I'm really looking forward to Winter break. I really loved the Thanksgiving break, and  I am really looking forward to break, because it means that finals are over and I can stop stressing out. I am really worried about my first finals, my grades are fine, but I am still worried about my first college finals. In high school I never had to try for my finals and I think that finals here are different and that I am actually gonna have to study. I have three actual tests, and one presentation and paper. I am really worried about working with other people on the presentation, because I have been really busy with writing papers for classes and studying for finals. I think that I am gonna learn to prepare earlier for finals and papers and use that knowledge in future semesters.

Over my break I was able to see one of the best movies that I have seen in a long time. I really love the Hunger Games series. I really loved the first movie and over my break I was able to see Catching Fire. I loved reading the books, and I loved the movies as well. Catching Fire had a huge opening and it had a great turn out and it had great reviews. I sometimes get bored in movies because I really like to do many things, for example I will do something I love I will still love it, but I will be bored of it and want to do something else. This movie was easily able to capture my attention and make me wanting more. I really loved the movie and I'm looking forward to the third movie even more now.

I have been really busy with Christmas with Wartburg lately. Since I have been busy this is one of the first times that I have been really stressed this year. It isn't that I haven't been busy all year, it's just that I think it is all final hitting me. My break was nice and helped me a little bit, but coming back today just made me realize how little time I have left in this semester and I think it just kind of stressed me out a little bit. People tell me that my sleep schedule can really affect my level of stress, sleep is not always m strong suit and sometimes my sleep schedule gets a little off. Since Christmas with Wartburg I have been way off on my schedule even more. I really love it here and I know this is just normal college stress, but it is one of the first times that I have noticed it affecting me.

I do not feel good at all. It hit me really hard on Friday and I thought it would go away, but I still don't feel very good. Tomorrow is my grandmas funeral, and I a supposed to sing in it. I really hope that I feel better so that I am able to sing well  and sing the best I can for the funeral. I am really hoping that the funeral is a nice service, this is the first funeral that I have gone to that I can remember. I went to one when I was very young and I do not remember that service. I a hoping that this cold goes away before tomorrow because I would feel very bad if my performance didn't sound good.

Today for field experience I got to help one of the students who was struggling in math. When I am there I usually correct papers and help students if they need help, but today the teacher asked if I would be willing to try and help a student catch up. He came over and I taught him new methods for multiplying till he learned a method that worked the best for him. He is still confused, but it was so great to be able to help him. After helping him the teacher told me he has never resounded so well, and she thinks it is because I was a male and he responded better because of that. Before I left the teacher was very grateful and told me that we need more people like me in the field. It really made me feel good to not only be able to help the student, but to be able to make an impression on my field experience adviser. I really think that I am going to like teaching and I cant wait to get more experience, and then actually become a teacher.

The visit I had with my friend went really well. I was so glad to see her and we had a lot of fun. She was busy for part of the day so during the time of her interviews and such I worked on some homework and such, but when I was able to hang out with her it was a lot of fun. She thinks that her interview went well, and her parents bought shirts and were very excited and really liked the campus which is a good sign. She really wants to come her and the cost seems kind of intimidating to her so this day was a very big deal to her and I am glad that it went really well. I got to show her around campus a little bit and then I was able to go to Applebees with her and her parents and it was really nice to eat off campus and to be able to just sit and talk with her. I am really glad I got to talk with her and this visit shows that I need to come home more often so that I can still keep up with the people I don't get to see why I am here.

Tomorrow someone from my home town will be visiting for scholarship day. She is one of the best friends that I have from high school. I am very excited to get to see her and I am very excited that she is considering Wartburg. She is not sure where she is going, but I am glad that she is considering Wartburg. The friend who is coming is one of the people that told me to visit Wartburg, she found out about the college when she was at an explore college day. She liked the booth and I was thinking about visiting and she told me I should and then I feel in love with the campus and I couldn't be happier that I picked Wartburg. I am really glad that I get to spend a day with her and that I get to catch up with her. I really hope that she comes to Wartburg next year so I can see her more, but I am just really glad that I get to see her tomorrow and I hope her visit goes well.

