Welcome back to Steven’s extreme collection of tremendous Riddle experiences. That’s right, you have returned to the one stop shop location for daily life encounters of an Aerospace Engineering major at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I have definitely had my share of college life these past two weeks. Unfortunately, they have not all been fun experiences. This was mainly due to the compacting of many University events packed into one week. I’ll get to that a little later.
Let’s go back one week and I’ll walk you through the crazy happenings of Biketoberfest! First of all, you have to understand that I love this town. Daytona Beach is a small, quiet town where you can do just about anything you want 11 out of 12 months of the year. There are, however, two exceptions. One is during Spring Break Season when every college student in America floods Daytona Beach. The other is during Bike Week in October. If you like motorcycles, then this is the week for you. I have never seen so many motorcycles in one place in my entire life. It is the motorcycle gathering in America. I couldn’t go more then 50 fifty feet in any direction without seeing a motorcycle when I went out with friends. I personally am really into motorcycles and plan on getting one soon, so this was a great weekend. To my surprise I didn’t spend any time at the racetrack checking out the booths or dealers. However, a bunch of friends and I did head out to Oceanwalk on Saturday Night to see The Prestige, but we were too late. So, we went to Main Street instead and I am so glad we did. It is right off of AIA and it is packed with motorcycles. I am talking curb completely packed for 7 or 8 blocks on both sides. There were several concerts going on and people everywhere. I have never seen so many interestingly dressed people in my entire life. We stopped off at some small concert and listened to the band for a while and they were laying down some cool beats. After a while of walking around, we decided to head back to the dorms and call it a night by just hanging out with everybody else back on campus. Oh, by the way, parking at Oceanwalk that night was just retarded. We went to enter the structure like we always do from the North and we found that the entrance was blocked for Lord knows what reason. So we have to wait for all the cars behind us to back out and then we have to back out ourselves and try and find parking somewhere else. We end up circling around to the South side of the structure only to discover that it is open and there are plenty of spots. It was just a terrible situation and that should explain why we missed our movie.
This past week has been a living hell for me. This is where I describe all the events that made this week crazy. Let me start off with my personal schedule. I had three exams this past week. I had a programming exam on Wednesday and Dynamics and Differential Equations on Thursday. That equates to me having a whole lot of studying to do this past week. To top it off, the university planned Open House, Homecoming and the Career Expo all for the same week. Now, open house and homecoming were not a big deal for me, but the career expo was crucial. I am now a junior and that means that an internship is a very important thing to get involved in at this stage of college. The key to making that happen is at the career expo. Some tips, go to the expo very year and get to know how things work. Meet the recruiters and make yourself known. These things will make the really important years that much easier. So, how did I prepare for the expo? I bought a suit! To some of you that may seem stupid but this is the first suit I have ever owned so it was awesome for me. So a couple of days before the expo I went to the mall to visit a few different department stores and low and behold, JCPenney has the best selection. After some time there, and a little help from Cat, Cassie and the very nice lady at the store, I picked out a snazzy, pinstripe suit. I also got a new shirt and tie and I was ready to go.
The next step was preparing my resume to hand out to all the recruiters. Start working on your resumes now. Write down every little award you ever get, every bit of community service time you earn, and any job you ever work at. It will make the resume writing process much easier down the road. The Expo itself was a trip. There were so many companies there and so much to look at. To be honest, the Expo is really focused towards pilots and engineers but if you look really close there are other opportunities as well. I stopped at couple of different locations. By the way, Cat came with me and walked around the fair with me and it was extremely awesome for her to help me get around faster and more efficiently. You should all do yourself a favor and make a friend like Cat because besides the fact that she is totally awesome to hang out with, she is always there when I need her the most. She is especially awesome during the tough times. She’s like that Chevy commercial. “Like A Rock!” . . . . or something like that . . . you know what I mean. She is just an awesome friend. By the way, she is the journal writer that is right above me on the previous webpage and you should definitely check out her journal if you haven’t done so already. Anyway, my key stop at the Expo was with Boeing. After exchanging a couple of words with a nice lady, she invited me back the next day for another interview. Go back and read that again. I Got An Interview With Boeing!!! How sweet is that! I swear to you I was on cloud nine. I’m not going to speak much more about that other than tell you that my interview went really well. I don’t want to jinx myself though so I will keep you all updated as soon more develops.
The other congested part of this week that I mentioned was homecoming and open house. I was not personally involved with these events but the company I work for was catering all the events this week. So I was working ridiculous hours on top of having to study. It just piled on and this week became a sleepless nightmare. I barely slept at all and it was really a bad experience for me. There is a lesson coming up here so pay attention. You should know that this job was not making me very happy at all. The environment was not always a positive one and the demands of the job as far as hours go were not worth it. The other down side was that I was told that I would get the opportunity to meet high officials from the university and I actually ended up missing three opportunities. To top it off, the hours of the job on top of coursework was definitely taking its toll on me and making it very hard for me to perform in classes. What I am getting at here is that I unfortunately ended up quitting my job. After two years of college, I know my limits and I know that I must maintain an equal balance between work and education. However, education always comes first. So, I made a decision to keep my education my priority and the focus of my goals. On the happier side, my exams did go very well and I currently have two job opportunities on the line that require less of my time while still allowing me to accumulate enough hours to make some money.
After that hectic week, I finally got a chance to relax. This weekend was tons of fun and I think I earned it. First of all, Friday was a University Day and all classes were cancelled. So other than my interview, I had the whole day to sleep in, relax and enjoy some quality time with my friends. That evening we actually did something that I haven’t done in a long time. We went roller-skating. I am really good at roller blading and it was a lot of fun for me to get moving again. Some people in our group weren’t as good and spent of lot of their time hugging the wall but I am pretty sure they had fun too. We were planning on sticking around later in the evening for the dance part of the night, but soon realized that was a bad idea when everyone around us was still in middle school. So we headed out for the night and chilled back at the dorms. The next day we slept in and then left for Orlando. We had bought tickets for Halloween Haunt at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. The roller coasters were slamming and the haunt fest was a lot of fun too. The haunted houses were a bit lame but walking through the streets was creepy and exhilarating. Other than the fact that we were freezing our rear ends off, it was really an awesome night with friends. If you want, you can check out pictures on my Facebook.
We crashed that night in a hotel in Orlando and drove back the next morning. A little more relaxation and then we were off to watch the Steelers game at a place called Steel City Pizza. The people there had one thing in common with my friend Matt: They were obsessed with the Steelers. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. So, to be troublesome, myself and Dustin from 4th floor Wood decided to root for the Raiders. To our surprise, the Raiders beat the Steelers. Kind of sad for the Steelers to lose to one of the worst teams in the NFL but that’s how it goes sometimes in the RAIDER NATION!!!
Anyhow, that’s all for now. Time for bed. I hope everyone had a good past two weeks and I wish you all the best in the next two. Be sure to check back for more updates and use the message boards. All the journal writers are there to help you.
Until next time, You stay classy Planet Earth!
