Hello all! Sorry for the late post, but I promise there is a good reason. As you all may have noticed, it snowed in April. And May. Crazy right? Well I’ll tell you what’s crazy. I play on the softball team for St. Olaf College. A regular season lasts from about the very end of March to the very beginning of May, averaging about three games a week. However, this year’s weather prevented that from happening. Instead, games were canceled left and right until I just gave up on them ever happening. As a solution, MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) decided that they would move play-offs back a week in order for teams to have their seasons in, literally, a week. Thus, starting on April 25th St. Olaf softball had two games to play every day for eight days in a row. By Wednesday May 1, we had played 12 games in a row (we play each team twice). Only two of those days were the games on our home field. This meant we were absent from our normal daily schedules for eight plus hours a day. Wednesday Msy 1st was horrible weather (it snowed again) so we did not play our games that day. Friday the 3rd marked the beginning of MIAC play-offs. We played, despite it being approximately mid-30 degrees and the presence of intermittent sleet and rain. That day I was gone for twelve hours. Saturday the 4th we were gone for eight hours and Sunday the 5th we had our banquet, which took up five hours of my day. In total, the majority of our season took place within a week and a half. As you can imagine, Rumyana forgot about quite a few things, including this blog. Thus, I apologize.
Despite softball’s selfish demand of my time, I had a great time. Spending the majority of my days with the same girls, in a team atmosphere, really brought us together. I think the unique experience of playing a season in such a short span of time helped us grow as a team, in a way that having a season spread over a much longer period might not have done. Despite the lovely amount of time I got to just “hang out”, it really forced me to be much more organized with my time.
As you may be wondering, rightfully, what about my classes?! You know what? That’s exactly what I am thinking. I am playing a lovely game of catch up right now. Yesterday I spent the majority of my time out of class doing the homework for that day, rather than doing today’s homework. My writing class has been working on developing topics for our final research paper… I missed all of that. I was going to start on that today, but then I remembered that I hadn’t done my April Concord blog yet, so here I am writing it. Finals are in a week and a half and I am definitely stressing a bit right now.
I really am doing much better than I make it sound. I am actually caught up in every class except writing right now, Unfortunately though the reason I am not caught up in writing is because I can’t seem to figure out a topic for my final paper of the semester! That is so frustrating. Picking topics for papers is something I truly dislike. Once I solve this problem however, I should fly through it (I hope). I just keep telling myself to take baby steps and cut down the big picture into smaller pieces… No use stressing about something that will turn out all right.
College is great fun. I have learned to be much more independent, which I like very much. I can stay up doing homework without having a parent yell at me to turn off my light. I can go to a party on Friday night without my mother telling me to watch out for boys (hahahahaha). I can eat whatever I want to and whenever I want to. With all of this freedom, the learning experience of “everything in moderation” inevitably had to happen. This goes for having fun as much as it does for doing homework. While the initial freedom seemed endless, I quickly learned that, in the long run, planning is the key to success. You simply can’t hang out with friends every day. And you simply can’t do eight hours of homework every day either. While I like routines and scheduling my days, many times I have had to be flexible and allow for more piano practice or more friend time. At these times, the little changes in my schedule seemed catastrophic, especially if a paper (or three, as happened twice) was looming ahead, but everything always turned out and will turn out all right. I trust myself to get things done and so I do.
May marks the last month of my freshman year. I must say that I am thrilled to have a three month summer break. College has done a number on me and I feel a little burned out right now… However, I am looking forward to next year. I am rooming with the same people and we got a really great room in a really great dorm. I also got into all of the classes I registered in for fall semester. So, even though my current situation is a bit stressful, I know that I have a lot of great things to look forward to. As I’ve learned time and again this year, everything in moderation.
Peace,
Rumyana
rumyanahulmequist 