When the Leaves Become Crisp in the Fall…

Wow, it’s been quite a while since a blog post has happened. Where did the time go?

 

As per usual, this summer swept me up in hours of work, classes, and limited free time. At the end of the day a blog post seemed to be the furthest thing from my mind, but wow I’ve missed it!

It is also shocking to me how many of you read this little homemade blog. I can’t explain how appreciative I am each time someone asks me when I’m posting something new, what happened to me over the summer, or suggestions on what I should write next. I love knowing that this is a project that I’m passionate about and that others are benefiting from it, too.

So, where to begin after it’s been so long?

 

This summer was spent on the coast of Mississippi as it typically is. This summer started much earlier for me after an unfortunate incident led me to break my ankle. After attempting to hop (literally hop!) up and down three flights of stairs each day, while also trying to keep up with my job as a nanny, and make it to classes, I finally said enough. I moved down to Mississippi and began my summer finishing up classes from the comfort of my parents’ home, which honestly was not the worst way to start a summer.

When the boot finally came off and the knee scooter I’d been using as transportation was returned, even AFTER it was run over by a truck, I started back at my old summer job of serving for a family owned restaurant on the coast. This shortly became my life for the next four months, which was one of the most fun experiences of my life. One of my closest friends lived with me for the summer and we both worked at the restaurant while hitting the beach in our free time – who can complain about a summer like that?

Coming back up to Michigan, though, was a struggle. I may be a senior in college, but it never gets easier to leave your family.  That being said, it may be hard to leave your family, but it’s insanely easy to move into a new apartment where you FINALLY, after three years of sharing a room, have your own space to decorate and sleep in as much as you please.

My new apartment, although it may be far from campus and there may or may not be a family living across the hall, is perfect. I may just be saying this due to the fact that I have my own room, it’s decorated to my exact tastes, and it’s ridiculously comfortable – but whatever. Being a senior to me meant that all of the things I’ve been doing without for the past three years would be fulfilled this year, even if it meant having to take the bus to campus.

 

Now, after weeks of settling in and running around seemingly non stop, I’m finally settled in for my last year at MSU.

Looking forward to many experiences, many posts, and many, many good times to be had during these next months. I’ll be sure to post as often as once a week. In an effort to try something new, I’ve decided to start doing a project of “Let me try…” where I’ll go to any place around EL and check it out. This can be bars, restaurants, your lecture that has the insane prof, a show, an apple orchard … wherever. If you have any ideas on where I should head off to, comment or message me and I’ll be sure to make a stop at that location at some point throughout this year. Be ready to explore a little more of MSU than Wilson to Albert!

 

Can’t wait.

 

x

 

