Author Archive for Alexzandria Siprian

Ya’Ke Smith is my hero.

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on August 25, 2011 in Alexzandria. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Welcome back, friends!

Back to another year of classes, traditions, inspiring moments, and all-nighters. Get excited!

I am officially a Junior in college! Can you believe that?! So crazy! I’m super excited because I made really great grades last semester and I want that to continue to happen. I’ve spent the summer waiting for that feeling of motivation to consume me, and just when I thought I had it, I get to my dorm and I feel motivation-less all over again.

Yesterday, just like we have every year before the first day of classes, we had our Mavs Meet Convocation. I’m not gonna lie, I never bothered to go in my first two years at UTA – but I wish I had. This year, however, I made my way over to the Convocation, and it was awesome! The key note speaker was one of our professors, Ya’Ke Smith. His address to the students of UTA was incredible and inspiring. No lie, I felt like I was in church. Haha. There was even a point when I said, “Testify!” in response to his appeal. He talked about how you can’t gain true success without struggle. I’m like – oh my goodness, that makes so much sense! He said, “Success without true struggle is nothing more than a gift. And if you give me something, you can take it back.” I just feel like I now have one of those golden nuggets of life that people talk about. Haha.

I feel like I’ve found my motivation.

Ya’Ke was a first-generation college kid, just like me. He has had plenty of struggle in his life, and I have too. I can look at him and listen to his story of success and know that I can also be a success story. Professor Smith talked about how the key to success is in our own hands. Basically, we’ve got to get up and go for it! We’ve got to move, strive, ACT towards our own success.

This year, I’m going to do work and strive towards my goals and my success. There are going to be a lot of trials and hard times to face, I’m sure. But those struggles will mean that my success will be genuine. And mine to hold.

I’m ready.

Happy Birthday to the GROUND!

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on March 1, 2011 in Alexzandria. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Hola todos! (Hello, everybody!)

Not too long ago, I received an email from my Spanish adviser in the form of PowerPoint that said something along the lines of: “Class registration is right around the corner!! Schedule an appointment with me so you won’t end up like this guy!!” (There was a picture of a man that was jumping around yelling…I think it’s really a picture of a film director that was yelling “ACTION!” or something, but we’ll pretend like it’s a student shouting in anguish due to procrastination.) And I thought to myself, “Yeeessss….I love this part.” Call me a weirdo, but I really get a kick out of scheduling my classes. Anyway, I figure since it’s about that time, I ought to make a blog about it. Here are some pointers when it comes to scheduling classes in college.

1. Don’t assume that your eligible day to register is the same as the official registration date.

Like I said, I enjoy scheduling my classes, so last semester I had my schedule planned out and set up in my “enrollment shopping cart” (get it?) even before the official registration date. However…I am but a puny sophomore, therefore I don’t get to register for my classes until a week or two after the upper classmen. (Did I mention we have about 33,788 students at UTA?) The day I got on my MyMav (kind of like UTA’s Facebook for scheduling/financial aid/school announcements) to register, I found that I wasn’t going to be taking astronomy this semester. :| There’s no pointer for this one; there’s nothing you can really do about that, just…just….yeah.

2. If you depend on financial aid, sign up for at least 15 hours.

Chances are, you’ll be taking College Algebra with some old coot who teaches you approximately NOTHING the entire semester, and you don’t want to ruin your GPA, so let’s go ahead and just drop this class – OHH, wait. You only have 12 hours. Drop down to less than full-time, lose financial aid. If you start off with one more class worth 3 credits, you’ll have room for error.

3. Look at the dates!

When you’re getting ready to schedule your classes for the next semester: WATCH OUT FOR THE DATES! Maymesters, Wintermesters, and Summer Sessions are all mixed in with the next big semester’s classes on the catalog. Keep an eye out! Otherwise, you’ll find out 5 days after Christmas that the entire winter break, you’ve been enrolled in College Algebra and your final exam is the next day. It happens.

