About Kristina

Freshman

Air Traffic Management

**Goal:** To become an air traffic controller in a class "D" tower, live on a private airport, give flying lessons, have a family

April 26, 2005

Hello Everyone,

Things are finally starting to come to a close, this being one of them. It’s my second to last journal, and I’ll soon complete my first year of college. The past two weeks have been spent preparing for this coming week, finishing up all the material so we could review and start finals on Saturday. I had my last tests before the finals and a paper due, all of which went well. If I am able to do well on all my finals again this semester, I’ll be able to maintain my 4.0! Hopefully all will go well and I’ll find time to study amidst all the other things going on.

I’m still searching for a house to buy and move into next year. It’s been fun, but I’m ready to find something so that I have those plans for next year secure. I’ll miss not living on campus and being close to everything, but I’m really looking forward to having my own space and a kitchen to cook and bake. I miss not being able to make my own food; thankfully I have amazing upper-classmen friends who allow me to come over and bake at their place if I’m really desperate. Also, having my own washer and dryer will be nice. It gets expensive, but getting 5 loads of laundry done at the same time was nice for a year.

I need to start packing up my stuff to put in storage; we have to be out of the dorms the day after our finals are completed. My mom is flying down to drive with me back up to Michigan for the summer. It will be fun to have that time to talk and catch up on all that has happened this past semester.

My summer is going to be completely crazy, I have so many things that I want to accomplish. I’m planning on taking a class at the local Community College in my area, get my pilot’s license, work, and visit with my friends. Also I’ll be attending Oshkosh with ERAU to work at their tent for the event. I’ve gone every year with my dad since I was in 4th grade, that’s how I found out about this school. It will be so rewarding to go this year as a student, encouraging other young people to follow their goals and encourage them to look into attending Embry-Riddle! Look into coming to the event, it’s the biggest airport/ tower in the world for that week, and it’s mesmerizing. They have great acrobatic air show in the afternoon, acres of airplanes on exhibit to see (kit planes, war birds, new factory built, classics, ultra lights, sea planes), and barn/tents of displays from everything and everyone who has anything to do with aviation. Every year that I’ve gone I’ve found something new to look at or a new area to explore. If you think it might be there, it probably is :-). For any pilot or person that enjoys aviation it’s a must see! Hopefully I’ll see you there!

Back to the present, off the Oshkosh Tangent, if you couldn’t tell I really love that place. This past Saturday I went to the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity’s Chartering Banquet with Ben and had a wonderful time. The fraternity was chartered two weeks ago and Pike is the newest fraternity on campus; they were all very excited and were initiated this weekend before the banquet. It was a great experience and I was happy to be a part of it. Girls love any excuse to get all dressed up.

Well, I hope all is going well for you as you begin to wrap up your academic year. I need to get back to homework; I didn’t get much of it done this weekend.

Until next time, Happy Landings!
Kristina

April 14, 2005

Hello Everyone-

The count down for the semester’s end has begun, only 3 more weeks until I’ve completed my first year of college! This past year I have grown so much, college has been an amazing experience and I’ve defiantly ‘broadened my horizons.’

Although my spring break ended two weeks ago, it hasn’t really seemed like it because I’ve been entertaining my friend, Kaiti, and my family the past two weeks while they’ve been visiting me on their Spring breaks. Kaiti got into Daytona Beach the Wednesday after my Spring Break ended and stayed until Saturday, and my family got here last Friday and stayed a week.

Kaiti and I have been friends since elementary school and she goes to school in Chicago where she’s the Girls Track Star. She’s a great friend and was so determined to come see me over her break that she drove 31 hours here on a Grey Hound Bus and 33+ hours back. We had a lot of fun while she was in town hanging out. I took her to the beach an afternoon and to our pool on campus. Also, it was campaign week for SGA elections, so I recruited her into helping me in the kitchen bake chocolate chip cookies, brownies, rice krispies, and cup cakes for my campaign. ‘HONOR… for COA’

Elections were this week Tuesday and Wednesday, and I found out on Thursday morning that I got in! So I am officially a member of SGA’s student rep. board for the 2005-2006 academic year. I’m so happy that all my campaigning paid off, but I was slightly disappointed because two of my close friends did not get the positions for which they ran. The great thing is that everyone has taken this election seriously but not let it deicide who they are, and those who lost seem to be taking it as well as can be expected.

My family was here this past week, it was so nice to see them and spend time with them. I’d been anticipating their arrival and it was nice to know they were in not only the same state as me but they were 15 minutes away. My family stayed at the Fairfield Resorts on Ocean Walk off of A1A. They had a condo for the week and I brought over all my friends for dinner and to hangout on the beach and the pool deck. We had a ton of fun and were outside by the pool or ocean almost the entire time they were here. Also we went to a baseball game with the ERAU Eagles vs. the Daytona Cubs. It was a great break having them here but also hard because so much was going on. I really need to get to my homework and back into the swing of studying. I’ll be able to relax some more once the semester is done. Until then it’s back to the craziness of getting everything completed and all the materials covered before finals.

Until Next Time, Happy Landings!

Kristina

April 7, 2005

Hello Everyone-Craziness that’s about all I can say regarding the last two weeks.

To start off I had a great birthday. I went out to eat and got a lot of cards in the mail from my family. It was a little weird not being with them for the first time on a big occasion like that, but I still had a great time. My friends at school are wonderful and they definitely helped to make this birthday special.

I also had test overload that week. “When it rains it pours” has never held a truer meaning for me than this past year. Every time I have one test, it seems I have at least three. Thankfully, they were all on different days which gave me a little less stress over studying. With spring break the following week, everyone was trying to get all the material covered and tested before we had a week off to forget it all. I counted my blessings because I haven’t had to study over the break; some of my friends have three tests this coming week.

Spring break was wonderful; I stayed in Daytona Beach all but one day when I drove to Winter Haven, FL to visit my roommate from last semester, Crystal. I mainly worked over the break because we didn’t really have nice weather. Granted it’s warmer than Michigan would have been had I gone home, but it wasn’t really ‘lay out on the beach all day’ weather. My roommate Julee’s sister and best friend came down for the week as well, so we hung out with them in the evenings and tried to show them the sights of Daytona Beach.

At work I was able to spend a lot of time in the phone room as well as go over to campus visit to help with the “masses” that came to tour our campus, I answered phones and gave tours. There were so many people here it was overwhelming at times. I think some of the tour groups were so large that they lasted twice as long as a normal tour would have. And we were understaffed because most of the students we work with left for Spring Break. At least now I have a little extra spending money.

On Saturday I drove to Winter Haven with Ben to go see Crystal, and learned how to water ski! I really didn’t want to learn, but I’m so glad I did (thanks for forcing me Crystal). I was able to get up on every attempt and stayed up for about 5 minutes my last time. We also hung out at the pool and just caught up on each others lives. I really miss her, but love my new roommate.

Easter was fun as well, although not traditional- we went to the beach after church. What else is there to do when you’re away from your family and they’re all eating good food, and it’s a beautiful day in Florida???

Anyways, hope your Easter was Blessed, I guess it’s back to school for me tomorrow.

Until Next Time, Happy Landings!