A Day in the Life

A New Phase of my Blog

Hey Everyone--

This year I've decided to blog with three other seniors on the Senior Blog! Here we will be writing about our experiences at Hopkins in addition to what it's like to be a senior. So we'll talk about job/grad school/med school searches and what we'll be doing next year. In addition I'm sure there will be lots of great advice, memories and information that we have all garnered in our time at Hopkins!

You can find my entries Here!

Enjoy!
Laura

Hopkins, part 1.

Yesterday I pulled two huge suitcases out of storage and dumped them on my bedroom floor to begin packing for Hopkins. Since this will be my fourth year packing for school I am hoping it will be the fastest, easiest, and most efficient year I have had packing so far.

First, I know that I need to include a nice selection of warm weather clothes, because Baltimore is ridiculously hot at the end of August and the beginning of September. Since Hodson tends to over aircondition, that means I also have to bring a nice selection of sweaters to wear when I have classes to go to.

Fall at Hopkins is my absolute favorite time--the leaves are changing colors, it's beautiful outside, the air is crisp and the leaves are crunchy, and the brick buildings feel oh so collegiate. Which means jeans, sweaters, fleeces and some t-shirts---because there are always randomly 75 degree days in November.

Hopefully when I go home for winter I can restock a little bit on winter clothing, but most likely I'll bring some of it now, like boots, a hat and gloves, a few scarves and a warm coat. Since I really like going outside, (I'm part of both JHOC and OP the two outdoors clubs on campus) I will also be bringing my climbing gear, hiking boots, super warm sleeping bag, a big orange backpack etc...

I plan on making a big Target trip with my roommates when I arrive to account for my shampoo, toothbrush etc.... but the odds and ends that I always bring from home are pens, because I really like a specific type that I can't seem to find near hopkins, a planner, because that is how I function, a few good books, some pictures to decorate my room with and, of course, my stuffed teddy bear =).

What I'm really excited about (packing's not that exciting), is the first week of Hopkins. Let me warn you if you are an incoming freshman, it's always really crazy. Good Crazy, but REALLY crazy.

I would strongly encourage you to participate in a good handful of the Orientation activities, because, although they may sound lame, they may be really cool, but you'll definitely meet friends going to the events.

I would also strongly encourage getting to know the campus a little bit. My freshman year I only took the time to learn the buildings that I had classes in (Hodson and Gilman), so I was a little bit directionally challenged. (I also knew where Shriver, the Library and Levering were). However, when someone would say, "oh, I'm outside of Barton, come meet me" I had to admit that I had no idea what the buildings on my campus were actually called. This made training to be a tour-guide both a valuable and really really hard experience for me.

Another great event is the Activities Fair.  All of the clubs on campus go out and set up booths. They let students know what they do and recruit new members. Since I am a happy member of a handful of groups (JHOC, SARU, OP, etc....) I get to help work at the fair. But it is always a great opportunity to see what is out there that might interest you. Freshman year I think I joined 15 groups, and while I didn't go to every single meeting, I did get to pursue all of my interests before narrowing it down.

I am really excited for moving into my new Apartment!! And I am sure you are all equally excited about moving into dorms; I would encourage you to get to know the people on your floor for a few reasons. The first is that they are right there and probably want to meet people too. The second is it can be a great friends group (oh my 6th floor friends). And the third, the most pragmatic, is that if your next door neighboors are throwing a dance party at 3am on a tuesday night and you have an exam the next day, they will be a lot more willing to listen to you if they like you, or at least know you, then if you are that weird quiet kid who never says hi in the elevator... just a thought.

I am also excited for classes! Classes are really exciting the first 2 weeks of class, and then they become significantly less fun (ie. "ugh now I have 200 pages of reading for my class that once I thought was really cool, but since I have to read 200 pages by tomorrow, now it kind of sucks."). However, those first few classes, amazing. You get to figure out which classes you want! Shop around, take 8 classes or so, narrow it down to a nice healthy 15 or so credits and enjoy...

But honestly, what I am most excited about is seeing all the people at Hopkins that I love and miss. All the people who I never even knew existed 3 years ago, but have become my closest and best friends.

Good luck in the fall!!! Have fun, be safe, enjoy the sunny, sticky, hot days of August and really, do yourself a favor and learn the names of the buildings ;)

Reading Books and Vicious Circles

This month I've been working, recovering from my Grand Canyon trip, hanging out and enjoying the sunny weather. I've started reading East of Eden, which is GREAT so far. I don't know how I hadn't read it yet. Grapes of Wrath has been one of my favorite books for a long time, and I've been meaning to pick up Steinbeck's other great accomplishment and somehow only just now got around to it.

