AND THEN THERE WAS ONE!

ONE more day remaining between me and one of the biggest changes thus far in my life...COLLEGE!!! Or more specifically, THE Ohio State University!!! Sorry for all the caps and exclamation points; can you tell I'm excited?!

It's totally unbelievable that it's finally here. After four long months of summer, and eighteen+ years, I'm actually going to college! After hunting down extra-long twin sheets, buying far too much food for my dorm, and ultimately packing up my life into the back of our mini-van, I'm sitting here watching my dad make his famous popcorn for the last time. Okay, maybe it's not famous, but it's delicious and made on the stove, and we eat it almost every Friday without fail for family movie night. Yumm :9

In fact, he just asked me if I'm starting to get nervous. Weirdly enough, I'm not. Maybe it hasn't quite hit me yet that I'm really leaving now? Not too sure on that one. I've tied up most of my odds and ends, and tonight we had a small family get together that lasted for hours so that everyone could say goodbye. One of my best friends' mom even brought me a college survival package with pretty much everything that I didn't get around to packing. How sweet is that! I had just been planning on picking them up in a week or so on campus, but now I'm all set. Thanks, Mrs. Heppner!

So. I should really be getting to sleep...but I think instead I'll blog - you know, let you know what's going on since I probably won't be able to write again til after move-in. Also just get rid of some excited energy and wait for this popcorn ;)

Thursday, my mom and I packed up the van. But first, I made sure to get some lovely pics for you all; hope you enjoy!

Ridiculous, I know. It looks like so much...and is quite possibly too much,
but I figure I can always send some back with my family! Plus this
is everything spread wayyy out for photo purposes :)

Alternate view of "the Pile".
Includes footlocker trunk full of clothes in the back...

Yes, this actually is everything previously pictured!
I'm a pretty good packer if I do say so myself ;)
Now this looks a lot more manageable, right?

Have faith people - it can be done! My mom and I were extremely worried about everything fitting in the car because, well...it just looked like so much more than I thought I had to pack up! But in reality, it probably took us about twenty minutes to fit everything in. (We have a Grand Caravan and removed one of the backseats so that we would have more room). It was much easier than expected! A little shuffling of objects here and there, and it all fit in pretty nicely. I'll try to remember to take a picture of it all in the car tomorrow!

Now onto the logistics of it all. I'm planning on leaving tomorrow morning so that we can get down to campus and spend some time there walking my class schedule, eating some local food, and enjoying Columbus for the day. After a night in a nearby hotel, move-in begins bright and early (in comparison to my sleep schedule) at 8 A.M. I'm hoping to get there pretty early so that I can move everything into my dorm and have time to set it up & such. I love things like that :)

It's going to be very weird/sad to say goodbye to my family though, of that I'm certain. We're a pretty close family and spend a lot of time around each other, so leaving that will probably be a bit of a culture shock. I'm just trying to look forward to all of the great things ahead of me...plus I'll be home in a few weeks for Thanksgiving!

Well, I guess I'd better get some sleep before the big day tomorrow, but best of luck to all the other Buckeyes moving in this weekend! I'll be seeing you real soon :)

LC 2011!

We're past the one-week mark, people...hard as that is to believe! Sorry for the delay in blog posts...I've been crazy busy and just got back Friday night from the Leadership Collaborative 2011.

And let me tell you.

Can you say awesome experience?! It was life-changing, to say the least. We all had an intense four days of scheduling and non-stop activity which woke us up early in the mornings (around 7:30am for me) and kept us going until roughly 2am every night. Insane? Yes. More fun than you can believe? OH YEAH. We got unbelievable chances to meet people in the Buckeye and surrounding Columbus communities, including State Representative Cheryl Grossman; DOW Chemical Company representative David Wilkins; State Representative John Karney: CEO of Jeni's Ice Cream, John Lowe; Assistant Vice Presidant of Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience, Dr. Mabel G. Freeman; two-time Heisman trophy winner and OSU Alumni Association CEO, Archie Griffin; and drumroll please...the President of The Ohio State University, E. Gordon Gee!

My small group with President E. Gordon Gee! <3
Sorry for the terrible quality. They haven't given the actual picture to us yet,
so I took a picture of the paper version they gave us with my webcam =/
But still!!! :D

Starting off the week were a few classes on etiquette, which taught us proper greeting and dining manners. We also toured the Ohio Statehouse (and even got to sit in the seats of the House!), visited the North Market (a.k.a. one of the most culturally diverse markets I've ever been to), sampled Jeni's ice cream, learned from upperclassmen about campus groups and student organizations, formed intimate small groups with student & staff facilitators, learned a ton about everyone's leadership skills and strengths and how they compared to our own, ate ridiculously delicious meals, played soccer "LC-style", got carpet burns playing lap tag (Google it), tailgated, had a crazy fun dance party, and got to storm the home field of THE Ohio State Buckeyes!! Not to mention, we all made friends that will hopefully last a lifetime.

It was such a diverse group of people -  ranging anywhere from people who lived 5 minutes away, to a few people who stepped foot in the United States for the first time a few days before the conference began. Yet somehow, in a way that would only happen at Ohio State, over those four days we became a family. Difficult to believe, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was astoundingly different to be devoid of shared histories and preconceived notions about one another, to be so a part of something. And personally? I think that's AWESOME.

If anyone reading this is considering Ohio State as a college option, or gets the chance to be a part of the Leadership Collaborative...DO IT. You won't regret it :D

I could go on and on about what an awesome week this was and all of the different activities we did, but the staff and upperclassmen were so vague with us that it made everything a surprise once we got there, and I kind of liked that. If you would like more information about it, shoot me an email! I'll gladly answer any questions :)

Lessons learned:

•  Innumerable!!!!!

NEXT UP: Packing. And lots of it. Stay tuned :)



Countdown: 6 days!

Welcome to SEPTEMBER.

Well whaddya know, it's September already! This summer has been by far one of the strangest yet...it has seemed to fly by, but with most everyone already gone and two weeks left til Ohio State, it's also kind of dragging along. That doesn't really make sense, but I think other people going to Ohio State can get what I mean.

Just the other day, my mom and I went on the hunt for some dorm room necessities that I still hadn't gotten - mostly involving hygienic stuff like lotion and shampoo and of course, snacks. That was my favorite part :) I got some lovely microwave Chef Boyardee soups, cute little jars of peanut butter and jelly (yes, they were cute), microwave popcorn...the list goes on. Well, actually, not much more than that, 'cause I'm pretty sure I won't have room for anything else. Haha! After we got home, I packed everything up and moved it all into the dining room so that we can see just what we're dealing with before we try to stuff it in the car. After having it all hidden away in a corner of the basement, it's kind of a dose of reality to see it come together upstairs.

Maybe another reason that college feels like it's coming closer is because this weekend I have to start packing...the Leadership Collaborative starts next Tuesday! For those of you who didn't read my previous posts, I'll be going down to Columbus to spend four days at this awesome leadership conference. I can't wait! I'm also hearing things from previous LC attendees that the conference center we stay at has nearly heavenly pillows - definitely a plus, right?! :P Now if only I can pick out some "business casual" and "professional" outfits...wish me luck!

Countdown: 15 days!