January 2012
4 posts
Preparing for departure
Today was the first day of my last Winter Term. Feels weird to say, but alas, it’s true. Unlike the other Winter Term classes I’ve taken however, the next 3 days are all in preparation for our upcoming trip to Roatan, Honduras, for which we are departing this coming Friday at an ungodly hour of the morning.
I couldn’t be more excited and anxious! It’s the same feeling I...
December 2011
1 post
November 2011
2 posts
187 Days
Like my handy-dandy Photoshop work? :-)
One hundred and eighty seven days. This number hit me today when I was sitting in my last Quest for Meaning plenary — EVER. Before starting his lecture on the social sciences, Prof. Hamilton reminded us that not only do we only have 187 days left until May 20, 2012, but this was the last time we would all be sitting together — all 400-some-odd...
Eckerd Students Speak Out
What began with a guest lecture by environmental activist Bill McKibben a few weeks ago turned into one of the most monumental events for some 200 Eckerd students yesterday.
Eckerd has long been known for its environmental awareness, but this semester seems to be bringing new hope to students who have been advocating for real change on our campus and beyond. In McKibben’s lecture a few...
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
1 post
May 2011
2 posts
We've Got To Find Other Ways
I have a huge head. I’m serious. Sometimes people claim to have a big head, but they just have a lot of hair or a broad forehead or something. That’s not true with me. We’re talking gigantic. When I size my head with measuring tape, starting from in between my eyes and going all the way around the center of my head, it’s over 23 inches. That’s a sizable head. And...
Final week of junior year!
I finished my last class today, but my work is far from over. I have 3 final exams next week (2 of them are back-to-back) before I can finally relax, and I have no idea where to start. A lot of students face this dilemma this time of year, but the workload and expectations seem impossible nonetheless.
The last few weeks have been hectic, but productive. I had 2 presentations this week that went...
April 2011
6 posts
Decision of a lifetime
I always thought it was slightly unfair that the biggest decisions you ever have to make are at the most difficult times in your life when you are the least prepared to make them.
This was how I felt my senior year of high school as I tried to figure out I was going to do with my life and how I was going to do it. I know that time of year is coming up for a lot of prospective students out...
March 2011
3 posts
A week in the life
Somehow I’ve managed to survive one of the worst weeks of the semester yet. It was mostly just intensely stressful. I have two midterms before spring break (one down, one to go), plus a scientific background paper to write, and I have to finish the action plan for the President’s Climate Commitment greenhouse gas inventory. Staying up with class readings, homework, club activities,...
I live off campus. I have since about October, and the sense of independence from having my own place has certainly been a plus for me. What I’ve missed most about living on campus at Eckerd, though, is the community feeling you get in the dorms. (Seriously, only ~30 people living in one dorm, and you can’t help but know everyone there, because sooner or later you’re going to...
Magic, music and more
Family Weekend was one of the most exciting things that has happened on campus this semester. In case you don’t know, it’s basically a weekend where parents, friends and relatives are invited to come spend a few days on campus and enjoy a full schedule of special events, good food, and entertainment. Although my family didn’t come, I still got to enjoy most of the benefits from...
February 2011
4 posts
I Left Home A Long, Long Time Ago
This weekend proved to be interesting. Our annual Parent’s Weekend took place, in which all those parents who pay for their children to soak up the rays here in Florida get to reap the benefits of their dollars spent; they get to come to Eckerd and see some cool events, the new improvements to campus, and hopefully (and most importantly!) their kids. My parents had yet to come to this...
Let The Sun Wrap Its Arms Around Me
It’s definitely crunch time. The semester is in full swing and everyone is getting busier and busier as classes pile on projects, papers and presentations. Everyone I know seems to be growing more and more stressed out. We’ve been in this semester about 3 weeks now, and people are finally fitting into their routines of homework, reading, extra-carriculars and that all-important...
So much to do
I’ve gone from being totally overwhelmed at the beginning of the semester, to now sort of just hanging on for dear life and enjoying the roller coaster ride. There is so much to do, it’s not even worth trying to think about it all. You just sort of have to take each day at a time — and now that the weather has decided to warm up, it makes it that much harder to concentrate!
But...
Overwhelmed
We’re at the end of the first week of classes, and I’m starting to form a pretty clear picture (I think!) of what this semester is going to be like. If I had to describe it in one word right now, it would be: overwhelming.
Surprisingly, I had not anticipated my classes this year would be as hard and time-consuming as they are all turning out to be. I’m not sure what I was...
January 2011
7 posts
Undeniable
A lot of people talk about how great Winter Term trips abroad are. While I’ve never actually been on a Winter Term trip, as you may know from my last post, I am definitely one to promote studying in other cultures. However, there are plenty of great things going on on-campus and here in the United States for Winter Term as well.
For instance, I am currently taking a Songwriting class for...
