I’ve had a request to recap my freshman year of college, aside from the healthy living stuff. I know there are a lot of readers who are either going into college this year or in the next few years, so hopefully this will give you guys a little idea of what to expect!

We had a week of Orientation before school started. There were various academic activities and opportunities to figure out what classes to take, and there were some ice breaker types of activities. I’m not going to sugar coat it-orientation was awful. Everyone I’ve talked to can look back and agree on this. There was a lot of meeting new people (whose names you probably won’t be able to remember right away, there are just so many), and about 50,000 of the same awkward-ish conversation: Where are you from? Where are you living this year? What are you majoring in? It gets old! Plus, during orientation, there was a little too much downtime for my taste, which can be kind of weird when you don’t really know people at all. I think everyone was ready for classes to start!

I was super on top of all my work for the first few weeks-college work, how exciting! (Yeah, that wears off). I was also super antsy before crew started. This time was kind of a mess for me because getting medically cleared was a pain in the butt-they required blood tests and an EKG. Long story short, I ended up having to get a ton of tests done on my heart (including an MRI), only to find out it was….normal. I was way happier once crew started-it was a ton of fun, and a great way to meet new people. 

The only problem with crew is I was tired all the time, and I felt like I didn’t get to know the people in my dorm as well as I would have if I had more time. As far as academics go, Fall Quarter, I for the most part didn’t like my classes (expect for my Nutrition class, but that was only once a week). My Chem class was really poorly taught-everyone walked out of class shell-shocked on a regular basis. The professor was one of those people who is super smart, but has trouble realizing the scope of the students’ understanding. My math class was also the hardest (and worst) class I have taken, before or since. I honestly feel lucky to have survived that class. These things are quite humbling-there are people at college who just GET the stuff. 

One thing that is different in college is the type of work. It may seem like you don’t actually have that much work, but there is always more you can and should be doing, such as additional readings, reviewing your notes, etc (I could definitely be better at this). Also, problem sets usually take a lot longer than you’d expect, so starting them on the night before they are due isn’t a good idea (part of why Winter quarter kind of killed me). 

In college, times seems to disappear. Looking at your schedule, it may seem like you actually have a lot of time. I promise this is not the case, so don’t overcommit! Also, if you are like me, you may work much better in the library than in your room (I discovered this on the very last day of the quarter).

Funny sidenote-none of my fall quarter classes involved any sort of papers or writing. I just had problem sets! I had to write a final 5 page paper for one of my classes though. I realized I hadn’t really typed much all quarter! I seriously COULD NOT type. Every other word was a typo. I still haven’t fully recovered from this typing hiatus-I still spell “the” wrong every single time. Thank goodness for spellcheck!

In terms of social life, it may take some time to find your group of friends. It may seem like everyone already is super close, but they aren’t! I was actually kind of concerned until Spring quarter when I stopped rowing and was able to spend more time with people in my dorm. 

As I’ve talked about before, Winter quarter was kind of a train wreck for me. I took a few more units than Fall quarter and crew definitely picked up and became more of a time commitment. I fell behind in my classes, and didn’t sleep. Of course, at the time it probably wasn’t as bad as I’m making it seem, but I suppose knowing the end result reveals to me what led to that point. I mean, I was still getting all my work done. I just wasn’t spending the time I should have on Chem or Math. Most of my Math problem sets were started the night before they were due, and they were hard/frustrating because the answers were really ugly. And unlike most students who can just stay up all night before the problem set is due, I had my hardest crew workout of the week Thursday morning, so I really didn’t want to stay up late. Wednesday nights were not the best nights!

