April 24, 2006
It's the last journal entry already! I can't believe it. The beginning of the school year seems like just yesterday, with moving in, orientation week, meeting everyone for the first time, NSOP for ROTC and all that. I remember before I got here, I was worried that ROTC was going to be too intense or something, primarily because I second-guess myself a lot, but I totally got into the swing of things, academically and in ROTC. Even though it seems like this year went by so quickly, I still look back and realize that I've changed a lot since then. I've learned so much, and experienced so many changes, and grown up a lot and become more responsible. I also got used to college stress, which I find to be a lot different than anything you experience at home or in high school. I wouldn't necessarily say that anyone is worse than the other, but they are different and I think you have to learn how to handle them in different ways.
For my last two weeks at school I moved out of McKay into Doolittle with one of my friends. I just wasn't getting along with one of my roommates and I realized my efforts to make it work were futile, so I think I made the best decision in moving. Instead of making it an issue of faults, I decided it was best for me to be the one to leave because I had people willing to take me. This also made me learn a few lessons I thought I would share because I'm sure many of you will go through the same thing. Most people are worth the effort of making friends with them, but when there are those that don't appreciate you or don't value everyone as a human being like they are, those people are not worth your time, effort, or worries. Also remember, you are in college, away from your parents because you are expected to act like an adult, so act like one. Be responsible for your actions and decisions. Lastly, if someone doesn't treat you with the respect you deserve, don't sink to their level and do the same. You will end up feeling a lot better knowing you did the right thing. Getting the last word in isn't always the most important thing, because in the end it will be obvious who did the right thing, and that is the best part.
ROTC ended for the semester on Friday the 21st with PIR for spring. It felt good knowing I don't have any more ROTC stuff to think about for the next couple months. I'm also looking forward to the challenges of being a 200 and doing FTP (field training preparation).
On Thursday (April 27th), I'm going to be going home for two weeks between Spring and Summer A. My flight leaves just a couple hours after my last final. As soon as I go home, I just want to lay down on the couch and not get up and just enjoy the solitude for a while. Then I'm going to go hang out with some old friends so we can catch up and maybe go to some shows in Seattle.
It's so hard to believe that a year of college is already behind me. I just can't get over that. With all the rough stuff that comes with the first year of college, I really appreciate this first year I had. No matter where you end up going to school, college is definitely worth going to. Well I've really enjoyed writing for all of you this year, and I hope everyone has a great summer, and I'll see some of you either over the summer or next fall! Be sure to say hi to me when you see me! And of course, you can still get in touch with me anytime at kenyonj@erau.edu! Thanks so much for reading everyone!
March 23, 2006
Hey everyone! Here it is: Spring Break. And I'm in Daytona. I'm really glad I stayed here, even though almost everyone else went home. I went to the beach yesterday, which was fun. Windy, but fun. I'm also trying to make the most out of having my room to myself. Both my roommates went out of town, so this week I have everything to myself. It's great. There's been a fair amount of getting in trouble for people down here, probably partly due to the increase in cops, and also the novelty of a week with no school and nice weather. I've been trying to steer clear of trouble as best as I can though ;)
A couple weeks ago, one of the "super-seniors" here, who was also in AFROTC, was killed in a motorcycle accident. That Friday we had a memorial service, which was really sad, but also very beautiful in a way. I didn't know him very well other than that he was my ROTC mentor in September. Condolences to the Brooks family.
Oddly enough, I don't really have a whole lot else to report. I'm looking forward to the semester ending so I can go back home again. It'll only be about two or so weeks that I'm home, but there's a lot I want to do when I finally get back, so I'm excited about that. The trip home in itself is always somewhat of an adventure as well. That's all for now. Any questions? kenyonj@erau.edu and post them on the discussion board. Later, kids!
March 6, 2006
Hey everybody! Hope you all are doing well. I can't believe my freshman year of college is already 75% behind me! And I still haven't even turned 18 yet! I had loads and loads of stress building up these past few weeks, what with finals coming up and a lot of bad things seemed to fall in as well. On Wednesday of this last week, I had my finals so all my classes I've been having are done with. FOREVER. Luckily I passed everything so I don't have to retake any courses.
Starting Monday I'm going to have all new classes. Supposedly, they should be easier than the ones I just finished taking, so I guess that's good news. I have to prepare a briefing for my Air Force class on Thursday, and even though I don't really mind public speaking, I'm honestly not too stoked about it. I'm doing current Air Force-related events, but other possible topics were aviation history and Air Force aircraft.
