Reflection A

My journey to Spring Hill College is not the conventional one. My junior year I realized that I needed to start looking at colleges. Being from Oregon, I assumed I would be going to Oregon State, like the vast majority of my classmates. However, I decided that it would be a good option to explore other options. A Jesuit college fair came to my school. I knew that I wanted to major in Biology with a concentration in Marine Biology, and Spring Hill was one of the only colleges present that offered that.

            I had a very hard end of my junior year and entire senior year of high school. My parents split up and my mom moved three hours away from me. In my mind, the only thing I was going to be able to afford was community college. However, when Spring Hill sent me a free online application I filled it out on a whim. I did not think I would ever hear back from them, and after submitting it never thought about it again.

            Continuing to prepare for my life after graduation, my plan remained the same. I began taking dual credit classes with Portland Community College in order to begin accumulating credits at where I thought I would be going to college. One day I received a package in the mail from SHC, a package my dad will readily admit to almost throwing away. It was my acceptance letter and my award! I have never been so upset over good news. All of a sudden my black and white picture of where my life was headed was filled to the brim with gray areas.

            My dad agreed to flying down here to Mobile to visit the campus. Seeing as I was accepted, it was a reasonable thing to do. It was a big mistake. I automatically fell in love with it here. At the time though, my dad told me we couldn’t afford it. So I couldn’t set my heart on it, I have never felt so conflicted in my entire life. Something in the back of my head told me this was where I needed to be.

            A week before the May deadline to pick a college my dad told me that he would figure out a way to make it work if I was a hundred percent sure I wanted to go here. I said yes. I had my fears and doubts and to be honest, moving cross country is one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. But I don’t think I would be as happy as I am now on any other campus. 

Reflection B

Since arriving at Spring Hill I have been very blessed with remarkable friends. My roommate, whom I had not known prior to being here, and I are closer than ever, I could not be more thankful for how respectful we are to one another. Other people I know have roommates that they hate, and I am so lucky I ended up with Ellie. We are both from far away, so we are there for one another when one of us is homesick or having problems. When I first came here I was worried about living with someone else, but I believe at the end of this year we will be more like sisters than anything.

            Not only was I blessed with amazing an amazing roommate, but also amazing pod mates. I am currently in the Outdoor Living Pod in Viragh. We call ourselves family and have family meals together and family outings. The first weekend I was here we all went to the beach just on impulse. None of us really knew each other at all, and we all just hopped in cars and went. It was amazing. Now we all go out on the weekend together and watch out for each other. The guys watch over the girls and we watch over the guys. We really are family.

            A lot of people in my pod family came to college in relationships, including me. And slowly, every one of those relationships has unraveled, including mine. Through each breakup, all of the girls have grown closer. It is hard being in college because you don’t have those “best friends” yet. So when you go through a breakup you feel all alone. I thought I was all alone when I went through mine. But then my roommate and pod mates showed me that I wasn’t. They were there for me through my whole crazy way of dealing with the emotional distress. Just like I was there for each of them. We all grew closer through our boy problems and as a family we grew stronger.

            I am so happy and blessed to be here with all these amazing people that I am lucky to call my friends. We have had so many beach adventures and adventures of other kinds together and I cannot wait to have more with them. I love my new family to death.

Reflection C

When first stepping foot onto campus I was filled with a variety of different emotions, among which were loneliness, abandonment, and confusion.  Loneliness from being so far away from home, abandonment from my family just leaving and not calling, and confusion because Oregon is very different from Alabama. However these feelings have evolved over this semester. Events and the people I have met have helped shape what would otherwise have been a depressing freshman year in college into an entertaining and eventful one.

            Housing in Viragh has made it possible for me to meet many different people that enjoy similar activities. Because of this, my issue of loneliness was quickly resolved. Spur of the moment beach trips, going on runs through the sprinklers, and having “family” dinners made my transition here a lot easier. Although I love spending time with my newfound family here, spending time alone is when I really have been able to contemplate my future and my life.

            After spending a long day in classes and working sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by the amount of things I need to accomplish. Several times this semester I have succumbed to panic attacks, seeing as I have an anxiety problem. In order to avoid this from happening sometimes I go on a walk for several hours. It is on these walks when I have been able to contemplate my life and when my perspectives have changed. I used to be very money driven. Thinking that I needed to make a lot of money to be happy. But one night, while I was sitting by the baseball field, I realized that money no longer mattered. What mattered was that I do something with my life that brings me happiness. Something that I believe is worth doing, and what others thought about it didn’t matter.

            This revelation that I had has had a big impact on how I look at school now. I still want to do everything to the best of my abilities, but if I do fail at something the world will not end. Being able to accept the fact that money may make life easier but will not make me happy is like having a weight lifted off of me. At the same time though, having this realization has also started to push me to do better in my studies. Sometimes being able to accept something and not get as stressed about things fuels people to do better. Such is the case with me. 

Reflection D

Growing up it was always drilled into my head that money was important and that I needed to pick a carrier that would support me and pay off any student loans. My parents didn’t want me to be in dept and want me to be ok in the long term. However my parents also told me that if I had a job that I loved I would never work a day in my life. And over my weeks here that is what I have been really contemplating.

            I believe having money is an added perk to life, not a necessity. However, I only came to this conclusion recently. In the future I would like to go to vet school and specialize in surgery. I would have a job that made me happy and paid the bills, making both my parents and me happy. But, it is incredibly competitive to get into vet school and having average grades will not earn you an acceptance letter. At first the worry of not getting into vet school was the cause of many panic attacks this semester. Then I began to realize that I just needed a job that made me happy. No one else mattered, and I would figure the money thing out later.

