smartgrlegiap

08:39 pm: Munch on!
 Hi guys!! What's up? I hope you enjoyed Valentine's Day!!  Mine was great because I came to a couple of realizations! LOL!  Number one, milk chocolate is heaven on earth!! Number two: milk chocolate is much better than dark chocolate and believe me I know this from experience! My parents sent a box of Fannie May assorted chocolates! And yes...I tried every piece! I used to eat chocolate periodically because I heard that too much chocolate causes pimples/zits. Thankfully however, this is just a myth! Pimples/zits come from various factors like stress (etc.) so no worries! Munch on! 

The third thing I realized yesterday was definitely the best! Number 3: You don't need a valentine to celebrate Valentine's Day! If you didn't celebrate it the way you wanted to this year because you felt pressure to get the perfect gift or you felt left out don't worry! Valentine's Day isn't really a big deal! It's actually a really cute day because it's the only day of the year that is reserved for giving extras hugs, extra smiles, and eating extra candy! Have great weekend!

hugs,
Paige

09:52 pm:  Hi! How's everyone? Anything new or exciting?  Today went by pretty quickly for me! I went to class, ran a couple of errands, and went to fencing practice. Finally... I'm back in my room!  I just ordered a pizza. I'm watching I Love Lucy right now. It's the one with Orson Wells! I love...'I Love Lucy'! She's soooooo funny! I used to watch it all the time in middle school and high school with my brother and sister. My sister is an even bigger Lucy fan than I am! Even though I have some episodes on dvd I'm watching this one on TV Land. Does anyone watch TV Land or Nick at Night? Both of these stations show some of my favorties shows like Three's Company, I Love Lucy, and the Cosby Show! I really like old sitcoms! In fact, I love retro stuff in general. I'm so glad 60s patterns are coming back in fashion! Have you noticed?! The clothes in the 60s and 70s were pretty groovy! LOL!

Tonight I think I'm going to do some homework and find something good watch on tv. I noticed that I don't watch tv nearly as much as I used to. Are there any shows on that you recommend? My sister watches One Tree Hill. I've seen a couple episodes and it looks pretty good! Sometimes there are interesting shows on animal planet and turner classic movies (TMC). On TMC I saw Cyrano de Bergerac last week!!! I read the play in high school and in my opinion it's a must read!! Seriously!!! It's smart, romantic,and funny! (Definitely read the play before you watch the movie!) And oh yeah on Saturday mornings I watch VH1 top 20 countdown of the best songs/music videos! Don't you like that Sarah Borellis song! I think it's called 'Love Song' or 'I'm Not Going to Write You a Love Song' or something like that....

P.S. Can you believe it's February already? Woah! I hope you make February fantastic! Even though it's the shortest month of the year there are plenty of things do like.... celebrating Black History month! Yay!! Lol! Talk to you later! :o)

12:17 am:  Hi guys! How's everyone? I've been really busy lately with homework and clubs but it's all good! The nice thing about starting a new semester is that you have the opportunity meet many people in your new classes and possibly in new clubs since many organizations on campus have tryouts and mass meetings for new comers at the beginning of each semester! Another cool thing about having a new schedule at the beginning of the semester is that you end up learning the campus better (because most likely your classes from the previous semester will not be in the same buildings). 

On to more recent events... this past weekend was a four day weekend because of the holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.! Did any of you guys have MLK assemblies/celebrations at school? If so I'd love to hear about them! MLK is such a cool holiday! My school had several events on campus to celebrate the accomplishments of Martin Luther King. 

This weekend I had tons of things to do! I feel that whenever you're feel stressed it's best to make a 'to do'. It just makes me feel better because I'm more organized and motivated when I know I have a plan. My mom got me in the practice of making 'to do' lists. :o)  Sometimes if you make a list, prioritize and set a timeline you can be pretty efficient. On Friday I did homework and watched Mean Girls with my friends! I actually forgot  how funny that movie is! On Sunday I went to the grocery and got a couple of goodies(twinkies,cheetos,fruit, etc.) for my room! I found that this semester my schedule doesn't work perfectly with the dining hall hours so sometimes it's just more convenient to make a PB&J sandwich in my room ya know?  :o)  In case you're wondering... yes it's totally weird going to the grocery store by yourself! Even though it's cool...you feel rather old! So...enjoy being young, don't be afraid to get old, plan for the future and once you get there live it up!  :o)