4. Avoid Overscheduling.

Just because you’ll only be taking classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays doesn’t mean you’ll be studying all day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Especially if you have a job. No, you won’t have any spare time, and YES. You WILL become the most lazy person in the world. You’ll have 5 classes in one day. You’ll have class from 8am to 7pm. You’ll overlook the day of your birthday and have classes all day that day and won’t be able to do anything for your birthday besides convince your Spanish class to sing “Feliz cumpleaños” to you as a practice in pronunciation. Nope, not even free pancakes at IHop. Because that ends at 10pm and you bombed your last exam in Statistics, so you’ve got to do corrections so you can get those 5 extra points to get your grade up to an F+. *sigh*…

5. Schedule with friends.

Don’t try and fly solo, man! Get some of your friends to take a class with you. That way, when your birthday comes around, you can have someone to copy notes from. Trust me, it’s genius.

Is today my birthday? Yes. Did I have class all day? Yes, and still one more to go. Did all of the other things talked about in this entry happen to me? ….We won’t go there.

Razzle dazzle, man. Razzle dazzle.

-Alexz

“Never Say It, Neva-neva Say It.”

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on February 16, 2011 in Alexzandria. 3 Comments Tags: , .

Greetings, people of the World Wide Web!

It’s been a gooood while.

Let me catch you up to where I’m at in one paragraph.

I spent the summer interning in Montana. I battled College Algebra last semester. (It has been added to the Axis of Evil.) I’ve been doing some serious bonding with my Brazos House homies. (My best friend from home, Grace, got to live with us last semester. Epiiic. Lots of adventurous all-nighters, there.) My awesome friends from Montana put money together to buy a plane ticket for me to visit over Christmas break! I played in the snow there! Ah! Speaking of snow, there have been five days out of this semester so far where the University has closed due to awesome snow. Oh yeah! And that pretty much catches you up!

Now, then. Here we are, present day. What is there to talk about? I’ll tell you what we’re going to talk about. I’m sick. Yeah. That’s right. It’s been months since I’ve written a blog, and I’m choosing to talk about sickness. It was in the summer when I started to notice symptoms of what has been diagnosed as a chronic disease. Some people have it, but don’t really know it…That was me. *Sigh*….anyway. My sickness is called joosbiebbretin syndrome. But it’s common name is

BIEBERRR FEEVVEEERRR!!!

Yeah!!! I love Justin Bieber. Not in a creepy I’m-almost-twenty-he’s-sixteen-but-who-cares-he’s-GORGEOUS-AND-TALENTED way…Rather, in a Hey-this-kid-is-pretty-talented-and-he-loves-his-fans-and-yeah-so-his-hair-is-perfect-no-big-let’s-be-best-friends sort of way. So, Friday, Caitlyn decided to take me to see his movie, Never Say Never, for my birthday. (Ps. Justin and I share the same birthday. NBD. And yeah, we’re on a first-name basis.) It. Was. Amazing. By the way,  there are tons of movie theaters around UTA. There’s the one in the Six Flags Mall, there’s the Studio Movie Grill, and so on. We decided to go to the theater in the Parks Mall. Right down the road from UTA….just throwing that out there.

“Okay, Alexz. We get it. You’re a Belieber. But what does that have to do with UTA? Tell me why Justin Bieber is relevant at all when it comes to my consideration of UTA for higher education?”

Justin Bieber’s movie, Never Say Never (which by the way, was double-epic in 3D), has a powerful message. There’s this one line that he says that gets me every time. He says, “There’s gonna be a time when people say you cant do something or live your dreams…. but you know what I say? NEVER. SAY. NEVEEEEERRRR!” You know, there might be a ton of people in your life who tell you that you can’t make something out of your life. You can’t go to college, no one in your family did. You can’t go to a university. You’re going to fail out.  You can’t go because you wouldn’t fit in there. You can’t go because you don’t have the money. You know what?? Never say, “never”! Our motto here at UTA is “Push your limits, in a place where there aren’t any.”  There is no limit to your success. There is no limit to achieving the unachievable. There are no bounds to your dreams here. That’s why I love UTA. Because I can come here, to a Texas university, and do things I’ve never imagined. I can come as a first generation college kid and experience life outside of the small town I hail from. When I thought I couldn’t afford it. When I was afraid of coming hours away from home with no support system nearby. When I had no clue of what to expect because I’m the first in my family to take this path. I’m here, making something out of myself when everyone was thinking that broken homes make broken kids. Heck no, techno. I’ll never say, “never”. Because I’m in a place of ambitions of all sizes. And please believe, my ambitions are as big as Justin Bieber’s resilient smile.

