What Now?

by Chloe, a Patriot Blogger

What a year it has been.

Lots of firsts, lots of lasts, and heading into my last year of school, I can’t help but wonder, “What Now?” Thankfully, that is also the title of the enlightening commencement address that Ann Patchett gave to Sarah Lawrence College, which she then expanded and published as a short book. I read it every year around this time, after I start to panic that I didn’t do everything the previous year as well as I could have, or didn’t plan for every possible eventuality that the next year has to bring. I highly recommend it.

This year, it was particularly difficult for me to say goodbye to all of my graduating (now graduated!) friends. Every year as I get closer to it myself, I become a little bit more sentimental about the process and a little bit more interested in the answers to the standard question every recent grad gets: “So what now?”

A number of my friends are off to graduate school in every corner of the country. At least one is going somewhere in Florida, a couple others are heading north to New England, and more still are heading out west. They’ve postponed their answer to the perpetual, “So what now?” for a few more years.

Even more of my friends are either looking for jobs or have one already. Those that have one know where they’re off to (thankfully D.C. still has a pretty good job market so many of them are staying close by), and those that haven’t gotten one yet are far calmer about this situation than I would be.

Sitting in the JC on the first day of summer classes, I’m struck by how empty it is compared to this time two weeks ago. This time on May 7, people had set up camp, claimed study tables, procured their study sustenance (coffee and Cheetos are always popular), and were browsing through their notes, reading their books, quizzing their friends on class material, and fervently hoping they wouldn’t forget anything before their finals were over. Today, I can look left and right on the third floor of the library and only see a handful of people. I have a table all to myself and an extra chair to put my feet up on. Any day during the regular semester this would be considered an epic win.

The explanation the circumstance is simple: people don’t often like to take summer classes. After a long year, being in classes seems far less desirable than being on a beach.  Nerdy dual-degree student that I am, summer classes are necessary if I want to graduate on time. I don’t mind, I love the campus and sometimes it’s nice to be able to sit around and reflect without seeing (and hearing) people try to recreate the Harvard baseball team, “Call me Maybe” spoof (college students in the midst of finals do all manner of strange and abnormal things). However, reflection also raises the question, “What now Chloe?”

Thank God I have another year to figure out the answer.

Reflection

by Grant, a Patriot Blogger

A song in my fraternity has lyrics that encourage reflection.  As it is the end of spring semester, it is a great time for a reflection about my year.  So I lit up a cigar, put on some smooth jazz and began to think.

It was exceptionally hard for me to leave this year.   The last night I was on campus, I was all alone in my apartment and the walls were bare.  I couldn’t understand why I was upset and couldn’t sleep.  It wasn’t stress, all my exams were done, ans it wasn’t because something bad had actually happened.  Finally, I realized what it was, I was leaving home.  Now to most of you this will make no sense. I was going back to Richmond where my family lives and where my high school friends are.  However, I was leaving the community I love, no more ultimate practices where we commiserate about homework and girls.  No more late nights talking about everything and nothing with my brothers, and no more classes. Ok so getting a break from classes is not that devastating, finals were vicious but all of my experiences through the year became another closed chapter.  This year was a great year for me, many accomplishments and goals met, I got good grades and got a job for this summer.  Some surprises too, like joining the ultimate team and getting a high position in my fraternity.  Those aren’t the things that made this year great though.  It was the random lunch encounters with friends, meeting new people, finding a minor that I love, having stupidly funny arguments with my roommates, and falling into bed exhausted but happy.  People always say that the little things matter the most and that is what I love about Mason.  The little things. The big events may mark my resume and my calender but it is the small things that will mark my heart for the rest of my life.

Sorry this was not a super long post about how hard exams were or how excited I am to meet the new freshmen over the summer.  But I mean it is the summer so I don’t want you to do much reading.  Plow through the senioritis folks.  Make good friends.  Spend your time doing the things you love.  Then when it is all over, sit back, and reflect.  It is worth every minute.

Where do I go?

by Kathleen, a Patriot Blogger

Now is the time to decide.