As you know, the end result was a really bad case of mono. I was just not treating my body well (stress, lack of sleep, tons of workouts), and eventually it rebelled. Long story short, I ended up in the emergency room twice, went to the doctors countless times, had to go home and drop 2 classes (I finished the other 2 through huge extensions on papers and dragging myself to one of my classes), couldn’t get out of bed for 2-3 weeks, watched 10 seasons of Friends in bed, and ended up with Mono, Strep Throat, the stomach flu, a cold, and a sinus and ear infection. Moral: avoid germs as much as possible, and don’t put that much stress on your body! Luckily the classes I dropped I could have been doing better in anyways, but it was a definite wake up call for me, leading to the very difficult decision to quit crew. 

Spring quarter was much less stressful for me, but it is kind of weird for me not to be devoting my life to a sport, so I was kind of going crazy. Next year I want to get involved in more student groups-crew was taking up all my time! But in the Spring, I did get to spend much more time with the people in my dorm, which was really nice! I’ve living with a lot of them next year! During Spring Quarter, I also joined a sorority, which introduced me to a bunch of new really nice girls.

For those thinking about rushing- I would recommend at least rushing, but don’t worry if some sororities drop you. Most people are happy where they end up. The rush process was kind of torturous. The first night we had to be there for 7 hours. Those 7 hours were spent having the same conversation with a ton of different girls (flashback to orientation!), and then this process was repeated the next few nights, but for less time each night. Not my idea of fun. Look out for informal rushes-they are often fun activities that you can go to that are an alternative way of joining. 

I actually became close to the girls in my sorority really quickly! It is definitely a great way to meet people!

So…as far as advice goes, here it is:

1. Your health should be your #1 priority. Academics may seem important, but if you are constantly sick (or get really sick once, like me), you will not be able to do well in your classes.
2. Don’t compare yourself to other students. You will probably be challenged much more than in high school, and your peers will likely be smarter than your peers in high school. Just do the best that YOU can do; everyone has different strengths!
3. Don’t overcommit-especially the first quarter/semester. This is the time to meet new people and have fun! College is a big enough of a change, so try to keep the added stress level as low as possible.
4. On the other hand, joining some student groups is a great way to meet people.
5. Other people are just as lost as you are, even if they don’t seem to be. My school has this concept of the “duck syndrome.” In general, my campus appears pretty happy and laid back. The belief is that because everyone seems so happy, people may be really struggling, but appear fine and happy. Above the surface, they are like a duck happily resting on the water, while below the surface, they are kicking around like crazy to stay afloat. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help!
6. It really is easier to study in the library.
7. If you bake in your dorm, you will have 80 instant friends. 
8. If your dorm does trips or activities, go! They are super fun, and you will meet people.
9. Do homework with other people. Odds are there is someone in your dorm who can help you with whatever subject you are struggling on. 
10. Freshman year is a time of exploration. This is the time you can be a little crazy, with the excuse that you are a freshman. This is a time you can find yourself, apart from your parents. Note: I am not recommending you party every night of the week. Just consider trying new things and be open to new experiences and new people. 
11. Make sure you have your key at all times, even when you shower. Just because your roommate is there when you leave, doesn’t mean she’ll be there when you return. I’ve never been locked out in my towel, but you hear horror stories.
12. Be a good roommate. You don’t have to be best friends, you just have to be courteous. Gross smells are not okay. Try to be somewhat neat. If you have a problem, voice your concerns politely-it is much better than letting problems stew. Set some general ground rules at the beginning of the year if necessary. Be respectful of your roommate’s sleep schedule. I also recommend buying earplugs and an eye mask, so if your roommate is up late working, you can sleep. 
13. Have fun!

Hopefully this was at least somewhat helpful!

Since I have less than a full week left of classes in my freshman year, and about a week and a half until moveout, I thought this would be a great opportunity to reflect on the healthy living journey that was Freshman year- the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 

I guest posted for Avery a little while ago about tips for staying healthy in college. I came up with the list through some trial and error. And error. And error. I’m going to go through the journey that brought me where I am today, including future plans. Hopefully my experiences will help those of you making the transition soon!

