Tara's Journal

Another weekend is rolling by! In my residence hall, I made a bulletin board counting down the days till summer! Today, there is 19 days to go. I get a sigh of relief knowing that the homework stops for a few months, but the end of the year is always a tear-jerker! It's now when you really start to realize the fun of being a college student especially being a junior! I have one more year at RMU! Scary! :(

This last weekend was a blast! The Campus Ministry Association held a rock concert at Rogal Chapel on Friday. The bass guitar player from Chi Alpha's praise and worship band had his very own band come in to play a set! For me, the event was special since my boyfriend, an RMU graduate, played the drums for the band! The band is called Stumbling to Paradise. They have a great variety of sounds. A mixture of ska, rock, and jazz melodies. Rick Butor, Chi Alpha's praise and worship band leader, performed an acoustic set opening for Stumbling to Paradise. A good amount of people came up to have a good time!

Speaking of Chi Alpha, we are holding two end of the year events on campus! Next week, a large group of students are going to "Faith Ranch", a ministry devoted to learning about the gospel through nature. We will be helping the ranch with any labor needs like building more stables for the horses. Also, we will have an opportunity to ride horses! My freshman year I rode a horse at Faith Ranch who was old and unwilling to move. Hopefully this year I can get a young and eccentric horse!

On the second to last weekend of the semester, Chi Alpha will be holding an Extreme Challenge! The extreme Challenge is a mix of Fear Factor and Jeopardy! My freshman year I had to put spit a cricket and eat a blue cheese jello pie! YES, you read that correctly. The judges measured how far each team representative spit the cricket. I got in 2nd place! No one knows what kind of challenges we will face, but it will be fun, frightening, and thrilling! I do know of one challenge teams will have to face, but I can't leak the information! ;) You will just have to wait for the update!

I hope to update you of all the fun Chi Alpha and Campus Ministry Association has planned for the end of the semester! Remember to check out my pictures from the Stumbling to Paradise concert!

February to March rocketed before my eyes. I can't grasp the fact that time vanished before my eyes. Spring break and Easter blew by. I can't believe I am a month away from completing my junior year to become a senior! YIKES!

This year, spring break was very relaxing. My break was spent in my dorm room. You may think the thought of confining yourself in a dorm room would be awful; however, when NO ONE is around and when you have a week off of school and work, spring break becomes better than any sunny beach on the coast. Though nicer weather and a beach would have made spring break more exciting, I was able to sleep in, read books, watch TV, hang out with friends, and not think about professors or homework. My boyfriend, a few friends (who are RMU alums), and I went out to see the 3D movie of the band U2. I have pictures of us in our crazy-fun 3D glasses! 3D movies are radical!

Also, I posted pictures of my friends from Chi Alpha, which is a Christian campus ministry dedicated to serving in missions trips every year during spring break. My freshman year we traveled to Louisiana in order to assist in Hurricane relief efforts. This year Chi Alpha traveled to Mexico where they assisted with orphanages and churches while sharing great messages from the Bible. Unfortunately, I was unable to go this year. I provided pictures for you. It is great to see students at RMU giving up their spring break to help others with compassionate hearts.

After a relaxing week, I went to classes for 3 days then traveled to my hometown which is Wilkes-Barre, Pa. I hadn't been home since Christmas so the trip for me was beneficial! My mom's birthday was on Good Friday and my brother who lives and works in Baltimore came to visit as well. We were all able to celebrate with her, so my mom was thrilled on her birthday. My mom was so excited she dragged me to a "Celtic Woman" concert for her birthday! I would have passed up the opportunity, but I am glad I went because she was ecstatic.

Since I have been back to school, I have been super busy. I am putting my focus into looking for internships but the timing on my part is roughly late. It is certainly worth a try! I would like a summer internship, but networking will be beneficial for possible internships in the semesters to come. I shall see how it goes from here. There is a "Creativity at Work" event on campus where professionals from the Communications field come in and speak to students. I am praying that I network with companies and get my foot in some doors.

It seems like all the fun of the semester came to a stand still. Why? SCHOOL! HOMEWORK! GETTING EDUCATED! AH! It's really not that scary, but mid-terms are somewhat nerve racking! The past two weeks have been nothing but school work! Okay, so maybe I lied! I do eat, sleep, and can never get rid of my socializing habits! Around mid-terms it tends to get much more hectic though. Projects need to be started and tests need to be studied for. Somehow, every semester, the work piles up around this time. I am definitely glad I broke my procrastination habits freshmen year or I would have much more to do! My advice from the start: get it done...early!

Though the homework gets flooded on my desk, I am realizing how important each project and paper is. Yesterday, I met with my Career Counselor, Beth Miller. While we were discussing resumes and internship tips, she pulled out her portfolio for me. The portfolio consisted of numerous projects she had worked on in her career. I never realized all the work I have done and will do at Robert Morris will really pay off! She suggested that I keep all my projects, presentations, papers, etc. and keep them in a portfolio to show my future interviewer. I walked out of the Career Center interested and dumbfounded. I should have listened in my freshmen experience class when they said to go to the Career Center as early as possible!!! I realized I never saved a few important presentations from my classes! A lesson learned!! I am glad I still have a year and a half to build my portfolio.

