Not yet a local...

Welp, tonight I cried, for the first time in a long time. (Dad, I know you read this blog. I’m fine, I promise!) I had just left the movie theater, which is about 10 minutes from my apartment, and somehow I got lost. This was only the beginning. After looking more closely at my GPS, I finally pulled into my apartment complex, when said GPS, Delores, had the audacity to say just the wrong thing at just the wrong time. As I arrive at my apartment, Delores says “Arriving at destination. Home on right”. Technically, this would be correct since I did plug in my new apartment address as the home address to make it easier for me to get from place to place. But how could this be home? I can’t even find my way to and from the movie theater without getting lost. How can I be “home” in a place that still feels so foreign? In all honesty, being here is hard. Other than not knowing where I am the majority of the time, as of right now I only have classes on Wednesdays and Thursday, which leaves 5 days of the week to sit and do nothing. I would get a job, but I start my full time clinical hours in October, so I can’t really get a job for only a month. I also don’t really have my own friends here. My roommate is from the Charlotte area and is pretty close to home, and she has been great in letting me go home with her and hang out with her friends, but it’s still hard not having friends of my own. The few friends I do have in Charlotte live on the complete other side of town, which is proving to be slightly difficult with how much gas I am using to travel to and from school (and getting lost all over town). So, with all the being said, I finally cried. After Delores told me I was home, I sat in my car and cried for a few minutes, allowing myself to get it all out before wiping my tears and going inside. Now don’t get me wrong--I’m thankful for the experience, and I really do know that soon I will get to know my way and feel more at home. So for now I will just dry the tears, suck it up, and adjust.

Adjusting to the Move

8 days later and I think it finally hit me that I moved to a new city. Today was the first day that I was painfully aware all day that I live in a new city, where I know very few people and don’t really know how to get anywhere. I know that after a while I will begin to feel at home here and make friends. But for now, how nice it would be to be able to drive downtown and walk by the river, or call up my best friend and have her come over just to sit and do nothing?

Today kind of reminded me of a quote that hangs proudly on display at the fictional "Karen's Cafe" in Wilmington, NC. I love this quote because it rings so true and reminds me of home and the set where I worked!

My Week in Collage: August 22nd-28th, 2011

The Beginning of Classes and Hurricane Irene

Hello, hello, hello! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week! This week has been crazy and busy and unusual. First of all, I moved into my new apartment in Charlotte on Saturday. So far I love it, and I can’t wait to finish decorating and putting the finishing touches on it! Then on Wednesday I started my nursing classes. Why is it that even after 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of middle school, 4 years of high school and 4 years of college, the first day of school is still scary? Of course Tuesday night was filled with the typical pre-first day panic questions like: What should I wear? Will it be cold in my classroom? Will the teacher be nice? Will my classmates like me? Will I make friends? What should I pack for lunch? How long will it take me to get there? What if my alarm doesn’t go off on time? So after I finally turned off my brain, I got about 5 hours of sleep before waking up for my first day at 5am. You see, classstarts at 7 and I live about 35 minutes away (and I have a huge fear of being late), so my day starts at 5am! Then I had class until 3:30, got home at 4, and worked on homework until 1:30am. Which allowed me a total of 4 hours of sleep on Wednesday night. Needless to say, I was tired exhausted during class today. I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty MIA on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I will have to make good use of my time on the other days! But overall, so far so good!
In other news, mother nature is insane. On Tuesday of this past week there was in earthquake in Virginia that could be felt all the way down here in NC. And if that wasn’t enough, my little Wilmington is now preparing for hurricane Irene! I know I should be glad that I’m safe and not there, but I can’t help but wish that I had school cancelled, or had to stock up on hurricane items, or was sitting in my house without power and with boarded up windows. There is just something about a hurricane that reminds me of childhood! I guess that’s what you get when you grow up on the coast!
I hope everyone stays safe in all this crazy weather! I’ll be back tomorrow for another Follow Friday!

My Week in Collage: August 15th-21st, 2011

Follow Friday: The Sparkle Effect

Happy Friday, yall! This week has been crazy and busy with packing and preparing to move tomorrow, and since I will be without internet access for a few days, I decided to do my Follow Friday on Thursday!

This weeks Follow Friday is “The Sparkle Effect”. Back in 2008, two high school students from Iowa decided to use their popularity and status as cheerleaders for good. The girls formed their own squad that included children with disabilities. The team would come to be known as the “Spartan Sparkles” and includes 12 girls with disabilities, such as autism and Down Syndrome. The amazing thing is that the Sparkles team is completely youth-led! The team cheers with the varsity cheerleaders during games and get to be a part of a high school sports program. After a few years, other cheerleaders in other parts of the country began to take notice and decided to start a Sparkles team at their own school. As of now, the Sparkle Effect has generated 33 squads all over the country, and even in South Africa! How absolutely amazing is that? Two young girls had a vision and they did something about it.

This cause really hits close to home with me. In high school for my senior project we each had to choose a topic, write a research paper, and produce a physical product. My topic was Down Syndrome (which was chosen because of my experiences with my aunt with Down Syndrome) and inclusion in schools and I chose to put together an inclusion carnival for my physical product. I rented out space at our local YMCA and planned a night of snacks, games, and prizes, and invited children with and without disabilities. The object was to get both children with and without special needs to have a night of fun where they could interact and hang out with one another. We all ended up having a great time and it was so cool to be a part of the inclusion process.

So how can YOU help the Sparkle Effect? Here are some ways:
-Start a team at your school! (Or encourage someone you know to start a team)!
-Visit the official Sparkle Effect website!
-http://twitter.com/#!/SparkleEffect on Twitter!
-Move towards inclusion. Understand that we are all humans, with desires, wants, and needs. Be kind.
-Spread the word to end the word. The R word.
-Check out my post “Label Jars Not People”.

                                                                                              *photocredit*

Have a great weekend! And get out there and DO SOMETHING :)

Currently...

Currently I would like to be doing this...

But instead, I am doing this...

WOOF.