07:49 pm: good times...
 Wow!! It's the last day of the year! 2007 was pretty cool! This year was one of my favorite years.  I met so many new people, kept old friends and made new ones! I learned a lot about myself and others which was fun in itself!!  My favorite memories of '07 are of graduation, prom, the summer, and my 18th b-day! Are you doing anything fun for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day? I'm planning to hang out with my family and chat with friends! Even though winter break is almost over I had a great time! Tonight I'm having shrimp for dinner (my favorite!) and watching all of season one of Grey's Anatomy!! However.... if it's not over by 11:35 I'll have to take a quick detour to the Carson Daily countdown because Lenny Kravitz and Alicia Keys are performing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love their music!! Are there any Lenny fans out there? Anyone? Hmmm? My favorite Lenny songs are 'American Woman', 'Fly Away', and 'Lady'.  I'm really excited to see Alicia Keys perform too! I just LOVE her new album As I Am. It's an album anyone and everyone can relate to. It's definitely her best CD yet. One of my favorites songs is 'No One'.  I also loved the duet she did with John Mayer. I can't believe how well their voices blend...beautiful! I hope they have more duets together in the future. I love her music, not simply because of her sound. I think the experiences and resulting emotions she sings about give life and a little something extra/something unique to her music! 

Does anyone like Lifehouse? I love 'em!  Their new cd 'Who We Are' is great!  It's one of those cds that you can listen to straight through!!

Happy New Year's Eve!! I'm definitely excited for 2008! I hope the new year brings many smiles, much laughter, and good times to all of you.

ps. It's snowing here... what a cool way to end the year!!

Paige  =)

03:57 pm: Winter break is here!!
 Hi guys! How's everything? I had two final exams on Monday but now... it's winter break!!! It's so great to be home!! I really love and appreciate Chicago! It's such a fun and exciting city! It's great to be with my family too!  Yesterday I watched VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90's with my sister while wrapping Christmas gifts! It was cool just to chill out ya know? For the last two weeks I studied really hard so being at home is such a nice relief. I'm also at ease because I already know my final grades for the semester! :o) I think that one of my favorite things about final exams in college is that you don't have to wait forever to see your report card! Also, there's reading week! The purpose of reading week is to give students the entire week to study. It's like a week made of Saturdays and Sundays (since classes are over)! Another thing I found interesting about college finals is the weight they have. My math final was worth 40% of my grade. At first it seems intimidating but in retrospect I think its good that the final is worth so much because it gives the student incentive to study hard until the very end of semester! Especially since all the pretty decorations,cute holiday commercials, and fresh new snow can be distracting! LOL! So on that note... yay for winter! Yay for snow! YAY for winter break!!! :o) 

I hope you guys are as excited as I am for the holidays!! Have fun and be safe! :o)

Love,
     Paige










 

01:08 am:  Hi!  How is everyone? As for me final exams are coming up soon. This week I'm going to be really busy!!! I have two papers due Monday and two exams the Monday after next. But it's all good! It snowed a lot this weekend!!! YAY!! It's not like there's enough to make snowmen or snow angels but it's still a nice reminder that the holidays are coming!! Does anyone have special holiday traditions? I'd love to hear about them! Since there are only a couple more weeks of the semester left we have to start choosing classes for next semester. There are so many options!!  Well it's pretty late here so I better call it a night. Normally I would write more but on Sunday night I give myself a bedtime. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes in college it's necessary. Unfortunately I had to learn that the hard way. So here's the story.... Last weekend I stayed up very very late Sunday night just doing homework, talking to my sister, and checking e-mail. The next morning I woke up ten minutes before my first class was suppose to start!! I was so surprised because I never over sleep!! Even though my alarm clock is pretty loud I slept right through it. Thankfully class had not started when I got there! Thank God! Lol! :o)  So on that note, good night! Sweet dreams!

ps. I hope you all liked November's dream theme! I loved being the mentor of the month and it was great meeting all of you! 

Paige 

03:35 pm:  Hi people! How's everything going? I noticed there were a couple things I left out in my last journal entry! The math test I was telling you about last week went really well!! YAY!! It was from 7-9 pm. In high school all of your tests are during the school day so at first I thought it would be weird taking the exam at night. But, actually it's great! It gives you so much more time to study. Because I was pleased with my math exam I celebrated my b-day with my friends the whole weekend! But hey, when your birthday is on a Friday you're kind of licensed to do that, right? Friday we had cake! Saturday we went to the football game! Finally, on Sunday we went to the movies! I was glad that I finished most of my homework during the week so I could actually enjoy the weekend! That's one of the great things about college. They give you a syllabus (which is a sheet of all of your assignments) at the beginning of the semester!

