Deadlines and Knightchats!

Hey guys!

Just a reminder that the Early Action deadline to apply is just a week away now! (November 1st). I found applying early to all my schools beneficial for two main reasons:

• Although I had to work on my application throughout the summer, it was a relief going into my senior year knowing that all I had left to do was fill out the CommonApp. The CommonApp was a faster, easier way to apply to multiple schools at once.
• Early Action gave me more time to weigh my options. I found out whether or not I got into my schools around December, which was a time that some people were just starting to apply. It gave me all the way until May to decide where I wanted to go. 

All application dates are:
Early Action I: November 1st
When to Expect Decision: December 16th

Early Action II: December 1st
When to Expect Decision: January 27, 2012

Regular Decision: February 1, 2012
When to Expect Decision: March 16, 2012

Transfer Applications for Fall 2012: February 15, 2012

 Also, parents, check out our next Knightchat on Thursday from 7:30-9pm. I'll be participating in it, along with other bloggers, Alexandra, Alex, Beth, and Sam.
To sign up for the Knightchat on Thursday or any other future student Knightchats, click here!

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There's No Place Like Home

On Friday, I left Saint Mike's to head home for Salem, NH until Tuesday afternoon. It was surprisingly sad to leave my friends at Saint Mike's, since we have all gotten so close from only knowing each other for two months. Nonetheless, I was still super excited to go home to see my family and friends. While college has been awesome so far, I learned some of the benefits of going home:
Homecooked meals: With freshmen having an unlimited meal plan, there comes a time where you want to switch up the Alliot routine and want your parent's cooking.

Yummy omelette cooked by my mom on the left. On the right, steak tips, mac and cheese, and baked beans :)

Showering in a more open space with no flip flops! : I was so stuck in a routine where I would grab my shower tote, a towel, and put on my flip flops to go into the shower, that I almost forgot about how life is  showering without flip flops. It was definitely refreshing to be in a less confined space and not to have to wear them.
Driving: I got so used to taking the bus everywhere I went, that I almost forgot what it was like driving.

Just cruisin'

Seeing my cats: 

Lily, on left. Ruby, on right

Sleeping in my own bed: My bed is comfy back at Saint Mike's, but there's really nothing better than sleeping in your own bed.

Parent's Willingness to Help You Out: Of course your parents miss you while you're gone, but sometimes they actually miss doing stuff for you.  Exhibit A below :)

My mom working hard doing my laundry.

and of course.....
Seeing my family and friends: It's always good to know that you have your friends from back home and your family there for you when you come home. My parents and my brother were all extremely excited to see me, which made me even happier that I was home.  As for my friends, I was able to see some of them at the schools they go to, University of New Hampshire and Southern New Hampshire University. For my friends that I didn't see, I know Thanksgiving break will be a time for all of us to reunite.

On the left, my family! On the right, my friends and I all together.

Overall, going home was awesome, but at the same time, I can't wait to head back to Saint Mike's tomorrow!

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The Technology Fast

My freshmen seminar, The Examined Life, is a class that focuses on analyzing yourself along with other aspects in today's society. We are currently reading Feed by M.T. Anderson, a book that is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brain. The characters in the book deal with technology 24/7, so our teacher assigned us to keep track of how many hours during the day we use technology. Saturday was the day we spent tallying up our usage, while Sunday was the day we spent without technology. 
Here were my results from Saturday:
e-mail: 10 minutes
internet: 30 minutes
Facebook: 2 hours
Texts (sent and received):150
Music: 3 hours
Television: 2 hours
Phone calls: 30 minutes
Skype: 2 hours
Total= 10 hours 10 minutes

To see that almost half of my day was consumed of technology was really eye-opening. I was concerned I wasn't going to make it through the fast since I seemed too reliant on technology. Before going to bed on Saturday night, I made sure that I shut off my phone, computer, and I-pod to avoid any temptations on Sunday. When I woke up on Sunday, I did what I do every other day; I grabbed my phone off of my nightstand to see any new messages. Before turning it on, I became conscious of what I was about to do and immediately stopped myself. After my almost fail of a technology fast, I went over to my friend’s dorm. Luckily, I told him about the fast. He understood what I had to do, so he took me under his wing for the day. We planned times where we would meet up to go out to eat or hang out with our other friends. I think that was the part I was most concerned about, having to go to other people's dorms rather than sending a quick text asking to go to Alliot. Planning a schedule made that worry go right away, though.

