As we all know, I love ODU a lot, so there are more than a few things I'm going to miss now that I've graduated. This, I'm sure, will not be the only blog post I spend discussing things I miss. Every day, I come up with more and more things I miss at ODU, so those of you who are fortunate enough to still be students at ODU, enjoy every moment and don't take any of this wonderful school for granted.
This list is in no particular order as I cannot begin to try and compare the many beautiful aspects of Ohio Dominican University I will miss, but I will begin with the part of ODU I know for sure I will miss the most, the very heart of ODU- Christ the King Chapel. I have been so distraught since graduation. I've been crying myself to sleep and trying to figure out what to do with my life. My favorite place to go to cry, think, pray, sit, write, and make decisions over the past four years has been the Chapel. Now that I have left and am entering this new chapter of my life, I find myself needing to be there in that chapel more than ever. The last thing I did before I got into the car to leave ODU was say goodbye the chapel. There were tears. I didn't want to leave. Now, I have nowhere to go in the middle of the night when I need to feel very close to Jesus, when I need to feel comforted by the smell of incense and holy water, when I need to cry by myself, when I need a place to focus my thoughts and prayers, when I need silence to listen to God so that I can handle big life changes and making decisions. I feel so lost now especially in my prayer life. I regret not going to that chapel every free moment I had. I didn't realize until just before graduation what a luxury it is to have a 24/7 chapel right downstairs from my bedroom. I knew I'd miss it a lot, but I didn't know how much until the week before graduation. So to those of you who are still there with the chapel, I advise you to go there as often as possible. Soak it in. Go to Mass as often as you can. Take time to just sit in there and listen. Cry and let Jesus hold you there. Read in there. Reflect in there. Love in there as much as possible and enjoy it while you can.
Of course, I'm also going to miss all my friends at ODU: those who are still there and those who have graduated with and before me. I have met some of the best people I ever known there. Because of these friends, I have grown in faith, love, knowledge, understanding, and so many other areas of my life. My friends at Ohio Dominican make me laugh, cry, smile, think, and love life so much! It's going to be so hard not being able to walk down the hall or across the parking lot to go visit my best friends any time of day when I need a hug, homework help, food, or just someone to talk to. My ODU friends are seriously the best. I know I will keep in touch with most of them, but it's certainly not going to be the same. Living in the residence halls at ODU is like living in a giant house with all of your best friends. We would go eat meals together on a more regular basis than I do with my actual family. We would have homework parties to try to keep each other focused (though we usually just distracted each other further). We would invite each other to go out to places like the grocery store or the mall so we wouldn't have to shop alone. We would borrow each other's dish soap and laundry detergent when one of us ran out. We would sit together at Mass. We would support each other by attending one another's programs and events on campus. We would go on runs together and motivate each other in the fitness center. I am losing a huge support system leaving ODU. I am not only leaving friends, but people I think of as family, because ODU was home for the last 4 and a half years. Moving away from your family and your home is always tough.
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Warped Tour 2012
Well, I went to my second Warped Tour ever! A group of my ODU friends invited me to go to the Cincinnati Warped Tour yesterday. It was really fun! A few of them had gone to the Cleveland one a week or two earlier and decided to go again so that my friend Eric and I could go. It was very different than the Cleveland Warped Tour I attended in high school. But it's been about 6 years, so I guess I should've expected change. It was still a lot of fun though. We left a night earlier so that we didn't have to drive 2 hours early in the morning and one of my friends lives in Cincinnati, so her family was kind enough to let us stay with them and we stayed up late playing board games and fooseball and just talking and enjoying each others' company. It was a blast. It was just like taking a small piece of ODU to Cincinnati since that's exactly what it's like hanging out at school too. I really like our positive energy. So many people at ODU are just friends with everyone! It's fantastic! I am not even very good friends with half the people we went with, but they all still included me in conversations and looked out for me during our two days together and we all hugged each other goodbye. Heck, one of the guys I went with pretty much saved my life several times while we were in the pit watching Yellowcard (a fantastic set and performance by the way!).