I performed for my first time at seminar over the weekend. As part of my music scholarship I am required to be in a music ensemble, and have private lessons once a week. As part of the lessons you have seminar, seminar is like a lesson but you sing in front of a group. I really enjoy my seminar group and they are all really kind and helpful. For seminar all the first years had to sing, I thought my piece went really well and all the other members of the seminar were very helpful. Even when the members gave critiques they seemed very genuine and kind about the help they were giving. I think I have grown a lot in my music abilities this year and I am very grateful to Warturg for that.

During this week of school here at Wartburg I have been playing the campus wide game of humans vs zombies. The game is like a huge version of tag. Me and my group of friends have been playing and we are still humans. In the game zombies will come after and tag the humans, once a human is tagged they become a zombie. Last night me and my friends went swimming, after swimming we looked and saw that zombies were waiting for us. We decided to run and we hid in a car for over thirty minutes. The game seems to be drawing to an end, me and my friends are one fourth of the humans left in the game. The game has been a lot of fun, but I have had to avoid going to the Mensa and I have had to take really long routes to get to class. Even though the game has been fun I am kind of looking forward to this all to go back to normal.

During class on Wednesday I went to two meetings, one was about studying abroad and the other meeting was orange connection. Both of the meetings had to do with traveling to another area for a certain amount of timer For study abroad I would have an interest in going abroad for a May term so I can get the feel of the country but not stay away for too long. Orange connection is about going to the Chicago area and shadowing someone in your profession for a short time. Both of those I had some interest in, but I think that I want to wait till my junior year to go abroad or go on the Chicago trip. In study abroad we learned that studying abroad doesn't cost much more than being on campus so that takes away one of my worries of studying abroad. I am glad that I was able to learn about these opportunities, and since my adviosor meeting is coming up I am glad I get to plan accordingly to my interests.

It feels great to be home. I am really happy that I get to be home for fall break. I get to see my family and catch up with all the things that I have missed in town since I have been gone. My friends that are still in high school are in town as well which it was really nice to be able to see them as well. I went to go see my grandma today, it was very hard to see her this way, but it was still really nice to see her. Since I have been home my choir director invited me to come to musical practice to see how it is coming along. I really loved hearing a little bit of what the high school is singing for musical this year. I really love being at Wartburg, but coming home made me realize I still love being home as well. Since I have been here it made me realize how much I missed being home and how I should come home and visit more often.

I had my first outfly today! I had a lot of fun during my very first outfly. Me and a big group of people stayed over at one of our two friends room in anticipation of outfly. At 6 in the morning we heard the people screaming that it was time for outfly. When we got out to the bell we heard all the announcements and then we went to breakfast. My friends and I got into the Mensa right away so we got done with breakfast pretty early. I took a nap so that I would be rested for the day before the events all started. Later that day I went to the bouncy houses and participated in all the other activities they had planned. Later that day I did some math homework that was due tomorrow regardless of if it was outfly or not, so I still had to get it done. Later me and my friends went to the movie Castaway. after the movie we searched for Zach Sommers. I had a friend who worked in the special dining and could figure out from the clues where Zach was hiding. We searched and we found him. The prize for finding him was 100 dollar gift card, since their was five of us we split the money and he said he will see what else he can get us. For my first outfly I had a lot of fun and I really hope the next three years of outfly can be just as fun.

I am really looking forward to outfly. I thought for sure that outfly would have been Monday but it wasn't. Since it was not Monday I thought that it might be today. I am really looking forward to a break and outfly would give me a nice break. I do not want outfly to be to close to fall break so I am hoping that it is sometime this week. I want outfly to be tomorrow but I do not want to bank on it. I am really hoping that outfly is sometime this week. People told me that it had to be before fall break, but they also told me that it had to be before homecoming so I don't know what to believe. I have a joke with my friends that outfly is just a joke that they play on the underclassmen. I am hoping that outfly is sometime this week, but I don't want to bank on it and get my hopes up.

