First Semester

I got a new roommate the day before I left for thanksgiving break. I thought I wasn't going to get one until next semester, but she moved in two days before the roommate freeze started. She seems nice, but I was getting used to living on my own. I didn't have to think about anyone else's feeling, and I had more space all to myself. I'm also terrible at saying no, but maybe I'll get some practice by living here. I guess I was kind of dreading having to come back to a different living style. I wish I could just embrace change and make the most of it, but I guess I'll just be dragging my feet for a while. I'm kind of glad that she has moved in however, because I would have had to try to find a new roommate at a room switch thing on December 1st. Also, she seems like she is willing to hang out together when we get time and who knows maybe I'll even make a new friend. She also seems easy going and it seems like we are both open to telling each other when we are upset at something the other one does. I should be less lonely and less lazy now, so maybe this is good for me. I think we will get along pretty well, so it's probably just my stick to the plan personality that is making me kind of nervous.

I when home for the first time this semester. I was so excited and I could wait to see what I was missing out on while I was gone. I miss having my younger sister around to talk to all the time. We get along really well, and she is only one grade younger then me. We can always talk about having to deal with the same crazy teacher and we know most of the people in each others' grade. We also have the exact same humor, so I couldn't wait to watch Bridesmaids with her. I learned that I missed home. I missed the people, the food, and the environment overall. I miss teaching Sunday School every week, I miss my birds, and I miss my bed. I love it here and I love being independent and making my own decisions, but I also still love home. I'm glad there is only about three weeks until Winter Break. It's going to feel like a piece of cake compared to the almost three month stay a stuck it out before. The only problem is now I'm coming back to huge projects that I haven't touched yet. That's probably the biggest reason why I dreaded coming back. Oh well, it may be a long, hard dash to the finish line, but I guarantee I'll make it at the last possible second no matter what it takes.

Funny Women

This is a little old but I but thought I'd put it up in case you didn't see it:



This was Amy Poehler's idea, and I love how all of these women are proving to the world that women can be funny too. This had to be a tough choice but I'm glad Melissa McCarthy won. She's one of my favorite actresses and she was so funny in bridesmaids. I can't wait to see how her career plays out, and I'm so glad she is finally getting recognized for being so talented. She seems like a great person and this clip always makes me smile, so I hope you enjoy it too.

Protecting us from What?

From PBS Frontline

Does it ever bug you that most elementary, middle and high school teachers are expected to hid the truth from their students. It's like they are suppose to tell the truth but leave out the parts that might make respectable people look bad. When someone says I didn't lie I just left out the part that would upset you it normally upsets you more later because that person didn't tell you right away and made you feel like you idiot because they knew something you didn't. That's the way I felt when my history teacher showed me the chart above of President Jefferson's most likely true family tree. 

I say most likely because the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society won't allow Jefferson to be exhumed, but they could still test Jefferson's uncle's male decedents since Jefferson didn't have any sons. There were stories passed down about Thomas Woodson being his son, but his descendent's DNA proved he was not a Jefferson descendant. Eston Hemings' decedent's DNA, however, proved that he was a Jefferson descendant. The problem is that this only proves that he is related to Jefferson and they can't prove that Eston was his son, but there are a lot of other statistics that make it only logical for Thomas Jefferson to be his father. So what's the big deal? Sally Hemings was Thomas Jefferson's slave. He couldn't marry her because it was illegal for slaves to marry and he promised his wife he wouldn't remarry. The thing is this wasn't an uncommon occurrence with slave owners. A lot of slave owners had babies with their slaves, and many did while they still had wives. This caused a lot of race problems and this was the first time I'd ever been told this.

 I understand that teachers couldn't tell this to kids in elementary school because most of them probably wouldn't understand it, but what were they trying to protect us from in high school. I think we could have handled hearing that the people we looked up to had some flaws. I was always taught that he was a good person with good ideas, but when I found out he contradicted his beliefs by owing slaves I guess I was just disappointed. I was under this impression for so long and I felt like I made false judgements when I didn't have all the information. 

