You feel like paradise...

It always makes me smile a little when I see videos like this:

These marines are so brave and admirable. They're risking their lives to make sure that ours at home stay safe. Knowing that they can blow off steam like this and find the courage to be silly even in these circumstances is amazing.

Thank you for your service, men and woman of 266 Rein.

Here is my confession...

Ahhh, the smooth vocal stylings of Usher.

Anyway, my confession isn't really so much of a confession as it is a statement of fact. I don't update here that often. Recently, my life is being consumed by my journey to get into/make it to law school, which I've been detailing on my OTHER blog, Twenty-Something Law Student.

That's what's going on. Check it out if you want.

PS - This song has been stuck in my head for two days!!

Pretty.

Lolz

OMG I love this site.

Jennifer Garner and I have so much in common!

Jennifer Garner talking about OUR undergrad on the David Letterman Show. :)

Vacation for one.

I am, by nature, a VERY social person. You might even call me a social butterfly. My mom says I never met a stranger, and more than one person has expressed admiration for the way that I make people feel comfortable enough to open up to me right away.

Plus, I love to talk. That helps.

And so, naturally, I'm normally surrounded by friends. I'm social at work, I go home and talk with my family, and then I go out with friends and either sit and chat with them or meet new people wherever we go. It's really nice.

It was a little strange, at first, going to Dallas completely by myself, without any plans to meet up with anyone while I was there for a long weekend. I got my own hotel room, went out to dinner by myself, shopped by myself, and watched some trashy television by myself. When my friend called, she seemed appalled (or at least very surprised) that I would go out to a restaurant by myself and sit at a small table alone and order and eat my dinner without any hurry to get back to my hotel room. And that's when I realized that, while I definitely couldn't do it every day, going on a mini-vacation alone can be completely GLORIOUS.

There was no one I need to chat inanely with, no one that was expecting me to entertain them with funny anecdotes or random facts, no one that I needed to listen to and counsel sagely. In short, it was a WONDERFUL break from a wonderful life.

I like people. I like being with people, having people laugh at me or talk to me. I like listening to people and solving problems for them, or just lending a sympathetic shoulder when they need one. I like meeting new people, getting to know someone better, smiling with strangers at bars, and spending time cultivating friendships.

But for four days, being alone, worrying only about your own thoughts and your own peace of mind, is really incredibly healthy and incredibly restorative.

I've got to do this again.

My hat's off to THIS guy.

Can we all take a moment to watch this and laugh?

On the bright side, that hat was FABULOUS.

The difference a campus visit can make

When I was deciding where I wanted to go for my undergraduate degree, leaving California never even came up. I mean, hellooooooo? I'm already in the state that everyone wants to come to, why would I leave? I applied to a few schools outside of California just for kicks, but never really considered going to Vanderbilt or Lewis & Clark...I was Chapman or bust (I had a LOT of friends there, and loved Orange County)! My dad was SO MAD when I said no to Cal!! I just hate Berkeley (the city).

Anyway, I spent a couple of weekends here and there traveling to different schools around the state, checking them out -- Pepperdine, Biola, Point Loma, Santa Clara, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Riverside, UCLA, USC, etc. They were all nice (except Cal), and I probably would have enjoyed any of them (except Cal).

But then I decided to take up the offers extended to me by a few different schools for travel reimbursement, and take a trip out to the midwest to visit a few schools there. The whole time I was planning the trip I was thinking, "this is such a waste of time!" But, my dad insisted, so I packed my carry on and boarded a plane to Cincinnati. I had really had high expectations from a school called Hiram, because they recruited me SO hard and I knew a few people who had gone there and REALLY liked it. So the plan was to visit this little school called Denison near Columbus first, then drive up to Cleveland to see Hiram and Case Western.

Well, Denison was great. I was cold the whole time (HA! It was the first weekend in April. Little did I know how cold it could actually be!), but the campus was AMAZING. Beautiful, green, rolling hills. Yellow and red brick buildings, the most wonderful sense of community that could literally be felt in every facet of life I experienced while there. I sat in on a class, I talked to students over lunch (Dad was really impressed they had both Coke AND Pepsi machines, I recall), and just got a feel for the campus.

Then we left to drive 2 hours up to Hiram. And I liked it! I really did. But the whole time I was thinking, "wow, this is so not worth moving to Ohio for." Our original plan was to stay in Cleveland for an extra night and check out the area, but I remembered seeing a poster for a musical (Sondheim's Company) that was running that weekend at Denison, and my dad and I decided to drive back down to Columbus the next night, rather than stay at Hiram, to see the play and go back to the campus.

Well, on the way back to Denison, I realized the strangest thing. I was SUPER excited to be going back. It felt like I was going back to a place that I just naturally fit in to. It's cheesy, I know, but I felt like I was going "home." It was at that moment that I realized, "wow, this actually IS totally worth leaving California for." I hadn't felt that feeling at any other school that I had applied to or visited, not even the schools in California. Not even the school that I had been dreaming about attending for two years.

The only reason I went to Denison was because of my campus visit. It was highly ranked, a great school, and had wonderful academic and extracurricular opportunities for me - but ultimately, it just felt right. And I never, ever, not for one single moment regretted choosing Denison.

Well, that's a lie. My senior year I took a semester off and lived and worked in Santa Barbara. It was 72 degrees when I left Santa Barbara in January, and -18 when I landed in Columbus. I think I probably regretted it then. But, I digress.

There is no way that I would have picked Denison without visiting campus that weekend. And there is no way that I would have been as happy with my college experience had I not been at Denison.

Sometimes, even though logically you think you should go to a certain school, you just feel a connection with a different school, one that maybe isn't what you were thinking. And there's no way that you can get that feeling without having that campus visit. So even though it might make a small dent in your bank account (or a big one, or wipe out your bank account all together), you should consider visiting schools that you're considering spending the next couple years at. At least then you won't have that second-guessing later down the road.

Trust me, it will be worth it.