Spring Season

This past weekend my team played in a tournament in Chicago. We didn't do as well as we hoped but we were there to get better and find things we needed to work on, and we did that. In college there is a fall season and a spring season for volleyball. Of course, the fall season is the main season and spring is the time to get better.

In the fall our main opponents are the other big ten schools and that is when what we work for all spring and summer comes out on the court. Many more people come to the games and the rankings are made by how well your team plays. In the spring, the team is usually smaller because of the seniors that left the team, and the incoming freshmen are not training with the team yet. In the spring it is all about getting better and developing a good connection with your teammates before the freshmen come and before fall.

During spring season, our team plays in 4 tournaments. Depending on how many people are at the tournament will determine the amount of games we will play. For example we played 4 games this past weekend.

So far I have really enjoyed our spring season. Although with the training, long practices, and workouts, it can get very tiring, I have enjoyed the attitude of the team. Don't get me wrong I love the fall season, but it is nice to have this time in the spring when things are more laid back.

Spring Break 09'

Spring break, the greatest time of the year, is now over. It is hard to come back to school after a whole week off. Students are trying to get back into the routine of getting up early and going to every class. Most people either went to Florida or went home, from the responses of my friends.

I actually was one of the many that spent last week in Florida. I had a great time and enjoyed the time off of school and volleyball. I went with one of my very good friends that I have mentioned before in my blog, Katie. Katie and I get along very well and even if we are in the worst situation, most of the time we make the best of it.

Our first couple of days were spent on Clearwater beach, we had a hotel and enjoyed the fact of eating, sleeping, and laying out all day. After a couple days in Clearwater, we traveled about 2 hours to an island my sister, Liz, was staying on. She rented a house that was 2 blocks from the beach and had its own pool. Spending the day with her was a great time. We went to the beach for most of the day, but it was just nice to see Liz.

The next couple days Katie and I visited her aunt in a small town. She lived on a boat so we got to ride on that although you couldn't go in the water, there were snakes and alligators. The last day we visited her cousin who is a baseball player and had a tournament around Orlando. We spent the day at the pool and before we knew it, it was time to head home.

It is never easy coming back to school after being at the beach, but the weather has been great here so I can't complain. I had a great spring break and look forward to spring break next year!

TV

I brought a TV to college this year, but to my surprise, I hardly ever use it. I never have time to sit down a watch TV although sometimes I will turn on CMT, the country music channel, as I get ready for class and such.

A television show that I enjoyed watching in high school was "the office". It is a great show and will make you laugh so hard you will pee your pants, ha not really, but it is very funny! When I was a senior in high school I would get together with my sister, Abby, and Heb, and we would all watch the show every Thursday. I am so busy now, I don't have the time to sit down and watch the show.

For one of our birthdays, my sister and I received complete season set of the show. We loved to watch those when we had time. I remember one particular day when school was canceled because of bad weather, which was a very rare occasion, and Ab, Heb, Liz, and I all watched the season, it was great.

It makes me sad to think that I don't get to watch the show anymore, anyone that has watched the show knows what I am talking about. My friend Heb went to Florida for vacation and found t-shirts for the show and bought us all one, I love that shirt, although one of my teammates "borrowed" it and has still not returned it.

My favorite character is Dwight, he is the assistant to the regional manager, if you didn't know. He is hilarious! I hope there are some people out there that enjoy this TV show as much as I do and if you have never seen it, watch it, Thursday night at 9 pm!

YUMMMMMMM

I look forward to many things when I go home, and one of them is the restaurants. I never thought that my hometown had a good variety of restaurants until I came to school. There are so many nice places to sit down and eat at home, and its something I look forward to!

My favorite restaurant is Bonefish Grill. Bonefish is a relatively new restaurant around my home. You can obviously tell from the title that it is a fish restaurant, although I don't really like fish. I don't mind crab, shrimp, or lobster, but fish seems to have no flavor to it, so I kind of stay away from it.


My favorite meal to get at bonefish is a bang bang shrimp. It is breaded shrimp that has the most amazing sauce on it. Although it can be spicy at times, it is still considered my fave. I also like Bone Fish's appetizer, Saucy Shrimp. Saucy Shrimp is not breaded but also has a delicious sauce on it. They put cheese crumbles on top, which really gives the shrimp flavor. I am not sure exactly what kind of cheese it is, maybe goat cheese, but it is good. If you live close to Bonefish or ever pass one while on the road or visiting a friend, you should stop for a great dinner!