Since I had my finals on Wednesday, that means I get to have a 4-day weekend this weekend. Yesterday I did some shopping with my friend, which was extremely relaxing. I'm not a shopaholic or anything, but it definitely made it seem like everything had returned to normal. Somewhat anyway. Now that I'm making a little more money than before doing the Annual Fund, I can relax a little bit more, but I still have to keep in mind that I'm trying to save my money so I can get a car in the next few months which I really need. I should be living on campus next fall, so it isn't completely vital, but it would really help me out in a lot of ways.
In other news, the motorcycles are pouring in by the hundreds for Bike Week and everything is getting pretty loud. Daytona also seems twice as crowded everywhere, with people coming in from all over. It's starting to warm up too, which is exciting. I love warm weather, and I've definitely gotten adjusted to the Florida climate. Whenever it drops below like 65 here I get pretty unhappy, whereas at home that would mean that summer was coming (or that it already was summer). I know when it is summer and I'm in my classes, lab time is going to suck. It gets so hot here in summer and the labs have no A/C, just one fan that's supposed to cool the entire class off.
Anyway, I gotta be off to prepare my briefing and maybe take a little nap. Any questions you can post on the discussion board. Later!
February 24, 2006
Hey, everyone! Hope everything is going well. We're almost at the end of the term, so my classes are wrapping up. I'm pretty glad about it because I honestly just want to move on for now. The winglet I've been building for sheet metal is starting to come along a little further, and some of my hall mates have taken some interest in it. Just on a side note, if you've been considering engineering as a major but would rather make stuff than do paperwork, it's possible you've been looking at the wrong major. Maybe you would be more interested in maintenance.
In other Riddle-related news, this week is the Daytona 500. Walking between classes, you can hear the cars on the track, and traffic in this area has been getting pretty bad at times, which is one of the very few things that makes me glad I don't drive anywhere. I'm really starting to feel the burn of not having a car.
The only consolation I can really offer myself in the way of lacking a car is that since I'm working now, I'm slowly building up my funds. I'm working at the Phone Center as a caller. What I do basically is sit at a desk and call alumni of the school and ask for donations to the Annual Fund, which gives the school money for scholarships and the like. It's a frustrating job, because you get a lot of refusals, and even when they have a really good reason, like they just got laid off or something, it makes you feel really inadequate because you feel like you can't do your job right. It's okay though, because I really need the money. Plus, I don't have to work on Sunday or Monday this week because of the 500 and President's day, so it's cool.
Adding this to my schedule doesn't help much with a lot of other things though like school work. I already have to make time in my schedule that I don't have to do ROTC, and now I have a job to fit in there somewhere too.
I'm like 90% sure I'm going to be staying in Daytona for spring break. One, a plane ticket is expensive, two, why go to WA for spring break when you could be in Florida? and, three, I might have other plans anyway, but I'll elaborate later. I don't know when I'll be home next, maybe sometime in between the end of Spring B and Summer A, but I'll focus on that more when I get there. Right now I need to focus on food cause I'm starving, so post any questions on the discussion board and I'll get back to you. Later!
February 9, 2006
Hey again, readers! Hope everyone is doing well. This past week has been pretty frustrating for me. I've had a lot of financial annoyances and difficulties getting my schedule to work out. If any of you reading this plan to do both AFROTC and AMS, be prepared to have to take a lot of matters into your own hands. Also, do your academics first. If you want to do any of the other branches, I'm just gonna say forget it. There's absolutely no way you'll be able to get that to work with your schedule. Because of all this I'm going to have to 'skip' LeadLab on Monday to do my class work. Basically, anyway you look at it, I got really screwed over, and it wasn't my fault. I think it's been a pretty stressful week for everyone and we're all kind of taking it out on each other.
Last week was the Rolex 24 at the Speedway. I'm honestly in no way interested in Nascar, but it was a lot of fun.
A lot of freshmen have been looking for a new place to live for either this summer or for next fall. I don't know if I mentioned this already, but I know I should probably be doing this too. Initially I was thinking about being an RA, because you get to live on-campus for free and you get paid. Not that you don't do a lot of work too, but it seemed like a good thing at the time. As it turns out though, since I'm doing the summer here, it's way too much of a time commitment that I just can't make. You have to do some 'training' and things like that over the summer and I know I just really wouldn't have the time to do it. But for people who do well, you get a place to live for free. And no roommate ? Even though it would be really helpful for me to live on-campus next fall, it's hit me that I should plan for the event that I don't get a room. But I'm still only 17! It's weird thinking about getting an apartment already, but I guess I might start looking into it as a back-up.
That's all for now; I have a lot of work to do. Post your questions on the discussion board, or e-mail any questions to kenyonj@erau.edu. Later!
