Finals Week

Hello everyone!  Hopefully by now my fellow SMC students are done with finals and safe at home.  I arrived home yesterday and couldn't be more excited to have an entire month off to spend with friends and family, free of schoolwork!  But of course I will be excited to return to SMC and start my new classes next month!

I feel like finals week can have a bad reputation, but I'm here to tell you that while it can be stressful at times, it is definitely manageable if you plan/spend your time wisely.  This semester, I had one final/day.  Fortunately, two of them weren't cumulative, which definitely helped with the amount I had to study!  But before my tests started, SMC had comedian John Hodgman (the PC guy from the Mac commericals) come and perform for students to relieve some of the pre-finals stress.  He was hilarious, as was his opener, Eugene Mirman.  I think he provided everyone there with some much needed laughter!

Sunday was when my intense studying began.  My first test was for Anthropology on Monday.  It was only on material we'd covered since our midterm, so that definitely lessened the material I had to study.  I was surprised and impressed with how much we were able to cover in just half a semester!

I spent Sunday studying, and then going to the last 7pm Mass of the semester.  I will definitely miss my faith community at SMC over the next month!  I'm especially excited to return because our annual Liturgical Ensemble trip is coming up at the end of January/beginning of February!

But back to finals - I had my anthro test on Monday afternoon and it went quite well (I got an A-!).  Once I was finished, I headed to the library to meet with my friend Theresa to study for our chem final.  My chem professor posted all our previous quizzes and exams for practice online, so I printed those out and did as much as I could, which allowed me to figure out exactly what I needed to study.  While I was in the computer lab, some of the library staff came in and gave everyone candy canes and little notes of encouragement as a little pick-me-up:

Just one of the many little things that makes SMC such a special place!

Once I was done with chemistry for the day, I moved on to Research Methods.  The in-class part of our final mainly focused on intensely analyzing a study on EMD - Eye Movement Densensitization.  In the midst of studying for that, the fire alarm went off in Linnehan because somebody burned some popcorn - oops!  I didn't midn though because right as everyone was filing out of the building, the shuttle pulled up, so many of the girls who live on my floor got on and took a ride with Dragon, the driver, to main campus and back.  Once we got back to North Campus, everything was fine and we were allowed back in the building.  It was definitely a fire alarm I'll never forget!

Tuesday morning was my Research Methods final, which I think went well!  After that test, I started working on the take-home portion of my final, which involved testing some data we were given and figuring out whether the results were significant or not.  Once I finished that, I moved on to more studying for chemistry, specifically reviewing the material that I didn't know from the quizzes and exams I took on Monday.

On Wednesday morning I took my chemistry final.  I was surprised at how much I knew and I'm excited to see what my final grade will be!  After that, it was time to study for my Social Psych exam.  Studying was going well, so I decided to take a break and go into Burlington with my friend Cait, who was bringing out friend Sharon to the Burlington Free Press for an internship interview.  While Sharon was in her interview, Cait and I went to Starbucks and Phoenix Books, right off of Church Street.  I had never been to Phoenix before - it was adorable!  After Sharon finished her interview, we went to My Little Cupcake to celebrate.  Then it was time to head back home so I could continue studying and pack to go home!

Yesterday morning I did some last minute studying while getting ready and eating breakfast, then took my exam.  Social Psych was my favorite class this semester, so I was glad to end on a high note!  Once my exam was over, I headed back to North Campus to do some last minute packing, then headed home to New Hampshire.  I've been home for about 24 hours and I'm loving every second!  I'm especially excited for my best friend Paige to come home this weekend - I haven't seen her all semester!

SMC kids - congratulations on being done with finals and enjoy your well-deserved break!
Sending good luck to those who sent in their Early Action I applications - so excited for you to hear from SMC very soon!

Also, thinking of those affected by the events at Sandy Hook Elementary this morning.  My thoughts and prayers are with you!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for reading my blog!
Merrill

Being a Psych Major

Happy Saturday everyone!  With finals week almost upon us, I wanted to take a few minutes to remember why I'm on the way to getting my psychology degree at Saint Mike's and to remind myself (and everyone else) that all the hard work is totally worth it!

I arrived at Saint Mike's having already declared my psych major.  During my junior and senior years of high school, I developed a great relationship with my counselor, which is what helped me decide that I wanted to become a school counselor.  Naturally, I declared myself a psych major, and couldn't be happier!  I took General Psychology during the fall semester of my freshman year with Ari Kirshenbaum.  Although it was challenging (partly because of the class and partly because I was still getting used to college life in general), it was very rewarding and I learned a lot.  This semester, I took Research Methods I with Dr. Boynton, which is a requirement for all psych majors (see a complete list of requirements here).  In the spring I'll be taking Research Methods II.  Together, these classes fulfill the SMC Quantitative Reasoning LSR (Liberal Studies Requirement).  They also teach you the fundamentals about psychological statistics and evaluating/conducting your own study/experiment.  I took stats/AP stats in high school and loved it, but I'm a little nervous about RM II (as I like to abbreviate).  However I'm confident that my professor (Ari's wife, Professor Millwood) will be a great support!