It's amazing how open and friendly people can be! I've met so many people like this at ODU and they've really inspired me to try to be more friendly and to make more sincere efforts to get to know as many people as possible. I am actually a little overwhelmed when I think about how many people at ODU I have come to consider my good friends! I have more friends now than I think I've had combined in the first 17 years of my life. Basically, ODU is awesome and everyone can be friends with you if you put yourself out there and give people the chance to get to know you and vice versa :)
It's amazing how open and friendly people can be! I've met so many people like this at ODU and they've really inspired me to try to be more friendly and to make more sincere efforts to get to know as many people as possible. I am actually a little overwhelmed when I think about how many people at ODU I have come to consider my good friends! I have more friends now than I think I've had combined in the first 17 years of my life. Basically, ODU is awesome and everyone can be friends with you if you put yourself out there and give people the chance to get to know you and vice versa :)
Monday, January 31, 2011
March for Life
Last weekend, I went on my second March for Life trip with ODU. It was a lot more relaxing than it was last year, because I've already done it before, so I wasn't as obsessed with making sure I got to see every building in D.C. I am sad that I didn't take as many pictures since I was so cold and tired most of the trip. It was still a really awesome experience though.
We stayed at a high school in Maryland near Washington DC again sleeping on the floors of the teachers' conference rooms. Girls were in one room and boys in the other. It was like a 40person slumber party and it was awesome. I made some really great memories and met some new friends and got to grow closer with my friend Alli as we shared late night pillow talk underneath some tables.
The first night (Saturday) we just stayed at the high school, ate, got ready for bed, hung out, played card games, etc. I played my first game of Go Ninja Go and did not get out on the first round as I had expected!
The second day (Sunday) was dedicated to exploring the Washington DC area. We began our day by attending mass at the National Shrine (Basilica). It is a beautiful church and I strongly encourage anyone who is planning to be in the Washington DC area to try and at least spend a half hour there. It really is an amazing place. After mass, we split up into small groups and took the metro into town. Our group stopped by the Catholic University of America's center for Dominican studies first (being the great little Dominicans we are) and our friend Nicole who spent a year in Nashville with some sisters during her discernment process got to meet up with some of those sisters again at the university! We took some pretty awesome pictures in front of the building with our group which I will add once I am in my room and have access to my pictures, but I am currently writing this from ODU's wonderful library where I spend most of my days :)
My boyfriend, James, and I split from the group and got me some coffee at Union Station (the mall) before site-seeing and spent most of our site-seeing time in museums. The Smithsonian museums are amazing! There is some really neat stuff in those buildings. I actually learned a lot about some pretty random things during our visit! We also finally got to see the Lincoln Memorial which is much bigger in person than I imagined! It reminded me a lot of the scene in Disney's Hercules where Hercules goes to the temple of Zeus. That was the first thing I thought of when we walked up the stairs and then, the Hercules song got stuck in my head.
Once we got back to the high school, we had some more hanging out time and pizza. I also finally got a picture with my friend Amber with whom I had no pictures until that very night. Then, I was asked to walk on multiple backs and heard plenty of cracks and only wished I had had someone there willing to walk on my back :(
The last day was the day of the march (Monday). My day began at 3am as I volunteered for the hour between 3 and 4am for Eucharistic adoration. It was a very peaceful place to be at 3 in the morning after only getting 2 hours of sleep. Being up early did give me an advantage as I was able to beat everyone to the one shower that all of us girls had to share :). We had a quick breakfast and got to the armory around 7am for a concert/rally/mass. It was pretty intense. There were about 10, 000 people (mostly youths) in the room where we were and another 10- 20 thousand in the Verizon Center next to us. We were there for quite some time, but it was really awesome to see so many teenagers and college students as well as seminarians and women religious all in the same room advocating the same cause. I am usually not a huge fan of this sort of gathering, but it was a very moving experience especially the procession of all of the priests, bishops, and archbishops who celebrated the mass.
