And then there was one...

So a couple songs come to my mind right now, "i'm so lonely, i have nobody for my own..." "cuz I'm all alone, there's no one here beside me, my problems have all gone..." I'm really not that lonely, it's just that I am the last person left here at SLU. I mean the last of my friends, besides my RA, but she's busy checking people out all day. My roommate is gone, so I'm chilling on my futon without anything on the walls and only a few items left in the room.  It's really weird walking down the hallway and seeing all the doors without any of their decorations and then coming into the room I've been comfortable in for the past school year and it being totally bare. It's weird knowing that I can't just go across the hall to ask anyone a question or anything.  I still have two finals left to worry about though, so I guess it's good to have no one here to distract me. I'm planning on getting my take-home literature final done early this evening so my RA and I can have a Criminal Minds marathon tonight! Then I plan on waking up early tomorrow morning to study for my psych final at noon tomorrow.  Then it's load everything left into the van and back to Normal!! haha pun intended... I can't wait to get home for the summer with nothing to do but work and hang out with family and friends! I'm really excited about my jobs this summer and all the vacations I have planned! It's going to be a great summer and then it's back to SLU for sophomore year! I can't believe I'm getting so old so quickly.  Where did freshman year go? It'll be weird not living on 16G overlooking the center of campus and the entire city, but I can't wait to move into my apartment next year and have a kitchen! It's scary and weird growing up and moving on, but totally exciting! I guess it's time to get back to work for me, because unlike all of my friends, I still have finals to worry about.

It's Friday!

Today has been a great Friday.  I woke up and got breakfast, I haven't gotten breakfast at our cafeteria in a really long time! It was delicious. Then my friend and I layed on a hammock for a while. Then I got to watch Say Yes to the Dress for the fifth day in a row!! I love not being in classes at 10am on weekdays just so I can watch that show! Lunch with friends was good. Then I had an e-board meeting for Students for Life. We basically planned out Respect for Life Month. It should be really great, except Patricia Heaton will not be our speaker:( She's already booked, so we're back to the basics finding a good pro-life speaker with a semi-large name/credentials to bring in a crowd. Suggestions are greatly appreciated! It was a really fun meeting, and we got a lot accomplished! After that I helped the first of my friends to move out:( I'm super sad that everyone is starting to leave. All my friends, except my RA, will be gone by Monday evening. Monday night will basically be really lonely and weird because I'll be the only person here. It will be good though because I'll be forced to study then for my final on Tuesday, or my RA and I will just watch Criminal Minds all night! I watched Tangled with Daughters of Isabella as our last informal meeting, and then got ice cream with my CLC! Apparently all that excitement was too much for my brain, so I took a nap from 10-12:30 tonight. After I woke up I was wide awake and wanted to hang out. Unfortunately most of my friends had already gone to bed, but a couple were still awake so we hung out! Now I'm still wide awake but everyone else went to bed. I'm just chillin here on my futon with nothing to do. I know I should go to bed, but I took almost a three hour nap tonight so I'm just not very tired... I had my first final yesterday (Thursday) and it was extremely easy! I didn't really have to study and I'm pretty sure I got almost an A+! It was definitely a great way to start off my finals.  I also found out that anatomy grades will not be posted until the 18th. This makes me really disappointed because I'm so anxious about my grade! I just want to know if I passed or not... but patience is a virtue... well we'll pretend it is. So ya, I have a take-home literature final due Tuesday morning, human growth and development Monday morning, and Psychology Tuesday afternoon. None of these finals should be too difficult, I just have to do really well on all of them.  Then my dad will be here to pick me up Tuesday and it'll be SUMMER!!!! I can't wait to have nothing to do for a couple weeks except hang out and sleep. Then work will start and will become my life... but that's ok! I have a couple potential vacations planned for the summer to visit friends in Chicago and my fellow e-board members for Students for Life. It'll be a great summer! So I think I'm going to try and go to bed now... probably a wise decision for me... Good night!

Study Days!

I officially love study days here at SLU. Today there were no classes or anything to encourage people to study all day for finals.  Last night there was midnight breakfast (that actually was at 10pm...) to start of the study day.  After getting a late night breakfast my friends and I played ninja and other fun games on the quad for a while.  I grew a couple twins out of my face... aka i got a couple intense bug bites.  They were seriously huge bug bites. We also sat on a hammock for a while.  The weather was beautiful and there were SO many students out and about hanging around outside. It was such a fun way to begin finals week! Then this morning our awesome RA here on 16G got us bagels and coffee as motivation to get up early and start studying.  Instead of studying I went to a study thing for one of my classes and got free pizza! Then I lounged around all day and thought about studying... I never actually got to it though because I fell asleep for a couple hours.  I figure getting sleep is a good idea this week to keep my mind fresh and ready. I went to my last Students for Life meeting of the school year. We played charades! This means that I will officially be in charge of the next meeting with my other Executive board member- scary!  I'm excited for it though! I'd say was a pretty successful day even if I didn't get any studying done.  I relaxed and got myself mentally and physically prepared to crack down for the next week.  Nothing is too overwhelming because all my finals are spread out.  I'll have plenty of time to focus on each final.  This will be good because I have to do really well on all my finals to keep my grades where I want them.  Prayers are definitely welcome as I prepare to end this semester! I'm hoping the next few days will be super sunny and warm because I tend to be more productive when I can study outside for hours, but unfortunately I just checked the forecast and thunderstorms are predicted the rest of the week:( I guess I'll just have to be content inside. I hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather, and hopefully yall have more sun than we do here in St.Louis. Good luck to anyone that still has finals...which is almost no one beside us SLU people. Congrats to everyone that is done with school!!