In addition to Research Methods I, I also took Social Psychology this semester with new professor, Kacy Pula.  I absolutely loved this class - it was so interesting!  Since Kacy is new, I hadn't heard anything about her teaching style before registering for the class.  But I ended up absolutely loving the way the class was set up in terms of her powerpoint presentations, videos she had us watch, and various activites/opportunities to earn extra points to boost our grade.  We covered a number of different topics, including persuasion, aggression, and love, and we finished the semester with helping (when people help, why they help, etc.).  Everything we covered relates to how people interact with and perceive each other, which is something that can definitely be applied to everyday life.  Every week, my professor required us to complete a journal entry which defined a concept we learned in class and then described a real life example.  This assignment helped me to be on the lookout for applications of my classwork in the real world, which is very exciting for me!

As I mentioned, one psych class I'll be taking next semester is Research Methods II, to get my requirement out of the way.  Hopefully I won't forget what I've learned this semester over winter break!  Next semester I will also be taking Cognitive Psych, with the same professor I have for Research Methods I right now (Dr. B).  I've heard great things about his Cognitive class so I'm very excited!

Overall, I am extremely happy with the psychology program at Saint Mike's.  All of my professors have been wonderful - especially in terms of making themselves available during and outisde of their office hours if I ever need anything.  My Social Psych class in particular makes me more sure of my decision to be a psych major every day.  And if I ever have any doubts or want to try something new, I know that the Saint Mike's Liberal Studies curriculum has many different options for me to consider.  I don't have a minor right now, but each semester I take a variety of classes to see if I can find anything that interests me (in addition psychology) and that I might want to further pursue.  I just finished an Intro to Anthropology class which I found to be very interesting.  Next semester I will be taking an Intro to Sociology class, so maybe I'll decide to minor in one or both of those!

I could go on and on about being a psych major at Saint Mike's, but I'll stop here.  Feel free to ask me any questions about being a psych major or Saint Mike's in general and as usual, thanks so much for reading my blog!  Have a great day!  And for those of you preparing for finals in the coming weeks, good luck!

PS - here's me being excited to go study psychology before my finals start :)

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Hello everyone! Hope you are all having a great weekend so far.  In between working on homework, I have spent most of this weekend doing what I like to call Christmasy activities.  Yesterday afternoon, some of my friends and I went into downtown Burlington to get some Christmas shopping done.  It was a very successful trip!  Today, a few of my friends and fellow members of Founders Society (the group on campus in charge of tours, blogging, alumni relations, etc.) hosted the annual faculty/alumni Christmas party.  My friends Cara and Lauren worked at a craft table where we helped the children make candy cane reindeer!

I'm not usually good with crafts, but thankfully this one was pretty easy to make, and super adorable!

Cara, me, and Lauren!

The highlight of my day was probably watching Elf with a few of my friends.  We all crammed into Emma's and my room and simultaneously talked and made snowflakes.  I also made a paper chain for our door:

Emma decided to finally erase the "Happy Birthday Emma" and write something else instead:

:) Elf is definitely one of my favorite Christmas movies, so I'm so happy I was able to watch it tonight.  What a great way to kick off the month of December!

Have a great rest of weekend, and Happy December to everyone!  As always, thanks for reading my blog!
~Merrill

Decorating!

Hello everyone!  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are now safely back at home, school, or wherever your destination was!  I had an absolutely wonderful time at home and now I am back on campus, ready for the final weeks of the semester.  We only have two more weeks of classes, one week of finals, then it will be Christmas break.  I think most students here at SMC are feeling a combination of stress and excitement for the coming weeks.  As a way to help ease our transition back to school, my roommate Emma and I decided to spend some time decorating our room.  We did this last year and decided we must do it again this year!  Emma spent some quality time over break making some of the best paper snowflakes I have ever seen!  I also got a mini wreath when I was home.  Since our windows are pretty high, we had to move my bed and dresser around in order to hang up the wreath.  It was quite an adventure but definitely worth it!
 

Emma and I were very excited to finally be able to
put up our Let it Snow jellies that we bought a few weeks ago!



 We were very happy with our windows, but that wasn't the end of our decorating.  While going through decorations last year over Christmas break I found a huge stocking and have been saving it for our room ever since!

