a few things. We got back around 4:15 and I had to leave to work the Brett Eldredge concert at 4:50. The team works concerts for fundraisers and it’s not a bad gig, except you end up standing in place literally the entire night. And believe me, it’s different to work the concert instead of just being there. We aren’t allowed to sing or dance, we have to be very professional, and be mean to people who try to finess their way into the wrong section.  Yet again, another late night.

Sunday: I get up, my roommate and I go get tickets for the Royals game, and then we leave shortly after. It was a super hot day. When we left, after what felt like the longest game ever, we got some free chocolate so that was cool. Towards the end of the game, I began to feel weird. It was that feeling that something was off, I just couldn’t figure out what. I dismissed it as being tired. That night, I had some homework to catch up on and a test to study for. The weird feeling never went away, but I still couldn’t figure it out.

Monday I woke up with extreme pressure in my head. Not the sort of pressure you get from being sick or having allergies, just pressure. It was behind my temples and back farther, and then behind my forehead. It wasn’t exactly painful, just uncomfortable. As the day went on, it got worse, and it got more intense whenever I chewed or pressed my teeth together. I called my mom (aka my doctor, basically) to see what she thought. She warned me of a migraine and I took a concoction of meds that have proven to work against migraines in the past.

This morning I woke up to slightly less pressure, but a little bit of a headache. I took some pain meds, went to my morning position session. When I came back, I noticed my vision was a little blurry. My eyeballs felt really hot and felt like they were too big for their sockets. It has continued all day and I know that is one of my migraine symptoms.

Moral of the story: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF IN COLLEGE. Stay hydrated. I know for a fact that I have been dehydrated several times while I’ve been here, and I ONLY DRINK WATER. Imagine how much easier it is for kids who drink pop on a daily basis, too. Take vitamins. They actually help so much and you don’t realize it until you stop taking them. Take your allergy medicine. It will help prevent sickness caused by allergies. SLEEP. I can’t stress this one enough. Yes, you need to get your work done and study for your tests but you need sleep to do any of that well.

Last week, I was a mess and I was stressed. I had late nights and early mornings. As a result, I am now fighting off a migraine. This was my body’s way of telling me that I need to slow down. So put the effort into yourself. You might not get a migraine. It could be a cold, or you could get injured in practice simply because your body is so stressed. (It does actually happen.)

Listen to your body. It’s the only one you’ve got.

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Week One and Done

Happy to be reporting back here again this week! I’ve started really looking forward to checking in here; it’s a really nice way for me to think back and reflect on my week! Well, as you can probably assume from the title, I made it through the first week of classes!

A  summary of my week:

Tuesday- 9:30am Accounting Class

I get to the classroom 15 min early. I’m the first one there. A few minutes later other students begin to trickle in and I just got this feeling. You know how sometimes you can just tell that something is off? Well, I was looking at the kids coming into this classroom and I could just tell they were not here for accounting. I got online and checked my schedule again, and sure enough I was in the right room. At 9:28am a male professor walks into the classroom and I thought to myself, he sure doesn’t look like a Jessica. My accouting professor was a female so I knew something was wrong here. A girl in the back of the room raised her hand and asked what room this was. The male professor told her the room number and I checked my schedule again. I was in the classroom it said I was supposed to be in. Someone behind me asked if we needed notebooks or laptops and the professor said both. I raised my hand and asked what class this was. Introduction to Intermediate Algebra. Yep, wrong class.

Thankfully, the professor was very nice and helped me figure out what room I was in (not even in the same building). When I walked out, another girl got up and followed me so at least I wasn’t the only one. I finally got to accounting at 9:32am and my female professor was very understanding. Class got out before 10:00am (supposed to go to 10:50am). My next class wasn’t until 1:40pm so I went back to my dorm and watched Psych (I’ve been doing that alot so far) after I got online to check if any of my other class locations moved. Turns out 3/5 were in different rooms so good thing I checked!  1:40pm rolls around and I go to class. My first year experience teacher is in there. She has us sign a sheet and then tells us this class is cancelled for the rest of the week. Yay college!

Wednesday-9:00am Intro to Christian Theology

Supposedly, I have the strictest/hardest professor on campus. I would not disagree with that statement. He walks in and immediately asks the class what countries border Argentina. Um, what? That statement sums up how that class went, but we did get out early and that class did get cancelled tomorrow!