January 26, 2006
Hey, everyone! I just want to start out this entry congratulating everybody who has gotten their acceptance letters already, and to all of you that will. So congratulations!
Now that it is second semester, and luckily I passed the General section of AMS, I've gotten into the Airframe section. I like it better, because I find it more interesting and relevant to 'the real world' but there are some new things to adjust to. Eight hours of class can be tiring, especially after getting two hours of sleep, but I'm managing just fine so far. Also, it's going to be harder to keep up once you fall behind since the pace is a little bit faster. The worst part of it for me, so far, is that I have to miss two hours of class a week to do Lead Lab since the schedule for AFROTC got changed up. Since I end up missing a whole day's work on my sheet metal projects, that puts me behind a lot, so I know already I'm going to end up pretty screwed. I kind of feel like ROTC looked over us cadets that have schedules that can't fit around theirs, but I guess that's life and looking on the bright side, this will help me in working out not-so-perfect situations.
With the new developments in my daily schedule comes the need to rework my time management plan. This semester I need to find my own time to do a lot of things, rather than have them already fit into my schedule. Right now there seem to be so many things I have to do, and not enough time to do it, my sleep and free time have been pretty compromised. Even though today's Saturday, I'm still exhausted.
In other news, I recently made a very good investment I thought you all should know about. A water filter. While it cost about $40, it ends up paying for itself. Florida water tastes like crap. I also have trouble believing it can be that good for you if you drink it for a prolonged amount of time. Buying a bunch of water bottles doesn't really work for me, and this thing I've got works really well, so just a thought.
Well, that's about it for now. As usual, any questions are welcome- kenyonj@erau.edu or post them on the discussion board. Later, kids!
January 5, 2006
Hey, everybody! Well, here I am late again on my deadline for this entry. I got back to Daytona this morning and it's actually pretty good to be back. I got pretty used to being home for a whole month, so it feels like somewhat of an adjustment being back now, but it's a beautiful day today. I'm totally exhausted, but let's see what I can come up with.
Break was really nice. Mostly I just watched TV and read a couple books and went to hang out with my old friends. I didn't really think of this much before, but living far from home really does change you in some way. When I was hanging out with my friends that are going to school in WA, at first I thought there was something about them that was really different. Then I realized they hadn't really changed at all, and it was me that was different. There were also a lot of things I felt they couldn't relate to because they had basically spent the past few months at home. I don't think that one is necessarily better than the other, going to school far away or at home, but I think you should be aware that some sort of change will take place. Personally, I know I made the right decision in going to school far from home, but I also know that what's right for one person isn't necessarily right for another. A lot of you have been wondering how I feel about going to school so far from home, but if you don't feel right about it, don't do it just because I said it was a great decision for me.
A first-time thing for me: I saw a person catch fire, in person. No one got hurt, everything was cool, it was just totally hilarious. If you are standing with your back to a candle and your back starts to feel really hot all of a sudden, move away, because you are probably on fire. So somebody had to learn that the hard way, but at least that mistake probably won't be repeated any time soon.
Classes start on January 11th. I don't know if I'm really ready to go back yet. Another couple weeks of watching TV and waking up at 2 would be totally fine with me. I would have no complaints whatsoever. But it's time and I'm going to go with it. I'm kind of having trouble being optimistic about paying to my laundry now. Oh yeah, that reminds me, for those of you getting ready to go off to college, make sure you know how to do your own laundry. I can't tell you how many freshman boys I've seen staring blankly and maybe even daunted, at the laundry machines for 10 minutes before they ask me how to use it, or what cycle such-and-such goes on. I have no doubt there are also girls out there whose mothers have always done their laundry for them, so don't get offended, guys. But so far all the girls I've met here have known what they're doing. If you can engineer spacecraft or fly an airplane, you can definitely handle a washing-machine, I promise! So if you can't do laundry, well, you're gonna have to learn sometime.
That's about it for now. I should probably finish up unpacking all my stuff - of which there was a lot. I don't really know how all that happened because I didn't leave with that much, but somehow I ended up coming back with a 56 pound suitcase (but I didn't have to pay the $25 surcharge. Thanks, airport lady!) plus a box full of all the other stuff I'm going to need which my mom is shipping to me- and that one must weigh like 70 pounds. So yeah, I've got some stuff to do, but feel free to email me with questions- kenyonj@erau.edu or post them on the discussion board http://messageboard.chatuniversity.com/erau_ug/default.asp
Later!
December 16, 2005
Hey readers! Well, this one I'm writing from home. It's kind of nice to be back but it's cold! There's ice everywhere so I can't go running outside and that kind of sucks. When I was in Florida, I forgot that cold weather has its effects. Like how you have to go slow on turns when there's ice on the ground (one of my neighbors almost got their living room taken out this morning). So anyway, I'm mostly grounded to indoor activities at the moment.
