Full Speed Ahead!

Hey guys, quick post. It's a been a busy couple weeks, exams are less than a week away :O so it's been nonstop library! haha That means field training is coming up too!!!! goodness, it seems like it's so far away, but before I know it BAM! i'll be on the plane heading down to Alabama getting ready to be yelled at for 4 weeks :) can't wait! And I've been planning out a wicked sweet summer too, that's if I survive field training and come back in one piece :P I've got a 60 day Insanity Workout to do, running, a am gonna work on a costume for the Chicago Comic Con, yup ya read right, COMIC CON!! hahaha i'm so excited dudes! Last summer I didn't really have any "my" time since I was taking 2 summer classes and was doing an internship which was fun, but... it wasn't comic con :P so this summer, since field training is going on, I won't be doing any summer classes which is an win/lose situation. I don't get to worry about homework and studying this summer and finally get a break, but then, I also lose out on a summer to get ahead, or to keep on pace :/ When you're double majoring and have ROTC to worry about, trying to get all my necessary classes in are not impossible, but it at times it seems that 18 credits or more every semester just isn't enough and that taking advantage of the summer isn't a bad idea. But, I said HEY! I'm gonna live this summer and go all out, so I will. End of story :P
Alrighty dudes, well I better peace out. The library is open till midnight this week which is awesome, so I can get some great study time in this week and prepare myself for those upcoming exams. I'm not too worried actually. Getting into sophomore year, you get more into classes that are actually about your majors, so these exams are over subjects I actually want to learn about! so yeah! I'll chat with you dudes later.

Peace
~Annie

I've gotta pocket, gotta pocket full of SUNSHINE

Spring has finally filled the air on the Trine Campus!! :DDD And just in time as the track season is really starting to roll. We had a meet this past weekend at Adrian. I will never forget how muddy it was, uggggg.... I will also not forget the awesome PR I nabbed too! PR is, if you didn't know, Personal Record. I run the steeple chase and well, the first meet we had this season I sucked the bag :P I went out waaayyyy too hard, so at Adrian I knew that if I paced right, I could survive haha So I did, and dudes, I hurdled at least 2 steeples every lap!!! If you don't know what the steeple chase is, it's 7 and 1/2 laps of, well, agonizing pain and thrill. There are 35 jumps total (we jump over steeples which are like 3 hurdles long and are wide enough that you can push off of them, but they won't move if you run into them or if your foot catches when you go to jump over it like a regular hurdle would, so yeah, that leads to some awesome wipe outs) and out of the 35 jumps, 7 of them you have to not only get over a steeple, but over a water pit too. Yeah, it's crazy :P That's why I love it so much! It takes guts to do it. And at the Adrian meet, we were coming up to our first water pit jump and this defiance chic had to of slipped or something as she was getting ready to jump because her legs totally caught the steeple and BAM! face first in the water pit. I had to jump over her, it was epic :P So yeah, my best time had been 13:30 which really isn't good at all :P Like good steeple times are like a minute faster than that, like 12:30 but at Adrian I was able to finish with a 13:13!!! Yeah, still not where I wanna be but i'm getting faster! I think that once I start hurdling every steeple it will be sooooooooooo much easier and faster :)))))) So yeah! I also did the 800m and finished with a 2:33 which isn't my best ever, but it's my best this year, so I'm excited for that race too! Overall, it was a successful day fo sho! We're actually heading back there this saturday for an MIAA meet so I like knowing what I can expect from the track because their track is set up a bit differently, it's weird to explain, but like their turns are longer than usual, but yeah, anyway, can't wait!

Nothing crazy going on in class or ROTC. Ummmm... it's Wednesday so that means Delta Ki WINGS!!! My friend and I always look forward to it. After practice, we race over to the Delta Ki house and fill our empty bellies with delicious homemade wings and lemonade :)

Alrighty, well I'll end this here since my last post was quite long and it's gorgeous out so dude, stop reading, don't check out your facebook, go outside and have some fun!!!! :D

Peace
~Annie

MIA and KIA

Sorry dudes for being a bit MIA there for a week or so. It's been... an emotional few weeks. :/ Lots to cover, so sit back, and prepare for a crazy ride.

