Sometimes enough is enough

So about a week ago, I made one of the most difficult decisions that I have had to do so far in my academic career. I decided to withdraw out of Organic Chemistry to save my GPA. I still have 12 credits thankfully, but with Organic Chemistry and Anatomy and Physiology, I was unable to keep floating well in either class together. I decided to drop it and really focus this semester on Anatomy and Physiology. I am glad that I did this though, because last week on my laboratory examination I scored a 34/35! I was pretty excited, because my last lab exam was pretty bad. I had more time to study the website though, and through that I was able to accomplish much more in my classes. This week not too much has been happening. I went to a Band formal with one of my friends, and I had a really great time. I will talk to you guys later!

Always pay attention!!!!

So last week I was studying for Organic Chemistry Theory I, and I didn't understand a topic or two. So it is funny because you never really know when you are going to inspire one of your teachers. The neat thing about UW-La Crosse is that generally you have the ability to really get to know your professors, and they get to know you. If you go in and ask questions, even if you are in a class of 13o kids, they will get to learn your name and also know what your major is and what you are interested in. They take an interest in you because you took the time to invest in them. Be careful when you do this however and always make sure that you are paying attention when you ask a question. One of my teachers told me once: "If one person asks a question, generally a lot more people are curious about the same topic." Well the reason why I said this is because one day I am sitting in Organic Chemistry and thinking that if Chemistry is the central science, how does it apply to Biology. Biology for me has typically been a class of random useless memorization and a really big pain to study for. It was about that time that I ran across a problem that we did in class dealing with the structure of amino acid chains. Now as many of you science minded people know, an amino acid is the building block to proteins, virtually found in all parts of your body. I started to wonder....what/how does a DNA molecule look like, and why is it that only Adenine can pair with Thymine and Guanine pair with Cytosine.....

So I went in to ask Dr. Mortell my Chemistry teacher and this is where the pay attention factor comes into play. You see as I was asking her how this can be she was one step ahead of me. I gave her a question that she never thought about asking this particular topic on a test before and it turns out that on the test that I was given this Friday, my problem that I asked about was on the test....and I knew exactly how to do it!

So it just goes to prove that if you are going to ask the question, make sure that you are paying attention to hear the answer, you never know when you might see it again.

See you guys later!

So this week has been a fairly hectic time, and with classes and ROTC starting to stress me out to the max, I find myself especially having to buckle down to get the work that I need to get done, accomplished. I had a test in dance appreciation this past Wednesday, and it went pretty good for the most part. Today we had a run for ROTC and we got to call cadences, (the running songs in the army) while we ran about 3 miles. Overall it was a really fun time and by far my favorite event in ROTC. Last night we also helped with the honor flight for veterans from WWII that had the opportunity to fly to Washington DC and see the WWII memorial built in honor of them. Somehow they managed to get a 757 plane into La Crosse Airport, which is way to big for what the airport is designed for. Overall it was a very cool experience to have done and a cool volunteer project. Tomorrow I have to turn in my worksheet for Organic Chemistry and also get my Political Science take home test done by this weekend. I should have plenty of time this weekend though for doing the test because I will be out at Fort McCoy assisting with Ranger Challenge, an event designed for cadets. I will talk to you guys next week!

Organic Chemistry Test

So this past week I had an Organic Chemistry test. Now this may seem like just another test, but when you get into your upper level classes, you will find that they become progressively difficult. I learned this last year if you have been reading my blogs that Chemistry 104 was another very difficult test. Well, needless to say, I survived my first test, even if it was just barely, but I did make it through, and I am happy that I did. This week I have an Anatomy and Physiology laboratory test on Wednesday, so I will be studying that tonight and trying to cram all of the information that I possibly can on the Human bone structure, and the histology of different epithelial tissues. I think that I will be able to do fine on this though, if I can just continue to keep studying and not get distracted for too much of the time.

