Welcome Back!

Hello there! It’s been a while since my last entry. I was enjoying my incredibly long winter break with my family and then I’ve recently been getting back into the swing of things here at good ol’ RU. My break was pretty wonderful. I spent a lot of time catching up with my family and hometown friends. My sister graduated from SEMO, and that was a very exciting time for our family. My dad and Uncle came to St. Louis from the East Coast, and it was great to see them.

(Me, my sister, and my mom at my sister's graduation from SEMO in December)

We wrapped up break with a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my mom’s 50^th birthday. It was my first time being in Vegas since I turned 21, and it felt pretty cool to sit at a slot machine with the rest of my family. I have an uncle, aunt, and cousin who live in California. The rest of my family is out on the East Coast, mainly in New Jersey and Philly. It was really great to have everyone together, since it doesn’t happen very often because of the distance. I really enjoyed being with them, and I definitely miss the times when we all lived on the East Coast and the family get togethers were more frequent.  Among the highlights of the trip was my ziplining adventure. I rode a zipline above world-famous Fremont Street. I’m kind of afraid of heights, so this was a personal victory of mine, as the zipline was very high. It was a great vacation and the perfect ending to my winter break.

(Zipline above Fremont Street. I'm the zipliner on the far right.)

When I got back to campus, we launched right into sorority recruitment. I really like the fact that RU delays recruitment until the spring. It gives the freshmen women a chance to become acquainted with the school and to really settle in before they have to choose which sorority they want to join. Greek life in general is so much more relaxed here at RU. I know that if I went to a bigger school, I never would have joined a sorority. It’s just so different here, though, because you can really be yourself and still find an organization that makes you feel comfortable.  We added a wonderful class of new pledge sisters, and I am so excited to get to know them better this semester!

(Some of my sorority sisters and our new pledge sisters. We went ice skating at Crown Center on Bid Day.)

I have to admit that I was pretty emotional about starting my last semester here at RU. Truthfully, I didn’t want to come back from Winter Break because I knew this semester would just fly by. And it has. I can’t believe it’s already the middle of February. I find myself feeling sentimental pretty much every day. I have had such a great experience here at RU that I know it’s going to be very difficult to leave. I have made a promise to myself to truly make the most of this semester. I look forward to sharing my last semester with you as we will be companions on the journey.