Tag Archive for 'Alexz'

Ya’Ke Smith is my hero.

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!

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

“You shall also make no noise in the streets.”

That title is most definitely a Shakespeare quote. I watched “Much Ado About Nothing” tonight with my English teacher mother and the character Dogberry is a pretty funny fella. If you haven’t seen it and you’re thinking, “I don’t understand Shakespeare”, then watch this movie. It all makes perfect sense. Now, on to other things!

Well, folks, I’m back home for the summer! Saying goodbye to all my friends and co-workers was lame and completely the opposite of fun, but this summer is going to go by sooo quickly. Like Alexz said, she’s going to Montana. And I’m going to JAPAN for 2 weeks in July. I’ll try and blog while I’m there. My goal is to put up a picture of me in a UTA shirt and flashing the “Mav Up” sign in the middle of Tokyo…or…anywhere, really. Haha.

I signed up for a Maymester class because in order to keep my scholarship that UTA so graciously offered me…I have to have 30 hours every year from UTA. Which means I can’t take a class at a nearby community college. Enter Maymester course. HEED 1340 – Healthy Lifestyles. Does it count towards my major? Negative. Will it save me money in the long run? Absolutely. And who know…I might actually learn something. Sooo here I am. Searching for the textbook that I need for the class. I have to have the quizzes done over the first 2 chapters by this Wednesday, May 19th. AHHHHHHHHHH. So there’s a handy tip for the future: If you’re taking an online class, don’t assume there isn’t a textbook. That makes you a dummy…like ME.

While I love being home and all that jazz…I already miss my UTA home and all the friends I made this year. I feel my campus tour facts slipping away and being replaced with grocery produce codes. Back to working my summer job at a grocery store! Here I come, rhubarb and broccoli crowns! I’ll try and promote good ol’UT Arlington to all my customers and go all “Tour Guide” on them.

So for now, adieu all!

I shall miss thee!

(Like I said before, I watched “Much Ado About Nothing” tonight. My brain is now in Shakespeare mode. Forgive the strange phrasing.”)

“Remember my name. Fame!”

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…”

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. :) ]

696 days until I go to England.

Alexz is right. The snow day was epic. I’ve never seen that much snow in my entire life…except for when I was in Alaska…but that doesn’t count. A friend of mine said that she finally learned to “run in the snow”. Is it supposed to be hard? Don’t you just pick up your feet and run normally…with snow under your feet? Yes. That’s how it happens. I tried it.

So, now that The Office is making people think that it’s coming to an end…I’ve moved on to bigger and better things. Flight of the Conchords. Ohhh, yes. It’s Business Time. Flight of the Conchords consists of two guys from New Zealand. They are funny. Not the usual “they are funny.” But as in, they ARE funny. After the 3.5 day weekend we had, I needed a little bit of “funny”. Sitting in your room is not all it’s cracked up to be. You get sooo bored sooo easily. That’s where the TV comes in. Beautiful things can happen. Especially if your friend lets your borrow Season 1 of Flight of the Conchords. If you’ve never seen them…go to YouTube. Right now. Go.

Our new tour kicked off this week! Yay! I give the 2 p.m. on Wednesdays and the 1 p.m. on Thursdays, and I have yet to give the new tour. Today, we have a special tour (a bunch of high schoolers!) and yesterday…no one showed up for my tour. Bummerrrr. So for me, the new tour kicks off NEXT week. I love special tours! They’re so much fun! Especially when it’s a big group. They always have questions and fun things to say.

Zack is proud of me because 2 days ago I ordered some Burberry London perfume. Apparently that’s a milestone for my life. And I have “many, many Zack points” now. Yippee? I suppose I should feel like my life has been blessed or something by his approval. Yay me?

I’m sooo ready to go to London for my study abroad. Only 696 more days! :)

-Caitlyn!

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

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.”’