Nearing the Homestretch!!

The past couple of weeks has about killed me! Here is a list of things that I have done within the last 14 days...
- Turned in 3-5 page paper for English
- Took Psychology Exam (And studied... I got a 90!)
- Dressed up as a molecule of helium for extra credit (Will explain)
- Turned in a 3 page paper on aerobic respiration for my lab class
- Went to work every day (2-5:30 pm)
- Did 2 stay-over babysitting nights
- Taught my first Relief Society lesson (Women's Sunday School)
- Got signed up for second semester classes
- Did a BUNCH of math homework
- Went to institute on Tuesdays (7-8:45pm)
- Attended several S.I. sessions (Monday 5:30 pm, Tuesday 7:30 am, Thursday 8 am)
- Study for Biology exam (due Friday! ahhhh!)
- Study for Math exam (due Friday... HELP!
- Got my Ecclesiastical Endorsement for SVU (mailing it tomorrow)

So you can imagine my stress! But I found out today that I have only 3 more classes in my Biology lab class... And then my lab practical! That means that my other classes aren't far behind!

Ok so my extra credit was due today for biology... 30 extra points is just too good to give up! We had to dress up as something to do with biology. I decided to go as a molecule of helium. I had a hula-hoop suspended around me with fishing wire, paper protons and neutrons taped to my shirt, balloons as electrons, and a cape and crown. (Helium is a noble gas... my sister had the brilliant idea of the cape and crown!) My professor loved it!

 

I'm just glad it's done! Now tomorrow is Halloween, and I have a DENTIST APPOINTMENT at 8:15 in the morning! At least it's before the candy! I have a party with my Young Single Adult friends from church... I am NOT dressing as helium... I'm going as Eponine from Les Miserables! The next day is a full day at work because the kids are out of school, so it's going to be interesting! I will post more hopefully tomorrow!!

 

Happy Halloween!

Confessions-- A little bit more about me!

I haven't really taken time to introduce myself. I have mostly posted about college, so I decided to do some confessions to let you know a little more about me.

1) I am a Mormon. I will share my beliefs in my posts, but to learn even more, visit www.mormon.org.

2) I am a self-proclaimed nerd. Okay, so I don't stay up until 3 am playing video games, but I do get excited (sometimes over excited) about things like Harry Potter, Dr. Who, Sherlock... You name it. I am also a history nerd... I love visiting old houses and museums to see how people used to live.

3) I love to read. I haven't had as much time as I would like lately, but I love curling up with a good book. I like a variety of genres, but I especially enjoy fiction/fantasy/sci-fi because it gives me the opportunity to "escape" the real world.

4) I play music. I am a fiddler/violinist (fiddle first) and I play piano by ear. I hate reading music, but I will if I am forced to.

5) I am addicted to Pinterest. No explanation required.

6) I am shy, but once I am comfortable around someone... Watch out! I like to be goofy and crazy with my friends, but in school and other situations, I am usually pretty quiet.

7) I like to "invent" recipes. I like to take a recipe and make it my own. If I don't have a certain ingredient, I like to improvise and put in other yummy ingredients. (Once I made peanut butter chocolate chip Nutella cookies... Talk about sugar!)


8) I love my family. I will be posting a lot about what I do with my family... But let me say now... They are crazy! At least I know where I get it from ;)

 

9) I am a Mississippi girl. I lived in MS until I was 15. I like to talk about my childhood experiences I had in MS... Just you wait!

10) I am Just Being Krislee. That's why I named my blog this. Anything I post in here is a reflection on something about my life or personality.

Busy, busy busy!!!

I haven't posted all week because of my hectic schedule!! I will post more tomorrow... With all the painful details!

Busy Week Ahead!

I am about to call it a day and head to bed. I have had time to look over my schedule for this week... And it's pretty daunting, though I have seen worse!

I have school/work all week... Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have class from 8:25-1:50 (Biology, English, Math and Psychology), and then work from 2:15-5:30. Monday I have an SI session (Supplemental Instruction for Biology... It's basically a study group because Biology has such a high fail rate.) from 5:30 to 6:30-ish... PLUS my sister's 15th birthday is on Monday!!

