Alison, '12

Soaked!

Alison — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:14:36 +0000

Remember how I told you that I loved rainy days? Are you also familiar with the expression “too much of a good thing”? Last week, a hurricane drenched Richmond with day after day of freezing rain. This wasn’t just any rain. Forget the lazy rain that falls in fat dollops, making casual puddles and muddying up the grass. This rain was determined. It blew in sideways, sometimes even seeming to come from both directions at once. It stung. The cold came in after a few days of freakishly warm weather. I was glad that it finally felt like November instead of mid-May, but wished the transition had been a bit more gradual. On the first day of our surprise cold front, I waltzed outside wearing shorts, flip-flops, and a light sweater. Of course I was already late for a class on the other side of campus and had no time to switch out. This is what happens when you dress in the dark and your only access to a window is blocked by your roommate’s bed, I suppose!The massive quantities of rain made a thrilling contribution to the James River. My friends and I like to jog across the Huguenot bridge, right near campus, and normally spend half the time we’re on it commenting on the visibility of the rocks from above. Geese hang out on these rocks, which are just barely covered, and look like they’re walking on water. The hurricane turned what usually appears to be a really wide creek into this:If you’ve read more than one of these posts, you probably think I’m obsessed with this river. It isn’t true. Really. The channel 12 news crew thought this was worth seeing too!I left the rain clouds of Richmond for the sunny skies of Knoxville, Tennessee on Friday night. Under the convenient cover of touring the Veterinary school at UT, Knoxville, I spent the weekend hanging out with my friend Mallory (if you’ve read more than one of these posts, you probably think I’m obsessed with her too. Again – not so.) On Monday , I went to class with my friend Nellie’s cousin over at the Vet School. I sat in on anatomy, immunology, and physiology. I was both pleased and pleasantly surprised by the number of terms I recognized. It was weird to hear concepts references in terms of various dog and cat breeds, but I obviously enjoyed it! After classes ended, I got a grand tour of the small, large, and exotic animal facilities. When I left, Mallory asked me how everything was. Knowing that she was being polite and had literally no interest in everything I was bursting to tell someone, I held back on sharing the thrilling details of my morning until I got my mother on the phone. She got an earful. I figure that, as my mom, it’s her biological duty to listen to my excited rants, no matter how uninteresting she may find them. I’m pretty sure I got put on speaker at least once.Well, a fantastic weekend is always followed by a proportionately annoying week of schoolwork. Good thing I’m headed to ODU (Old Dominion University) to visit with my high school bffs this Friday! I love having all these things to look forward too. Too bad after Thanksgiving the next thing I get to anticipate is FINALS. Uff.

Thoughts to consider

Alison — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:12:45 +0000

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, or who you’re with. Everybody wants to fit, at least on some level. I consider myself a fairly self-confident individual, but even when I’m going my own way (which is more or less always), there’s a big piece of me that wishes I wasn’t, or that wishes MY own way was the same as everyone else’s. These sorts of feelings don’t just apply to social groups, even though that’s where most people tend to face it.

Over the summer, I re-realized my life-long goal of becoming a veterinarian. It was really random. I was reading an article on AOL news about cat meows and reciting random lines from it for my mother. She made an off-handed comment that I’m sure she hadn’t meant for me to take seriously. “You can still be a vet, you know.” For the longest time, I’d shoved it to the back of my mind and tried to bury it beneath forced interested in what most people consider “successful” careers. I’d talk airily about majoring in finance or pursuing law, ignoring the gut-wrenching feeling, the terrible and ever-present fear of being bored for my entire adult life after throwing myself into a field that I had absolutely no real interest in. When my mom said that, it was like someone threw a switch inside of me. I remembered what it was like to really want something again.

Friends at Richmond Animal League (aka my favorite place to work/visit)

I’m the kind of person who lives to impress. It felt good telling my family that I’d be going into the fields they’d had planned out for me, changing up my story a little bit depending on who I was talking to. Then I realized that no matter how good everyone else felt about what I was doing or what I told them I was doing, it still wouldn’t make me enjoy it any more. I still hate knowing that even though my family wants me to be happy, they’re still disappointed I’m not going to be raking in a six-figure salary. I’m alright with it now, more so than I was. I have a direction again, one that I’m thrilled about. For the first time in quite awhile, I’m excited about the rest of my life. And that is a fantastic feeling.

