Life Gets in the Way of Plans (Thankfully)

These past couple weeks have been so busy and hectic that I almost feel brain raped by them; however, it is about that time of year since finals are coming up soon for me. From doing all my group projects and papers along side of my normal homework has given me very little time to myself or any thoughts of fun. So, how did I survive those nights filled with homework and small naps? Friends and amazing study breaks, and not to mention finding the best study spot ever. Seriously, I found one of the most recluse places that no one ever uses on campus. Last week, being the start of my hell weeks, was Dance Ensemble. Where I only had time to perform, do homework, and see my family for the shortest amount of time.

My family had come to see me perform in my dance, but they were also helping me with moving some stuff from my apartment. When we were done, and walking out to go out to lunch, I saw two of some very great friends sitting outside next to their's with brooms and scraping off mud from their shoes. Seeing this I automatically called out to them, and asked them if they had played Quidditch, after talking for a short time, I came back to a very amused family. My brother in law asked, "Taylor, what is Quidditch?" And with that, my sisters burst out laughing. Needless to say that my family was in a great mood to make fun of me, and how I go to a nerdy school. Knowing that they didn't mean any harm, I went along with telling them about all the amazingly awesome things we did such as Quidditch, Humans vs. Zombies, Assassins (spoons were the weapons), and some others. I'm only a little proud of my school... more like crazy proud of where I go, and my family wouldn't have it any other way.

The dance I was in was called Jazzy Groovy, and it resembled the early jazz. It was hard to learn, but so amazing. I am so glad that I stayed in this dance because in the end we were all laughing about how we couldn't do barely any of the moves.

As a rule, Sunday is usually homework day, but since school and dance was taking a tole on me I was consistently doing homework when I had the chance. Although, I knew that I would need a study break at some point, so guess what I did? I experienced the Festival of Color's with great enthusiasm.

I was only there an hour, but it was a very productive one. I went all out. It was a war on everyone, and the agenda was to have fun and making them colorful. It was legit. Squirt guns and bottles were there for us to attack one another. There was no way that my white t-shirt was going to stay that way.

Let's just say that I would do that again joyfully.
Even though that weekend was super stressful and overcome with studying, I wouldn't change it for a bit because it made the silly happy moments so much better.

Over this past week, I had been staying up late trying to finish my homework, but I think it was Thursday night that was best and worst of my life. I had to write a 5-6 page paper in one night. No joke. I started it at 7pm and finished it without revisions at 3am. I feel terrible for that professor because it is probably the worst paper I have ever written, but at least I finished. I wasn't even given time the next day to fix anything because it was due at 8am on Friday, so that was the terrible part of it.

The best part were the study breaks and having the moral support of my friends. Around 1:30am, my friend KJ and I had a two song dance party. What did we do? We danced the Zumba dances that we knew by heart. We went all out thinking that no one was watching or would watch us, until KJ received a call from her boyfriend asking for one of us to let him in and that he had been trying to get our attention through the window.

When my paper was turned in yesterday, I had decided that I would do no homework for the rest of the day, and only do what makes me happy. Thinking that I would have a quiet night in and go to bed early, I found myself going to a swing dance with a bunch of friends, and to a friend's house for games.   I had forgotten how much I love swing dancing. It was so much fun to get that interaction again.

Yesterday, I thought it would be a great idea to help out with a Triathlon. So when I sat in cold rain/hail for two hours today, I wanted to kick myself for not wearing more clothing and/or not doing this, I reminded myself that I wouldn't be doing anything else with my time, and even though I was cold to the bone that it was a great experience to hang out and talk to my partner at our checkpoint. I wouldn't have changed anything other than bringing a blanket. It made my hot shower all the more appreciated that is for sure.

Washington D.C. and Our Final Volunteer Project (We have finally arrived!)

The continuous journey to Washington D.C on the Students Today, Leaders Forever Pay It Forward tour finally arrived to the city. It wasn't until we arrived that we were able to know what our volunteer project was going to be the next morning. They told us that it would be messy, dirty, and very gross; but those descriptions did not give the poor Anacostia River justice. The amount of sewage and garbage that was found was repulsive. To see how much littering that had happened was almost unreal. The mayor and some of the others came and spoke to us about how flooding had brought a lot of unsavory things into the river; however, I don't think most of the things we found were from severe flooding. Around 250 people spent four hours cleaning one part of that river, and it still wasn't enough. I was forced to leave hundreds of glass liquor bottle behind because I ran out of time.

This was only a very small amount of garbage that we found. I even found a Woodland Conservation Area sign that I am holding up. Ironic, right? Many of the things we found were evidence that a flood had not put it there but someone who threw it because they didn't know what else to do with it.
In the Natural Resources Defense Council (http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/fanacost.asp), it even states that the Anacostia River is nicknamed "the Forgotten River" and that it is a national embarrassment. To make it even better, this river flows in the shadow of the Capitol building. Did I mention that it was the most polluted river in the country? Talk about national pride. Yes, there have been steps to start cleaning it up; however, the naturalist in me is outraged that more isn't being done. Apparently STLF ( http://stlf.net/get-connected/blog/7-years-and-3000-students-later ) has been returning to help clean this river since 2005. Over 3,000 college students have volunteered their time over the years, yet it always seems to be in the same state when they return. Seems like a problem, right?

Food for the trip? (STLF continued)

The next day we went to Kokomo, Indiana and helped out around the town by helping out at one of the many food shelves. I was heartbreaking hearing the small amount of stories we did. One story was about a child wanting toilet paper as a prize for being such a good kind instead of a brand new toy. To find out that people were going without toilet paper was really hard to hear because toilet paper can not be charged on an EBT card since it isn't food. But the best thing about this town was the people. They were so nice and caring. And the reason why so many people are struggling in the town? The town was economically hit really hard by the auto industry going down these past years. This town had not just one auto company, but two. So, we did as much as we could during the four hours we had to help them.

This is a photo of some of us girls separating food for people to take later.

But we had to move on.

We stopped quickly in Cleveland, Ohio and visited Lake Erie.

However, we needed to get to Fombell, Pensilvania to stay for the night!