I’m Proud to say Go Green But…

(Originally posted December 9th, 2013)
But…. Let’s get real about what happened this weekend.
I go to a school where every single student, whether they enjoy sports or not, bleeds Green and has such pride for every aspect of their school. You could walk Michigan State University’s campus and talk to just about every student you pass and ask if, honestly, they enjoy attending State and I would not doubt that, if not EVERY SINGLE ONE but close, would say that they are Green and White to the core.
I know that I feel like that.
But, this weekend, we go to the the B1G Championship game. So many of us shelled out the $40 to drive down to Indianapolis to see our boys on the field showing the Buckeyes what football means to us. We’re inside Lucas Oil Stadium, feeling ‘some type of way’ about our players, Dantonio, MSU, and when we win the game and feel the excitement of going to the Rose Bowl we….
Burn household items? Flip over cars? Incite riots?
To me, that sounds less of a celebration and more of an action performed by those rebelling. What were we rebelling? Our beautiful win? Our outrageous time we had in Indy? Our feeling of knowing that we, as Spartans, are really all in this together, one big community?
Nope. We just want to set things on fire.
I’ll get a lot of flack for this from fellow Spartans. But, to be honest, I’m tired of forcing a laugh whenever someone brings up what happened Saturday night. I think how we acted as Spartans is disgusting. A true shame that we disgraced ourselves to a national level. We took the attention away from those football players, who have probably dreamed about this moment for years, and brought it to a pack of students who didn’t know how to just high five each other and talk about making plans to go to Pasadena.
Every time I get a text from a family member or friend asking me more about what happened Saturday, I don’t even want to respond. I’m so disappointed in our reaction to such a great moment in MSU history that i can’t admit that I live in the Cedar Village complex. I hate to admit that this isn’t the first time I’ve seen couches burning. I hate to say I know many, many students who joined that riot and who won’t ever think it was a poor choice. I mean, have fun and enjoy our win, but to deface property and ruin a fellow student’s car in the process is ridiculous. To know that the reaction in Indy was purely joy and happiness at our win and then to see the pictures of East Lansing was so… annoying. Upsetting. Purely stupid behavior.
I know my opinion is not popular. But I also don’t understand why it’s popular to engage in an activity like “Cedar Fest”, which many have obviously forgotten began because of a LOSS. Not a win, like we saw on Saturday. I saw a quote where a student said “It’s a tradition. It’s not like we’re a school of pyromaniacs.” ….. Oh? So, burning couches and trees, street signs, planks, anything you can find, is a tradition? In my time at MSU, I’ve seen probably 6 couches burning. Never for a significant reason. So, please elaborate more about the tradition behind an event that occurred once long before our generation reached MSU’s campus.
I still love my school and still have great pride in everything that I know MSU stands for, but I will not stand behind something like this. Tom Izzo, MSU’s basketball coach, gave an interview  – that I loved – explaining his distaste for what happened on Saturday.
http://bcove.me/3sjntyjx
I would love for our student body to watch this, a man close to everyone on this campus idolizes, and then try and explain why Saturday’s events were a good idea. Someone could have been killed. Someone could have been injured. That poor student could have been without a car if his friend didn’t help start a fundraiser for him to have his car fixed.
Spartans Will – that’s our motto. Let’s try to keep that untainted. I hate to hear from friends at other colleges how many jokes MSU has been made the butt of. If you want to go crazy, do what Auburn does. Go TP the trees. But keep the fire to a minimum.
x. (msu go green)

GO GREEN

(Originally posted July 1st, 2013)
It’s real. It’s actually not really a big surprise. But I’m coming back to State, for good. Okay well not “coming back”. I’m not leaving.
Trying to decide which college to transfer to has been really, really difficult. When I first came to the south, I had my sights set on Ole Miss. I love the campus, their love of football, the classiness of the university, but… the dorms are coed. I’m not Greek. I’m classy in the way that I can do an Irish Car Bomb and not spit it back up. I also wear J. Crew.
So… I started thinking maybe I should look into other schools. Mississippi State seemed cool, up there in Starkville where I’ve never been. But I’ve never thought about going there, so why would I now?
Where did that leave me? Community college? LSU? Leave the country and never return?
Ughhhhh. No.
Time to get real. I’m coming back to EL.
Now, listen, I’m sure you’re all just like okay, whatever Cait, we all knew you weren’t going to really leave. But I was. It just happened that I started thinking how it would feel to walk across that stage in two years (okay maybe three…. four) and not have my friends by my side. How would I end my college career without them?
How was I going to deal with missing out on tailgating with them? With my family? My favorite uncles? You know who you are.
I kept thinking about birthdays. Like, Rheanne’s 21st in October (okay have to fly up for that… $400). And Erica’s birthday in January (fly up for that… $400 and an extra $100 because somehow I’ll pay for Erica’s drinks). And then, you know, I’m thinking about the Red Cedar and the trees and that time we lived in Hubbard and remembering how close we are to Chicago and lakes and Zoe turns 21 in December and I miss Quinn and everything just made me want to come home.
I think sometimes, when we’re confused on what the next step should be, we need to take a moment to reevaluate. This summer with my family on the coast has been more than therapeautic and I feel revived.
So, I’m wearing green. I am a real, not moving, Spartan. I need to register for classes. Erica’s going to be so happy when she finally reads this.
I’m ready. In a couple weeks I’ll be heading back to the college I don’t think I could’ve ever left, not really. And I have a balcony. Hell ya.
x.