I visited my high school today and yesterday. The seniors right now are my class, and it was a reality check seeing everyone from my class last year still being in high school, and realizing that just a couple months set us really far apart. High school and college are very different places in many ways, and it struck me how much I've matured since I was back there. Everyone was pretty happy to see me and I was happy to see them and it was fun telling everyone what I've been up to and seeing how the school had changed without me. I'm really glad that I took the step to go to college early because I'm completely satisfied with where I am right now. I like being mostly self-sufficient.
Anyway, now that I'm home, I'm basically just working out a lot to get ready for my next PFT, reading, watching movies, visiting friends and enjoying non-campus food. It's also nice to sleep in when I feel like it. Well, I better be on my way, I have to enjoy this month home while it lasts! Keep the questions coming to kenyonj@erau.edu or on the discussion board http://messageboard.chatuniversity.com/erau_ug/default.asp
Later everyone!
December 9, 2005
Hey, readers! I apologize, I missed my deadline for my journal
last week because I was busy at home and then I was on a plane
at the time that I usually do this, so I'm sorry this is pretty
late. Anyway, so much stuff has happened since my last entry,
it's hard to know where to start! But I'll start with the base
visit.
The base visit was awesome. That's really the long and short
of it. After a really long bus ride up to South Carolina, we
finally got to our... hotel, I guess. It feels kind of wrong
calling it that, but that's basically what it was. We didn't
get much sleep the whole time. But we did soooo much, like meet
a general, PT with some active-duty airmen, fly in a C-17 to
Wright-Patterson to see the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH, and
tour a bunch of different parts of the bases.
Coming from Florida,
the temperatures in SC and OH were BRUTAL. It was like 20 degrees,
and every time the wind blew I thought my whole body would
freeze on the spot. When we got back to Daytona, I really appreciated
the warmth, humidity and lack of wind. If you plan on doing
on doing ROTC in the future, I definitely recommend going on
a base visit at least once because it gives you a good feel of
what the active duty lifestyle is for officers, plus it's a free
vacation!
Then, I went home to WA. It was weird being home for the first
time since I came to Riddle in so many ways, but it's hard to
explain all of them. The most obvious is that you just change
so much when you go to college, it's inevitable. It was an unsettling
feeling when it finally hit me that I don't live there anymore.
So really, "home" isn't really home anymore (at least
for me) and my new family is everyone I know at Riddle. I missed
everyone here so so so much. As soon as I landed in Seattle,
all I could think of was how much I already missed everyone.
It's actually pretty amazing how closely you become bonded a
lot of the people you get to know at school.
This was my last week of school, being in maintenance, but most
people have their finals for the rest of this following week.
On Monday instead of LLab, we had Pass-in-Review for ROTC, where
we stood at attention for a long time and marched around the
field in Service Dress (i.e. all fancy). That was the end of
ROTC for the semester, which is somewhat of an accomplishment,
just to have stuck with it and realize how much we've all learned
from it since the beginning of the year.
As usual, finals week was the most stressful thing ever. It
seemed like all the bad stuff that could possibly go wrong all
went wrong leading up to finals. For a while, I actually thought
I was going to fail electricity and it was really stressful trying
to figure out whether or not I was going to drop it when half
the class was on the verge of failing also. I decided to stick
with it though, and I'm really glad about it because I managed
to get an A on the final so I pulled through with a C. Normally,
I probably wouldn't be too pleased with that, but a C is way
better than repeating a course.
So from this whole experience,
I learned two important things: don't give up, even when your
goal seems unattainable (believe me, a week ago, getting an
A on my electricity final would have seemed unattainable) and
maybe more importantly, STUDYING DOES NOT MEAN YOU'RE STUPID.
It's taken a while for me to get that through my head, but I'm
realizing it's true. Even the kid that acts like he's a natural
at everything probably studies more than anyone else, in secret
of course. Don't feel stupid opening your books, whatever school
you're at.
Since I'm going home on the 10th and am going to be off for
more than a month, I have to admit that I'm almost nervous about
leaving for so long. I know I'm going to miss all my friends
like crazy, considering a week away from everyone made me homesick
for Riddle. On the other hand, I'm also going to try to get the
most out of being home that I can, because it might be the longest
I'll be there anymore, because I've decided to stay at school
for the summer and continue working on my A&P. And next Christmas
break, I'm thinking I might want to go to Europe and work on
my language skills instead of going home. I'll have to work on
the financial plan for that one a little bit, but judging from
the past, it seems that I have my ways of getting things to work
out. And who know's what'll happen after that?
