Dana

Wow, this week has gone by unbelievable fast. In fact, this whole school year has been whizzing by! I feel like there is still so much I want to do at Evergreen, but my education there is coming to an end. For the last three years I have taken 20 credits each quarter, as well as summer school, and as a result I am graduating a year early. For my final quarter at Evergreen I am participating in the Disney College internship

in Florida, and now I leave in 12 days. I am so excited for this opportunity with Disney, and everyone will have a chance to read about my adventures because I will continue blogging my journey.

This week I had so many loose ends to tie up, and projects to complete. I finished all of my homework, including that fiction piece I was having so much trouble on, and I completed all of my self-evaluations. I also finished my internship contract this afternoon and turned that in to Registration and Records. And the rest of the day I’ve spent packing up my things in my house. Wow, it’s been a productive day for me. I only have one more evaluation meeting this evening and then I’m finished with all my work for winter quarter. To treat myself for all my hard work I’m going to watch LOST at 9pm. So excited!

This has been a wonderful year for me. I feel like I have really grown into a much more confident and competent young woman. I have always been on top of my studies and worked hard, but this year I feel like I have really accomplished a lot. I also have enjoyed working for admissions as a Student Ambassador. This job has enhanced my love for this college even more, and it has brought me such joy to share that enthusiasm with other people.

I feel so fortunate to have been a Geoduck these last three years. Through all my experiences, academic and social, I know I have gained so much knowledge and have confidence in myself that I can make the most out of any place my life will take me. I look forward to seeing what the next years have in store for me, and I anticipate many challenges and memories ahead. I hope all of you prospective students find Evergreen to be as fulfilling as I have. I know it can change lives; I’m a perfect example.

Posted by Dana at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend I went down to Vancouver, WA to visit my Aunt and Uncle. Vancouver/ Portland is only two hours south of Olympia. It’s nice to be able to bop down to Vancouver for concerts and visits with family.

Since I am leaving for Florida soon I wanted to get one last visit in with my Uncle Larry. He is my dad’s brother, and he has been like a second father to be over the years. I have just written a fictional story about my father’s childhood, and it was great having a chance to show it to my Uncle Larry. He laughed all the way through, and thought it was a very good story.

Also there for a visit was my cousin Elise. She is also from Olympia, and she graduated from Evergreen in 1999. It was great seeing her again and talk about some of the same teachers we have had. She is a herbalogist and works on the local Native American Reservations. She also just wrote a book about medicinal uses with native plants. She made us all lip balm out of calendula flower petals, lavender, and beeswax. It’s so inspiring to see an Evergreen grad out in the real world working in a field of interest!

On Sunday my Uncle and I went for a walk down on Evergreen Hwy where a Vancouver fish hatchery is located. We went and watched the fish jump and walk on the nature trails. I was very impressed with this fish hatchery because it has become an education center for children. They have a lot of hands-on projects there, which is great for children.

My Uncle out front of the fish hatchery.

The Hatchery.

A really neat tree on the walking trail.

Posted by Dana at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I talk to prospective students it’s kind of fun to hear what sort of rumors they might have head about Evergreen. I know our school has some odd rumors, some amusing and some just horrifying. But about 99% of the rumors I hear from prospies (prospective students) are just that; only rumors. A few years ago I took a program called “Looking Backward” and my seminar teacher decided it was about time he laid some of these rumors to sleep. My faculty teacher had been at Evergreen since the very first year of the college. In fact, he remembers watching the library building being built on his first day of work.

This one particular day he sat my class of 20 students down and we had the opportunity to ask him about rumors we heard and he told us whether they were true or not. Most were not even close to the truth. He explained that a since Evergreen is such a unique college people on the outside have a hard time understanding how Evergreen works exactly. So when something happens on campus it can be blown out of proportion a great deal.

For example, I guess back in the 70s a woman had a seeing eye dog with her in the library building and the dog ended up pooping somewhere in there. No big deal, dogs sometimes can’t hold it. But I guess 5 years after this incident Evergreen faculty and students were being asked from friends and family if it was true that the library was actually a zoo and pets could roam free and they could pee and poop on the carpets.

One true rumor that my teacher told us about is one of my favorite stories I have ever heard about Evergreen, and so I want to share it with you. Apparently back in the 80s there was someone known as the Phantom Sponge. He had a phone number, and if you were throwing a party on campus and there was a still of some sort, a man dressed in all black with a giant sponge attached to his front would come in and clean up the party foul. It happened for four years, until this mystery cleaner graduated.

I would love to see someone start that back up, and come dressed as a giant sponge to help clean up parties. What a clever idea!

So there you have it, folks. Not very many Evergreen rumors you hear are not true, but that one most definitely happened.

Posted by Dana at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just finished a tour this afternoon with a bunch of high school students. It was a group of about 10 kids from a high school, with one of their school counselors. While I was giving the tour it got me thinking about how wonderful it is to NOT be in high school anymore. Now don’t get me wrong, high school wasn’t all that bad, but when I look at my experiences from high school and compare them to my college experience I realize how great it is to be in college.

For the most part I enjoyed high school. I performed in the school musicals and was in ASB, as well as ran for roles of ambassador programs in the community. I had a pretty active four years of high school. But during that time I was only worried about grades, friends, and looks.

College is like a restart. When I began at Evergreen I realized that I could be whoever I wanted to be; none of these people knew my past. If I wanted to be the smelly kid there was nothing stopping me (don’t worry, I continued to shower in college). I think having that freedom to express myself in the way I wanted was a very freeing experience. No longer did I feel like I had to fit a mold to be accepted into social circles.

I’ve also immensely enjoyed the independence I’ve received in college. My parents are cool, but it was nice to have the freedom of doing things when I wanted to do them. If I wanted to stay up all night and eat ice cream for dinner, I could (never have though). Again, it was a freeing thought to know that I was entirely responsible for me. This helped me become a much more confident person in my academic and social lives.

With the independence came a lot more responsibility too. This was also good for me, because now that I was in college I didn’t have a mother sitting on me to make sure I got all of my homework done. I was the one to have to make sure I did everything. It taught me work ethic and I learned real quickly how to prioritize.

Whoever said “high school is the best years of your life” were sorely mistaken. I don’t necessarily consider college my best years yet, but I sure know they rock a lot more than high school.

Posted by Dana at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)