Commentary on life in general

I am sitting here munching on a Clif bar, listening to the Glee soundtrack and thinking about how much I like my life right now.

I know that might sound kind of asshole-ish since there are who knows how many people suffering in Haiti and other places all over the world, but this is kind of a big deal for me. Being comfortable with myself and my life hasn’t really happened in, well, a long time.

I would like to say that the major switch changed all of it, but I would be lying. What the change did do, however, was make me think, “if I can be this happy from doing this, I wonder what would  happen if I started doing more things I wanted to do instead of just things I felt like I had to do.” I’ve barely been doing this for two weeks, but it’s amazing how much better I feel. These other changes weren’t even as big as changing my major, either. By simply surrounding myself with more positive people, not procrastinating schoolwork (I think I can attribute part of this to the major switch because I love what I’m doing now), going to classes at the gym, and not comparing myself to other people. The first and last ones have made the biggest difference, and one of them just happened to be a resolution. As a girl, it’s as if I am wired to constantly compare myself to other people. I would always be walking to class and see a girl wearing an outfit I would covet or perfect hair that would make me jealous to the point where I would literally stress over it. Silly things like that.

I think I’ve finally realized that I am 20 years old and if I don’t become my own person now, it’s never going to happen. So now, I’m wearing what I want, I’m doing what I want (within reason), I’m being who I want to be instead of wearing/doing/being what I think other people would like to see. For years and years I think I always knew that was the key to being happy, but I’ll be the first to admit that during a large part of my life, it was not easy, and it did not seem feasible to me. For many people this kind of thing is so much easier said than done, and I honestly do not think I was at a place where I could muster up the cojones to do that until very recently. I am so glad I finally did, though, because it’s incredibly refreshing. I know I’m not going to feel like this every day, because life just doesn’t work like that. Just the mere fact that I feel so much better overall is enough for me, though.

On a completely different note, tonight we had our winter informal bid day for my sorority. This time a year ago was when I first met Little, except at this point she was still just Mackenzie. It might sound kind of creepy, but I pretty much knew she would end up as my little. I don’t think she reads this, but I’m going to post the first picture we ever took together (on Bid Day last year), which also happens to be my favorite picture of us.

and now, a year later…

I hope this quarter we’ll be adding another member to the family…we’ll see!

Well, reading calls, even though my biology prof canceled class tomorrow and I get to venture home earlier than planned 🙂

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes, which I think I might have posted on here before:

“Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
– Lao Tzu

A sororitastic post

The title says it all – this post is full of all things sorority because today was our Bid Day! We welcomed 20-something (I don’t know the exact number) new babies into our chapter, and all of them seem fantastic. I can’t wait to get to know them!

our banner and our “DJ” who donned a panda suit for the occasion!

Jenna and me. I’ve known her longer than anyone in my class at OU and last year she joined AOPi.

me on the left, my little Mackenzie on the right, and our Panda Pal Terra in the middle. Panda Pals help the new girls ease into the sorority experience and sort of act like a big sister until Big/Little night.

Baby Pandas!

my class, the juniors

the girls I’m living with next year

After Bid Day, I finished up my Photoshop project for my Graphics & Audiences class, and I realized that I am, in fact, only good at Photoshop when I am being told what to do step by step. On my own? Not so much. I struggled with it, and if I’m lucky, I’ll end up with a B. It was so frustrating, because I think PS is really cool, but it’s taking me so long to figure out on my own.

Then I read a bit for Classes & Inequality, put pictures from today and Facebook, and here I am. I can’t believe Thursday is OCTOBER.

Long time no write…

I’ve been back at school for a week now and it has been one of the busiest weeks I’ve had in awhile. At my school, all sororities go back a week early for what is usually called “Spirit Week” during which we prepare for recruitment. We practice songs, skits, clean, whatever needs to be done to make sure recruitment runs smoothly. This week was extremely successful for my chapter, but it was a lot of work. Our recruitment chair made it really fun for us by giving the week a Harry Potter theme. She’s a huge HP fan, and so are a lot of members of my sorority. Each day of recruitment has a committee, and there just happen to be four days (not including Kickoff and Bid Day), so we were each divided into houses. I’m on preference night committee and we were Ravenclaw. Throughout the week we got “points” for various things (enthusiasm, productivity, etc.) and yesterday we found out we won by a landslide! Our prize is a “house cup” party and everyone in the chapter is invited, but they have to wear Ravenclaw colors (blue and silver). I’m looking forward to it, and I really think we deserve it because we put so much work into this week. Yesterday, we ended the week with a low ropes course, which I thought was a lot of fun but definitely not for everybody. We dressed up in house colors for this and, if I do say so myself, our costumes were the best 😉

Ravenclaws are the ones with the blue bandanas. We also made shirts that you can’t really see, but they say “Ravenclaw Team Pref” and have a crown on them. On the back each one has the name of a different Ravenclaw.

Another thing we did for points for our houses was a photo scavenger hunt. We had an hour to go all around campus and the downtown area and take pictures in front of certain places on the list. Each team was split in two to give us two chances to win, and both of our teams came in first! It’s not easy to run in flip flops, either.

me in front of one of the spots on our list.

my team! M, me, J and C.

C and me

Today was the first football game of the season. I went with some of the younger girls in my sorority, and I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tailgating events for a football game at my school. They had an entire section for students only, and if you showed your ID, you got a free Chipotle burrito! We definitely took advantage of that and spent some time watching gaggles of freshmen walking around decked out in brand new tshirts and lanyards. Once we got inside the stadium, it was packed. I remember going to the first football game my freshman year (I didn’t go to any last year), and it was not nearly as crowded as it was tonight. My school is pretty big, but we’re not exactly known for football. In fact, most people come to see the marching band and leave after halftime, which is what we did because unfortunately our team was losing and nothing too exciting was happening.

my little sis M and me. I may have “altered” it some in Picnik. No shame.

part of the packed student section

kinda blurry, but this is the overflow seating on the hill

the reason why people usually go to the games: the band. They did a Michael Jackson tribute.

every once in awhile, the band will invite high school bands from around the state to come and play with them. I actually did this my sophomore year of high school. It was my first visit to OU, and within five minutes of stepping off the bus, I knew I would end up here.

I’m so exhausted. Classes start on Tuesday and I already have a reading assignment for my sociology class that I’m going to be tested on. I’ve also been ordering books like crazy because I have 10 books for two classes. Neither are my major classes (I’m hoping that those will only require my AP Stylebook, because even though I’m renting these books for pretty cheap, it’s still getting expensive since I have 10). I’m looking forward to this quarter, though, because all of my classes seem pretty interesting.

Eventually I’ll post pictures of my room because it’s super cute, but it’s a bit messy right now and I figure I’ve put enough pictures (and words) into this post. Hope everyone has a nice long weekend!