It’s incredible to think about how fast the weeks are just flying by these days. I look at the calendar, realizing it’s already 10 April, but still feel like it’s late evening from two months ago. With just three weeks to go, it’s definitely Crunch Time. As one of my old professors once told me, “May is coming; get on the horse.”

Our Navy unit just had its annual Dining In ceremony, a ceremony where only those within the unit and a guest of honor are invited. It was a fantastic opportunity to have fun with everyone, share a good many inside jokes, poke fun at each other, and just enjoy a good meal and a great evening. Though not much like what it was last year, it seems everyone was very pleased with the event. My roommate and the Mr. Vice for the event and myself got together to perform a heavily derivative skit about our Staff Sergeant and another Sergeant in the unit, reminding the midshipmen about the joys of Orientation. We took the ideas of Pablo Francisco’s skit on movie previews and presented a side-splitting rendition of our own “Orientation: A Sergeant’s Tale.” The evening topped off for many of us over 21 at the bar, discussing politics, sociology, philosophy and the works. It was a tremendous experience for me, to finally have that kind of stimulation at this school. I miss it dearly, and to find we have such fantastic thinkers both in the Unit Staff and the Battalion itself is deeply inspiring. It was so stimulating that my roommate and I are postulating the formation of a discussion group to meet twice a month, just to give midshipmen the chance to do more of this discussion and group learning than we have.

Color Guard is gearing up to present for a dedication ceremony of our gymnasium to a former instructor at the school, Jamie Fletcher, a former SEAL and aviator who died in an aviation accident about a year ago. Once that’s finished, it’s just graduation and our commissioning ceremony for those few that’ll be around when we’re done. Training will change dramatically, where I will no longer take on the National Ensign position, giving our Officer Candidate the opportunity to learn the position, as he’ll need it for presentations before and during the summer. Likewise, it’ll be time to start planning to whom I’ll pass the torch onto. I’ve been put up for a few positions within the unit, including Public Affairs Officer and Color Guard commander for next semester. I don’t know how likely I am for any of them, but either way, I’ll have to groom a replacement. I have a few in mind who would do well, but as to their interest in the position, I’m not certain. I’ll likely have next semester or year to figure and work that out.

Something along similar lines is something that’s fast grown from a matter of personal curiosity to immediate contention. I’ve always been chided about being proper and living morally, and it’s never really given me much issue until the last few weeks. Until recently, there’d not much been the necessity to really make such a lifestyle evident, but a friend of mine spoke with a Captain from SOCOM and in a shared communication, this captain particularly stressed the need for moral, mature leaders throughout the military. I’d always come from the camp of understanding that mature leaders were the residing norm in the military, but that email and some issues I’ve discovered have forced the issue directly to my doorstep, where I can no longer look at aberrations and write them off as “it just happens like that.” Unfortunately, at this time, I cannot go into more detail about this issue, but for all those aspiring officers, and even enlisted men who are reading this, the point is raised for one primary issue. The military is full of interested, capable men and women. There is no problem finding people who are capable of doing their jobs and doing them well. At a time when the military is condensing and looking only for the best, and especially as we move into an era where warfare is falling under increasingly stringent criticism and attention, those leaders who posses such qualities as discernment, self-control, dependability, loyalty, deference, truthfulness, and above all humility have the edge and the preference. It is a lack or immaturity of such things that cause the disgraces we’ve found so many events, not the least of which the torture of prisoners.

That’s all for now. Many of you have been writing in with all sorts of excellent questions about the school, your options, and life in general. It’s been great to converse with those of you who are willing to step out and make your voice heard. Keep it up! Until next time:

Onward + Upward

Hello readers, I’m a bit more tired than usual this morning because some smart ass decided to set of the fire alarm in the dorms off at three o’clock this morning. That is the second time it has happened since I have got here and it still hasn’t gotten any funnier. I don’t mind a bit of banter but I hate having my sleep interrupted.

The soccer club had their alumni game this weekend, and I am glad to say that the current team won it for the first time. A lot of the alumni seemed to be nursing a hangover, which didn’t help their performance but I am not sure how much of an effect this had on the outcome. We won a comfortable five zero and I even managed to get myself on the score sheet. It was a thirty-yard rasper. It was good to see the players that went before us at Riddle. We had a bit of a social on Saturday night after the game, a great day in fairness.

