I know, I know - this is a little late. Thanksgiving was 2 days ago, but between all the travel and then spending time with family, I never got around to blogging like I had hoped. But hey, better late than never, right? So, here it is: a list of (a few of) the things I'm thankful for this year.
This year, I'm thankful for music. I've been singing with Roc Hakol since my sophomore year, but this year we're finally starting to come together. There are so many amazing opportunities opening up for us, and as excited as I am for all of those, the best part is spending time with these amazing girls. Some weeks, we spend more time laughing and joking around in rehearsals than actually singing, but we still get our work done. I'm so grateful to have them in my life.
This year, I'm thankful for dance. Dance has been my place of refuge for as long as I can remember, but after a few injuries during high school (and then a repeat my sophomore year of college), I wasn't really sure that I would be able to keep dancing as much as I wanted. Simply stepping back on stage this fall was a blessing, and being able to do so with some of my closest friends was more incredible than I could ever imagine. There's something so special about the bonds I've formed with these dancers through hours spent together. I can't imagine how different my life would be without them, and to be honest, I wouldn't want to try.
This year, I'm thankful for adventures. I had the amazing opportunity to spend 4 months abroad this year, and I can't begin to explain how incredible this was. The people I met and the places I went have become such an integral part of the person I am. In truth, the semester I spent in Bath was one giant adventure in the littlest ways. I've barely gotten to see the others who were on my program since we got back, but that doesn't lessen the space they hold in my heart.
This year, I'm thankful for friends. I've already mentioned Roc Hakol, dancing, and my program abroad, and to be fair, these three groups have shaped who I am in more ways than I can count. However, others have also played a role - friends from my trip to Israel, friends who have moved away over the years, even a few friends from high school who are still around - and I'm so happy that they have.
This year, I'm thankful for family. My siblings and I were never close growing up, but now that we're older, we get along a lot better. I don't get to see any of my family as often as I did when I was living at home, which makes the we spend time together even sweeter.
This year, I'm thankful for change. I'm not the same person I was 4 years ago. In fact, I'm not even the same person I was at this time last year. The person I am today is a combination of all of the amazing experiences I've had and the choices I've made, and I am so thankful that I can say I have no regrets and that I am truly being the best version of me that I can.
Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
First Day Jitters?
Something tells me that after 16 years of education, I'm not supposed to have first day jitters. I'm probably supposed to dread the first day of school, and in some ways, I do. When I start to think about the amount of work I'll have this year for my classes, I balk. I haven't even looked at the graduate school applications I'm supposed to fill out this fall. The start of the school year means that I have to face those things, despite the fact that I don't want to.
At the same time, though, the first day of school is still a little exciting. I can't wait to step into my classrooms, meet my professors, and start to learn. I want to know who else will be in my classes this semester. I'm excited about the material my courses will cover this fall, because being a senior in college means that I'm taking courses I really want to be in.
Maybe this is why I want to teach so badly. Because I know how it feels to be excited for the first day of school, despite dreading the start of classes. Because I know that the two emotions go hand in hand, and that that's probably a good thing. Because I want to harness that excitement for the whole year.
Happy First Day of Classes!
At the same time, though, the first day of school is still a little exciting. I can't wait to step into my classrooms, meet my professors, and start to learn. I want to know who else will be in my classes this semester. I'm excited about the material my courses will cover this fall, because being a senior in college means that I'm taking courses I really want to be in.
Maybe this is why I want to teach so badly. Because I know how it feels to be excited for the first day of school, despite dreading the start of classes. Because I know that the two emotions go hand in hand, and that that's probably a good thing. Because I want to harness that excitement for the whole year.
Happy First Day of Classes!
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Ribbon Ready
It's hard to believe I'm already moved in for my Junior year! I had quite the whirlwind summer, and am finally settled in for my newest challenge - being a freshman RA!
I've been busy all week with training and preparing for move-in day, but I wanted to write a quick little note about my keychain project. My newest shape may be my favorite - awareness ribbons. Pictured here are multicolored ribbons for autism awareness, which can be made as either keychains or pins. Because I've created the pattern, I can make these ribbons in any color. Whether it's Gold for childhood cancer, Teal for tourette syndrome, or another color, I can create ribbons for all your awareness needs. Ribbons are available either with or without the tail shown in the larger photograph.
I've been busy all week with training and preparing for move-in day, but I wanted to write a quick little note about my keychain project. My newest shape may be my favorite - awareness ribbons. Pictured here are multicolored ribbons for autism awareness, which can be made as either keychains or pins. Because I've created the pattern, I can make these ribbons in any color. Whether it's Gold for childhood cancer, Teal for tourette syndrome, or another color, I can create ribbons for all your awareness needs. Ribbons are available either with or without the tail shown in the larger photograph.
