How Many Honors Students Does It Take to Change a Flat Tire?

I’m sure that the purpose of these “learning experience” blogs is not to write about the stuff I’m learning in everyday life, but an unconventional person like myself tends to take the unconventional route and stretch the prompt to make it fit what I want to write about. I am learning so much in class but the truly interesting things are what is happening to me in the time outside of school; these are the things I want to share.

Although depressing, what I am about to tell you is true: the last “good day” I can honestly say I had was last Wednesday. The days that followed were full of spilled coffee and ruined clothes, and that’s not even the worst part. The past week has truly been a testament to the perseverance of my roommates and myself. But before I get ahead of myself, let me rewind to last Thursday night so you can understand the week that I’ve had.

I live in a cute house on Forest Park Boulevard, dubbed by my roommates as “The Nest.” I live with three other girls. We’ll call them L, C, and M for the purposes of this blog post. L, C, and myself are very similar people: introverted in nature and self-sufficient. M is the polar opposite. L and C and I are best friends, and M’s personality just doesn’t seem to mesh with ours. Long story short, L, C, and I had talked it over and decided that in order to salvage our friendship and make the most out of our living situation for our remaining time at TCU, something needed to change. We sat down under the assumption that we could discuss where each of us were falling short as roommates and what we could do to improve the relations of the residents of The Nest. As to not disclose too much personal information, the conversation did not go swimmingly and M decided she was going to transfer to UCLA at semester. Well…. Alright.

I don’t know if I believe in karma, but the days that followed are almost enough for me to change my mind.

Friday began as a day like any other: I went to my two classes and went to Chik-fil-a with my little for Go Purple Fridays. It was pouring down rain outside so I returned home to curl up in bed and watch Downton Abbey on Netflix all day. But that was not to be the case. Thirty minutes after I had gotten home, my phone rang. It was L. She proceeded to tell me that her and C had been in a car wreck on the way home from class and they needed me to come for moral support. Easy enough. Upon arriving, I found C’s front bumper lying in the middle of the road, TCU police on the scene, and C’s phone no longer functioning due to water damage. Though shaken up, we thought we would be able to enjoy the rest our weekend… Right? Wrong.

Saturday was the day of our sorority’s Victory formal, a day for celebration and relaxation, right? Once again, wrong. I awoke with a strong craving for Starbucks, so L and I hopped in the car to get our Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Our jovial attitudes were not to last long, however. A speed bump, spilled coffee, and my eyes off the road for two seconds soon led to the Kanye West playing on my speakers being drowned out by the heartbreaking sound of air draining out of my front passenger side tire. A few teary phone calls later, I finally found someone to help me: best friend Alex to the rescue!

After successfully getting the tire changed, we went home to de-stress before getting ready for our formal that night. About five minutes before we were set to leave, my date (J) calls me to tell me that he ruined his entire wardrobe in the washing machine and he had nothing to wear. At this point, I honestly didn’t know if it could get any worse.

And that’s when it hit me.

It could be worse. This bout with bad luck shouldn’t be looked at as the world attacking me; this bout with bad luck should be viewed as lessons for the future. So if you’re wondering what I learned through potentially the worst weekend of my life, look no further:
1.     Sometimes, best friends don’t make the best roommates. Don’t lose a friend over a rough conversation and a horrendous semester of cohabitation.
2.     Though I may have lost one friendship from the conversation, I still have two really awesome friends that I can be thankful for.

3.     Cars are fixable; lives are not replaceable. We should be thankful that the only things damaged were the front bumper of a Range Rover and my flat tire.
4.     Freshman dorms have the worst washing machines. Additionally, boys should never be allowed to wash nice things.
5.     And lastly, the answer to the question that you’ve probably been pondering the entire blog post: It takes three Honors students and C’s extended family to change a flat tire on my car.

PS - J found some clothes and we made it to formal.

Information Overload, or a Formal Apology to My Orientees

As the school year begins, I brace myself for the onslaught of change, as well as the processing of a lot of new information. Don't get me wrong, the beginning of the school year is my favorite time of the year (besides Christmas), but it's all a little overwhelming and stressful at the same time.

Due to the fact that I've changed my major and minor many times over the course of my going-on three years of schooling at TCU, I'm just now getting around to taking the bulk of my core classes. As if junior year wasn't stressful enough, my brain is all over the place as I embark on courses in several different subjects. Rather than investing myself in my major (as most are doing at this point in their college careers), you can often find me sprinting across campus from building to building as I explore classes in several academic colleges. Suffice it to say, Nutrition, English, and Sociology are not the most cohesive subjects but I'm trying my hardest to make it work. 

Obviously I'm taking in a vast amount of information, but what am I really learning? Alas, we have arrived at the main point of this blog post. Yes, I’m learning about the recommended daily caloric intake for my body type and yes, I’m learning who invented opera in Florence in the 17^th century, but the most important learning experience that I’m having is a bit more practical. I am learning how to manage all of these foreign subjects and balance it all with a social life and time for me.

I have a confession, and I hope that none of the freshmen from my orientation groups this summer read this and think me a fraud, but let’s just say I’m a great pretender. I may have acted like I knew a lot about time management and the art of the balancing act but surprise! I don’t. Not even a little bit. Even right now, I’m sitting at Ol’ South Pancake House, procrastinating studying for tomorrow’s nutrition test by writing this blog post. How is it that I fervently preached the gospel of time management at least 10 different times this summer and I can’t even live as an example of it? This is the part of my blog where I apologize to all of my orientees for pretending like it was easy. It’s not, but it’s my job to tell you that we can all do it. Perhaps you can, but I sure can’t.

So here’s what I’m learning during the first part of the fall of my junior year. Maybe I already inherently knew it and refused to acknowledge it, but time management is hard. I can’t study for three tests in one week; heck, I can barely study for one test a week! Three tests in one week means I’m going to be writing essays on my music history test about the philosophy of humor and taking multiple choice tests in nutrition about social interactions. How does one keep it all straight? I guess this is the one thing that literally every single one of my classes is teaching me. The one common thread that these classes have is this concept of time management. Even when I’ve learned all about carbohydrates and instrumental Baroque music, there will still be lessons to learn about time management. So to begin, I will end this blog and go learn about how many calories are in a gram of fat (the answer is nine).

What is Humor?

These people think they know.