I came into college planning on walking on to crew. I had always wanted to try it, and I am never one to pass up on a new and intense workout. I also came into college in phenomenal shape- probably the best shape I’ve been ever. Throughout high school, I loved nutrition and had my healthy eating figured out well enough. In addition, I had been training for a 10k all summer, which I completed the weekend before move in. Since most of my friends began college a month before me and softball ended around the same time, I had literally nothing to do for a month except workout to my little heart’s desire.

(Right before they left.)

I did my training runs, spin classes, weight lifting with a trainer, and agility training with a trainer. I worked out 2-3 hours a day, partly in preparation for crew, but partly because I loved these workouts, and knew I wouldn’t be able to do them when I got to college. No lie-the thing I was most sad about leaving was my gym and weight lifting trainer. 

I spent the fall rowing crew. I loved it. I was with all walk-ons, and since I was in such great shape to start with, I was one of the fastest. I loved being on the water, despite the brutal 5:15 am wakeup call every morning. I was in great shape again, though I didn’t lift weights as much. However, I fell into the trap of a new eating situation. I ate like crap. I never gained the freshman 15 because I was working out a ton, but I wasn’t fueling my body that well and didn’t feel that great. I would have morning practice, and then go back and gorge on pancakes with syrup and muffins galore, and then leave with a stomachache and an energy crash. And, it was sleep deprivation at its finest. But I loved what I was doing (rowing, not eating crap), and it was a great way to meet people and maintain fitness. 

I started having problems around the holidays-I absolutely love the holiday season, and am super into the holiday spirit and doing everything associated with that. This was the first time I really got homesick- I went home quite a bit around the holidays to do things like decorate the tree and make gingerbread. I think these emotions led me to eat as much holiday food as possible to try to fit in all that I had missed or was missing. 

By the time it was finally Christmas, I was in a food-induced misery because I felt so awful. And as we know, sugar messes with my emotions…a lot. By the time I got to training camp (a few days after Christmas), I had lost a lot of what was left of my healthy habits.I was only home for 10 days at Christmas before training camp in San Diego. This was where the walk-ons mixed in with varsity, Olympic athletes an all. I also found that while everyone else was getting faster, I was actually getting slower. I was in such great shape when I got to school that I really had no room for improvement. However, I returned from the trip stronger and more confident. Winter quarter was extremely difficult for me. I was spending 5 hours on crew, taking hard classes, and getting maybe 6 hours of sleep a night. In addition, I didn’t like varsity’s workouts as much, and felt I wasn’t getting as much out of them, despite the time commitment I was putting in. I also missed doing my own workouts, which I had had time and energy for in the fall. The only way I could go to a Spin class was if I woke up at 5, finished my erg early which was only kind of possible given when the gym opened, did the spin class, and then ran. I did that maybe once. My eating habits once again weren’t great- I feel like I never really “fixed” myself from the holidays. In addition, I finally discovered a likely nut allergy, and a major problem with crashes after eating certain types of carbs. Since I had zero time or energy, I was kind of isolated in my dorm. My classes were really hard for me, and I had no time to put in to them. I could barely stay awake in class. I was really struggling. After my first Ochem midterm, I seriously considered quitting, but I loved the team, working out hard, and the athlete status. And then I got sick. One afternoon, I felt sore all over. We had a freezing cold practice on the water, and I could not warm up from it. The next morning I had a 100 degree fever. I tried to do my morning erg, but it wasn’t happening. I made plans to make it up that weekend. Then, the next morning I was still sick. I was struggling to figure out when I’d make up all these missed workouts. Before I knew it, it had been a week, and my fever was up to 103, leading to a trip to the ER. Long story short, I had Mono. And strep throat. And a cold, which led to an ear and sinus infection. And stomach flu. All at once. It was awful. I had to go home. I couldn’t get out of bed for weeks. I have never been that sick. I had to drop Ochem and math, but given how much I was struggling, this probably saved my GPA. I barely finished my last 2 classes with some extensions and really difficult days. For 2 weeks, I could barely eat at all. First, it was the stomach flu. Then, it was the swollen organs that made my stomach the size of a pea. I must have dropped at least 10 pounds during this time, although a lot of it was muscle. 

