Hey Everyone!
Wow, the past two weeks have seen this campus abuzz with so much excitement. If there would be a theme for this entry, it would be activism. Activism can be so many things, but what it comes down to is that in order to accomplish your goals in life for yourself and for any group you may be part of is that you have to do something about it. Sitting around, gets absolutely nothing done. Get out, be active and let yourself be heard.

The reason I bring this up is because the past month has seen an issue develop on the campuses of Embry-Riddle. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s long term decisions are made by its Board of Trustees, which since the 1960s, has a student representative from each residential campus and a faculty representative from all three campuses. The BOT was recently given recommendations from an independent consultant to remove these votes and a committee proposed new bylaws without these representatives included. This caused much distress on campus, because no one wants to lose their representation on a board that makes decisions about them. Students banded together positively, organizing a massive campaign to let the BOT know that we do care about the long term future of the school and want to keep it a great school for the people who are here now, to the people reading this journal and also the people who will dream of attending Embry-Riddle twenty years from now.

This campaign included a mass petition which received almost 2,000 signatures and an all day rally which saw 1,600 students over the course of the day, of which some pictures are posted below.

The rally and the whole campaign were successful to a degree. This past Friday, the BOT voted to push back the vote on the new bylaws to the spring, citing more time needed to make such a decision.

On another SGA front, Task Force One is coming really well. Rockin’ the Holidays has hit a bunch of stumbling blocks, but these obstacles are teaching us how things work in the Student Government Association. Hopefully we can overcome these obstacles and put a good show. We are really working hard at this and we hope to become closer to the SGA in our relationships with the Student Representative Board, the Student Finance Board, and the Student Court. If you are at all interested in student government, next year Task Force one will be the place for you. You will be finding out much more about TFO in the months to come. This is what a TFO meeting might look like, just with less people than you should have next year (hopefully!)

On the school side of things, I have a LOT of work to do. Professors went project happy the last two weeks and I’ll be working until I leave Daytona on this Friday for home (yay!) and while I am home. Although I did know of these projects because I received a syllabus, you can’t really do the projects until you learn some skills in the class so you can’t really do them until the end of the semester. It’s a real catch-22 situation.

This past Friday I did absolutely the coolest thing of college so far. I attended the National Business Aviation Association 2005 convention in Orlando and had a blast. It was reported that approximately 30,000 people attended this convention centered around corporate aviation. Quite a few ERAU students attended and there was even an Embry-Riddle alumni booth. I saw a lot of new planes, met a lot of people that work for industries you take for granted and don’t realize their services are necessary for a plane to work, or look really nice. These kinds of things are important because networking is an important part of college, especially at a school like this. Once again, I’ve added some pictures from NBAA. The picture of me on the fake horse was just one of the many fun things that were at each booth.

So it’s time to bring this to a close. We have learned some things today, like get involved and do things that make you happy, but I think the prevalent piece of information is that I really like pictures. On that note, here’s one more of the people on my floor at our trip to Wing House, a restaurant here in Daytona Beach.

These past two weeks have been some of the busiest most fun times I have had in Daytona yet. We just had homecoming and it was so much fun. My Fraternity built a float on the back of a Ryder trailer and we made it into a pirate ship. The theme of the homecoming parade was “Once Upon a Time,” so we did Pinocchio. For some reason we all dressed up as pirates and had one person wear a long nose to represent Pinocchio, but it was a lot of fun.. When our float went under the walkway near the student village, our mast on the pirate ship hit and snapped in half, it was really funny and the crowd was very amused, but duck-tape did the job to get it back up. We didn’t win any awards for our float because some of the other organizations went through extremes in decorating, but the surf club won the best on-campus sign.

Besides the parade, the Touch and Go production team hired Carlos Mencia to do a show one of the nights and he was really good. He is the comedian with his own show on Comedy Central “Mind of Mencia.” This past week was also Sky Fest and Alumni weekend for my Fraternity besides the entire school. We had a big BBQ right along the airport and watched all of the aerobatics and fighter jets perform their shows right above our heads. They even had a jet engine mac truck rip down the runway. My favorite part of the show would have to be the A-10 doing low fly-bys simulating air-to-ground bombings with actual pyrotechnics and fire. It gave me the chills every time the A-10 would fly over because I am sure it has been the last thing many people have seen who fight against the US. After the BBQ that night, everyone got together and we all partied ³responsibly² with the Alumni. Pledging is still “going,” but there is only 2 more weeks I have to make it through until I am done.

