I don’t have much time to write because of course I’m working on Halloween but I hope everyone has a really safe night and attempt to enjoy the windy weather that Western New York has handed us for the night!

Last night was the third speaker in this years Distinguished Speaker Series lineup and UB welcomed the author of the award winning novel “The Soloist”, Steve Lopez. Now to be completely honest with you, I was not the biggest fan of the book when I read it. However, I was really impressed with his message to the audience.

Mr. Lopez started off his talk recounting the awesome experience that he had and has continued to have after he met a homeless musician named Nathaniel Ayers. I won’t divulge too far into the story line because not only is there a book out there but there is also a movie starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr, which I hear is pretty good. But the message that Mr. Lopez kept pushing was one of awareness for the mentally ill. Now I have a special place in my heart for metal illnesses just because I’m around it a lot in the work that I do and in the field of social work that I want to go into so for me this was an awesome thing to be hearing. You do not hear very often of people advocating for people with mental illnesses and I think that not as many people are informed as they should be about it, especially considering the growing number of our population who is struggling with one mental illness or another. It was just great to see someone taking a stance and getting the word out there.

I’m really enjoying the downtime that I seem to be collecting. My schedule lately has been VERY different than what I was juggling in the beginning of the semester. I actually have the next couple of nights off and although I have to work on Halloween, am looking to be catching a few extra hours of shut-eye this weekend.

This is why I love fall so much! It seems in just the last couple of days Western New York has embraced fall. It’s like the trees finally gave in and said “okay we’ll turn”. Everywhere you look there’s awesome yellows and reds and oranges. Plus the last couple of days it’s been consistently at like 60 degrees with the sun shining. Now this is definitely weather I could put up with for quite some time to come!

This past weekend I worked a lot (no surprise there). But I also registered for classes for my LAST SEMESTER AT COLLEGE. I’m not ready to talk about it yet-it totally freaks me out. My fellow blogger Akash talked about it a little while ago but I’m not ready to be considered an “adult” AT ALL. I feel like I should still be trying to choose my major or wondering how I’m going to get home for the next Christmas break, not trying to figure out last minute things on my grad school applications and reminding my parents to get hotels for commencement weekend.

My schedule next semester is nothing like I’ve ever taken before. I’m going to be completely honest with you, it’s kind of a joke. I have decided to only take 12 credits as I only actually need 2 classes to finish my degrees and am way over the minimum requirement of credits to graduate. That means that I only have classes from about 9:30 or 10 to 12:30 or 1 everyday. For me, I’m probably not going to know what to do with all of that free time (I’ll probably find something extra to fill it but that’s beside the point). I’m taking things like Self and Self Esteem (a psych class), the second part of Sign Language (I CAN’T WAIT!), an Urban Sociology class and Biopsychology. I’m excited about all of them except Biopsychology. I’m a psych major but I am very much a social psych girl. I just don’t get the brain and all of it’s inner-workings but it’s a requirement for my major so hopefully with all of that extra time I’ll have plenty of time to study!

And a happy birthday to my fellow blogger Steph who celebrated her 22nd birthday this past weekend!

P.S. Here’s a really cool signed version of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” song. This is just a small glimpse at what awesome story tellers sign language speakers are!

Now  I hate to toot my own horn but I think I would consider myself luckier than most undergraduate students. Internships is something that everyone in college is encouraged to do. A chance to get a glimpse into the real world, make sure you know what job you want to one day do and network; internships are an invaluable experience that any undergraduate student can get involved in. But my major does more than just encourage us to take a glimpse into the real world, they require it.

Some student’s take what might be considered the “easier” internships. Ones that you don’t have to travel that far for, the hours are really flexible and you can sometimes knock some homework out while your at it. But when I first started thinking about my possible sites for internships I wanted to try and get as MUCH experience as I possibly could. I wanted to solidify what I thought it was that I wanted to do, wanted to meet people in the field and learn from their experiences. So needless to say I didn’t take the “easiest” of internships. Both of my placements have been in downtown Buffalo which by no means is far but is a little bit more time consuming to get to instead of just up the road at a community center. Last semester I was in the Buffalo City Courts as a C.O.U.R.T. consultant, helping people find alternatives to incarceration through vocational programs and rehab. I even got to try my hand as a liaison over in the Family Court building, sitting in on several child support cases.

This semester I have been shadowing a Child Protective Services Caseworker and I have a lot of mixed emotions about it but most of all I am grateful. This experience has taught me more then any textbook or lecture could have. I have seen the things that I am learning in class put to practical use through personal interactions everyday. Now, I obviously can not divulge much of what I have seen however, everyday I go home with new information, having learned something in the field that day. It is an incredible eye-opener and needless to say, everything in me is grateful for not only this experience but also all of the knowledge that I will be taking away from it.

I am one of the luckiest girls in the world! This Thursday marked my 21st birthday and I had such an awesome day! I got to take the day off from my internship so it gave me a chance to catch up on some of my schoolwork and finish my readings before having to take a midterm. Well I got a 28 out of 30 on my midterm AND got caught up on a whole bunch of work so it was a successful day!