I got a call from my mother over the weekend, the cancer that my grandma has is spreading at a very rapid rate. The doctors decided that giving her chemo would just make her feel sick and miserable for the time she has left, since it is spreading so fast and the chemo can't get rid of the cancer they have stopped giving my grandma chemo. My grandma is handling the news really well, she even said at least I will have my appetite back for the time I have left. My grandma said she had a good life and that the one regret she has is that she smoked earlier in her life. She said it made her children not want to be around her while she was smoking, and then when she quit the long term affect is the cancer she has now. I have plans to go visit her during my fall break so I am hoping that it is a good visit and that I get to see her again. The doctors have given her a month left to live and I am happy that I will get to go see her soon.

Music has been a huge part of my life. On campus I have my first performance of Kastle Kapers tonight, at home my friends that are still in high school  are getting ready for their musical in less than a month.  This weekend the music program on campus is going to be performing for the homecoming chapel. At my hometown they re doing the musical Godspell, some of my best friends from high school are in the musical this year. I am really looking forward to being able to perform this weekend for all the alumni that are coming. I am also looking forward to going home and seeing my family and my high school's musical.

This weekend was a good weekend because my parents got to visit. My little brothers didn't get to visit because they got called into work. When my parents were visiting I got some bad news about my grandma. When my parents were here they told me that my grandma was told that she has lung cancer. The lung cancer has been spreading as well so the doctors told her that she has about a year left to live. My grandma is taking it really well and she said she just wants to make the most of the year. It may seem like a long time to people it might seem like well that's not till next year, but when you have been with this person for your entire life it's hard to imagine that she only has one year left. My weekend was ended on a positive note when my older brother came to the area to look at a car and came to visit with me. All of these events have lead me to the conclusion that I need to keep in contact with my family.

I called my family recently. They decided that they would come up and visit this weekend for family weekend. Since I worked at a summer camp all summer I did not get to see my family very much over the summer either. Since I did not get to spend a lot of time with them over the summer I am really looking forward to them visiting me this weekend. I have twin younger brothers and one older brothers, my older brother isn't able to visit this weekend but both of my parents and my younger brothers are visiting this weekend. Since I get to see my family this weekend I am hoping to hear about my grandmother and any other information that they have. My grandma has been sick recently and I want to know the news they have about her. Since I haven't been in touch with my family and seeing my reaction now I do think that I need to keep in touch with them more. I plan on calling them and talking to them more so that I am able to feel more connected with the,.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Harry Potter. I can't just pick one so don't try and make me. I love all of the Harry Potters and today me and a group talked about Harry Potter for an hour. We talked about how they have changed over the years, we talked about how great the books were, and even how much of our childhood was spent watching or reading Harry Potter. I am in love with the books and the movies and I think that I need to read the books again so I might have found something else to entertain myself for a while.

Tonight is my first worship band practice, I'm excited but also worried that I might bite off more than I can chew. I was involved with a lot of things in high school, but the work wasn't as hard there. Here I seem to want to be in everything and I am not sure if I will be able to keep up with myself.

My friends from home just know how to make me smile. I realized how much I miss home when my friends from Prairie du Chien call me. I love it at Wartburg but just hearing all of them together just makes me really miss them.

Yesterday I had my first actual voice lesson. It was really interesting and nice to hear feedback and ways that I can improve. First I had to lie down on my back he placed a book on my stomach to show me where and how I should breath. Know for people who are not music people learning to breath might seem like a strange concept. But when you are singing breathing is very important. After that we sang a little bit of a song, and then he gave me ways to improve and how to practice on my own. I really think that this year for music is going to be a good one.

Today I had the last practice of the first week of Riterchor. Riterchor is an all male singing ensemble that I am involved in. I love singing in it because I have never been in a choir that is so big with so many talented people. I think it is amazing because everyone who is there wants to be there so everyone there is incredibly talented. I can tell that this year in Riterchor is going to be a great adventure in my life.

What is the value of a educated life?

What is the value of an educated life? That is an interesting question. For me my life wouldn't mean a whole lot to me if I wasn't educated. I need to know things in order to do simple everyday things. If I never learned how to count or read life would be a lot harder than it already is. I can't imagine living a life without that kind of knowledge. But continuing on into more advanced knowledge like high school and even college, to me I'm at the point of wanting to learn things for the career I want to go into. That is why I am at college I like to learn about things that interest me.