As far as academics are going, I just survived my second series of major exams which all happened in to be in the same week again. I did really well on every one of them and am really getting motivated to keep up the good work. Going to class ever day is becoming a bit of a challenge now, but since I am doing this good so far why waste my previous effort by being lazy? In my ATC classes we are going over a lot of familiar stuff to me since I am already a pilot, but reviewing sectionals and basic navigation could never hurt. I am so excited to be going to Embry-Riddle for ATC, I just finished scheduling my classes for next semester and the ATC ones look like so much fun.

That’s is it for this entry. Keep the questions coming those of you who have been sending me them. Until next time work hard and stay out of trouble.

Hi Everyone!

Wow! So many things have been going on around here lately. On Monday classes were cancelled because of Hurricane Wilma, (which was so much fun!!), and so we only had three days of class this week. (We got Friday off because of homecoming.) My roommate and I were asked to have our room on the list for tours during open house, which meant we had to clean it and “disappear” for the day. So, we went shopping at the Volusia County Mall, and out to lunch at the Olive Garden. It was so much fun because I haven’t been shopping at a mall in months! Sometimes I feel like I live in a man’s world with the ratio of guys to girls being like 7 to 1, and I needed to get away and do something girly for a change.

This week was also the career expo at the IC center gym. It’s mostly for upperclassmen who are looking for jobs after graduation, but my EP 101 class went to make some connections and find out about internships and co-ops. I found out about many opportunities available to me, but only a few really interested me. I think I was most excited about an internship with the United Space Alliance, and a co-op opportunity as a counselor for Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. Since I transferred in credits, I’m really not that far away from being eligible to apply for them. This made me really excited but also a little worried because I have so many other things I want to do before I graduate and I really want to fit it all in.

Next week I will be registering for my classes for next semester. I can’t guarantee I will get all the classes and times that I want, but so far it looks like I will be taking Physics, Physics for Engineers Lab, Calculus II, Machine Shop Laboratory, Introduction to Computing for Engineers, and Engineering Drawing.

Monday, (Halloween), we are going to have little kids coming to trick-or-treat in the residence halls and I can’t wait for it! They will be so cute in all their costumes!

Happy Halloween!
~Sara~

What’s happenin’, readers? My legs hurt so bad right now! I just got back from about 10 hours of volunteering for ROTC at the air show.I worked as a cashier at my booth, where we were selling hot dogs to raise money for Air Force. It got kinda crazy at times, but I stayed busy and even got to use my French skills 🙂 The show itself was pretty cool, and there are still planes roaring overhead as we speak. One of the perks of being at Riddle is that you’re right next to the airport so you don’t even have to leave your dorm sometimes to see this stuff.

Last Monday we had a hurricane day. I know I was always way stoked when we had a snow day up in Washington, which wasn’t often, but I thought it was pretty sweet telling my friends back home I got the day off because a hurricane was passing over. Except for a lot of rain, it really wasn’t that bad. It did, however, drop to about 66 degrees during the day, which combined with wind chilland the fact that we’re used to the weather being about 20 degrees higher, it was fairly brutal. In my maintenance classes, we were expecting we’d have to make up that missed day on Friday, which was University Day i.e. no school, but the FAA cut us some slack and let us slide, so we everyone got a three-day weekend and all was well.

So, time management. It’s gotten better I have to say. I’ve spent some time working on my foreign languages, which was fun, and I haven’t forgotten as much as I thought I would have, luckily. I also got to read more, but I’m still not too far in my book. I still should probably study some more though. I realized I study a lot better and am a lot more productive when I work alone in the library, so that’s what I’ll plan on doing from now on.

Yesterday, Carlos Mencia came to Riddle, for those of you who know your comedy. I didn’t go because I was having homemade lasagna (very good, very good). Cake and ice cream, too. From what I hear from everyone that went, he was hilarious.

Other than all that, everything’s been going pretty great these past two weeks. I’ve met so many new people, it’s great. For some reason, it feels like you meet people so much faster in college than you do in high school. So that’s been cool, making a bunch of new friends from different places. I’ve also relearned to appreciate my freedom here a lot more, so I just did a lot more stuff that I wouldn’t have done earlier in my experience in Daytona so far. Life’s pretty good. One more little piece of advice, for college or in general: if you ever feel like you are being forced to give up something you value in your life, take a step back a reevaluate what’s really more important to you, because chances are, anything that makes you give up what you love is something you would be much better off without.

