Thoughts to myself….

Wow! I can’t believe that school is almost over. Today is my last day of classes and then its finals week. It’s so crazy to think that my freshman year is coming to an end, I actually made it. I am ready to go home, but then I don’t want to leave all of my friends that I have made here at school. I know we’ll keep in touch but it will be weird not seeing them everyday like we have the past 3 quarters.

I am not looking forward to having to work all summer though. I don’t mind working but I hate doing all the little odd jobs here and there. The worst one is picking rocks up out of fields. Yes, I do get paid and money is money but it’s the worst job. It’s so boring and of course it always seems to be the hottest week of the summer when I have to go out into the fields. Other than that I don’t mind working, I actually like working outside in the garden and painting houses and things like that. It’s just those dang rocks that I have to pick up, it just takes forever.

I can’t believe that next year I’ll be on main campus; it’s so crazy to think that I’ll actually be there. I can’t wait its going to be so much fun!! Yes, I do have my worries and my doughts but who doesn’t when you’re going to be experiencing something totally new? The thing I’m looking forward to the most is the football games! I had so much fun last year at the homes games, and I can’t wait until this year. I love OSU football, and I love supporting them and going to the games.

All in all, this year has been great. I have made some great friends, made some great memories that I will always remember, and now I’m just looking forward to next year to make some more.

Essay #3 Blogging is Taken Out of Context

What is the purpose of blogging? That is a question that has many different and complex answers. It seems that many people blog because it could be their job, a hobby, or just another way to “hear” themselves talk. Blogging in most ways is a good thing but it’s sometimes taken out of context until that little percent of people take it over the edge, which can lead to a lot of drama.

For some reason there are those people who take blogging for granted and use their own sites to attack others. Blogging wasn’t meant for people to attack each other over the internet. It was meant for people to use it as a journal or just a place to spill their thoughts. Then there are those people who use their own sites as a place to criticize and attack other people. For example, there was a girl in my high school English class who had a blog on Xanga.com, and had a nasty post about our teacher. Well, our teacher somehow found out about the post and made a comment about it during class so the girl knew that she had found it. The girl ended up deleting the post that night so no one else could make a big deal out of it.

People seem to get caught up in the aspect of “professional” blogging. Because there are certain people have been blogging so long they tend to criticize other people rather than helping them. For example, when a group of students posted on a blog site called, Defective Yeti, (http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/002026.html#comments) for a class assignment, many people who have been blogging for awhile took the opportunity to criticize how the students left their comments on the post. These people may have meant to help by pointing out a few mistakes in a couple comments that were left, but it was in the way they seemed to attack the students in their comments when everything started to get out of control. People started to attack the students and even the teacher about how poor the grammar was and how they could not believe that a college English class would focus on blogging. It then turned into this huge debate on weather or not English was the students’ second language and how they had no right to comment on a blog when they were new to the blogging world. All of this because of a couple grammar mistakes that someone felt was offensive and had to point out for all to see. This again is exactly my point, there are people who take blogging to the extreme and it can lead to is drama.

Misusing the comment section on blogs is the biggest way, in my opinion, to use blogging negatively. I have a friend who posts blogs on Xanga.com and after one of her posts another girl left a comment about how she is immature and is disappointed in her for some reason or another. (http://www.xanga.com/GrEeN_DaZzLe/ 562976141/item.html) After that there was a lot of drama between the two girls and most of it was over what was said in a blog and again it was a communicated by leaving comments on each other’s blog page.

One of the biggest examples of people taking a blog out of text and turning it into something it’s not is when a student was wrongly accused of being behind the Virginia Tech shooting. This student was wrongly accused all because of his blog (http://wanusmaximus.livejournal.com/ April 16th blog) and the content he had on it was about how he was a gun collected and he also had pictures of all the guns too. The student had to post that he was not the gunman because there were so many people harassing him and since he was accused everyone thought it was him. This is the worst case of people misusing blogging because this guy was accused of this horrific crime and was innocent the whole time. He was only accused because people took his post’s and pictures as saying that he was the killer and blamed it on him.

