Smile

47

That is the number of days until the class of 2013 will have its graduation ceremony.  I am part of this year’s graduating class, and I can tell you that most of us can’t believe that college is over.  Everything that has happened in the last four years seems like it happened yesterday:

-          -  Applying to IC during my senior year of high school

-         -   Not knowing where to go on my first day of classes here at IC

-         -   My first rugby match

-         -   Beginning ballroom dance

-         -   National rugby Final 4 in Virginia Beach

-          -  Moving into off campus housing

-          -  Taking on the job of being treasurer of 4 different organizations

There are many more events that have happened over the past four years, but it is not really the events that matter to me the most. It is really who I have experienced those events with. When I first came to IC I was really hoping that I just had decent room mates that wouldn't cause problems.  Fortunately the three of us and most of the people we hung out with all of freshman year have all become great friends.  Whether it was going out on the weekends with friends or just barbecuing in our side yard on a nice spring day; we were always having a great time.

I have made a lot of friends over the last four years, whether it was through rugby, hockey, ballroom, class, or the Catholic Community here at IC.  Being involved in so many things here on campus has allowed me to have a great appreciation for the friends that I have made here. I know that the people I have met at IC have changed me for good. I hope that I stay as good of friends with many of them as I am with them now.  I believe that making personal connections with people is what makes us human.  If we didn't make the connections with other humans then we would essentially be robots.  But, God has given us the ability to interact with others beyond just acquiring the things we need in the world.  He has given us the people in our lives that make us laugh, cry, and sometimes cry from laughing.

It doesn't matter if you have all the money in the world, because life is not about how much stuff you have. It is about the way you share yourself with others.  People often get caught up in making it to the top of the social ladder, but that is not what it’s all about.  Appreciate every moment you have with the ones you love and smile every second you can. Then you will know what it feels like to be on top of the world.

Ballroom

       Over this past weekend the IC Ballroom team competed in Binghamton's annual ballroom competition. Ballroom competitions always seem to bring out the best in school spirit whether it is the Penn State team doing their "we are..." chant to our small Ithaca team screaming and cheering for one another throughout the competition.  Every competition you get to meet new people and you usually learn something new about the people on your own team since you are spending every second of an entire day, sometimes 2 days with them. Everyone on our team seemed to have a great time from what I saw.

       Our team did well enough to place (get a ribbon) in a few dances, I got a 4th place one in Standard Foxtrot. Winning at the competitions is always a plus, but I think that the actual act of just participating in a ballroom competition is more important than even winning a ribbon.  At the competitions you get the chance to meet others and while you are doing it you are dancing! Who doesn't like to dance? Seriously even the most macho men in the world like to dance even if they don't admit it.  Dancing is not only a great exercise, but it is also very fun.  You don't have to be a good dancer to enjoy the act of dancing. It is one of those activities that you can really just "lose" yourself in.  Sometimes you can dance for 20 minute periods at a time and not even realize it.  The fact that ballroom is a fun activity often makes it a great outlet from the rest of people's busy schedules.

Weddings and Touchdowns:

What do they both have in common? After both events you usually dance. Why? Because it is a way of celebrating something that has just happened. People like to dance and it can often bring out a side of someone that you never saw before. Celebrating the happenings of life is something we all should do. We need to be able to celebrate the things that happen in our lives, because then what is the point of accomplishing anything if we cannot feel happy or rewarded at the end?  Take time to celebrate things in life because that is what makes life enjoyable.

"Love truly and laugh uncontrollably. Never regret anything that makes you smile. The clouds are lined with silver and the glass is half full (though the answers won't be found at the bottom). Don't sweat the small stuff, you are who you are meant to be. Dance as if no one is watching, love as if it is all you know. Dream as if you'll live forever, and Live as if you'll die today."    - James Dean

Celebrate each moment of life,
M.E.

Your Mountain

For anyone who likes to ski, I have one suggestion for you:

Go to the Rockies

Myself and two of my friends went on a week long trip to Denver over this past winter break. We started by taking a flight from Newark to Dallas/Fort Worth and from there we took a flight to Denver. Over the course of the week we looked around the city of Denver for possible apartments and tried to get an idea of the kind of jobs that were out there.  For one thing, the city itself is very clean, and it is very accessible from most any of the surrounding areas by bus or by their rail system. Walking around the city and meeting new people was a lot of fun, but the best part of the trip was the day before we left.

Since none of us wanted to pay extra to check our bags on the flight out to Denver we all made sure that we only packed things that would fit as a carry on. So when it comes to ski equipment you can guess that we didn't bring any, but we found a solution. We found out that one of the local ski mountain's called Loveland had a deal which was $99 which included a day's lift ticket, ski/boot rentals, ski pants/jacket, gloves, hats, and goggles.  I don't know about you, but I think that is an awesome deal considering that there are some mountains whose lift tickets cost more than that.  So we decided that we would go to Loveland, but we hit another problem.  The mountain was an hour away and we had no ride.  We contacted 8 car rental places with no luck at all.  I decided to call a 9th car rental place figuring we wouldn't be able to get a car just as the previous 8 had said. But, not only did they have cars that we could get that day, they had cars that we could get within the hour. So, we immediately reserved a car, and took the bus over to the rental place and left for the mountain.

We couldn't have asked for a better day to go skiing.  It was about 40 degrees, sunny, and there was no wind. We had a great time skiing, but that is not the reason I brought up skiing.  Not only did I love the skiing for the sport, but when you are near the top of a mountain in the Rockies you realize how beautiful nature is. I didn't have a camera to take pictures with, but I can tell you that the sight of being at the near top of a mountain in the Rockies will never leave my mind. The mountains were perfectly covered in snow. At one point later in the day the mountain had a beautiful orange hue to it since the sun was setting in the distance. The beauty of the earth around us is something we often don't take notice of. But, when you stand on a mountain like I did you will realize how beautiful the world around us is.

So my suggestion to you is to not necessarily go to the Rockies just because of this post.  My message to you is to find your own "mountain" in nature. Find a place in nature were you can go and really appreciate the world around us. Not the world that we have built for ourselves, but the world that God created for us. Take time off from your busy life, and go appreciate the natural beauty of the world. And even though groups are fun for outdoor trips, I encourage you to go in a group of no more than 3 people. This way you will have more of a personal experience with nature. We work so hard in our daily lives. We try so hard to please family, friends, bosses, and other people throughout our lives that we forget about ourselves.

With that:  Go take time for yourself once in a while and find Your Mountain.