Not knowing what to do may be the best thing

(Originally posted March 25th, 2013)

It is, even if we don’t think so.
Before I start my Monday post, my apologies on not posting for a few days. Work was all I did this weekend, and now I’m laying on the couch after being sick for the past two days. So, oops, I’ll be better this week.
These past couple of months have really shown that sometimes college really isn’t there to help you follow your dreams. Sophomore year has delivered tough news to some of my friends that they either need to change their major within the same field or maybe completely just change everything they’ve worked for and either go to a whole new major or even a whole new college.
How can you tell a 19 or 20 year old that the dream they’ve been pursuing since, more than likely, before they entered college is just now going to have to figure out a whole new path to lead? While I don’t understand why that advice is ever given, or why more isn’t done to help the student than just telling them they’re out of luck, I can’t help but think maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.
I don’t mean that you should be happy to have heard that. But what I am saying is that, if you look at it in a different light, this could be a whole new opportunity for you to discover something else that you really will love doing for the rest of your life.
Think back with me – what made you choose your major initially? Really? Okay, now be honest and say to yourself what is was that made you choose your major. I’ll be honest, I picked journalism because I was always told that I was a decent writer and I loved talking to people. And I do love journalism, don’t get me wrong. But if I had been honest with myself, I’d be majoring in International Relations with a concentration on Middle Eastern culture. Why didn’t I do that? Because the idea of majoring in something that I would have no idea if I could get a job in was extremely terrifying, so I stuck with what I knew.
But here you are, with this fresh new plate in front of you. You have no idea what you want to do with your life now, because all you thought you wanted to do was the major you had chosen before you were even considered a freshman. But you know what? You don’t NEED to know what you want to do with your life. It will forever amaze me how we are expected to know what we want to do with the rest of our lives when we’re 18-20 years old. I don’t even know where I want to work at for my part time job, let alone where I’d like to work for the next 50 years.
And I don’t think you should have to know. All of those pre reqs you have that you haven’t taken yet because you’ve been so busy taking the pre reqs required for the classes you were going to take for the major you thought you were majoring in can NOW be used to study abroad. Go on an adventure and see what else is out there in the world. You might go from business major to an education major, maybe even mathematics major to liberal arts. But no matter what it is you decide, at least you gave yourself the opportunity to go find it.
I think a lot of times, we are so scared of what’s going to happen to us once we leave college that we just go along with the status quo without really taking into account what will make us happy. We’re scared of how much college costs, so we try and pick a major right off the bat that we’re pretty sure we won’t change our minds about. Then we’re in college, studying this major, and we really don’t like it. We might not even like the COLLEGE we’re at, but we keep going because reconsidering is a lot scarier than continuing on studying and living in a way that doesn’t give us what we want, doesn’t make us happy. THEN, like the stories I have heard, we hear that oops, you’re going to have to make some serious changes because you’re just not going to make it in this field, and then your whole life turns upside down because this world called college that you thought would keep you safe until you reached the outside world is really just messing you up just as bad. Money lost, time lost and now there’s nothing there to show you which way to go next.
But, really, you already know what to do. Losing the money you spent on those classes is really hard to cope with, I agree. The time lost is hard, too. But the least hard part of all is the deciding what to do next, because I can almost guarantee that when you heard that adviser tell you that you weren’t able to finish what you had started, not only were you mentally telling him or her off, you had envisioned a whole new life for yourself. Maybe it was just for a brief second. Maybe it was just a sigh of relief. But somewhere in those moments between hearing you had to go and trying to figure out what was just said, you already knew what it was you had been wanting to do this whole time.
So, to all my college aged friends out there, relax.
To all my friends who are feeling alone and scared and an enemy of the working world, stop. You have just been given a redo, one of the greatest gifts I could ever think to have. Go look at other colleges. Travel. Learn of different programs. Try to figure out more about yourself. And at the end of all of that you’re still not sure what it is you want to do with your life, don’t be afraid. I’m not sure if any of us really know what it is we want to be doing, but at least we’re all trying to find out.
x