Books, Mountains, and Pushy Friends.

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on May 24, 2010 in Alexzandria. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

Hello, friends!

It’s been so long! [I guess not that long. Haha.] :)

So, as I mentioned before, I am interning in Montana. I arrived here Friday – I rode the plane for the first time in my life! It was awesome! And the airport in Minneapolis is HUGE! It’s like a mall! I had an hour and a half layover, so I window shopped…and bought a BOOK! [For those of you who don't know me, this is a BIG DEAL! I don't read! Not if I don't have to! (Sometimes not even if I have to. Hence, my struggle in History this semester.)] Caitlyn was real proud of me until I told her what book I bought: Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I don’t care if it’s a third grade level book. It’s HILARIOUS! And my mom for the summer [I'm staying with a family up here. Kinda like a foreign exchange student. Except I'm not foreign. Almost, though! Haha.] said something that just…was so encouraging! She said, ”Reading is supposed to be enjoyable. You’re the one who decides what it is that you enjoy!” And you know what? I think I  might start reading more often. Even if I’m reading books meant for elementary students. Because I enjoy them. :) ANYWHO…It’s so gorgeous in Montana! I’m staying in a valley, in a town called Kalispell. It’s like a bowl…the mountains surround the valley. It’s awesome. I keep forgetting that there are mountains outside! Haha. I step outside when we’re about to go somewhere and look up and “OH snap! I forgot about the mountains!” And I just stare at them. They really are as majestic as people say they are. I took a really great picture and set it as my profile photo on Facebook. I can now quote Caitlyn’s beloved Community: “I don’t have an ego. My Facebook photo is a landscape.” Haha.

Anyway, I’ve been in kind of a funk so far. It’s like I can’t remember who I am. Haha. I have been the absolute most awkward person in the world, and I’m like “Who is this girl?!” My dad for the summer told me that I need to find my flavor. We think it’s Birthday Cake. [By the way, they don't have Chick Fil-A or Blue Bell ice cream in Montana! It makes me reeaalllly miss the Connection Cafe!] My summer parents tell me, “Be Birthday Cake! You ARE Birthday Cake! Sprinkle, sprinkle!” Haha. They’re great!

ANYWAY! So, the reason I am writing this blog is to tell you guys about my grade in History. As you know, I spent many many maaannnyy hours trying to pick up the slack I created in my History class. [Caitlyn can testify to that for you!] Grades were posted Thursday, and in the class of History 1312, I made the letter grade of……..

………………………………….. . . . . .   .   .   . . . . . .. . . . . ……….. .. . . . . . . .  …   .. . .

B!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’d like to take this moment to thank God for giving me friends like Caitlyn and our study group [Courtney, William J., and Mike] and my Brazos buddies [Kavaugn, Collin, and Will P.] and the general advisor on the second floor of Davis Hall [whose name I can't quite remember! I think it's Kevin...] for pushing me to not give up in this class! Because I was soooo close to just giving up! Like, I put History on my schedule for next semester because I was sure that I was going to fail this semester! But because I am surrounded by people who want to see me succeed, I did not give up! And now, I don’t have to take any more History courses! :)

Anywho, that’s all for now! Happy summer! :D

“Looks like a storm’s a-brewin’!”

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on May 14, 2010 in Alexzandria. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

I. AM. DONE! With my first! Year! Of COLLEGE!!!

Iiiii can not believe this!! It’s…aahh!! I was talking to my best friend [Maria Rodriguez] about it yesterday, and I was like “Aahh :’( I’m done with my first year of colleeegggeeeuuhhaaahhhh!!” And her reply was AWESOME! “Ugh! Stop whining! This is exciting! You’re the first in your family to even go to college!” Bahahaaaa….I loved this because…1. She’s a junior in high school. Usually, I’m the one giving her advice and words of wisdom. 2. You just gotta see this girl…I grew up around her [we never talked until I was a sophomore in high school, but] she is the most quiest girl until you hang out with her…and she’s HILARIOUSSS…but in a real subtle way. ANYWAY…I don’t know what the point of this is….

