Laura

Have you ever had the feeling that something big is coming?  That a storm is brewing?  The inevitable clash of titans is near?

The thought of the fallout gives me chills.

For most of my life, my cooking/baking experience has been limited to meals that come in a box.  On occasion I’ve had to add an egg or preheat an oven, but that’s been about it.  

Until now.

Derek and I have recently begun an adventure in learning how to cook.  We both like Italian food (or at least Americanized Italian food), so we figured we’d start there.  

We started out taking baby steps - boxed pasta dinners from Macaroni Grill involved a pot, but I pretty much just had to boil some water for the pasta and the sauce was just mixing a packet of pre-prepped herbs and spices into milk.  Nice and simple.

Last week we made Lasagna, also with the help of of pre-packaged sauce.  But this time we had to brown some ground beef, season to taste, layer and bake.  And Derek had to learn the difference between Saran Wrap and aluminum foil.  Oops.

Yesterday I had to learn all sorts of fun new skills while making Chicken Parmesan, like how to butterfly a chicken breast and the proper way to get the breading crispy without frying.  

Ok, so we’re not to the point of making a souffle or even our own marinara sauce.  But I have caught the cooking bug.  At what’s more, I’m appreciating the food I make and eat and thinking about what’s going into my body.  That’s not to say that I’ve turned into a health nut or banned all processed/prepared foods or fat or sugar or anything else from diet, but I am thinking more about food quality, preparation/preservation styles, and portions.

And now I can’t wait until I have an apartment with a full-size refrigerator, spice rack, and some pantry space.  Because let’s face it, cooking in the dorm is a nightmare.

I’m also developing quite the cooking wish list.  A few of the things I’d be more than happy to get for my next birthday:

• a mixer
• a whisk
• a crockpot
• a couple of casserole dishes
• a nicer quality skillet and pot

For the first time in my life I’d rather not be starting back to school.

I was always that odd child that counted down the days until the first day of class.  I love the smell of new school supplies, the crisp woodiness of unused notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils.  I schedule and reschedule and relish in hunting down bargains on used textbooks.

But this semester I’m just not ready to be back.  Last semester was physically, emotionally, and academically exhausting and I don’t feel like I’ve had enough rest.  I’m not ready for another semester of reading and researching and analyzing and writing.  I’m not ready to sort through complaints and appeals and give speeches and lead meetings and plan events.

I can feel the burnout.  Maybe I just have a good old fashioned case of senioritis.

Whatever it is, it stinks.

When I calculated what I needed on my Greek final to keep my “A” and found out it was only a 74, I might have stopped studying and started looking at pictures of toy poodle puppies instead.

For more than half of my college career I’ve served as an officer for ΓΤΩ.  I’ve held four different positions and dedicated every Sunday night since back in 2009 to officer meetings.  I’ve planned girls’ devos and retreats and banquets and club meetings.  I’ve laughed and I’ve argued and I’ve cried.

It’s been one of the most rewarding, educational, and fun experiences of my college career, and I don’t regret one moment of it, but all good things must come to an end. 

Before tonight’s elections I decided not to run for an office next semester.  My schedule is busy and I’m not able to dedicate the time I used to.  More importantly, it’s time to let the next generation rise up and take their places as leaders.  They are ΓΤΩ’s present, and its future too, far more capable and qualified to brainstorm and innovate and lead than this tired, out-of-touch graduating senior.

Thanks for the memories, guys.  I know Gamma’s in good hands.

1. Blinkers save lives.  Use them.
2. Good customer service makes sales.  Be friendly and helpful.
3. When something’s thrown together last minute, it shows.  Plan ahead.

It’s homecoming week, and my university has gone positively insane with inter-club rivalry and competition.  Now I’m not completely knocking competition (I think it encourages work ethic, ingenuity, and self-improvement), but it seems that more often that not, at least in the context of clubs, it devolves into bad attitudes and bitterness.  I’m not calling out any one group, because let’s be real, everyone gets angry and says and does things they shouldn’t.

I’m not immune.  My powder puff football team played three games yesterday and lost every single one.  In fact, we never so much as scored a touchdown.  At first I was discouraged and upset.

It’s nice to win.  It’s nice to feel like your hard work has paid off.  But it’s also nice to be able to have fun and not worry about winning or feel pressure or get upset.

Because when I lose, I’m humbled, and I’ve found that humility is a prerequisite to love.

By the end of the evening, I found myself playing not to win, but for the sake of the game.  I focused on the little victories - a sack here, a 3rd down stop there - and laughed at the boys dressed up as cheerleaders.  I had fun, and I left the field feeling confident that I’d played my best (even if my best still wasn’t very good) and kept my cool.

If losing is what I need to learn to love better, then God, please make me a loser.  
And maybe one day that will evolve into becoming a gracious winner.  Or maybe not.  But that’s not the point.

I just got out of my Western Civ I CLEP test and…. I PASSED!  By a very comfortable margin!

Although, let’s be real, if I hadn’t I’m not sure I would have been able to call myself a history major (it supposedly covers the content of a gen ed world history class), but some of those questions are awfully nit-picky.  Not to mention that the test covers 4500+ years of history.

I still might not be able to distinguish Henry III from Henry IV (can we please get a little more creative with these names?), but I know enough.  Which means I get to graduate in May!

If you’re curious, the REA CLEP Prep Book helped me raise by score by about 15 scaled points (the scores range from 20-80), so I definitely thought it was worth it.  I’m not sure you could teach yourself everything you need to know from one of these books, but if you already have some knowledge that you just need to supplement to get a passing score, I’d highly recommend it.  I took a practice test, read the explanations for ones I missed, identified my areas of weakness, read through all the review material over the weekend (about 150 pages) once and the chapter on the Middle Ages again the day of the test, took the second practice test, and read the explanations.