Reasons I'm Grateful

Today is Thanksgiving, and I know everyone is posting on Facebook what they're thankful for, but it gets kind of annoying after a while so I thought I'd post mine here instead. (Another reason is that I'm grateful and thankful for so much more than what could fit in a status. )  YAY! I'm making another list!! I know you guys are excited. 

WARNING:I get pretty sentimental when I talk about my family, so if you are prone to sentimental tear shedding...prepare yourselves now.

(I've taken the liberty of dividing subjects into subcategories, making it easier to read and a little more fun for me. I'm a nerd, leave me alone.)

FAMILY
I'm so thankful for being blessed with the spectacular family that I have!  They support me in everything I do, and they love me unconditionally. I know some people in the world haven't been as fortunate as I have, and my family has had it's fair share of problems. But no matter what problems lay ahead, we'll be there for each other. We're family. 
1) I (literally) would not be here if it weren't for my parents.  They are my rock, my support system standing behind me not only as I make it through college, but as I go through life as well.  My mom is amazing. She lets me talk through whatever is on my mind, and gives me advice and encourages me to trust in God and listen to what he's saying.  I love the fact that we can sit in the car and have a serious conversation interrupted with random synchronized singing to the radio...often in the same spot in the song and usually in harmony.  My mom is a strong, beautiful woman, and I'm so glad that I have a role model in her. (Today is also her birthday, so send her lots of love!!!) 
My dad is awesome.  He's taught me so many things over the years: how to ride a bike, how to catch (and throw) a ball, how to drive, and countless other things. I know he says he's therious (and if you know my dad very well, you can hear him say that) but my favorite times are when he cracks up so hard he has tears in his eyes.  He can definitely speak my love language, and he works hard to support his family-a job that I'm so proud of him for. He's a wonderful guy, and I'm so glad I get to call him daddy.

2) I also probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my sister, Adrienne.  She prayed to get a little sister for 4 years until I was born, and I'm extremely glad she did! My sister is one of my best friends.  The countless movies we've watched together, the random cookie and brownie baking episodes, and the spontaneous park trips where she would take about a million pictures of me make for some lovely memories.  We are so alike, and yet so different.  We provide a great balance to each other.  Even though she lives 16 hours away from me, I know that she believes in me and supports me in whatever I do (especially if I ever decided to move to South Carolina with her...lol)  I love my sister very much, and am so proud of her.  It takes a lot of courage and a lot of faith to pack up and move away from your family and everything you've known, but she did and God has blessed her for it.  She's my hero. :) (sorry if this made you cry, Adi.)

3) My brothers are some of my favorite people in the entire world.  Adam is 9 years older than me, so growing up, we weren't as close as I would've liked.  Now that I'm a little older, our relationship has gotten stronger and I'm so grateful for that!  He's intelligent, witty, (a slight conspiracy theorist), and (saying this in a braggy little sister way) pretty handsome too. :)   He's taking charge of his life and working to make himself better. I'm so proud.
Andrew is...oh geez, I don't know if I can just think of one word to describe him.  Andrew is crazy, goofy, random, hilarious, talented, caring....and so much more!  He shares my love of superheroes, my love of animals, and my crazy curly hair.  He loves God, he loves people, and people love him.  He's a great big brother, and he's a great husband to Ericka.  Their relationship is one I admire, and I hope that one day I'll be as great of a wife to my husband as Ericka is for Andrew.  She's been a part of our family for a few years now, and I couldn't be happier about it! I love having more sisters, and she fits into our family like a piece we didn't even know was missing.  She makes our crazy misfit family more complete, and I'm so glad God brought her and my brother together.

FRIENDS
Oh, man.  To list all of my friends on here would take forever, and I still wouldn't get to all of you! If I don't mention you in this list, it's not because I don't love and appreciate you, it's just that I still have to get ready to go to my grandma's for Thanksgiving, and I don't have time to tell the whole world why I love each and every one of you.  But I do love you guys. :)

1) Morgan Freaking Fender (I say freaking because she won't let me use her middle name) is my best friend.  I love her dearly.  We're like the same person from alternate universes: we think so much alike, but little details are switched.  I wouldn't trade that girl for the world.  She's beautiful, talented, obsessed with llamas, a Cubs fan (which I try not to hold against her too much), and understands the majority of my pop culture references.  With me in college, it's hard for us to hang out as much as we used to, but no matter what, she's still my bestie!

2) Tina and Kina. Seriously. I love these girls.  I love the fact that we can not talk for a while, and then pick back up as if no time had gone by.  I love that no matter how old we get we still act like the 14 year old girls we were when we first met.  I know we don't get to see each other as much as we would like, with Tina in KC, Kina working, and me in college, but that's ok.  Our bond is strong, and I know they're always there when I need them.

3) Beth and Lauren are my roommate and suitemate, respectively.  I include them on this list because it takes a special kind of person to live with me everyday for 4 months and still want to hang out with me lol.  They can match my crazy randomness with their own, and they've made my college experience so much better because I can call them my friends.  You guys rock!

