Buddhism

So today in my World Religions class, we are learning about Buddhism.  Since my friend is holding my textbook captive, I have been using the internet to aid me in our class discussion.  In my impromptu research, I stumbled upon a quote which I really liked.  I think it goes along very well with the Dominican motto "To contemplate truth and to share with others the fruit of that contemplation", so here it is for all of you to read and enjoy as well!  Happy contemplating!

Quotation by Siddhãrtha Gautama (Buddha):

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

Is Sansbury Hall Haunted?

I'd have to say 'yes' and I believe that most people who have spent an extended amount of time in here would agree.

I actually have lived in Sansbury for 2-3 years of my time at ODU and have personally witnessed some unexplained ghost-like activity similar to other stories I've heard and read.  While living in the doubles wing above the chapel my sophomore year, I often used to hear my doorknob being turned after I had locked it as if someone was either trying to get in or just making sure it was locked.  I got the nerve to get out of bed once or twice and check, but heard no footsteps and saw no one in the halls when I looked. 

I was the RA in that same Doubles hall last year.  One of my residents told me she felt someone holding her hand once in the middle of the night after the power went out, but she looked and no one was there except her roommate who was fast asleep in her bed.

http://www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/Franklin/dominican.html

http://thecollegejuice.com/tag/ohio-dominican-university-ghost/

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 :) 

52 Things to do at ODU

So my friend Rufio recently received an ODU deck of playing cards of which I a extremely jealous, because I have been searching for these cards for forever.  Some upperclassmen had decks of the ODU playing cards back when I was a freshman here, but I guess they stopped producing them sadly.  This is something I would love to see ODU bring back though.  They were really cool (in my own humble opinion at least).  These cards were a regular deck of playing cards,but they had a panther on them (our mascot) and each card had a different thing to do at ODU for a total of 52 things to do at ODU.  Basically, they are super awesome and Rufio better appreciate the rare treasure he has just been gifted.

Many of the things listed on these cards can't be done anymore based on changes in the university, so I would like to make my very own list here for all who are interested :).

1. Visit every building on campus (even Guzman, Las Casas, and the Public Safety house)
2. Visit the sisters at Saint Mary of the Springs
3. Go on a walk near the baseball fields
4. Ride the elevator in Wehrle
5. Try on costumes in the theater
6. Take a Sister Fatula class
7. Read a book from the library for leisure
8. Buy yourself an item of clothing from the Bookstore
9. Go to Mass in Christ the King Chapel
10. Play a game of pool in the Student Center
11. Play sand volleyball
12. Take a picture with Saint Dominick
13. Jump around on the cushioned stairs in Panther Plaza
14. Go on a retreat with Campus Ministry
15. Have a dance party in the Dance and Fitness Room
16. Play the arcade video games in the Griff
17. Run up the baseball stairs as fast as you can without taking a break
18. Make sweet videos to show people how awesome ODU is :)
19. Have lunch or coffee with a staff or faculty member
20. Go to sporting events on campus
21. Lay on the oval and look at the clouds with a friend
22. Do your homework outside
23. Have breakfast in Hamilton Hall
24. Have lunch at Zest
25. Shower in one of the community showers (Sansbury or Fitzpatrick)
26. Watch a movie on a projection screen in the Student Center
27. Play basketball (outdoor court or in the gym)
28. Have a game night (there are board games in most of the residence halls and the student center)
29. Pull an all-nighter with a good friend
30. Go on a moonlit walk around campus with a friend and have a deep conversation
31. Go to a free fitness class
32. Travel with ODU (mission trip, study abroad, sports trips, etc.)
33. Join a club
34. Join a sports team
35. Dress Up on Wednesdays!
36. Start your own ODU tradition
37. Workout in the fitness center
38. Try out for a play or musical
39. Get an on-campus job
40. If you are 21 or older, buy an alcoholic beverage from the Panther Grill
41. Help out at Panther Pride Pitch-In (and clean up the campus whenever else you can as well)
42. Attend ODU Day
43. Go to Homecoming events (pep rally, football game, parade, dance, tail gating)
44. Submit something to Gesture (essays, poems, stories, pictures, etc.)
45. Enjoy the unlimited yogurt and granola in Hamilton Hall.. yum :)
46. Have a coffee date in the student center (the fireside lounge is a fantastic place for this!)
47. Bring your little siblings to Little Sibs Weekend
48. Make a sincere effort to get to know as many people as possible
49. Walk to Dairy Queen for 15% off a cold treat :)
50. Take the shuttle to Easton (go grab food, shop, go ice skating, see a movie, wander around, etc.!)
51. Start your own club
52. Attend ODU events and programs on campus (there's usually free food and ODU stuff and new people to meet)

Mkay, coming up with 52 things was a little harder than I imagined it would be.  Kudos to the people who made those playing cards!  I realize some of these are kind of lame, but it's hard to think up 52 things on the spot!  I will add/remove things if I come up with some better ideas.  Basically, ODU is really awesome though and has a lot to offer, so check out MyODU and find events and programs that interest you.  Make your four years here really count.  They can be really amazing if you let them be :)

It's Summertime at ODU

I feel so bad for being so neglectful with this blog.  I just have so many blogs and journals right now that it's hard to keep on task with all of them.  Darn me and my need for creative writing outlets haha. 