The information I'm learning in my history class makes me question if most of history I've been taught is a lie. I've learned that Lincoln wasn't really against slavery, Rosa Parks wasn't the only African American woman to refuse to move from her seat, etc. It's opened my eyes and I thought I was finally getting the whole truth in my high school history class for the first time because it wasn't alway pro America. The class has opened my eyes, but I was hoping that would have happened before college. There is so much more to history that past history teachers probably "forgot" to tell you, so never give up on finding the truth and the whole truth, not just what people want you to believe.

Untouched History

I just found out how awesome the Internet has made history today. I’ve always been interested in past, but most of all my family’s past. It’s probably because my grandma has always been willing to share her history with me. Teachers can tell you a million times to learn from your family’s history while your relatives are still alive, but you don’t know how right they are until you actually talk to someone in your family. Strangely enough the Internet brought this realization back to me.

            I’m doing a project in English about the Louis Smith Tainter House, which used to be a women’s dormitory called Eichelberger Hall. While doing research in the archives I given copies of black and white pictures, letters, brochures, and articles that I was suppose to piece together and turn it into the buildings background information. I love that kind of research. It’s like nobody has touched the material yet and nobody knows the great information that is hidden inside of it. Also, nobody has ruined it with their take on it, and it’s just left to be taken in as it is. I also love that the people inside the pictures don’t even know that someone in the future is going to look at them as part of history. My grandparents have shown me their yearbooks, letters from a friend of theirs that died in Vietnam, their old catalogs, and pictures and passports of my ancestors who were the first people in the family to move to America. It’s amazing how much these things revealed about the people I knew and the people I never knew existed.

I looked at the Eichelberger pictures and remembered that my grandma said that my grandpa’s sister went to Stout. I’m still trying to figure out if she ever lived in Eichelberger Hall, but as I was searching the school’s website in the archives section I found pictures of her and her husband in the UW-Stout Tower Yearbook. I couldn’t find out were she lived, but I thought it was pretty cool that I could see that she was in a Home Economics Club and I found a picture of her husband playing pool. My mother told me that she became a Home Economic teacher and he was always a big pool player. I couldn’t piece that last bit of information together without some help, but everything else sparked my interest, and finding this information on my own was so much fun. 

All of this information was in one easy to access place online. For once in my life I could find information about my family history on my own. I couldn’t get the detailed information that my grandparents could give me, but I could find information I didn’t have before. I have technology to thank for making me feel more like a historian, and that’s why I’m starting to learn that I love it.

If you know someone who went to Stout any time from 1909-1918, 1920-1989 than check out this site http://ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/ics-wpd/Towers/index.shtml and see if you can find them.

Worrier

First I want to say thanks for all the advice I got from your comments. They were really helpful and you made me feel a lot better about using constructive criticism in a good way. Now back to the blog...

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.  ~Elbert Hubbard, The Note Book, 1927

I know that everybody worries and they can't help it, but is their ever a level that's unhealthy for people? If there is one I think I'm at it, and I don't know why. I know that I'm so blessed and everything I worry about is probably small compared to other people's worries, but I can't stop.

In my freshman year of high school I wrote a paper on how I wanted to make it a goal of mine to worry less. Yet here I am today writing a blog about the same thing. I worry about making friends, missing my friend that plans to transfer, the new roommate I might get making my life miserable, missing the sports I used to play in high school, and losing my old friends. I spent the first few weeks here wondering if I had made the right decision with my major and school choice. I know that some worrying is good because it makes us take action because we don't want to miss out on anything, but it also prevents us from being ourselves. If worry about what other people think we choose not to do what our heart tells us to and we also stress ourselves out. Have you ever gotten the feeling where you know that if you quit now you feel like you will never be able to go back. I'm sick of feeling that way and I'm sick of always thinking about how I might regret the choices I make in the future. I feel like I'm the only person who looks that far into the future all the time. My sister is calmest person in the world and I'm her extreme opposite. I know I would be so much happier and more free if I was like her, so I why can't I change?

No matter what I'm going to learn how to worry less, because I can't live with this mindset anymore. It's driving me nuts, and maybe I'll crack one day and change my ways. If that doesn't work then maybe it will just take a few inspirational lyrics or quotes like the one above. Maybe I just need good advice, but I will break this, and not just because I'm going to regret it in the future if I don't.