I am sad to say that I did not participate in the march for very long as it was very cold and we were not allowed to march for some reason for a while. We ended up standing on the sidewalk waiting to march until we met up with my friend Alli and her boyfriend Eric and then, we decided to just walk up the sidewalk and try and find out what was going on and we ended up just walking to the supreme court house which was a very short walk from where we were standing and once we got there, we found out we weren't actually even in the real march and were asked to make room for the marchers. Then, we just went to Union Station again and I got coffee and we all got Chipotle for dinner as we waited for the rest of our group to get there to prepare to depart back to Columbus.
We ended up not getting home until almost 3am and I was amazed to find that almost everyone still got up for their classes the next morning (some for classes at 8am!). We have some pretty awesome people at ODU and I am really lucky to be a part of this community and to have gotten the chance to go on this March for Life trip again this year.
We stayed at a high school in Maryland near Washington DC again sleeping on the floors of the teachers' conference rooms. Girls were in one room and boys in the other. It was like a 40person slumber party and it was awesome. I made some really great memories and met some new friends and got to grow closer with my friend Alli as we shared late night pillow talk underneath some tables.
The first night (Saturday) we just stayed at the high school, ate, got ready for bed, hung out, played card games, etc. I played my first game of Go Ninja Go and did not get out on the first round as I had expected!
The second day (Sunday) was dedicated to exploring the Washington DC area. We began our day by attending mass at the National Shrine (Basilica). It is a beautiful church and I strongly encourage anyone who is planning to be in the Washington DC area to try and at least spend a half hour there. It really is an amazing place. After mass, we split up into small groups and took the metro into town. Our group stopped by the Catholic University of America's center for Dominican studies first (being the great little Dominicans we are) and our friend Nicole who spent a year in Nashville with some sisters during her discernment process got to meet up with some of those sisters again at the university! We took some pretty awesome pictures in front of the building with our group which I will add once I am in my room and have access to my pictures, but I am currently writing this from ODU's wonderful library where I spend most of my days :)
My boyfriend, James, and I split from the group and got me some coffee at Union Station (the mall) before site-seeing and spent most of our site-seeing time in museums. The Smithsonian museums are amazing! There is some really neat stuff in those buildings. I actually learned a lot about some pretty random things during our visit! We also finally got to see the Lincoln Memorial which is much bigger in person than I imagined! It reminded me a lot of the scene in Disney's Hercules where Hercules goes to the temple of Zeus. That was the first thing I thought of when we walked up the stairs and then, the Hercules song got stuck in my head.
Once we got back to the high school, we had some more hanging out time and pizza. I also finally got a picture with my friend Amber with whom I had no pictures until that very night. Then, I was asked to walk on multiple backs and heard plenty of cracks and only wished I had had someone there willing to walk on my back :(
The last day was the day of the march (Monday). My day began at 3am as I volunteered for the hour between 3 and 4am for Eucharistic adoration. It was a very peaceful place to be at 3 in the morning after only getting 2 hours of sleep. Being up early did give me an advantage as I was able to beat everyone to the one shower that all of us girls had to share :). We had a quick breakfast and got to the armory around 7am for a concert/rally/mass. It was pretty intense. There were about 10, 000 people (mostly youths) in the room where we were and another 10- 20 thousand in the Verizon Center next to us. We were there for quite some time, but it was really awesome to see so many teenagers and college students as well as seminarians and women religious all in the same room advocating the same cause. I am usually not a huge fan of this sort of gathering, but it was a very moving experience especially the procession of all of the priests, bishops, and archbishops who celebrated the mass.
I am sad to say that I did not participate in the march for very long as it was very cold and we were not allowed to march for some reason for a while. We ended up standing on the sidewalk waiting to march until we met up with my friend Alli and her boyfriend Eric and then, we decided to just walk up the sidewalk and try and find out what was going on and we ended up just walking to the supreme court house which was a very short walk from where we were standing and once we got there, we found out we weren't actually even in the real march and were asked to make room for the marchers. Then, we just went to Union Station again and I got coffee and we all got Chipotle for dinner as we waited for the rest of our group to get there to prepare to depart back to Columbus.
We ended up not getting home until almost 3am and I was amazed to find that almost everyone still got up for their classes the next morning (some for classes at 8am!). We have some pretty awesome people at ODU and I am really lucky to be a part of this community and to have gotten the chance to go on this March for Life trip again this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)