1st = FTP Retreat. Like I said in the last post, I SURVIVED! It was tough, but not as tough as I thought it was gonna be. :) It really opened my eyes to how much I really do need to learn and prepare for. Through all the yelling, all the stressful moments, I do feel more comfortable now and do feel that I can be a better leader when FT does come. As of the date to when I ship off, that's coming up in a bit.... So overall, it was worth it and I would totally recommend to all the other cadets when it comes to their time to have to face FT. We went to a Navy Base in Chicago and I was roomed with a cadet from another detachment and she was really nice. We both helped each other out with getting the room set up correctly and up to standards (yeah know, folding, hospital corners, that fun stuff) then we had to change out of uniform into another uniform in record blowing time while keeping the room still up to standards, and fall out in the hallway at attention. We did that at least 20times throughout the course of the day, just constantly changing uniforms haha. Then we might do PT, marching, ORI (Open Rank Inspection) and the most fun, STBYI (Standby Inspection!) aka get your room torn to shreds after you've spent forever getting it together. Nothing is ever perfect to them, ah well :P Eating was a blast too. Don't grab too much, or else you're gonna want to vomit trying to shove all that food in your mouth in a matter of 10minutes. So yeah, that was great. I was appointed Flight Leader, yeah, talk about nerve racking. The outlook of your flight depends upon the Flight Leader's actions. If I don't know a command or screw up, it's not just on me, but my ENTIRE flight, so yeah it's stressful, but... I kinda liked it hehe. Yes, I messed up and broke my bearing a few times, but it was a learning experience and now I know I can be that ready-for-anything Flight leader :DD So yeah, that was FTP! good times hehe

2nd = Sucker Punch the movie was AWESOME!!!! everyone needs to see it. I am determined to either dress up as Baby Doll or Sweet Pea, haven't figured it out yet, for future Comic Cons (yep, my nerdiness shows :P ) The music, storyline, action, cinematography, acting, EVERYTHING was just amazing. My favorite movie of all time fo sho :)

3rd = Okay, so more into last week which was a sucker punch to the heart pretty much. Yeah, a little more mellow now so please, bear with me. A weekend ago, 4 Angola High Schoolers were killed in a car accident. They were driving up from Florida, it was their spring break, and the weather played a key factor in the whole situation and took these 4 young men's life. The whole community shook like an level 10 earthquake. I didn't even know the 4 men and it affected me. Numerious church services were given throughout the week. Trine provided the ARC for the funeral viewing. The radio, posters, colletion jars, I mean everywhere you looked, those 4 men's names were ringing in your head. There was no way you couldn't be apart of the emotional time. Through all the hurt through, Trine University did something great and helped contribute to a scholarship made by the four families called Fourever Friends Memorial Scholarship by matching the amount of money the football team raised for the scholarship. In sorrow we give hope. God rest those four souls and many prays to the family and the entire community to find that hint of sunshine in their life. 

Alexx Bauer, Matthew Roe, Evan Weaver and Riley Zimmer <3

4th = Well, this is, yet again, another sucker punch to the heart, and it happened only a day or so after I heard about the 4 teens killed, so again, sorry if I make this last one short, since it's still tough for me even a week or so later to talk about. So last week at Air Force ROTC we got word that our Captains have the list of what cadets got a slot into FT or not. In all the years of AFROTC at Notre Dame, they have never once not have a cadet get a slot, until this year... Gosh, it's still hard to press the letters on the keyboard down to just write down what happened. Okay, well I'm going to jump right into it. I got a slot. Yes, I got a slot. Notice I didn't say "we" ..... it was only I, from Trine University, that got a slot, not my fellow Trine cadets. Just me. The Captains had originally split us in separate groups (ones who got a slot, and ones who didn't, though at the time we didn't know what the grouping meant, so it shocked everyone) I just remember starting to smile when I got word I got a slot, but then I looked around me in the room and I didn't see anymore Trine. Even some of my other fellow AS200s that had become my friends through these last 2 years weren't there. Ugh, I just wanted to vomit and wake up from this nightmare. I never wanted this, I never wanted to go through this alone. I joined the Air Force ROTC program, yes to be in the Air Force, but to also create a bond with other dreamers that are wrapped in the Red, White, and Blue. Out of the original 4, the first ever AFROTC cadets from Trine, I'm the only one left..... I know, I worked hard, I earned it, but they did too!! I'm angry, sad, confused, sick, and maybe even a bit hopeless. I mean, the scholarships they were given are gone now since, if you don't a slot for Field Training, you're not in the program anymore, kicked out pretty much. I mean, you could take the chance and go another year, but it's all the same really, nothing on your record is gonna say that you're trying again. 10 people didn't get slots. 10!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. 10 of my friends didn't make it. The cadets from Trine are probably not even gonna come back to Trine next semester because they're short of $ now since their Air Force scholarship got taken away. So why such a blow this year compared to the past years? The military is taking heavy budget cuts, and they seriously cut out like 1,000 slots from FT this summer. So that's 1,000 people that couldn't go. It's horrible it had to come to this and everyone at the detachment felt the hurt and still do. I don't know if I'll ever recover. I just know I gotta lead now and make the ones that didn't get a slot proud. It's all for you guys now. 

