Work Hard Play Hard.

David R.

January 27, 2010 - 8:46 PM

It's inevitable: At some point during every term, the first set of midterms roll around and the stress that everyone hates begins to set in. As I have stated in earlier blogs, students can usually kind of get away with going through the motions for a few weeks. Everyone rolls out of bed, heads to class, takes a few notes and then that's it. Now, it becomes time for students to begin applying what they have learned and memorizing all of the important information that has been dispensed in class.

 

Being that I am now enrolled in the upper division classes for my major, as well as Allen Hall Public Relations, I have noticeably more work to get done during the day than I did when I was a freshman. Consequently the pressure is a little greater and the stress level is a little higher. I have realized that the best way to relieve stress is by cranking out work, and being stressed tends to make we work more quickly. It's a simple theory. When I don't have too much homework to do, I tend to sit around and procrastinate, knowing that I have plenty of time to do it later on. However, when I have a lot of work to do, I tend to work faster and more efficiently because I know I have a good deal of work to get done. Now that I am a little busier, I try to find things to work on that may not be due for a while so that I can get a little ahead of the game. This allows me to still have time to go out and have the fun that comes along with being a college student. A professor once told me that college is all about finding a way to balance work and fun. I strongly agree and feel that too much of one or the other could be detrimental. Someone who is working all of the time won't ever really have a social life, and will consequently never have time to relax and recuperate. At the same time, someone who is all play and no work will have a hard time attending to obligations, which will result in a poor GPA, making it difficult to find work after graduation.

 

Getting work done, and doing it how it is supposed to be done is a very gratifying feeling, and makes leisure time even more enjoyable. Being in college truly teaches students the meaning of being independent and finding solutions to problems with no one else's help. Being from out of state hammers home this principle even more, because even if I wanted to go see my parents, I couldn't because they are over 1,000 miles away. No college student has ever graduated without experiencing moments of stress. It is inevitable, but if you work hard, you can play hard. College is the best four years of life. Grab the bull by the horns and do as much as you can while you are here. The memories created will last a lifetime.

 

 

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Typical Week

David R.

January 24, 2010 - 10:52 AM

After my English 260 class gets out on Thursday, my class-attending obligations are complete for the week. All four of my classes this term are formatted the same way. Students attend two lecture periods during the week, and that is it. Some classes have required discussion classes that meet for an hour at some other time during the week. It is nice not having to attend one of these discussion classes because it's one less hour of class during the week. On Mondays and Wednesdays I only have one class, which is my sociology class, and it runs from noon to 1:20 p.m. These days are nice because I basically have the entire day to catch up on homework that might be due later in the week. We have chapter meetings for my fraternity on Monday nights as well, which tends to go for a few hours, so it is convenient that I don't have a day full of classes before this event.

 

My Tuesdays and Thursdays are significantly busier. If you only have classes four days a week, and on two of them, you only have one class, it is a safe bet that the other two days might be kind of brutal. My day starts at 6:45 a.m. when I wake up for my 8 a.m. class. I get up earlier that I normally would because I have to walk up to my fraternity to get breakfast because I am on the meal plan. I was originally tempted to skip breakfast for a few more minutes of sleep, but I soon realized that that is a bad idea because after breakfast I can't eat again until two o clock in the afternoon.

 

My first class on Tuesdays and Thursdays is J440 which is a public relations class. This class goes from eight to 9:50 a.m. After this class, I go straight over the the Lillis Business Complex for my marketing class. I am taking this class to obtain a minor in business, which I think goes well with public relations. This class goes from 10 to 11:50 a.m. After this class, I go right across the way to McKenzie Hall for my English class, which goes from noon until 1:50 p.m. I enjoy this class because Tuesday is movie day and we sit in class to watch and analyze famous movies from past decades. Once this class ends I can finally go and grab some lunch. Having six hours of class in a row can be brutal, but I would personally like to get it over with all at once as opposed to having six hours of class spread throughout the day.

 

Once I'm done I usually try to make it to the gym to work on my fitness. I am trying to make this more of a priority because I don't exercise nearly as frequently as I was when I was playing on the club baseball team. When Saturday rolls around, if the weather is nice like it was yesterday, I will usually try to go outside and play basketball, or football, or something of the sort. No one really likes Sunday because Sunday is a homework day. Today however, the NFL playoff games are my incentive to get my homework out of the way in advance. I love spending my weekends in Eugene. I love being in a college town and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

 

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This is How We Do It.

David R.

January 20, 2010 - 8:40 PM

Even being in my third year at the University of Oregon, my friends at home are always in disbelief that we don't start school until the end of September. When all of my friends leave towards the beginning of August, the Ducks all around the country still have another month and a half to wait. All of the schools in Colorado are on the semester system, so none of my friends, the majority of whom stay in state for school, have any familiarity to the quarter system.

 

I always hear about how dumb it is that Oregon starts so late, and how lame it is that I have to hang around home for an extra month and a half alone. Although this system seems like a joke to some, I find it rather enjoyable, and I can't imagine being at a semester school.

 

Being at home for that extra time during the summer allows me to spend more time with my family. I spend a lot of time working, so when I have no friends to hang out with, it allows me to hang around with my family more, which is always nice before leaving for school.

 

One other aspect of the quarter system is that classes in the spring term don't end until the beginning of June. My friends always give me grief about the fact that they get done so much earlier than I do. I really don't mind though because being at the U of O allows me to spend time with all of my Oregon friends into May and June, which is a gorgeous time period in Eugene. Everything is green, and the sun is shining on a day to day basis.