When I gained my appetite back (before I was better), I went a little crazy, indulging in all the I couldn’t eat in the previous weeks and all the food from home I had missed out on all year. Fro-yo was an everyday thing. 

I regained my sweet tooth that I had lost while I was sick, and boy did I gain it. Losing and then gaining weight rapidly kind of messed up my eating habits further. Around this time, I made the difficult decision to not return to crew. Mono was a wakeup call: what I was trying to do was not healthy. And although I do miss it, I know I made the right decision.

Soon, I was able to work out again, and boy was it hard. When you can’t even sit up in bed for weeks, imagine how hard a sit up is. I started with yoga, and didn’t lift weights until later (due to organ swelling). I wish I could say I figured out my eating habits, but the illness really messed me up. 

At the beginning of this quarter, I had such a great time- I could talk to friends until 1am, and it wouldn’t matter because there was no morning practice. Late night food parties? Sure, why not? Yeah, those habits caught up to me pretty quickly. When I finally eliminated sweets a few weeks ago, I felt way better. Now, I would say I am eating much healthier than before, but the lack of 5 hours of crew everyday is catching up to me a little bit. I never seem to have problems getting workouts in- I love them! But Id be lying if I said my eating habits are where I want them to be. 

As you can see, this has definitely been a year of ups and downs. I am currently suffering from lack of a sport- softball consumed my life all through high school, and rowing replaced it until now. I always thought that a sport was what was holding me together-before I was cleared for crew, I was going insane. Now, I am going a little bat-shit crazy, haha. I really hope my little journey helped some of you. Going home for a long time when I was sick really helped me- buh bye homesickness! However, as you can see, I am not where I want to be. So what does that mean?

Instead of taking a ton of classes this summer, I want to take some time to myself. I am taking only 5 units because I don’t want to be burned out. I want to spend this summer finding my happy place with food and fitness, and I want to put some serious work into the ol’ blog. My class schedule is going to be much more intense in the fall, so I really want to figure myself out before then.

Despite the rough patches, I can honestly say I had an amazing freshman year.

What was your freshman year of college like? Did you struggle at all?

Ok. Now that that excitement is over, I’ll go over the last couple of days. Last night, my sister drove me to REI to get Spin shoes, and then we stopped at a Ramen restaurant afterwards for dinner. I’ve never actually had Ramen before (besides Cup o Noodles).

We started off with some delicious Japanese salads and edamame. Chopsticks are most definitely not my strong point; especially chopsticks with a salad! Jeez. 

I had chicken ramen for dinner, which was really delicious and warm. It’s been a tad chilly here lately (relatively of course).

Upon returning to school, I decided to do a little “baking” experimentation. My friends had been talking about making coconut bread, so the idea had been planted in my mind. I really don’t have a lot in the way of ingredients; I am out of eggs. So I figured, why not try egg white protein powder?I mixed up some unsweetened shredded coconut, egg white vanilla protein powder, vanilla, and a bit of sweetener, and then popped it in the microwave. I was not expecting the result- it tasted just like a coconut macaroon! I will post the recipe as soon as I perfect it. (Well, as soon as I get my act together enough to actually measure it). I tried it again today, and cooked it for a bit less, so it was almost like a pudding. As you may notice in the first picture, my hand is a bit colorful. Yesterday, I tie-dyed with my dorm. I’ve never done it before, and I had a ton of fun with it!It had to sit in a plastic bag for 24 hours, and it is currently lying in my room attempting to dye every surface. I’ll post a picture as soon as it goes through the wash! 

