Adventure is Out There!

"Adventure is out there!" is hands down the best line from the Disney and Pixar movie UP. And as 2013 draws to a close and 2014 draws nearer, now is a good time to think about all the great adventures I've had this year.

2013 marked an end to my second decade alive, and if you ask me, breathing for 20 straight years it really a pretty big deal. Turning 20 was the strangest birthday experience I ever had. For starters, I spent my birthday alone in Louisville, Kentucky. I woke up at 4:00am, went to work, came home, made myself dinner at my apartment, and went to bed. The best part of my day, was the free Venti Caramel Macchiato I got from Starbucks. Normally I spend my birthday with family and friends, so being 3 hours away was not sitting well with me.
Why else is it strange? Well turning 20 is like the most disappointing birthday because it just sits there and mocks you. That whole day will look you straight in the face and tell you that you have to wait another 365 days just to buy a beer. People either say to you, "Oh! Way to not make it on Teen Mom!" or "Just one more year!", neither of which are comforting, or really all that exciting. It is great to be still alive, don't get me wrong, but I began the official 365 day countdown that day.

2013 also brought me two different co-op jobs. The first, being at GE Appliances in Louisville, was so far from what I expected.
       Day 1:
          Katie wears her new blue pencil skirt to work - no other person                  she sees all day is wearing a skirt
          Katie says she is a Chemical Engineer - only one other co-op out                 of 150 is also a Chem E
          Katie expects to be working an 8 - 5 job in an office - her desk is                 in the middle of a production floor and she is told to arrive at                   5:30am the next morning
          Katie thinks about all the cute clothes she can wear (as long as it's                 with pants) - she is told that she should wear jeans or khakis                   with steel toe shoes
After day 1 at GE, I decided I should stop expecting things and just see what happens next. And what happened, was me working 50-60 hours most weeks, being in charge of planning weekly lunches and weekend events for other co-ops as the celebrations committee co-chair, and me running a production line by myself for a week while my boss went on vacation.


My co-op at Silfex, where I finish my first rotation this week, has been much more what I expected. Being able to live on campus is just one of the many perks of working here. And while I still do wear jeans and khakis to work most days, I can dress them up with a nice pair of Sperrys! I also have a desk, right next to the production floor, not on it, although I did spend quite a bit of time on the production floor. Also, knowing that no one is going to yell at me for touching a part is nice. Working on a development team has been incredible, and a small manufacturing environment has proved to be a place where I can excel.

New friends is probably one of the coolest things 2013 has led to. I have met new people through couch crashing (thanks to living in Louisville, this became a weekly thing in 8E), working, going on retreats, leading retreats, Marianist Leadership Scholars, singing at Mass, and summer classes.
*A note on taking classes in the summer: When you sit though class together for an hour and a half, four or five days a week, you make new friends very quickly. Also, summer classes are miserable and I am so glad that I only have to do that once.*

Campus involvement is one of the last big adventures 2013 has brought me. While living in Louisville it was impossible for me to stay involved in the organizations I love, but being back on campus has allowed me to have the best of both worlds. I have been able to take a leadership position within Marianist Leadership Scholars, which has allowed me to get closer to so many people, including our newest freshmen. I have also been able to continue singing and playing the flute at Ghetto Mass on Sunday nights, been able to be more involved in my sorority, and I got to be involved in ETHOS club and Society of Women Engineers. On the whole, this year has brought me some pretty awesome stuff.

2013 has been pretty awesome and I can only look forward to everything that 2014 is bringing me. Just in case you're curious about my 2014 adventures here's what I know about so far...
       I am moving into the Pi Phi house in January!
       I will hold an Executive Council Position in Pi Beta Phi for 2014
       I will turn 21 - and my parents will go out to celebrate with me
       I have more retreats to plan and lead
       I will be on the Union Advisory Board as a student representative of Greek Life
       I will be going on Dayton2Daytona with some of my best friends
       I will be participating in the ETHOS program this summer, which will send me to one of seven countries             for 10 weeks
       I will have another co-op
       I will be taking a little!
       I will begin the first of two senior years
Adventure is out there!