Don’t be shy with your questions, a lot of you have already sent me really good questions, so just keep on asking away! (If it takes me a couple days to get back to you, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about you, I’m just really busy, plus I don’t have my own computer, so I just might not have access at the time.) So, kenyonj@erau.edu

Later!

Hey, guys!! Long time, no speak.. or so it seems :o) This past week, fortunately, has been AMAZING!! Let’s recap.

On Monday, we had no school due to HuRrRiCaNe WiLMa!! So, I went to the beach with my friends Beth and Marcus. Then, we went back to Marcus’ house and ate breakfast. Around 5:15, I get a phone call from a random guy named Phillip who is a member of the AHP frat. He said to be in my room between 6 and 7. So, you’d better believe I was there. At about 6:05, there’s a knock on my door. I open it to find five pledges with TONS of presents from my BIG sister. For those of you who aren’t so familiar with Greek life, a big sister is someone in the sorority who has more experience. Big/Lil week is when we, the lil, are showered with presents.

Anyway, I’m really excited for the remainder of that day. So, I go to sleep and wake-up for class on Tuesday. I have three classes, but nothing due. It was one of those show up and look pretty days. Then, that night, I have a meteorology club meeting. They had a local meteorologist come in and talk to us about his career. Then, afterwards, the president of the meteorology honors society got up to speak. After he’s done with his talk, he calls me to the front of the room. In front of EVERYONE, he gives me my BIG sister present. It was awesome!! After the meeting, my friend Rachel and I go with Marcus to the store to get some Halloween costumes. Then, we call it a night.

Wednesday was awesome, too. We went to the CaReeR eXPo with University 101. So, class got out earlier than expected. Not feeling so well, I go to bed around 8. At about 11, I hear this pounding on the door. My big sister sent our Xi Man from last year (that’s what we call our sorority’s sweetheart) to deliver me some presents. It was so cute!! I was so excited. She baked me a cake that said: I love my lil Maria.. is that not the cutest thing you’ve EVER heard?! After this, I’m feeling slightly better. So, I eat some of the cake with some friends and go to bed, again.

Thursday morning, I wake up pretty excited because it’s the last day of classes for the week. It was homecoming weekend!! So, I make it through the day. Then, I start getting ready for the first Halloween party of my life. I never used to celebrate this occasion. While I’m getting ready, I get a phone call from a guy named Paul. He’s in the Pike frat. So, no less than 10 minutes later, he shows up at my door with a TON of presents from my BIG sister. I’m so excited, too, because the men she sends me get cuter and cuter each day. Later on, I go to the Pike party with some of the sisters and pledges. We have a great night and close down Cancun Lagoon. I have pictures.. at the end!!

On Friday, I have to wake up to go shopping around 9. Then, I start making a shirt that has to be done by 1 for the parade. When I get it on without ruining the paint job, I grab some food with the girls at Propellers. It was great.. I love hamburgers!! Then, we head over and work on the float until the parade starts at 3. Before the parade starts, an SAE brother came over and said his pledges were going to sing to me. They sang the sweetest song about how I’m a rose or a violet or something. Then, they gave me tons of presents!! After the parade, we go back to take a nap until the basketball game. Two of our sisters were up for HoMeCoMiNG QueeN, but didn’t quite make it. I was bummed, but such is life. After the game, we got ready for the Sigma Chi party. It was a GREAT time. I’m not one for partying.. I don’t drink. I just love people!!

On Saturday, I get to sleep in. I’m very happy about this, too. Went to see Carlos Mencia at the ICI around 8. He was HILARIOUS. Never seen his show, but will be watching it, now. After that, I hung out with my friend Derek. We watched a movie and fell asleep. I was all partied out.

Sunday, was fun. I went to a BBQ for my sorority at Ponce Inlet. I saw dolphins swimming SoOo close you could almost touch them!! It was fantastic. Then, we had our new member meeting. After that, I called a Pike brother to ask for some help with Calculus 1. Now, I’m writing this.