10:00 FYE (first year experience)- This class is made up of my housemates (McGilley House from my last post) so we all know each other fairly well. I think I’ll probably enjoy this class.  After lunch, I had a business class that I also got out early from. So far, I haven’t sat in a college class for longer than an hour. I have had a lot of homework, though.

Saturday-I drove back home to surprise my mom for her birthday. And I got some good food out of it 🙂 No, I didn’t bring home any laundry. I’ve actually done all of my laundry here and I’m surviving okay. I stayed home for a few hours and then drove back here to let out my teammate’s dogs. I was dogsitting for the dogsitter.

AND THEN….I got a fish. Well, I got two. And a snail. And they aren’t exclusively mine, my boyfriend has partial ownership. ‘Twas a good weekend.

And now onto a bit of a tough subject: volleyball. Now I know that college athletics aren’t supposed to be easy, but I am just in a really negative mindset about it right now. Which, honestly, is normal for the situation I’m in. I’m fourth in line for my position. The girls ahead of me are all older (one is a Junior and two are JUCCO transfers) so for me to jump ahead of them would take a lot right now. And I understand completely. I’m a freshman in college, no college athlete experience, and I came from a small school. When I look at it from that angle, it makes sense why I will be getting little or no court time this year. That doesn’t mean I like it.

I’m going to be honest, I love the game. I absolutely love it. But, it’s hard right now. It’s hard to be motivated to try hard in a practice when I already know I won’t be playing much, if at all. I made a committment though, so I’m going to follow through with it.

So, here’s where I am now. I don’t know what’s going to happen throughout the course of this semester and season but that’s the beauty of things. College is a whole new chapter in my book. I might not like everything that happens but I will love some of it. Let me show you this side of it: I’ve met some of the most amazing people here. People want to get to know me and they want to be friends. My class sizes are just a few people bigger than high school so the professors know my name. And the cafeteria french fries are the best.

So yes, I will have setbacks. Heck, I’m in one now. But there’s always a brighter side and I just have to focus on what I can control. Here’s to a great semester!

The Night Before School…

It is officially the night before classes begin at my university. I’ve only been here a little over a week but it feels like it’s been a month! Call me crazy, I am actually looking forward to classes starting. I love my routine and so far, college has not been kind to any sort of order.

For those of you who are interested how last week went, it went. Pre-season, more commonly known around campus as “hell week,” was very long. I only experienced it from the perspective of an indoor athlete, but I’m sure soccer and football feel similarly about this past week. Pre-season is basically a week full of two (or more) practices a day, weights and conditioning, and team bonding. The week seems to drag out forever while simultaneously flying by. Hence my feeling that I’ve been here for a month. For me, every practice felt like a day.

To be honest, no, I did not enjoy pre-season. In fact, after the first practice I was questioning if I really wanted to stick with it. The first day was awful. I didn’t know anything, felt like my skill level was miniscule in comparison to the other girls, and I was so tired and sore. To state the obvious, I was not prepared for this week. While I didn’t really like pre-season, I realize a lot of people don’t. (Refer to previous mention of the term “hell week.”) And while the first couple days absolutely killed me, the practices got better, I’m starting to learn the terminology, drills, and defenses my coach has in place. I can tell that I’m improving already. Still, at this point I wouldn’t say that I’m  having fun. Of course, I love my teammates and we do have fun times, but college volleyball is a whole different ball game than high school (which I expected). I say this having only just finished pre-season and having zero games under my belt. Clearly, I haven’t even experienced half of what is to come, which is why I decided to stick out the season.

On a completely different note, the class of 2022 was officially inducted into the University of Saint Mary this morning at a matricualtion ceremony. Basically, we all got dressed up, went to the chapel, lit a candle, and were prayed over. While we were at the ceremony, it really hit me that the students at my university are extremely cared about and loved by the staff and faculty. Coming from a small town and high school, that is something that is very important to me and I love that I was able to find a college where I still have the feeling of family.

