The semester is nearly over. With only a week of classes left and about two finals (both on a Saturday), I finally see my first year of college nearing an end. It seemed like just yesterday I was nervous to embark on this new journey of the unknown in college. Would I make friends? Would people like me? Was I even going to like my classes and teachers? I had so many questions and looking back now it almost seemed naïve of me to worry quite so much. College had its good and bad, things I loved and things I loathed. It was everything and nothing like high school and it was an experience I could never forget.
Looking back on some of my journal entries online I could see how much I had learned, not only school book wise but also through common sense learned of things go on a “university” level. I can only hope to continue recording things like this about college so when I graduate I will have seen just how far I’ve really come along now.
To all of you still deciding, graduating from high school, or even attending in the Fall 2011 semester, I wish you the best of luck. I can’t say your experience will be exactly like my own. I only hope that you do not make some of the mistakes I made, however, if making mistakes is how you learn then by all means. College is something that, if not careful, can overwhelm you in a negative way, or it can challenge you to become a more mature person in this fast-paced world. Being at Riddle has helped me grow as a person, and please believe this is not a script writing, this is an honest opinion. You cannot always depend on your parents, academic advisor, or even financial advisor to tell you when you need to get things done or fix every single problem. You have to stand up for yourself, this doesn’t always mean alone, but this done mean speaking up when you realize a problem or even something you just don’t understand. The only dumb question is the one you never ask, it’s your first year in college, and no one expects you to know everything, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know anything. The same pride you have on your day of graduation, the “I finally made it out” mentality; hold on to that as you enter college.
Work hard to obtain the goals and ambitions you have for yourself and never back down from them. I myself will be a Sophomore Fall semester (even though I’ll be attending this summer as well), and my dreams of graduating from ERAU with a Baccalaureate in Communications and minors in psychology and International Studies are only one step closer, that’s something no one can take from me. And as you walk across the stage and onto your college campus, just realize you are one step closer to your dreams, and that is something no one can ever take away from you. Good luck to you all and keep your head up no matter what.
Well, this year is coming to a close. It is really depressing in some ways but happy in others. To know that my first year as a college student is over and moving out of my first dorm with my first roommate ever is sad. This will be one of the weirdest summers till this day. While I was in high school, summer meant beaches and spending time with friends who I had seen just a couple weeks ago. Now it is completely different. The friends that I’ve made over the past 9 months are going to spread all over the country and the world. Knowing that we will see each other in 3 months makes us all feel better, but these people are friends that I will be friends with for the rest of my life. You will learn that once you come here. Friends that you make in high school and when you were younger are completely different than those who you meet here in college. There’s a different bond that is acquired between college friends, one that you don’t want to break.
In other news, classes are going great. I’ve had quizzes and tests during the past couple weeks and doing very well on them. I only have one real final exam in Physics but have a LaserGrade for my instrument class, which is basically a final test but contributes to 10% or your final grade. If you don’t get above an 80% on it, you lose that 10%, thus it’s extremely important to study as hard as you can. Other than that, most classes are wrapping up and teachers are just summarizing the course, telling us how they enjoyed the year and to have a great summer. I will be seeing a couple of my teachers next fall because I have them for other classes. I have my Flight Physiology teacher, Professor Moren, for Aircraft Engine-Turbine, and my Science-Fiction Monsters and Villains teacher, 
Flying is going well. I might not be able to finish my private due to the fact that I am low on money. We shall see how it goes but I’m hoping to finish it. I got a new instructor who is very nice but I definitely miss my old instructor, Lindsey, who is getting trained for the airline, ExpressJet.
Hey guys. How are you all doing? I am doing well here. I’m just finishing up the last week of classes. I can’t believe that a whole second year has gone by. Time truly flies. I am halfway through with college already and that is hard to believe. Unfortunately, that means that this is my final journal entry for you guys as well. Since I last wrote, again not all too much has been going on. My days are primarily filled with classes and work. As I have mentioned to you before, the end of the semester is a hectic time as all semester-long projects become due combined with the final exams and tests for each class. It is kind of stressful in the middle of it all, but then before you know it, it is summer and you have four months off from school. It’s great.
Other than classes and work, I have been spending some time moving into my apartment. Most of the furniture has come by now, and I should be sleeping there by the end of the week or early next week. It’s coming along quite nicely. With this comes moving out of the dorm room, too, which is a lot of work in and of itself. You’d be surprised how much stuff you accumulate throughout the year without even knowing it. Then, when you are moving out, you have to figure out what you’re going to do with it all. Last year, I got a storage unit for the things I didn’t want to send home, but this year I will just move what I need into the apartment and throw away the rest. Then, all that’s left is to clean the dorm, check out, and give back the keys. I remember from last year the somewhat strange feeling of seeing your room completely empty just before you walk out the door for the last time.