The whole day without technology was quite refreshing. Instead of staying inside all day on my computer, I spent the day outside since it was a beautiful fall day. I didn't really even think about how I wasn't using any technology, it just seemed to be another usual day for me. Overall, it was a cool assignment that made me think about how cutting back on technology could help us with connecting more with the outside world.

Also, don't forget to tune into our first Knightchat is tomorrow night at 7:30-9pm! Knightchats give prospective students an opportunity to talk to current students about our experience here at Saint Mike's.

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The Never-Ending Orientation

So, I decided to tell you guys something extremely cool that may or may not be happening with the incoming freshmen class next year. My freshmen seminar class (The Examined Life) consists of the same people from my orientation group, which made me feel more comfortable attending classes on the first day. I got to know my group really well during orientation, and since the Examined Life is a class that is focuses on writing about yourself (Yes, finally a class where you can use "I" as much as you want to in a paper), we became a lot more closer after sharing our personal stories. Our orientation leaders are actually staying with us throughout our class, too. My two orientation leaders, Rob and Jenna, already have started planning times to come into our class to read off their papers from when they took The Examined Life. Also, they plan to have hangouts outside of class with everyone, as if it's orientation all over again. Last week, we had our first outside of class hangout. Jenna went with the girls back to her room, while the guys had an air hockey tournament in the lounge. In Jenna's room, we filled out a questionnaire regarding our college experience so far. Here were some of the questions and my answers:
1. What is the biggest challenge about having a roommate?
I think it's hard outgrowing the expectation that you and your roommate aren't going to be best friends. It's a good thing for me and my roommate though because we have our own seperate groups of friends, yet I know I can come back to our room and feel completely comfortable to talk with her about anything.
2. How often do you talk to your parents/ other family?
I talk to my parents every day, usually through texting since it's more convenient and also a faster way of communicating. As for my other relatives, I keep in touch with them through e-mails once a week.
3. How often do you feel homesick?
It comes in waves for me, sometime it hits real hard, and sometime it comes in a quick moment where something here might remind me about my friends and family back home. I would say that homesickness hit me almost every day in the first couple of weeks, but I've become more adjusted to the point that I only get homesick 2-3 times during the week.
4. What do you think about the weekends here?
The weekends here are awesome. You can find your niche here and choose to do what makes you feel comfortable, without any judgment from anyone. Chances are you will find people here who like to partake in the same activities you do.

I was a bit worried that I was the only one answering these questions this way, but I was quickly reassured when Jenna read out each of our answers (anonymously) only to find out the other six girls felt the same exact way I did about some of the issues. Jenna allowed us to open up about our feelings, and it was a really awesome bonding experience. I can't wait for more of these outside of class hangouts. I am glad that I'm part of this "test" group. I hope that this test run proves that staying in touch with our orientation leaders and orientation groups is beneficial to our learning here. If this goes well, then you guys should be able to experience this next year!

Be sure to check out my next blog post regarding an assignment that's for The Examined Life. I can't use any technology (television, radio, i-pod, computer, cell phones, etc) for 24 hours. Coming from someone who is constantly multi-tasking between listening to music, being on Facebook, and texting people, this is going to be a really interesting challenge.
Until next time,
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SMC's Radio Show: The Morning Mike

Saint Mike's has its own personal radio station, WWPV 88.7 The Mike. The station plays a variety of music and also has a variety of hosts. Each time slot available opens up the opportunity for students to host their own radio show. All you have to do is shoot a quick e-mail to the people in charge of the station (Tip: do it as soon as possible since the slots fill up quick!) The cool thing about the radio show is that you don't need any experience at all, so that's what got my friends and I interested in doing it. We ended up getting the 8am to 10am time slot on Sunday, so that's why we named our show The Morning Mike. Our first show was last Sunday. To get a better understanding of what a first show is like, or what it was like, you can hear all about it from myself, Brendan, and Tan Wai (my two co-hosts).

Tan Wai Hui
Why did you want to do the radio show ? "I originally did it to help out Brendan since he wanted to do it the most out of all of us, but then I started to have more of a personal interest after. I thought it would be a lot of fun.
What did you think of the first show? "It was our first time on air, so I didn't expect to the be the best at it right away. We struggled with the talking part of it since we were kind of nervous and didn't know what to talk about. Otherwise, we played great music, and had a good time.

