Let's start with the "worsts" to get them over with and end on a happy note.
Worsts
-Friends and Family dying. Last semester, one of the best friends I've ever had, Casey, was killed in a car accident. This semester, one of my cousins died suddenly. And two weeks ago we had to put my puppy down :( [okay, if you know of my dog, you know he's not really a puppy. but that's for another post...]
-Changing my major. This was a hard decision to make, but the decision needed to be made. I had been contemplating changing my major since my very first semester at Longwood, but figured I just needed to give it time. When I was a PE major, I loved the friends I had made. Loved them. And the professors were great too; you could tell they loved teaching and wanted us to love it as much. But when I came time for me to actually go out and teach, I hated it. I dreaded it. I could not see myself teaching for the rest of my life. So I made the change. I went into the first day of the semester and sat in my first Exercise Science classes wondering if I made the right decision. I didn't know anyone; it was kind of like starting over all again. Well, I take that back. I had acquaintances with other Exercise Science majors, but didn't know anyone well enough to call them a friend.
-Being an RA. I was SO nervous about being an RA. When we went through fall training in August, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of information that we were given and did not think I would be able to handle this at all. Then, came meeting my residents. A lot of my residents are athletes. That worried me. I had the baseball players, and no offense, but they tend to have a bad reputation. I thought they would look at measly little me and not listen to a word I said. It took a lot of courage for me to be able to say anything at my first hall meeting.
Bests
-Making new friends. Sure, everyone says to get involved on campus to meet people, but I can say, from firsthand experience, that becoming an RA was that best thing I did to meet people at Longwood. I know I've bragged about my staff before, and said how much I love them, but I mean it. Every night 2 RAs (sometimes 3) get to be on duty together and do rounds, and when they get to each floor, if the other RAs are in their room, we get to talk. So we're always connected. Last week consisted of many checkout days in the residence halls. Thursday, while we weren't busy at all, I loved getting to spend a few hours just sitting downstairs in the lobby, maybe having a Chick-fil-A party, and not having any responsibility except waiting for someone to come down and say they were doing Traditional Checkout. I can honestly say that the people on my staff are some of the greatest people I've ever met and I will miss them so much more than I ever thought I would as we go on to different things next year.
-Chaning my major. Now that I'm an Exercise Science major and will graduate with a degree that opens up many windows of opportunities, I've never felt more sure about my major. I finally see myself doing something with this degree, for at least some of my life. And those acquaintances? Well, I've turned them into some wonderful friends! (And it's good to have friends to talk to in these classes, because we never know what's going to be on the tests...)
-Being an RA. HAS MADE MY YEAR THAT MUCH BETTER. Not only because of the staff I work with, but because of the relationships I've made with my ~50 residents I've had this year. I'm so so so incredibly sad to that they're all gone now :( And those baseball players? They don't fall into the stereotypical role that I had given them before I even knew them. They're some of my nicest residents and I wouldn't change that! I've grown to look at my residents as much children (I hope they don't find that weird....), and if something happens, I'll help them and take of things. I can't leave them stranded! Not when I love them this much! Can't I just take all of my residents to my new hall next year???
-Matt being at Longwood! It was the first time in 2 years that we've been at the same school. And the first time in 2 years where we had the same Spring Break (yeah, that sucked in the past!) We've gone from being 11 minutes away (at home), to an hour and a half away (my freshman year at Longwood), to two and a half hours away (when I was at Longwood and he was at Ferrum), to just seven minutes away now! (Sidenote, next year, it'll be about 15 minutes, but who's counting?) It's been great both being at Longwood, and while people think we spend every single minute together, we really don't. Especially this semester, our schedules are always equally busy with different things and we're lucky if we get to eat with each other.
Freshman, Sophomore & Junior years done.....just Senior to go!