Please remember that all the proceeds from my keychain sale will go to Natalie Grace's fundraiser, the information for which can be found at www.willyousendusadollar.com. Interested? Contact me at www.facebook.com/PerfectPurls for more details!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Intro-to-Crochet
Week 2 of my internship, and still going strong. I've been hard at work learning about the programs my department works on, and the other interns are all fantastic. I've also started working on social media for The Truth 365. I now manage Pinterest boards and the Tumblr account for the organization, as well as their Twitter handle.
Next week, I'll be traveling to Clinton, Tennessee with my department at the Childrens Defense Fund for a national training institute in child policy advocacy. In addition to our training, there will be over 2,000 young leaders training for the Freedom Schools program, which provides literacy support to underpriveleged children across the nation.
Of course, I'll have plenty to keep me occupied during my 10-hour journey on a bus. In addition to bringing my latest book, I'll certainly have a crochet hook and a ball of yarn. I've decided that to learn to crochet, I'm going to make small squares of various colors throughout the summer. Each 6" x 6" square will be a chance for me to learn a new stitch or pattern. At the end of the summer, I hope to have a large enough collection of squares to be able to compose at least a small blanket out of them.
To create the squares, I'm using yarn that's been left over from previous projects. Right now, I'm working with the red yarn that's left from this pair of legwarmers:
This pair of legwarmers was fun to create and quick to finish. Knit on straight needles in a double rib, I simply had to make sure that I counted the correct number of rows before switching colors and increased evenly on both sides. I love working with red and yellow together (there's a little Gryffindor in everyone), especially when I find the two colors with such strong contrast. By itself, the yellow is nearly blond and the red has a bit of an orange tint, but together, they are the perfect combination for fall, when this photoshoot occurred.
Pictured here is Olga, who has been a wonderful friend to me since I began my freshman year and has been incredibly supportive of my endeavors in knitting. The photos are by Emily, who I feel the need to mention is studying abroad in Vienna right now (mostly because I'm incredibly jealous of her). You can read all about her adventures here.
As always, check out more of my knitwear on my Facebook Page.
Next week, I'll be traveling to Clinton, Tennessee with my department at the Childrens Defense Fund for a national training institute in child policy advocacy. In addition to our training, there will be over 2,000 young leaders training for the Freedom Schools program, which provides literacy support to underpriveleged children across the nation.
Of course, I'll have plenty to keep me occupied during my 10-hour journey on a bus. In addition to bringing my latest book, I'll certainly have a crochet hook and a ball of yarn. I've decided that to learn to crochet, I'm going to make small squares of various colors throughout the summer. Each 6" x 6" square will be a chance for me to learn a new stitch or pattern. At the end of the summer, I hope to have a large enough collection of squares to be able to compose at least a small blanket out of them.
To create the squares, I'm using yarn that's been left over from previous projects. Right now, I'm working with the red yarn that's left from this pair of legwarmers:
This pair of legwarmers was fun to create and quick to finish. Knit on straight needles in a double rib, I simply had to make sure that I counted the correct number of rows before switching colors and increased evenly on both sides. I love working with red and yellow together (there's a little Gryffindor in everyone), especially when I find the two colors with such strong contrast. By itself, the yellow is nearly blond and the red has a bit of an orange tint, but together, they are the perfect combination for fall, when this photoshoot occurred.
Pictured here is Olga, who has been a wonderful friend to me since I began my freshman year and has been incredibly supportive of my endeavors in knitting. The photos are by Emily, who I feel the need to mention is studying abroad in Vienna right now (mostly because I'm incredibly jealous of her). You can read all about her adventures here.
As always, check out more of my knitwear on my Facebook Page.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Midterms
Originally, I decided I was going to post this blog to chronicle my travels through knitting and college. It seems fit, therefore, that I would go from my injury in November to midterm season, which it fell in the middle of.
Personally, I'm not really a fan of midterms. Not only because they all seem to occur during the same time in the semester, or because suddenly the library is packed, or because I can study for days and still walk into the exam feeling completely unprepared. While those are all valid reasons to despise midterms, they aren't mine.
Midterms have become the sole method of evaluating students' understanding in most college courses. While elementary, middle, and even high schools have begun to move away from formal midterm exams - allowing teachers to decide how they wish to evaluate students at the mid-way point - colleges still rely on them heavily. For many classes the midterm and final exams make up the entire grade for the class. No other assignments, no essays, just exams. This isn't true for smaller discussion-based classes, only for larger lecture classes. However, when your classes fall between "big" (over 100) and "small" (20 or less), the evaluations tend to lean more towards examinations, which most of my courses have done so far.
