Recent Entries by Machesney  

This weekend I went to the Mall of America for the third time in my life. Coming from 3hours the other direction, the Mall is nearly 5 hours away from my home town, making it very difficult for me to go there as a kid.

To start this weekend, my aunt and her twin daughters came up to visit me for the whole weekend. Friday night they got up pretty late so we just ate dinner that I made, settled in and got caught up on each other's lives. The next morning we got up early and headed to the mall. It was my third time and the first time for all of them. My twin cousins are 12 so it wasn't abnormal for them not to have been there as they live 5+ hours away, but my aunt is 40, so it was cool to take her to MOA for the first time. They really had no idea how big the mall was, however they did know about Nickelodeon Universe. My aunt bought all day passes to ride rides, but we did go shopping first. When we started, we were overwhelmed and didn't know where to begin. We eventually started walking and found some neat stores. Some of our favorite stores were Garage, Flips, Pac Sun, Harley, and the Peeps Candy Store. After a lot of shopping, we headed to the rides, which were surprisingly quiet and unique. I live fairly close to Great America, so finding unique rides is hard to do. These definitely surprised me. We stayed in Nickelodeon Universe riding rides, shopping and eating until it closed when we went on the adventure to find my car which took significantly longer than expected. Who knew it would be so difficult to locate a car at a mall with parking ramps. We eventually got to my car, then home by 12:30 am, about an hour after expected.

The next day we all slept in really late (about time...) then ate breakfast. I gave my family a tour around the skyways and streets of Rochester. It is honestly a pretty unique place and has some pretty cool places, even though Rochester is basically closed on Sundays. After they left, I had to resume the typical college weekend life and clean the apartment, eat some food and avoid homework until the last possible second when I wish I hadn't. Although the weekend flew by, I had so much fun!

Coming to college, I expected a lot of things. I had high expectations from the movies or TV shows, making it seem like college would be living the life and having the "college experience." I would make friends and have them for life. Be best friends with my roommate and live happily ever after, be partners in crime and have a maid of honor. We could have Taco Tuesdays and study for tests until all odd hours of the night together. I would finally get away from my annoying little brother and having to walk the dog at the demands of my mom. I can stay up as late as I want and go shopping at my pleasure. However, college isn't a static place where you find one person to be best friends with, or making your schedule completely independent of others. Not everything will work out as planned, but rolling with the punches is what makes the college experience all it's put up to be. I've made a list of six things that have changed this year and how it affected me. Looking back, a lot of this could have brought me down, but finding the positive things has made me enjoy college so much more and appreciate everything that happens. After all, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

1. Moving to Rochester, MN from Waunakee, WI. This is a pretty obvious change. I gained so much education, many friends, the experience of living in a city. I learned to be independent, saw places of MN I probably would have never seen otherwise and lived in a town that had already changed my life. Although I miss my family, I really do love living here and having such a different experience every single day. The skyways are amazing, the food is different and so readily available, and everything you could possibly need (except my family) is right here. This is nothing like living back home and it's so nice to live something different. I'm not saying it is or isn't something I'll do for the rest of my life, but I'm so glad I got the chance to try it and say I did, and maybe I'll live in the city for part or the rest of my life.

2. Varying my friends. I'm the kind of person who likes to have many friends who like to do a variety of things. Sticking with one group of people may be the best for certain people, but that's just not my thing. I also like to be around positive, active people who treat others respectfully. Surrounding yourself with people like you is the best way to stay happy and motivated in my opinion, so that's what I try to do. When friendships aren't working out, don't force it. Maybe that's just me, but forcing something isn't worth the time, effort or strain. There are plenty of similar people in the world, find them and be yourself.

3. Getting a car. I've always been a fairly do as I please person, especially being as involved as I am. Having as car has allowed me to attend more volunteer events, get groceries easier/on my own and go home when I need to. I wrote a blog about all the benefits of having a car called "Having a Car at School," so check that out for more details.