The other thing I forgot to mention was that something really weird happened the night before my birthday. I was watching Grey's Anatomy and as you might know at the beginning of every episode Meridith (the main character) starts with a little monologue. She said "suddenly people expect you to be responsible... and there comes a time when you're an adult". I was actually checking my e-mail online when I was watching Grey's so I wasn't  totally paying attention until she said that. What she said was so ironic considering the fact that you're legally an adult when you turn 18 (and my 18th b-day was the very next day)! Another funny thing was that the day after my b-day I woke up and turned on the tv to see the news. I had a feeling that it was something I should do. My reasoning was that I didn't want to something. This was ironic because my parents always say "You need to know what's going on in the world. You don't want to miss something". So as you can imagine I was kind of freaked out when I realized that I actually wanted to watch the news! Lol! I thought "Woah! All of a sudden I'm 18 and now I have a desire to see the news?! What's this?!". I also thought maybe I took Meridith's narration to heart. She's right, expectations and responsibility come with age. My parents are right too, no matter how old you are it's your responsibility to know what's going on in the world. You're living in it so you might as well pay attention, right? With all of these realizations in mind it was easy to see how I can actually relate to them. I've probably said this before, but that's ok! It's important to find what you are truly passionate about. College is a great time to do that. In high school you're so focused on your grades that it might seem as if you don't really have time for extracurriculars. College isn't too late to explore new sports/clubs/ interests. In college you have much more control over the classes you take and you have more free time. Therefore, I really think college is where you can refine what you already know and build new skills! I guess my best piece of advice is... get involved! Get out there, find out what's going on in the world so later you know what you want and can achieve it happily, comfortably, enthusiastically, and in a way that is unique to you! :o)  

Have a merry Monday!!!

Love,
   Paige

11:58 am:  

Hi guys!! What's up? Have you had your first snow of the season yet? Ours was last week! I'm starting to see a lot of holiday commercials which is always exciting! As for me, last weekend was GREAT!!! Friday was my birthday! I turned 18! Since I won't celebrate my b-day with my family until Thanksgiving I was wondering how I would spend the day.  In a nutshell I had the coolest b-day evah! Lol! My brother and my sister sent flowers (irises which are my favorite!). My parents sent a beautiful birthday cake and presents! It was cool to get so much mail all in one week! In college getting mail is an exciting event! Lol! It's fun because it makes you feel connected to the outside world. When you're in college your classes and the college town you are in seem to be your "world". However watching the news and listening up for new songs can keep you up to date! ;o) Anyway, back to the birthday story! First I woke up and tried to find birthday music on my ipod. I ended up playing 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang and many of my other favorite songs! Then it was time to go to class. My spanish class sang happy birthday! Afterwards I went shopping with one of my friends. When we returned to the dorm my room was totally decorated!! I guess the shopping was meant to keep me busy while my friends  put on the finishing touches! I was completely surprised!! I mean I was really surprised! The decorations were so cute!! The cake was also a nice surprise! It was a chocolate cookie cake from Mrs. Field's! And... anyone who know me knows how much I love chocolate...especially chocolate cookies...especially from Mrs. Fields! I'm a cookie monster! Lol! Later that night we went to the pep rally for the football game! After the rally we got dinner and took it back to the dorm. We had a little party in one of the study rooms. There we watched America's Next Top Model and Titanic while eating dinner and cake! When they left I went back to my room and watched my favorite Disney movies (Robin hood, A Goofy Movie,etc.) while responding to birthday e-mails! It was just such a great day!!

Talk to you soon!

Paige

08:59 pm: college on stage
    Hi everyone! I hope your first couple of days of November have been wonderful!!! I'm lovin it so far! It's getting really cold up here. I can already see my breath! Isn't that one of the coolest things about the fall/winter?! I think so! The second coolest thing is probably new fallen snow! As you can probably tell I can't wait until it snows! 

    On to other news... I had a really interesting weekend! On Friday I got a lot of studying done. On Saturday I did a little more study. Lol! However, on Saturday night I went out with my friends! We went to support our friend who was the director of a play on campus!  I was so glad I went! I could definitely tell that my friend was the director because the play was so funny! Once I got there I just couldn't stop laughing! However, the best part of the night was when I realized that it was not an ordinary student production. This theater group writes, rehearses, and performs the play in 24 hours! They started writing the play at 8pm on Friday and the performance was at 8pm on Saturday! Needless to say I was very impressed! I think this student organization is one of the best because it displays college necessities (time management skills, laughter, genuine interest, confidence,etc). Just like this theater group, sometimes in college you find yourself staying awake all night studying, rehearsing lines, writing a paper, or completing a group assignment. Just as the theater students can't have stage fright you'll learn that confidence is key in college! Also similar to the theater group it's really important to use your time wisely because don't forget the show must go on! Lol! Thirdly, as the theater group has shown it's always important to prepare yourself and always important to laugh along the way! Have a great week!

