Right now, I am sitting in a Columbia City Council meeting for my news reporting journalism class (J2100). The last such meeting I attended was the Glenbrook School Board meeting when Torch was recognized senior year, and Kara, Mr. Halpern and my parents all made fun of me for wanting to stay at the meeting and hear them discuss the agenda.
I never realized how boring these types of matters were until right now. The board is currently discussing the landscape and rezoning of a development on Rock Quarry Road, and this isn’t even something a journalist who is actually at this meeting will cover. This makes me feel really bad for people with boring occupations, who discuss such things for a living. I have gained a new respect for city government members because they spend hours discussing these matters, and in the end, no one will notice anything they’re talking about on this property…unless they were at this meeting.
I still enjoy politics and would act as some type of public official any day, but it’s interesting learning more and more about the logistics of town hall meetings. It’s basically like they’re putting on a show with all the “points of order,” “motions,” and rules. People from the public can speak for no more than three minutes, and if you represent an organization, you may speak for five. They read off legislations (for example: B218-10) and go through each board member and say (I or Nay), then move on to the next one if there is no discussion. After I leave or during this meeting, I will write a story about anything from this meeting by noon tomorrow to practice writing on deadline. Back to the Torch days :), and it’s exciting to feel legitimate!
Workoholics Anonymous
One of my most recent revelations is that I have made myself a machine. I guess it hasn’t gone quite that far because I still talk and have a personality, but I am a workoholic. I take a list of work, accomplish it, and the process never ends. Sometimes on Thursday evenings (since I have no Friday classes) I feel a sense of freedom, but I don’t know when I will actually feel like I can do whatever I want without feeling obligated to academics, organizations and obviously, seeing friends. The other day, all I wanted to do was sit down and watch a movie while doing nothing else…when have I ever done that?
So my goal is to utilize these phases of workoholic-ness, get ahead and take some breaks. I do love everything I’m doing and everyone I’m around, but I got less than two hours of sleep last night. That’s just not healthy. I ran completely off of 5-hour energy shots all day, not one piece of food in my body. I was like an eight-year-old girl after her first sleepover, almost anything and everything that happened made me so cranky that I’d break out into tears. No time to nap, exam tomorrow, paper for Wednesday…it never ends.
Thankfully, I felt less anxious at dinner and was able to eat and put up photos during chapter! Ultra productivity is always exciting…like writing this right now. My iPhoto is gaining intelligence as it actually utilized the FACES application and tagged people…by itself! How awesome is that?! Productivity without even trying! Keeping faces in tact (which means accepting or rejecting who face finder guesses is in your pictures) has proved successful and is not only useful for choosing photos for birthday presents!
Yes, the things in life that make me excited are lame. I am excited for the next two hours (hmm..) when the city council talks about something I find useful, like renovating the Columbia airport or recycling. I’m at that point in life where I love applying my knowledge since all six of my classes are interesting. In my video interview with the manager of a local t-shirt design shop, I asked him what he thought the company’s sustainable competitive advantage was and have never felt more intelligent. So it’s been a busy week…wait…it’s just Monday. Let’s review the weekend!
Bad weather? Who cares..it’s college!
Friday night was the Phi retreat, where the new member pledge class gets to bond and a couple of sophomores get to bond by helping out. I was one of the lucky ones who got to do this and even luckier…taxi’d people back and forth from campus! My 5-speed driving improves by the day…with hills and deer this time (don’t worry, I didn’t hit one). We had a bonfire, acted out The Creed, and got some stuff organized while the Phis enjoyed each other’s presence.
Being true to the WOMANhood :)
Saturday was a productivity day where I bought and made my big-little gifts (you will probably see photos of these later in the week) and tailgated/went to the football game against San Diego State. We won in a close game!
The Phi Mu block!
Sunday morning, with inches upon inches of rain from that weekend, proved that nothing ceases to cancel Watermelon Fest. Now this is a fun fraternity philanthropy for Lambda Chi Alpha where you basically have a watermelon fight…but it turned into a mud fight as anticipated. Here’s some photos from this craziness! I just have to remember…at no other point in life will people be so open to throwing watermelons at each other and mud-sliding..what a concept!
From clean to dirty...
Speed networking
Last Thursday night (sorry, I really didn’t have time to stay on top of my updates!), Mizzou’s Alumni Association Student Board hosted a True Tiger networking dinner, where students who are True Tiger members and alumni “speed-network” at the Reynolds Alumni Center.
It’s unfortunate that the more notable alumni do probably not have the time to commute to mid-Missouri for such events, but it’s still nice to meet and discuss Mizzou memories with other students and a variety of alumni.
One cute piece of advice received that I will probably rate now in my normal conversation is my ‘fun point average.’ The man at mine and Laura’s table, as well as Laura’s dad, both had an economics professor who had a philosophy of evening out your GPA and your “fun point average,” so if you hear me using that term..now you know! Right now, in this meeting, my fun point average is probably a 2.0. And it only stays that high because I’m being productive.
Other lessons I learned and inspirations I felt:
- I came to this realization post-Mexico, but I can live wherever I want when I graduate if I find a legitimate job! And I’m excited to do so and brag about my whereabouts to Mizzou students at alumni dinners in the future!
- I have more written down at home...no worries!
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