So that's the problem. What's the solution? Consider what some of my Psychology professors have adopted:
We have exams that evaluate our understanding of the material. There are three during the semester, and each covers 4 chapters of our textbook, paralleled by about 4 weeks of lectures in class. During these 4 weeks, 3 smaller assignments are administered. Each is about 1.5-2 pages in length, and tests our ability to apply the material we have been studying. The material goes beyond the classroom.
However, the system isn't quite where it should be. While these smaller assignments are extraordinarily valuable, they count for very little of our grade. In fact, all of the smaller assignments combined are worth less than a single exam. In some ways, this makes sense - on average, students spend less time working on a smaller assignment than studying for an exam. On the other hand, by valuing the exams - which only occur 3 times during the semester - over the more constant smaller assignments, universities promote cramming & other forms of last-minute studying. By increasing the value of the smaller assignments and diminishing the impact of exams on grades, students may not need to cram as much, having reviewed and applied the material prior to exam period.
That said, let's get on to the fun part of my blog: my knitting.
The scarf pictured above was my project during midterms. The yarn came from my former dance teacher, who donated much of her yarn to me before I left for my sophomore year. The entire collection is made up of wool and wool blends - this particular yarn is virgin wool. The red caught my eye as soon as I first spotted it - not too bright, but still distinctly red. I designed the diamond lace pattern on a study break, experimenting with different ways to create the corners and different sizes for the diamonds. After playing with a few different options, I settled on a pattern that was 12 stitches across and laced it on a stockinette background. I love the way that the scarf curls back when I base my pieces in stockinette. I had considered blocking the scarf, but decided that I preferred the additional warmth that comes from a scarf that curls in on itself. Overall, not including the design stages, I spent about a week on the scarf, including putting on all the finishing touches. For more information on this scarf and my other works, check out my Facebook Page
Pictured is Alesa, one of my closest friends ever since I started college. Special thanks to her for coming out on a chilly day (there was snow on the ground the night before and the night after, but it was gone when we took the pictures around midday) and to my wonderful photographer Emily.
Personally, I'm not really a fan of midterms. Not only because they all seem to occur during the same time in the semester, or because suddenly the library is packed, or because I can study for days and still walk into the exam feeling completely unprepared. While those are all valid reasons to despise midterms, they aren't mine.
Midterms have become the sole method of evaluating students' understanding in most college courses. While elementary, middle, and even high schools have begun to move away from formal midterm exams - allowing teachers to decide how they wish to evaluate students at the mid-way point - colleges still rely on them heavily. For many classes the midterm and final exams make up the entire grade for the class. No other assignments, no essays, just exams. This isn't true for smaller discussion-based classes, only for larger lecture classes. However, when your classes fall between "big" (over 100) and "small" (20 or less), the evaluations tend to lean more towards examinations, which most of my courses have done so far.
So that's the problem. What's the solution? Consider what some of my Psychology professors have adopted:
We have exams that evaluate our understanding of the material. There are three during the semester, and each covers 4 chapters of our textbook, paralleled by about 4 weeks of lectures in class. During these 4 weeks, 3 smaller assignments are administered. Each is about 1.5-2 pages in length, and tests our ability to apply the material we have been studying. The material goes beyond the classroom.
However, the system isn't quite where it should be. While these smaller assignments are extraordinarily valuable, they count for very little of our grade. In fact, all of the smaller assignments combined are worth less than a single exam. In some ways, this makes sense - on average, students spend less time working on a smaller assignment than studying for an exam. On the other hand, by valuing the exams - which only occur 3 times during the semester - over the more constant smaller assignments, universities promote cramming & other forms of last-minute studying. By increasing the value of the smaller assignments and diminishing the impact of exams on grades, students may not need to cram as much, having reviewed and applied the material prior to exam period.
That said, let's get on to the fun part of my blog: my knitting.