Paige
 

10:30 am: Hi guys!  I hope you had a great start to the week!  My week is going well so far! I had a Spanish test yesterday. I felt so relieved after taking it because I studied pretty hard this weekend! Directly after my test I studied for math because I didn't want to loose the momentum! Lol! After my math homework I deserved a little break. I went to this store called 'Beyond the Wall' to get a couple of posters for my room. This weekend I realized that my walls really were just too plain!! So... I got this really pretty purple and pink island poster. I put it near my desk for motivation! The other poster I bought is full of love quotes. One of my favorites is "we cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh". Now that I think about it I'm really glad that I got that poster because it reminds me of a tradition I have with my sister and my mom. There's this cute comic strip called 'Love Is'. Everyday we would cut it out of the newspaper and post it on the frig. Since my frig is too small for newspaper clips I'm glad I have my poster!  

I have a couple of tests coming up. My math test and my next Spanish test are a couple days apart and right before my birthday. Hence, the weekend before my birthday will be full of studying!!! I'm not stressing out for three reasons. One, after my test I'll have time for plenty of birthday fun! Two, it's such a waste of time to stress out. The time you spend stressing is time that could be used for studying. Three, if I start studying now I should be fine! I feel that I've gotten used to the workload of college. I think the key is balancing your time between homework, actual studying, and extracurriculars. I know college seems intimidating because it seems as if you're responsible for everything (grades, laundry, involvement in sports/clubs, a clean room, waking up on time, lol). It takes a little time to get the hang of it but once you do college is great! What I think helped me transition was taking on some of these responsibilities before college. Another thing that helped was the course load I took. I think it's important to take classes you're interested in and classes you know you can handle. A mistake many students make is that they take classes they think will look impressive on their college application that perhaps they are not ready for. It's important to have confidence and challenge yourself! However, it's equally important to know your strengths and how to highlight them. 

I hope you're all enjoying the last couple days of October! Let me know if you have any cool Halloween adventures! Get excited for November!!  Personally, it's one of my favorite times of the year!!!! 





 

10:15 pm:  Happy Friday everyone! This week was pretty cool! It was short and sweet. Wednesday I went to Borders and bought John Mayer's latest CD, Continuum. I loved it! I think "Gravity" and "Waiting on the World to Change" are my favorites.It was definitely different from his last album. He seems... wiser since 'Heavier Things' ( his last album). What seems to be consistent in his music is how raw it is. It seems that many songs on the radio now just don't have any substance. However, John Mayer's music is about things that actually matter (personally, globally, etc) which is so rare. I think the depth of his music is what makes it beautiful! When I came back from Borders I finished my paper for my History of Art/Women's studies class. It was great to finally turn it in because I had been working on it for a couple of weeks. Since the paper was due yesterday I decided to take it easy today. Actually right now I'm watching Spanglish. I've only seen bits and pieces of it so I was glad I caught it from the beginning this time! I'll probably get a bit more homework done while the movie is on and then call it a night! Enjoy the weekend!

04:15 pm: Fall Break!
 Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well. As for me I had a pretty cool weekend considering it's fall break!! On Saturday I went to Damon's with my family and watched the game. I was so glad we won!!! After the game I gave them a tour of campus! I realized that I know my way around campus better than I thought! Since fall break started I've had the chance to work ahead in my classes and clean my room! The free time has also given me the opportunity to catch up on my favorite tv shows. Tonight I'll be able to see Dancing with the Stars for the first time in a long time! YAY! Another show I'll tune into tonight is Heroes. My friends keep telling me it's the best show ever so tonight I'll give it a try! I was also able to catch up with friends from home this weekend which was really nice! Unfortunately we don't have fall break at the same but thank God for technology! We always check on each other and update each other on new songs in a quick e-mail! 

Even though tomorrow is the last day of fall break I feel ready to "go back".  :o)  

09:29 pm: Greetings!
Hi, I'm Paige! 
    I am from Chicago!! Some of my favorite hobbies are reading, going to the movies, listening to music, and spending time with my family and friends. I am a first year student at Uof M. I'm considering majoring in biology. We've only been in school for a little over a month and I love it here already! My favorite places on campus include Stucchi's, the Diag, and the Union. Even though I miss Chicago I have come to find that Ann Arbor is a pretty cool place too! Everything you need (except Chicago pizza and my mom's spaghetti) is right here! Ann Arbor is lively, diverse, and overall a very welcoming town. The best thing about Ann Arbor is that it seems to have everything. When you need a little relief from studying there are movie theaters and bookstores within walking distance. When you're running low on Honey Nut Cheerios the grocery store is a short bus ride away. When you're totally tired of dorm food, all of your favorite restaurants are right around the corner. Not only the location but also the people at Uof M make it a really wonderful home away from home. The students come from all walks of life. They are ambitious, friendly, and spirited (on that note...Go BLUE)! I'm very excited to be a mentor with smartgirl! I think smartgirl is a wonderful site that I hope you all enjoy and benefit from!