Today, I went on a rafting trip with my dorm, and had a great time despite some initial difficulties. The river we were going to was about a two hour drive away. An hour in, the check engine light when on in the bus, and we pulled over. The driver got out and inspected things, and then we were back on the road….for less than an exit. We didn’t even make it onto an offramp before the bus driver pulled over again. The engine was pretty badly overheated and the steering was locked up. There was smoke or steam coming out of the back of the bus. We had to call for another bus which was coming from pretty far away, and wouldn’t be there for another hour. The bus driver finally agreed to at least pull off the freeway, and from there, we had a little freedom to walk around and find food. I ended up with a chocolate banana smoothie from Starbucks. It was also around this time that I realized I had lost my lunch. The dining hall gave us all packed lunches for the trip. I’m pretty sure someone stole my lunch because a lot of people had more than one, and I had…zero. Near my seat, I found a lunch that had been ransacked (as in, no sandwich or chips), so I rescued an apple out of it. 

We ended up getting to the rafting place about two hours later than we had planned. 

Before I go on, let me just clarify that this is no white water rafting. It is way tamer! We were in big rafts and had paddles, in a river with a slight current. Being out on the water made me realize how much I missed rowing! I had so much trouble rowing forward. I ended up just turning around and rowing crew-style. Of course, this wasn’t exactly heavy duty rowing. The whole trip was just super relaxing, and it was a great end of the year dorm event. I’m going to miss living with these people! It’s insane that in a little over 2 weeks, my freshman year will be over! At the same time, this has been a pretty long year in that I’ve had soooo many experiences, and so many memories. Jeez, now I’m getting nostalgic! I’m sure week 9, midterms (yes, I have a midterm in week 9), and finals will take my mind off of that! 

How has your long weekend been? What did you do?

No surprise what breakfast was!Vanilla greek yogurt, crunchy sunflower seed butter, pumpkin bread(ish).

And due to my stream lined breakfast process, getting to class on time was no problem at all!

After my 9 am class, I met with my Psych TA to discuss a paper I have to write. I’m actually getting excited about it; it is going to be on the cognitive effects of practicing yoga.

I then returned to my room with intentions of getting work done, but soon decided that a nap was probably a better option. 

This didn’t leave a ton of time for lunch before my next class, and given I was in the mood for yogurt, I decided to just roll with it, because I figured if I tried to eat something else, I would end up eating yogurt anyways. Plus some veggies-carrots with roasted garlic hummus, which I exchanged for guacamole about halfway through my meal. 

I decided to bring my workout gear to class so I could go straight to the gym, an save time/not lollygag. Since I was planning on doing a rowing workout, I planned to wear a skirt that day so I could already be wearing my spandex. I accidentally left my dorm wearing my shower flip-flops though! Oops! Giants flip flops+ skirt….not sure about that one. 

After class I headed over to the gym, but then sat in the shade for a bit and worked on Chem because I still felt pretty full from lunch. 

My workout really felt awesome. It was surprisingly nice to be back on the erg. Granted, I did a fraction of what I was doing towards the end of last quarter, but I’m totally fine with that. I don’t see any need to be on the erg for an hour and a half now. I actually looked back in my email history and pulled out the first workout we were assigned in the fall. Hey, gotta start somewhere, right? It was 4 sets of 5 minutes. I followed that with about 20 minutes of abs.

I was riding back from my workout while wearing spandex, and pondered whether spandex would be good to wear for biking, since it doesn’t move around like regular shorts. Then, I had the biggest urge to go for a bike ride. I’ve been wanted to go, but I’ve been a little apprehensive since my little spill. 

Results of my little spill:The picture doesn’t do it justice…

But I decided, hey why not? So I went for an impromptu 4 mile loop of campus, and it felt great too. I have to say, with my increase in workouts in the last few days, I am beginning to feel more like myself. This is how I thrive. I love pushing my body. And I’m finally beginning to see definition again in my legs which has been absent since I was sick. But mostly, I just feel strong. Which makes me happy. Although I must admit I’m still lacking in the running category…oops. Tomorrow’s workout schedule will be quite different. I’m taking the morning off, because in the evening, I’m doing….quidditch conditioning. I miss the agility workouts I used to do for softball, and my sister is in charge of the quidditch team, and was more than willing to let me tag along for conditioning. With the promise that no brooms were involved, that is. 

