Oh dear, haven't posted since December.
What has happened since then? Everything.
A really nice semester, in which I had my first practical experience at a nursing home and a small hospital. Halfway done with college!
I've gotten so much closer to dorm friends.
I saw the Orange City tulip festival, which was an interesting cultural experience to observe.
Got a letter from Teen Missions International (TMI), asking if I would be a back up leader for the summer teen trip to Zimbabwe. Very exciting! This will probably be my last summer with TMI (at least for quite a while).
Now I'm chilling "back at the ranch". Mom has three boarders in the house now, and one of them is my dear friend Sarah from college.
Spending my days reviewing nursing skills, watching stacks of movies, and enjoying the out-of-doors.
So there's your oh-wow-it's-been-almost-six-months update :)
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
My Summer, as told by memes
School got out at the end of April. At first I felt like this:
By the time I get to the end of each year, I start to feel overwhelmed by every little thing, so I was happy to be going home.
However, leaving for home also meant leaving all my fantastic friends at Northwest.
Then I got home and realized that all of my friends from back home were still in school, which made for a lot of empty time.
I was happy about the prospect of sleeping in a bit in celebration of summer, but when the rest of your family works or goes to school, thus waking up at 6:30 a.m., it feels a bit like this:
I work at a car dealership, and I do a little of everything. I move cars, file papers, clean things, clean cars, go buy snacks for everyone, etc. It's really a great job, and I enjoy it because of the variety.
Overall, it's been a good summer so far, and it's not even the end of May! I'm looking forward what the rest of the summer holds!
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However, leaving for home also meant leaving all my fantastic friends at Northwest.
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(I like my sleep.)
However, that whole "I'll sleep in" bit didn't last too long, because I started work on the first Monday that I was back. (aka: I now get up earlier now than I did all school year. This make me proud and a little sad.)
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But there is still one thing I sadly cannot do, even though I work at a car dealership:
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Sorry Mr. T. :(
Other than work, I've done some babysitting, which has been pretty great.
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And I've hung out with some friends.
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Tuesday, February 24, 2015
"...so what do you do with that, exactly?" Explaining an IDM: New Media major
In college, when there are introductions to be made, there are 3 key questions that always seem to be asked: What's your name? Where are you from? What's your major?
In my case, I'd say, "My name's Kara, I'm from Huxley, Iowa [proceeds to explain where exactly that is] and I'm an Interactive Digital Media: New Media major." If I'm on campus, I will sometimes get this reaction:
"Oh yeah! IDM! I've heard of that!"
If I'm talking to friends and family from home or a majority of people on campus, I'll get this reaction:
"Oh cool! Um, what do you do with that exactly?"
And to that I say, "I'm still figuring that out!"
Here's why:
IDM:New Media is sort of unique as far as majors go. There aren't many other colleges that have something with the same name, but there are many that have a similar type of major. Sometimes I find that it's easier to tell what I know how to do and what I'm learning rather than what I could do with it (as a career), because I could do any number of things, career-wise. For example, I take classes about social media, graphic design, web publishing, programming, and advertising. I've created a Social Media plan for a business and created a media plan that details all of the advertising purchases during a year for IKEA (and by "details" I mean that it was 35 pages long). I've also made things like these:
In my case, I'd say, "My name's Kara, I'm from Huxley, Iowa [proceeds to explain where exactly that is] and I'm an Interactive Digital Media: New Media major." If I'm on campus, I will sometimes get this reaction:
"Oh yeah! IDM! I've heard of that!"
If I'm talking to friends and family from home or a majority of people on campus, I'll get this reaction:
"Oh cool! Um, what do you do with that exactly?"
And to that I say, "I'm still figuring that out!"