I had a great weekend. This week shouldn’t be horrible, but I have a bit of homework due. So, I’ll be a little stressed. I have some pictures, now. Hope ya’ll enjoy them. If you ever have any questions, feel free to e-mail me: olivab46@erau.edu

That was the FASTEST 2 weeks thus far!!! I can’t believe it!! time is going by so fast down here it’s unreal, I hope it was just as fast for all of you guys!!! The past two weeks here in Daytona have been REALLY good. we had two 3 day weekends in a row which made it feel like I hadn’t been to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes FOREVER. . which felt really good! we had a Monday off due to hurricane WILMA!! and last Friday off due to homecoming, and I didn’t have UNIV 101 all that week either, so it was a BEE-EE-EEHH-YOU-TIFUL week last week! I never get why they give these huge hurricanes lil wimpy names like Katrina, Wilma and tropical storm Ophelia, they need names like BERTHA or something., haha.. I had LOTS of fun over for the SPOOKY holiday. went to a big sigma chi party, it was fun, really fun. there were lots of really crazy costumes there, LOTS OF FIRE CHICKS!!! haha. I was a mime. I was going to go trick or treating with some friends but ended up going with an older buddy of mine on his instrumental check ride, which was a LOT better than trick or treating!! down on the first floor south wing of Doolittle, they turned it into a haunted hall which is pretty sweet, I haven’t been in it yet, but it should be up for a while so I’ll be sure to check it out sometime soon. Over in Spruance Hall earlier today, EVERYONE on staff and faculty was all dressed up, it was pretty cool! usually we don’t hand out candy at Abercrombie&Fitch cuz they are dumb and have stupid policies, but our manager hated saying no to the little kids all the time, so she gave in and gave out candy. . it was pretty nice of her. there were TONS of little kids running around campus and the students were handin’ out candy, only at Mckay tho, cuz there doors are outside, at least that’s all i saw on my way to the flight line. cute kids! That’s about it for Halloween!! lol

as for other things, i’ve had a busy past couple of days, . i got my Private Pilot book stolen from me or i misplaced it. . lol. . so i didn’t have a book for about a week and a half and that was a killer, so i had to work on finding it, i ended up finding out that some chick took it from me during a study session 2 fridays ago, and she left my papers in it ,and my professor found it. .lol. . my car is acting up right now, the right brake is being DUMB! it locks up every once in a while and i have to pull over if it gets bad to let it cool down or something it’s weird. . lol. i keep putting it off which isn’t good. . haha. i finally got my FIRST credit card bill, almost 2 months LATER!! the minimum payment is only FIFTEEN bucks, i was surprised, that’s pathetic! but of course i’m gonna pay more than that … but enough about that stuff.,,

More and more people IM me EVERY DAY, which is pretty cool. If you wanna know about the campus or Riddle or what i’ve been doing here in Daytona, i can answer you w/ specific details, but i’m a new one when it comes to the aeronautics. . so i can only tell you what i know, i have a friend who’s only 19 and has a LOT accomplished already, he has his private, multi, CFI, instrument, commercial and is currently working on his CFII, cfi=certified flight instructor. . i don’t know what cfii stands for because it sounds weird if you say certified flight instructor instructor. . lol, but i know that with a cfii you can teach instrument. he’s a cool kid. right now we are working on weight, balance and performance in my basic aero sci class, it’s very interesting stuff, sometimes it gets REALLY tough since i’m new at everything, my professor acts like everyone should already know this stuff which is bull crap, so he just flys by all the charts from the C172 manual and expects us to kow it all, but here’s the deal, EVERY time i get in a cock pit, it just gives me goosebumps and motivates me sssoooo much.

The florida skyfest was this past weekend, i saw some pretty amazing things, but the best feeling was sitting in the cockpit of a KC-135 i think it was, a BIG 4 turbine engine military aircraft, about as big as a 737 or so, it was like i got a glimpse of my future!! ’twas AMAZING. i saw history flights (so they say ) from the P-51 mustang, and the A-10, but the best part of the air show was the turbo truck. which was a semi with THREE JET ENGINES on the back, here is a lil math problem for that —> 3 turbine engines + big rig wrecker = 36 THOUSAND horse power, YA! it was ridiculous, i was cussin’ up a storm when i saw that thing take off after a stunt plane passed it, it beat the crap outta the stunt plane. the stunt plane passed ever the truck and went flying by, then the turbo truck took off and passed the stunt plane with NO PROBLEM, it went from 0-350 in like 5 seconds i kid you not!! well folks, i’ve been up for about 2 days STRAIGHT, and i aint kiddin’, my eyes are stinging me and i’m squinting in the dark, and i get goofy when i don’t sleep, i get all slappy happy sometimes, lol, but ya, i’m gonna get some sleep, it’s 11:19 right now and i don’t have to get up until noon:30 so i can get some good sleep time!! once again for all you readers who are new, my AIM name is gibso2j if you wanna chat, i have tons of new online friends! most of you know who you are! so yeah, IM sometime w/ questions and i’ll help ya out as best i can! tell ya more about my Riddle experiences! haha, well i’m off to bed now folks ! and just a lil FYI.!! no matter HOW much you hate highschool or your hometown (if you do) you definitely miss it! enjoy high school while you can!, not that college life isn’t better, BECAUSE IT IS! , but it’s hard to explain, you’ll see what i mean some day, haha, well , i’m off to bed now, for real, haha, bye everyone!

