Learning Experience: When the going gets tough, the tough get going

            Finals week. The most hated week of the semester for college students across the country. Tests, papers, and projects pile up creating stress levels that are debatably unbearable for some. This semester, finals week at Texas Christian University has had an extra twist, much to the students’ dismay. This twist, as any reasonable reader from the Fort Worth area would assume, is the Icepocalypse of December 2013. For the past few days, sleet, snow, freezing rain, and a multitude of other inclement types of weather have turned Texas Christian University’s campus into a mad house.

            In my day-to-day walks around campus I have witnessed the affects of the Icepocalypse first hand. Cars are covered in ice and snow, walkways are completely iced over, and it is absolutely freezing out. I am from Arizona, so the severe weather has been rather tough for me to deal with. In the month of December, I am used to sunny and 70 degrees. Not 25 and icy. Nonetheless, I have done everything in my power to deal with ice ridden finals week with the best of my ability. However, it has not been easy. The past few days the library has hardly been open, the BLUU has limited hours and food, and the campus is nearly impossible to navigate by car or foot. I especially struggled with the library closing at 5:00 p.m. for the past few nights in a row. Typically, I study the best late at night and in the library. I have a tough time getting work done anywhere other than the library. I find it nearly impossible to study in my room with all of the distractions that are around. I’m looking forward to the weather improving so I can get back in my studying niche in the quiet section of the library.

            If the Icepocalypse taught me one thing or another, it’s that the saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” is definitely one to live. Despite the fact that conditions have not been exactly ideal for studying, I have pushed on. However, the same cannot be said for all the students on Texas Christian University’s campus. Some are “over school” and have not put much effort into their studies this week. Others ceased studying on Sunday in hopes of a snow day and cancelled finals on Monday. My question to these kinds of students has repeatedly been, “where is the dedication?” Given the cost of tuition and the importance of maintaining a high GPA to get a job after college, some students seem to just not care.

            On the other hand, there are a large number of students that do put in a tremendous amount of effort during finals week. I consider these students to be “tough”. Through all my observations this week, I have seen the tough students making good grades and finishing out the semester strong. These are the kind of students that will develop a strong work ethic for the future. I like to think of myself as one of them.  

Learning Experience: Never Give Up

          I spent this Saturday just like I spend every Saturday, watching college football. This particular Saturday I was at home because it was Thanksgiving break. Thankfully, I did not have to worry about school or any of the stresses that come along with it. I could not have been happier to be lounging in my favorite spot on the couch all day. There was unlimited food in the pantry, my dog was hanging out with me, and most importantly the Television we have at home is glorious. My tiny T.V. at school does not even compare to the 60 inch, high definition behemoth that sits in my living room in Arizona. The games on this Saturday were better than any other day of games college football has seen this year. A large amount of them were rivalry games and had huge implications for postseason play. There was Ohio State vs. Michigan, Florida vs. Florida State, Arizona vs. Arizona State, UCLA vs. USC, and countless others.

Despite all the great games, I was specifically interested in two of them. The first game being TCU vs. Baylor and the second game being Auburn vs. Alabama. Unfortunately, TCU lost on a last second interception thrown by senior quarterback Casey Pachall. Like many other games this season, the frogs made repeated mistakes and lost. To say the least, I was disappointed. However, I was glad we kept it as close as we did with Baylor, a top ten team in the country this year. Right after the TCU game ended, I flipped to Auburn vs. Alabama. What I saw next was absolutely unbelievable.

At this point, the score of the game was 28-28. On the last play of the game, Alabama kicked a field goal that ended up short of the uprights. Auburn player Chris Davis fielded the missed kick and hightailed it out of the end zone. Thinking the game was over, a majority of the Alabama players ran to the sideline after the missed kick. Auburn on the other hand, kept playing. Chris Davis took the ball to the house behind a brigade of blockers for a 109-yard return touchdown. Auburn ended up winning the game 34-28 in spectacular fashion. It was absolutely incredible. Students stormed the field and a massive celebration ensued. While watching the game I was in disbelief. I had just witnessed one of the craziest plays in years in all of sports.

