Feeling a little sentimental

With tomorrow being the last day of class for me EVER

as an undergraduate at the U,

I've become a teeny bit sentimental.

I've started looking at campus differently

and looking at teachers wondering if I'll ever see them again.

This chapter of my life has lasted a long time.

Since 2004 to be exact

{with a a couple of years off in between}.

But I made it.

Even when only one person thought I could.

I thought I'd share a few pics of my favorite day of class.

Jim decided to show a friend how to lasso properly.

Just randomly in the middle of class one day.

It was quite funny.

Until he said, "Now when I say jump, you better jump. Jump!"

He waved the rope above his head and it swung around my ankles.

Yep, little things like that, I never ever want to forget.

Now late night study sessions on the other hand, I think we could all live without those.

Embrace the Camera Day-different view of Joy

Jim's office, lots of photography/communication books. It's amazingly all organized.

I went to my photography class on Tuesday and to be honest, I was a little disappointed in myself.  It came my turn to show my portfolio and felt like anyone down. I am going to work harder to take better pictures and to take the time to edit them well. 

The topic from that day (once the teacher started to lecture) interested me greatly because we were talking about joy. I explained a little bit about this blog and how I am looking for joy everyday. 

This teacher, explained joy as I haven't heard it before. The assignment is to capture joy in a more intimate that only you could catch of a person that you love. He showed me two pictures. One of his daughter when she was a young brownie with her best friend, with their uniforms and white sneakers. The white sneakers totally make the picture. The other picture was of his wife, it's a profile of her smiling and the background is blurred. Both are quite beautiful. 

The suggestion then came to take pictures of Kevin. I have attempted to take pictures of him in the past, but he always looks lonely or has what I call a Chandler smile (a fake smile). Since then, if I have wanted a nice picture of Kevin, I've always made sure I was in it. Here's my first attempt. I have a plan to get Kevin to warm up to the camera by taking pictures of him tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. Even though, I already love this, even if it's just for me.

There's a thought for you, maybe it will inspire you take some joyful pictures? 

I hope so.

Convergence Text Story

College Students Need Healthy Options

by Ryan Agnew, Lisa Jones, Blakely Richmond and Zoe Cooper

We've all heard the term, "Freshman Fifteen," the declared title regarding college students and weight gain. Studies have shown that 3/4 of college students gain weight their freshman year, learning unhealthy habits that remain with them the rest of their life. These unhealthy habits will impact their weight for years to come.

Being that we ourselves are college students, we know the influences that fast food has on our busy lives. A lot of college students work while they are going to school, making our lives full of deadlines and a rush-rush attitude. For instance after working an eight or nine hour shift at work, it's late in the evening, the typical college student still has to head home and do homework or study. It was a long day and most college students are starving constantly, so given the option of going home and preparing a meal that will take time and effort or just stopping by a convenient drive thru on the way home, the majority of students would probably take option two.  Most students know that fast food is not good for them but with our lives in constant motion, we often suppress our nagging conscious and give in to the evils of fast food.

"Whether students like to admit it or not, many college students find themselves gorging on quick, convenient fast food on a regular or semi regular basis throughout their college years. Male students in particular choose to frequent fast food restaurants, due to its easy accessibility and relatively cheap price. Female students also were guilty of eating at fast food joints but they did not go as much because most female students were conscious about their weight and how many calories they were willing to ingest. Aside from being convenient and relatively inexpensive, research studies revealed that peer pressure also led many students to find their way to fast food. The study showed that when students friends wanted to go get some late night fast food, they felt compelled that they needed to follow the pack and often indulge themselves while there, even if they didn’t necessarily want any fast food to begin with."

With more than 30 percent of college students falling into the American College Health Association's obese or overweight categories, it's easy to see our concern. Too many students just may not have the healthy options available or accessible. At the Heritage Center here at the University of Utah, nutritional facts are not provided in the dining hall. There could be a difference for many students, in what they choose to eat, if they know what's in their food. 

While weight gain is the main concern on most of our minds, let's not forget that many students suffer from other eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. According to the Massachusetts Eating Disorders Association, 40 percent of female college students have eating disorders and 91 percent of female college students have attempted to control their weight through dieting. These statistics focus on women, which does not mean that eating disorders are not common for men and women alike. Eating disorders are more common than we realize and the hard part about being away from home is that for college students the eating disorder goes unnoticed. 

This happens to work both ways. Our bad habits that we gain during our college experience whether gaining or losing weight, will almost always go unnoticed at school and our friends may be in denial from their own disorders. Some may not even know the signs of an eating disorder. 

What can we do about this? It seems that too many students are at the extreme when it comes to eating. Yale University has set the example by providing healthy options to their students along with the information on what's best to be eating. They have even taken out white bread from their cafeteria.  Some schools such as Lincoln University are even making all obese students take a fit for life class. Experts say that the thing to do would be to make everyone take the fit for life class in the future to start making a difference. 

Statistically, 66 percent of college students don't consume the recommended amount of daily fruits and vegetables, 50 percent of all students get enough fiber intake, and 60 percent eat too much saturated fat. 