For incoming freshman, it’s their new home for the next four years.

For graduating seniors, it’s whether to work, go for further education, etc.

For me, it’s deciding what to do when to best manage social sanity and finals.

But a few weekends ago was the Spotlight Day at Mason and as a volunteer for CGE (Center for Global Education) and Mason Admissions, I was able to witness the true excitement on our campus. To see all the admitted students asking real questions, pondering study abroad and our numerous options, communicating to the charismatic ambassadors, it was a fun event!

I didn’t actually realize how many people I knew on this campus that were truly involved on furthering our community awareness. Seeing my roommate in her neon yellow shirt, my study abroad friend and newly-inducted floormate as ambassadors talking, my other floormate wearing the Student Government shirt, talking to another Mason blogger, and more, every place I turned, I saw a familiar smiling face.

And then it hit me.

This campus may be daunting to some; the sheer number of attending college sudents a lot.

But it never feels like it.

Even during ‘rush hour’ around lunch time as everyone scours for food, a place to sit, time to catch up with friends, I still am able to see dozens of familiar faces. In fact, I love walking in the JC because the probability of running into a friend is high, for the same reason it could be dauting to come here.

Essentially, though Mason is a large school, our campus isn’t hard to navigate, the professors are easily accessible, and there are many opportunities to get involved.

In fact, though I’m a science major, I’m the chief of filmography for the first-ever TEDx conference to come to Mason! The opportunity presented itself and I latched on the chance to learn more about film, the various departments on campus, and meet some amazing, talented people.

Essentially, I stepped out of my comfort zone. And last night, my roommate Ashley prepared a project for her communications—public speaking course, demonstrating she stepped out of her comfort zone as a soccer player to learn how to dance.

So, tagged in this blog are three videos: Mason Spotlight Day review, TEDx conference interview with the professors (stay tuned on the page because I’m editing a pre-conference event featuring the Mason professor speakers), and Ashley’s dancing skills!

Enjoy all these films and happy finals/AP/decision-time!

Kathleen

The Webbys

by Chloe, a Patriot Blogger

It’s that time of year again!  March Madness is over, baseball season is off and running, the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals are about to have a dramatic game seven, and the Webby Awards are upon us!

The Webby Awards are what they sound like: web awards. They highlight some of the best advertising campaigns, videos, apps, etc., that the internet has to offer. There are two awards in each of the four categories: Websites, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film &Video, and Mobile & Apps.  The Webby Award is decided by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and the Webby People’s Voice Award is determined by popular vote.

Marketing, advertising, and internet nerds (like myself) check out the Webbys every year to find the best the web has to offer. Take a look at the nominees!:

Webby Nominees

Even if all you do is browse, try to take some time to appreciate all of the work that went into each of these campaigns. I liked pretty much everything I saw, but here are several of my favorite campaigns for the year:

Activism:

Bear 71

Book Burning Party

Spent (which reminded me a lot of Ayiti the Cost of Life)

All of these are great campaigns that make people look a bit more closely at different issues. You can follow a bear in Canada, view the outrage of the Fahrenheit 451 idea of book burning, and attempt to live on less than one thousand dollars for a month. They all (including the other two Activism nominees Counterspill and The Breathe Project) make you look at their focus issues in a new way. Prepare to have your mind blown!

Best Integrated Media Plan:

The Inside Experience

Intel and Toshiba partnered up for this one to bring you the story of Christina (played by Emmy Rossum), a young woman who has been abducted and trapped in a small room with only a 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor-powered Toshiba Satellite® P775 series laptop and an untraceable Internet connection. The campaign put out eight webisodes that showed Christina trying to figure out where she was and why. She used social media to engage viewers in the process, asking for their help. Cool, kind of creepy, and a totally new way to connect with consumers and get traction with an age group that doesn’t tend to get excited about anything but Macs.

