Who Knew Our High School Teachers Were Right?!

Everyone's experienced it at one time or another. You're sitting in class, learning something so boring you'd rather pull out all your eye lashes one by one than pay attention. Once the whole class starts dozing of, your teacher goes on some long spiel about how "you'll need to know this for college" or that "you'll use this later in life". We all know that we obviously need basic skills in math, writing, grammar, etc., but let's be honest, no one believes them about needing to know anything more complex than that.

Throughout this past week, I've become much more appreciative of my teachers from high school (well, most of them). There are two very specific examples that keep recurring to me. My senior year English teacher made us memorize hundreds of vocabulary words, some of them being among the strangest words I've heard. Some of the words were common knowledge, but none of us really expected to hear that many of the more obscure words outside of that classroom. Within the past week, I've heard at least two dozen of those very words being used, and I actually know what all of them mean. It makes me feel so much more intelligent and like I have an advantage in the class. So the countless hours I spent last year cramming all of those words into my head, really did pay off.

Since I'm majoring in Journalism and Media Production, I have to take a film class. In said film class, we have to watch movies; not in the manner that most people do, but really dissect them and uncover all the hidden techniques within the films. It just so happens that my tenth grade English teacher spent half of a semester teaching us about Alfred Hitchcock, a very significant film director, and all of the various film techniques he used. We watched a handful of Hitchcock's movie and dissected them very similarly to how I will in my current film class. We'll also be watching some of the movies that I watched in my high school class, so I'll have some knowledge of what to look for. I feel like that really gives me an advantage in that class because I already know some of the specific ways of watching movies and the "invisible" film techniques that are used in the movie industry. Sorry if I rambled, but I just wanted to share my excitement and new-found gratitude for some of my former teachers.
 

DIY Dorm Project #3- Melted Crayon Art

 If you want to make an inexpensive, one-of-a-kind piece of art, a melted crayon portrait is the way to go. It's extremely simple to make and no two ever come out the same. All you need is (2) 24-packs of crayons (I took out the boring colors), a foam board, super glue, and a blow dryer.
First, line up all the crayons on the top edge of the board. Next, use the super glue to attach the crayons. Keep checking to make sure they all stay straight.

Once they are all glued down, give it a few minutes to dry and then prop the board up against a hard surface. And then it's time for the fun part! Use the blow dryer to start melting the crayons. The higher the setting, the faster it will melt. If you use it on high, it takes less time but be careful because it may splatter some (or a lot). It works best if you point the blow dryer at about a 45 degree angle towards the bottom part of the crayon. Once it starts dripping, follow the melted crayon residue with the blow dryer until it reaches the desired area. You can melt as much or as little as you want. When you're done, lay it out flat and allow about 30 minutes to an hour to dry before hanging it.

The Finished Product

Dorm DIY Project #2- T-Shirt Pillow

 You can never have too many pillows and I wanted to have one for my dorm that nobody else would. The way to do that is to make your own! One of the most simple ways is to make one out of a t-shirt. You'll need a t-shirt (new or old, preferably large or extra-large), scissors, a sharpie, a ruler/yard stick, poly-fil, and sewing stuff. I chose to buy a new shirt (with a Despicable Me minion on it). If you decide on buying a shirt, I suggest going to the Kohl's men's department because they always have really cool t-shirts, which are perfect for this.

After washing the shirt, flip it inside out and measure out the area around the picture. Use the sharpie and yard stick to measure and make tick marks all around the area where you plan on cutting. I only cut three sides and used the bottom hem as the fourth edge.





When you're all done measuring and cutting, you can go ahead and sew 3 and a half of the edges shut. Make sure you try to keep a straight line and go slowly to keep the edges from pulling. After sewing half of the bottom edge, it's time to flip it right-side out and start stuffing. Put as little or as much stuffing in as you want. I would suggest putting in a little extra than you think you need, just because the pillow will flatten over time. Once you've stuffed the pillow to your preferred fluffiness, you can go ahead and finish sewing the bottom half. Then, just fluff it out and you've got yourself a new, one-of-a-kind pillow.

Finished Product

Dorm DIY Project #1- Decorated Plastic Drawers

Many people use clear plastic drawers for storage, especially in college dorms. Personally, I didn't want my drawers to be see-through because it makes it look messier and I don't necessarily want people seeing all my stuff. So, I decided to decorate mine. Many ideas on how to decorate them came to mind, but the sturdiest option I thought of was duct tape. If you do this, you'll just need scissors, 2 rolls of whatever print duct tape you want (I chose One Direction), and a set of plastic drawers.

 I thought the easiest way to put the tape on was vertically, while going slightly over on the bottom and also coming in and folding over the inside of the drawers. Make sure you just use a little bit on each end that goes over so you aren't wasting a ton of tape.




The first piece of tape is always the hardest, just making sure it's straight and everything, but after that you just line each piece up next to the following piece. The only tricky part is on the front where the handle of the drawer is, you have to cut a small slit to fold the tape up under the handle. Also, after finishing the sides, I put a long strip horizontally across the top edge of the drawer, just to give the tape a little extra protection from wear and tear. Then just repeat that process on the other 2 (or more) drawers.

The Finished Product

Transition Tuesday

Today I had my very first college class, and I'm still alive! It was actually rather exciting, especially since it was a new experience. I only have one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I guess I haven't really experienced what the whole college class situation is going to be like. But so far, I'm liking it. Thankfully, that one class I have is my honors one, so I have plenty of time to work on my homework right after the class and get it out of the way.

Since I know I'm going to have a lot of reading, I created an incentive program for myself whenever I have large amounts to read. I put a page marker at about the halfway point in the assigned reading (more often if I have more to read) and when I reach a page marker, I get to take a break and either walk around the hall for a few minutes, have a piece of candy, or check Twitter or Instagram. I tried it out today and I really think it helped keep me motivated and focused. Hopefully, that strategy works for the rest of the year. It's strange going from being in one building from 8:30 until 3:15 and having the exact same schedule everyday (for the most part), to going to having one class and then coming back to my dorm. I'm really enjoying college life as of right now, but it's still going to take some getting used to.

Finally Moved In

So, it's been pretty hectic the past few weeks. I moved in two days ago and this is the first downtime we've had since finishing unpacking. It's weird adjusting to college life. Right now, I kind of feel like I'm on a church retreat or something. I've been feeling really awkward because I didn't know anyone here at all and it's weird not seeing my friends from high school everyday. I'm also really quiet at first when I'm in a new environment completely surrounded by new people. I've started making friends (I think), but it's still strange. Today I got to have a small chat with a junior who went to my (small) high school, so it was kind of comforting to see a familiar face amongst the new ones. Classes don't start until the day after tomorrow, so I'm starting to get a little nervous about that. Thankfully, on the first day I only have one class and it's not until 11:30, so I'll get to sleep in some. Unfortunately, we all have mandatory testing tomorrow, but thanks to the first letter of my last name being in the second half of the alphabet, my testing is in the afternoon and not the morning. But this weekend in general has been absolutely overwhelming, but I'm pushing through. Hopefully, I'll be able to write more about what's going on as the week goes by.