If you are one of the 5 million people that has e-mailed me
in the past few weeks and hasn't heard back from me, I'm getting
to you. I've just been inundated with e-mails but when I get
home I will be on an e-mail answering rampage, so expect to hear
back within the next few days. And for those of you who have
questions you want answered... kenyonj@erau.edu.
Later!
November 17, 2005
Hey again, readers! I've gotta admit all I can think about right now
is going home for Thanksgiving. I was originally going to be staying here
until we got out for Christmas break, but now I get to leave as early
as the 20th, so a week from today I'll be back on the West Coast. Yay!
Since I'm leaving early I'm going to be missing three days of school,
which is kind of going to screw me over, but I'll just have to study hard
when I get back. One of those three days that I'm missing is going to
be for the base visit, which I decided to do. I'll update on that more
after it actually happens, but that should be fun. I think that'll probably
be the most traveling I've ever done in one weekend: Daytona to Charleston/Shaw
to Dayton, OH to Charleston/Shaw to Daytona, THEN to Orlando (and briefly
Atlanta) then Seattle. So I'll say I'm just pretty stoked in general.
Sadly, I think I'm probably more excited about flying and transferringplanes
and stuff in the airport than I am about actually being home. It's going
to be fun though, I'm excited to see some of my old friends and go to
familiar places.
When I was getting ready to come here, I remember thinking it would be kind
of a relief not having a lot of girls around because guys are generally a
lot easier to get along with. Now, that I'm here though, there's a lot of
stuff that I really miss doing with girls, like getting pedicures and
getting your hair done and all that. Guys suck at gossiping, too, sorry.
NICE gossip, though ;) Girls can be pretty mean to each other, so that makes
it a little intimidating to try to strike up a friendship with a girl you've
never seen before.
In other news, classes are about the same as usual. I'm not doin' too great
or anything, but I usually manage to pull everything up before the end of
the semester. The weird thing is, this last week, I felt like I totally got
electricity, and ended up doing pretty bad on that test. Then in my regs
class (FAA regulations and all that good stuff) I hadn't been paying any
attention at all and had basically given up even passing that class 'cause I
just thought there was absolutely no way I could flat out memorize
everything right before class when I'd been basically sleeping with my eyes
open throughout the period since we started that unit. Well by the grace of
God, I didn't do that bad at all. In fact, I did a lot better than some
people who thought they knew everything way better than me. So I think I
witnessed a miracle this week.
ROTC's pretty great as usual. A lot of times I wish it was more intense, but
whatever, I'm not complaining. Tomorrow morning all cadets, whether or not
you're usually morning or afternoon lead lab, have it at 5:30 AM. We're
supposedly doing some parade thing, but no one I've talked to really seems
to get why, since only the crazy people will be up that early.
That's all for now, email me if you have any questions (kenyonj@erau.edu) ,
and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Alright, peace out, guys!
November 3, 2005
What's happenin', readers? My legs hurt so bad right now! I just got
back from about 10 hours of volunteering for ROTC at the air show.I worked
as a cashier at my booth, where we were selling hot dogs to raise money
for Air Force. It got kinda crazy at times, but I stayed busy and even
got to use my French skills :) The show itself was pretty cool, and there
are still planes roaring overhead as we speak. One of the perks of being
at Riddle is that you're right next to the airport so you don't even have
to leave your dorm sometimes to see this stuff.
Last Monday we had a hurricane day. I know I was always way stoked when
we had a snow day up in Washington, which wasn't often, but I thought
it was pretty sweet telling my friends back home I got the day off because
a hurricane was passing over. Except for a lot of rain, it really wasn't
that bad. It did, however, drop to about 66 degrees during the day, which
combined with wind chilland the fact that we're used to the weather being
about 20 degrees higher, it was fairly brutal. In my maintenance classes, we
were expecting we'd have to make up that missed day on Friday, which was
University Day i.e. no school, but the FAA cut us some slack and let us
slide, so we everyone got a three-day weekend and all was well.
So, time management. It's gotten better I have to say. I've spent some time
working on my foreign languages, which was fun, and I haven't forgotten as
much as I thought I would have, luckily. I also got to read more, but I'm
still not too far in my book. I still should probably study some more
though. I realized I study a lot better and am a lot more productive when I
work alone in the library, so that's what I'll plan on doing from now on.
Yesterday, Carlos Mencia came to Riddle, for those of you who know your
comedy. I didn't go because I was having homemade lasagna (very good, very
good). Cake and ice cream, too. From what I hear from everyone that went, he
was hilarious.