As part of our decorations last year, Emma and I bought mini stockings to go on our door:


Even though Emma's birthday was a few weeks ago, we're apparently still celebrating :)
 

Last but not least, every set of Christmas decorations has to have some bells!

As small as they may seem, these decorations definitely help to make our room feel even more like a home away from home.  Emma and I are so excited for Christmas and I hope you are too!

As always, thanks for reading my blog and have a great week!

Being Thankful

Hi everyone!  I hope that by now you are all safely at home or wherever you are spending the holiday.  Seeing as tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to take some time to think about everything I'm grateful for this year.  There are so many things, but here are some of what I think are the most important:

1. My family - As with many things, being away at college makes me appreciate my family on a whole new level.  For me, being home all summer made it easy to take for granted the fact that I lived with my family and could therefore see them whenever I wanted.  It also made it easier to get annoyed with them about trivial things that didn't really matter.  However being back at school for a few months has helped me to regain my appreciation for my family and everything they give me.  Those of you who know me know that I have an extremely close relationship with my mom.  I always keep in contact with her when I'm at school, but there is something special about actually seeing her face, being able to give her a huge hug, have sporadic talks, or just watch our TV shows together.  I've been home for a little more than 24 hours and already I'm loving it and am so appreciative of the blessing that my mother (and my family) is in my life.

2. My house - I'm pretty sure anyone who's ever spent a significant amount of time away from home can attest to the fact that there are simple comforts of home that cannot be found anywhere else.  Since I never moved growing up, I am thankful for my house in general and all its little quirks.  Being home again reminds me of all the things I love about it - my goats, doing as many loads of laundry as I want, the sound of my mom working in the kitchen (and preparing wonderful home cooked food), emptying the dishwasher (my favorite household chore, weird, I know), having a room to myself, and countless other things which are all unique my house, town, and the wonderful state of New Hampshire!

2. My friends - I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have such wonderful friends, both at home and at SMC.  Not much more to say except that I love them all and I'm so happy that I've been able to stay in touch with friends from NH as well as meet some absolutely amazing people at Saint Mike's!



Hiking Mt. Philo this past weekend...check out Alex's post about this!



Surprising my best friend Paige at the airport last year :)

3. My health/safety- As my mom always says, "If you have your health, you have everything."  I am so happy that I am healthy and can always go to Health Services if I ever need them.  And of course when I'm home my mom can take care of me!  I'm also so grateful that I feel safe both at home and at SMC.  At Saint Mike's, I know that Public Safety is always there if I ever need them for anything, even if it's as small as locking myself out of my room (which I have yet to do, knock on wood!).

4. Opportunities - I am thankful every day for the opportunities I have been blessed with, specifically in the form of higher education.  I know not everyone has this privilege, and going to school at Saint Mike's is more than I could've asked for.  There isn't anywhere else I would rather be.  I absolutely love it there and can't wait to go back on Sunday!


Oldie but goodie :) Getting ready to send in my deposit!

5. Last but not least, I am forever grateful to everyone who reads my blog!  After all, I wouldn't have it if there was no one to read it!

So there you have it.  These are just some of the countless things I am grateful for this year.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and gets to spend some quality time with family and friends, and eat delicious food of course!

As always, thanks for reading my blog!
-Merrill

Birthday Surprises

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Hope you're all having a great week.  As some of you may know, I had a hard time transitioning to life away from home when I first came to Saint Mike's, but my group of friends has helped me immensely and I now refer to them as my family away from home, or my SMC family.

As everyone knows, birthdays can be very special days.  Last week was my roommate Emma's birthday, so my SMC family decided to go all out to celebrate Emma and make her feel as special as we could.  The original plan was to go to dinner at Sloane, which is the cafeteria on North Campus, where we live.  Sloane is great because it's like a real restaurant - you have to make reservations, and once you get there you are served an appetizer, entree, and dessert!  On Emma's birthday morning (my friends and I have now decided that Emma's birthday is a holiday because the celebration never ends), my friend Cait secretly asked me at breakfast if I wanted to run to Shaw's with her after lunch to get a cake and some balloons to decorate Emma's and my room.  I of course said yes!  After we got out of class, we had the fastest lunch possible and then took the shuttle back up North to get Cait's car, then went to Shaw's.  We got Emma a cake and had one of the Shaw's employees decorate it (she was so nice!) as well as some balloons, apple cider (a drink we all love, especially in the fall), and flowers.  Once we got back, Cait and I raced to decorate my room with the balloons and some streamers.  We wanted to be finished before Emma got back from class so it was both stressful and exciting!

Fortunately, we were successful.  Emma was completely surprised by the decorations!  We had a great time at Sloane, and when we got back we had cake and spent some time together as a family.  Amanda, our wonderful RA, took some pictures for us:

Emma being all excited about our decorated room!