Tuesdays and Thursdays I have only one class... Sociology. Let me tell you this now... I HATE Sociology. It is one of the most pointless classes I have ever taken. This weekend I had to write a two page paper on a documentary that my instructor didn't even watch himself... SERIOUSLY???? I honestly sleep during the class period, but it doesn't really matter because he emails us the test and we can use any resource we want. SO I can just Google the questions and voila! I get an A on the test.
      ANYWAYS that's my only class that day from 10:45-12:05... and then I work from 2-5:30.

Tuesday nights I have institute... It's a religious study group kind of like a Bible study. We go and learn more about our faith (LDS or Mormon) and then hang out afterwards (Chipotle is a favorite!).

Wednesday I have to leave work early for my Biology lab... I pretty much hate it. Luckily it's only one day a week. Once I'm done with lab, I feel like the worst of the week is done, because Thursdays and Fridays go by pretty quickly!

Thursdays are pretty laid back, though I occasionally go to the SI session. Fridays are awesome (when I don't have tests) because once I am done with school, I go to work, where we watch a movie. I work at one of the local elementary schools' after-school program... So I get PAID to watch a movie!

Then once 5:30 rolls around on a Friday, I can finally go home and relax for two days... If you count staying up until midnight doing homework as relaxing...

I managed to get my massive pile of homework done this weekend, which I will tell more about later, but for now I need to get to bed!

My College Decision... (Drumroll Please!)

Okay, so I know that my posts so far have all been about college, and I promise that I will start posting on other things, but college has been the #1 thing in my life right now... I am currently preparing to transfer out of Pellissippi next year, so for the past few weeks I have been trying to see which college I will attend for the next few years. I had three choices... Brigham Young University-- Idaho, University of Tennessee, and Southern Virginia University.

SVU has always been my first choice, but it is a private Liberal Arts college, so it was too expensive. BYU-I is a religiously affiliated school (LDS or Mormon to be exact) and it was my second choice... But I hate the cold, so I know that I would not survive in Idaho!!! My third choice was UT, which is a good school and I love going to the football games, but it is literally 20 minutes from my house and I want to go to a college that is further away from home.

SVU has a REALLY REALLY small student body and campus... Which I like, because it means that a student is more than a number there. With less than 1,000 students, the faculty is able to form personal relationships with each of their students. The school president has a picture of EVERY SINGLE STUDENT in his office, so he keeps his duty to this school in mind. With such a small, intimate campus, I would be able to make more meaningful friendships instead of just passing by people on a bigger campus.

So I was heartbroken about not being able to attend SVU, so I was planning on BYU-I. I was trying to persuade my parents into letting me go... (They don't want me to go to school too far away.) So I was researching pros and cons of going to SVU and BYU-I. The biggest thing was tuition, so I was researching tuition for both schools... BYU-I is no more than $12,000 a year. When I was looking up SVU, however, something caught my eye. There was an article that said that the school president announced a lowering of the cost of tuition for the 2014-15 school year. You can see the article here.
THEY LOWERED THEIR TUITION BY ABOUT $10,000!!!!!
You can only imagine my excitement! With this new cost, I will be more willing to take out student loans and it will be easier to bridge the gap with scholarships! My parents are UBER excited! I will be an SVU Knight next year!

 Main hall and the famous Knight statue!                   Behind Main Hall... I have heard that many
                                                                                     ultimate Frisbee games have happened here!

Here are some more pics from behind Main Hall in autumn and winter... SO pretty!

 



 

 The institute building... (I will explain more
 about institute later for those of you who
don't know what it is!)                                             Beautiful town of Buena Vista, VA!

Main Hall                                            Students behind Main Hall!

Campus!

 

I seriously can't wait until next Fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy schedule? Me too!

The past few months have put so much stress on me that I swear my hair is going to start to fall out! It always seems that tests line up on the same day (Sometimes I swear that professors hold secret meetings to schedule tests on the same day!). I always have a paper due in one class or another (I just finished a paper last night on a documentary that my instructor hasn't even watched himself.). I have often wondered to myself: "How can I make more time for fun? I am constantly busy!"

LUCKILY I managed to get into the swing of things quickly! Here are some things that I did to help me manage my time better.