Other than all that, everything's been going pretty great these past two
weeks. I've met so many new people, it's great. For some reason, it feels
like you meet people so much faster in college than you do in high school.
So that's been cool, making a bunch of new friends from different places.
I've also relearned to appreciate my freedom here a lot more, so I just did
a lot more stuff that I wouldn't have done earlier in my experience in
Daytona so far. Life's pretty good. One more little piece of advice, for
college or in general: if you ever feel like you are being forced to give up
something you value in your life, take a step back a reevaluate what's
really more important to you, because chances are, anything that makes you
give up what you love is something you would be much better off without.
Don't be shy with your questions, a lot of you have already sent me really
good questions, so just keep on asking away! (If it takes me a couple days
to get back to you, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just
really busy, plus I don't have my own computer, so I just might not have
access at the time.) So, kenyonj@erau.edu
Later!
October 20, 2005
Hey, readers! I don't even know where to begin today, this past week was so
crazy. Most people had mid-terms last week, which is stressful enough, but
in AMS we had our actual finals. On the one hand it's good to know that
Tuesday I can start over on a clean slate, but the finality was pretty hard
to deal with, especially since I almost failed one of my classes. Being sick
for a week definitely screwed me over in a lot of ways. Since we don't
really get homework in my program, everything is really based on quizzes and
tests, which until last week, I was convinced we'd had more of, so the fact
that I had kind of messed a few up wouldn't really matter, but it did.
Anyway, the important part is that I did pass.
What sucks is that I really need more money for school, and my GPA right now
isn't all that good. I still have another term to raise it, but I don't know
if I can get it high enough to be very competitive for an ROTC scholarship.
Fortunately, I did pretty well on the AFOQT, surprisingly my verbal section
was really strong and was actually better than my math. Hopefully that will
at least help me out a little in the selection process in the future. Since
I was a junior in high school last year, apparently I wasn't eligible for
the 4-year scholarship, so I'm just gonna keep on trying until hopefully I
get one, one of these days. If you are considering doing ROTC and you are a
senior, I highly recommend applying for the 4 year scholarship as you are
under no obligation to the Air Force your freshman year.
On that note, the whole bronchitis thing didn't mix too well with ROTC. I
haven't missed any ROTC stuff since Lead Lab, but I got totally screwed over
for PT. My lungs got really weak from all that coughing, so now I can't even
run a quarter mile until I start wheezing. We had our PFTs (Physical Fitness
Test) this week and I had to get a waiver for it because I absolutely could
not run. This pissed me off for a couple reasons, one, that I feel like a
total quitter, two, I know I could have passed all the events before I got
sick and three, I might have to do remedial PT (basically an extra morning
of PT every week if you didn't pass all the events), but I'm still waiting
for my flight commander to get back to me on that one.
With all the things I have to do for school and no one to remind me to do
them, I've gotten way stressed out. I even had a dream the other night that
I forgot to go to Lead Lab, and then I got so confused that I also almost
forgot to go to my Air Force GMC class. (That class is basically where we
learn about military standards and the history of the Air Force, and all
that other basic stuff.) It was a pretty bad scene, so I'm gonna make pretty
sure that I show up for Lead Lab today.
I know a lot of you will probably be wondering about dorm life and spending
so much time with other people that you don't know. I can be pretty
introverted myself, so I understand those of you who require alone time. The
first six weeks or so of being here, I hardly had any time to myself. Oddly
enough though, I didn't really feel like I needed it. I used to need some
kind of time to myself like once a day, but that need sort of fell away for
a while. Plus, your friends really do become like your family. But with more
work piling on me, I felt a much greater need to be on my own, but when I
was doing a million things at once, it was kinda hard to get people to leave
me alone, or to find a quiet place to study. This weekend I basically spent
in bed recovering from all the stress. I even spent 15 hours sleeping on
Friday night, I was that tired. All I did was read my book, sleep and listen
to music. Eventually, I want to start back up learning my languages, too,
but I think that's going to require some more separation from other people.
The weekend before Thanksgiving, ROTC is doing a base visit to Shaw AFB in
Charleston, SC. Since it's all free, I'm strongly considering going. That's
another on the perks of ROTC, free vacations. After that I think I might
actually end up going home for a week instead of staying here as planned.
It's going to be really expensive but my mom said she'd pay for it so I
guess that's all good. It's hard to explain, I'm not homesick, but I still
really want to go home. I think it's basically all the stress of school that
makes me want to go somewhere where I can forget about it. Plus, after
graduation I won't have that many opportunities to go home anymore, so I
might as well go back while I can.
My goal for the rest of the term is to make a lot more time for productive
studying, to have more time to read, because I like reading a lot and it
should help me unwind from school stress, and to be more involved in ROTC.