            After coming to this realization I have been able to gather and organize my thoughts better. I still plan to aim for vet school, but I am also exploring other job options. Now I can accept the idea of being in dept and struggling as many Americans do. As long as I am happy then everything else will fall into place. 

Reflection E

The goals I have accumulated over my high school years have only increased since I have been here at Spring Hill, not decreased. I plan on going to veterinary school after my time here on the Hill and nothing and no one is going to get in my way. Grades and studying are not my best friends, but in what I lack in grades I will make up for in experience. Currently I am applying for several internships at different zoos and aquariums in order to gain more hands on experience in a field of veterinary medicine I am interested in practicing in. I am looking to get my name out there, because in the end getting into graduate school is just a game of networking. Making a good name for yourself and showing that you are more than just grades on a piece of paper.

            However, that being said, grades are still incredibly important. In order for them to even consider you for vet school you have to make the first cut. If you have anything below a 3.0 you can forget about it. And even that is extremely low. I need to excel in my classes here. It is so different than high school and so hard here. But I will not let that slow me down in anyway.

            One day people will be competing for a chance to be my intern. One day I will do something in life that makes me happy and fulfills my dreams. I say I am going to be a vet, and I truly hope I reach that goal. In saying this though, if I see that that dream becomes only a dream and not reality I will not be crushed. I know I am going to do something awesome in my life. I was born to do something that makes me happy, and when I finish my time here at Spring Hill and find that job that makes me feel whole I will know my time here was well spent. There is no doubt in my mind that that moment will come. 

You Don’t Remember the Money

          Our generation can only truly learn the art of living by observing our elders. The people who have lived most of their life and, in our opinion, lived it well. These people are the kind of people who make mistakes and learn from them, rather than forgetting them and moving on. Not only do they learn from their own mistakes, but they also tell about them in hopes of preventing the younger generation from doing the same. This was the kind of person I sought out to interview, and the man I found was a close family friend named Jeremy Lovett.

          Jeremy is an elderly gentleman who currently occupies the age of sixty-five. He is a lawyer who owns his own practice, much to his chagrin. Unlike most people in their profession, Jeremy regrets ever becoming a part of the law business. To him it was never about making money, it was about being happy, and his profession definitely did not fulfill this requirement. The regret of how he lived out his professional career gave an interesting spin on the answers he gave during my interview.

          The first question I asked was the following: “What is your definition of happiness?” In response, instead of saying being with family or loved ones as one might assume would be most people’s answer. Jeremy stated that making it to the end of the month and billing everyone makes him happy. Not that the act of charging people money brought him joy, but that he could be finished with his work and breathe a little easier. It does not matter if he has made it that month or not, but knowing that it is finished is “bliss” as he put it. Being able to finish doing a job that he loathes is his little silver lining in this world. However he also mentioned that happiness to him is being connected to the outdoors. Being able to have that meditative alone time, whether that be skiing or hunting, is something that he values greatly.

          Following his definition of happiness, I proceeded to ask a question pertinent to someone in my shoes: “What advice do you have for a college freshman?” Everyone expects you, as a freshman, to know without a doubt what you want to do in life. What career path you want to follow, and to stick to your major. So with that response in mind Jeremy’s answer surprised me yet again. “Don’t pick a major,” he said, “simple as that.” He goes on to explain that you should take a year or two to truly find yourself. There is no hurry to decide what to spend the rest of your life doing, because it is a massive decision. He further justifies this response by showing himself as an example. He had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, so as a joke he went and took the LSAT and wound up in law school. As a result however, he dreads going to work everyday and loathes what he does. His words of wisdom to me were, “If you love what you do, then you will never work a day in your life. I, however, have worked everyday in my life.”

          As a wrap up for the interview turned discussion about life I chose to ask a question that tied back directly to our class: “What is the art of living?” I appreciated how honest and real Jeremy was with me. His immediate response was to say, “The art of living? I don’t practice it well.” Although I am not sure if anyone has truly mastered the art of living. He continued on to say that the art of living is “recognizing that you are living.” The art of living is appreciating the little things in life while they are still there, because they can be taken away from us so easily. Jeremy went further on to say that you should eat good food, laugh with friends, enjoy the feeling on the sun on your face. You should be able to remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of the busy world and find tranquility in being by yourself. Once you can accomplish all of this, according to Jeremy, you will have mastered the art of living.

          You are told as a child to be kind to your elders. Around the age when one is told this it seems irrelevant and uncalled for. However once one reaches the college years they have a better foundation to understand the reasons behind the needed respect. We respect our elders because they have already accomplished and succeeded in living. Not because they lived perfect lives, but because in their many imperfections there is a type of perfection. They have learned their lessons, both hard and easy, and are often willing to pass along their knowledge to you. Without our elders and their stories of when they were younger we would continue to make the same mistakes generation after generation. We value and respect those older than us because they prevent this.

          Jeremy Lovett opened my eyes to many things. Most of all to the possibility of choosing a profession based solely on money, and hating working everyday for the rest of your life. I am going to take his terrible mistake and learn from it. It is important to have your priorities straight. Jeremy pointed out that although it is nice to live and not worry about financial burdens, it is not the money you remember. You remember the good times with family and friends, the food, and the laughter. That is what I want to remember when I am old and what I will strive for.