The scarf pictured above was my project during midterms. The yarn came from my former dance teacher, who donated much of her yarn to me before I left for my sophomore year. The entire collection is made up of wool and wool blends - this particular yarn is virgin wool. The red caught my eye as soon as I first spotted it - not too bright, but still distinctly red. I designed the diamond lace pattern on a study break, experimenting with different ways to create the corners and different sizes for the diamonds. After playing with a few different options, I settled on a pattern that was 12 stitches across and laced it on a stockinette background. I love the way that the scarf curls back when I base my pieces in stockinette. I had considered blocking the scarf, but decided that I preferred the additional warmth that comes from a scarf that curls in on itself. Overall, not including the design stages, I spent about a week on the scarf, including putting on all the finishing touches. For more information on this scarf and my other works, check out my Facebook Page
Pictured is Alesa, one of my closest friends ever since I started college. Special thanks to her for coming out on a chilly day (there was snow on the ground the night before and the night after, but it was gone when we took the pictures around midday) and to my wonderful photographer Emily.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Birthday
It's hard to believe that today, I turned twenty years old. It's two decades, but I don't feel any older because of it. Sometimes I think that birthdays are just arbitrary ways of marking the time. There are plenty of other times that can make you feel older. Moments that you stop and think about how far you've come. For me, one of those times occurred a few months ago.
A bit of backstory: I'm a dancer, and have been for longer than I can remember. When I came to college, I joined the Ballet Performance Group. I now serve as the fundraising coordinator for the group. Through BPG, I've made some incredible friends (including many of the wonderful individuals who photograph and model my work), and I don't really know what I would do without it. Case in point:
Every semester, the executive board is required to stay after dress rehearsal to put away the costumes and clean up. Everyone takes on a different task, and it doesn't take too long. I was assigned to help Sydney, our Vice President, in the largest dressing room. My back began to bother me, so I stepped outside to sit down somewhere out of the way. Though I tried to reassure everyone that I would be fine, within minutes the pain of spasms in my lower back reduced me to tears. Although we tried to send me back to my room, eventually (at about 2:15 AM) I contacted a few of the other board members and they arrived to take me on a trip to the ER, where we remained until the spasms stopped just before 6 AM. Without the amazing friends I have, I'm not sure where I would be right now.
As with any pivotal moment in my life (as well as any moment that forces me to stay in bed for long periods of time), the experience inspired a knit pattern. Here's one of the pieces I made while recovering:
I decided that I wanted to make an infinity scarf, because the experience truly wrapped me up. It took over everything I was doing. On the other hand, I was surrounded by friends for the evening, wrapped in their protection. Embedded in this scarf are small hearts, a tribute to the love we all carry with us everywhere we go.
Modeling this piece is Stephanie, who also dances in the same group. We were supposed to share the stage in the performance I ended up missing. Emily, my wonderful photographer, serves on the same executive board and was present for the entire night. I'm truly grateful to both of them for joining me on this journey.
A bit of backstory: I'm a dancer, and have been for longer than I can remember. When I came to college, I joined the Ballet Performance Group. I now serve as the fundraising coordinator for the group. Through BPG, I've made some incredible friends (including many of the wonderful individuals who photograph and model my work), and I don't really know what I would do without it. Case in point:
Every semester, the executive board is required to stay after dress rehearsal to put away the costumes and clean up. Everyone takes on a different task, and it doesn't take too long. I was assigned to help Sydney, our Vice President, in the largest dressing room. My back began to bother me, so I stepped outside to sit down somewhere out of the way. Though I tried to reassure everyone that I would be fine, within minutes the pain of spasms in my lower back reduced me to tears. Although we tried to send me back to my room, eventually (at about 2:15 AM) I contacted a few of the other board members and they arrived to take me on a trip to the ER, where we remained until the spasms stopped just before 6 AM. Without the amazing friends I have, I'm not sure where I would be right now.
As with any pivotal moment in my life (as well as any moment that forces me to stay in bed for long periods of time), the experience inspired a knit pattern. Here's one of the pieces I made while recovering:
I decided that I wanted to make an infinity scarf, because the experience truly wrapped me up. It took over everything I was doing. On the other hand, I was surrounded by friends for the evening, wrapped in their protection. Embedded in this scarf are small hearts, a tribute to the love we all carry with us everywhere we go.
Modeling this piece is Stephanie, who also dances in the same group. We were supposed to share the stage in the performance I ended up missing. Emily, my wonderful photographer, serves on the same executive board and was present for the entire night. I'm truly grateful to both of them for joining me on this journey.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
They're Engaged!!
I was going to post something simple today. I was going to talk about the Jewish Holidays, and how school has been going, and the fuzzy yarn I'm making mittens from. It was going to be the perfect break from my work.
And then my sister called around noon, and we had a nice chat about how her boyfriend PROPOSED to her last night. That's right, my big sister is officially engaged!! Congratulations to Steph and Jeff!!
I found that out, and then I was bouncing off the walls at BPG dance rehearsals. Now I've decided to give up on work for the night and post this instead :) I'll post again next weekend when I'm a little calmer.
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