Choir this year has been going great, and I have really been enjoying it! We had a guest speaker/motivator come in and do a lecture for us last weekend. This past weekend I was out at Fort McCoy training with the rest of the ROTC battalion. We had the opportunity to shoot M16 rifles and I got to shoot a Machine gun for the first time in my life. Lets just say that I really enjoyed that. (Surprisingly it doesn't hurt as much as you think it will.... :) ) After we shot the weapons, we then spent 6 hours trying to get them clean. I finally got my clean after about 5 hours. The last major event that we had the opportunity to do this weekend was to go through a confidence course and an obstacle course. On the confidence course, I did an obstacle that I ended up hurting myself on. It was set up so that you had to roll a bunch of logs while you were laying on them, and span a 15 foot section about 4 feet off of the ground. Needless to say I got to the end, lost my balance and ended up taking a dive into the ground. Luckily I had my Kevlar helmet on so my injury was kept to a minimal!

Well I will talk to you guys later, because now I have to go to choir!

New Classes for Third Semester!

So it is now my Sophomore year here at UW-La Crosse and as hard as that is to believe I need to keep pushing myself forward. I have the most difficult semester schedule that I have had so far, because two of my classes are going to attempt to "weed" me out. The first of which is Organic Chemistry, and let me tell you that if you are going into Pre-Medicine and it requires a ton of work. The best part is right now it is still rather fun, however I need to find some time this week to go in and see if I can get some help because there are several topics that we discussed and I am not completely understanding the material. We are going over the processes of Hydrocarbons this week and how to name Organic compounds, which for some odd reason is different than naming any other chemical compound in any class that I have had before. For some reason they are super specific on how and what I should be naming.

The next class that is difficult is BIO 312 Human Anatomy and Physiology. I think that the lecture so far is great, however this week was the first week that labs were in session and they basically put out 80+ bones in front of us and told us to memorize them within the hour. Within the hour!!!!! So needless to say I will have to go into the lab sometime this week and deal with that little issue of continuing to memorize the names, grooves, cracks, and holes within the bones.

As far as the rest of my schedule goes, I will have to tell you about that next week! For now I have to get going and run a section conclave for this weekend. (Order of the Arrow Campout!) Have a great week guys!

End of the year studying for finals!

So this is the end of the year in college, and it is truly hard to believe that a whole year in college for me has gone by. I can remember like it was yesterday moving in the residence halls, and getting ready to begin a new adventure. Well the adventure of the first year is quickly coming to a close, and with it new wisdom to assist me in my journey next semester. I will share with you some of my wisdom that I have gained this year.

1. Don't ever wait to study the night before a major examination. All that this does is cause you to stress out and chances are that you will not learn anything from this experience.

2. When you study for your finals try to have some fun. If all you do all day is study you are likely to become very tired and sick of it and then the rest of the week you will feel very unmotivated. This is critical to good test taking.

3. Always get enough sleep before you take a test. Getting 4 hours doesn't satisfy this requirement.

Well I have to get going! Have a good week guys!

Salt Lake City

Hey Gang,

So every once in a while you get to do something extremely fun. This weekend I had the opportunity to go out to Salt Lake City, Utah and get to see a site that I will be doing a service project for in June. I am really looking forward to serving the Manti La-Sal national forest in removing the invasive species called the Tamarisk there. I am enthusiastic and overjoyed by this opportunity. Also this weekend, the Concert Choir got to got to Minneapolis on a tour. Tomorrow I will be singing at several different high schools promoting the UW-L Concert Choir. I think that it is going to be a very fun time.

With all the fun times, however, comes all the work of the college life that never really stops piling up on you. I have to write a lab report for Microbiology this week on my Unknown bacteria. The lab portion itself is very fun, however the work that comes with it is often challenging and can cause a hard time if you were not paying attention to this during the week. (Lecture.) Anyways I thought that I would just let you guys know what I have been doing. Next week I will be out at Fort McCoy Again and I will be having a training exercise with the MS III's. I will talk more about that later during the week. See you guys later!

Back from Spring Break

Hey everyone, so I am pretty sure that Spring Break was amazing, and that I am totally refreshed and ready for the home run of the school year. With finals in less than six weeks I am beginning to think about what I am going to be doing this summer. I need to still keep up with my classes, and I need to start looking for a job. I have been offered a job to work on camp staff just North of La Crosse at Camp Decorah, a boy scout camp. I worked there for 2 summers, and I am unsure of how I will be able to do that again. Right now, I think that I will return to my hometown and try to get a job in the factory because it pays far better than at camp.