The weather is beautiful now, in the 80’s every day. People are getting out to the beach as much as they can and the atmosphere has been very upbeat. It is really nice to have warm weather starting in February instead of having to wait until May like I did at home. Everything seems better in the warm weather. The most exciting thing I did since I last wrote was this past Easter weekend when I brought my roommate down to my parent’s house in South Florida. My whole family was there for Easter weekend and we went down to spend it with them. It was really a great time. Two of our friends from school were also down there visiting their families so we all were able to meet up a few times. Friday night, we all went out for ice cream after dinner with my family. On Saturday, we went to the pool for most of the day and just enjoyed relaxing in the sun. That night, we went to Stuart, Florida to see my dad’s parents and his brother and his family, many of whom I hadn’t seen in several years. It was great to catch up with all of them and to learn what they were up to. It was amazing to see how much they’d grown since I last saw them.
On Sunday, we had Easter breakfast with my family and then my roommate and I went to meet with our friends from school. His family has a brand new boat and we went out on it for a few hours on the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. It was a great time. The water was crystal clear in the Intracoastal, probably the clearest I’d ever seen it. The weather was perfect as well. We went out of the Boca Inlet and entered the Atlantic which was a little choppy but that made for some fun wave bouncing. At one point, we were all suspended in the air as the boat came back down to meet the water. We then drove up and down the Intracoastal a bit and looked at the massive houses on it. Finally, we returned to the Boca Raton Resort and Club, where they keep their boat, and got a famous frozen hot chocolate from the Serendipity restaurant inside the resort. Then, we went out to grab a late lunch at Stir Crazy Café, which had amazing stir fry. It was a great way to end the weekend.
After heading back home and saying goodbye to my family, my roommate and I headed back to Daytona for one more week of school. Well, guys, that is really all I have for you from the past two weeks. I want to take a moment and mention how much I enjoyed writing this for you every other week this year. I hope that my experiences and knowledge was able to help you in deciding where you wanted to go to school and what you want to do for a living. I sure have enjoyed interacting with many of you and even meeting a few of you at the Accepted Students Day reception. 
Even though I will not be writing any more regularly, please feel free to contact me anytime at 
I just finished writing my last paper for COM221 (tech report writing). It’s a 6-7 page analytical paper. I’m not complaining though! I did it on one of my favorite topics. I’ll leave that for you to guess…starts with a D ends with a Y? I have yet to work on my 4-5 page honors paper on Afghanistan and my CATIA project…design an airplane with everything on it AND another project too? In ONE week? I wonder what my professor was thinking…Sometimes I believe they think they’re the only class we have to study for.
That day, we were awake from 6 in the morning to well over one the next morning. Why you ask? Well, Jim’s birthday was on Saturday. His brother decided to get married that day. Jim had to fly back home for the wedding, and therefore couldn’t spend his birthday with us. Sunday we decide to go to Orlando after Bharvi and I came back from our trip. This was almost 7:30 at night. We drive to downtown Disney (90 minutes), eat, watch the fireworks from the Polynesian, and head back. Needless to say we were very, very tired the next morning…I bought 2 Vinylmation figures though! They’re vinyl figurines in the shape of Mickey that are painted over in all sorts of designs. I bought a nerdy Donald Duck and a mystery park one (turned out to resemble one of the exit signs around WDW). I believe I have an obsession with them now…
These past few weekends have been one of the best I’ve had so far. I’m really going to miss this place, but I’m excited for summer! We’re planning driving from San Ramon to Seattle, spend the day there, drive to Vancouver, spend another day there, and taking a cruise (Disney of course) all the way to Alaska. Then, we are driving all the way down to Anaheim, California to go to Club33 (Google it!!), since I found out my dad has access to it through his company. So so excited!!
The rain seemed to follow me back to Daytona from my house. The deluge hit campus like there was no tomorrow! A friend of mine said: “Dear friends with snow, I’m sorry for making fun of you and your weather. But this week you got your revenge when Poseidon vomited on my campus”. If you see some of the pictures I’ll post, you’d understand…the area between my dorm and the main campus flooded with (not even joking) at least 2 feet of water! Luckily, it only lasted for a few days.
Nothing comes close to how insanely busy last weekend was, though! Jim and I signed up to volunteer at New Smyrna Beach’s annual Balloon and Sky Fest. Remember how I had mentioned we would be working chase crew? Well, let me just say it was a lot more work than we had anticipated. We woke up bright and early (well…it was still dark out, so dark and early?) on Saturday and Sunday morning to make the 30-minute drive down US1. When we got there, we were each grouped with our assigned crew.
The day after that, we worked with Sunny Boy, a sun-shaped balloon. This one stood taller at 140 feet, but held much less hot air, so it was a lot less work. After that, we took a stroll around the place, and ended up mining. Spruce Creek Mining Co. had set up a tent, where, for a few dollars, we bought a bag of dirt. After cleaning out the bag using a river-like system, we found a few big Emerald stones, rubies, peacock ore, and even some quartz! That must have been the highlight of my day…
Last big thing—The Big Show! Touch N Go productions held its annual big show on Saturday. This year, the university hosted Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake, two ska bands. It was less crowded than I had expected, but, having been drained of energy that day from balloon fest, we only stayed and listened for an hour or so. Still fun—I can never pass up a good show!
