The end...

Hi everyone!

This is an exiting time. If you're a Senior in High School, at this point you have been accepted to LC and have sent in your YES that you're coming here! Yippee! If you're a Junior, perhaps you are beginning to think about actually applying to college. Yippee to you too! All in all good things are happening out there in prospective student land. But what's going on in our lives? What are we up to at LC?

It's basically the end of the year! We just have this week, then reading days (no class Friday or Monday to give us time to work and study. So, even though we have a 4 day weekend it is not at all a break), and then starting Tuesday FINAL EXAMS. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn. As a Junior having done a few finals periods already I know how to handle the work and stress. I have two finals secrets for all of you: first, get going on work early so you can space things out as best you can. Second, don't forget to have fun! If you cram everything into a few days not only will you be giving up all the wonderful sleep you could have, but also you will be a sad stressful person. I don't exactly always follow my own advice because, lets face it, we're slammed with work up until finals, but let me give you a run down of what my finals will look like.

First, I wrote two papers this past weekend, one 4 pages and one 10 pages (NOTE: the page numbers is a bit of a superficial way of qualifying the amount of work, sometimes a short paper can be way more difficult than a long one, but I want you guys to get a vague idea of the work we do!). Since I finished those two papers, I have all this week to write my 20 page paper. I set myself the goal of 3-4 pages a day, which will leave me reading days to edit. I have two actual sit down final exams that will require quite a bit of study, but luckily they're fun studying because I get to read about extraterrestrial life and look at Roman art. Last but not least I have to give a presentation on one of the papers I'm writing. So for this years finals I have a bit of everything. I'm feeling fairly on top of it right now, but come back and ask me again in a week!

But don't worry! Even among all the stress and all the work there are fun and good things that are happening. Like I said, I truly believe taking a little time for fun is essential to doing well. In order to focus really well, I have planned in a variety of short fun breaks/activities. That way I won't goof off when I'm supposed to be working! Here's the run down on the fun: Tonight at 8 there are bouncy castles set up in the Gym. I'm super pumped to go and be my inner 8 year-old. After that around 9 my Origin of Life in the Universe class is meeting in the observatory to look at Jupiter and Saturn! Even though this one is for class, I am really excited.

On Friday (our first reading day) I am heading to my Portland cousin's house to babysit. I'll do work during the kids naps and after they go to bed. It'll also be nice to get off campus and spend some time with people not in the 18-25 age category. It's back to campus Saturday and I'll be in the library all day. At 8pm I'll take a break, get a free professional massage (the library activities and campus activities groups bring professional masseuses to campus) maybe do some coloring at "Watzek Recess" (the finals break room in the library) and then get back to work!

Probably Tuesday I'll go downtown and study art history over some sushi. SO...that is the plan. With any luck finals this year will be a breeze!

Sadly, this is my last post for the year. It has been wonderful sharing my life with all ya'll (hope you got something from it!) and I've really enjoyed answering all the questions you send me. On that note please feel free to send me more questions to smiller@lclark.edu and I'll be around in Portland giving tours for admissions! So, maybe meet you soon!

Sara