That’s right. In about twenty minutes when I walk to both Park and Clemens Hall and hand in my papers to their respective departments I will walk away from my junior year of college. Wow. I can still remember putting on my cap and gown and walking down the walkway of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to celebrate the completion of four years of high school and now, right around the corner is my last year of college. I’m not sure I’m ready for it but as they say when you’re children playing Hide-N-Go-Seek…”Ready or not, here I come!”

As I sit in the basement of Lockwood library, the same place I wrapped up the odds and ends of my sophomore year it’s interesting to me how different a year can make a person or a relationship. People that I saw day in and day out last year, I’m now lucky if I get to touch base with a couple of times a month. A relationship that brought nothing but tears just twelve months ago is now one of the brightest parts of my life. And again, just like last year, there will need to be goodbyes said to those going on to bigger and better things. But I’m a different person then I was last April and therefore will probably handle things just slightly different then I did.

The next two weeks are going to spent enjoying time with those who I have neglected over the past few weeks when the semester started to get crazy. I’m going to watch movies that I have been meaning to catch up on and try and enjoy the nice weather that Buffalo is finally offering up. For now I’m going to go grab those printouts and finally close this chapter in my life.

Well, we’re halfway through what most students are affectionately calling (heck) week {I’ve put the more PC term in there so no one gets offended}. Although I’m definitely starting to feel the grind of all the work, I’m kind of happy. I’ve been extremely productive the last couple of days and have been really cranking through all of the work that I need to get done. After tonight I’ll be totally done with two of my five classes!! I’m hoping to have all of my work done by Monday {including my 30 page paper} so that I don’t have to worry about getting everything together at the last minute.

Now I know that I say this probably two or three times a year but lately I’ve been looking around at my life and really feel like everything is kind of finding its place. I get to a point where I feel like my life is one big puzzle and sometimes the pieces are all a mess but every once and a while they fit-this is one of those times. I’m excited for my apartment next year, this summer is shaping up to be a really exciting couple of months, I’m so happy in my independence and I’ve got all of my work situations figured out.

I had my meeting with the Judge in Family Court on Monday and although she open my eyes to how hard it’s going to be to get into Law School she also was a HUGE help and is now taking me under her wing. She’s setting me up with the right people and giving me advice on what my next steps should be; all because I sent her a letter and asked her if she had a few minutes to talk about what her law school experience was like. It just goes to show what just a little bit of outreach can do. In the real world no one is going to take you by your hand and show you how to do things but if you talk to as many people as you can and make the right connections, they can help make your life a little bit easier.

I also got the internship with Child Protective Services that I was hoping for next semester! I’m sooo excited! I am going to be shadowing a case manager (who I met and love) and helping her with everything that she does, hospital visits, court appearances, home visits…the whole package.

Although the next couple of days are going to be crunch time I hope if I just take one day at a time, one assignment at a time…it’ll be April 30th before I know it!

Being that it is the end of the year, everything is starting to get crazy!! It makes you wonder why everything gets nuts right before it settles down again. Hm. Oh well, only about a week and a half more before I can start sleeping until noon and spending entire days laying in the sun or watching movies!!

The search for an internship next semester is still on. I do however have a lead and couldn’t be more excited about it! I finally got someone from Child Protective Services on the phone and after just two days I was able to land an interview with them on Monday! So I’ll be heading there after my internship since I’ll be downtown anyways. Also, on Monday morning I am meeting with a judge over in Family Court who sits on the review board of UB Law School applicants. I had sent her a letter last week about possibly having the opportunity to talk to her about her experience at the UB Law School, things she liked, didn’t like, wish she had done differently…things like that. It is just a really great networking experience so I want to make sure that she remembers me so that maybe I can talk to her about a potential letter of recommendation! *crossing fingers*

Today is SoCo down on South Campus. SoCo ((Southern Comfort)) is a tradition down here on South. Every year in the Spring the Hall Council’s on South get together and throw this awesome party. This year some of the yummies are cotton candy, hot dogs, burgers and popcorn. They’ve got a bouncy bounce coming, henna tattoo’s, and free t-shirts. It’s always a good time and luckily today is a gorgeous day! I’m going to head out there after a luncheon for the CA’s since my sister had a huge hand in putting it together and is basically running it. It should be a great time!