I think one of my favorite things about summer is being able to read books that aren't for school. I read so much during the school year, that it is really hard to pick up a book for fun. It's much easier to do when I don't have six books to read for class (that week).

Eeek, and I just thought I was getting excited to go back to Hopkins.... Maybe I'll have to revise my schedule to avoid a few of those reading intensive classes... (I'm pretty sure my whole schedule is currently reading intensive...ooops).

Next year is a little bit scary because I'll be a senior ... which means I have to figure out what I'm doing once I graduate. Which is hard, because there are so many options, and I'm not exactly good at making quick decisions....

--> I could go to graduate school. Which would be great, if I knew precisely what I want to do once I graduate.

--> I may, however, look into some shorter (1 year or less) graduate and certificate programs in editing, because I am pretty sure that I want to go into the realm of publishing and editing, at least for a little while.  I have an editing internship this summer that I LOVE, so that is pushing things in the right direction.

--> However, I don't HAVE to go to a grad school to go straight into publishing/editing, so I could just start by looking for jobs. Which brings up more questions:

• What type of publishing to I want to go into? Book? Magazine? Newspaper (I don't think I want to do newspaper stuff...so we can cut that out)?
• Where do I want to go? Seattle? Baltimore? New York? 
• And then what type of company, etc...etc...etc...
• And then there is the question of whether I should take time off before working and go on a crazy backpacking adventure... tempting ;)

And you may wonder why I am worrying about this already. Well, now that I have this awesome internship, I have tons of career advice from my friendly co-workers.  Ideas of classes to look into, intern opportunities to look into, different career ideas within publishing etc. Which means that I could try to find an internship to get credit for in either the fall or the spring (or both!) Or try to find more appropriate classes to take at Hopkins....

Hmmm. A lot to think about.

In the mean time, I plan on enjoying the rest of my summer off--and hopefully going on a weeklong backpacking trip. But I am excited to get back into the crazy/hectic/fun swing of things at Hopkins =)

Loving Summer

Summer. I love summer. I don't know how to handle the fact that this is my last "official" summer - with school off and free time... boo!

My sister is a teacher, and is fortunate enough to have some time off during the summer; somehow the thought of a few weeks free from work makes her job sound significantly more appealing.

I always love summertime in Seattle.  And now that it is past July 4th, summer here has officially started. The sun is shining, it's warm but not too hot (yay for mid-seventies), it's super green (the other 9 months of rain), people are out picnicking, boating in the lakes and the Puget Sound, running, biking, shopping at bustling farmers markets and generally enjoying life.

I wrote about this a little bit ago, but this summer I am interning at The Mountaineers Books, a non-profit publishing company based in Seattle. They publish a variety of outdoor and eco-minded books from Guidebooks and Adventure Narratives to cookbooks focused on eating locally and books to raise awareness of environmental issues.

I am interning in the editorial/acquisitions department.  I do a lot of different things at work from researching new authors for projects like new guidebooks to helping proof pages. I also read all of the unsolicited manuscripts that come in--from people who send in their ideas, manuscript pages and work samples, and write up a summary about what I read for the acquisitions editor. Some of the other tasks I've done involve creating an index, contributing to company brainstorms and fact-checking.
I really love the internship and it definitely makes me want to pursue my interest in editing and publishing. The people that I work with are great- really helpful and super interesting so that has been really fun.

Other than working I am enjoying being at home. I've spent a lot of time hanging out with my parents and enjoying being able to cook in our big kitchen and have delicious meals and really really great fresh produce! I cleaned out my room some and got rid of all those pesky science notes I still had from highschool (who knows why...) and a few bags worth of clothing for Goodwill. 

Of course I am also trying to get outside and go playing a lot.

So far I have gone climbing around Washington a few times, on a short road-trip to Smith Rock in Oregon, river-rafting in Eastern Washington, hiking with my sister and family in the Olympic Peninsula and I just returned from river-rafting in the Grand Canyon for a week with my boyfriend and his family. Fun!

Walking to the rocks at Smith. Mike and I took an extra long weekend to make the drive (~6hr) to Oregon to get in some good climbing since it was raining everywhere in Washington. It was a really really fun weekend--and SUNNY!!! However, our theory was to do a lot of hard climbing and then keep it up, and while we improved during our 4 day sojourn, we didn't keep up the climbing so well.... =/ ah well...