4. Eating habits. Being able to choose my own food has been super nice for me, as well as made my life generally healthier. I tend to eat things like fruits and vegetables as snacks, rather than pop tarts and rice krispie bars that my mom would buy for my brother. Not that there is anything wrong with occasional junk food, but overall, people really should be eating healthier. And let's be honest, when you go to the doctor, who are you going to trust with your health: the fat doctor who clearly cannot follow their own advice/gives bad advice to begin with, or the fit doctor who knows how to properly maintain themselves? The fit one, obviously. So with that, I want to start being fit and maintaining a healthy life sooner rather than after it is too late and becomes a chore to be healthy.

5. My study habits. In high school, I was the student who showed up to class, paid attention most of the time, did my homework, but that was about the end of school and studying. There was no "studying." When it came to exams, I could work my way through enough of it to pull good grades, especially balanced out with the high homework averages. College completely changed that. Some of the things I do to study at college are completing all of the homework, going to nearly all of the help sessions, going to the necessary JustAsk hours, doing all optional review guides and practice exams, working through problems with friends for complete understanding and re-reading chapters from text books. And when I say I re-read the chapters, that means I read the chapters to begin with, which is more than I did for most classes in high school. Learning how to study in college was rough and a quick learning curve, but definitely is starting to pay off.

6. Careers. I came here determined to be a pediatric neurologist. I was going to go to med school then do 11 years of residency and spend the rest of my life helping kids with neurological disorders. Then I wondered when I could have a family in there, so I changed my path to physician's assistant in neurology. Since then, I've thought about being a surgical first assistant, clinical neurophysiology tech, nurse anesthetist and back to med school. As for now, I'm pretty settled on PA, but I know that can change, and I'm open to the opportunities I'm presented.

College isn't easy, and change is always happening, but it is so worth it in the end. I have gained so much here from friends to knowledge to self-understanding. I now know who I am so much better and I think I know more what my priorities are in life.

Having a car at school has been really convenient, although there is definitely a price to pay. This year everything with regards to a car sort of fell into place. At the beginning of the year, I found out I would have to be going back home pretty frequently, and it's a three hour drive one way. That means for my mom to come get me and bring me back, its twelve hours in the car and a day off work. I also realized I should start building my credit score, so I bought a car. At the same time, my grandma was moving into my house, so she was taking my garage spot. She felt guilty, so she forks up the parking fee every month for me to have my car here. The parking fee is the biggest price, and I'm lucky enough to have someone to pay that for me. The other problem is gas. I never have to drive too far, but all the little trips here and there really add up. Friends always say, "Oh, I'll pay you later," or "I'll get you more money next time," however that money rarely shows up. It's always my money filling up the gas tank even though it's everyone's errands being run.

One of the major advantages is being able to get groceries whenever I want. As college students, we're pretty successful at eating large quantities of food, as well as wanting a variety of food, so having full access to grocery stores is nice. Personally, I really enjoy cooking new foods, and I don't always have all the ingredients. Knowing it's possible to get that one ingredient is really nice. It's also nice for special occasions like birthdays. When it's someone's birthday, you like to celebrate by going out for dinner, and without a car, you might not have the complete selection of restaurants to go to. I know it seems like a luxury, and it really is, but those are the kinds of things I feel like I would really miss without my car. Even with all the price going into the car, having my car here is worth it for me.

For my CLI class this semester, we had to write "This I Believe" statements. This is what I wrote. The restrictions were it had to be about something you believed in and why, and the whole thing had to be fewer than 500 words. Enjoy!