People should be more responsible about what they comment and think of other people, you can’t just claim you know something about someone just because you read a blog post of theirs. There is so much more to a person other than the babbling posts that they leave on the internet for others to see.

Interview

Question: Why did you choose the topic you did for your blog?

Answer: I chose to write about coming from a small town to a big city because it’s basically the most important thing that’s going on in my life right now. The transition from a small town to a college was huge for me. I had to get use to living on my own and also I had to get use to the city as well. Being able to talk about the small town I came from is fun for me. I love where I come from and to be able to tell others about my small town and hopefully get responses about how they can or can not relate is what I wanted. I also chose this topic because it’s easy to write about, I knew I could get a lot from it and not get stuck trying to think of something new to write about.

Question: What do you hope that people can gain from your blog?

Answer: I hope that people can learn about how it is hard to go from a small farming community to a big city, and how hard it is to adjust to the change. I hope that somehow my blogs may help another person out if they are going through the same situation, and for them to know that their not the only ones feeling lost or getting use to the same transition.

You Know You're From a Small Town When....

I always seem to get emails that have a similar theme of “You Know you’re from a Small Town When” that I always enjoy reading, mostly because I can relate to almost all of the email. I came across another list of these points so I figured I share some along with some I made up also!

The following are from http://www.dobhran.com/humor/GRhumor647-ea.htm

1) You can name everyone you graduated with.
2) You know what 4-H is.
3) You ever went to parties at a pasture, barn, or in the middle of a dirt road.
4) You schedule parties around the schedule of different police officers, since you know which ones would bust you and which ones wouldn't.
5) You ever went cow-tipping or snipe hunting.
6) You can't help but date a friend's ex-girlfriend(or boyfriend).
7) Your car stays filthy because of the dirt roads, and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason.

The next couple are some that I have thought up when thinking of my small town!

1) Your school believes you when you say you’re late to school because you got stuck behind a tractor.
2) When you stand in the middle of the only intersection in your town and you can see all four signs welcoming you into the town.
3) You have to driven twenty minuets to get to the nearest grocery.
4) It’s normal to see a golf cart driving down the middle of the road going to pick up their mail.
5) You can walk from the ballpark to your house by walking through the cornfield.
6) The annual Whiffleball tournament is the biggest attraction of the year.

Friendships....

I can’t stop thinking about how I have to leave all my friends from school in about 4 weeks. Every time I think about leaving school and moving back home for the summer, I start to freak out. I can’t imagine my summer without the friends I have now, whom all have become very close to me and have become my best friends. I think about how different I am now than I was when I first moved to college. I feel as if when I go home and see my friends from high school that we won’t have that bond anymore and I’m afraid that we won’t be as close. Obviously we all won’t be as close having spent a year apart at different schools, but I am scared that I’ll loose those friendships along with the ones I made from college.

I am looking forward however to going back home for the summer. I miss my small community and also my family. I know that once the summer starts and I get into a routine that everything with friends will be ok. Yet, I still feel like next year when we go back to school the friends that I have now won’t be as close to me anymore. I’m sure that I am just over reacting but I can’t help think of loosing my friends that I have made this year because they just mean that much too me.

Small Town vs. City Life (Essay #2)

The blog that I have found describes the authors experience in living in a small town and also in a city. Throughout the essay he mentions that he loves the small town and also the city. I found this blog by looking for the same idea as my blog topic and I came across a blog page named “Thought Blog, Reflections off the Dysfunctional Meta Thread (semi-realized?).” The URL to this blog is http://gaurang.org/%20blog/archives/%202005/05/small_town_life.html. The title of the blog post was “Small Town Life vs. City Life,” I knew that when I read that I would be able to relate to that the blog. I feel like I can relate to the author because I also grew up in a small town and am now transitioning into the city life. I grew up in a small town named Wren, which only has a population of roughly two-hundred people. Most people from the high school that I went to didn’t even know where Wren was or that there was even a town like that near our school. I now am transitioning to the city life by going to college, and mainly focusing on getting to the OSU campus in Columbus.