But back to dinner. I tried a new dining hall that is SUPER close that I only vaguely knew existed, and it was a success! Although it’s small, it was so nice to have a change of foods. And blue cheese polenta? Yum! They also had scones and veggie wraps!As well as a slice on edible beet (normally I’m not a big beet person).

Over dinner, I talked to some friends about housing for next year. The deadline is this weekend! I’m going to live with my roommate, but not sure who else or where. 

We also decided it was time to set up our fan. Our room gets super hot in the evenings since it’s in direct sun then. We’ve been putting it off because we weren’t sure where to put it. Well, as it turns out, we aren’t engineers. And the instructions weren’t the most helpful. But we are college students. Which means 2 things: we are creative and we don’t have a screwdriver. So here’s what we came up with:Pshhh who needs a stand anyways? This actually ended up being the perfect place for it, and our room has cooled down substantially. 

I just realized I never explained the name of this post…For my erg workout, I used a random playlist I found on my iPod that I made for spin sometime in the fall, with songs I listened to a lot then. Do you guys ever listen to music that you listened to during a certain time in your life, and the memories come flooding back? It reminded me of all my crew fun in the fall. Plus, I was doing a crew workout! 

Do you ever have “flashbacks”?

Dinner was a scramble filled with veggies, plus some oranges. I wanted to keep it light to save room for my day’s work!

Saturday morning I head over to the track for a workout (!). I did some running, mixed in with some abs and sprints. I ended up running 2.5 miles, which were broken up into miles chunks (plus the half mile). Given this was my first time running since I got so sick, and the first time in over a month, I’d say it went pretty well. I have a ways to go to build up my stamina, but I felt pretty good, and my legs didn’t really feel tired at all until the final half mile. It also occurred to me while I was running how much better running is than erging! However, I’m REALLY sore today. I’ve never been this sore from running. Even my arches are sore. So once again, I have a ways to go! After my workout, I cleaned myself up and my parents and I drove over to Berkeley to have lunch with my grandparents, since we won’t be seeing them on Easter. Their new favorite place is a Korean restaurant called Bowl’d, so we all went there. I got a chicken bowl, and here’s what it looked like:It was really good! The bowl had various types of rice, noodles, and vegetables. Topped with a citrus soy sauce, which was vaguely sweet (almost like a teriyaki sauce). I liked it! But the bowl stayed VERY hot the whole time, and I was constantly in danger of burning myself! 

My whole family was ready for a nap by the time we got home, so I read in bed with this little guy:I love my cats. We ended up ordering a quick dinner from a local diner-type restaurant, and I chose huevos rancheros.Hey, anything with avocado and I’m sold!

This morning I headed over to one of my favorite spin classes. I had to get there early to sign up, so I did some crunches while I waited. It was a great class, I was able to push myself more like I normally do. My stupid bike seat started sliding back towards the end of class though, even though I tightened it. I got off my bike once to fix it, but when it slipped a second time, I just gave in and finished the class. 4 hills! Whoop! Which, I must say, is way better than 1 30 minute hill…

I didn’t snap a picture at breakfast because I was in a hurry, but I had a sort of yogurt bowl: kefir with peanut butter puff cereal and sunflower butter, plus a mango (of course). We still have like 8 mangos, which are all starting to be ripe. This will not be a problem.

After spin, I went to the farmer’s market.My best find? Avocados! They were 6 for $5. They also had mini avocados, which I naturally had to get.I think I am going to try to sprout the pits, and see if I get a mini avocado plant! I’m not sure they will sprout though; they are so tiny!

Have you guys ever gotten kettle corn at the farmer’s market before? It is by far the best kettle corn out there. So naturally we bought a reasonably sized bag (as opposed to giant. See? Showing restraint). We also bought an apple pie from a stand that came from a local pie restaurant that we used to always go to when I was little. My mom and I have both been dying for apple pie lately because it keeps coming up in the books we are reading. It cost just as much if we bought slices as to buy a whole pie, so a whole pie it was!