Here's why:
IDM:New Media is sort of unique as far as majors go. There aren't many other colleges that have something with the same name, but there are many that have a similar type of major. Sometimes I find that it's easier to tell what I know how to do and what I'm learning rather than what I could do with it (as a career), because I could do any number of things, career-wise. For example, I take classes about social media, graphic design, web publishing, programming, and advertising. I've created a Social Media plan for a business and created a media plan that details all of the advertising purchases during a year for IKEA (and by "details" I mean that it was 35 pages long). I've also made things like these:
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Or these (bookmark on the left, tickets on the right)
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Or this:
So, if I was to sum this up, I'd say that being an IDM major gives me a chance to do a lot of what I like to do! I get to dabble in design, social media, and web publishing, and it's been a lot of fun (and I'm only halfway done! Who knows what's up next!)
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Music Library Organization
As you might know if you've followed along at any frequency, I am one of the music librarians for the music program here at Northwest. I love it because it's all about staying organized and being on top of things, and a lot of things are self-guided and work-alone sorts of deals. Before break (and for a very long time before that), the music library looked like this:
The shelves that are visible are only about a quarter of what was in there. It wrapped all around the room! There were also lots (10+) of file cabinets off to the right in this picture. They were filled with music too.
Just for a point of reference, the orange folders you see here are marching band music. The small ones near the bottom wrap around half the room in a double layer. They are the older pieces. The larger ones are more recent songs. The white music (much of which is hiding) is for concert band. The entire right side of the room (where you see the change in bookshelves at the edge of the picture) is choir music. Everything in the foreground is for sorting or putting away.
In short, it was pretty crazy in there. A good crazy, but sometimes a head-scratching sort of crazy.
Things got crazier when we had to move everything out so that a new organizational system could be installed. There was lots of help, and it went as smoothly as could be expected, but when you're moving a whole library and trying to keep it in order, it gets nuts! During finals week, the installation crew began work on putting in the new system. The coolest part of this was that it meant that when I got back from break, the new room was like a great delayed Christmas gift! ("Here! Have some fancy new shelving to keep everything organized!")
So now, the room looks like this:
Lots of shelves got torn out, and now these lovely things go all the way across the back! These things hold TONS of music! All of the marching band music alone only fills one and a half sides of a unit! They are also pretty fun to roll back and forth, too, if we're honest. When I have shown them to people, they have been compared to the Jedi Library or Indiana Jones.
Well, that is my brief update on library things. We're still in the process of moving back in and figuring out new uses for the remaining shelving. Right now it's helpful for sorting things, but we'll see what becomes of it.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
"Home for the Holidays" (Was that title cheesy enough for you?)
I'm home on break. Snuggling the cat, binge-watching the most recent season of Downton Abbey, seeing old friends. Mom and I are finally going to decorate the tree this week. Yes, Christmas is four days away. I don't want to hear it! :) (Totally kidding)
Final exams went wonderfully. I even had a lot of free time between the tests.,. what a concept! As an answer to prayer, the grades were good too.
It may be a brown Christmas, but the temps have been above freezing sometimes, so that's cool. Of course, it's probably the fault of climate change, but every cloud has a silver lining?
Hope you all have a lovely holiday season. Thanks to the wonderful people making my life happy and a super doting Father Upstairs, I'm sure going to have a great one. I mean, it's nice of Santa to squeeze down people's chimneys just so they can have a merry Christmas, but Jesus kind of one-ups him, having bled out for me. I think maybe Jesus deserves more than a plate of cookies for that one.
Love,
E
Final exams went wonderfully. I even had a lot of free time between the tests.,. what a concept! As an answer to prayer, the grades were good too.
It may be a brown Christmas, but the temps have been above freezing sometimes, so that's cool. Of course, it's probably the fault of climate change, but every cloud has a silver lining?
Hope you all have a lovely holiday season. Thanks to the wonderful people making my life happy and a super doting Father Upstairs, I'm sure going to have a great one. I mean, it's nice of Santa to squeeze down people's chimneys just so they can have a merry Christmas, but Jesus kind of one-ups him, having bled out for me. I think maybe Jesus deserves more than a plate of cookies for that one.