Some of the different awesome things that I got to do include going to a showing of Avenue Q with my fellow blogger Stephanie! Avenue Q is a musical that was showing at the Center for the Arts here on campus. It was so funny! It is definitely not something that I would encourage our younger audience to go see without a parents permission but it was an awesome birthday present from Steph. I also got to have a delicious steak dinner with my roommates for my birthday. We all got together and had steak, mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was a nice change from the peanut butter and jelly on the go that my diet has consisted of lately. I also got a beautiful bouquet of flowers, an awesome picture frame and some delicious desserts! Overall it was just a great 21st birthday!

Saturday was Open House here on campus. I’m one who looks forward to Open House every year. Even though it IS a really tiring day I always really look forward to seeing everyone on campus and having all of the prospective students taking tours and seeing the academic department presentations. I hope everyone who stopped by UB on Saturday had a great time!

This post is going to be short and sweet because as I haven’t mentioned in a while (sorry Mom!) tomorrow marks one of the most important days in the year…my birthday! And my 21st at that so I’m running between plans with about a billion different people all while trying to not get too far behind on my schoolwork. Sometimes I think that they should just let us take a rain check on some assignments during times like birthday weeks but alas, that isn’t nor will it ever be the case.

On Monday a friend and I met for dinner in the Commons here on campus as we always do before our Monday night class. As we were walking towards the Natural Science Complex where our class is held and decided to cut through the Student Union because these October nights are getting a tad chilly. Just as we entered one of my friends caught my eye, called me over and told me to wait with him saying “you aren’t going to want to miss this”.

Well, there was a line of people holding signs, hiding the words from the crowd what they said. Just as I was starting to wonder about what was going on a  very dressed up looking fellow walked down the stairs with his arm around a girl. As they reached the bottom of the stairs the line of people flipped over their signs to display “Melissa, Will You Marry Me?”. He then got down on one knee!!!!!! The entire Union erupted into applause as this lucky girl nodded her head and started to cry.

Needless to say it was a nice way to start off my birthday week! I guess the fall weather just has us all in the mood to celebrate! Congrats to the lucky couple and thank you for letting us share in your special moment! Just goes to show you never know what you’ll run into walking around campus…

I can’t believe a week has flown by! I feel like just yesterday I was sitting with my roommate making dinner but that was last Sunday and life has just kind of slipped by me the last week. I have been really busy with schoolwork lately. This is the time that it tends to be crazy because it’s towards the middle of the semester so if you don’t have a mid-term in a class you at least have some kind of assignment due or quiz to take in order for the professor to gauge how the class is doing. So I had one midterm earlier in the week, a few big assignments due at the end of the week and have another midterm coming up this week.

I also went to Tony Blair on Wednesday of this week with fellow blogger Stephanie. What an awesome experience that was! Whether you agree with his policies or the work he’s done it is still a once in a lifetime opportunity to be able to hear what he has to say. I have to say I thought he was quite entertaining. There’s something charming about a suave British man in a spiffy suit that just is hard to resist! He made the typical Buffalo jokes about chicken wings but also came with a good message to the world about peacefully resolving issues and listening to one another in times of conflict. It was interesting to hear his point of view on things like health care for the United States where, he doesn’t really get a say in.

Today, a fellow CA and I also got lucky! We have been planning an apple picking program for the residents of Hadley for a while but there was a lot of talk about how it was suppose to rain today. Thank goodness it couldn’t have been a nicer fall day! We packed everyone up and had a great time seeing the different farm animals, munching on cider donuts and exploring the apple orchard for the “perfect” apple! It’s things like this that make me love fall so much. I made sure to grab a dozen cider donuts to bring home to my roommates and have already started searching for the ultimate apple pie recipe!

Earlier in the year I was worried about what it would be like living with roommates again after having my apartment to myself all summer and living alone as an RA last year. However, I quickly adjusted to having people around when I come home. Now of course there are moments when my roommates and I don’t get along but all in all it’s been an awesome experience to have people back in the apartment. It’s really nice to have people home when I get home from a bad day or there in the morning to wake me up when my alarm clock is just not doing the trick.

I say that because my roommate’s and I make dinner for one another every once and a while. Now we don’t usually have time to do it every night but we’ve been trying to get in the habit of at least once or twice a week to switch off making dinner for the other two. Tonight my best friend who I’ve known since seventh grade and I decided to make dinner together and we had a blast! And I do have to give us a pat on the back that we are getting quite good. Although I’m sure my family would beg to differ that that could EVER happen (I never use to know my way around the kitchen). It’s a nice chance to do something together and any interruption…I mean break from studying is always welcome!

Tomorrow is that exam that I THOUGHT was last week so I have spent all day today brushing up on my study guide and taking the practice exams. It’s in Cognitive Psychology which is NOT an easy class for me so keep your finger’s crossed!