I'm baaaaaaack!

It's been a long time since I have blogged and quite a lot has happened in the past few months. Look forward to some posts over the next few days for updates on graduation, Project Mexico and lessons from the end of my undergraduate career!

Relay For Life

This year, I was one of three event chairs for Mizzou’s Relay For Life benefiting American Cancer Society. I got involved on this committee freshman year of college, after participating in Relay For Life since freshman year of high school. Relay by definition is a 12-hour walk to celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost and fight back against cancer. One of the most important things I’ve learned over the years is that Relay For Life is more than an event—it’s an experience. The experience of staying up all night to watch the various ceremonies, concerts and activities representing the cancer journey. Participating in the on-site fundraisers, bake sales and games to help reach monetary goals. Walking, talking and bonding with friends and classmates.

Working hard since last April to form a committee, solicit donations, spread the word and recruit survivors and participants, seeing Relay For Life come together alone has been an incredibly meaningful experience with the day of being another in my book. I have become acquainted with 50+ committee members who have shared my common goal of making Relay a success. I’ve overcome obstacles with the various challenges we were faced with throughout the planning stages. Most of all, I grew as a person and a leader helping to bring the whole thing together.

The 2012 Relay committee

Needless to say, Relay For Life ran very smoothly and we raised over $80,000 with 1,300 participants and over 80 teams. 

Opening Ceremonies at the Rec Center

Teams set up their campsites in Brewer, the back gyms of the Rec. Each team got really into its on-site fundraiser and raised over $12,000 the night of Relay. Bake sales, cupcakes, pushups, karaoke and tattoos galore- people always have very unique ways of raising money. 

Relay starts off with a ceremonial survivor lap- where participants cheer on cancer survivors as they kick off the night providing hope for curing cancer and fundraising for American Cancer Society.

The biggest ceremony is Luminaria around 9 p.m. Lit up candle/tea bags with the names of those who have fought, died from or survived cancer are purchased and line the track, and all of the names are read. It's a very emotional ceremony and a time for participants to commemorate friends and family members who have battled the disease. It was the best luminaria ceremony I've seen at a Relay and ran incredibly well.

Some of my friends joined a team called "Just one of Katie's many teams," and it was great to have them at Relay hanging out!

The event chairs- Charlie, Bret and I with Truman the Tiger, who came to break the world record for Most people dancing to "Don't Stop Believin'!" We have an awesome video of this happening and had over 200 people singing and dancing along. Bret, Charlie and I each oversaw five subcommittees to bring the event together. Congratulations guys!

Having a place called home

Sophomore year Thanksgiving break, I flew to Boston with some friends from Mizzou to reunite with some friends from Project Mexico and fellow Greek Orthodox people! I left my car at school and naturally, always try booking the most affordable flight accommodations. In that situation, the best way to get to Boston was to connect through Chicago’s Midway airport. After a 6 a.m. flight out of St. Louis, I restlessly arrived at Midway early in the morning, but I was confused.

It was in that moment where I realized how meaningful your hometown is. I emotionally couldn’t handle the fact that while I was “home,” I wasn’t leaving Midway airport and going HOME. My mind couldn't grasp that I was even still flying to Boston, and I just wanted to walk out then and there. From there on out, I have never booked a connecting flight and hope to never plan on connecting through Chicago when avoidable.

Over a year and a half later, this week, I flew back from spring break and landed into Kansas City. And I was confused yet again. I looked out the window for the Chicago skyline. I ignored the fact that I had to go get my car from the airport parking lot, and that my mom or dad weren't coming to pick me up. Although Missouri is has been my temporary home for college, I still wasn't home when I flew into KC. Obviously, arriving on campus in Columbia felt home-like, but I haven't traveled enough on planes to feel at home in another Missouri city. 


All of this not only taught me the meaning of having a city to call home, but made me excited to head back to Chicago for Easter this month!

Spring Break!

Here is a tale in photos of some of my spring break adventures!

Stacey and I started off arriving into LaGuardia Airport, taking entirely public transit into Times Square as to keep costs down, and took the Subway to the 9-11 Memorial. In the memorial area, they have two large fountains (one pictured above) with the names of victims throughout. A whole plaza of new buildings are being constructed and the 9-11 Museum is almost complete. It was a powerful thing to see!

After some New York Pizza, we bought tickets and took a boat to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Thankfully, it was a really nice day out so we got to walk around the island. I even saw a kid with a GBN sweatshirt on and he happened to be in Eleni's peer group at Glenbrook North! Small world, right? 

Stacey and I posing by the skyline...but incompetent people taking photos don't understand that you want the skyline in the photo and not the bricks on the ground!