Brendan Oates
Why did you want to do the radio show? "I thought of it as a different kind of activity for me, which made me jump at the opportunity. Also, my sister did it at her college and she loved it. I figured I would like it just as much as her. 
What did you think of the first show? "We had some trouble adjusting to it at first since we were new to it. We made a few mistakes, but managed to still have a fun time!

 and myself...
Lauren Mazzoleni
Why did I want to do the radio show? I wanted to do to the radio show because I thought it would be a good way of expressing my interest of music. I could show people some of my favorite bands that aren't normally shown on radio stations.  Also, I thought it would be cool activity for me, Tan Wai, and Brendan all to do together. 
What did I think of the first radio show? The first show was exactly what a first show normally is like. I expected to mess up, since we are just new at it. It was cool because none of us were frustrated when we made a small error, but rather laughed at it and knew that we could easily redeem ourselves the next time. 

You can check out WWPV's website just by clicking on the link to stream any shows and look up the playlists.

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Handling Homesickness

I remember leaving my hometown, Salem, NH, feeling like I was sick of home. I wanted to just move onto college and start up a new part of my life. With about almost a month of being here at SMC, I am not sick of home, but rather homesick. Being homesick is a hard feeling to shake off, but the feeling is so natural that sometimes you have to allow yourself to feel homesick at some point.You can't let yourself think that you are the only one feeling this way either.

Here are some tips that have helped me handle my homesickness:
1. Go out with friends. Living in the moment is what matters the most. Hang out with your college friends to help get your mind off of the way you're feeling.
2. Immerse yourself in studies. With all of my classes, I've already gotten a lot of homework to do from studying to reading to writing papers. It has kept me on task by doing my homework, and also kept my mind occupied on something else.
3. Get more involved around campus. Saint Mike's sends plenty of e-mails daily notifying us on events going on throughout the week. There's a whole range of things to do from intramural sports to clubs.
4. Talk to your friends from home and at college/family about how you're feeling. Your parents have been there through this life change that you're going through, plus they are dealing with missing you too. Your friends from home are feeling the same way since they are in college, too. It's always good to talk to someone who you can relate to, so you know you aren't alone in this process.
5. Bring pieces from your home to your new home. Make your dorm room more like a home by putting up pictures of family and friends that are reminders that they are always there.
6. Plan a trip home. This one may be hard depending on where you live, but there are bus and train stations, and an airport nearby if you ever want to go home for the weekend. I've already planned to go home two weekends in a row, the four day weekend in October and the weekend after for Pumpkinfest at Keene State College. I think planning these trips makes me feel more comfortable that I know I'll be seeing my friends and family soon.

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Birthday Bash

Hey guys!

I just realized that this has been the third Sunday in a row that I've posted, so I'm sorry about the wait of  each blog post. I've been extremely busy with schoolwork and other extra curricular activities here, but this week was even busier since my 18th birthday was on Friday. There was a lot of planning to do for it, since my two best friends from home and my mom were coming to visit during the week. My mom visited here on Thursday night, which was awesome. Not only was it great to see her, but it was also great that she brought me warmer clothes since it's been quite a cold September so far (I'm afraid to see how the winters are going to be!). My mom's presence helped with the homesickness that I was feeling on/off during the time that I've been here.
Then came Friday, where the festivities kicked off right away for my birthday. I woke up to my door with decorations on it by my friends.

I was out of classes on Friday at 1:10, and that's where my friends and I started to plan out our trip to Burlington for the afternoon. We ended up shopping at the mall, then visiting Border's for the last time before it officially closed down :( For dinner, we went out to Sweetwater's.

When I got back, my two best friends from home arrived to the campus. I opened up their presents, along with my friend's presents from here. I got a Lil Wayne poster, mittens, a nerf gun (from my guy friends),  a pandora charm, and a vera bradley wristlet (comes in handy to hold room key and Knightcard). And of course, I got an awesome Nicki Minaj airbrushed shirt from my friend back home..

back of the shirt

front of the shirt

I had a great 18th birthday and I was super excited I got to spend it with a mixture of new friends and friends back home. It was hard saying good-bye to my friends back home the next day, and it brought me back to feeling a bit homesick. I think it inspired my next blog post, so be prepared to see some tips on how to deal with being homesick!

Tweet, Formspring, and also check out this awesome slideshow my friends put together for me for my birthday!