I suppose that’s all. Nothing too exciting coming up next few weeks. I have an analytical report to look forward to. Nothing too exciting except…OPEN HOUSE/SNEEK PREVIEW DAY!! Have you RSVPed yet? I look forward to seeing you all around! As always, message me with all your questions! This will be one of my last blogs (sad face), so I want to get as many of your questions answered before the end of the semester!
It’s been another couple of great weeks. The end of the semester is getting closer and closer and we have about 15 days of classes left, and that means we have more and more tests and reviews. I finished my Physics Laboratory, I had to take a final test that was based on all of our labs and we were given data and used certain formulas to get what the answer would be.
Flying is going great and I am only a couple flights away and an oral or two away from my check ride and getting my private pilot license. I can seriously almost taste it. My flight instructor will be leaving within the next week or two to work for ExpressJet. I am so happy for her and was so glad I had her as my instructor for the time I did, and she definitely taught me a lot. I recently had my first night cross-country. I flew to the usual place that people fly on their night flight, KISM or Kissimmee, FL. The route from Daytona takes you right by Disney World and you get to see both Disney and Universal lit up at night and if you’re lucky, you get to see the Fireworks. It was a great flight and due to the Class B airspace, which just means it’s very condensed, busy, and fast moving aircraft, they have to vector or direct you through the airspace. They put us right over Disney and it was a definitely an amazing sight and was one of my favorite flights so far.
I know I’ve talked about it but I love being in driving distance of Orlando. A couple friends and I drove over to Downtown Disney, grabbed dinner, and hopped a ride over to the Disney Resorts, watched the fireworks from the Polynesian Resort and rode the monorail for a bit. It’s awesome to think that people come from all over the world to a place we go just for the night; definitely a thing that should be on your to-do list when you come down. Also coming up is the Accepted Student event here at the Daytona campus. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you prospective students and if you spot me, feel free to run up and say HI! It will be a great feeling knowing that I was your spot a year ago.
Because all my classes got cancelled on Friday (yay me!), I didn’t have to skip any to get to my flight from MCO—PHX—OAK that afternoon. It was a very long flight, like always, but it was nice to have some company on the way there. My parents had plans to go visit Yosemite National Park that weekend, but of course, it had to snow, which blocked the roads. I was a little upset, because having never seen snow, I didn’t realize how bad the roads could get. We decided to go see the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, CA instead. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, that was the carrier ship that rescued both Apollo 11 and 12 (and 13th? I may be wrong) from the ocean after their return from the moon. Because of that, inside the ship, they had a mockup of the Apollo capsule as well as the original trailer in which the astronauts were quarantined. I also saw lot of airplanes, along with the helicopter used to pull the capsule from the water (I’m not sure if that was the original one…but still pretty neat). We toured the bunk rooms, the dining halls, the bridge, and even got to see where the seamen assembled torpedoes!
Sunday we went to Chinatown—my personal favorite—and went to see my aunt Jenny who had had an accident the day before. Monday we went to Old Town Sacramento, where we got to visit the Railroad Museum. We even discovered a huge candy store where we could sample everything in the store! I have a newfound love for saltwater taffy as a result…
My brother had to go to school, and my dad had to work for the rest of the week, but we still managed to enjoy our stay. Jim and I ended up taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit—our public transportation system) to San Francisco, where we went around the famed Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf, as well as rode on the cable cars. The sea lions were around! They come every year and just lay on the pier. They were very loud…and very smelly, to say the least. Jim also got to visit his uncle, who lives in the nearby town of Emeryville (where the Pixar Animation Studios are). He gave me a very nice necklace he made himself, since he’s an artist. Friday, I took Jim to the San Jose flea market and a supermarket called Mi Pueblo (Hispanic food)…that was something, but at least I bought a neat phone case, guavas (SO good! Haven’t had them in years), and bought some awesome food to take back to my room.
We headed back to campus on Saturday night. Red eye flight…it was horrible! We didn’t get back to campus until 1:30 PM the NEXT day! We had a long delay in Charlotte because our pilot over-fueled the plane (therefore putting it over the maximum landing weight), which delayed us for an hour because the extra fuel had to be taken out, and the tanks balanced…and then bad weather hit us, delaying our plane another 30 minutes. Not complaining too much, because I know some people got stuck in Atlanta anywhere from 4 hours to 2 DAYS! I feel like this is getting too lengthy, and there’s a whole lot coming up in the next blog! An airshow, a hot air balloon show ( I’ll be volunteering there to help the chase crew!). Can’t wait
Yes this Spring break was definitely something to remember and appreciate. I may not have gone all around where I wanted to go, but, I had the chance to be with the people I love and sleep a little more than I’m use to. Sure I returned back to school kind of early but I don’t regret it. Just know that tomorrow (Monday) when I wake up from having 4-5 hours of sleep around 6:45am-7am, I can breathe a sigh of relief because not only did I ave a beautiful spring break but I am one step closer to the summer break….that’s five weeks to be more specific.