Best Use of Social Media:

Mano a Mano in el Bano

Who doesn’t love the Old Spice guy? I can’t imagine that anyone in my age group hasn’t heard of or fallen in love with the original Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa. The Mano a Mano in el Bano started as a dual challenge from Fabio in an attempt to wipe out Mustafa and become the new Old Spice guy. In a series of videos back and forth they swap jabs, and eventually meet for combat (en el Bano of course). Who wins? You’ll have to watch to find out!

These and dozens of others are all on the Webby website. Take a look: laugh, cry, learn, enjoy, and be a part of the Oscars of the Internet! Voting closes April 26, so make sure to check it out soon!

In the zone, AutoZone

by Kathleen, a Patriot Blogger

That’s a catchy slogan, but if you’re not a car, or are actually going out of your comfort zone, that’s cool, too.

In fact, this Sunday is Mason’s admitted students day—the day last year that I realized I would make Mason my new home.

It’s going to be crazy volunteering at this event for Center for Global Education, wearing my CGE shirt with pride; it’ll hit me that a new freshman class is here and a new group of alumni will be crowned.

I remember my first time on a college campus, sort of embarrassed that I was in a tour group—clearly a newbie, but very relieved so I didn’t get lost on such huge grounds! For most admitted students visiting campus Sunday, this is the same deal—nervous yet excited.

Well don’t think you’re alone. In fact, I know eight Mason professors who are “frightened, yet excited.”

These eight Mason professors are going to be participating in the first ever TEDx conference at Mason. And you guessed it!! I will be in charge for filming this exciting conference which includes a guest appearance by our Provost and Congressman Gerry Connolly. 

It’s sort of a huge deal. The only way to describe it is with a car slogan: We are getting in our zone on May 6^th.

So while the professors are picking topics to speak about, ranging from translating plays to astrobiology, they, too, feel nervous and excited about this opportunity.

And the third piece of this pie?

I’m nervous, too. I’ve done various pieces of film projects before, but I’m all self-taught. Luckily, there’s something in me because as we speak, the Global Programs is playing my Student Activism film in Dewberry Hall! But nevertheless, it’s a new challenge and I’ve gratefully recruited some film majors at Mason to volunteer with me, too.

So to anyone reading this, whether it be parents excited for Mason Day, students nervous to make a decision, professors taking on new research opportunities, student directors and filmers, everyone can feel nervous when they step out of their comfort zone.

But you know what? No one is alone, and that is how we progress.

–Kathleen

The Power of Helping Hands

by Kathleen, a Patriot Blogger

Someone asked me today what the meaning of happiness was, whether one could be happy if they only strived for individual goals.

Now this is a debate for people on other forums, perhaps psychologically or scientifically based studies, but the question got me thinking about …

Student Activism.

As it turns out, one of my professors sent me the link to one of Mason’s film festivals, Global Program’s festival, and the topic was student activism. So, during spring break, I pulled out my camera and went to town. My camera and I went to various places on campus and off-campus—I even took it with me out of the country!

Essentially, the compilation of this video makes me smile because thanks to my friends and peers, a diverse group of college students are the voices of student activism.

Every time I make a video, or being a new project, I have some sort of vision in my head. Hardly ever does the video turn out to be exactly as I imagined, but every once in awhile it becomes something new that is great in its own way.

I’m not saying I’m a film maker, I will leave that to my friend at NYU, but I am trying to send a message about the importance of social service projects, leaving a comfort zone to help those around you, becoming in tune with the community.

So the video attached is my final version of this student activism film and I truly hope that the message implied is one that resonates with you, gets you thinking, or simply makes you want to do something nice for someone else.

I mean, when I saw Mason faculty high-fiving each other on antiparallel golf carts, how could my day not be made? Just watching people interact and smile, not to mention actually smiling at someone you know personally, can make a day a whole lot brighter.

Can you imagine the power of service?

