Hello!! I can’t believe I am actually at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and writing this journal! A little piece of information I learned at orientation is everyone calls the school Riddle, instead of having to say Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University all the time. Since I was a freshman in high school, I have been dreaming about coming to Riddle. I guess I should probably tell you a little bit about myself. All my life I have lived in Sidney, Illinois; no it’s not near Chicago— its two hours south. My town is about 1,000 people and my high school is five towns combined to form a graduating class of about 112. The University of Illinois in Champaign is about fifteen minutes away, so I got the best of both worlds I grew up in a small town but had the city close enough to do fun things. My high school experience was a little different because I graduated a semester early and attended a local community college. I was a few credits short of being a sophomore, but I am glad that I was able to get a feel for what college would be like.
My mom, dad, and I drove from Illinois to Florida because there was no way all my clothes, shoes, and other stuff would have fit on an airplane. We arrived in Florida on August 20th a day before orientation was to start. The plan was to have a day to explore Daytona and go to the beach. Well, as we all know the best laid plans never work out; instead of hanging out on the beach I was sitting in a dentist office with one side of my face twice its normal size. I had my wisdom teeth taken out in June and one of the holes decided to become infected causing my face to swell. We found a great dentist, Dr. Lloyd, who performed surgery to drain the poison. Afterwards, I felt 100% better and thought that the worse was over. WRONG!! I began to feel worse that evening and throughout the entire orientation week I was sick which we think might have been due to an allergic reaction to the penicillin. What a great way to start college!
Orientation week starts with move-in day which is crazy because all the new students are moving in at the same time. The whole process was pretty fast though, and a nice thing is they have shopping carts to load your stuff into and then take it up to your room, so you don’t have to make twenty trips outside to get all your stuff. I am living in Wood Hall on the top floor (fifth) and looking out my window I can see the Daytona International Speedway stands. Several people have told me that you can see the actual racetrack from the roof which is pretty cool! Many things go on at Orientation but the event I remember most was the reception with the College of Business. The College of Business is the smallest college on campus but next semester they will have the newest building! The reason I chose to study aviation business is because one day I hope to become an airport manager.
This semester the classes I am taking are Macroeconomics, Principles of Management, a Computer class, Applied Calculus, Honors Seminar, and an Air Force class. Also, every freshman is required to take a class that helps orient you to the university and your specific college. I am in the Honors Program; that requires you to take the Honors Seminar and a number of Honors classes within your major. Another adventure of mine was I decided to do Air Force ROTC and so far I am really enjoying it. I am not the most coordinated person and I confuse right with left a lot which means learning drill and how to march has been somewhat of a challenge, but I am always up for challenges.
If you have any questions, you can shoot me an email.
Kaleigh
e-mail:sidesk@erau.edu