It is summer break for ODU students now except for the few who have opted to take summer courses of course.  I contemplated taking a summer course myself, but decided I'd rather focus on work and friends this summer.  I am already limited in my free time as it is. 

So I decided not to graduate in May.  I still needed 2 classes to graduate, but I already had 5 first semester which was exhausting on top of Track and Student Senate and ResLife duties not to mention having a good relationship with family and friends and an active social life.  One of the classes I needed to graduate is being offered in the Fall with one of my favorite professors, Sister Fatula, so I decided to just stay the extra semester and take it with her rather than go through the hassle of finding a subsititute class and getting it approved and all. 

This has actually turned out to be a very nice blessing in a very obvious disguise since I was not at all ready to leave ODU yet.  It's not just that it's my home now and I can't bear to leave it for sentimental reasons though that is true too.  I am also just not ready to go out into the real world and be a grown up.  This gives me a little time to postpone figuring out whether or not I want to do grad school or travel or work to pay off student loans or beginning a "big girl" career.  The extra semester also gives me more time to build lasting friendships and leave the campus with a good lasting impression of myself.  And of course, I will increase my knowledge and Dominican thinking skills through the additional classes I will be taking.

If I hadn't decided to stay the extra semester, I would not have lucked out with the awesome job opportunities I have this summer.  At the very end of Spring semester, there was an opening for a position with ResLife and Student Development as a summer RA and an Orientation leader with food and housing provided for me on campus.  I also got offered a position working as a studen ambassador over the summer, so I am basically getting paid to live on campus and do various tasks around the school which is awesome since my family moved recently so I would have had a hard time getting just for a month or so over the summer.  It's also great to spend more time on campus before I graduate in December.  There's quite a few of my friends from ODU living nearby and visiting from around Ohio, so I am able to see a lot more people this summer than I got to in the past due to my lack of car and being one of very few Panthers from the Cleveland area.

It has been a lot of work at some points, but for the most part, this summer at ODU has been surprisingly awesome!  I feel I made the right decision taking these positions.  It's very beneficial for me emotionally, financially, physically, and socially.  I miss my family a lot, but I know I'd be bored, poor, and lonely if I had moved back home for the summer.  And it would have been very hard for me to motivate myself to find a job and really get on my feet especially if I had graduated in May like I was originally supposed to.

Basically, my point here is that ODU has really given me a lot- jobs, education, amazing friends, faith, and fantastic life experiences.  When I do finally graduate, I know I will be leaving here with great stories, awesome relationships, and the skills I need to survive in the real world and be the person I want to be.  I am not sure that any other school could have done for me what ODU is doing.  I am just so much better now than I was when I first entered Ohio Dominican in May 2008 for my Orientation.  I only hope that all of ODU's students can see and appreciate this amazing place and take full advantage of all it has to offer.  My biggest regret is not realizing this sooner.  My last 4 years could have been even more amazing had I taken the time to really explore and get to know the campus and get involved and build even more and better relationships.  So my advice to every college student is make the most of these 4 years, because you aren't going to get them back and they are over before you know it.  Every day can be an amazing day if you let it, so let your college years be amazing.  There's a lot your school can do for you.

On Spring Break!

I am about halfway through my Spring break and have really enjoyed my relaxation time.  I've gotten well over 8 hours of sleep each night and have had a lot of time to journal and blog which is fantastic!  I should actually be working on homework and my Track workouts a lot more though :/ but there's still time for that!  As much as I love being at home, I miss ODU more than I can put into words corny as that sounds.  I wish I had gone on one of the Spring Break trips to Detroit or El Salvador or Columbus to do some service work.  That would have been a much better way to spend my time.  I could've been helping make the world a better place while spending time with ODU folks and growing in my faith and becoming a better person.  One of my favorite friends is on the El Salvador trip and even though I miss him dearly, I am extremely jealous of the experiences he is having over there right now.  I have been following their blog and reading about all the amazing things they're doing and being a part of and it just touches my heart and makes me want to cry, it's so beautiful!  I really wish I had taken advantage now of all the wonderful travel opportunities ODU offers to its students.  If you are a student or are going to be a student, I highly recommend that you at least look into the programs through the International office and see if there are any trips you might be interested in.  And if you want to join me in following the El Salvador trip to learn a little bit more about the mission trip and our students over there now, here's a link to the blog:   http://oduelsalvador.blogspot.com/

bOwl-D-U!

Last night was college bowling night at HP Lanes on Innis.  So a whole group of us from ODU went and bowled for $1 per game, $1 shoe rental, and had some drinks which were a really great deal too!  I was a little sad that it was my first time at a bowling alley since I turned 21 and I couldn't drink with everyone since I gave up alcohol for Lent, but I still had a blast.  Seeing my friends have fun was enough fun for me!  And HP does this every Thursday night I guess, so if you go to college in the Columbus area and ever want to get off campus, it's a really good deal and it's super fun!  I ended up only spending $4.50 after being at the bowling alley for a little over 2 hours.  Not bad. 

Also, Easton Town Center does college ID movie nights on Thursdays and I believe tickets are discounted down to $6.50 instead of the usual $9.50, so that's not a bad deal either if you'd rather see a movie.

Basically, going to college in Columbus, Ohio is awesome!  There is so much to do in the city and there are sweet deals for college students all the time since it is quite a college-town in general.