Before the matriculation ceremony, I had to go through freshman orientation. Sunday was the main day, we had something happening from 9am to 9pm. We were broken up into houses (different groups) and we are in that house for the rest of the year. Basically, the houses are our FYE (first year experience) classes and we compete against all the other houses in different competitions throughout the year. I’m in the McGilly house (aka the honors house). We’re the smallest house ( we have 14 people, the other houses have 20+). While we are at a slight disadvantage in the athletic events (tug of war 14 vs 23?) we’re at a huge advantage in the friendship department. I know everyone in my house, can remember all their names, and we have fun when we’re together. We’re even making plans to go have dinner.

What I’ve deduced from this past week is that college is actually pretty awesome. People are nice (for the most part) and are eager to make friends (again, mostly). I’ve met so many different types of people in just one week than I did in my entire high school career. And I love it! My first friends were my teammates, but that circle has been extended so much and I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to meet all these people. Tomorrow will extend that circle even more. A lot of people I’ve talked to say you meet a lot of your friends in class.

I start my college career with a 9:30am Accounting class. What direction my life will take after this week, month, semester, and year, I don’t know. I’ve met some amazing people in one week alone and if this week is any indication of how the next four years will go, I can’t wait!

P.S sorry, I still have no pictures from the scavenger hunt and sadly, we lost.

 

 

I Survived the First Weekend

It’s Sunday night and I’m still alive! Of course, classes haven’t started and I haven’t gone through actual orientation but I’m here and semi-moved in. This weekend has been full of new people, but I loved every minute. There’s been lots of changes but so far, so good. Tomorrow begins 3 a days ( two practices plus weights everyday) and the real test on my sanity begins. Before we get there, let’s relive this welcome weekend.

SATURDAY

My parents and I left the house around 7:30 am. I had packed my car up the night before (honestly, I’m surprised everything fit) with the help of my brother and boyfriend. I let my dog sleep with me (something that usually annoys me) and thought about all the things that I would miss about home (only do that if you feel like having a good cry).

But when 7:30 rolled around, I was eager to go get moved in. Once we arrived, things moved relatively quickly. We checked in, followed the blue arrows around the library to different stations (just like high school registration) and finally it was time to move in. I moved my car over to the dorm parking lot and was instantly swarmed with people eager to help. Stressful situation for me actually…

Several girls from my volleyball team (whom I hadn’t met yet) came up to help, along with lots of guys. All my stuff got moved into my room with surprising speed. I had gotten into my room before my roommate arrived, so my parents and I had a little time to get things started before even more stuff got there. We started making my bed and came across our first college move-in mistake. Instead of a duvet comforter, we had bought a mattress pad. So yes, currently I am sleeping under a mattress pad stuffed into a duvet cover. Don’t worry, my mom ordered me the real thing!

After my bed was made, my roommate arrived! Stuff was everywhere ( we had to jump over some boxes to move around). In the middle of all the unpacking, we had some orientation duties to attend to so we left to do that. When all the meetings were finished (one thing I’ve learned so far is college people love meetings) we came back to the room. My parents went on the mandatory Wal-Mart run to get some odds and ends we discovered we needed. Before they headed back home, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant. After my parents left, things slowed down considerably.

My roommate and I finished unpacking (mostly) and talked until our meeting (see?) with our RA. After that meeting, we came back to our room and crashed. So far, I’ve done a lot of sleeping at college.

SUNDAY

I woke up way too early for Sunday. My school doesn’t serve three meals on Sunday, instead serving brunch and dinner. Brunch doesn’t start until 11:30am, however. My routine at home includes breakfast pretty much as soon as I wake up, so this will be an adjustment. After brunch, all the new fall athletes had to undergo concussion baseline testing…not too terribly interesting. Testing was followed by a 3 hour long meeting with the volleyball team, after which we got to go down to the locker room and get lots of new clothes, shoes, etc. to rep the program. We had a few minutes of downtime after the meeting for dinner, but then we had team bonding in the form of a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt was so much fun, and I honestly feel like I know the girls on my team better already. We were split into 6 teams for the scavenger hunt and my team got back to the home base first, by the way. Unfortunately, we don’t find out who won until later. I’ll be sure to update y’all with pictures in a later post. BUT my coach treated us all to 1/2 price shakes at Sonic afterwards. A fantastic ending to a great day.

But for now, this is all. I survived welcome weekend! As I said earlier, this week will put me through the true first test of college athletics. I’m excited for what’s to come, this year is gonna be full of new and crazy experiences!