I am off to Nice in the south of France tomorrow for a wedding. It’ll be great, not just to see everyone from home but this will be my first wedding and, I am sure, a great party. I will be flying on Tuesday morning and not arriving until Wednesday, almost a full day of traveling, even with the time change. Well worth it though. I am very sad to say that I will have to miss a few days of college, but needless to say I think I will get over it. I will be thinking of all of you here at college working away, when I am living it up in the south of France. I suppose it is close to finals but all my classes are going well and I wouldn’t miss this wedding for the sake of a few days in college.

When I get back from Nice, I think that we have only got about two or three weeks left before we are heading home for the summer, and that is the end of my second Freshman year in college. And believe it or not, contrary to popular belief, especially with all my moaning on this journal it has been a good year where I have met a lot of new and good friends. I am very glad that I got the opportunity to write this journal as I now have something that I can look back on, and reminisce about the year that has gone. You know how it is sometimes, you never really appreciate what you have until it is gone. For instance, the dorms, very boring at times, but I would definitely recommend staying there for the first year of college at least. I mean if nothing else it is a great place to meet people who are usually on the same boat as your self, their first year in college and their first time away from home.

Anyway I have to go to work and I have a lot to do today, with going away tomorrow and that, I have some washing to do. Take it easy. Hugh.

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

Hey everyone! Oh school is almost over for the semester and I am so excited! I am just ready to get outta here and just be at home with my family and make some much needed money to get a car amongst other things!

This semester has been one full of trials and tribulations for me…I have learned more and more that college is more than what you learn in the classroom, but is also what you learn about being on your own. I have learned how to teach some of my fellow peers chemistry to an extent in the chemsitry lab and I have enjoyed every moment of it. Mixing chemicals in the lab has also made me feel like a very important contribution to the labs and to better understand what the students are going to be doing each week…

As this year has been going on, I have figured out that maybe being in Engineering Physics is not the major for me…I am currently debating this for my own growth as a person…There have been so many days that I just don’t want to be in this major, not at all because of the difficulty, but because it is not enjoyable to me…

Last semester, chemistry was probably my hardest class, but I had enjoyed this class so much in high school that I had still worked through it…This semester I had done a little more soul searching to see if indeed I want to be doing physics and do some research all day for the next 30+ years or so…I came to a conclusion that I had just been in this major because they said that this would help me to become an astronaut! But if this stuff doesn’t seem to interest me anymore then I don’t know what to do.

Ok everyone I will keep you posted on what my situation is…I mean this is really tough because I had been wanting to come here since the 7th grade and now I feel like I just don’t think this is the right school for me anymore…Ok you all take care and I will talk to you all very soon!

*~Terryel~*

MAN OH man! Y’all have no idea. It’s been a crazy week or two for me. First of all, I’m going on a cruise! Hooray. I’m going to the Bahamas, I’ve been there twice before, but hey, what’s another time, hehe. Ya gotta love it. It’s only a four day cruise, but it will still be tons of fun and I can’t wait. I’m spending a few days in the sun instead of class, but I talked to my teachers and they’re pretty cool with it, so long as I turn in everything ahead of time. Which means it’s been a lot of work lately to do. Anyways, that’s only news number one.

News number two, I have gotten a job. That’s right. I haven’t worked since last summer when I did a College Program Internship with Disney, but I’ve gone down to Disney and gotten a job again, yEaH! If you all remember, (which you probably don’t) I worked at Test Track at EPCOT. This time I’m not going to be working at Track, but somewhere in Future World West, which includes The Living Seas, The Land, and the new Soarin’ Attraction. I’ll probably be cast at Soarin’, but who knows. I hope to be cross trained back to Test Track because it was the most fun ever, but I bet Future World West would be pretty cool too. I know everyone is so much fun to work with no matter what we’re doing. Today I did a Traditions class, which is 8 hours worth of teaching. You learn the Traditions and safety and legal information that is needed in the workplace. Next Saturday is my Discovery Day at EPCOT, which becomes another 8 hours of walking and playing in the park. Anyways, gotta go pack for the cruise. I’m leaving tomorrow. Later Guys, I’ll fill you in on it when I get back.