On a more non-academic note, last week was Valentine's day! Lots of love was spread on campus. I got a very encouraging Valentine note from one of my residents in the residence halls that I let borrow colored paper. It said, "Thank you for being such a great R.A. Thanks for the paper! Happy Valentines Day Cassy." *You can view my pictures to see it* Hamilton Hall girls rule!!!

Happy belated Valentine's Day!!!!

It seems like the days are flying by! It's February already, and it simply blows my mind. My classes are going fantastic this semester especially English/Grammar with Dr. Ruzich who seems to know grammar editing like the back of her hand. She's great! It's tremendous how much I am learning which is certainly worth the studying I put in!

This past week has been hectic for me! The current Resident Assistants and Residence Life staff have been evaluating the new applicants who desire to be RAs for the next year! It is interesting to be on the other side of the table where we get to be the ones asking the questions instead of answering. It is less stressful, but great to see students who are willing to be more involved on campus!

Along with that, I am also busy preparing my resume and interviewing skills in order to locate paid summer internships. Thankfully, RMU has a great career center! If I didn't have their guidance and help, I would certainly be lost in the wind! Soon, I will be meeting with a counselor to view my options and build my resume. I am interested in a Public Relations internship and would love to dive into the field to experience everything there is to know. I will keep you updated on my progress with internships!

My weekdays seem relatively boring, but the past two weekends have perhaps been the best of the semester yet! Last weekend, we planned another girl's night, "Little Black Dress Night", and of course, no gentlemen! The ladies went out to Buca Di Beppo for desert, came back for a sleepover in my friends apartment, and woke up to butter smothered chocolate chip pancakes. We thought we would be nice and let the boys next door come over for some breakfast as well! This past weekend was my birthday! I am now 21! My best ladies and I had a make-up party in the afternoon. We are definitely women! My boyfriend, Matthew, took me out to the Cheesecake Factory in Pittsburgh! I am so glad we are so close to the city, they have the best restaurants. I ordered a Margarita which was very tasty even though I don't care for alcohol; I just wanted the CHEESECAKE with a candle and a happy birthday song!!!!!!

Check out my pictures for all the fun!!

Christmas break seems like it flew by so quickly. It was a whole month ago! It is great to be back at school though. I was fortunate to come back a week early for RA (resident assistant) training. It is always fun when all of the RAs get together! We got to play the RA rendition of "Family Feud". One word to describe it was total chaos but thankfully we survived. My team didn't win! However, the greatest part about being back is seeing all of your friends! You wouldn't think four weeks of separation would be so severe but we all really did miss each other. It's odd when you see someone a few times a day then not at all for an entire month. To celebrate our return and kick-start a new year, we organized a hot tub luau gathering (check out my photos!).

How did we find a hot tub? Easy! Be friends with commuters! Of course, that is not why I am friends with commuters but they certainly do treat you well! My friend Lauren was a commuter last semester until she decided to move on campus this year. Her parents allowed us to have a luau party at their house where they have a hot tub outside! The hot tub was extremely relaxing. I say another hot tub party should be planned for midterm week! That's when I will really need a lot of relaxation!

Commuters are great because of the parents as well. Lauren's mom made us meatball hoagies and a fruit platter which was delicious! I don't often complain about the food on campus but I am there everyday for three meals. If I ever need a home-cooked meal or a relaxing evening in a hot tub now I know where to go! I could tell this semester is already off to a good start!

10 girls, a college apartment, an oven, and the holiday season just around the corner! What are we doing? Baking Cookies, of course!

It seems even finals week in our midst wouldn’t stop us from enjoying this special time of the year. A few of the girls from Christian Campus Ministry and I got together Sunday evening to enjoy baking and watching cheesy romantic Christmas movies on ABC family in Concord Hall!

We came back from the grocery store with a dozen bags full of the special ingredients to make the best homemade cookies. It looked like we had enough ingredients to make cookies for the entire RMU student body. At first, no one wanted to start baking because they all were swamped into a classic Christmas movie.

Then we all realized we had final exams the next day and needed to scurry in order to prepare for the exam. Mad dash to the kitchen! We made chocolate chip, German chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, sugar, and cut-out cookies. Also, we brought out the fondue pot to make chocolate covered pretzels. Later, we decorated the cookies with red and green icing and various colored sprinkles. Eventually, we snuggled into the couches and took a nap. I cannot imagine how many cookies I ate including cookie batter. A nap was definitely needed; I would have slept on my books and study notes if I hadn’t!

It goes to show, you need that one last night of fun until the exams begin! Finals have been going very well and the thought of those Christmas cookies gets me in the spirit to finish off the week and head home for a relaxing break! I can’t wait to come back to a brand new semester, but until then I will focus on finals!