I believe in fate. Fate causes things, and things always happen. Everything that has happened in my life has made me who I am, and has happened for a very specific reason, and at a very specific time. For example, having a neurological disorder happen in my life, not by choice or anyone's doing; it just happened by fate. Going to the doctor and being told you have CRPS Type 1 after years of testing, pain, disappointment and false hope is a bittersweet feeling. I finally had a diagnosis, but it was a grim diagnosis. CRPS Type 1 means having the world's most painful chronic pain disorder, yet showing nearly no physical signs. My nerves send false impulses to my brain, therefore no physical trace of the pain. Having this disorder made me a stronger person in many ways. I learned to be focused on a goal, I put my priorities in life straight, I learned to not take a single thing for granted, and I found my career. I lost many friends because they couldn't see the pain, and called me a liar, and couldn't deal with my ups and downs, and leaving school for months at a time. I lost my dad because he too didn't believe my pain. This made me value the people I had in my life, and learn to be independent. I lost the summer before my junior year with my friends because I spent it at Mayo Clinic to learn how to heal myself. Although I missed out on a summer of bonfires and waterparks, I found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. All of this wouldn't have happened so conveniently timed without having this disorder. While I was at Mayo Clinic, I toured UMR, and look where I am now. This is where I'm supposed to be, learning to become something to help people like me. Something called fate is working out for me, and I'd like to keep believing it will stay that way.

Side notes: Since being at college, I have gained a much better relationship with my dad, we just don't talk about my pain. I've also made a lot more and stronger friendships now that I've learned to manage my pain. I still take nothing for granted because for a long time I felt like I had nothing. It's an interesting thing going through any type of chronic pain, but sometimes things are just meant to happen.

Coming to UM Rochester, I knew there were a lot of opportunities unique to this university. For example, the capstone experience is really unique and obviously quite personalized. The small class sizes as well as student to faculty ratio stand out too. One thing I never really realized was the relationships we would have with our Student Success Coach.

Right away within the first week of school, we are asked to set up a meeting with our coach to get to know them and lay out our goals for the semester, year and our entire time at the university. It's nice to establish a relationship with a coach who will be there the entire four years right away. Throughout the semester we met a few times to discuss progress as well as how I could be doing even better in my classes and goals. With this relationship, I was able to enroll in Medical Terminology; an additional class I thought would help me next year with my studies in Anatomy and Physiology.

I have also learned to utilize the Just Ask Centers at both 318 and U Square. These provide extra time to meet with professors to learn the material and answer questions. This can be helpful if you have just one question from lecture or if you discover after class you don't actually understand a concept from class. At the Just Ask Centers, all the professors are willing to help, so you can ask any professor a question, even if they aren't your specific lecture professor. This helps to build relationships, as well as introduce new ways of explaining concepts to further your understanding. The coaches and Just Ask Centers are unique features of UMR that have both had really great impact on my academic success so far.

Every story has a beginning, middle, and an end. My break is the same way.

Before break I was very excited to go home, have free food and have my mother take care of me. My family had a few snow days between my break and their break starting, then Christmas came and all was well. As soon as public school started again, reality set in and it was the middle of my break.

The monotony of break was here, and my days consisted of clearing out the DVR, snuggling with the puppy and working at my new job. After about a week, re-runs of Full House can only be so entertaining. I realized school was where I really enjoyed being and my good friends were back at school. I decided to return a few days early along with my roommate, Cassidy, so we could catch up and rearrange the apartment. This may seem cheesy, but it was a great end to my break.

Now that classes have resumed, I honestly feel complete. I have things to do all day and all night, I feel productive and I'm learning again. I would have to say my new favorite class is either Ethics or Organic Chemistry II. They are really different classes, but I enjoy them because they are unique and present a new way of thinking from anything I've had in the past. At night, I get to cook the food of my choice, study all of my courses as well as socialize when I can. As nice as my mom's free food is, I like studying and socializing a lot more.

Pictured below are Cassidy and myself!

Thanksgiving break has always been something to look forward to in school because you get a lot of food and time off of school. There is a difference once you're in college. In high school, you've had other days off like parent teacher conferences or the random days at the end of October. You also have days that you don't focus a lot like homecoming and half days for whatever reason. In college, you don't get those days, sad to say. However, the weeks go by a lot quicker than in high school. There is so much more going on, and a much quicker pace, so going from the start of the year to Thanksgiving really doesn't seem too bad. It also makes Thanksgiving that much sweeter. You have about a two week build-up of excitement for your at-home bed, A LOT of free food, parents cooking, shopping at your parents' expense, seeing all your friends who are also on break, and doing a significant amount of nothing. All of this is a change of pace from daily living at UMR. I'll admit, I did study over break, but not as much as I intended to...

