Openyoureyes.

Delta Gamma's philanthropy is Service for Sight, an organization that helps blind and visually impaired individuals. The other day, a fellow Deegee and I took a blind man named William to grocery shop at Walmart. I was pretty nervous, not knowing what to expect, but it turned out to be a really great experience. He just needed someones shoulder to hold on to while he was walking or the grocery cart and he was fine. We followed a list and helped pick out certain things he wanted and even laughed some along the way.

It was a really eye opening experience to see up close and personal how blindness affects a person. I couldn't even imagine how hard this man's life must be. Simple things like finding a certain textbook or grocery shopping, he can't do alone. But he didn't complain once. He was even making jokes and asking me to roll down the window because it was a beautiful day.

We can learn so much from people who are totally different from us. People should keep their eyes open to new things and their minds open to those who may not be just like us. It is more rewarding than I could have imagined.

Thanksgiving.

I cannot wait for Thanksgiving!!!!! Not only am a I ready for a break from classes, but I cannot wait to see my cousins and the rest of my family. Our gatherings are always so much fun. This will be the first Thanksgiving, or the first holiday period, where my parents are divorced. I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm glad that we'll have a chance to spend it with each of them.

I haven't seen my cousin, Molly, who is practically my best friend, since June! It's going to be a glorious reunion! We are all getting together this Saturday, so I'll have a full week of leftovers, plus more food on Thursday. I cannot wait. This will be the longest I've been home since I left for school. All of my high school friends will be back in town too! Oh, it will just be glorious!!!!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, because we all celebrate together. Christmas is wonderful too, and after thanksgiving, we get to put up Christmas decorations...YAY!!!

Search.

Search is a retreat that I went to in June 2006. It's run by high school students for high school students, and I can truly say it has been the most amazing experience of my life. Without Search, I would not be who I am today, and I doubt who I would be would be very good. I found myself, my closest friends in the world, and most importantly, my faith at Search. After staffing my 4th retreat this summer, I didn't think I would be able to go back since I was going to be in college, and it was heartbreaking. I was so upset. I was afraid that I would lose all that I had found through Search, yet here I am staffing the upcoming December Search, and I couldnt be happier.
I'm going to give the commitment talk from a college perspective, and I'm really nervous. This talk and the fact that I'm going to be staffing have been making me think about my faith a lot lately. I have been so much happier in the past few days than I have been probably all semester, which is weird, because I have actually been going through a pretty rough time. God has held me in the palm of his hand, and I am so grateful. I hope that the retreat is amazing yet again and that my talk reflects what God is asking me to say. I hope I can keep this great feeling that I've been having for the rest of my college career, and hopefully even the rest of my life!

I feel home.

After being in college for a few months now, I have pretty much gotten used to the lifestyle-responsibilites, freedoms, etc. At first, I never wanted to go home, but the longer I stay away, the more I miss it! The last time I went home, I felt like a visitor, and it was such a weird feeling! Is it going to be like that from now on? Will I always feel like an outsider in my own home? Well, maybe not an outsider, but it wasn't the same as it used to be. I'm going home this weekend, and I'm looking forward to seeing my brothers. They are 14 and 12, so it's weird to see how much they've changed since the last time I have gone home. Logan has shot up in heighth and his voice has changed!! Luke still looks the same, but he acts differently. They are changing so much, and I'm not there to notice it. As much as I miss home sometimes, when I go home, I miss here. It's hard to find the balance. They say home is where your heart is, and I think that is completely true. I have a home here at Southern and a real home back in Madison with my real family. I love them both and wouldn't trade them for the world.

Election

As the Presidential campaign winds to a close, most people have their mind made up on how they will vote. Whether their reasons be their party allegiance, the ideas of the candidate, or the color of the candidate's skin, almost everyone has decided which route they will go this coming Tuesday. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no clue who I want to vote for. I feel pressure from different ways telling me to vote for different people, but I don't think its fair to vote because of what other people tell you. I want to make my own informed decision. I haven't kept up with the election; therefore, I know nothing about the candidates except what I hear from others. I wish I had done things differently and actually watched the debates and followed the speeches, but I just always put it off. Now, there is no more time to put it off. I'm going to have to do some quick last minute research and evaluate my beliefs really fast to make sure that I make the right decision. People say that one vote doesn't count, but that is so untrue. If a million people were to say that their vote didn't count, then that could be the difference needed for the opposite candidate to win the presidency. We live in a country that allows us to choose our leaders, so we should take advantage of that at every opportunity!

