Matt - Journal 11

April 28, 2005

"What a Year it has Been!"

Got them both (1-9) in one try!

Finals week is here! I cannot believe how fast this school year has gone-I cannot wait for this long summer that lies ahead. These past few weeks of school have been extremely busy with final projects, papers, and extracurricular activities. Since I know no one wants to hear about my papers and projects, I will update you on the activities I have participated in over the last month.

On Tuesday, April 12th I traveled, with the other members of our SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) club, to Washington, DC for competition on Wednesday. This was a regional competition with SIFE clubs from all over Virginia and surrounding states. Each team presents projects --in front of a panel of ten judges--completed by the club over the past year. I was one of the six presenters, from our EMU SIFE team, assisting in this twenty-five minute presentation. Believe it or not (We could not believe it!) our team won our section and have the opportunity to present at nationals! Nationals will be held in Kansas City at the end of May--go EMU SIFE!

Chris Lehman playing peek-a-boo! (Isn't he a little old for this?)

Ben getting into ping-pong at my house!

Having accepted a CA position on Elmwood 1st floor next year, immediately after SIFE competition on the 13th, I booked it back to Harrisonburg to attend mandatory training sessions for this CA position. This day was packed full of fun and surprises, but by ten in the evening I was finally able to settle and completely worn out!

Just four days after this excitement, I celebrated my 19th birthday. Sunday, the 17th, masses of people came in the room and started singing Happy Birthday as they handed me an ice cream cake (I can thank my roommate for that!). You are right, they were not here to sing; they wanted to eat cake, so we ventured to the lounge where we wolfed down ice cream cake! The previous evening I had celebrated with my family at home with a home cooked meal! I had not had much time to think about my birthday, but between friends and family it turned out to be another great celebration!

Cannot forget about intramurals! After an up-and-down season, my dodge ball team qualified for the playoffs with about a five-hundred record. Coming out strong in the beginning of the first playoff match, our team could not hang on and we took an early exit! This semester I have also been playing on Lindale's church league basketball team where we made it to the second round of playoffs and then coughed up the game against our churches other team! Both of these quick exits happened in the same evening-I was not in a very good mood!

In between these above activities I have had mandatory meetings in preparation for Jamaica (the cross cultural I am going on!). Five short days after school lets out, I with fourteen other EMU students will be on our way to Jamaica for a period of three weeks! I cannot wait to go to Jamaica, but before that I must concentrate on finals and moving out of the dorm. I have plenty to think about, but soon I'll be saying, "Jamaica, here I come!"

On this note, best wishes to all of you as you finish up school and make decisions of what to do in the up-coming years. I will be back next year and I am looking forward to meeting the freshman class! Have a wonderful summer!

My house for dinner! From left: Keisha, Dave, Bryan, Chris