We met Maria and her friend Angie at Shake Shack for dinner, which had excellent milkshakes and hamburgers! After, Stacey and I went to Dave & Buster's happy hour in Times Square and took the Subway to Brooklyn to stay with family for the night.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and walked New York with Maria. We probably walked over four miles, heading to the SOHO area, West Village, meatpacking district and Chelsea Market to get some gelato and walk on the high end. Maria and I posed there above since it was another nice day, and then we visited Eleni's godsister Marie hostessing at the restaurant she works at!

Saturday night, Stacey and I saw Evita- one of the reasons for the trip. Ricky Martin stole the show as Che, and it was an amazing brought-back-to-Broadway production. Highly recommended!

Times Square at night! What would it be without advertisements and brands?

Maria and her Fordham friends took us out to a club in the city where we soon learned the business of club promoters.  Great music and it reminded us a lot of Argentina!

Sunday morning, we ate at a diner and headed to the Greek Independence Day Parade, as it was March 25!  I got to see Thea Stephanie and her New Jersey church, and a lot of Greeks reuniting in the street! Definitely a sight. Even Mayor Bloomberg was there! 

Walking Central Park on Sunday afternoon! Stacey and I also saw Rockafeller Center, more of Times Square and shopped a little bit.

That evening, we met up for a sushi dinner with our roommate from Argentina Elizabeth, and a few of her friends! They took us out again and we spent the night at their hotel which was close to our bus station for DC the next morning. 

Our first stop in Washington D.C. after our $15 Megabus ride was walking from Union Station to the Newseum, a journalism museum. This place is seriously heaven. I went with Kara two years ago and have looked forward to going back ever since. It brings our Communications Law and History of American Journalism classes to life, as well as talking about a lot of interesting cases in the news. It even has a piece of the antenna from the North tower of the World Trade Center!

Posing by the Capitol, Stacey and I showcased our colored pants which are a very popular trend on the East coast.

All of these cases discussing Amendment rights were also discussed in Comm Law at Mizzou! Yay for a great journalism education!

The World War II Memorial is my favorite, and Monday we did that, the Lincoln Memorial and glimpsed at the Vietnam Memorial. Instead of taking the Metro from being so worn out from walking, a rickshaw bike took us all the way from the mall back to Georgetown to stay at Kara's house for the night! He only charged us $10, and gave us a beautiful ride on the Potomac River.

It's cherry blossom time in Washington D.C., which were a gift one hundred years ago from the Japanese government! They are beautiful, and I'm sure would have been more beautiful if they all blossomed at the same time. But because of weather issues, they moved the festival a week early and not all of them were up. Kara, Stacey and I went to the FDR Memorial, JFK Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial (that one's new!), and after lunch, hit up the Newseum again (2 day pass!) and the American History Smithsonian. Productive day! We took a bus and Metro train back to Fordham and stayed the night at Maria's dorm. 

Wednesday morning, Stacey flew out and Mom flew in to NYC! That night we met up with Thea Stephanie, Kira and Sophia in New Jersey for dinner.

Mom and I had frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity on Thursday and walked a lot of Central Park! We also spent time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Friday, Mom and I went to the New York Botanical Garden and saw the Orchid Show, which was beautiful! Thankfully, it didn't rain until Saturday so we spent a lot of time sightseeing and shopping. Saturday, Maria took us for pizza and cannoli around Arthur Avenue at Fordham and overall, it was a great break!

Lesson learned

When I hear the word “break,” I see it as more than some time off of school- but an opportunity. An opportunity to go places, see people, and take on adventures that one day, you won’t have the time or energy to do. So this spring “break,” I flew to New York City for the week and took a slight detour to Washington DC in the middle. My friend Stacey came with me the first half, and my mom met my sister Maria and I there the second half.

As usual, the trip flew by. Stacey had never been to the east coast, and with our Argentina travel mentality, we rarely took relaxation time and crammed a lot of things into each day. In fact, we stayed six different places over six nights—all for free! From my family members’ homes, to Maria’s dorm, to my friend Kara’s apartment at Georgetown, to two hotels with friends. Crazy, right?

Well, despite the fabulous time we had, both of us became physically ill after trying to do too much. The only other time I have ever gotten sick in college was after Thanksgiving “break” sophomore year when I had pneumonia. Before then, I had gone to Boston, Chicago and Kansas City all within a week of each other. Go figure—definitely a pattern here. The more places I was staying and tried to travel in a short timespan, the more sick I was.

So the lesson here: make sure each “break” has some actual breaks embodied somewhere in it. Whether that be a nap in the middle of the day, ending the night early or sitting down for a bit. 

Where has this semester gone?

Where have I been the past month? I haven't really posted any photos since going to Colorado, making me wonder, what do I actually do in my time? Homework? Meetings? Clearly not sleeping.