This week in Microbiology we were handed out our Unknown bacteria in lab. We are supposed to identify the bacteria inside before April 12th, and we have lots of Biochemical tests that we are going to be running on the bacteria. It should turn out to be very cool. This weekend I will be going to STX for ROTC and that will be out at Fort McCoy. I am looking forward to what we are going to be doing, because I get to ride on a Black hawk Helicopter to get out to the base. This will be very fun for myself and all of my friends who are cadets. Well I have to get studying for Pre Calculus and Microbiology so I will write to you guys next week. See ya later!

Stressful week before break!

So this is the last week before break, and as I sit here typing this blog, it is 10:00 at night on Sunday. I have to do a Microbiology lab, which I am having some trouble doing because I don't know exactly what the graph I am trying to draw is supposed to look like. This past week has been really exciting for a couple of different reasons however. Last week we started playing a game called mobsters, which in my opinion is kind of like Mafia. Anyone in my dorm can play and it is a cumulative game. The objective is to "kill" your target by hitting them with a sock, and get your family to win the game. The trick of the matter is however is that if the FBI can catch you killing someone, they can win the game by arresting you. Needless to say I have been rather paranoid this week with people who may be trying to kill me in my dorm. I can't wait for Spring break however as it is turning out to be a fun time. All of my friends from other colleges are getting off at the same time as me, so we will be able to hang out back in my hometown of Medford. This week, I will have to turn in a Chemistry Problem set, take a Microbiology test, (which by the way I took two of those this past week and they both were not a fun time.) and I have a Concert Choir test this coming Tuesday. Unfortunately I am still sick, and last week I had to miss ROTC PT days because I was so sick I could barely get out of bed. Last week I also changed my major from Biochemistry to Microbiology and I added a Music minor. That should be interesting because I really like music a lot. Hopefully I get better before Spring break otherwise it really will not be as fun of a time as I am currently planning on having. I hope that all of you out there are having a fantastic time, and I will keep you informed of what I do over the break, and this coming week's activities!

Stressful week

Wow! So the 3rd week of the second semester is now done and classes are really starting to heat up. In English 110 I had a paper due on Friday, and the second rough draft of the paper will be due next Friday. In addition to that my English teacher has decided to crank up the workload in the class by assigning extra assignments in reading and having to respond to the entries that we read. The bad thing is that they are all due in 2 days, which to you guys may seem like a lot of time, but in reality to do all that work for one class as a science major is really quite a work of art! I would usually get assigned a piece of homework in that class on Monday, but then I had Chemistry Lab on Monday which is three hours of goodness and that took up time in my life, and things just really started to get very interesting. This past week we had our first examination in Precalculus too. This was very hard for me, because I am not a Math whiz at all, and I didn't feel like I was very prepared to take that exam. I studied as hard as I could though, so we will have to see how I do on the test when I get it back on Monday. For now over the weekend I will be winding down and having a good time. In college you find that the only time that you have to yourself is on the weekends. The weekdays are reserved for studying with your friends in class and doing lots of homework. I watched a couple of movies tonight and I will be starting on homework in the morning. I will keep you guys informed of what happens next week! See ya later!

New College Classes

So right now I am not having a good time at all. My day started at 5:30 AM with PT in the morning. Right now I am doing my Chemistry II and totally really really really tired. However I can not go to sleep because if I would go to sleep I would not get the homework done which needs to get done. Before I go to bed...and keep in mind readers I have to go to an 8:50 class tomorrow, I need to review Chemistry and Microbiology and somehow get to sleep after that. Right now I have found out that my Second Semester is significantly harder than first semester. So anyways, with the complaining out of the way I will now briefly touch on the good things of the semester. I have to go on a tour with the Concert Choir to Minneapolis and have some fun. We plan on going to a dinner theatre, which will be very fun, and after that we will be touring and singing at 4-5 schools around the area showcasing the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Also this semester I have decided that I will be going out to Utah for an onsite planning meeting for ArrowCorps5. I am not sure if I have touched on ArrowCorps5, however it will turn out to be the biggest service project in the face of the Order of the Arrow's history.... 5000 people all doing service for the National Forests. I am in charge of the programing which will take place at the site. Other than that, I think that I am going to try to finish my homework and go to bed. See ya later!