4) I love my youth group!  I'm so glad I have been able to be a part of it for the last 5? 6? years.  We're like our own little bizarre family.  My worship girls Tori and Kenzie, I'm so proud of you for stepping up and letting God use you to lead others into worship.  Kim, Bekah, and Tina-you girls are awesome!  Not only are you triplets, but you're strong and becoming more confident in who you are individually and who you are as a group.  Youth group boys-I'm so excited to watch you grow up and become strong men of God.  I'm so proud to think back to how far you've come from the days that I first met you.  Keep pursuing God.  Youth group girls-don't think that because I didn't mention you by name means that you aren't important to me.  I love each and every one of you!  You are beautiful, and God is going to use you in spectacular ways. I'm so excited for you! :)

Above everything else, though, I'm so grateful that I serve a loving God who has blessed my life with all of these people.  He's there for me no matter what and gives me the encouragement I need to believe in myself and show His love to others.  I wouldn't be the person I am today without the love of my savior.  I'm so thankful that He lives in my heart and that He's blessed me in so many ways.  Thank you Papa, for everything.


Well, those are some of the things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.  Thanks for reading and letting me be all sentimental and stuff.  I hope it wasn't too over the top! :)

That's all for now!
Alaina

Authority in Writing: Respect (pt 3) (and conclusion)

So now you have all your research and knowledge about your subject and the confidence in yourself needed to write your paper and make it so people will listen and believe what you’re saying.  That means you’re done, right?

Not quite.

The last aspect of maintaining authority in writing papers in college is an important, but often overlooked, detail.  Whenever you write a research paper, regardless of the topic, there are others who have also studied the same thing.  They put as much work (if not more) into their research as you did; acknowledging their effort and claims-even if you don’t agree-is giving respect…not just to the other authors, but to the topic itself.

Respect and knowledge in research often go hand in hand.  If you have knowledge on the subject, you can every side.  When you choose the direction in which you want to frame your writing, it’s very easy just to toss the other information aside, to leave it out of your paper because it doesn’t agree with your viewpoint.  Yet, including those opposing claims does two things: 1) it strengthens your own view because you provided counterexamples and explained why you don’t believe they are factual, and 2) you look more knowledgeable and authoritative because you had the confidence to recognize other claims and still stay true to your own.  If you spent an impressive amount of time researching, writing, and editing a paper, you’d want someone else to acknowledge your hard work, even if they didn’t agree!

 

 

CONCLUSION

Writing in college can be a terrifying experience, especially in the first few semesters.  Just don’t let those fears and insecurities take away the authority-the voice- you have as a writer!  Believe in yourself, know your material, and acknowledge the work other fellow academics have put into your topic.  Play to your strengths, trust in your abilities, and you’ll become an authoritative voice in the academic world before you know it!

Authority in Writing: Confidence (pt 2)

You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don’t believe in yourself and your abilities, you have no authority.  It’s so easy to get intimidated when writing in an academic setting: there’s always someone out there who knows more than you, someone who writes better than you, and someone who has had more education and experience than you could ever even hope to achieve. 

But you have to remember to believe in yourself!

You made it to college.  You have skills and abilities that brought you this far; why wouldn’t they continue just because you left high school?  Use those skills to show off your knowledge.  You may not be the best writer, but you can still own what you write.  The only way to gain more experience and improve your writing skills is to keep writing.  Those scholars and academics that it can be so intimidating didn’t start out writing 30 page research papers like it was nothing.  They started out in your place, college freshmen who were insecure in who they were and how they wrote.  And chances are, they still deal with insecurities from time to time, especially when it’s in a field of study in which they aren’t familiar.  Donald Murray, who was a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper columnist as well as published writer in poetry and textbooks, described his feelings of inadequacy when he took part in a colleague’s case study to analyze the writing processes of experienced, professional writers.  But he didn’t let those fears and self-doubts hold him back; in fact, they made him work even harder to make sure he did the best he could.

When you write during your college years, trust in yourself and be confident that you know what you’re doing…even if you don’t.  If you pretend you believe in your abilities long enough, sooner or later it’ll happen for real.  Confidence is a developmental process, and an important one to have.

Authority in Writing: Knowledge (pt 1)

            I know what you’re thinking.  “Of course you have to have knowledge in a research paper, Alaina!  Research is all about facts!”  And you’re right; however, there’s so much more to a research paper than just learning and restating facts.  This concept is hard for many college freshmen to grasp.  In high school, we collected information from several different sources and compiled it together and turned it in.  We didn’t use the information to prove a point, or to serve some higher purpose in our writing.  We saw the info as absolute truth-if it was published it had to be true, right?  When we saw conflicting articles, we chose the side we agreed with the most and ignored the other.

            But guys, it’s not always truth.  If something is published, it doesn’t automatically make it 100% infallible.  It’s important to try and understand all the information you collect-not just regurgitate it.  Analyze the context of the pieces.  If there are disputing viewpoints, explore why the authors don’t agree.  Margaret Kantz, a professor at Central Missouri State University, provides an excellent example of why conflicting viewpoints are valuable in her article Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively.  She wrote that the main focus of her study, a student named Shirley, came across two different reports of the number of French troops in a certain battle against the English.  Instead of trying to understand why the numbers differed (because the opposing authors under- or over-estimated the exact amount to make their respective countries and troops look more impressive) Shirley just stated the facts, and her grade suffered for it.  She missed out on a chance to impress her professor and to stand out.  