Thank you UB movie channel for putting Twilight on the tv for the next week which obviously makes it impossible for me to get work done. Which is fine, there is still some time before my finals start. I really need to get going on my thirty page paper this morning. Maybe this weekend I’ll really start cranking it out, at least to give a rough draft to run by my professor during her office hours. Other then that I really just need to get reading.

Tomorrow I have the entire day off and I couldn’t be more excited. I have full intentions to sleep in, have lunch with a good friend and take my sister shopping for a dress she needs. I’m really excited since I’m still running on very little sleep since Sunday.

Tonight I’m on one of my last duty nights for the year!! We have a staff meeting and I’m hoping to get a nice amount of sleep. Other then that my life isn’t that exciting, for once!!!

I have a new found respect for anyone that works in food service. Today I worked an 11 hour day and let me tell you it was some of the most physically demanding work I’ve ever done. Being on your feet without stopping is crazy. I really love it though. I really like the people I’m working with and I love meeting all the new people that come through the restaurant. Luckily I have this Wednesday completely off to catch up on some of my sleep and relax a little bit!

The visit with my family couldn’t have been better! The only reason I was mad at my job was because I didn’t get to spent more time with them. Yesterday they got here and we went to Elmwood for a little bit to walk around and shop since it was so nice out. Then we went to the Pearl Street Grill for dinner. It was delicious. I just finished up my leftovers! After dinner we were only a couple of blocks away from the Episcopal Cathedral so we stopped there for the Easter Vigil service since I wasn’t going to get a chance to go to church the next morning. Although it was a really long service, it was beautiful. I could have sat in there forever looking at each of the stained glass windows. Below is a peek inside the church

For most high schools this week is Spring Break so I hope everyone is having a blast!

Well in TRUE Buffalo fashion, we had our last (please, please, please let it be our LAST) snow hurrah. It snowed last night and although Amherst only got a small amount, some of the surrounding areas had up to 5 inches.If you live in this part of the state you quickly learn that warm weather does NOT mean that you are safe from the fluffy white stuff. We always have one last nice little storm, let’s just hope that these past couple days are it. It’s suppose to get warm again come the weekend.

Speaking of this weekend I’m counting down the seconds until Saturday. Instead of doing the usual trip to Boston, like my family always has, they’ve decided to come out the other way and visit my sister and I in Buffalo!!!!!! Nothing could have made me happier. I’m not going to get to go home until May 11th so I’m looking forward to visiting with them and having a family Easter (even if it is going to be on Saturday) since we haven’t had one since I went away to college three years ago.

This week has been crazy busy for some reason. I have something to do every single day and I’m starting to prepare to write my 30 page paper that is due at the end of the semester which is going to be a feat in and of itself. Let’s just hope I have a few seconds to run all the errands that I need to get to, oh and maybe grab a couple of hours of sleep!!

Okay after all of the work I put into all of those different job applications, all it took was handing one into the right place and I was hired! Not even 4 hours after handing a job application into a restaurant on Niagara Falls Blvd called The Grapevine I got a call from the owner there. We chatted for several minutes and she asked me to come in today for an interview. After only about 10 minutes she was telling me that I was exactly what they were looking for and she couldn’t wait to get me on staff! I was so pumped! I’m looking forward to things finally falling together for the summer and this has just taken me one step closer.

On Thursday some friends and I waited in line for a little bit for our free tickets to see Bill Nye the Science Guy speak. He’s coming to UB later this month and although I didn’t watch his show that often when I was younger I think it’s an awesome opportunity to be able to see him speak.

And for anyone who wants to know…I only have 19 more classes before the end of the year ((not that I’m counting or anything))!!!!

This past weekend I found out that the addictions center that I wanted to do my internship at next semester is not taking any undergraduate interns because they have taken on too many MSW students (Masters of Social Work). So thus begins another search of trying to find an internship for the fall.

I called several places today and just kind of got put in the merry-go-round of telephone connections and talked to person after person who said that they couldn’t help me. Finally I ended up getting one “no” and one “we’ll have to call you back”. Thankfully when I e-mailed my internship adviser she was able to squeeze me into her schedule next week so that we can sit down and get some real leads on a place I might be able work. In the meantime I’ve been talking to anyone I can and have a lot of people checking in places. In college, as in life, the easiest and most efficient way to get your name out there is networking and using people’s connections; so I’m hoping something will turn up.

This weekend is all about finding a job for the summer. I have filled out what feels like a billion applications and am going to start turning everything in so that later in the week I can follow up with them all. I’m going to be so glad when this process is all over and I have set in stone what I’m doing for the summer!