In the blog “Small Town Life vs. City Life,” the author talks about a town that they just visited in Brownsville, Texas. He describes the town and then talks about how the town he grew up in is a lot like Brownsville. The author describes the small town life as “having an air of satisfaction and content.” He says that there is a closeness to the small town life and that it is peaceful and content. He then goes on to describing the city life that he has also experienced. He mentioned that city life may offer better material for quality of life and better opportunities for people who want to be rich and achieve big things, but city culture seems to say “Everybody is for himself.” The main point of his blog is that cities are cutting edge they always have new ideas and products, whereas small towns are just trying to catch up slowly to the cities which they are never able to do at least in the short term.

When the author talks about the small town he was in, he describes all the restaurants like Subway and McDonalds and also hotels and theatres that are in the town. Our definition of small towns must be very different because the small town where I am from has nothing that he has described. The only restaurant that we have is a small bar. We don’t even any theaters or hotels either, and the only major structure we have is a small fire station.

I agree with the author when he talks about small towns having “an air of satisfaction and content.” Small towns have a very close community where anyone would help another person, no matter the task. He talks about how people are not trying to outsmart each other and they just come together as friends and neighbors. The town that I live in is exactly like what he described. Everyone gets along and knows each other and nothing is a competition. Everyone loves our small town, which is why we try to take care of all of it.

I definitely agree with his point of view of city life, how it is about making new products and doing bigger and better things everyday. I feel as if city life may be too busy and self centered for me. It does seem like everyone is working for themselves and not for, or even with, each other. I do like the city, but I’m not sure if I could live in a city for a long period of time or even work in a big city. It seems like everyone has a sense of distance between them because they are all competing to become bigger and better in everything they do. I do not think I could stand that. I like the feeling of being friends with everyone around me and knowing everyone that lives around me.

At the end of the blog the author post the question “The ambitious and individualistic city life; the content, peaceful, collective town life; which one would you choose?” I know which one I would choose. I would choose the small peaceful, collective town life. I just feel more comfortable when I think of living the rest of my life in a small town. That does not mean I would not live in a big city for a couple of years, but I do not think I could live the rest of my life in a big city. Mostly because I would always worry about the safety of my home and myself. Small towns just have a comfortable feel to them. Like a comfort zone that I do not want to let go of for forever.

Hard to believe...

It still amazes me how one of my friends can’t comprehend how small of a town I actually come from. Even though I can’t comprehend how big of a town she’s from either. We were talking today at lunch and telling different stories about our home towns and such when she started talking about different events that she went through while riding the city bus in jr.high. She went through some scary situations, some that I can’t even imagine going through or even actually happening. She told us about one time on the bus on her way home the SWAT team came on the bus with guns and everything to get this guy to take his hands out of his pockets. The man then ran out of the back of the bus with the SWAT team right behind him. I can’t believe that, it would have been so scary. I have no idea what I would have done.
We then started talking about how nothing like that would ever happen in Wren or in a surrounding town. It’s so hard to think about dangerous things happening like that everyday and just being use to it like she is. All the while our friend can’t believe how small our town really is and how trusting we are of our neighbors. The only thing ‘bad’ that has happened in Wren was that someone tried to break into the ballpark concession stand and steal the money. I know, not a huge crime, but it was a big enough for our small town.

Wren...Where is that?

