Great news people!!! I got my grades back for this semester:

- Capstone Project: A
- Math for Elem Teachers: A
- Math for Secondary Teachers: A
- Music in History: B
- Political Sociology: B+ (this one was very surprising... All I can say is PTL for the curve)
- Social Psychology: C (kinda bummed about this one but I did awful on all of the quizzes and those where worth 55% of the grade...)

I also heard back from CSUCI and it looks like after next semester I will indeed be a college graduate! Praise the Lord!

Summer is quickly approaching and in an effort to not slack off too much with my blog, I decided to set up my mobil blogging... So get ready for some short blogs...
In other news, Yesterday was Grandma's birthday. Nae made a cake... Tuesday I move into camp and start a 12 day straight work week (don't worry, I get breaks... And half days off...). 

Happy Mother's Day

So it's a day late... Who cares?

Yesterday was mother's day and for all of you mom's out there, I hope that you felt loved and appreciated yesterday. Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to not only spend Mother's day with my wonderful mommy, but also with both of my Grandmothers. Granted, one of them doesn't celebrate holidays (J.W.) and the other has Alzheimer's, but I still felt blessed to be around three amazing women who have made me who I am today.

Graduation

Nope. Not me... tricked you!

My little sister Sarah is graduating from college/Nursing School on Monday. She has turned in her final papers and is quickly entering a new stage in her life. I couldn't be happier for her.

At the same time, it's embarrassing to say, yeah my little sister is graduating next week. I feel like the biggest slacker alive for still having another semester ahead of me (which I know that I have been a slacker... I had a solid year or two of being a slacker, which is why she is graduating before me...). I can't help but think how confusing it will be when all of our family and friends get my graduation announcements 6 months after they got Sarah's. I know this seems petty but I am jealous. Maybe it's the fact that I still haven't heard back on my grad check yet to find out if I actually can be done next semester or not... Maybe it's just a little bit of that feeling of 'I'm the older sister so I should accomplish everything I want before my younger sisters'...

Whatever the case may be, Sarah Belle, I am so incredibly proud of you and what you have accomplished. You have worked so hard and have been through so much. You deserve every bit of joy and recognition for what you have accomplished. I love you very much and can't wait to see how God will use you and your gifts in your life!

Bad Tutor

Yesterday I got called a Bad Tutor...

So here's what happened. I was working in the tutoring center with a girl on some Pre-Calc. There were three other girls working with another tutor on the same subject so I offered for one or two of them to come over and work with us if the other tutor was too busy. The first girl I was helping was great; model student, super nice, asked questions, desired to learn the concepts instead of just getting it done, took directions well (she even emailed me later thanking me for my help and asked if I would tutor her privately for her test coming up)... We finished up and she left so two of the girls from the other group came over. One was good; nice, kinda quiet, definitely just was looking to get the work done instead of understanding the whole concept, but was polite and listened. The other girl was pretty awful; rude, only wanted me to do the problems and give them the answers, impatient, extremely sarcastic (I mean, I get sarcasm... at times I am guilty of some sarcasm... But you know those people who just take it too far? They are so sarcastic that anything out of their mouth is just mean even if it's not true?).

I was getting pretty fed up with this kid (I say kid because she was acting like a kid... maybe 19) by the time we got to the last problem. Without going to much into the mathematics of what we were trying to do, the question wanted us to use a theorem (that I have never seen before... it happens pretty often where something pops up that I have never seen but I usually can read the book a little and find an example and explain it in ways other can understand) to find an exact value of a complex, un-real number. I found an example and followed it but ran into a problem which ended up requiring us to approximate a number to find an exact value (if that's confusing to you, that's because it is... In math we like exact values because they are complete; no information gets lost along the way. As soon as you approximate, you loose information... So to approximate something in order to find an exact values is counter-intuitive and far beyond what you should be doing in Pre-Calc). The girl was so impatient through this whole thing, saying things like "maybe you should ask another tutor... I hear that's what you guys are supposed to do..." and "What's your name? I'm taking names." I did ask another tutor who ran into the same problem so we asked our boss (who runs the tutoring center and just gave her thesis talk or something on some math topic... basically, she's smart and knows her stuff). She went through the exact same process I did and got the exact same result. We gave them some other problems to try that would give them nice answers that they could apply the theorem to and called it a day. By that time, I was off duty and started to pack up my stuff. While I was packing up, the girl, talking to her friends, said, "It's fine, my teacher will just say I had a 'bad tutor' again." I couldn't hold it in any longer so I replied, "Thank you! That's really encouraging. I am glad we could help. You actually can tell you teacher that the person who runs the center helped you with that problem and got the same result."

So really, she didn't call me a bad tutor directly, but implied that someone (her teacher I guess... but I have doubts that any teacher would say that which makes me think it is just her... but I could be wrong) said myself and anyone else who has helped her before in the center were "bad tutors." I talked to my boss about it today and she said that she has had issues with this particular student before and has had to ask her to leave, which makes me feel a little better. Not that I am taking anything that she said seriously because she seemed like a really unhappy person who thinks the world should bow at her feet. Still, it was an interesting way to start out the week.

Re-Post

I must confess, I didn't write this... I read it on someone else's blog. But I like what she is adding to the conversation...