After the farmer’s market, I began this blog post and then went out to Indian food with Jessica, one of my best friends from High School.

It ended up being a buffet, which was just as well since neither of us would have known what to order anyways. She had never had Indian food before, and I never know what to order since I’m not exactly sure what anything is. The end result? We basically got some of everything to try.It was really tasty! It wasn’t too spicy, except for one thing, which I figured out fairly quickly and avoided. Jessica didn’t fare as well. Her plate got completely mixed together, so she couldn’t tell what anything was and couldn’t identify the really spicy item! We used the warm Naan served on the side to take away some of the kick.

After a fun lunch, we saw a froyo place that I had not tried yet right across the street, so NATURALLY, what choice did we have? And hey, it’s been over a week since my last one! It was a Tutti Fruiti. The yogurt was good quality and the toppings bar was a good variety, but the flavors weren’t especially interesting. But I guess at this point that’s hard to expect given how many places I’ve been to. It was a great afternoon; we probably stayed in the yogurt place chatting for an hour! I miss that girl!

Other than that, I haven’t done too much up until now. There’s one last thing I want to talk about though (hence the title of the post). As some of you may know, I walked onto my college’s crew team this fall after never having rowed before in my life. My school has a program for novice rowers, so the fall was spent teaching us all how to row. It was an awesome experience, one I wouldn’t trade for anything. I met some truly amazing people. Come winter, the novices moved in with the varsity rowers, recruits and Olympians alike, starting with winter camp (which you can see in my earliest blog posts). Through blogging about this, I found some other rower/former rower bloggers (shout out to Brittany and Theresa!), which is totally awesome. But then winter quarter got hectic. Rowing took up 5 hours every day, and I was only getting about 6 hours of sleep a night, and certainly not putting 100% into my classes. I can’t help but think this is part of why I got so sick. It probably didn’t help that the first day I was sick I spent a couple of hours freezing my drenched butt off in the bay…ANYWAY. These past few weeks have given me some perspective. I realize there’s no way I can keep that type of schedule up anymore. I spent a lot of time on softball in high school, but that was MY sport. I had to remind myself that while I loved rowing, I had only been doing it for a few months, and it really wasn’t MY sport. I had such an amazing experience, but I’m not up to full strength. Racing starts in less than a week. And most importantly, an aftereffect of this stupid illness (mono) is that I will need more sleep for a while. So I decided I cannot continue to row. One again, I wouldn’t trade anything for the opportunity to row at a high college level, but it is time to move on, hence the name of the post. Right now, I’m training to get back into shape for Intramural soccer, which I’m pumped for. I started playing soccer when I was 5, and haven’t played since my freshman year of high school, and I’ve really missed it. And I want to really get into running. I can’t wait to have more flexibility in my workouts and in my life. Seriously, I’ve never had this kind of freedom. For so long, anytime there was any event or activity, I automatically knew I couldn’t go. In high school, it was because I had softball, and this year it was because I had crew. I’m excited to try new things and meet new people. I feel like I have so many more opportunities now, and I think I will have a chance at not going through life as a sleep deprived zombie. (Speaking of which, has anyone done a zombie run? I think it sounds like fun!) It’s also important for me to have a good quarter academically, given I had to drop 2 of my classes because of the mono last quarter. Like I said a minute ago, a really want to get into running. I really want to try one of those “Mud Runs” where you have to go though/over all kinds of obstacles. That’s total body fitness right there! Anyway, I wanted to let you all know what is going on with me. I decided a little while ago, but i wanted to wait until everything was finalized. To end, here’s a picture of my favorite flowers, which my cats have been leaving alone so far (last year I found my birthday bouquet scattered around the house).The picture doesn’t do them justice!

What fun or interesting runs have you done?