Since I got sick I started slacking off with all the optional stuff we do,
and I'm not cool with that. I have to keep reminding myself that being in
ROTC is a privilegeand I should treat it as such. So we'll see how all
that goes, and if I can actually make time for everything. The main thing in
college, like everyone says, is time management. In two weeks, I'll update
you on whether or not I've actually had enough discipline to do everything
I'm supposed to.
I'd best be going now. With some luck, I'll have more interesting things to
report on next entry. Any questions- you know the drill: kenyonj@erau.edu
'Til next time!
October 6, 2005
Hey everybody! I'm sorry, I won't have all that much to report on for this
installment as I was sick with bronchitis this past week and definitely have
not been up to much. To start off with, though, I'll just say that taking
care of yourself really is as important as people say it is. The past couple
weeks I kind of went on thinking that I was invincible, and 0-4 hours of
sleep a night for a week would cut it. Not so. Trying to tough it out all
the time isn't always the way to go. With a whole bunch of class hours and
PT in the mornings, I didn't realize that I couldn't get away with running
myself into the ground like that. Anyway, I paid for it, feeling sicker than
I have in a while and missing a total of about four days of class.
The thing that sucks about missing class and being in AMS is that because
its FAA regulated, you have to make up all the class you missed with extra
work. So I've got a bunch of make-up work I still have to do before class
tomorrow, plus I have to plan out all my classes for the next few years for
when I meet with my Air Force class instructor, do my math homework from
last week and study for whatever quizzes and tests I missed and those that
are coming up. I don't know about everyone else here, but I definitely had a
lot more work in high school than I've had here so far, so just because I'm
complaining, don't think it can't be done.
In other sick day related news, I also had to miss Lead Lab last Monday.
Fortunately, since I had numerous notes saying I had bronchitis, I got it
excused and have the opportunity to make up the class I missed if I so
choose. Basically, there was just no way in hell I was going to stand at
attention for twenty minutes in the sun and march around campus with a
fever. I also got on MRS for PT, which means I still had to show up, but
instead of running and all that, I worked on the computer in the ROTC
building.
Finally going back to class was difficult. When you don't have someone
yelling at you that you need to go to school, it can be hard to make
yourself do it after having a five day weekend. All in all though, things
are going okay. I've also gotta say I'm surprised to have gotten responses
to my writing so quickly, that's awesome. Keep 'em coming, I'm glad to hear
from you. Once again, you can reach me with questions at kenyonj@erau.edu
September 22, 2005
Hey, everybody! What's up? I'm an Aviation Maintenance Science major from Issaquah, WA but originally Virginia. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Northwest, which I'm sure many of you are, Issaquah is about 20 miles east of downtown Seattle, and one of the homes of the band Modest Mouse, if you know them. I'm seventeen because I graduated early to make a long story short. I live on the second floor of McKay Hall and am participating in Air Force ROTC. Now that my little intro is done, I'll get onto the stuff you might want to know.
First up is move-in day. Move-in day for me wasn't very traditional. My flight left Seattle at 5AM, and I got in to Daytona at 9PM. It was nothing short of exhausting because I had two stops, one in Salt Lake City and the other in Atlanta, and since I flew down by myself I had to be keeping track of all my stuff the whole time even though I never had a chance to go to bed the night before. The trip down was a blast though, and all of you who would be flying down next semester or next year, I definitely recommend coming down by yourself, as that is the way to go. It's actually a lot less stressful too, because 'rents tend to freak out last minute about whether or not you have everything. Anyway, when I finally got here, one of my roommates, Tifany, came out to help me get my stuff into our dorm. Since I got here so late I basically missed everything we were supposed to do like residence hall meetings and setting up student accounts and stuff, but that's basically all that goes on the first day, besides meeting the people on your floor and making friends, obviously. The rest of orientation week, I spent figuring out where everything is (which really isn't too hard since the campus isn't very big), and getting adjusted to the new environment. Nothing was really mandatory, so I just went to whatever I felt like going to.