The sweetest Asian girl came into the office earlier and she was so polite! She even asked if she could personally thank our International Advisor [Julie Russel] so I escorted her to her office and then she was thanking me for taking her to her office and I think she was trying to refrain from bowing but she was anyway and aaahh she was such a blessing!

So, this week was finals week. I studied soooo much for my History exam! Caitlyn, Courtney, and I and a couple of our friends [William Johnson and Michael Minasi] had three nights of study group. TONS of fun!! Turns out I helped them study more than I helped myself. Haha. [Brown v. Board of Education was in 1954 because 5 + 4 = 9!] <–Iiii totally forgot to put that in my essay! But they didn’t! Aaahh…haaahaaaa… :|   Lol.

So…this is the end…of a beautiful year. This past week, I’ve been hanging out with my friends from my residence hall, Brazos House. We’ve been having so much fun bonding before we say our goodbyes! From random Bethany runs to visiting the Chinese grocery store, to Ultimate Frisbee at 1am. Last night I stayed up until 6am hanging out with them. ….And then I had an exam at 8am. And here I am writing this blog. Because I am SO! DEDICATED! To my work!! Aaanndd Carl has been pressuring me alot. Haha. SPEAKING OF CARL PRESSURING ME…Yesterday, the admission counselors started helping us with those bagillion packets that we have to do…[Remember, TWELVE THOUSAND!!!] And Carl and I were partners and he was like, “Hurry up, Alexz! They’re beating us!” Apparently…we were racing? Haha. Now, I have a kagillion paper cuts!

Anyway, I grew so much this year. LIKE 5 INCHES!! Haha jk but I mean mentally. And this summer I’m doing an internship with a church in Montana. I just knoooow I’m going to come back so refined! :) I can’t wait. Well, this is my last blog for a while. :sigh:…I’ll let you guys know whether or not I passed History as soon as I find out. :) Stay unique.

[Today's title is a quote from the infamous Zack about 5 minutes ago. BECAUSE THERE'S LIKE A MAJOR STORM GOING ON RIGHT NOW!! AAAAHH!!]

“Remember my name. Fame!”

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on May 3, 2010 in Alexzandria. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! BOYS AND GIRLS! FACULTY AND STAFF! REAL STUDENTS AND FAKE STUDENTS!!!

Guess what!

I’M FAMOUS!! :D I was tooootally in the Shorthorn today! My picture was pretty decently sized, if I do say so myself! It was for the talent show that I was in last night. Trinity House put on a talent show just for fun. There were cool door prizes and stuff. And prizes for the winners. I performed a monologue that I recently wrote about a family issue that I was recently informed about. And just in case you were wondering, noooo I didn’t win. Haha. But that’s okay because my voice was heard! :D Anywho, I was in the Shorthorn! [voice of the little chihuahua on Oliver and Comany] Check it ooouuut:

And they even spelled my name right! WOOHOO!

On another note…one that is not quite as exciting as making the UTA paper…one that is on the other end of the emotional spectrum…depressing…My life has been overtaken by HISTORY. Ugghh….I was stressed when my life was overtaken by the musical, but at least I had fun doing that! Now, my life is consumed by HISTORY!! I was THIS! CLOSE! To giving up the other day…THIS CLOSE!! |- -| I had already decided that I was just going to accept failure and do grade exclusion next semester. But I have great friends! And they all pushed me to keep trying. Even the general advisor here in Davis Hall told me I should do what I can and if I fail, then at least I’ll know that I didn’t give up. Caitlyn told me that too. ::sigh:: I am so blessed! :)

