Hello everybody,

The past two weeks have been full of excitement, anguish and new experiences. The best and worst parts of college have shown their faces to me. All I can do is take it in stride because there is no way to avoid these things.

There is one big disadvantage to having 60 people live on one floor. If one person gets sick, it just spreads around. I currently have a really bad cold, and it’s the third time I’ve been sick since arriving in August. This is nothing compared to the weekend I had last week. One of my friends caught scarlet fever, which surprised us all, but a couple of us took him to the hospital and within a few days he recovered. It definitely is hard being sick for the first time with no real parental figure in your life because you now have to seek health care for yourself. We have a health clinic right in the center of campus, so it is not too far but they aren’t open 24 hours so the occasional trip to the hospital a block and a half away may be necessary. Overall, people are typically healthy and going about their daily activities.

My biggest news from this past week is that I spent the week at our Student Government Association fall retreat. Although we retreated to the ICI center, (our athletic center) which is only a block from where I live, it was full of fun and learning how to be a successful leader. I was one of four first-year students there being that the only way first year students can get involved in the SGA is through Task Force One, which you should all get information about if you are accepted. The retreat was an amazing experience, though it did involve a short night on the hard gymnasium floor. It culminated with a trip to Orlando for dinner and a show Saturday night. I was really grateful the SGA invited the executive board of TFO to the retreat, because they didn’t have to and I think we really benefited as a group from the things we learned.

On the fraternity front, unfortunately I had to withdraw from pledging Pi Kappa Alpha for financial reasons. In college you need to prioritize how you spend your money, and I chose to be able to fly home for Thanksgiving. I feel appreciative to the brothers of Pike for giving me the opportunity to try and join them and in a heartbeat I would attempt to pledge again if the situation ever became right.

School is getting tough. It’s that blunt. I am fighting the urge to lose focus and not go to class, because it is setting in now that no one is forcing me to. I make it to almost all of my classes every day and I am working on making that 100% attendance. These days, I have several papers and presentations I am working on so that does take a little more time than homework was taking in the beginning of the semester.

The moral for these two weeks is that Embry-Riddle is a BUSY place to be. But without chaos and lots of things to do, I’d be very, very bored. So a hectic life makes me happy.

I am going to lie back down now, because I am still not feeling that well, so I hope you all stay healthy and keep your grades up.

Until next time,
Carlos