Shipping off Date: May 19th.

Peace

~Annie

Verdict....

I survived.
end of story.
more details later.
peace

annie

yesh, ftp retreat exhausted me to the brink that i literally do not have enough energy to write more than this single period.

....into the wild blue yonder!

So, I can't believe I'm deciding to post at almost 2 in the morning with the fact that I'm going to have to wake up at 6... Yeah, nuts. But this is going to be very brief, and I thought I'd let you know that after this weekend, I won't be the same. At 0700, I and a fellow AFROTC cadet will be heading off to a life changing experience - FTP (Field Training Prep aka Boot Camp Prep) Retreat, which is a weekend full of yelling, discipline, knowledge, cleanliness, and just an overall stresser. But, its main goal is to get me ready for what I'm going to experience for 4 weeks this summer, so I might as well start getting used to it :P Ya know, I say I'm nervous, but really, deep down, I'm not. I'm, well, .... excited, like beyond belief!! I think I just say that I'm nervous because I think I'm supposed to feel that way, and yeah I am, a little, but overall, I simply cannot wait! In 5 hours or so, I'll be heading to a dream I've always wanted to experience. I just pray I'm ready for this. Give me strength! I'll see you on Sunday evening dudes ;)
Peace

~Annie

Spring is... in the air??

Buuuurrrrrr!!!! So, it's Spring on the Trine Campus, and I'm not too impressed Mother Nature. I'm still clutching tightly to my leather jacket as I walk to class during the day because of that frigid wind whipping around! Grrrr, it better warm up soon! I wanna break out the shorts as soon as I can :P I'm in withdrawals from my spring-break in Florida :D

Alrighty, so on with the up and up around campus! Let's see, I went to the QPR (Question Persuade Refer) Suicide Prevention Seminar on last Wed. that the Trine University counselor was hosting and it went really well! I liked how they made us role play to put us in those type of situations and see how we react. I thought I would be fine and do everything by the book... but yeah, it didn't go some much that way :P I mean, once you hear those words "I want to kill myself" you just freeze! You feel afraid to say anything to them because maybe it'll make it worse or something, but ultimately from what I learned, if you listen to them, without any interruptions, then persuade them out of hurting themselves and refer them to a counselor, pastor, professor, anyone you know that may help them out, is the best way to go about it. Just, putting all those things in motion are hard, and at the seminar luckily I had the counselor to help me through the whole process, so I came out rewarded. I feel more prepared now and am not afraid to ask someone who I think may be at risk, "Do you feel like killing yourself?" So yeah! Though, it was a very deep topic, I felt comfortable learning about everything because I am going into Psychology and in the Air Force where suicide is ever so increasing year after year, and with me being an RA next semester, I can be prepared to address these situations now and in the future. :)

Well, to lighten the mood, I had a great weekend! I had to get up at like 7:50am on Saturday which wasn't so fun, but it was for a good reason - TRACK RECRUITS! haha God how I LOVE track :D Only 3 could make it, when usually we have nearly 30 or so! (Spring Breaks and the Indoor Track National Meet were on that same day!) My fellow running buddy, Sannie, came with me to help Coach Cooper with giving tours and talking with the recruits. It was fun. Sannie and I have never given a campus tour before, and shockingly we knew a lot more about Trine than originally thought! haha I did some quick research before giving the tour, but in the end, I thought we are Aces at it :P hehe Fast forward to that night, one of the guys from cross-country and track hosted his annual Techno Party, this year though at his villa instead of in the common area at one of the dorms. And surprisingly, it wasn't as cramped as I thought it would be! Those campus villa's are gorgeous! I LOVE techno music, so I was able to request a few songs and get the floor jumping with wicked tunes, so it was blast :) Yesterday, our Chinese class went to the Great Wall Restaurant just down the road. I carpooled with one of the guys and that was a lot of fun! I ate so freaken much! seriously, I thought I was gonna explode :P I tried to speak some Chinese while I was there, and I should have spoke more instead of shoving my face with more and more Chinese cuisine, but dudes, those Chinese donuts are to DIE FOR!!! haha
Well I totally regretting eating all that food when I had to wake up this morning at 5:55am to go to Air Force ROTC Mandatory PT (Physical Training) *yawn* I'm still trying to recover from the workout :P It wasn't too bad, but with it being that early, it's gonna take a bit out of ya, especially all that Chinese food I ate :P