I took one major tidbit of knowledge out of what I witnessed last Saturday. Never give up. The expression “it’s not over till the fat lady sings” is a good one to keep in mind not just playing sports, but also for life in general. The lesson I learned watching the Auburn vs. Alabama game came just in time for the end of the semester. As everyone knows, finals are coming up soon. Like a lot of other students at TCU, life is about to get extremely busy and stressful for me. Presentations, tests, papers, and homework assignments are all I have been able to think about since coming back from Thanksgiving break. The good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. After the end of the next week, I will be able to go home and relax for an entire break. The key to surviving my finals is perseverance. Unlike Alabama, I will not give up.

Conversation Partner Meeting #6

            On November 22^nd, Paula and I met for the last time. I was glad we were able to finish all six of our meetings within the semester given other students struggled to do so because of their partners. It was not always easy for us to schedule times, but we somehow made it work. At the beginning of the semester, I was skeptical of how the program would work. How could I form a personal relationship with and older, married woman who did not speak good English? I was just having a hard time picturing it. As our meetings progressed, any doubts I had were put to rest. Paula and I developed a relationship that I did not think was possible. We had more in common than I could have ever imagined, and I learned quite a bit about Paula in the time we spent together. 

            In our final meeting, Paula and I talked a lot about our plans for the future. She is currently finished with the Intensive English Program and does not plan on returning next semester. Paula’s husband, who is a dentist, is opening his own practice in a few months and she is undergoing training to become one of his assistants. To do so, she has to pass a rigorous, standardized exam. Although she still has a couple of months to study, Paula was still nervous that she would have trouble passing the test. One of her major concerns was the fact that her English could be better. I reassured her that she would be fine if she put in the time and effort. She thanked me and proceeded to tell me how I had helped her better hone her English speaking skills over the course of the semester. I told her I had not done much but she insisted that our meetings and my corrections to her speaking had helped her our more than she ever could have expected. It was nice to see that Paula was getting something useful out of our meetings.

            As our conversation continued, Paula told me that her husband and her were extremely close to selling their house. Although it had only been on the market for a few months, they already had multiple offers. Paula seemed excited that they were close to a deal. After it sells, Paula and her husband will be moving to a new house that they are currently renovating. Paula told me all of the little things she had picked out for the new place with great excitement. I was glad to see her so happy about her future. Her new job and house will surely become a reality sooner than later.

            Personally, I got a lot more out of my meetings with Paula than I thought I ever would. She helped me brush up on my Spanish, gave me advice when it came to school, and shared a lot of stories and information about Columbia that I never would have known about before.  I hope that she truly got as much as I did out of our meetings. It will definitely be different not meeting with her every week or every other week next semester. Overall, I have to say I enjoyed the assignment of having a conversation partner throughout the semester.

Cachinnation #2

            I laughed harder than I had in months just over a week ago. It was a brisk fall night and my friends and I were walking back to our car after eating at the BLUU. This particular night was a Thursday evening and we were all in a good mood because the weekend was only a day away. The playful, upbeat mood led to a little bit of shoving and joking amongst us. There was no harm in it and we were just trying to have a good time. Out of nowhere, one of my friends, Andy, tripped on his untied shoelace and went down in a heap. It happened so suddenly that the rest of us instantly erupted into laughter. Even bystanders were snickering at Andy’s mishap. Most people might have taken the matter a little more seriously, but my friends and I thought it was absolutely hilarious. Andy is a confident kid and we knew he would embrace his misfortune so the rest of us decided to laugh and laugh without even checking to see if he was okay. After a few seconds, Andy himself even joined in the laughter. None of us could hold back the snickering, not even for a second.

            Andy proceeded to lie on the ground for a few moments before getting up. I have to say, I felt a little bit bad for him. He fell and embarrassed himself in front of a rather large crowd. Andy also scraped up one of his elbows and twisted his ankle after his tumble. He was sore for days after his fall. I found the whole situation to be quite comical. The best part was that Andy could not blame anyone but himself for what had happened. There was no practical joke or anything of that nature that led to his demise. The whole incident was completely his fault. In the days following Andy’s episode, my friends and I brought it up as much as we could because it always made us laugh.