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Junior’s Jiving Journals! The midpoint of the semester is past, and now the finish line is within sight…two of my courses are ending in two weeks, and then my days will be so much easier – I can’t wait…

This fortnight has been a heck of a lot of fun. I finally got my new computer! I had been planning to buy a laptop for quite a while, and I was getting a bit tired of having to borrow Cameron’s computer or run to the library every time I wanted to look something up. I now have a neat little Toshiba laptop, and I am so pleased with it! I carry it to every class with me, and take notes on it – who needs notebooks when you have a notebook computer?

Well, a LOT has been happening this past week, not only for me but also for Embry Riddle and Daytona Beach as a whole. This fortnight, two big events for Daytona took place – Biketoberfest and the Florida Skyfest, sponsored by Embry Riddle.

Guess I’ll start with Biketoberfest, seeing as it came first….during this week bikers (and biker chicks) came from all over the country and congregated on Daytona. AS the week progressed toward the weekend of Bike Fest, I saw all kinds of bikes, of all colors, designs and engines everywhere. Traffic was a nightmare. Outside pubs you could see bikes stacked side to side all the way down the block – you can get an idea of what it’s like from the picture, taken by my suitemate Ben.

Then came the Florida SkyFest. From 11 AM to 4 PM on Saturday and Sunday pilots flipped, rolled, dived and pulled negative G’s all around Daytona Beach International Airport and Embry Riddle’s adjoining campus. There were some pretty entertaining acts – like a wing walker, and a truck with jet engines on it, which raced a plane down the runway with twenty feet long tongues of flame propelling it! In addition to this military jets were parked on the tarmac – F-15s, F-16s, F/A-18s, A-10s, cargo planes…I was thrilled to be so close to these awesome beasts, who can spit out thirty foot tall afterburner flames and stroll at a speed faster than the speed of sound.

I think that if I couldn’t fly a fighter but I could fly any other Air Force plane, I’d fly the A-10 (even though the Air Force is phasing them out), just for the chance to fire that incredible gun in it’s nose, around which it’s literally built.

Despite this, I hear it was not as good as the previous years’, and I can believe that. SkyFest was definitely fun, but it definitely needs work. First of all, it got boring. Not to say that the pilots up there don’t have skill – they risk their necks every second they are in the air – but when you see the same dives, fly-bys and spirals time after time, only with different pilots, it starts to get tiring. The Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels weren’t there to alleviate that. One wonders why they don’t condense the show to about two hours duration – but then one remembers that for the first time ever Embry Riddle charged its own students for admission to SkyFest, and that there are booths set up with ridiculously overpriced eatables, which would definitely not be very popular if the show was a short one. I know I would never have paid $7 for a hot dog and a bottle of coke if I could have gotten out in two hours. And then one remembers the tuition at Embry Riddle and one does think – hmmm….now, what’s wrong with this picture??

Anyway, the first day of SkyFest I was a spectator. The second day I was a worker. I had signed up with AFROTC to help them at SkyFest, and ended up making and serving those very expensive drinks and food to people all day long. By the end of the day it was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a plane diving straight at us, no biggie’. I think military displays would definitely have made it a LOT more enthralling – but only the A-10 did a few flips – the fighter jets parked there just sat there, for the kids with grimy paws to sit in and make loud noises in. Previously, Embry Riddle had arranged military displays, but now that they are charging admission, they don’t seem to find that necessary any more.

All the same it was fun, and the pilots were certainly skilled, no doubt about that. Well. Back to the story…since I last wrote in I also spent an entire day at Universal Studios in Orlando. That was pretty fun, but again, it got boring – we spent about half an hour waiting for every three minute ride. One thing can’t be disputed – a LOT of money has gone into that place – it is a theme park in every sense of the word. One amusing thing was that after every ride we exited in the back of a store. For example, after the Hulk rollercoaster ride, we got off and came out into a shop selling – come on, guess it quick! – Hulk memorabilia. T-shirts, caps, cameras, ridiculously overpriced figurines…surely no one would fall for such an obvious marketing ploy but – yeah, you got it, there are always suckers. They’re like – wow, that ride was awesome! And look, souvenirs, why how very convenient! On the count of three, draw your MasterCard and – BUY!