  My family took a weekend trip to the Olympic Peninsula where we went on hikes to the beach and up in the mountains! The peninsula is super beautiful--here is a picture of my sister and I on a ten mile hike on the beach!!

I went on a Hike/Climb with Mike and my sister in Washington Pass, and we found both Snow and Mountain Goats!! COOL!!!

  

Just last night I got back from spending a week in the Grand Canyon with Mike his mom and his sister. We went river rafting with a group for five days--it was super fun! We went through HUGE rapids, learned all about the history of the Grand Canyon and the different layers of rock. We also went on a bunch of excursions--we saw Native American Ruins and hiked to a cool waterfall! We played in the surreal blue water of the Little Colorado and rode through it's rapids!  The trip was a ton of fun and we met a bunch of really nice and awesome people. And I managed not to get sunburned .... though I did use almost two whole bottles of SPF 55!!!

After rafting we hiked 9.5 HOT miles UPHILL out of the Grand Canyon. And that was HARD. The day started out super hot. We made pretty good time until we had about 3 miles left and then the hike just got so hard.... Fortunately it started thunderstorming when we had about 2 miles left, so the heat dropped a bunch. Overall the trip was great.

The rest of the summer I am going to continue my internship, hopefully go surfing, mountain biking and get in some more climbing and go on at least one long backpacking trip. I am also trying to go to a handful of concerts this summer ...but I have to work that into my minuscule budget.

Then I get to pack and head back to B'more/Hopkins.

Hope everyone is having a superb summer. Enjoy the sunshine and don't forget the Sunscreen. ;)

I only have one more year at Hopkins?!?!

I can't believe I'm a Senior...!! Even just writing that seems wrong and unreal. I still remember thinking that in high school, so how can I already be a senior in college?

This year has been amazing, busy, and full of new experiences. First semester I got to live off campus, in an apartment with two boys and be an 'upper classman' (i.e. have earlier choices for classes). Second semester I went abroad to Florence, Italy, stayed with an Italian family, traveled around Europe, met an entire new group of amazing friends, and went on AMAZING field-trips with my class =). I honestly can't believe all that I fit into this year!!!

Here is a look back through my Junior year:

First Semester started off in a whirlwind of me finalizing classes and immediately diving into the really heavy workload that I had. (Reminder: Don't take all Writing Intensive Classes; Secretly they are reading intensive too.) I make this mistake at least once a year.... Oops!!

In October I settled into my routine with school, and with my new and amazing roommates, Sam & Matt (and our friend Rena is always there too). One of our favorite traditions is Family Dinners.

My post Ever Elusive Fall really gives a good look into what my semester was like. It covers working at Admissions Open Houses; Reading for school, going to Sun-Rise Yoga, and taking an impromptu break from schoolwork to go catch a movie at the nearby Charles Theatre.

So, Did I mention that I loved living with my roommates?? When my friends find out I live with two boys I normally get raised eyebrows, or "Really? aren't they messy?" (I mean, not horribly. PS, if you've ever seen my room, you'll know it's not an issue). "Are your parents okay with that" (obviously!!) "Is your boyfriend okay with that" (first of all, I'm not dating my roommates! And yes, he lived with a girl his senior year.).  So here is a post about how My Roommates are Awesome.

Midway through the first semester I did some reflecting on my past few years of college--how I've changed, grown, and all of the non-academic things that I've learned.

This December was a really busy and stressful time for me. All of my work piled up on me, as I had huge projects and papers due in all of my classes within about the span of a week--ie STRESSFUL. This page links you to my December posts; although Hopkins is GREAT, sometimes schoolwork does pile up and it does become stressful. This month is a good example of that.

Winter Break was really fun! I slept in, went to Whistler with my family, went Snowshoeing at Mt Rainier and generally relaxed after a stressful month of December.

My first week in FLORENCE!!!!! I spent the spring semester abroad in Italy! Amazing.

Some great Pictures from Florence and a list of things I learned in Italy!

My room in Italy!!

Although Florence was amazing, I got Homesick for Hopkins... Here is a post about a handful of the many things at Hopkins I am looking forward to returning to in the fall!

And lastly I wrote about the exciting Summer Internship that I have in Seattle!! I am currently working and I LOVE it!! So much fun!!

Wow!! So much happened. What a great year =)