-Darryl

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!

Hey everyone! Wow…I was so glad that spring break finally came when it did! I so needed to get away from the stress that school was causing and to just clear my head from this place!

I went to Simsbury, Connecticut to meet Mike’s family! I had been excited since Mike and his family wanted to come up there and meet them! But I was nervous too; this was the first time that I had ever done this sort of thing before. Mike naturally calmed me down and I was ok after that.

The airplane ride was pretty good. The first thing I noticed was the snow! I was just not used to seeing snow at this time of year since I have been in Florida. There were rivers and lakes that were still frozen over and such, so I was still excited.

When we go off the plane I finally got to meet Mike’s mom and I gave her a hug! She was so nice. Mr. Krug was cool as well…We all went out for my ultimate favorite: hot fudge brownie sundae!!!!! And I tell you it was the best that I ever had! Mike and his parents took me on a tour of Simsbury and that was cool. It is like a quiet town and I loved that feeling of seclusion that you normally don’t feel in the city.

The next day I got to meet many people from Mike’s family…they were all so very nice and I felt at ease with all of them, as if I had known them for more than a day! I saw how happy Mike was to be at home and I hadn’t really seen him that happy in a while. It was a wonderful sight to see him with his brother and mom and dad. I knew that he missed them all and I was happy that he at least got to be there for a week…

My favorite part had to be when Mike took me on my hike to see this beautiful waterfall! I mean there was still some snow on this mountain that we were hiking down to get to, but after sliding and me freaking out for a bit, all was well! All the sliding was worth it in the end, because the waterfall was so very relaxing!!!!!

Well after being in Connecticut for a week, it was time to come back to Daytona. I was sad that I had to leave. I felt like if I could have had just one more week to just relax that would have been fine with me. But I was fortunate to have this week off to relax, seeing that in the Embry-Riddle past, there has only been like Good Friday and the Monday after Easter off, that’s it! So on Saturday we came back to me needing to complete all the assignments that I didn’t do! Got them mostly done by today, but still have some lab and humanities homework to still do!

I would like to thank again Mr. and Mrs. Krug and Zach for letting me come into their home and having the opportunity to get to know them and feed me wonderful food and giving me much love and comfort for the entire week! I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality! You guys all take care and I’ll be sure to take good care of your son for the remainder of the school year until he comes home again!

Ok everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful spring break and keep those grades up because crunch time is coming! Take care and I will talk to you all very soon!

*~Terryel~*

Hey all. Let me apologize in advance for being a little out of it..while spring break was amazing, it was definitely very draining. I think I need another spring break just to recover from this one, but Riddle isn’t very sympathetic to such things. I drove up to Jersey again with some friends and this trip was much more eventful than Thanksgiving or Christmas. We had a lot of fun, but we were always on the go so there was no time to kick back and take a breather. I did enjoy getting to experience some ‘real’ weather, eating a cheese steak, and heading back up to NYC again. All in all, very fun. Except for the drive home. To make a long story short, a drive that should have taken us about 14-16 hrs (which is quite long enough to begin with), took 26 hrs. We left at 7 pm and got in at 9 pm, just in time for me to drive to Orlando and back to pick up a friend at the airport. Anticlimactic endings suck. And here I am..running on empty.

I’m not very excited for classes to pick up again, but we only have a month left in the semester, which is a beautiful thing to think about. I got lucky in that I had absolutely no homework over break, but I’m paying for it now with a test nearly every day this week. I also still have a lot of catch up work to do in statistics, which is no fun at all. I just received a tentative schedule for my Summer B study abroad in London/Paris, so I’m getting excited about the trip. There are so many field trips that we spend very few days in actual class, but we often have class for 9 hours a day and we have a 20 page paper due at the end, so that accounts for all the fun we’ll be having on the other days.

I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but my old roomie transfered out last January and I got a new one a month or so ago. Her name is Libby and we get along pretty well, but neither of us are every really in the room. I always feel bad though because I have to wake up early for ROTC and such and usually end up making noise, so my advice is: if you’re in ROTC, room with another ROTC kid..and if not, avoid it at all costs.