As I mentioned last time, I have Honors pre-registration, and I was able to get all my classes exactly how I wanted them. I have almost nine hours of back to back classes on Wednesday but I have just one class on Thursdays and I can sleep late on days I don’t have ROTC, so I am quite pleased – it wouldn’t have been possible without the pre-registration perk, that’s for sure! I’ll be taking Calc, Honors and Physics II, CATIA programming, Honors technical report writing and Air Force II.

Before I leave you, I should probably put in a word about Homecoming. During Homecoming 2005 at Embry Riddle, I attended an outdoor concert conducted by the band Recycled Percussion, and a comedy show by Carlos Mencia after the Airshow on Saturday.

Recycled Percussion was a fun event, mainly because of its novelty. The band literally ‘rocked their junk’. The rhythm and tempo they achieved while pounding on dustbins, microwave trays and ladders was definitely unusual, to say the least. I especially enjoyed their rendition of the beats of popular songs by AC/DC, Nickelback and others. Some of their stunts even failed – like when they tossed drumsticks to each other and couldn’t catch them like they were supposed to – but that only made us cheer more when they pulled off a stunt (though I wondered if that was more fluke than skill!).

Frankly, Homecoming at Embry Riddle was not what I expected, simply because, to my mind, Homecoming is associated with football. The very concept of ‘Homecoming’ originated from the returning of athletes to their school after a victorious tour. But at Embry Riddle there is no connection between sports and Homecoming. They brought in a racist comedian – another thing that struck me as unusual, as the focus is usually on sports during this season. Mencia was funny, to be sure, but somebody needs to tell him to grasp his ears firmly and pull hard – maybe then he can remove his head from his ass. But that’s not to say that he was not entertaining! To sum it up, everyone worked very hard to make Embry Riddle’s Homecoming a grand success, and that effort went a long way!

Motto for the Fortnight: If God had intended man to smoke, He would have set him on fire.

Hello everybody,

The past two weeks have been full of excitement, anguish and new experiences. The best and worst parts of college have shown their faces to me. All I can do is take it in stride because there is no way to avoid these things.

There is one big disadvantage to having 60 people live on one floor. If one person gets sick, it just spreads around. I currently have a really bad cold, and it’s the third time I’ve been sick since arriving in August. This is nothing compared to the weekend I had last week. One of my friends caught scarlet fever, which surprised us all, but a couple of us took him to the hospital and within a few days he recovered. It definitely is hard being sick for the first time with no real parental figure in your life because you now have to seek health care for yourself. We have a health clinic right in the center of campus, so it is not too far but they aren’t open 24 hours so the occasional trip to the hospital a block and a half away may be necessary. Overall, people are typically healthy and going about their daily activities.

My biggest news from this past week is that I spent the week at our Student Government Association fall retreat. Although we retreated to the ICI center, (our athletic center) which is only a block from where I live, it was full of fun and learning how to be a successful leader. I was one of four first-year students there being that the only way first year students can get involved in the SGA is through Task Force One, which you should all get information about if you are accepted. The retreat was an amazing experience, though it did involve a short night on the hard gymnasium floor. It culminated with a trip to Orlando for dinner and a show Saturday night. I was really grateful the SGA invited the executive board of TFO to the retreat, because they didn’t have to and I think we really benefited as a group from the things we learned.

On the fraternity front, unfortunately I had to withdraw from pledging Pi Kappa Alpha for financial reasons. In college you need to prioritize how you spend your money, and I chose to be able to fly home for Thanksgiving. I feel appreciative to the brothers of Pike for giving me the opportunity to try and join them and in a heartbeat I would attempt to pledge again if the situation ever became right.

School is getting tough. It’s that blunt. I am fighting the urge to lose focus and not go to class, because it is setting in now that no one is forcing me to. I make it to almost all of my classes every day and I am working on making that 100% attendance. These days, I have several papers and presentations I am working on so that does take a little more time than homework was taking in the beginning of the semester.

The moral for these two weeks is that Embry-Riddle is a BUSY place to be. But without chaos and lots of things to do, I’d be very, very bored. So a hectic life makes me happy.

I am going to lie back down now, because I am still not feeling that well, so I hope you all stay healthy and keep your grades up.

Until next time,
Carlos