Sisterhood week

This week is Delta Gamma's sisterhood week. Sisterhood week is the week before the new member initiation where the girls have to abstain from the 3 B's: booze, boys, and bars. I like the fact that we are taking a week off from 3 things that can be very distracting to a college student's life. I think that this week will be a good opportunity for us to all grow closer as sisters and to learn things about eachother that we have not been able to find out so far.

Some of the activities we are doing include dinner with a DG, a sisterhood retreat, a pledge class retreat, and some other random fun things together at the Delta Gamma house. This week is really exciting for me, because I can't wait to become an actual initiated member of DG. The sorority has already enriched my college experience is so many ways that I couldn't begin to explain. The friendships I have established in these few short months will last me a lifetime. After this weekend, Delta Gamma will be cemented into my life forever, and I am so ready to make that commitment.

peace out. Paige.

FALL BREAK.

It’s so great to be home. I didn’t realize how much I missed home until I got here this afternoon. Driving up to my house brought a great sense of relief over me. Of course, nothing has really changed. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow and visit my high school. I have been back there once, but I didn’t go to see yearbook financial staff, which was what I really wanted to do. I used to be business manager for the staff, so it will be nice to go back and see how the new leader is doing.
Two of my best friends will be home on Saturday, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. It will be the first time the three of us have all been here together since this summer. I LOVE everything about Southern Miss, but I still miss my old friends sometimes. It is weird being without my Southern friends too. I want to just be able to walk next door and talk to someone if I get bored, but here I have to hop in my car and drive somewhere! Weird that you notice things like that. Well, I’m gonna go talk to my mom. Peace out.

Paige.

life.

I've been thinking a lot about the future lately and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I had to drop a class, so I was looking at what I'm going to have to take next semester, which now includes three honors classes instead of the usual two. I want to take honors classes that pertain to my major, so I began to think about my major and what I wanted it to be. I think I'm going to stay a public relations major but add speech communication as a double major and minor in Spanish or sociology. I go to talk to Stacey Ready tomorrow afternoon, and I'm hoping she can help me out.

We sat in the friendship tree today and talked about what kind of jobs we wanted after college. The only conclusion that I could come to was that I want to help people. I say that I don't care about the money, but unfortunately, it is an issue. I think I could use a PR/Speech Comm degrees in a lot of ways to help people, and I hope that I can.

greysanatomy.

Last night was the first episode of Grey's Anatomy for this season, and I was pretty excited about it. A bunch of girls came to my room to watch it with me. It lasted 2 hours, which was a little much, but I was still glued to the tv the entire time. I'm working on finishing all of the seasons before next week's episode. It took me two days to watch the entire first season, but that was only nine episodes. The rest of the seasons have about 20 episodes, so I need to get to watching! =) I'm really not this obsessed with a silly tv show, but I couldn't really think of anything else to write about for this week, so i figured why not go on a spill about last night's viewing adventure.
After watching Grey's, the girls and I went to the Pi Kapp house for a little bit and hung out. I always have a good time there, and the guys are very nice. It was pretty much just another typical Thursday night in Hattiesburg. Not that I'm complaining at all, I love Thursdays, but what I'm really looking forward to is this saturday-DATE PARTY! I've never been to one, so I'm pretty pumped. I think it's gonna be a good time. I'm about to head to New Orleans with my music appreciation to listen to some jazz music..until next week, peace out!

Paige =)

Nursing Home Visit.

Every Monday at 4, a group of Delta Gamma girls go to Wesley Manor nursing home to play Bingo with the residents. This week was my second week to go, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it both times. Today, I sat next to a lady who was almost blind and deaf, and I had to repeat almost every letter and number that was called. It was really sad, but she finally got a bingo, which made it all worthwhile! The prizes that they get to choose from are simple things like toilet paper, paper towels, and soap, but they are truly happy to receive such trivial things.
It's very eye opening to see and talk to elderly people. It breaks my heart to see them struggle to find the proper number on their bingo card, but it also makes me smile to hear them getting excited about their win. People treat the elderly as if they are children, just because they may talk a little slower and may not understand life as it is to us because they grew up in a whole different world. I believe that they should be treated much more respectfully. If I were in a nursing home, I wouldn't want to be pitied or talked down to in any way. I would expect people to treat me just like any other person who doesn't live in a home. It is probably hard enough not being able to take care of yourself. The least people can do is give you the time of day.