Crunch Time!

And it all comes down to this... I only have one week and two days left of my freshman year. I took my last anatomy exam on Thursday and I am totally relieved to be done with that class (assuming I passed... we'll see)!!! I knew everything there was to know about all the systems of the body, or so I thought.  I studied SOOOOO much and thought I was totally prepared for the exam, but then it was REALLY difficult... I wasn't the only person that felt this way though, everyone agreed it was much more difficult than we all anticipated. There's nothing I can do about it now except wait and see if I passed. Since prayers are outside of time, I'd appreciate any prayers you all could say for me that I passed! Now that anatomy is over, I have so much to do for all of my other classes.  I have a three page research paper due tomorrow, a five page paper for literature due thursday, statistics final thursday, human growth and development final friday, take-home literature final due next tuesday, and my psychology final next tuesday.  It's all spread out so I don't feel overwhelmed (yet) and I'm pretty confident none of it will be too difficult.  I just need to crack down and get it all done.  After it is all done I will move the rest of my stuff out of my room and head home for the summer!! I can't believe how the time has flown! It seems like I was just moving into my dorm yesterday and now it's all empty and bare again.  I moved pretty much everything except my futon out this weekend and brought it all home.  It will be really weird living in my empty room for a week with nothing on the walls or in my closet or drawers... It's definitely bittersweet being done with this year.  I'm excited for summer and to be done with this year of school, but I'm not ready to leave SLU and my friends here. It's so weird thinking forward to the fall when my friends and I won't be living on the same floor or even in the same building.  I'm going to miss just walking across the hall to ask a question or hang out, or just chilling in the hallway talking.  It'll be weird not seeing all of them for three months, but I am excited to see my friends from home for those three months (at least most of my friends). 

This weekend was a jam packed weekend! I came home early Friday.  My family enjoyed a simple meal then went to my sister's college graduation! I'm so excited and proud of her that she is moving on to the next phase of her life! Way to go Sara! The ceremony was extremely long and boring, but worth going to to support my sister.  My dad and I had a fun time people watching and making fun of people's names.  We had Mr. Babylon behind us- he wouldn't stop talking! It was quite ironic that we were at Sara's graduation with a guy behind us that never stopped talking... Then Saturday I went to a play put on by very amateur actors, but the informality of it made it hilarious! It was performed by friends of my parents.  Then today was Mother's Day.  I got to spend the day with my entire family and my grandparents.  We celebrated my niece's baptism! We're all so excited that she is a part of our faith community now! I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be home for this special occasion and to spend it with my whole family.  I also got to watch the season finale of The Amazing Race!! my favorite show!! I'm so thankful for my mom and everything she has done for me! She's so amazing! Tomorrow morning I get to ride a train or bus back to St.Louis and crack down to get everything done to finish out my year strong! 

A story about my mom-

My mom offered me pudding once...

ANATOMY!!!

I know I should go to bed and get a good night's sleep, but I'm not even tired right now. I have so much adrenaline because I think I'm actually ready for this anatomy exam... I've never felt this way before an exam in this class. I just want to keep studying because I want to do so well on this exam!! I can't wait to be done with it! Hopefully I don't have major brain farts during the test and do badly, but I'm pretty confident that won't happen! AHHHH I'm just so excited for this day! It's CINCO DE MAYO... for real... and it's high five day here at SLU- give everyone a high five to spread some joy around campus- and I'll be done with anatomy at the end of the day!! I'm praying for everyone who has finals today. I hope everyone does their best! I'm going to finish studying this last powerpoint, then call it quits for the night. I'll have time to study all morning tomorrow because two of my classes are already done for the year! Pandora has done an AWESOME job choosing songs for me ALL day. I'm pretty sure I haven't skipped a single song and I've been listening to the same channel since about 1:00 this afternoon! Also I tried to order a new coffee drink today, but they told me they couldn't make it, but then one of the great workers invented a random new drink and it was absolutely delicious! Anyway it's been a good and productive day, even despite all my Facebook creeping and procrastination! St. Joseph Cupertino pray for all of us with tests today! Happy Cinco de Mayo to everyone!

Ummmm...