 

The fam :)

Fortunately, the fun didn't end there.  One of our friends, Vick, who transferred to Keene State, came to visit us this weekend, so on Sunday we all went out to breakfast at one of our favorite spots in Burlington, The Skinny Pancake.

Cait, Alex, Vick, Emma, me, Lindy

Today, Emma's dad was able to come up to see her and he was kind enough to take us all out for dinner at another restaurant in Burlington called Leunig's.  I had steak (my favorite food) which was absolutely delicious!!

Unfortunately Emma's birthday present from her SMC family still hasn't come in the mail yet, but that's okay because it gives us an excuse to keep celebrating until it does!  Emma has been so grateful for everything we've done for her, and it makes us feel so special that we got to spend her birthday with her and make it extra special.  Special events like these remind me how lucky I am to have found such a wonderful group of friends at SMC - I couldn't be luckier!

Best of luck to everyone with all their work this week - I know students at SMC are looking forward to our much needed Thanksgiving break next week!

As always, thanks for reading and have a lovely day!

Class Registration

Hello everyone! If you've been following other SMC blogs, I'm sure you've heard lots about class registration that went on this past week (shout out to my fellow blogger and friend Alex!).  It seems that everyone has their own personal story about registration, so I wanted to share mine with you! 

My process, like everyone else's, began with meeting with my academic advisor to dicuss what classes I might want to take next semester.  I was able to decide this by figuring out what LSRs (Liberal Studies Requirements) I still need to complete as well as what other classes I need to take for my psychology major.  After I got my classes and a list of alternatives together, all I could do was wait for registration day.  For me, this was on Tuesday.  Registration opens at 7am to make sure no one is in class when they're supposed to be registering, so everyone wakes up bright and early, and if they're lucky, they get to go back to sleep when the process is over!

Anyway, I have chem lab at 8:15 on Tuesday mornings, so I had to get up super early to register.  Around 6:50am I logged onto SMC's registration website called Knightvision to get my list of classes together.  When 7:00 came around, I made a huge mistake.  There was a button at the top of the screen that allows you to select the same option for all the classes in your list (register, withdraw, etc.) and I accidentally pressed register for all, which means that I was attempting to register for all of the classes I wanted, as well as my alternatives.  In other words, I was trying (accidentally of course) to make a schedule for myself that was completely impossible!  So after sitting at my computer for 12 agonizingly long minutes staring at the loading screen, I wasn't sure what to do.  I opened Knightvision up in a new tab and was only able to register for two classes (ideally you're supposed to register for four/semester), one of them being an alternative that I would rather take during a different semester.  I wasn't sure what to do, so my roommate Emma and my friend Cait tried to calm me down and tell me that everything would work out.  I had to continue getting ready for chem lab, but first I sat down and e-mailed all the professors who are teaching the classes I wanted to get into next semester and explained that I had trouble registering and asked to be put on a waiting list.

Thankfully I got out of chem lab earlier than expected, so I rushed to a computer in the library to check my e-mail.  I had responses from a few of the professors.  One of them, who I have this semester for Research Methods I, told me that a certain number of spots are set aside for majors/minors and that he would call the Registrar and have me added to his class.  Two other professors responded and said that putting me on a waiting list was the best they could do.  Although it was good to know I was on a waiting list, I was still a bit worried about my schedule.  Fortunately, next semester doesn't start until the middle of January, so I have some time to figure it out!  Also, you may have seen my tweet about my second chance to register.  Because of the way St. Mike's sets up the registration process, half of the sophomores are assigned to Group 1, and half are assigned to Group 2.  Since I was in Group 2, I registered on Tuesday, but registration was open to all sophomores on Wednesday.  Thankfully for me, a select number of additional spots opened up in some of the classes I wanted to take.  So on Wednesday morning, I was able to register for two of the classes which I hadn't been able to get into on Tuesday morning.  I was SO relieved!  As of now, I have four classes for next semester.  I want to be in three of them, and even though I'd rather take the fourth one later (just because I don't particularly want to have an 8am class), if I end up having to take it, it will count towards my psychology major.  Once my schedule for next semester is official, I will let you know!

The point of me telling you all this is just to let everyone know that although the registration process can be stressful and you may not get into all the classes you want, there is hope!  All the professors I e-mailed were extremely nice to me and I could've ask for anything more.  Plus, if I do take an 8am class next semester, it won't be the end of the world and who knows, maybe it will end up being my favorite class!

Hope everyone had a great weekend, and as always, thanks for reading my blog!  Look out for another blog soon about some of my friends and our birthday mischief :)