Love,
E
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Six days!
Well, I have just been all sorts of neglectful about writing something here.
I did the classic, "I could write about this!" and then I never did. Multiple times.
So now of course, when I could do other things (like study for finals that are next week...) I will instead write on here. Because I have priorities. Also because I need a break.
So here are the 6 Days of almost-the-end-of the-semester (because I literally have 6 days until I'm done for the semester!)
On the first day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, marching band gave to me...
A box full of music and a way to make some money!
Since the marching band season is done, I now have 30+ songs (multiplied by 130 people) to sort and file. Music to deal with = some chill time by myself making money!
On the second day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, marching band gave to me...
A torn out music library!
In preparation for the new library organizing system that will be going in next week, most of the music had to come out of the library. For me, that meant boxing up 1,000+ pieces of marching band music and moving them. So right now the music library has been reduced to a bunch of file cabinets in the corner. It's a lot like living out of boxes while you are moving, so I'm a bit flustered, but I'm so excited for the new system! For reference, this is a "pre-moving" picture:
On the third day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, marching band gave to me...
A band banquet which was really quite pretty! (I'm trying to make these rhyme. Work with me...)
To celebrate the end of the marching band season, we have a banquet, put on by a committee of Kappa Kappa Psi. I was a part of that committee this year, so I got in on all aspects of planning and decorating and everything in between! I also presented all of the awards to 3, 4, 5, and 6 year members, as well as some other awards. It was such a fun event!
On the fourth day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, my classes gave to me...
One stressful assignment in photography.
For the final assignment in my photojournalism class, I had to do a photo essay, which is basically a bunch of photos of one event. I decided to follow the band banquet from set-up to tear-down, so I took over 200 pictures over the course of the night. I whittled them down to my final 18, and presented them on Tuesday. I was worried because I wanted to tip my 89% to an A, but I didn't know how I did. I talked to my professor (and probably sounded like a crazy person (..."so I just need to know if I'm going to end this class with a B because I just need time to deal with that....") but I ended up with an A on the assignment and an A in the class, meaning I have one less final to worry about!
Oh, here's one of the pictures I took. The pictures were supposed to include people, but I took a risk and included one without any and my professor loved it. Phew! :)
On the fifth day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, my LifeGroup gave to me...
A very fun Christmas party!
There were snacks and gifts and a classic black and white Christmas movie and it was a fantastic way to celebrate the end of the semester and the Christmas season. I'm so thankful for all the girls in my LifeGroup!
On the sixth day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, my friends gave to me...
Good times! (roll with me...)
I'm blessed with great friends here and even though the semester has gotten busier and more stressful (*cough group project cough*) I have had so many fun things to make it fun!
I did the classic, "I could write about this!" and then I never did. Multiple times.
So now of course, when I could do other things (like study for finals that are next week...) I will instead write on here. Because I have priorities. Also because I need a break.
So here are the 6 Days of almost-the-end-of the-semester (because I literally have 6 days until I'm done for the semester!)
On the first day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, marching band gave to me...
A box full of music and a way to make some money!
Since the marching band season is done, I now have 30+ songs (multiplied by 130 people) to sort and file. Music to deal with = some chill time by myself making money!
On the second day of almost-the-end-of-the-semester, marching band gave to me...
A torn out music library!
In preparation for the new library organizing system that will be going in next week, most of the music had to come out of the library. For me, that meant boxing up 1,000+ pieces of marching band music and moving them. So right now the music library has been reduced to a bunch of file cabinets in the corner. It's a lot like living out of boxes while you are moving, so I'm a bit flustered, but I'm so excited for the new system! For reference, this is a "pre-moving" picture:
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| Picture the shelves going all around the room with a lot of file cabinets off to the right. |
A band banquet which was really quite pretty! (I'm trying to make these rhyme. Work with me...)