Cherry Blossoms

by Grant, a Patriot Blogger

Welcome to spring! Bring out the florescent button downs, khakis and boat shoes.  Spring is my favorite season and this year was the first year where I made it a priority to go out to the Cherry Blossoms.  This was extra special because it was the 100th year of the cherry blossom trees.  So to give you a little history lesson, the Cherry Blossom trees, no they don’t produce cherries, were given to the city of Washington by the Mayor of Tokyo in 1912.  3,000 trees were in the original bunch and now only 30 of the original group remain but they try to keep it around 3,000 trees total.  Another interesting point about this year is the fact that they bloomed a week earlier than usual and this is chalked up to our mild winter.  So first thing I did was get out of my room and go to the bus stop.

So as you can see there is construction going on right outside my room.  This has its positives and negatives.  Some negatives include, difficulty getting to class and jackhammering at 9 am.  There are some positives though.  Mason is all about construction, at one point Mason had the most money from the state to expand as a university.  One of my friends said the day Mason stops construction is the day that he stops believing in Mason.  As a university we are constantly striving to develop and grow, and that means construction, and lots of it.  Alumni sometimes don’t even recognize what the campus looks like.  To me, this is super positive.  I don’t want a stagnant place where things stay the same because that is how they have always been.  Construction is just the symbol in my mind of the advancement of the university as a whole.  But yes, it does get annoying sometimes.  So a took a shuttle FOR FREE to the metro.  It takes around 30 minutes to get there.

So I go to the stop and rub my wallet against the scanner.  Now to the untrained eye this seems really ridiculous but to me it means I have my smart trip metro card.  Of course you could buy a ticket or a day pass but I have found it easier to buy this card and reload it with cash whenever I need it.  Also, it makes me feel super cool and less like a tourist.  So I went down the escalator and people started running at the bottom and you come to realize that running means that they heard the little ding dong of the metro doors are about to close.  So, I booked it and got on the train.  During my ride, I talked to some other Mason students that I had met over the summer.  It was cool to see them heading into the city.  The cherry blossom festival brings in more people then almost any other event in DC and the metro was packed.  Although last year when I went to the rally to restore sanity it was much worse, so I counted my blessings.  I got off of the metro and headed up to the mall.

I sat under a tree and read my Time magazine and marveled at the fact that I can come to one of the best cities in the world whenever I want.  Later, I got a text to meet my girlfriend where she parked and I noticed two things as I was walking up the mall:

1. Ultimate players on the mall.  How I wish I could be playing sports on the mall.  I just think it is neat because they call the mall our national back yard and I wish I could treat it as such sometimes.

2. That there is still a tourist in me that wants to take pictures of the capitol just because it is so cool.  Also, something this picture doesn’t show, is that there is construction on the mall.  They are trying to renovate and do some upkeep.  So Mason isn’t alone.

After grabbing her and beginning to walk around I took a ton of pictures of cherry blossoms.

Ok sorry those last ones are the first pictures from earlier but just move past that because I can’t figure out how to make them go away so just look at the pretty ones.  There were a ton of people there so it was hard to get pictures without others in it.  However, some of them turned out pretty ok.

Later that day, my girlfriend left and my coworkers came.  We had a scavenger hunt in DC so here are a few pictures from that.

So one of our tasks was to find Mason students, and luckily enough we ran into a few at the Blossoms.

Another thing we had to do was take pictures with people in Washington area team shirts.  This dude agreed to do the picture even when on his phone.

We had to join in with a street performer and so we found a violinist just chilling and played with him.  Some of us are playing full violins and others are playing the world’s smallest.

So this one has a funny story.  We thought that we were supposed to take a picture with people enjoying their refreshments, but actually we didn’t have to do that.  However, we made these ladies very happy and now they are famous.

So if you don’t know, there are two Mason statues in the world, well at least two that I know of.  One is in the center of campus beside the JC.  The other is just chilling by the Jefferson Memorial.  So we took a picture trying to imitate his swag style.

After all this was said and done, I had a major sunburn and my feet felt like they were about to fall off but it was a ton of fun.  We went out to eat and had a really good burger in the middle of the city and then we headed home.  So DC trip was a major success and it was easy to do.