When people ask me where I’m from I don’t even say Wren, I just say Van Wert Country area because no one knows where Wren is, especially because it’s not even on some maps! I thought it was so weird that one of my friends couldn’t grasp the concept of having to drive fifteen minutes to get to my high school, and twenty minuets to get to the nearest grocery. I was talking to my friend Crystal at work the other day and she still can’t comprehend that the town I live in only has two main roads. I laugh every time we compare our home towns because she grew up in Dayton and has lived in a big city all of her life. I even still have a hard time imagining growing up in a city instead of on a farm out in the middle of no where.
I never really thought about people not understanding where I live because I live around other small towns and I’ve never had to explain it all before I got to college. It definitely is a different experience because I’m not use to just being able to drive down the road to the nearest Wal-Mart. I usually have to drive twenty minuets to get to one. It also is weird because back home we only went into town if we had a main purpose whereas here we’re already in town and can just jump into the car if we feel the need to go somewhere.

Do I go or should i stay?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately if going to Main campus is for me or not. The whole point of coming to Newark was to get to Main campus but after everything that has happened this week I’m not so sure. Newark has got that small town feeling that I obviously am use to and it just feels safe. It seems that lately all I hear is bad things that have happened on main campus and how there are crime alerts out at least twice a week for different things, and it just makes me think if I will actually feel comfortable there next year. Don’t get me wrong I love main campus its beautiful and I would love to be able to live on campus and be with my friends who are transferring there also. But I am having second thoughts now, I even went to see my adviser this morning and signed the papers to be transferred to main campus so all my paper work is done but I just don’t know how I feel about it all now.
I know I’ll probably end up going to main campus next year but I just hope that it’s all its cracked up to be. I don’t know why I’m so scared all of a sudden about going to main campus, but I am. I just keep thinking of any possible situation that could go wrong while I’m there, I just keep scaring myself. I think it all got worse after everything that happened with Virginia Tech on Monday. I came to realize that anything can happen no matter where you are and that is what scares me the most.

Essay #1 'Move in Day'

I grew up in a small town named Wren, population roughly two-hundred. Living in Wren was fun growing up because everyone knew each other. I grew up on a farm on the edge of town beside my grandparents so I always had family around me. Wren was safe for me because I always had my own little bubble and never had to step out of my comfort zone, but coming to college defiantly made me pop that bubble. When I first arrived at OSU-Newark I was very afraid to leave my home town and my comfort zone; however these new experiences were an invaluable tool to prepare me for the transition to main campus.

My heart was pounding and I had no idea what to expect when we pulled into the parking lot. I was so thirsty yet I had just drank a bottle of Mountain Dew but my mouth was as dry as it’s ever been. As I got out of the car I looked around and saw people moving things into the dorms with parents and family members, I was shocked at how many people were walking around and getting there stuff out of there cars. I looked across the row of trees toward the dorms and saw some tents and decided that’s were I needed to start. As I walked up to the tents I was so scared I barley could talk to tell the girl my name so I could check in. I finally muttered “Hi, my name is Elizabeth.”

As I walked up the steps to my dorm with my first load of things from my car, I got a sudden feeling like I thought I was going to get sick. I couldn’t comprehend that I was actually moving into a dorm at college. I was so scared that I wouldn’t like my roommates and that we wouldn’t get along. I think I almost hyperventilated when I finally got the door to open. The first thing I saw when the door opened was a lot of people sitting on the couch diagonal from the door; they were the family members of one of my roommates. I looked around letting it all sink in; I saw how our couches were just wooden frames with ugly looking pattern cushions. I also noticed that our kitchen was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be and I thought it was going to be hard for six people to live here. As I made my way down the hallway I peeked in both bathrooms and noticed that one is significantly smaller than the other, which doesn’t really seem that big of a deal now as it did at that moment. I finally got to my room and I sat my stuff down and looked around. The beds were bunked on top of each other to the left of the door when you walk in. The closets are set back into the wall with a little wall dividing the sides, and two desks sit on the wall across from the beds. There are two dressers inside the closets. When it all finally sank in, I decided there was not going to be enough space for all of the stuff I had brought with me.

