Emily's Epic Escapades: My Last Fall Semester Wrap-Up

Last Fall Semester

Once again I have failed my readers. If the month and a half since I have posted my last blog post doesn't give you any signals, my semester was CRAZY! I do not feel like I have ever been busier in my life. I did not expect my last year of college to be so jam-packed with homework, events, and surprises thrown at me but it certainly has taken me for a ride. This semester was challenging to say the least and I will probably miss out on a lot of details while writing because I was a goof and didn't do more frequent updates but I will definitely try to hit the high points.

Most of you who have been keeping up with my time at Ouachita know that Homecoming Week and Tiger Tunes is the busiest time of the year. It's full of pep rallies, Tiger Tunes shows, and other events on top of regular classes and assignments and what not. Usually though, my life slows down after Tunes and Homecoming. Not the case this year. In fact, I was absolutely swamped with things to do until about two weeks ago. To add onto the stress of Homecoming week, the president of our chapter of SAI resigned and I was elected to be the new president. It wouldn't have been as stressful if we hadn't done fall initiation, but we did. Despite the stress of being elected into such a high position in my club, I'm excited to lead the group next semester to end out my time at Ouachita with a bang.

Overall I enjoyed my classes a lot this semester. I especially enjoyed my Creative Writing class, enough so that I am taking Advanced Creative Writing next semester! Most of my classes were challenging this semester, especially Cognition and American National Government. With a lot of hard work though I managed to get all A's this semester. I even made a 100 on my Cognition paper, which apparently does not happen often for this professor at all. I always get nervous when I'm struggling in classes, but I've come to terms with the fact that even if I am having hard time with the class, I am still learning a lot of information. Not every class needs to be a piece of cake.

This semester we initiated five new members into SAI, which is huge for us! Our chapter has really been dwindling with large numbers of members graduating each semester, but we are working hard to build our numbers up again. We've got some great girls who are going to do awesome things for our club!

This semester's Wind Ensemble group was wonderful! We played the best lineup of songs (in my opinion) that we have played since I have been at Ouachita. There wasn't a single song that I disliked and each year I have grown to love the people in my section more and more and we have such a great time together. We had our second annual Trumpetsgiving celebration, which is the Thanksgiving celebration for my group of friends from the trumpet section. We played Secret Santa and had great food, while also sharing lots of laughs. Playing in the Marching Band this semester was a little bittersweet. I've always enjoyed marching more than concert band and so turning my uniform in for this last time was pretty tough for me.

So many other things happened throughout the semester that I'm just not remembering right now, but to celebrate the end of the semester, my wonderful roommate, AA, and I went to the debutante ball in Hot Springs for the 3rd year in a row, so we could have an excuse to dress up all fancy and dance. Then I stayed with her until Wednesday because her birthday was on Tuesday and we had a big family dinner at her house.

Like I've said a couple of times already, this semester was super trying and challenging for me. I had to rely heavily on my planner (as usual) and really consider what to prioritize in my life. I honestly can't believe that next semester is my last one at Ouachita and with my grades from this semester, I believe that I will be graduating Magna Cum Laude. I think I'm going to have some interesting classes including Abnormal Psychology and Advanced Creative Writing and I'm looking forward to ending it all with a bang.

Also, sometime after the break I will be submitting my application for the Admissions Office so y'all say a prayer for me!

I promise that I will post more over the break, probably about Christmas and share with you the family pictures we took with my mom's side last week! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and get lots of rest before school starts back! Enjoy these pictures from my semester as well!