1) Buy a planner!!!! I can't stress this enough! I am literally addicted to my planner. My life depends on it. I write down due dates, upcoming events, etc. There have been so many times where I have forgotten about an assignment... Luckily it was in my planner! Seriously though, invest in a planner. You can thank me later. :)

2) I can't stress this enough, but... DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!!
Didn't hear it? Well I will say it again! DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully that got through to you. This is the key to anyone's success. If you want time to hang out with friends, set deadlines for your school work... DON'T think that putting it completely off will make it go away.
                Here's a couple of scenarios for you:

             Your friends ask if you want to go to the mall with them (or anywhere) tonight.

You look at your handy-dandy planner and see that you have an English paper due next week, a math assignment due in two days, a Biology test in three days and a lab practical in one week. Your friends are coming over soon, so you decide to push your homework back until tomorrow, I mean, you have lots of time, right?

Wrong! Who knows when you will have time next? It's okay to hang out with friends, just make sure that your priorities are done. Here is what could have been done to make the situation better...

On Sunday you take time to study out your week in your planner. You just got the assignment for the English paper, so you make goals in order to get the task done. On each day of the week you write "write 1 paragraph on English paper" so that you don't have to sit for hours at a time in your desk staring at the computer. Same thing with studying... Write "study X minutes a day" in you planner and you will find that to be much more affective than cramming it all in the night before.

On Tuesday your friends ask you if you want to hang out. You already have 3 out of the 5 paragraphs done on your paper, have studied quite a bit for Biology and your lab practical, and have finished half your math homework. BECAUSE YOU BROKE YOUR ASSIGNMENTS INTO SMALLER SEGMENTS YOU HAVE MORE TIME FOR FUN... INSTEAD OF HAVING FUN ON MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY AND THEN SLAVING AWAY AT YOUR HOMEWORK THE REST OF THE WEEK. This is a lesson that I have had to learn numerous times, and I still am tempted to put off assignments at times. But I have seen the positive effects of a little bit of work per day over cramming everything at the last minute. Trust me. Your life will be more enjoyable and your grades will skyrocket.

 





Advantages of Attending Community College

I decided that community college was my best choice for my freshman year. I had originally planned to attend Southern Virginia University, but the $28,000 tuition and fee check was one that made my wallet hurt.

Just know that while community colleges aren't the most exciting things in the world, they do have several advantages!!
Here is a list of advantages I have made...

1) Community colleges tend to be MUCH cheaper than other colleges and universities.
   ~I am attending Pellissippi State Community College right now, and the total tuition is no more than $3,000... MUCH less than SVU!! Besides, I am planning to transfer to SVU next year... That's almost $30,000 I saved myself by going to a community college.

2) Community college courses can be simpler than other colleges and universities
 Disclaimer:  This does NOT mean that they are "easy..." While they may be easier than other universities, they should not be taken lightly!!!

3) Community colleges are a great transition from high school to college.
    ~Several people complain that Pellissippi is just like high school... I found similarities, but there are significant differences. You have more freedom in your schedule. Also, you are attending school with people of all ages. Several people in my classes are married and/or have children. But yes, it is very similar to high school in class structure.

4) Attending a community college gives you time to figure out what you want to do.
    ~There is a variety of courses available at most community colleges, ranging from English to Culinary Arts. If you don't know what you want to study at the end of you senior year, a community college will buy you time to decide what you want your major to be. Several colleges even have agreements with 4-year universities that allow easy transfers IF you are able to maintain a certain GPA.

5) Community colleges are easy to get into!
    ~ Unless you have like a 0.00 GPA, you can pretty much get into a community college. So if your high school GPA isn't as high as you would like it to be, go to a community college! Your GPA is a clean slate, so with hard work and dedication you can get a better GPA and be able to attend a college of your choice!

All-in-all, I am glad that I chose Pellissippi this year over SVU... I am taking 16 credits (talk about stress!) that will transfer to SVU next year. There have been disadvantages to going, such as missing out on dorm life and having significant time to meet new people. I pretty much go to school, listen to a lecture, go to work, then come home and do homework. I have a busy schedule, but everything I do now is going towards my ne life at SVU. I hope this helps with your college decision! Remember that going to a community college is not something to be ashamed of!!

Update: I have posted about my official college decision! Plus there are pictures of campus!