            When you research, decide for yourself what you think is truth and make your own claim!  Use that information to back you up.  Embrace your knowledge on the subject, find an angle you would like to explore, and go for it.  Just make sure you keep an open mind.  It’s okay if you come across details that cause you to alter your view a little.  Go back, incorporate that new information, and move forward.

Authority in Writing: Introduction

**NOTE: I wrote this for an assignment in my English Class, so it may be different from the other posts I've written.  Sorry if it's a little boring.**

As much as I would like it to be otherwise, writing papers is a crucial part of the college experience.  When I was in high school, I felt confident in my ability to write such papers; I had always received good grades, and I thought I could handle the next step in my education.

I was wrong.

Writing papers in college is hard!  The methods I was taught in high school were helpful in high school…not so much in college.  I had no idea what I was doing and my writing showed that.  It felt like I lost any authority that I had in high school the moment I walked onto the college campus.  Luckily, my college English class opened my eyes to unnecessary rules, or constructs, I had about writing and taught me how to regain authority in that area.  And now I am going to pass these skills on to you-especially my friends who are getting ready to take those first steps into college.  To have authority in writing takes 3 main aspects: knowledge, confidence, and respect.  Each aspect affects the others.  For the sake of your sanity (and mine) I’m talking about each specific aspect separately.  Each post will be titled "Authority in Writing", and I'll be posting them as I write. Feel free to provide feedback! 

Updates on College Life

I don't really have anything super interesting or frustrating to write/rant about right now, but I felt like I needed to update my blog anyway.

So.......

I'm gonna fill you all in on my life in college so far! (I guess that's the point of this blog or something...)

1) Roommates!


Me and Beth at the Fall Festival
in Fair Grove.  I feel like this
describes our friendship perfectly. :)

Ok, so my first roommate, Kelcie, was awesome.  We got along well, watched a lot of the same TV shows and movies...it was great.  Unfortunately, she had to move to a different dorm about three weeks ago because she was trying to do everything she could to lower her school bill (and I completely understand. I will not be living in Hutchens next year...it's too dang expensive!!).  So I  was rather roommate-less for a few weeks.  Then my spectacular friend Beth (I say that because I know she reads this blog lol) decided to move into my room! It made a bunch of sense, considering she was already over here all the time.  Everything is going great. We're extremely ridiculous late at night, but it has already made for some good memories...and I can only expect more in the weeks to come. :)

2) Classes!

Classes....well, they're going as well as expected.  I'm not failing any of them, so there's always that! For the first time in a while, my classes are actually a challenge.  It's kind of nice, in a stress-inducing freak out sort of way.  (Word of advice to any future college students: do not take a 5 credit hour class unless you need it for your major. Especially if it's math.)  I am SO ready for the semester to be over, though.  I'm kinda diggin' the block schedule kind of thing.  It means I won't have pre-calculus next semester.  HALLELUJAH.

3) Church!

I can now announce that I am (officially) the intern for the Dayspring youth group!! I was unofficially the intern for a long time, but I was given a bit of an adjustment period to figure out college life and such so I wouldn't be too overwhelmed with everything.  (Chances are, I will still be overwhelmed, but at least I'll be adjusted to it. haha)  I'm extremely excited to be a bigger part of the leadership in the group, and I can't wait to see where God takes me!!

4) Other Things!

Ok for some reason my relationship status has come into question a lot in the last few weeks.  So to clear up any confusion, I AM SINGLE.  I don't know why people thought I wasn't.  I have given no evidence that would cause people to think I am in a relationship (except for that one time a month or two ago when I changed my relationship status on Facebook for about 5 minutes. That was because I was talking to one of my best friends and no matter how hard we try, we still tend to act like 12 year olds and we wanted to see how long it would take to get a reaction from my fb friends. NOTHING MORE.)  Anyone who knows me knows that I am rather awkward around everyone.  Around a guy I like? I'm freakin' ridiculous.  Seriously.  I remember certain situations and I just have to crack up laughing because the awkwardness is palpable.  And you might be thinking, "Alaina, just because you're awkward doesn't mean you can't be in a relationship." and you would be correct.  But I'm not going to get into a relationship just to be in one.  I want to be impressed; I want to be swept off my feet; I want to be treasured.  Any guy who isn't willing to do that for me isn't worth my time.  Sure, there may be times of weakness when I get bummed out that he hasn't come around yet, but that's ok.  I've got a God who loves me unconditionally, and who treasures me as one of his most precious creations.  I'm ok with waiting.


So hopefully you're a little more caught up with all things Alaina now.  If you have anything that you would like me to write about, or any questions you would like me to answer, feel free to message me on Facebook or leave a comment on here! PLEASE. :)

That's it for now!

Alaina