I graduate in less than a month, on June 2^nd.  I am excited, but saying goodbye to college will be very bittersweet.  The weather is wonderful and sunny and I’m trying to enjoy the beautiful campus as much as I can.  Now that I am just tying up a few loose ends at my internship at Cellar Ridge Construction, I am able to spend time outside, although assignments still are keeping me confined to the computer for much too long!

La Casa Verde, the green building festival, went swimmingly well.  It was amazing to see so much work come together in a great event.  The weather was cloudy but the rain held off, and we even saw a little bit of sun!  I had an amazing group of dedicated volunteers from Linfield at the event, which made everything possible.  They were a diverse group of Greenfield members, swimmers, members of Greek life, and more!  I got to present a Green Achievement Award to a good friend, who was nominated and selected in the ‘student’ category, which was great as well.

This first weekend in May, my Conservation Biology class took a trip to southern Oregon, where we stayed at the Siskiyou Field Institute.  We went on an amazing hike to Babyfoot Lake, right in the middle of where the Biscuit fire burned 10 years ago.  All of the trees are still scorched, but there are young ones coming up!  The vegetation right around the lake was intact, and we got to jump in the water.  On Saturday we went into California to the coast Redwoods forest, and measured and hugged the huge trees.  We also saw some carnivorous plants (darlingtonia) and a whole slew of other cool flora and fauna!

In reflecting on the past four years, I really am overwhelmed by all the amazing memories I have made.  I have grown immensely as a person and have become part of an amazing community.  I think that I could safely say that my most memorable experiences are in my participation on the Linfield swim team and in my study abroad trip to Costa Rica.  I cannot imagine what my college experience would be like without the swim team.  Both swimming and studying abroad were probably the best decisions I have made at Linfield.

After graduation, my parents and I are taking a trip to England, Ireland, and Scotland for a little over two weeks.  I am very excited, as none of us has ever been to any of those countries, and we have ancestral roots in both Ireland and Scotland.  However, it is hard to even think about travelling right now when I am so overwhelmed with how soon it is until I graduate!  After the trip, I will be spending the summer doing an internship at Northwest Trek, a wildlife park near Eatonville, Washington (about an hour to an hour and a half south of Seattle).  I will be interning with the conservation education programs, and I will mainly be giving presentations on different conservation-related topics to the public.  I am extremely excited and am looking forward to exploring whether or not I want to pursue a career in environmental education through this experience.  I am also excited to spend the summer in such a beautiful place.  I will be living in a house on the property that is open to interns and volunteers.

I am planning to stay on at Northwest Trek through September, and then serve a 10-month stint with the Americorp NCCC program (National Civilian Community Corps).  I have been accepted to the Pacific region campus, based out of Sacramento.  I will be assigned to a group that will be sent to different sites to do service projects in a variety of fields (environmental stewardship, education, housing, disaster relief, etc.) for 4-8 weeks at a time.  I think that this program will be a good match for my desire to dedicate time to service and travel around a bit.  Beyond that, I really do not have a plan, other than to get a job after volunteering.  We’ll see!

I am so very thankful to my family and friends for their support throughout my time at Linfield (which has been remarkably short!).  I am especially grateful to my parents for financing my education and encouraging me to pursue my dreams.  While I am, along with most of the senior class, a little nervous about my impending entry into ‘the real world,’ I also can’t wait to see where life will take me.  The college experience has truly been everything I could have hoped for and more.

Spring is definitely in the air, although it is still occasionally freezing overnight.  I recently went to the fair where seniors are told stuff about graduation.  I thought that we were supposed to fill out a form with height and weight to order a cap and gown, but in reality they were selling them then and there.  It was sort of a shocking experience.  I now have a cap and gown in my possession, which is just all-around weird.  Once again, I can’t believe it’s now basically two months until graduation.  The cap and gown are in the back of my closet out of sight for the time being, so I am not constantly dwelling on how crazy it is to be graduating and how little of my time in college is left.  This past month I have participated in my last Intramural basketball season with my fellow swimmers.  I can honestly say I am as dismal at basketball as I was as a freshman.  Things are picking up at my internship at Cellar Ridge, planning La Casa Verde.  I am in the process of recruiting volunteers, coordinating tickets to the Wine Maker’s Dinner, harvesting nominations for the Green Achievement Awards, and much more!

I feel like I’m enjoying what McMinnville has to offer a lot more this semester than ever before.  In the past, I’ve gotten off campus to go to my after-school care job and to go to the store, and occasionally ventured downtown to watch the alien parade or eat out.  But I am downtown several times a week now for my internship.  I also made a visit to Glacial Rock (a few miles west of town) for the first time on a star-gazing adventure.  It was pitch-black when I was walking up the path to the humongous chunk of rock.  It would be cool to go in the daytime, too.  I have to ask myself though, why haven’t I been there before in four years?

Spring break seemed especially early this year, but as it approached I became really ready for it.  Just like the past few years, I have just been hanging out at home.  Unfortunately this year I have been slammed with a bunch of assignments due right after break, so I have been inside on the computer instead of outside enjoying the fabulous springy weather.  I also have a midterm that is the Monday we get back from break, so I have had to study for that.  I guess I can’t complain too much, since it is my only true “midterm,” or test that actually falls pretty much in the middle of the term.  Over the last few years, I’ve realized that my study habits, although apparently successful, really aren’t “textbook” or highly conventional.  I refuse to make note cards.  In fact I hate them with a passion.  They just strike me as a waste of time and energy.  I do like to write everything down that I need to remember, but I write in shorthand and probably am the only person who can read my notes.  I know it’s better to study in short intervals, spread out before the exam.  But in college, that is borderline impossible.  I consider myself a good student, but usually I study all at once or in a couple of long sessions the day before a test, because I can’t find time any earlier.  Only a couple of times in my college career, however, have I studied into the wee hours of the morning and had to rely on coffee (which I very rarely drink!).  I have never pulled a complete all-nighter cramming for a test or finishing a paper.  I consider this an accomplishment. Hopefully I won’t mess up my track record in the next two months. Some might say it’s part of the college experience, but it really just sounds miserable to me!

Spring break this year unfortunately ends on Easter Sunday, which means I will spend a fair chunk of Easter on the bus, rather than with my family.  It is especially unfortunate because Easter falls on my mom’s birthday this year.  I hope that the next two months will end my time at Linfield on a good note.  I look forward to celebrating the spring weather with some outdoor volleyball and Frisbee with friends.  I am also excited to see the work I have put into La Casa Verde culminate in a fantastic event! And you never know, perhaps my midterm will be a giant April Fool’s Day joke…