All hands on deck
Wednesday morning I found myself at the Eckerd Waterfront boarding the beach cat. We were heading out into the bay with my winter term class to collect fish samples, using an otter trawl (a type of net towed behind the boat).
Let me just tell you, there is no better way to start your day than out on a boat, surrounded by dolphins, under a clear blue sky, bright warm sun, and the smell of sea...
Peachy
Getting back into the swing of things can be awfully difficult. When Winter Term began I was nowhere near excited to begin what is soon to become my last few months at Eckerd College, but now that it’s been a few days I’m really beginning to warm up to the idea. I had a great, relaxing break, splitting my time between my own family in Nashville, and my girlfriend’s family on...
A dip in the pond
Today was the first day of Winter Term, the month-long session here at Eckerd where students take just one class in January. This year I’m taking “Marine Fishes of Florida,” an intensive course on, well, marine fishes… of Florida. I wanted to take this class mainly so I wouldn’t be stuck inside a classroom all winter term, and of course to learn more about fish.
We...
December 2010
6 posts
9 Crimes
I have completed my final fall semester of my college career. In just one more Winter Term and one more semester, approximately five more months altogether, I will have a degree. Scary thought, huh? The world is a scary place.
Whenever I finish a semester I like to take a look through my notes and reflect on what I’ve learned. It’s a nice closing to each class and it helps me to...
Another year
I am always amazed when I realize another year (and thus another semester) has gone by. I think I can officially say this has been one of the best years — and one of the fastest — I have ever had.
Just to think I started off last January taking my first Winter Term course, studying birds, and just a few weeks later I found myself halfway around the world living with 18 strangers at...
Oh, Dear
It just became reality to me that I will be graduating in May. This isn’t like high school graduation; there’s no next step. Maybe you go to graduate school or maybe you get a job but hopefully you don’t end up couch surfing, right? Here I am, talking to one of my good friends via Facebook chat about how he’s going home early for winter break because he has no exams,...
The Pale Blue Dot
I was recently talking with a friend at school about about Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot (all hail the power of Wikipedia!).
If you don’t already know what it is and you’re too lazy to click on the link, basically the Pale Blue Dot is a picture taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990 (coincidentally the year I was born) by request of Carl Sagan during one of its missions. The...
November 2010
14 posts
“It’s not enough to say “stop and smell the roses.” You have...”
Video Killed The Radio Star
I love the holidays because I get to listen to Christmas music. My all time favorite thing is to listen to old Christmas vinyl records. I have an old 1950s record player in my apartment, and I’ve collected quite a few records over the past few years, some of them my parents’, some from flea markets or vintage stores, and some from online. While thumbing through my collection looking...
Thanksgiving is a time for...
Thanksgiving is always a lot of fun with my funky family. We cook all day-with our three dogs watching intently to grab a scrap of food, I sneak them food, and then at about 5 or 6pm, we sit down to enjoy our meal and chat. Everything is vegetarian and some things are vegan for my health conscious brother. A blanket of food including corn bread dressing, green bean casserole, brown rice, deviled...
Falling in love with puppies and kittens in St....
All seniors at Eckerd are required to take a course called Quest for Meaning. While that sounds like a knight’s tale in the making (because of the “quest” part), it’s really a class focused on finding what is meaningful in the world, and what has meaning for you. One of the aspects of the class is to complete 40 hours worth of volunteering at an organization in the Tampa...
Rose Tint My World
People often use the expression “looking through rose-tinted glasses” when they mean to say that everything is seemingly positive. I’m not really sure why. Do people often wear rose-tinted glasses? Is that a thing? I was pretty sure that these were a fashion experience of the 70s, and since I was not born anywhere near the 70s, I’ve never discovered exactly what...
Elliott McDaniel
Senior
Major: East Asian Studies
Minors: Anthropology, Chinese Language and Women’s and Gender Studies
Hails from: Tennessee
My name is Elliott, I’m twenty-two years old, and I have no idea what I’m doing with my life. I’m majoring in East Asian Studies and my favorite color is green, sometimes orange. I drive a Honda Element. I’m a vegetarian. I have an iPhone and a girlfriend. One of...
Veronika Slep
Sophomore
Major: Political Science
Minor: International Relations Journalism (maybe)
Hails from
Florida
The name is Veronika. I’m a sophomore and a twenty year old world traveler searching for my cause in life. I live, sleep, eat, and breathe politics and I work to elect local and national Democratic candidates. I have a passion for service and doing anything I can to help those...
Peace Corps- Not a job, but a lifestyle.
Hi everyone following the EckerdLife blog- I’m your newest set of eyes into this campus. I’ve been here for three and a half years, so I’m really comfortable with this, yet not so comfortable with the idea of graduating next spring! But this isn’t the point of this blog I’m writing for you now. What I wanted to tell you all about is the Peace Corps.
What you are...