Comically enough, I went to Kansas City or St. Louis four out of the past five weekends, for very random reasons. Flying out of the St. Louis airport to Colorado, the Phi Mu sisterhood retreat in Kansas City, a MOJO presentation at an advertising agency in Kansas City and a musical in St. Louis. Freshman and sophomore years, I remember the spring semester being dead in Columbia on the weekends but now, it's reversed and I feel like I'm missing out on things!

Taking a moment to pause and actually think about how I've been spending my time how much opportunity there is in college. Opportunity not only to travel, but to go on adventures, see various groups of people and get involved. So take a minute to check out these photos and figure out where your dear friend has been!

This photo was taken at the St. Luke Greek Orthodox Church dinner dance. Mizzou has gone in the past few years from having three active Greek Orthodox college students to having an excellent group meeting every week. Gregg, Yianni and I felt like happy parents realizing what we have created. Our productive meetings, interesting lectures and upcoming retreat have really shown us that Orthodox Christian Fellowship can exist anywhere if we put in the time and the resources!

Before the Phi Mu sisterhood retreat, Shelley (currently living in Kansas City and student teaching during her last semester) invited our pledge family over for a bonding night! We ate a homemade dinner, caught up and shopped at the Plaza in Kansas City. What lovely sisterhood!

As my sorority's sisterhood chair, I planned our retreat at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, Kansas!
We had 25 rooms and got to cheer on the Tigers watching the Mizzou-Kansas game and playing at the water park!

We facilitated sisterhood activities at night, and here's everyone in the chapter that went.

Mizzou Basketball! Our last home game was against Iowa State, but we've continued to be the Big 12 Champions and a No. 2 seeded team in the NCAA Tournament! If we're not at games, we're watching them! MIZ!

MOJO- Team Maven. Every Thursday when we present our progress to our professors (management team), we choose a theme to dress to. Last week was groutfits- gray outfits- a popular theme in the Artemas family as well. MOJO has been a great time commitment but I'm excited to see the work we produce!

MOJO members pose in Kansas City after presenting our State of the YAYA (youth and young adult) report at an advertising agency.

Relay For Life Steering Committee members pose while canning to fundraise downtown. Relay is four days away and has already fundraised $55,000, trying to hit $100,000!

Kate and I saw American Idiot, the Green Day musical, at the Peabody Theater in St. Louis!

Jen, me, Alex and Jordin smile at Phi Mu Founders Day- 160 years!

Homecoming Steering Committee members rise early (4 am!) to surprise next year's committee!

Oh...and spending some time out with friends too. Emily, me and Alex!

I think the most exciting news of this past month was I was admitted into the graduate school program at the Missouri School of Journalism, so I'll officially be receiving a Master of Arts in Journalism-Strategic Communication next May! I'll also be the TA for MOJO instead of on a team, so yay for waived tuition and phenomenal experience planning the Strategic Communication Career Fair! In the olden days, you would have saved your acceptance letter. But it's 2012, so I'll remember important moments by screenshots on my iPhone. I first found out from a text message that acceptance emails were out, and after telling a few friends in a class, word spread quickly. Yay for nice friends and text messages!

iPhone screenshot post grad school acceptance

We'll see where the next month takes me with Relay For Life, spring break and MOJO work!

We are brands

If the above Facebook screenshot doesn't show you enough, college students aren't people. They're brands. We're instructed to brand ourselves to not only obtain jobs, internships and leadership positions, but to advertise what we are involved in.

At first, some see this as bragging. Oh, person X wants to show everyone that they're involved on campus so they put up pictures from it. After almost three years at Mizzou, I see it as the standard, more of a requirement. Word of mouth advertising is no longer done by conversation, but by our social media outlets. If you are a campus group with an upcoming event and don't have your whole organization change their profile pictures to reflect it, you're bad at publicizing events. Judged.

Seeing my own profile look like this a few weeks ago made me feel ridiculous. Where is the me in here? But pondering the concept, I noticed that this IS me. I give a vast amount of my time to these groups, and want the best people to continue their success in the future. So I sacrifice branding myself on one outlet and brand them for a few weeks. And if one more person applied for Homecoming Steering Committee or remembered to register for Relay For Life, it has succeeded.

So next time you're publicizing something, understand that it's the norm to create profile and cover photos to get the word out. College students become invested in their activities and to an extent, want their friends to know what they're involved in. We spend so much time on our Facebook pages, why not advertise things we like there? One Facebook study cited by Mashable declares that Facebook profiles do in fact accurately predict job performance. After being forced to do it so many times, I think that someone willing to change a profile picture to recruit for an organization knows how to make sacrifices, is confident in his or her social skills and loyal to groups. Now, go sign up for Relay For Life of Mizzou!