For some reason, I tend to find watching other peoples’ mishaps quite entertaining.  Andy’s fall looked like it belonged in a YouTube fail video. To this day, I wish I had the whole thing on camera. I find fail videos on YouTube exceptionally funny and wish Andy’s fall could be a part of one for the whole world to see. Although that may seem a bit harsh, my friends and probably even Andy would find it quite entertaining.

 After watching Andy fall, I was instantly happy about the fact that it was him and not me. After considering this, I realized my attitude was directly correlating with Morreal’s superiority theory. As we learned in class, this theory states, “When something evokes laughter, it is by revealing someone’s inferiority to the person laughing.” It was interesting to see one of the tidbits I learned in Literature and Civilizations apply to my life. Andy’s fall could also have been described as situational or even slapstick humor.

Now more than ever, I find myself comparing funny instances in my life to what I have learned in class this semester. I tend to analyze humor in a way I never did before being exposed to all of the rules, theories, and tools that I have learned. The knowledge I have gained in Literature and Civilizations has become more and more relevant as the semester has continued on. Being able to compare theories and tools of humor to real life occurrences gives them a lot more weight than I ever thought possible. I love when lessons from the classroom apply to real life and could not be more glad of the connection I have made this semester because of Literature and Civilizations. 

Conversation Partner #5

            Paula and I met for the fifth time recently. It seems like our first meeting was just a week ago. The semester and my meetings with Paula have been flying by. Paula has continued to meet with me even though her classes for IEP are now over for the semester. We have become friends and our relationship has definitely grown a great deal since our first meeting at the beginning of the semester. On this occasion, we met at Chik Fil A and began talking and catching up with each other right away.

            As we sat down and began the conversation, Paula could not stop talking about how cold it was. She hates the cold. Growing up in Columbia, Paula was only exposed to warmer weather. Columbia has only two seasons and it definitely never snows there. Despite the fact that she has never experienced a true winter, Paula told me that she loves Christmas. As we began talking about the holidays, we started talking about each other’s family traditions.

When she lived in Columbia, Paula told me that her family celebrated Christmas on December 24^th. On Christmas Eve, her family would partake in activities such as going to mass, cooking, and sharing gifts with one another. She also told me of one especially unique tradition that her family has in Columbia. Every year, they would hide a little baby Jesus figure in the house with money attached to him. Before any gifts were opened, everyone in the house would search all over the place in order to find the money covered baby Jesus. The winner of the game got to keep all of the money every year. Oddly enough, this tradition is similar to one of my family’s traditions. On Christmas morning, all of my family members search for a green pickle ornament that is hidden on the tree. It is extremely difficult to find. However, whoever eventually finds the pickle gets to open the first present on Christmas morning. I enjoyed learning about Paula’s tradition and it was interesting to see how it related to my own.

In Texas, Paula celebrates with her husband’s side of the family. She also elaborately decorates her house. Paula showed me a number of pictures from last year and I was extremely impressed. Her trees were outfitted with lights and ornaments, and there were also plastic snowmen in the yard accompanied by Santa and his reindeer. It was cool to see how Paula’s Columbian traditions morphed with her husband’s American traditions when she moved to the states. Paula also showed me pictures of her husband’s side of the family and her celebrating Christmas together. Paula has no family members in Columbia so I was glad to see that she had found a tight knit group to spend the holidays with.

As we moved on from our Christmas discussion, Paula began to tell me about her fascination with personal training and going to the gym. She meets with a personal trainer multiple times every week. Paula described her the gym she goes to as a huge warehouse with no air conditioning. Like always, she proceeded to show me pictures of her gym and the behemoth that is her personal trainer. The guy was massive and it was quite hilarious to picture him running a workout for Paula. I enjoyed talking with Paula about working out because I could tell it was something she was passionate about. I am also glad that she is starting to share more personal stories with me. I can honestly say that I am a bit sad that I only have one more meeting left with Paula this semester. She has become a friend, and I have thoroughly enjoyed taking breaks from my busy school days to talk with her.