I feel like posting, but don't really have anything to post about... So I guess I'll just talk about how I missed a free showing of the Winnie the Pooh movie that is coming out this summer.  The first hundred people got free snuggies to.  I really wanted to go, but I knew I shouldn't so I could get to bed early tonight.  I'm really disappointed I missed out on such an awesome opportunity though to get a free snuggie and watch Winnie the Pooh.  I was really tempted to wear my brown slanket and matching slippers to the movie because that's how I got my nickname Winnie the Shit... but I didn't even go to the movie, so that's probably a really good thing for many reasons.  Instead of going to the movie I went to 10pm mass in my dorm.  It was a really good mass, just like it always is!! Anyway that's all I have to say for now. Hope everyone is staying calm amidst the stress of life these last few days/weeks of school! I'm praying for everyone who has a lot of projects and finals to do for school! Here's a really cool video that one of my friends here at SLU showed me recently. I'm a little obsessed with it! Enjoy!

Woah

This weekend was quite awesome! It all started with SLU's The Price is Right.  It was a legit copy cat of the actually show. There were awesome prizes such as an LCD tv, blue ray player, bike, etc. I happened to win the best prize of the night though- a big stuffed Billikin.  I also got to see one of my best friends there who was visiting St. Louis for the weekend!

On Saturday a couple friends picked me up and we drove for what seemed like forever to get to Atchison, KS to visit Benedictine College.  We stayed until Monday afternoon. It was a great weekend and I felt like I was on a retreat the whole time because of how different it was from being in the middle of the city.  The hills on campus were a major strug for me the whole time.  Saturday was so much fun! It happened to be Springfest, so we got to have some fun on inflatables and then went to an awesome dance. The best part of the weekend though was watching the Beatification of JPII.  His feast was announced to be October 22nd, which happens to be the day of my sister's wedding! Sunday we "studied" all day and then hung out at Holy Grounds after mass. I had one of the best coffee drinks I've ever had!  Monday we went to breakfast and lunch then headed back to St. Louis.  The entire weekend SO much fun and I'm so glad I was able to visit BC.  It was a TOTALLY different experience than what I'm used to here at SLU. Now that I have visited BC I expect visitors here at SLU!! hint hint to all my BC friends!

Now it's back to craziness at SLU.  I have my final anatomy exam on Thursday and a ton of other homework and things to do before the end of the school year. I'm excited for this weekend to go home and watch my sister graduate college and my niece get Baptized. I have exactly two more weeks of my freshman year and it's quite bittersweet. I'm excited for the summer and to be done with my classes, but it's going to be weird being away from SLU and my friends here for three months.  I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.  I'm already a fourth of the way done college which means a fourth of the way closer to the "real world."  It kind of terrifies me how quickly it is all going by, but it's really exciting at the same time. I hope everyone has a good week and does well on all their tests/finals/ homework or whatever else they have to do!

Why I'm Pro Life

I wrote an article this week for the Heartbeat, which is a monthly edition of an online pro life newsletter for Saint Louis University.  It is a very short article about why I am pro life. I just thought I'd share with everyone.

Why I am Pro Life

By: Julie Schmitt

                Growing up I never knew what abortion actually meant.  By junior high I had learned what it was, but it did not really mean anything to me.  In high school I finally realized the magnitude of the effects of abortion.  I firmly believe that a baby in the womb has a soul.  It is not just a ball of cells, it is a living human being that has a heartbeat and can feel pain by the first few weeks of pregnancy.  Babies are a lot different than animals; they should not be killed just because they cannot defend themselves.  I believe they should be protected and treasured to be given the same opportunity at life that each of us has been given. 

                It was not until my senior year in high school that being pro life actually meant something to me.  It was something I knew I believed in strongly, but not something I necessarily took part in fighting for. When I found out my sister and her husband would never be able to get pregnant, I realized the importance of not only being pro life, but for fighting for the pro life movement.  The only way my sister and her husband will grow their family is through a woman making the most unselfish decision she could ever make- sacrificing her rights as the mother of her baby to give it a life full of opportunities and love.  Adoption means much more than having a baby and letting someone else raise it. It means making the ultimate sacrifice of love to give a child and family new opportunities to love and grow. 

                My baby niece was just recently adopted into my family.  Her birth mom may never understand the impact she has had on my entire family’s lives.  This baby girl brightens each of our days every time we think of her.  She was the gift of life to our family.  Her mom could have “taken the easy way out” and had an abortion, but because of her selflessness we get to cherish and love this baby girl and help her achieve the impossible as she grows.  My family will never be the same now that she is in our lives, and we are indescribably grateful for this beautiful child.  I am pro life because I believe every human being deserves their dignity from conception to natural death, but I fight for the movement so that my family may continue to grow.  I fight for my baby niece and her birth mom, and for all the women and babies that are affected by abortion.  I fight so that every baby may experience the love and joy that my baby niece will be able to experience as she grows up.