Knock, Knock. Who's there? STEM!

"This is not grade 13."
These were the first words of Dr. Thomas Calhoun Jr., the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at UNA. College is not just grade 13. It's not just more school. It's not just more learning, more classes, more homework, more studying. College is a hallway of doors to our future, with each door holding a unique opportunity. And with each opportunity is a new experience and a new perspective waiting for us; it's ours so long as we choose to open that door.

There are some doors that stay closed and grow old with only a few individuals daring enough to enter. The path to these doors is one less taken. But these doors do not hold a lesser opportunity for experience or perspective than what is behind the other doors. In fact, these doors give individuals the opportunity to advance medicine, improve air pollution, or even be the next Einstein. Yes, you guessed it: behind these doors is science. Specifically STEM learning: science, technology, engineering, and math. Less than 20% of all degrees in the United States are in STEM subjects. But why? There is so much opportunity in STEM learning, so many experiences to be had and perspectives to be seen.

Maybe you had a bad teacher. Maybe you got a bad grade. Maybe this class took studying and you were giving up too much of your weekend. Maybe you were being different and you opened the door less taken. Maybe you were afraid. People get discouraged. It's just how we are. We want constant encouragement and get defeated when something doesn't go the way we plan. Sciences and math take a whole lot of patience and studying. And it's a whole lot of patience and studying we don't want to give. It's hard and we don't want to fail. When you are going to fail, there's no point in trying.

There is not no point in anything. Yes, I know, crazy double negatives, but here's the deal... Every door, every opportunity, opens up a new experience and a new perspective. We are affected by every choice we make. Whether it's positive or negative is our choice. It's all based on our attitudes. Never turn down an opportunity, never leave a door closed. Look at everything with an open mind and you'll have a familiar hallway before you rather than a million closed doors.

Now as you probably know, I'm a STEM major, but I'm not saying everyone should go take all STEM classes and get degrees in STEM. I'm just saying it's an option. It's an option that most people avoid. It's a door they avoid, a door they completely throw away the key for. This is not just grade 13. STEM is not just another class. It's an experience. It's a perspective. Don't keep the door locked. Open it and give it a chance. Maybe something amazing will happen.

It's Friday! Let your Freak Flag Fly!! (Ooo, Alliteration!)

Somehow Jacob ended up in this picture. This will not be explained in the following narrative of last night's events.

Last Friday Night... Fun times that was. Very fun times.

This past Tuesday, our Freshman Honors Forum class was brought to a roaring hault when we had no speaker due to scheduling issues. It was the Worst of Times. But we decided we would make it the Best of Times. (Tale of Two Cities allusion!!) We were planning to go dancing with a group of 10ish of us, and it was going to be awesome. Friday night rolls around and we have found 0 places for non-sketchy dancing. I guess Florence isn't known for dance parties for a reason. Long story short- our plans failed.

But no fear! I wasn't going to have another boring Friday night. and neither were Alyson, Elise, or Jacob. Our group of 4 decided to go to the train bridge. We heard it was nice, and we were ready for a nice stroll in the night. Here's a little warning for you nighttime trainbridge goers- don't go. Or do go in a large group with big strong people and lots of pepper spray. Perhaps we were being pansies, but when there are a couple of questionable figures walking towards you in the dark, running in the opposite direction sounds better than a nice relaxed stroll towards them. And that's just what we did. We acted like 4 year olds and ran back to the car. But we decided we would get something to eat instead.

We went for ice cream. Did you know that if you have 2 spoons, they can spoon eachother? Also, ants can be easily confused with moving sprinkles. Just a couple fun facts for you.

After ice cream, we were driving back to the dorms and drove past the rollerskating rink. We, being all spontaneous and such, went rollerskating with a bunch of 12 year olds. But I don't rollerskate. It's actually a little embarrasing at how bad I am at rollerskating. And here are all these fancy 12 year olds doing their fancy tricks. They thought they were cool because they could skate better than us, but they were the ones who were sitting outside of the rollerskating rink waiting for their parents to pick them up as we drove off in a Jeep.

When we got back to Lafayette, we had a dance party in the parking lot. We were just minding our own business, blasting our music, and dancing like crazies in the parking lot when we realized there was a group of strangers staring at us like we were freaks. That's when we let our Freak Flags Fly, I suppose. So after thoughouly embarrasing ourselves, we went to chat in the lobby with fellow honors students. Someone had a brilliant idea to fit 7 people in a bug. We might have been all on top of eachother, but we did it! I think it should be some type of record. Ripley's Believe It or Not might put us in their book as a real-life clown car... Or as Best Friday Night Ever! If only they knew...

Tips from John Barnell, Vice President for Academic Affairs

We go to college to get a degree. We get a degree to get a job. Easy peasy. But now a days, degrees don't give you a job. Now, employers expect college students to have a stacked resume. We're expected to go through classes all day, go to our dorms and study, do hours of homework every night, and get really good grades. On top of that, we need to get a job to pay for all these tuition bills piling up and try to balance work with our study schedule. We also need to get involved on campus by joining any club we can fit in our already busy schedule, and try to remember to do everything you just added to that schedule. You might also want to try to get experience with your major to see if you really like it. Oh, and P.S., don't mess up or stress out because then you fall behind and you'll just be fighting a losing battle. Maybe that's not so easy.

I want to get super involved on campus. I'm actually really excited to join a million clubs and start stacking my resume. But is it really worth all that work and stress? I think it is. Everything on your resume isn't necessarily just so employers like you. Of course, it's great for jobs and networking, but it can be for yourself too. You can make every event on that resume mean something to you. My goal is to let everything I do in college be an experience. And I know that each experience will teach me and change me for the better.

Mr. John Barnell told my class to work our hardest in college at these 4 points:
GPA- My goal is a 4.0, or pretty close to it. We'll see how my two science classes will treat me by the end of the semester.
Community Service- I just went to a Circle K informational meeting, and I'm definitely thinking about joining. But I'm pretty good with joining just about any club.
Clubs and Organizations- As I've already said, loving lots of clubs. Looking for anything else that seems fun.
Travel- I'm definitely open minded to studying abroad or even just going to a conference about marine biology. I've been to Career Camp at Sea World, which was amazing. And I would love to do something related to my field like that. Maybe working in the gulf with BP's oil spill...

The most inspirational phrase?

In Honors Forum last week, my class was told to look up Steve Job's Commencement speech at Stanford. For those of you who do not know, Steve Jobs is a college drop out who started Apple, was fired by his own company 10 years later, and then started Pixar.

He said that the most important phrase to make choices in his life was "I'll be dead soon." For some, this sounds depressing. Why even bother? I'm just going to die. But to me, this is an inspirational phrase.

I don't want to just die. I want to make my mark on society. I want to be remembered. And this hope to be remembered is what I think drives Steve Jobs and many other people to success. So what is this success? Some would say money, wealth, owning a valuble company like Apple or Pixar. But I think it's doing whatever you are happy with in life, doing something that you love, doing something that you care about, and settling for nothing less.

My goal is to be a marine biologist, and right now I am studying at the University of North Alabama in Florence, AL. I'm not getting my degree for my health or because my mom told me to; I'm in college because "I'll be dead soon," and I want to reach my goal. I want to become a marine biologist. And while I'm here studying, I want to make my mark. Maybe not in a huge way, but just to inspire one person. I want to get involved and succeed. And I'm excited to accomplish as much as I possibly can because "I'll be dead soon."

If you're alive, you're alive for a reason. God's not finished with you yet. So strive to reach your highest goals, strive for the best. Life isn't about dying, it's about pushing yourself to make a difference.