Not much news, as I haven’t actually been on campus, but feel free to ask any questions or say hi!

Melanie

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great spring break! I did too, but the weather didn’t work along with me I guess.

When the break started most of my friends left for back home and only a couple of us were left here, but that didn’t bring me down. Friday night we went to watch the movie Hostage, great movie. Bruce Willis was great performing as a hostage negotiator and later on, police chief. Thumbs up for Bruce Willis!!

Later in the week we went to beach, and it was great. A1A was overflowing with people and it was easy to spot spring breakers. I think hanging out with friends on A1A is the best thing to do during spring break. It was more like Mardi Grass kind of atmosphere and slow traffic moving along A1A and other stuff you all know what I mean. Once we went there in the evening and stayed there till two in the morning, it was simply amazing, actually it was more fun because for some reason A1A comes to life late night. There is a lot to do – especially in spring break, make new friends, go to the beach, go to clubs and much more. I didn’t get a chance to go to the beach a lot because of muggy weather later in the week. But that’s fine I will make it up in summer. Oh I watched the movie BE COOL, and I am sad to say it but I wasted my six dollars.

Back to school – The school is almost coming to an end now, one more month and then I will be free for only a week until the summer A starts. I have a long year to go until Christmas. From fall I will be taking my engineering level classes, commonly known as AE-level courses and I am so glad that I will be done with all of the prerequisite courses and then ready to dive into actual engineering science. I am desperately waiting for it because that is the stuff that interests me more. I have heard it from some seniors that the labs for engineering science are awesome and I am really looking forward to it, especially wind tunnel lab, in other universities one can see those lab in graduate studies, but at Riddle, I will be able to have hands on experience during undergraduate studies.

The elections for Indian Student Association, YUVA are next week and I am running for treasurer. I am suppose to give a speech but at this point I have not prepared anything and to be honest I don’t believe in preparing speeches for any kind of election. God knows if I will win or not, YUVA really needs some good executive board members if not then the chances are the club will close soon.

Right now, it’s 2:12 am on Monday the 28th and I have to get up at 7 to attend my EGR 115 class so I better get going. For those who have some questions and wondering how to contact me, my email is vyas85a@erau.edu and you can also buzz me on AIM at m100584m.

So until next time, chillax!! (chill + relax)

OVER & OUT!!!

Hello readers, Happy Easter everybody, I’m right in the middle of spring break and the weather hasn’t picked up yet, but I have been told that I do too much complaining in my articles, so I am not going to talk about the bad things. On a brighter note, before my girlfriend went home yesterday we went to St. Augustine for a couple of days, because a few people told us that it was worthwhile going to visit.

The first day we went there was the only good day for the whole two weeks that she was in America. It was lucky, because we had planned on going to the beach, which was a lot nicer and quieter than Daytona Beach. Then we went into the city itself, which feels like a small town somewhere in Europe. Everything is small and quaint and it didn’t feel like anywhere else that I have been in the U.S. (as of yet). It’s hard for me to say that, as it is where Flagler University hales from, but still it was a nice way to end her visit. The two weeks she was here seemed to fly by, just the same as this semester. Not long left now, just finals to get over. For the past two weeks, I’ve been staying at one of the boy’s apartment, which was class (cheers Besty). I’m back in the dorms now, and feeling thoroughly depressed about it. It was great to have a bit of freedom, and a car to drive. I think I will enjoy next semester a lot more, I will be moving into a house or apartment, and I’ll be getting myself a car.

I’ve started making my plans for this summer; Elisabeth and myself are going away to Cuba for three weeks. As much as I love Razzles, bikers with mullets, and pilots, it will be great to get away for awhile and just relax. I heard that it isn’t the safest place for you Americans to travel to. I have a few months of hard labor to do before I can afford this, but it will be worth it when I get to take it easy for a few weeks. I think that I will probably fly straight back here after the holiday. I can’t wait to get home for the summer, all this talk of finals and projects has killed my good form, and now the summer is the only thing that I have to look forward to. Oh, actually I am turning 21 this Thursday, so I have the weekend to look forward to. It should be a mad one.

Anyway that is the extent of my spring break, but hopefully by my next entry I should have a few good stories from my first weekend as a twenty-one year old. Take it easy.