So, Sophia [an Admissions Counselor here in our office - the New Student Welcome Center] apparently got a new camera or something. Haha. She’s been going all paparazzi on us today. She took a picture of us while we were putting together the GAJILLION packets that we’ve been putting together for kids in the area. 12,000 packets. If I could caps lock numbers, I would repeat myself in caps. Or I could do this: TWELVE THOUSAND packets! I think we’ve just about rounded up to 5,000. It’s quite painstaking. But, it will definitely be worth it. These packets have specific Spanish translations on one side of them. Things like this are so important to me. I know that there are people here who are trying to make a better life for their kids and struggle with English. It’s not that they’re dumb, because they’re not. They’re intelligent people. Imagine yourself going over to Israel only knowing how to speak/read English. You would suddenly become illiterate. It’s a struggle, and I personally know people who face it. That’s why I’m so passionate about it. ANYWHO! Off of the soap box with me…Haha. Here’s a pic that Sophia took of me and Harrison [a new hire who I've been friends with since last semester.] blogpic-1.jpg picture by sippysiip See those boxes in the back? Yeah, those are the packets that we’ve done so far….aaahhh!!

Well, that’s all for today! :)

As my soccer prof/coach says: “Keep the Samba in life and soccer!”

:) Alexz

[Title quote source: Fame (the musical) "I'm gonna live forever!"]

“That was actually pretty cool, what you just did…”

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on April 26, 2010 in Alexzandria. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

WOOHHOOO!!!

I had a super-long weekend….guess what I was doing….

STUDYING!!!

“Whaaaaat?? Alexz studies??”

Yeah, that’s right! I studied aaallll weekend. I even skipped a super-awesome concert with super-awesome artists including David Crowder and Francesca Battistelli! I did go to Maverick Mania on Saturday, though, and I got to show one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world [Grace Minor] how awesome UTA is. She’s coming here next year, and she and I and Caitlyn are getting an apartment together! Woohoo! Anyway, back to studying. I studied every day this weekend. I was a little more lenient on Friday so I could kind of have a break from the week. Anywho, here’s what I got accomplished:

I wrote a rough draft for my book review in History.

I started and finished my Spanish lab work which most people do a little bit every day to not take forever.

I read two chapters for a History quiz [big deal for me, because it takes me forever to read! Not because I can't read, but because I'm easily distracted. Ha.]

I wrote a character analysis for my Acting class.

And I studied for a test in Spanish! [Which I'm pretty sure I beasted on.]

Quite a productive weekend, no? :) I feel great about it.

ANYWAY…If there were a moral to this story, it would be this: College is nothing like high school, as far as studying goes. Reading is required. You have to study to do well.  It is time consuming. It is your purpose as a student.

That’s all for now. :)

-Alexz

[By the way...I got the title for this blog from Night At The Museum 2. Watch iiiit. :) ]

The Z Files.

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on March 26, 2010 in Alexzandria. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

(Titled by anonymous. [Mr. Kenne Evans])

Hello people of America! …and the rest of the world! Spain, Australia….Iceland.

So, last week was spring break. Woohoo! My spring break was, in a word, LEGIT. I was waaay homesick before spring break, because I hadn’t been home since winter break. So, while others were going to Padre Island and Galveston, I went to my simple small town of Temple/Holland/Bartlett, TX. It was great! I won’t go into too much detail about the events of the week, because that would take forever (especially since I tend to go off on tangents and I, for some reason, feel like I need to tell every detail of every story – like the set-up and everything). However, I will mention that due to my awesome spring break, I have been hoarse for almost 2 weeks now. It was that epic.

Anyway! So, the Friday before spring break, I took a midterm in my History class. Let’s just say I was pretty much depending on it for my grade in the class. I got the test back yesterday and found out that I made a B-!!! Heck. Yes. Ooh! Also, I took a midterm in my Spanish class the week before spring break. I got my test back yesterday. Wanna guess what I made on it? I’ll give you a moment…

……………….. . . . . .  .  .  .  .   .   .   .   .    .    .    .    .     .     .     .     .      .      .       .       .        .          .        .