So, yep! That's the up & up! This week is Women Appreciation week, so there's gonna be some cool activities going on to celebrate all the women that have made an impact in the world :) I'll be a busy bee that's for sure! Got my FT (Field Training) Retreat this weekend at a Navy Base, so in a nutshell, I'm going to be yelled at all weekend because I can't fold my clothes right. Yep, fun fun :P Actually, it's really gonna help prepare me for the real Field Training I'm gonna go through for 4 weeks this summer, so the yelling will pay off :)

Okay dudes, I better head on out to grab some grub :P I'll try to control myself this time, promise!
Peace

~Annie

...and it's gone in a FLASH!

Wow, it's been too long since I've updated :O And dudes, a TON has happened, but don't worry, I'll keep it as short as I can ;)
Well, Spring Break was last week, ahhhhhhh was it splendid. As cliche as it is to go to Florida for Spring Break, I totally did anyway :P I flew down with my mother to meet up with my two sis' down there. We were there for only 4 whole days, but it was totally worth it! It was great to meet up with all the girls again, and, oh my gawd, Universal Studios has the new Hogwarts Caste added on, and dudes, it's seriously legit! I mean, people wait in line for two hours to just get a tour of the place! Yeah, crazy :P Luckily we got there early enough that the wait was only 45min woot woot! There also is a ride inside the castle and ah! it seriously is indescribable! you legitly feel like you're on a broom stick with Harry battling dragons, Dementors, the whole kit and caboodle! It's awesome! I am proud to say I  had a cup of Butter Beer (it's not really beer, just a made up concoction of awesomeness! no alcohol included) and Pumpkin Juice and gaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! they're freaken delicious! seriously, get some! it'll blow your mind ;) hehe
I also made a visit to the comic book store that's also in Universal Studios. Bought a few things.... hehe okay maybe more than a few but it totally was worth every penny, because who do I see riding by???? CAPTAIN AMERICA ON A ATV!!! Yep, my heart melted :P So the dya at Universal Studios was a success, and mind you I left a TON of other crazy, amazing things out, but those were the biggies :)
I also successfully scorched myself at the beach, so yep, I'm all tanned up (with my back peeling away, ouch, maybe too much sun...)
And guess who paid for all of this??? ME! Yep. My dad paid for the tickets, but I reimbursed him by paying for all of our, that means my, my mother's, and my two sisters expenses down there all because of air force rotc :) what better way to use that money than to spend all on family and fun without anyone having to worry about expenses, I got it all covered ;) and it was the least I could do.

Well now, as I said in a title, it was gone in a flash, and it's quite depressing to think that just last week I was wearing a tank top, shorts, and flip flops and now I'm all huddled up in a coat, hat, and mittens :( But I guess on the bright side, it's Advising week, so that means more doors to open and more adventures to embark on! There's a class on Serial Killers and I'm totally jumping on that and signing up for it!!! I can't wait :DDD Next semester looks like it's gonna be a fun one!

A couple other things that have gotten me at least comfortable with coming back are these numerous programs Trine is hosting. Like, on Wednesday - 16th - there's a Suicide Prevention Certification Seminar at 6pm in Best 229 and I'm totally signing up to go to that! What better thing to have under your belt that the means to know how to approach that sorta problem with someone. I'm looking forward to it and there's no charge! Everyone loves free stuff ;) Also, there's a CPR Certification Seminar going on this Saturday - 19th - in the Ford Building at 10am. Yeah, I know it's considered "early" on a Saturday, but having a CPR certification is great for your resume and for you because you just never know if someone will just inhale that huge chunk of steak and gets it lodge in their wind pipe, then you'll be able to sweep in with your cape and CPR certification and preform the proper procedures ta-dah!

Ah, alrighty. well my peeps are waiting for me to eat lunch so I better head out dudes. Please, if you can go to either of those Seminars GO! What do you gotta lose? A couple hours of sleep or sitting on the couch watching America's Next Top Model reruns??? Well, if you can't go to either, then I'd recommend for EVERYONE no matter what to go to this: Take Back the Night. Men and women, join all of us in the march to fight rape and to stand up for all the victims out there! Let them know that their voice is heard :) Be a hero
Peace Out

~Annie