Since I'm in AMS, my deal with classes are pretty different from everyone else's. I'm doing the A&P part first, so I can get my A&P license, and then finish up all my academics afterwards. I start my AMS classes at 0730 and finish at 1530 every day, but for those of you who think that's too much class for college, don't worry because nobody besides us AMS/ROTC people spend that much time in class. For example, when I come back to my dorm to eat at like 1230, my roommate Kerrie hasn't even left for class yet. In addition, on Mondays I have Lead Lab from 1530-1730 and Wednesdays I have my Air Force class 1530-1630. PT (physical training) for Air Force is Wednesday and Friday 0615-0715, but I'll get to all that in a bit. Even though my schedule is pretty long, it's really not that bad at all. I have three AMS classes, 2 of them are 2 hours long and the other is 3 hours long. Since they're FAA regulated, you can't be late unless you feel like making class up later, and if you miss more than two days, you automatically fail the course. Skipping class in AMS really isn't something you want to do. Even though my classes are long, I really don't mind at all, because 1) I know I'm learning things I am actually gonna need to know, and 2) we get to DO stuff, like go to the hangar and work in lab. We also don't really have homework, just studying, so basically your performance in class depends on how much time you want to spend studying in your spare time. It sounds stupid coming from me because I have the hardest time sitting myself down to study these days. It's all good though, I really like what I'm doing.
For the girls, you might think being one of four girls in your classes would be distracting, what with a bunch of guys around all the time, but it really isn't. I actually think its much more distracting when you're in classes where the ratio is about half and half, because then you're all trying to figure what guys you like and all that. But being surrounded by dudes all day, I don't really even notice them because I'm already really used to them being there that I don't really even think about it. So that much you don't have to worry about, I don't think. Studying on the other hand, like I said, can be difficult when it's up to you to get your work done and your friends are doing other stuff.
Social life. That was definitely a big concern of mine before I got here. Honestly, I'm still getting used to my schedule so I've been too tired or busy to go out much since I've gotten here. One of the perks of living on campus, though, is that most of your friends are close by, so hanging out at all hours is no trouble. My second night here, I went to this party with my roommates, and I get at least 3 party invitations a weekend, so this place is by no means dead, especially if you like to have fun. Life is really just what you make it. If you want to have fun, no one's holding you back. If you are interested in a frat or a sorority... well, let me just put it this way: they won't give you the opportunity to say you didn't join because you didn't know. You'll know about them, alright. Personally, the whole sorority thing doesn't interest me at all. One of the nice things about college is that popularity is not at all the hype it was in high school, so you can just be yourself and make really good friends that you have a lot of fun with.
About the area, I haven't been around Daytona that much since I got here. When I visited last year (Halloween until election day, an ugly time to be in Florida) I went to the beach and stuff with my mom and saw the main touristy stuff, and that was pretty fun. I walked to K-mart about two weekends ago, and I'll just say Daytona Beach is one of the most pedestrian unfriendly places I have ever heard of, but I made it.
Saving the best for last, ROTC. The first week, I had to get up at 0400 to get to NSOP, but let me tell you, it was worth every second of it. ROTC is one of those things that if you aren't that into it now, chances are you won't be later, but I'm absolutely loving it. It's the highlight of my day. Since my high school didn't have JROTC and I was too young to ever enlist, I came with minimal knowledge of drill, other than what I learned from watching war movies 24/7, and some pretty bad coordination. Luckily, though, it's starting to come along alright. Back home when I was thinking about college and ROTC, I thought if one thing was going to turn me off about ROTC, it was going to be the PT. Somehow I couldn't really imagine waking up at five to run and do calisthenics would be fun, but it so is. The best part is seeing how much farther you can get than you probably thought you could have. Plus, you're doing it all with your friends, so that can give you a bit of a boost as well. I got Graves' Disease when I was 11, and one of my many symptoms was that I couldn't run more than 100 feet to save my life. After I got my medication and everything was straightened out for the most part, I started working on my endurance and running is a lot easier these days. So if you're thinking you might want to do ROTC but you aren't looking forward to morning PT, just start running and working out and you'll be fine. If I can do it, you can do it. For us girls I'd say it's a pretty good accomplishment to finish, since we have smaller hearts and lungs and everything, and we still do the same stuff as the guys, so we know we're working harder. The fact that we do the same PT but have different minimum PFT scores is an inconsistency I still haven't figured out yet, but whatever. PT is a party and a half. I took the AFOQT this morning (by that I mean yesterday because is 0500 and I have yet to go to bed) and it was way too long. It wasn't all that bad, for the most part it was a lot like the SAT with an easier verbal section. It just kinda sucked because we were told we were going to be taking the new version that was short by comparison but we ended up getting the old one, including sections we were told not to study because they said we wouldn't be taking them. I don't know if you've experienced this before, but when you're on a plane after a couple hours, maybe 2, you know how everyone starts coughing all the time and then by the time you're off the plane you're feeling all sick? That's sort of how I felt, so I'm a little congested right now. Other than being longer than I would have liked, it wasn't too bad.
It is definitely time for bed now, I don't want to mess myself up too bad for the rest of the week. If any of you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at kenyonj@erau.edu.
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Name: Jez 