 

My favorite part about being on the quarter system is the class structure throughout the year. Being on a quarter system means that every ten weeks, it is time to switch classes. This is nice because students don't get burned out from taking the same classes for an extended period of time. Just when students start to get sick of certain classes, it is time to switch again. Instead of taking only two different groupings of classes, U of O students can take over 16 different four-credit classes in the course of a year. This allows students to take an array of classes and gain exposure to many different topics. This is really nice too when trying to pick a major. Students can take significantly more classes to try to find a topic that they are interested in.

 

The last nice thing about being on the quarter system has to do with that nice little break that comes in the spring time. Spring Break is a yearly highlight for college students. Luckily for Oregon students, that break comes right in between the winter and spring terms. This means that students here will be taking a new set of classes when they return, so there is absolutely no school work that needs to be completed during this time. Students at semester school have the same classes when they return from the break, so it is much more likely that these students will have some academic work to attend to over the break.

 

The quarter system at the U of O makes school enjoyable. I can't imagine doing it any other way.

 

 

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Coastal Oregon

David R.

January 17, 2010 - 5:34 PM

After driving through the rain for a few hours, my roommates and I finally arrived back at our house in Eugene. Another beach trip to Manzanita was a perfect way to spend the long weekend.

 

We departed for the beach in the early afternoon on Saturday, and as we were leaving, a few of us were debating about the quickest way to the beach. One route ventures up to Portland, and then cuts across to the west, before finally curving back down south for the last small portion of the trip. Another route eliminates the slight back tracking involved in the first route, and takes travelers up to Albany, and to then to the northwest to Manzanita. The majority of us felt that the latter option would be the best way to get there, since we wouldn't be forced to turn back south at any point in time.

 

After five grueling hours of driving, including two pit stops to ask for directions, we arrived at the beach well after sunset, concluding that the route through Albany was a longer trip than we expected. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing that we were stuck in the car for longer than originally anticipated, because the route we took was much more scenic than going dead straight on I-5. We were able to wind our way through the lush forests of coastal Oregon, seeing a part of the state that few of us had seen before.

 

We started the evening by walking around the town in search of tasty meal after a long day of traveling. We eventually stumbled upon a new mexican restaurant that was hosting its grand opening. One unique aspect about Manzanita is the noticeable lack of conventional chain restaurants. No McDonalds, no Burger King; nothing but family restaurants owned by the locals. It gives visitors a chance to branch out and experience a restaurant they might not have ever heard of before.

 

A must-do-activity while visiting the coast is a visit down to the water. As we arrived long after the sun had set, we were forced to take a trek down to the beach with the wind howling and the rain pouring. The Oregon coast in winter displays a very different perspective of the beach scene. When many people think of the beach, they tend to think of the beaches of southern California, where the sun is shining all day, and the average temperature is around 75 degrees. In the Pacific Northwest, the conditions are much different. The village idiot is the one who heads to the water in shorts and a tee-shirt. The wind was gusting at speeds up to 30 mph, while the sound of the waves crashing on to the shore got the adrenaline pumping. I enjoy being in cold weather, and I can't remember the last time I could see my breath standing on the beach.

 

It is rather convenient to be only a few hours away from a relaxing weekend getaway. With the coast only 50 miles from Eugene, University of Oregon students find that the beach is only a hop, skip and a jump down US 101, the nation's prettiest highway.

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MLK Day, and the Potential in Allen Hall

David R.

January 12, 2010 - 10:07 PM

Even during week two, everyone still seems to have the blues about being back in classes. One of the advantages of the winter term is that after only two weeks of classes, the students are given a three day weekend to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Everyone knows how hard it is to get out of bed on Monday mornings. It will put a nice spin on the week to have that extra day of relaxation.

 

Many students decide to hang out and relax in Eugene, while some others depart to various destinations throughout the northwest. Some of my friends are heading to Vancouver, B.C., while others are heading to the Sun River Resort in Bend. My roommates and I decided to take a different route. On Saturday morning we will be departing Eugene to head to Manzanita, a coastal city on the rocky coast of Oregon. My roommate's parents own a beach house there, and they were generous enough to let us use it for the weekend. I have been here one time before during a spring break, and it was a blast. I am entirely land-locked in Colorado, so it is always a nice privilege to make it out to the ocean. The town itself is rather small, and it is full of authentic stores that can't be found anywhere else. Even though the water during this time of the year is freezing, its always nice to be able to walk along the water, and hear the sounds, and smell the scents that can only be found near the ocean. One of the nightly highlights of this trip is the bonfire we create on the shore. Hearing the thundering waves crash against the shore at dusk is truly memorable. The life in Eugene is always a great time, but it is always fun to partake in a scenic getaway away from campus.

 

When I returned to school this term, one of the first things I did was interview to become a part of Allen Hall Public Relations, a student-run firm from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. Fortunately, I was accepted to this position shortly thereafter, and I attended my first meeting tonight. We went over all of the standard guidelines, and we were shortly placed into our clients groups, with which we will be working all term. My client group is Habitat for Humanity, and they have asked us to create greater community awareness about their ReStore. I am very excited to finally be working with real life public relations situations. One great thing about the University of Oregon's SOJC is that there are all kinds of different organizations for students to get involved in in which they can gain exposure to real world journalism. In addition to Allen Hall Public Relations, which is renowned around the northwest, advertising students can join the Allen Hall Advertising group, which is similar, but for advertising. The journalism school at Oregon puts its students in a great position to succeed, and they do.

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