One of the Best Days Ever

This past Friday after all classes my friends and I went to this Christian concert in Peoria. We knew it was going to be an adventure we just didn’t know how big of an adventure it was going to be. We left Watterson Towers at 5:40 in Katie’s boat of a car. We were driving along and I was the navigator riding shotgun. We were driving on I-55 as fast as Katie could go without getting caught by the cops. We drive past the sign that says Peoria. I said that the directions said that we were supposed to stay on the highway for a while longer, so we drove on for a while then we realized that we were supposed to turn at the sign that says Peoria. So we made a U turn and traveled back the way we came. After our little side adventure we finally made it to the Peoria Civic Center. We were all so very excited to see the bands we ran like cheetahs into the building, not just because we were so excited-and late- but because it was freezing cold outside. We made it into the building and found some of our friends who were saving some seats for us. You could hear the erupting music filling the arena, but we couldn’t really see the band too well so we went to find some new seats so we could at least see the bands. So we found some nose bleed seats, but at least we could see the bands and have fun. We saw some bands and had some fun dancing. Then it was intermission and we traveled around and looked at all the different booths and we heard the band start to play. So we rushed in and found some better standing seats up close on the main floor, like 10 rows away from the stage! The band playing at the time was The Afters, not too many people know who they are but I was ecstatic to see them. We were able to stay up that close for their set only, then we had to return to our seats. After that their were a couple of more bands and then the concert was over and we were all filling out so we could get some autographs from one of the bands, Hawk Nelson, and then we left to get some food at Steak n’ Shake. The place was absolutely packed when we arrived and it took forever to get our as well. But it was all worth it because when we were almost done eating we saw The Afters come in to the Steak n’ Shake!!!!! Me and my friends, Karen and Maggie saw them and were like “wait a second; hold on, those are The Afters!!!!!!!!” We really wanted to go meet them but we didn’t want to intrude on their dinner. But my friends Morgan and Katie went over to them to see if they could take a picture and they said “YES!” So they waved us over and each one of the band members shook our hands and introduced themselves to us and they were so nice they took pictures with us and talked with us for a while. Then we left the restaurant and got into Katie’s car and screamed until our lungs hurt. It was amazing and we couldn’t believe that this actually happened to us. It was by far one of the best days of my life.

Inauguration Day 2009

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 I rolled out of bed like any other day. I went to my math 131 class at 9:35 like every other Tuesday or Thursday. I knew it was an important day in our countries history because we inaugurated our first African American President. I honestly didn’t have any major plans to watch the inauguration; I knew I would hear about all the major things that I needed to know from my peers or the news. So while the new president was getting inaugurated I was just going around, doing my normal day to day activities. After my math 131 class, I went to go get some lunch. I walked up the endless stairs to the Watterson Food Court, to get my lunch to go of course, because I had to get ready for the day. I still had to shower and finish some of the homework I didn’t do. After I finished showering and finishing my homework I had to go to my next class which was politics. I was definitely not looking forward to that class cause when I went to the first class I didn’t see anyone that I knew, but when I arrived in Schroeder I saw my friend David and it turns out he was in the same class as me and our friend Steve was also in the class. So now I was actually looking forward to the class now. Even though it was a very long class it was nice sitting with people that I knew. After the longest class ever I had to go to one of my more interesting classes, Special Education 101. I actually find this class very interesting so I was tired but excited to go to this interesting class. But on that day it would have seemed that the class dragged on for longer than a two episodes of 60 minutes. It went by super slow. But it finally ended and I was done for the day at 4:50pm I was done. Now what was I supposed to do? I went back up to my dorm room and went on my computer to check my facebook and email. Then after a little while on that I went to the Newman center to go hangout with my friends there. We hung out for about an hour or so and after that I had t walk back to my dorm and it seemed like a mile away, but only a 5 minute walk. After my walk back I went on the computer again and then my day was officially done, SLEEP!!!

This is me.

Hey I’m Carolyn and I’m a freshman at Illinois State University. I’m from a suburb of Chicago called Crystal Lake. I am the middle child of three: my older brother, David, just graduated from NIU and my younger sister, Rachel, is a freshman in high school. I have a huge extended family and they all pretty much live near me. My mom is 1 of 7 and my dad is 1 of 4. I went to school with about seven of my cousins at one point. Back home I am very involved in my youth group and my church. I have on three mission trips with them traveling to West Virginia, Denver, and New Orleans. This summer I will be going on my fourth mission trip traveling back to New Orleans. I absolutely love my friends back home and they will always be a major part of my life. They have been there with me through thick and thin. I met my best friends through my youth group. Moving so far away from home was very hard for me because most of my friends are still at home. I have never in my life have gotten homesick until I got to ISU. But after going to the Newman Center here, I found a new group of friends and I became less homesick. My friends are pretty much my life no matter where they are, I will do anything for them and I know that they would do anything for me.