Starting bad eating habits now will almost guarantee bad habits for the future. Do you want the future of college students to be the next Biggest Loser contestant? It's time to bring the word healthy into college. 

Convergence Sounds Video

Remember the Convergence Video? Our project is actually on college students and what they eat. For example, "Freshman 15, truth or myth?" 

This particular assignment happened to be just sounds. Oh the sounds of food. Jim was impressed because everyone else had an interview as their sound. This was a lot of fun and I spent a lot of time editing out the laughing.

Convergence Video

Today started out a little rough. As usual, I was pretty tired when I woke up and hit the snooze button. Kevin kept trying to keep waking me up but I wouldn't. I ended up missing my first class and threw on clothes for next class. Luckily, I did make it on time for my convergence class.

Convergence Journalism is simply this: You learn how to make news videos.

For journalism students, we all know how to write and for the most part, take a decent picture. We've learned the very basics of layout enough to squeeze by. Oh but what about that thing we call the evening news? Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Don't ask on how to use a video camera and let alone edit the it.

For this reason alone, I'm glad that this class was added on to the curriculum.

On this particular day we talked about sound and how we can use it. We talked about how sound can be very effective and why natural sound is the strongest. Our teacher introduced us to media storm and now I am hooked. The images are powerful, I want to learn how to take better pictures like that.

At the end of class, came the big let down. This teacher gave us a huge "required" extra credit assignment when I thought my group was ahead (note the word required). It may not seem like a lot when you read what it is, but trying to fit it in the busy schedule of three students in one day, almost impossible. I was pretty upset.

The list: Film and notice the sound in these places.

1. interview someone at a trax (train) station

2. interview someone at the union building

3. interview someone in an office

4. interview someone in an ideal place for sound, that you are not allowed to ever use in this class

The time to go to all these places, ugh, oh boy. We made it though.

Started with the ideal place for sound, in a studio. It included me without any makeup on and last minute thrown on clothes.

We then went to that particular teacher's office and he wouldn't let us interview him. So I did the next best thing. I called daddy, who of course let us come in to his office (not dressed as I should have been) and film him. It changed my whole entire mood, as he said, "This is cool." He even gave us his business card to prove that we worked on the assignment.

The next steps weren't that burden some anymore and my team member Ryan seeing how tired I was, agreed to the film his friend at the Union. The video didn't turn out that bad and we made our point about sound.

Thanks to daddy who saved the day. As a side note, I did eventually end up going home and showering that day.

My teammates think I have the coolest dad ever and I know that I do. I'm glad my dad thinks that I'm important. Maybe that's why that even though I'm grown up, I still call him daddy.

The day I felt I let everyone down

Saturday, was just a hard day. I was really sick and my mouth was hurting really badly. I think I've developed some sort of toothache and probably an infection in my gum. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it would hurt so bad. I broke my tooth back in July and thought nothing of it because it didn't hurt. Plus, while we have insurance, we just didn't have the money to go see the dentist. (I'm almost done paying off the doctor bills) I pretty much forgot about my tooth until it started to hurt.

Sadly, on Saturday it was the day of the big race. I trained for it and everything. Somehow, I just had to catch a cold the week of, miss lots of class, sleep away the days, not update the blog, not finish my homework, not read textbooks, not unpack, not clean and just sleep the time away. I hated it. There's a famous quote from my favorite book. "When you're in bed, you're dead."

I certainly felt like that. My sister-in-law Bethany came over the morning of and must of freaked out by the mess she saw. I bet she couldn't believe the amount of clothes that were everywhere. I did have them organized but the flimsy rack that they were hanging on decided to break. We just didn't have enough time to get a new one.

While they were gone, I did a lot of sleeping and when I woke up, a lot of cleaning. Mostly because I was pretty upset that I have lost Nie Nikon once again in the same week. I found it earlier in the week in a HUGE pile of laundry. So I attempted to search for it once again while trying to organize everything. Second let down, is because I had some amazing pictures of the Nixon family and their garden, which I still plan to share with you (once I find the camera). I just hope it's around the apartment and not in the Comm building.

I literally waste so much time looking for things around this apartment. I think I've lost my mind and I feel so behind on everything. However, I have a plan to buy hooks to put keys and cameras on so I don't lose them. I just don't know where to put my glasses quite yet.

I felt bad not running the race. They had such a great time! Just look how dirty they got. Lexi ran with my team and replaced me. It was nice of her to do that and be covered with mud, literally.

When Kevin came home, there was no sign of Nie Nikon and the place still wasn't that clean. Too many boxes still, if you ask me.

Luckily, I have a forgiving husband and took me out to buy a new rack to hang my clothes on after he came home (and showered, of course). Then he gave me a coupon to Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt to use after Women's Conference. Good thing too, Jen and I had a wonderful time just catching up. We both had cake batter mixed with red velvet cake, with cheesecake bites on top. Way to end a hard day.

I'm sorry if I let you down. This whole sick thing better end soon.

I also really hope that this teacher has Nie Nikon. I have two classes in the same room. I'm hoping that it was an honest mistake there.

I'm going to the dentist later today, lucky me. First time in almost two years. Poor person who has to clean my teeth. I think they'll have to pull that tooth out. We'll see.