I Believe

As I was driving home from work yesterday, hoping to make it home on the fumes left in the car's gas tank, I thought about how coming to GE and learning how things work all over again, was like being a freshman at a new place. I then remembered an assignment we did before school started my freshman year. The assignment was to read the book This I Believe. A book of short essays or stories of how people came to believe in what they did. People like Albert Einstein and Hellen Keller, explaining why they believed what they did. As a New Student Orientation chair in the fall, I witnessed the new recruits reading This I Believe II. So I did some thinking yesterday, about what I believe in, and how my beliefs have changed over the last 20 years. This is what I came up with:

          I believe that all people are entitled to their own beliefs, but I also believe that I am entitled to disagree with those beliefs.
          I believe that all people, no matter what their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or mental or physical abilities, deserve to be treated with equal respect and dignity.
          I believe that there is higher power in the world, no matter what name you call it by
          I believe that death is the last big adventure in your life's journey
          I believe that the only way to be truly happy, is in one way or another, to help others be happy too
          I believe that family is one of the best and most important gifts we are given in our life
          I believe that my best friends are really just my extended family
          I believe that telling someone you love them, and actually meaning it, is one of the hardest things to do
          I believe that if you put words into song, you automatically have added more meaning to them
          I believe that classical music can make you feel more than any other kind of music
          I believe that the people who live without love in their lives are the poorest of us all
          I believe that a good book can be the best escape from reality
          I believe that if it was possible in any way, I would live in Target
          I believe that hard work pays off in the long run
          I believe that I have learned far more from life than I have from every textbook I've ever used, put together
          I believe that working together always beats working alone
          I believe that a good cry can be more therapeutic than seeing a therapist
          I believe The Beatles pretty much had it right when it comes to love, you can't buy it, and it's all we need in life
          I believe that laughing until I cry with my friends is the best way to feel better
          Finally, I believe sometimes you just need to eat some ice cream, turn on a chick flick, and remember why you're glad your life is not a movie, but is real.

Home

They say home is where the heart is, and I have to agree with whoever actually first said this. I believe I first learned it from an episode of the TV show Madeline. She and her boarding school friends all sang a catchy tune about it, and since then I have firmly believed this.

Home for me is a little different now, though. After 20 years, there are quite a few places where my heart lies.

My actual home of course, with my family, has always been my first home. Where I learned to cook, share, argue, dream, make messes, and most of all, love, was at home with my mom and dad. Saturday morning pancakes, a long-standing tradition, made the first day of a weekend at home, the best, even when I was still actually living at home. The memories I have of home, will always be some of my favorites, and will certainly be the stories I pass on to my children some day, and hope for them to do the same, because there's never really anything to cheer you up, like coming home.

My second home, is a place where laughter is common, lack of sleep happens more often than it should, and doing homework consists of attempting to do a problem, realizing you have no idea what you're doing, and walking next door to see the people going through the same thing you are. Dayton, to me, is home. My heart will always believe that friends don't let friends go to Xavier, and that the best thing about college is community. The blue dome of the chapel reminds me that I am where I should be, whenever I see it. My friends who challenge me not only academically, but spiritually, are where my heart lies at Dayton. My friends who welcome me  back with open arms and allow me to sleep on their couches and futons when I visit from co-op, are the reason why UD is my home, and why my heart will be there while I am away.

The last place I consider home, is a place I visit when I can while I am at school. It is a place where I have opened my self up to others, and bared my soul for them to see, while listening as others do the same. It is a place where relationships are mended, where new friendships are born, and where I am constantly reminded that my life is full of love. Bergamo has been that place for me for the last few years. Whether I'm just stopping in to say hello, or I'm leading others in a retreat I, myself participated in not that long ago, it is a place that has accepted me where ever I have been along my journey of life and faith, and encouraged me to share in experiences with others. My heart lies there because of the friendships I have made, the people who I have seen change in the course of 24 hours, and because of the quiet calm I feel when I step into the chapel where I have witnessed so many incredible things. 

It is finding a home in this new place, that I am having trouble with. There is nothing here for me to be so passionate about, or care so much about, for me to consider it home. I have learned a lot in my time here so far, made a few new friends and like my job, but it is the pull to be where there are people who love me, the pull of my heart wanting to be where it belongs, that brings me back to my many homes whenever I can.

My First Blog

So this marks my fourth week on the job today. So far, everything seems to be going pretty well, unless you count the days my car gives me trouble or I wake up 2 hours late. I have started a project that I think I will try to carry out by the end of my term, if not sooner. I also have some side project ideas that I think are important in order for the plant as a whole to be more successful.

I have a pretty cool chart for my main project that actually took a long time to put together, and a fight with a gigantic printer, unfortunately the printer won. Hopefully by the time I leave my line can be producing at least 16 more units per day.

Life here is a bit different. Like having my own room and bathroom for the first time in 18 years...weird. Being the only one responsible for my messy room...not quite as fun. But I am learning my way around and have discovered some pretty cool restaurants and shopping places. I am excited to try out the shopping once it gets warmer, as they are mostly outside. 

The living next to a railroad track is taking some getting used to. For instance, when the train just drove past here and set on it's whistle, I jumped out of my skin and had to do some backspacing on the keyboard...no me gusta.

I hope to post about once a week to keep everyone in the loop. I miss all my friends and family so much.