New Classes!

So the Spring Semester has begun folks, and let me tell you that it is going to be a great time! I am currently up at 12:27 trying to think of a blog or something that I can tell my readers. First off, my classes this semester are much harder than my classes were last semester. MUCH harder. This semester I have Precalculus, Chemistry II, Microbiology, English, Military Science, and Concert Choir. Overall my credit load is 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I needless to say do not get a whole lot of sleep during the week due to PT, and trying to get work accomplished. My English teacher is really off the wall with their assignments and it makes it very interesting trying to complete them on time. Lucky for me she offers extensions, and I plan on using that this semester a lot if my class work load continues. I spend 7 hours each week in Science Labs, and when you get into your upper level science classes you work in lab by yourself which was a big surprise to me. I don't like those kind of surprises, however I seem to be getting off on the right foot with most of my teachers. Tomorrow I will go to Chemistry, then English, then I have a 2 hour break, and then I go to Precalculus and 3 hours of Chemistry lab!!!! Overall it is going to be a fun and exciting time.
When you get a new professor, make sure that you read their homework assignments very carefully because some can be rather tricky to figure out. My new Chemistry Professor likes to make one problem into 2. See you guys later, because I have to go to bed....class is in the morning.

More Winter Break Goodness

Well today once again I found myself being rather bored and getting ready to go back to UW La Crosse. I am hoping that my classes go well, because I have to return to the wonderful world of math and I really do not enjoy doing that. Over break I have been trying something new for a lack of better things to do. In my speech class last semester I was told that I should consider selling items on E-Bay. So I have been selling lots of items and trying to make some spare money in the meantime. It has been a rather interesting process, because it seems like when you sell an item, everyone is trying to make a little bit of a profit. First off, E-bay takes a cut on the profits, then shortly after that if you are paying with Paypal they will take a cut. If you do not have the shipping rate down, that will also take a cut, and pretty soon you pretty much just gave the item to the seller or you lost money in the process. The other day I sold my first item, and I thought that the shipping on the item would be fairly cost efficient. I put the shipping at 4.00 dollars and thought that that would be enough. In reality I was shipping a coffee mug and the total cost to ship the mug was 7.00! So I lost a little bit of money on that deal. It ended up costing a lot more than I had anticipated. However I have learned, and now know that that will not happen again. Besides that however I just got back from a vacation to the Wisconsin Dells. A couple of my college friends decided to get a suite and stay at the Kalahari Resort. It was absolutely amazing and we had so much fun. One of my friends has enough money so that he really didn't have to worry about the cost and it was such a good way to have fun and meet up over the break. He lives in Waukesha so we do not get to see each other too much over break. He did however come up to my house so that was a pretty good time. Other than that I have just been doing house work and other random chores that have been assigned to me. I can't wait to go back to school! See you guys later!

Winter Break

So Winter Break has finally come and it is absolutely fantastic. I am very happy that college gives you such a long break to recooperate. Over break lately I have been up to a lot of things. December 27-30th I was in Dallas Texas for the National Planning Meeting for the Order of the Arrow. We are currently trying to plan a service project which 5000 Scout Volenteers will work for 5 sites of the National Forest Service. The sites are George Washington Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, Manti La-Sal National Forest in Utah, Bridger Teton National Forest in Wyoming, and Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California. I will be working on Staff at the Manti La-Sal National Forest and am currently helping to plan out the project and what is all involved with it. I am currently trying to engineer the closing video which I hope to inspire the volunteers to continue their service records at home. Right now it is going a little bit rough, because it has to be done by January 15th. I am about half way through the presentation and what I am having problems with are finding the appropriate quotes to inspire the workers.

Other than that however I am looking forward to moving back in to School on January 27th. The earliest you can move in is the 26th, however I have to be in Wausau Wisconsin that day. I am looking forward to my classes however. My next post, I will explain what classes I will be taking next semester. See you guys later, and I hope that your college admissions process is going well!