To celebrate the end of the marching band season, we have a banquet, put on by a committee of Kappa Kappa Psi. I was a part of that committee this year, so I got in on all aspects of planning and decorating and everything in between! I also presented all of the awards to 3, 4, 5, and 6 year members, as well as some other awards. It was such a fun event!
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| Friends! |
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| Committee! (This picture is highly accurate.) |
One stressful assignment in photography.
For the final assignment in my photojournalism class, I had to do a photo essay, which is basically a bunch of photos of one event. I decided to follow the band banquet from set-up to tear-down, so I took over 200 pictures over the course of the night. I whittled them down to my final 18, and presented them on Tuesday. I was worried because I wanted to tip my 89% to an A, but I didn't know how I did. I talked to my professor (and probably sounded like a crazy person (..."so I just need to know if I'm going to end this class with a B because I just need time to deal with that....") but I ended up with an A on the assignment and an A in the class, meaning I have one less final to worry about!
Oh, here's one of the pictures I took. The pictures were supposed to include people, but I took a risk and included one without any and my professor loved it. Phew! :)
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| bokeh! |
A very fun Christmas party!
There were snacks and gifts and a classic black and white Christmas movie and it was a fantastic way to celebrate the end of the semester and the Christmas season. I'm so thankful for all the girls in my LifeGroup!
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| In all fairness, I didn't take this. I'm over there on the right. |
Good times! (roll with me...)
I'm blessed with great friends here and even though the semester has gotten busier and more stressful (*cough group project cough*) I have had so many fun things to make it fun!
- A trip to St. Joe for Cracker Barrel and the mall
- Weekend movies with Erin and Ally
- The most varied, interesting, and fun conversations with Nels
- Being absolutely ridiculous in the hallways of Fine Arts and watching the faculty not even bat an eye at our antics
- And much, much more!
That is all I've got for tonight. I've been blessed with a great semester and so many awesome friends. I'm sad to say good bye for Christmas Break, but I absolutely can't wait to see what next semester holds!
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Downsizing the Dither
2nd post in a month! Woot!
It's snowing, a nice mild snow. A friend and I walked to Fareway this morning and our faces didn't even hurt.
I am feeling weighed down by my waffle-dough-microwaved-in-a-mug concoction I had for breakfast. And kind of sleepy. Johnny Cash is walking the line from my Spotify playlist and the rhythmic guitar is lulling me to sleep...
Hm. Do I actually have anything important to say?
ACTUAL NEWS PORTION:
This is the most chill quarter at college I've ever had. It rocks. And someone took my 7 hour Saturday night shift at work so now I can relax on Saturdays. YAYY! Tonight, my friends and I are going to a play by the theater department.
Today's plans also include going to work out in the gym to the drivel that is Saturday television.
Well, this post was pointless, except to point out the fact that I am still alive, listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving (oh the scandal!) and still think taking a Saturday Sabbath is the best tradition God ever thought of.
Hope you're having a super November.
E
It's snowing, a nice mild snow. A friend and I walked to Fareway this morning and our faces didn't even hurt.
I am feeling weighed down by my waffle-dough-microwaved-in-a-mug concoction I had for breakfast. And kind of sleepy. Johnny Cash is walking the line from my Spotify playlist and the rhythmic guitar is lulling me to sleep...
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| (Photo by Tracey Steffen, shamelessly stolen from her FB page without permission. Hopefully she still loves me.) This is the football team practicing in the white precipitate this morning. |
Hm. Do I actually have anything important to say?
ACTUAL NEWS PORTION:
This is the most chill quarter at college I've ever had. It rocks. And someone took my 7 hour Saturday night shift at work so now I can relax on Saturdays. YAYY! Tonight, my friends and I are going to a play by the theater department.
Today's plans also include going to work out in the gym to the drivel that is Saturday television.
Well, this post was pointless, except to point out the fact that I am still alive, listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving (oh the scandal!) and still think taking a Saturday Sabbath is the best tradition God ever thought of.
Hope you're having a super November.
E
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