Of course, when I don't have time to go out to eat, I love to grab Jimmy John's. It is so fast and easy although, I wouldn't consider it cheap, because when you get it as often as I do, the bill adds up. Ha!


I worked at Jimmy John's last summer for my first job! Since it was my first job and it was summer time I never really wanted to go to work so I often found a sub to work for me. The weird thing is that when people work at a food place, I usually hear them say that they hate the food they served. Now see, that is not the case with me, I could eat Jimmy John's everyday if I had to.


My favorite sub is #4 although when I am not "too" hungry I will just get a slim 5. I recommend both subs to everyone and anyone!

Confidence

I have always been a fan of quotes, my favorite ones being about inspiration, love, and life. I know that one of my classmates writes about quotes in her blog, so I enjoy seeing the quote she picks for each week.

A couple weeks ago I was at a leadership conference when a baseball player told us a quote. This leadership conference was about confidence, and how important confidence is to a student athlete. His quote was "practice like you’re in second, play like you’re in first." I really like this quote! I don’t know if it is because it can be applied to my athletics at the moment or if it is just that great of a quote.

Confidence is something that can make a big difference in an athlete’s performance. I believe that there is a strong line between confidence and cocky, and if you’re not careful it is very easy to cross it. Confidence is something that can really mess with your performance, especially when stepping up to the college level.

Obviously when an athlete comes to a college they most likely were considered very talented from where they are from, but college can either destroy your confidence or boost it. In most cases I think that confidence is something that disappears for a while until you become comfortable in your new home and with your new team. When a freshman enters college athletics, they are crazy if they think they can run the team right away. This can only place a negative effect on the athlete. Of course they can enter the team with the attitude that they are willing to do whatever it takes to play, but when they become cocky, they are most likely going to be put right back into place by the upper class men.

This quote is so true, an athlete wants to focus everyday and practice like they are in second place for a position, or for a team view, in second for the ranking. Thinking that you are in second, will make you work harder or make you push your teammates to become the best team possible. If you are already in first or have that mindset, then what are you work for? Also when the competition comes, you have to believe that you are in first, that you are the best, and play like it. If you have the mentality that you are in second then you are just handing the win to the opponent. And if you have trouble being confident in what you are doing, fake it!

Book Worm

I have never been much of a reader. My mom has always pushed me to read and when we went on vacations, she would always make my siblings and I take a book with us. Most of the time my book never opened. Reading has always been a tough task for me, although when I am reading something that I enjoy, I tend to like reading. My favorite books are the Chicken Soup for the Souls series.

These Chicken Soup books have all kinds of stories in them about lessons in life. The reason I have become so interested in these books is because of my 8th grade teacher. Everyday my teacher would start class by reading a story from one of his books. I had always had a couple of the books laying around the house from my older sisters, so I began to read them at night when I couldn't sleep. I also bought my sister a Chicken Soup for the Sister Soul, and although she never read it, I did.

I think it is hard to read anything, I think that if you are really interested in a book, then you will have no problem reading. Although, I think that it is hard for a book to interest me so I give Chicken Soup a lot of credit. The stories are true and are problem that people like you and I have faced. It keeps me attached to the book because there are so many different types of stories. I don't get burned out on one story the whole book, there are many small stories.

I advise everyone to try to read these books, I think you will enjoy them. They have stories to accommodate any ones hobbies or life.

Choices

I have never been a good decision maker. Although I did make the best decision to attend the college I chose to attend, in which I am happy with my decision. Right now the decision I have been focusing on is my major. It is never easy to pick something that you plan on doing for the rest of your life.

As of right now I am planning on getting a degree in business/management. I would love to grow up and run a business. Although, I can't say that I am certain that it is something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I enjoy communicating with people and can see my self in a position where I talk to people everyday. Of course the thought of coaching volleyball as crossed my mind, but I do not think coaching would be fun for me. It would be hard for me to watch volleyball and not be able to play or help out a team, I think that it would be very frustrating.

My mom is a dietitian and my dad is a financial planner, both my sister and brother have a degree in business and my other brother is studying to be an architect. I wouldn't mind working in a bank like my sister and brother did, but I do think that it may become boring after a couple years.

Choosing a major is no an easy thing to do, and I give a lot of credit to the people that get lucky enough to stick with their major and love what they do. I would always ask my dad if he like what he does and his response was always, "I don't necessarily love what I do, but I like what it allows me to do". Which is a good point, people say that it is hard to find a job well liked, that pays well but if you enjoy what the job lets you do, then it will be worth everything you put into it.