“10 years, 2 wars, 919,967 deaths, & $1,188,263,000,000 later, we managed to kill one person.” //Anonymous

“Justice has been done.” //President Obama

“America has sent an unmistakeable message…justice will be done.” //President George W. Bush

“We’ve poisoned the word justice with our illusory patriotism.” //Kourtney Jackson

This monumental event is the shot heard round the world. This is a proverbial tsunami sweeping across the United States. Lots of opinions have been stated. We as Americans pledge, “…liberty and justice for all.” But at what cost? Does justice condone the countless lives lost for the sake of the “war on terrorism”? Does justice demand retribution and vengeance? Are we, as humans and children of God, to seek justice?

There are lots of thoughts swimming around in not only my head, but many other people’s brains too. If anything I ask that we, as Christians, would be diligent in prayer. As Americans we should not wave our flags at Muslims, Al Qaeda, or any other country for that matter. God did not send his son just for America. God did not send his son to take on the sins of every single human being in the world solely for America’s gain. We have been shown mercy through the act of what Christ did for us on the cross. We should extend mercy to those that oppose us, those that persecute us, and those that send orders to kill thousands of people’s lives. The Bible tell us to, ” love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you.” That’s pretty counterculture, eh? I’m not sure many Americans are quick to look up this verse found in Matthew chapter five.

I know what it’s like to lose someone to the “war on terror”. I know what it’s like to pray that my step brother who is in the Marines will make it home safely from being in Afghanistan. There is pain, grief, and much loss because of 9/11. We all feel it. We know the haunting feeling that occurs every September 11.

We, as Christians, need to pray for members of the Bin Laden family, Al Qaeda, and terrorists. Why? Because Christ tells us to. In fact, he doesn’t say it’s just an option if you want to possibly pray for your enemies, he implores us to pray for them. This is the same man who died for corrupt political leaders, terrorists, you, and me. We should seek to be more like Christ in our speech. We should not be quick to praise America’s so called act of justice. I ask you to think. To reflect. To pray.

Above all, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without hoping to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God, because he is kind even to people who are ungrateful and full of sin. Show mercy, just as your Father shows mercy. ” (Luke chapter)

America, please have mercy

Regret

I just registered for my last semester of my Undergraduate degree at CSUCI and I have to say, I feel pretty good about it. As of right now (still waiting to hear back on my graduation application), I am taking 4 classes; one online, two are only one day a week, and the fourth is two days a week. Meaning I will only have to be at school two days a week. It's a dream schedule and I am really praying that it works out.

Right now I am feeling pretty good, but a couple of weeks ago, I was starting to feel a bit of regret in regards to my degree. Switching majors and schools was a big mess for me and I made the difficult decision to not pursue a math degree with, what I feel, was not a whole lot of information or knowledge of what I was capable of. My friend keeps asking my why I am not a Math major and I keep telling him its because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in school. I needed to see an end to this. I needed to move on with my life. But it wasn't until he told me "You should have been a Math Major" that I started to feel some regret about my decision. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to be done (almost). I am happy to be moving onto the next step. I am happy in the path I am taking. But there is that little voice in my head now saying "You should have been a Math Major." I know it's a normal voice. I am sure many people hear the same voice as they come to the end of their schooling. But there it is... The little voice inside my head...

Two Month Preview

Fri - April 22: Engagement Party (no not mine... duh!)

Sun - April 24: Easter Sunrise (not the same ol' BS)

Mon - April 25: Register for, what I hope, is my last semester of my undergrad

Mon - May 2: Music in History Term Paper Due

Sat - May 7: CSET Math (or at least a part of it since I can't afford to take the whole test...)

Mon - May 9: Political Sociology Term Paper Due & Sarah's Nursing School Graduation

Wed-Fri - May 11-13: EXPED

Wed - May 11: Capstone Presentation

Mon-Thur - May 16-19: Finals

Tues - May 17: Social Psychology Term Paper Due

Fri-Sun - May 20-21: Host

Wed-Fri - May 25-27: EXPED

Sat - May 28: Villanova Graduation

Sat-Wed - May 28- June 1: Host

Wed-Fri - June 1-3: EXPED

Fri-Sun - June 3-5: Host

Wed - June 8: Summer Staff Begins...

Maybe feeling a little overwhelmed...

No, No... It's Fine

No, no... It's fine... A girl brought her dog to class yesterday. A little yappy thing with lots of hair. Carried it in a Trader Joe's bag. Made a little seat/bed for it in the chair next to her. The professor didn't care. He thought it was cute... It did try to attack him towards the end of class though which was pretty funny...

Where is the funniest place you have ever seen someone bring their little dog? (not an assistance dog... a little one that fits in a bag...)

Superiority...

Yesterday in class a girl got up and started talking about a Human Trafficking event that is happening at my school in a week or so. She stood up there talking about for a little while and all I could think about was how much information she was getting wrong and how poor of a job she was doing and inviting people to this event. I felt superior to her for knowing more about it and for having known about it for several years. I felt this way for most of her presentation (which ended with an invitation to an Invisible Children event on campus which was sparked a whole nother set of feelings of "yeah, old news... Trendy issue...") and then had to take a step back and ask myself "What in the world are you thinking? Yeah, Human Trafficking is something you were really passionate and concerned about years ago, but that drive has faded. What are you doing to help the cause? Maybe this isn't new news but it's not old news. This is current news. This is something that was not only a problem 5 years ago but it was a problem 50 years ago and it's a problem now. Today. And she is doing something about it. Why aren't you?"

Sometimes I catch myself feeling superior to others. The only thing I can think to do is take a step back and knock myself down a few pegs before someone else does... It doesn't matter how many people show up for the event. The truth is she is bettering God's Kingdom here and now. And it makes me think... What am I doing?