Nothing can make me as happy as puppies do! McDonald’s is a close second. Mmm.

I suppose the whole point of this little rant was that no matter what your family tells your, there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be. This is one of those you-knew-it-all-along-you-just-didn’t-know-you-knew things that they talk about in movies, I think. I was lost, but I found myself…and so can you. Listening helps. Listening to yourself, to your friends, and to the silent space that surrounds you every night as you fall asleep. Don’t I sound like I know what I’m talking about?

Halloween

Alison — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:15:58 +0000

I spent this past Halloween with my friend Rae at Virginia Tech. While we were officially dressed as members of the six teams from Legends of the Hidden Temple, our entire group could have easily been mistaken for a pack of drowned rats. When I first stepped out of the car to greet Rae at around 2 that afternoon, the air was crisp and cool. The wind was blowing gently, coaxing the last remaining leaves around her apartment to let go and flutter to the ground. When we left for her friend’s party at around 11:30 that night, it was pouring rain. The temperature had dropped far enough that we could see our breath (obviously we took this opportunity to pretend we had cigarettes and blow “smoke” at each other). In our Halloween haste, no one thought to grab an umbrella even though we could clearly see that the weather was unfavorable as soon as we stepped outside.Tech isn’t like University of Richmond, where the farthest you’ll ever be from a party is about a ten or twelve minute walk. The place we were headed was twenty minutes away on foot, but only about 5 by bus. Since it was raining, we opted to take the bus. Too bad the one we were waiting for was twenty minutes late, so instead of briskly moving in the direction of loud music and, more importantly, a roof, we huddled together next to the bus stop sign and wondered why Tech’s award-winning transportation system just wasn’t doing it’s job. After finally arriving at Rae’s friend’s place, we toweled off briefly then went around mingling and gawking at the more ridiculous costumes we saw. The next morning, the weather was back to bright and breezy. We didn’t have a drop of rain on the drive home…you know, when it wouldn’t have mattered whether or not it was raining because we were in a car. At least the traffic was light and the scenery was beautiful - I love the picturesque country landscape that lines the highway from UR to Tech. I have a bad habit of announcing whenever I see a cow to all the other passengers in the car, and since this ride was filled with cow sightings I had my work cut out for me.I was happy to get back to campus, to be somewhere familiar where I knew how everything worked and where everything was. My first stop was, quite naturally, DHall, and then the library to catch up on all the work I hadn’t done over Friday and Saturday. Call me a nerd (really, it’s ok - I am one), but I simply adore our library. There are so many little study nooks to curl up in, quiet out-of-the-way places that force you to focus, and common areas filled with chatting students that are perfect for socializing. 8:15, the coffee shop in Boatwright Library, is another are I enjoy. They make a great hot chocolate and do a good job of including lots of options for non-coffee drinkers like myself in their menu. As a matter of fact, that’s where I’m off to now! I’m kinda excited. Alright, alright. I’m more than kinda excited. I’m going to the Pier first to pick up food then having a quiet section picnic.Have a good weekend!! Sorry again for the spacing problems!