As a freshman going home on my first break, I got to enjoy my mom's first time having me home as well. This means I got super spoiled when I went home. She made me four full or double batches of cookies to bring back, a turkey for just me, puppy chow, and things I can't even remember, simply because she missed me. I also got the honor of picking out the Christmas tree this year, which I usually don't; as I'm usually battling for dibs between my three brothers. In essence, my first Thanksgiving home turned into a lot of food just for me, and being the most spoiled child, which is honestly just fine by me!

Halloween is an experience in Rochester I never expected. It is a huge festivity, and so much fun! This year me and my best friend Ashley were thing one and thing two from Dr. Seuss. I was thing one because I like odd numbers better than even numbers; obviously good reasoning. We spend hours shopping and planning and making our costumes. Key word: making. In Rochester, it isn't typical to just go buy a premade costume and go as that. You go all out and make certain parts and piece things together to make the whole thing a final item. Here is what we did. We wore solid red tights with tan boots. We found poufy, red, horizontal tutus to put over our red, ruffley bloomers. We then made thing one/two circles by hand to sew on to our bright red tank tops. We went to Claire's and found blue sequenced head bands. We added a red bow clip to the head band. This was our main costume... Main costume? Yes. In Rochester, you better have more than one plan as Halloween plans come up on the fly.

Our second costume was a zombie costume we wore at my neighbor's aunt's house party. We wore normal clothes but did our makeup super awesome with just normal street makeup and nail polish. The fumes from the nail polish burned our eyes quite a bit though, so be careful with that.

Our third costume that we had in mind as a backup was for us to wear our animal print, footie pajamas. Not only were the costumes amazing, but there are TONS of activities relating to Halloween. There was the Kahler Halloween House, the Peace Plaza event, photo booth, and so much more. It really blew me away how much the city came together for this one day.

Documentation is always important. That's what I have always been told all through high school, and even middle school for that matter. My teachers always preached to take notes, cite your sources, cross reference your facts, etc. That, however, isn't the type of documentation I'm talking about. I'm talking about documenting memories of college. As the cliché goes, college is the prime of your life, and it really is. It's true that it is a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun, too! One weekend, my friends and I decided to get dressed up and do a photo shoot in the fall colors; to document us and our friendship. Our pictures were taken in the street next to 318, the alley behind 318, the park next to the YMCA, the stairs at the YMCA and in trees in the park. We not only have our memories, but we had a really fun time doing it. We got our minds off school for a little bit and enjoyed the fresh air before it turns really cold! This was a really fun idea, and also free for all of us. Here are some of the documentation of me and my friends!

From front to back: Me, Ashley, Paige, Steph, Sam, Carly, Jasmine, Lauren

Dooley's is a restaurant pub across the street from 318 Commons, and it has great food. Seeing as I'm from Wisconsin, I happen to be partial to food with cheese. For instance, cheese curds, especially cheese curds titled "'Sconsin Cheese Curds." Things that remind me of home happen to draw my attention.

After a long night of studying, my best friend Ashley and I decided we were hungry, and wanted to eat something sweet, but couldn't figure out what to eat or where to go. We realized it was cold and 1:00 am, so walking a far distance wasn't really an option. We decided that Dooley's isn't only delicious, it happens to be really close. It isn't just really close: it is connected by skyway to 318 Commons. What could be better than food at 1:00 am that is served to you and you don't even have to walk outside? Not much would be my answer.

We proceeded to walk over to Dooley's on a mission for pie, and when we got there by skyway and elevator, we were warmly welcomed by the scent of popcorn. Our waiter informed us that everything on the menu was half off, which was clearly enough to persuade hungry college students not only to get delicious peanut butter pie, but 'Sconsin Cheese Curds as well.

Dooley's is just another example of an adventure Rochester can provide on any given night, and it's especially convenient given its skyway access. If you go there, do yourself a favor and try the cheese curds!