I made….a 100!!!! Can you believe that?! WOOHOO!!!! I’m telling you, the only thing that helped me maintain my composure when I saw my grade was the fact that it was 8:13ish in the morning and…well, need I say more? Anywho, it pretty much made my LIFE. The sad thing is that I’m making a B in that class. After class yesterday, my professor was sure to give me a pep-talk about my potential in the class and that he knows it’s early, but I need to wake up earlier so that….wom wom wom wom wom wom wom….haha jk. I really took everything he said to heart. I’m too good with Spanish to make anything less than an A. So, I’m going to step up my game!

Next topic on the Alexz’s Super-Awesome Blog-Show…

I HAVE DECLARED MY MAJOR!! I am officially a Spanish major! I can’t tell you how cool I felt yesterday when I got interviewed after watching politician Jeffrey Toobin (who, by the way, should run for president. I’d vote for him, and I don’t even like politics!). When asked, “What’s your major?” I almost said, “Undeclared” because I was so used to it! However, I did, in fact, although it was at the last minute, remember to say “Spanish”. I felt like a brand new woman. NOT. But I did feel cool. Haha.

I think I’ll end this blog with a quote that was spoken about 30 seconds ago.

“I’ll look good in anything!” – Admissions Counselor Kenne Evans

Complete.

“Lately, the weather has been so bipolar that consequently, so have I.”

Published by Alexzandria Siprian on February 16, 2010 in Alexzandria. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Yessss….

Since the first time I saw Caitlyn creating a MavElite blog, I craved that opportunity to write great things to be published on the world wide web! I know I could just get my own blog, but…eh. It would make me a regular blogger. With this, I’m a MavElite blogger. Yessss….

Allow me to introduce myself to you, world. I am Alexzandria Siprian, or Alexz. I am pretty much the most outrageous person you will ever know. “Outrageous”. That’s my new word to describe myself. I used to use words like “awesome” and “nifty”, but those have begun to be thrown around too often, and the uniqueness in them is fading. Therefore, I am the most “outrageous” person y0u will ever know!

Anyway…So, UTA has been going through some pretty outrageous weather, lately! We got snow on Thursday. It snowed ALL DAY!! Aah! I was overwhelmed with joy! Let me tell you something about myself that nobody noticed until the snow showed up: I love snow. I’ve been randomly yearning for it since aboouuut October last semester. I did not expect it at all, but when I woke up Thursday to my roommate telling me there was snow outside the window, I FREAKED OUT! I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to get out of bed!

I took over 200 photos that day. From frolicking in the snow with Caitlyn, to the epic snowball fight that my Lipscomb friends and I had at the “Secret Destination”. [It's dubbed as the "Secret Destination" because we're not too sure if we were allowed to be there or not...] We were supposed to go sledding, but the snow was too thick! Isn’t that outrageous?! The snow was too thick in Texas to sled! Ha!

We still have some snow on the ground, and I’m not going to waste one minute while I have it here. When I see a spot of snow, I automatically run towards it with the demeanor of a child. I especially love the spots that nobody has yet walked through. I run through them with my arms flailing and I squeal because I’m just so derned excited!!  I’ve developed this…not obsession, but something like that…where every time I walk past a pile of snow, I grab a handful and chunk it at somebody. Usually, I chunk it at my friend, Julian [or Joose]. I would chunk it at my friend, Rob, but he throws back and he has no mercy. [Rob and Joose are like my big brothers. I'm with them all the time. You'll hear more about them later.] On my way to lunch at the Connection Cafe [or as I call it, "Connections"] I grabbed a chunk of snow and carried it with me through the UC. When I got into Connections, I threw it at Joose. Hahaha! He says I’m addicted to snow. He’s right. Haha.

Oh man, I have so many stories to tell about these few days we’ve had with the snow! I wouldn’t want to bore you, though. Because I, for one, know that too many words makes anything boring. For me, anyway. Most of my friends love to read. When I go with them to Walden Books at the mall or something, I always complain, whining: “Tooooo mannnyyy woooorrddss….Come oooonnn! Let’s goooo…fooood cooouuurrtt or sooomeetthhiinng, pllleeasseeee!!!” Haha. Continue reading ‘“Lately, the weather has been so bipolar that consequently, so have I.”’