no one attending will ever be the same

20th May 2013 | 3 notes

London, yea?

I’m going to do my best to chronicle this adventure, but I suppose the less I write the busier I am enjoying myself. The only class I will be taking while I’m here though is creative writing so writing is good.

I left Chicago on Friday evening around 5 p.m. and got to Regent’s College in London around 9 a.m. Saturday. The flight gave me about 2-3 hours of sleep, and when I finally got to my room I napped on and off for a couple hours.

I was going to unpack so I opened my suitcase only to find all my things had been rearranged and all my money had been taken. Thankfully it wasn’t everything I had saved up for the trip, but it was about $300 U.S. So that was a bummer…

My welcome pack said there would be a guided adventure to the Camden Markets that afternoon, so since I couldn’t sleep, didn’t have a roommate yet, and couldn’t shower because I didn’t have a towel yet, I decided to go.

We spent about 3 hours walking to and exploring Camden, which was a fantastic introduction to urban and alternative London. There were all these stalls and vendors of anything you could imagine. I didn’t have any money yet so I absolutely have to go back soon.

I spent that evening with the folks that had gone to Camden- a mix of regular Regent’s students and American students. We were up drinking, talking, laughing, debating until 6 a.m.

Sunday I met my roommate and had orientation. Later in the afternoon, a new friend who is a regular student took me out for coffee and we explored board game stores, music shops, and got swept up in an incredible toy store. I had my first experience on the Tube, where I ran into another University of South Carolina student, who I happened to recognize because he had trained with WUSC once.

Today I let myself finally get some sleep. So after I woke up, showered and had lunch with my roommate, I took a walk in Regent’s Park and read for a while.

It’s slightly depressing seeing all these groups of American students walk by my window after their own adventures, seeing as I am here all by myself and am still in the friend-making process. Some of the friends I’ve made are regular students as I said, so they will be leaving for home soon. Hopefully once I start class tomorrow I’ll make some more friends!

There is a smaller adventure within this big adventure that I don’t want to divulge just yet, if that makes any sense. But we’ll see how that plays out before I go on writing about it…

17th May 2013 | 171,284 notes

beben-eleben:

There once was a young boy with a very bad temper. The boy’s father wanted to teach him a lesson, so he gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper he must hammer a nail into their wooden fence.

On the first day of this lesson, the little boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. He was really mad!

Over the course of the next few weeks, the little boy began to control his temper, so the number of nails that were hammered into the fence dramatically decreased.

It wasn’t long before the little boy discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Then, the day finally came when the little boy didn’t lose his temper even once, and he became so proud of himself, he couldn’t wait to tell his father.

Pleased, his father suggested that he now pull out one nail for each day that he could hold his temper.

Several weeks went by and the day finally came when the young boy was able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

Very gently, the father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

“You have done very well, my son,” he smiled, “but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same.”

The little boy listened carefully as his father continued to speak.

“When you say things in anger, they leave permanent scars just like these. And no matter how many times you say you’re sorry, the wounds will still be there.”

(via mazib)

17th May 2013 | 1 note

What.

I’m about to leave the country in 17 hours. What. I’ve never been out of the country before so I’m simultaneously ecstatic and NERVOUS AS FUCK.

I’ll be going to Regent’s University in Regent’s Park in London and taking a creative writing class. Does it get any better than that?

I’m really honestly actually just nervous about what to do once I get to Heathrow. I’ve flown alone before many, many times, so I don’t know why I’m freaking the hell out about it.

Oh yea, and I guess I’m kinda nervous about the fact that I’m going completely alone because no one else in the whole U.S. signed up for my program…

16th May 2013 | 4,829 notes

thedailywhat:

Stats Pr0n of the Day: U.S. Map of Hate Speech on Twitter

Since June 2012, Dr. Monica Stevens of Humboldt State University in California has been mapping more than 150,000 geotagged tweets that contain homophobic, racist or abliest language. The result is the Geography of Hate, an interactive map of the U.S. which reveals the hotspots of “hate tweets” across the country. A deeper analysis of the project is available at Floating Sheep.

13th May 2013 | 2 notes

Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year

My sophomore year of college has come to a close, so naturally it is time for some reflection. It has truly been an incredible year and the best way to break it down would be to, well, break it down..

School: This year I accepted the fact that I am not academically invincible and that as long as I keep my scholarships, it’s okay to get a B. I also learned that not every instructor is going to love me, which is why first impressions are so critical. This semester I realized the journalism program at my school is out of date and does not adequately prepare students for a market bigger than South Carolina, so I changed my major to Public Relations.

Career: Working as the Public Affairs Director for WUSC this year was the most rewarding experience of my life thus far. I’ve never really invested myself so much into something like I did with this job. I got off to a rocky start, but finished incredibly strong and learned quite a bit about myself in the process.

Family: It really didn’t hit me until I came home yesterday how much of my brother’s growing up process I’m missing out on. The ten-year age difference between us makes for a unique bond, but I won’t be around when so much of his identity will be shaped in the coming years. My grandpa had a mini stroke in October around my birthday, and no one told me.

Friends: First of all, I was reminded this year that friendship is a two-way street. It truly does take two to make a thing go right. This year I gained two new groups of friends that have opened my eyes to so many things- good, bad, ugly, funny, eye-opening, sad, what-have-you. One of my greatest memories from this year will be from February. I had gone to see a local band with a guy I was seeing, and after the show we went back to his friends apartment, smoked hookah outside on campus, and then went back inside and all laid out on the floor, listening to Radiohead, with just light from string-lights. Never in my life have I felt more like that was exactly where I was supposed to be. Friendship is going to be a big priority to me next year.

Boyz: This year I dated a few guys that gave me my fair share of fun and emotion. It was quite a unique year for me in terms of dating, and I had some more serious experiences than I’ve had in the past. In the spring, I totally lost my marbles over someone that I couldn’t have (still haven’t found my marbles yet), and it just reminded me of my standards. Not standards of character in someone I date, but standards for how I want to feel around someone. This guy gave me butterflies that flipped me inside out and stole my ability to speak any semblance of English.

I could go on for pages and pages about what makes me drawn to him, but overall I learned two lessons from this scenario: 1) You have to go for it. You have to speak up when you feel something. I did and I don’t regret it one bit (I just regret timing). 2) I don’t want to settle for someone who doesn’t give me those exact same butterflies.

Next year: I think the true measure of a successful year is how well you’ve set yourself up for the next. I’m leaving to study abroad in London in four days and I am officially the new Station Manager of WUSC. Next year is gonna fucking rock.