Some other notes: I might be able to get two bachelors degrees at Mason by the time I graduate, I am super excited.  Unfortunately I can’t go to national convention this summer for Phi Mu Alpha because of work but that’s ok.  I love my job and Fraternity events will happen again in the future.  Also, life is going by fast and I can’t believe Easter is coming up in two weeks.  Hopefully I can make it down to my grandparents like I do every year for that.  Although the semester is not even close to done, I feel like I am losing steam, so hopefully I can keep it up down the stretch until summer.  I have heard a lot about people getting into college and I hope that yall have gotten in where you wanted and that I will have the pleasure of seeing you this Summer at Orientation.

Feeling like Pocahontas

by Kathleen, a Patriot Blogger

So as I was sitting on the bench, enjoying the sun on my back, wind in my hair, and chemistry on my lap, a spider decided to join my study session. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too thrilled by my new partner, so I gently took a sheet of paper and escorted my friend to the grass. Unfortunately, he didn’t appreciate my taking the initiative to find him a new tanning spot and sped back up to my shoulder on his weaving web.

Later, I was joined by two bees whose buzzing echoed the sound of elegant chirping of the birds appraising the blossoms.

In the background was GMU’s radio station, WGMU, and Mason’s organizations handing out freshly baked funnel cakes to contemporary spins and mixes of various songs.

Essentially, I spent hours sitting on a bench doing homework and simply enjoying the nice weather we’ve been blessed with this first week back.

For some reason, as the final half of the semester progresses, my friends and I have been wondering about our future careers, summer plans, and simply, desires for advancement. It’s interesting that even as ‘freshmen’ we think about our future desires this much; it seems uncharacteristic when I hear stories about my roommates, friends, or share some of my own encounters with various professors, advisors, and career services. However, I firmly believe it’s never too early to start thinking about what you want to do with your college degree, when and where you want to study abroad, what your common passion is that you want to expand on, and so forth.

Filming projects are always fun

So, as I was studying about chemical concentrations and pH values, bonding with various living creatures around me, admiring the cherry blossoms, and enjoying the sheer amount of smiling faces, I was also calmly contemplating my future and the vast amount of opportunities that this location has to offer.

And no matter what epiphanies you have, no matter the time of year, or induced by the nice weather, you are never alone in your planning and there are advisors or willing ears around you to help you through the traffic at your train station—or arena, if you’re living in the Hunger Games.

–

Also, a heads up that I’m currently working on a film project about student activism for one of the many film festivals that Mason is holding this spring!

Great Falls

by Grant, a Patriot Blogger

So I promised a picture blog and here it is.  I took a hiking trip with my girlfriend and her dog to Great Falls which is a national park only 12 miles from Mason.  The day was beautiful and the scenery was even better.  So I hope you like it.  The last couple of pictures are  from a tree right beside my residence hall that is blooming in our early spring.

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Spunk Buggy, I want some cookies!

by Kathleen, a Patriot Blogger

Wisps were falling out of my bun, ice cream Dibs were being passed around, and the entire circle was laughing. We were eating on the lawn, in the heart of campus, relishing in a beautiful day. It was a nice twist, hanging out with some friends from various groups, sharing stories about high school memories and where we were this time last year.

When I walked back to the Park, I smiled seeing students playing soccer and football, the lack of heavy jackets or boots, and other students just sitting on the stairs or on the grass. I, myself, brought some statistics homework and studied at a table.

As the night progressed, the floor came alive and everyone was hanging out in the study room. Whether it was passing a soccer ball around, performing impromptu dance moves, finger painting, sharing YouTube favorites, or even planning our spring break adventures, it was so refreshing to hang out with my floor-and for several hours!

It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of midterms, time-commitment of papers and lab reports, craziness of planning return trips home, the daily drama of life…but it’s a gift from mother nature when the rays of the sun draws out the laughter of happy Mason Patriots.

And so, while I return home late tomorrow evening, excited to reconvene with my family and reconnect with my high school friends, I am always excited to see the life on-campus flourish.

Besides, Student Government was handing out free Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and when Kelly Clarkson talks about becoming stronger…

Happy Break