Football.Questions.Politics.

Football season has begun. For the first time in my entire life, I watched an ENTIRE football game, and actually paid attention the whole time. I was even cheering. It was strange, but I liked it. I have never had a team that I cared enough about to keep me interested. For some reason, watching Southern Miss play just stirred something in my heart! I was yelling at the tv in buffalo wild wings! It was quite invigorating.
I'm going to a Mississippi State game this weekend, and I'm anxious to see if it's the game of football that I've come to enjoy or if it's just the Southern Miss spirit that has taken hold of me. =). Speaking of going to Mississippi State this weekend, I'm excited, but I'm also a little worried. I want to see all of my friends from back home who now go there, but I'm afraid that I will feel out of the loop. The friends from down here that have gone to visit MS State have said that it made them love it down here so much more. I don't know if I want it to reaffirm my decision to go to Southern, or if i want to have an amazing time, because that may make me doubt my decision to go here?
I'm sure that no matter what happens, I'll return to campus with a smile on my face, because I love it here. I can't see a weekend changing my decision.
Again, speaking of changing decisions, I am thinking of changing my major to political science. In economics today, we were talking about world issues and current events, and I want to have a part of all of that. I know that they are high hopes, but I would love to be able to make a difference. I think that politics is a filthy business, but I would like to try my hand at it to see if I can do some good in this world.

Well, that's all for now.

Paige. =)

Home sweet home.

Coming home from college is an odd feeling. First of all, I have a room all to myself with a bed big enough for me to actual roll over in. It's pretty incredible. I woke up with no back pain at all, which has been a very rare thing ever since I started sleeping in a dorm room bed. Also, hanging out with my friends feels different. It's like my life has changed and expanded in such amazing ways, but here they are, same as ever. I guess I prefer them not to have changed, and truly, I myself have not changed, but my lifestyle has. They still hang out with people they went to high school with, and they still frequent the same places, while I am in a whole new world making brand new friends! I love being back home, but I do miss my friends back in Hattiesburg. I also miss the convenience of having a cafeteria and living in the same building as the people I hang out with. Driving is a pain! Another difference in coming back home is my family. I no longer live under the same roof as they do, so I feel like we have so much catching up to do! Anyway, that's my spill on coming home from college.

On another note, Hurricane Gustav seems to have done most of its damage. Luckily, it was not nearly as strong as expected. Thank God. Heading north from Hattiesburg on Sunday, Highway 49 was like a war zone! The south bound lane was filled with ambulances, school buses, and national guard trucks headed to the cost to help prepare for the worst. I passed a poster stuck on a street sign that said, "Praying for Gustav evacs." It made me smile. Little things like that prove to me that there still is good in the world, and that people truly do care about one another.

That's all I got, folks. Peace out.

Paige <3

Southern Miss....To The Top!

I’m finally here. After years of preparation, I am now an official college freshman. What am I looking forward to the most? Is it the freshman fifteen? The countless hours of homework and studying? The freedom of making my own decisions? The late nights and early mornings? There are so many new experiences being thrown my way that it’s hard to say which I am enjoying the most. So far, I would have to say that the people I have met have been my favorite part of this college lifestyle. A few thousand teenagers from all over the world shoved into one square mile of cement and pavement sounds pretty horrific, but somehow, it’s been quite the opposite. Here at Southern, people of all different backgrounds, beliefs, likes and dislikes can come together as one. As cheesy as that sounds, I think it’s pretty fantastic. Since I have been here, I don’t think I have met one boring person, and although I may forget names, I am constantly seeing familiar faces around campus. That’s kind of incredible, since I have been here for a total of one and a half weeks, and I know a total of probably 3 people. Everyone has been so welcoming, from my teachers to my roommates to my new sorority sisters. I can’t wait to meet still more new people and learn more about this well kept secret called the University of Southern Mississippi. Why would anyone want to go anywhere else?

English101

I hope I've set this up correctly. This is just a test blog to see how this whole thing works. =)