EEK!

Hello everyone!

We are now almost a month into the school year, and it's easy to say that a lot has changed. This summer was not the greatest on record, I will admit. And instead of really directly explaining it all, I'll just list it to be short and sweet (well, I'll explain some stuff). 

1. I got in a car accident in May and totaled my Chevy Aveo. Now, I drive a Mazda3 with personalized license plates. You'll know when you see me.

2. I got to go to Florida with the Follon family. We went to Daytona Beach, Walt Disney World, and a bunch of other fabulous places. It was a great experience and I'm so fortunate to feel like a part of their family. 

3. My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer in late July. They had found a 4-inch tumor in her left lung that had deteriorated and completely taken away one of her ribs. She did radiation treatments for a couple weeks in August and tomorrow (September 13th) she has surgery to get a port put in for chemotherapy administration. 

4. I sprained my ankle while at Maquoketa Caves. I didn't even do anything cool to do it. I just walked down a gentle incline, and the goal was to look out over the park from a rock ledge. Instead, I just kind of rolled my foot awkwardly and BAM! Wounded. Couldn't walk, wasn't fun. 1/10 just because Dalton attempted to ice my foot with an ice cream sandwich. But I still wouldn't recommend. 

5. I decided not to be involved with Women's Chorus (at least for this semester). I kind of thought of it as a hefty time commitment on top of having two jobs and school work. I am, at the minimum, taking this semester to see if I like not being in it.

6. As most of you saw yesterday, I received a bid to join Alpha Delta Pi, a sorority at UNI. I spent this entire week going through formal recruitment, which included house tours, philanthropy rounds, and lots of makeup and effort. For those of you who know me, I live in t-shirts and athletic shorts with like, mascara if I'm really feeling it. So this week was a challenge. But I gladly accepted the invitation and I am very excited to be joining the first and finest secret society for women! Also I do not know what possessed me to go through recruitment as a junior, or at all, but here I am and I'm positive that with time, it will be a unexplainable experience. 

7. I am planning on doing Dance Marathon again this year! I took last year off to raise money for our Ireland trip instead, because I didn't want to be asking for too much. 

So yeah, the summer could've probably gone better. But I am excited for this school year and all the new experiences it will bring for not only me, but all our Panther students!