When I finally got all of my stuff out of the car and into my room, it looked as if I took everything I’ve ever owned with me. It was about that time when I met one of my roommates Marcy; she was defiantly just as nervous as I was because I could barely hear her when she told me her name. After meeting Marcy I just got more nervous because I was afraid that we all were going to be really shy and quiet around each other and not talk at all. I then met Erica who was just as quiet as Marcy and I defiantly started to get scared. I thought I was going to get stuck with girls who would stay in their rooms all the time and never want to do anything. That was until I met Molly. She defiantly was not scared of meeting new people because she came bounding down the hallway and gave us a huge “Hello!” and introduced herself. It was then that I knew that I would be okay. I was scared of making friends with my roommates and other people because I have never had to make friends before, or at least I don’t remember making them. I’ve always had the same group of friends from home so coming to a new place and having to make new friends was my biggest worry.

After I got some things unpacked and my parents decided to leave, mostly because I looked like I was going to pass out I was still so scared, we sat down with our roommates and got to know one another. I finally started feeling better after we talked and got the little things worked out like who would use what bathroom and who got what cupboard in the kitchen. I’m not sure why I was so nervous for my first day at the dorms, but I think it mostly had to do with moving away from my comfort zone. It still is weird for me to live in a place bigger than Wren, but I’m getting use to it and I will have to expect even bigger next year when I go to the Columbus campus.

Creepy at Night

I was in Columbus last night visiting my sister and I was hit with the realization that it’s creepy at night on campus. I mean I always have known it’s creepy and never to walk around alone at night but driving around it came very apparent to me that it is not what I am expecting next year. I’ve never really had to worry about my surrounding at night until I came to college because back home it was never an issue. Coming from a small town does have its highlights. For example; I never locked my car at night and I even left the keys in the car during the day because I can trust the people in my town and it’s just something we don’t worry about.
I now can’t even leave my keys in my car when I go home because I’m so use to locking my door and always having my keys with me because of being here at college. Not being able to trust the people around me was something I had to get use to coming to college because I was so use to being able to trust my neighbors around me at home. Going to main campus next year is going to be me a wake up call for me because right now I think I know how it will be and that I will be able to handle any problem that may come my way. But I know that if someone would break into my car or anything like that I would not know what to do because I’m not use to having to keep my guard up around people and neighbors. I know that once I’m there and get use to my surroundings I will be fine it will just take some getting use too.

Making new friends

The one thing that I was most afraid of coming to Ohio State was that I had to make new friends. For some reason I was afraid that I would not be able to make any friends while I was here at school. My friends from back home never changed throughout the years in high school like people said they would and we still keep in touch today. I never really had to put an effort into talking to people or trying to make friends since my high school was small everyone already knew each other and knew who there friends were. I don’t even remember meeting some of my friends because we’ve been friends that long. My friend Shea and I grew up together watching our older sisters, who were the same age also play volleyball in jr.high and high school. I don’t even remember when we actually met we just seemed to have been friends for what seems like ever. I was afraid that coming from such a small high school to OSU would be a huge transition in trying to make friends, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I’ve made a lot of new friends since I have been here and it wasn’t that hard either. The thing that I’m now afraid of is that I’m going to main campus next year I’ll have to start all over again making friends it seems like because my friends here are all getting apartments off campus and I’m trying to get into the dorms. I’m just afraid that I’ll loose the friendships that I’ve made even though I know I probably wont I just don’t want to take that chance I guess.

Why so many questions?

I don't understand why when I first chose to come to Ohio State most people around me gave me such a hard time about it. I kept getting the same questions about why would I go to such a large school when I come from such a small town. Well thats exactly why I chose OSU, to get away from the small town life. I love the town I live in but I'm tired of everyone knowing every little detail of my life. I like being at a school where I don't know everyone and everyone doesn't know me. It's a whole new start and a whole new beginning for me. I now come to expect the same questions from about the same people, most of them just wondering why I would possibly want to go to OSU. I now just tell them because it's big and it's just a totally new experience that I have never had and it's totally opposite from anything before.