I made it through finals and am now back in PA. I love being able to relax--it's such a wonderful feeling to not have anything I have to do! During the last two weeks at Houghton there was always something weighing on my mind, a paper to write or an exam to study for, and I would work and work and get one thing done only to have another to start on the next day, but now I'm free! I think I did fairly well in all my classes; I guess I'll find out when we get our grades at the end of the month.
It's nice to be home with my family and my pets. We don't have snow here, though, which is sad. But that also means it isn't quite as cold as it is at Houghton, which is nice. It's weird to think that people are still there and some still have finals to take; I got really lucky this year, having all mine on Monday and Tuesday. It's so great to be on break!
Hey Tabitha!
ReplyDeleteI wish you a Happy New Year! :) My name is Jasmine Hairston. I reside in a now slightly over cast and nippy California! As of right now, I am seriously considering becoming a member of the class of 2015 at Houghton College! Crazy! But I want to thank you for writing this blog! I found it one night while I was avidly researching (some say stalking but I call it intense research) everything about Houghton College. Heck, I could probably give a tour of the collge myself! lol. Anywhoo the one thing that I didn't know was what the day-to-day life at Houghton is like and you have given me a great insight to what it is like. And I thank you for that! I was wondering if you knew of any other students who are writing blogs about Houghton as well (other than the ones on the Houghton website) and if you could refer them to me, that would be great! Thanks again! God Bless!
Hey Jasmine! I'm glad my blog could be a help to you as you investigate Houghton! I wish I knew of some other blogs for you to read, but right now no one I know is blogging about their lives at Houghton. Sorry! But if you ever have any specific questions, feel free to ask me!
ReplyDeleteThanks soo much! I actually do have a few questions:
ReplyDelete1.) What was your move-in day/first day of classes experience like?
2.) What is your favorite thing about Houghton?
3.) How have you grown spiritually since attending Houghton College?
4.) How would you rate Houghton on a scale from 1-10 (#5 doesn't count lol)
5.) How is it going to a college in kind of a "desolate" area?
6.) What do you think of the food at Houghton?
7.) If there was one thing that you could change about Houghton, what would it be?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to reading my questions and answering them. You are such an amazing writer. At times it hard to fathom that some of these blogs were taken from emails that you sent. God has some amazing plans for you! :)
Hey, sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you! Here are my answers.
ReplyDelete1. Moving in went well; it was pretty uneventful. I roomed with a friend from home, and she'd come early for soccer preseason, so she was all moved in when I got there, so I just filled in my stuff around hers. My whole family came, so they helped carry things and unpack, and a bunch of guys from the soccer team were helping everyone carry things too. So it ended up being a very quick, easy process.
I really don't remember my first day of classes. It seems like a funny thing to forget, but I guess it didn't really end up being that different from all the other days of classes I've had here, so it just doesn't stand out in my mind. I think I had a little trouble finding one of the rooms, but I just asked someone and they told me where to go.
2. I think my favorite thing is that it's so small. It's so nice only having to walk 3 minutes to get to class, and classes stay pretty small, meaning the professors can get to know you. I know a small campus definitely wouldn't appeal to some people, but I'm an introvert, so I like it.
3. I've been spiritually dry for a while, but being at Houghton has encouraged me. I appreciate the chapel speakers, and it's nice having friends who ask me to go to church with them, even after I got into the habit of sleeping in on Sundays. I've recently started making more of an effort to make God part of my life again, and I don't know if I would have done that had I not been continually reminded how much God matters by the people around me.
4. Hmm, this is a hard one . . . I think I'd say 7 or 8, because it's not perfect, but there are a lot of things I like about it (see my other answers).
5. Everyone jokes about the "Houghton Bubble" and how we're cut off from the rest of the world. Sometimes it's annoying that there's no movie theater or Wal-Mart less than 45 minutes away, but overall I like it. My family lives in the country, and I like being next to woods and streams, which Houghton has. One of my friends blogs, and although there isn't much about Houghton on there, there is one post that addresses its isolation that you might like to read: http://arethesewords.blogspot.com/2010/09/reasons-to-like-houghton-college-pt-1.html. One concern people might have is that it seems like it could be easy to get bored here, but there's always something going on--lectures, coffehouses, games.
6. The food isn't awesome, and it's easy to get sick of, but it's not terrible. There's enough of a variety that you can usually find something you want to eat. The pizza is really good, and some of the entrees are good too, although some really aren't. So it's kind of so-so.
7. One thing that’s frustrating is the limited times that guys are allowed in the girls' dorms and vice versa. It's 7-11 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights, 4-11 on Saturday, and not at all on Monday and Thursday. I like my room and prefer hanging out in the dorms to hanging out in the campus center, but if I want to hang out with guy friends other than at those times, then we have to go to the campus center, and being an introvert, I’d rather not have to be in a place filled with other people. And it’s noisy, making it impossible to watch movies there. The only good, quiet place to watch movies outside the dorms (except if you're in a townhouse or flat, which I'm not) is in the dining hall, and if other people are up there watching movies already, there's really nowhere to go. So I guess I would say longer open hours and/or more places to hang out.
Hope this is helpful!