Fun Run Number One

Alison — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:42:45 +0000

___My Saturday started much earlier than usual this weekend. I rolled out of bed at 7:45, then got in the car and headed towards my first actual 5k road race (often called a “fun run”…oxymoron?) with Kaarin and Sarah from Sprinting Spiders. Kaarin’s high school hosted the 5k, called Sprint for Clint, to raise money to cover the medical expenses of one of their cross country runners who was severely injured in a car accident. It was in a small town near Farmville, Virginia, about an hour and a half from campus. The roadside farmer’s markets all had signs posted saying “Please Pray for Clint” – it was very sweet. Our run consisted primarily of wooded trails behind the high school, almost all of which was made up of tall, steep hills in very close proximity. Sprinting Spiders ran a 5k last weekend on an entirely flat course. That’s the sort of run I’d been expecting! I made alright time…31 minutes for 3.1 miles haha. Needless to say, I will be running much harder next time! The run had a great turn out, with runners from all age groups. A ten year old boy definitely sprinted past me to the finish line.___Sarah and I powered through our showers and booked it over to Dhall. After burning off all those calories, we simply had to replenish them as soon as possible! I was literally ravenous, or as Sarah said, “ravenous like a raven.” We went from Dhall to Regency Mall in order to check out the latest Forever 21 clearance sale items. The logical next step was obviously a stop off at Toys ‘R Us, where we spent more time and had more fun than we did at Dhall and Regency combined. Most of our time was spent squealing over the robotic stuffed animal toys that move in response to your touch, then hiding whenever we heard the footsteps of our fellow adult shoppers. One of us then conceived a genius plan for the remainder of our afternoon: making cookie dough to eat completely raw. Yumm. My friend Heather was home from UVA and she came along for the deliciousness, bringing some ingredients along in plastic baggies. The whole experience kinda made me wish I’d picked up an easy-bake oven at the toy store. Anyways, for a rainy, gross day that started far too early, I had a pretty fantastic time!___Next weekend I’ll be going to Virginia Tech for Halloween, making rounds as a member of the green monkeys team from Legends of the Hidden Temple. I’m slightly disappointed about missing Halloween desserts in Dhall, but it’ll be worth it to see my friend Rae and hang out at a big, state school on such a great night of the year!

“Riv”ing it up

Alison — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:56:32 +0000

____In terms of workload, this has quite possibly been the easiest week of my entire college career. My Spanish class, Peoples and Cultures of Latin America, was canceled because the professor is unable to return for the rest of the semester. We were given the option to chose between taking a half unit for the class and receiving a grade of “pass” or to take a full unit upon completion of a graded independent research project. For those who are unfamiliar with the unit system, one unit is equivalent to 3.5 semester hours and most classes are one unit. I chose the second option, and haven’t had to attend class all week…nor will I have to attend class at all…again. Because of fall break and a Chemistry conference out of town, my lab was canceled for the week, leaving me with yet another free block of time to fill as I saw fit.____After having nothing to do except work ahead (and let’s face it, that just doesn’t happen), I decided it was time to fill the week with a little adventure. My friend Sarah and I went out for one of our chik-fil-a picnics down by the James River, aka the Riv, and wasted an entire afternoon scampering across rocks, climbing trees, dangling from vines, and confusing all the dog walkers. The air smelled like crisp, fallen leaves and cool earth. I believe the word Sarah repeatedly used to describe it was “delightful.”___The forecast predicted a sunny, 80 degree day. While it was sunny, it didn’t quite hit 80 degrees. By that I mean, it hovered at around 65. We certainly weren’t freezing, but needless to say both of us were glad that we hadn’t decided to attempt tanning and wear a bathing suit! The place we went, Pony Pasture, is about a five minute drive from campus. You could walk it, but I doubt you’d want to. And, just an FYI, there aren’t any ponies. When we first showed up, we were basically alone. By the time we’d snarfed down the last of our waffle fries, the place had started filling up with families being professionally photographed, couples acting romantic (which we watched awkwardly), and classes of students. I took the liberty of yelling “helloooo” and waving dramatically at one of the classes as we drove away, and Sarah immediately swore she would never allow me in her vehicle again. It reminded me how, on our 10-hour trek to her house, my friend Mallory kept getting mad at me for waving at truck drivers haha.____In other news, this week was advising week, and everyone is busy picking out classes for next semester. I’m hoping to take Organic Chemistry I, Comparative Animal Physiology, Genetics, and Literary Spain. Unfortunately, those are all offered on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and the three science classes each come with one three-hour afternoon lab a-piece. Although I can do a bit of finagling, I have a hunch that my Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are going to be jam-packed. At least I’ll have easy Tuesdays and Thursdays! Scheduling for me is October 30^th, and after that I’ll need to concern myself with Study Abroad plans for next year. Exciting!!___I apologize again for the awkward lack of spacing. The domain I use to post with is not cooperating or saving my spaces between paragraphs!