Whirlwind

This is going to be the standard “I can’t believe how fast the summer went by post,” with a few interesting highlights. Ready?

Wow. The summer after my freshman year is quickly coming to a close. I leave for school this Friday, and will be the first of 4 to move into my new apartment! I am so excited for the upcoming year. I am going down a week before Freshman Orientation and Move-In weekend for two reasons:

1) I will be a S.M.A.R.T. (Student Mentors Advising Rising Talent) Mentor this year! It is a program run through the Multicultural Center where upperclassmen students are paired with a group of freshmen, to help ease them into Elon and the college lifestyle in general. The multicultural community is very small at Elon (somewhere between 6-8% of our student body, I believe) and the SMART mentor/mentee program helps to bring that community together, and provide freshmen multicultural students with positive role models that they can feel comfortable approaching with any issue that may arise (at least that’s the goal). I had a pretty good experience last year as a mentee, so I’m very excited to be on the other end this year.

2) I am the Public Relations Coordinator for D.E.E.P. (Diversity Emerging Education Program), and thus, I have to attend “diversity training,” something similar to the training I will be receiving with the SMART program. It is also a way to get the new Executive Board for DEEP together for some bonding activity before our responsibilities start picking up. I am most excited for this!

So, there’s all that boring stuff. Here comes the interesting stuff:

I just got back from my trip to Arizona with my parents and my roommate, Melissa! I had the most amazing time. I would’ve never thought that Arizona was such a beautiful, peaceful, scenic place to vacation, I was just expecting heat and more heat. But it was the most wonderful week of my entire summer. I got a chance to see the Grand Canyon (which was absolutely breathtaking, to say the very least), Sedona (a mountainous region about 2 hours away from Phoenix that is almost as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon), as well as many other sites. We stayed in a resort that was basiaclly right in the middle of the desert, and there was a mountain range right next to us called Black Mountain that we climbed every single morning!! It was quite a workout, and the view from the very top (which we only made it to once, on our last day!) was incredible. I want to go back so badly! here are a few pictures:

Melissa and I at the Grand Canyon!

Mom, Dad, Melissa and I at the Grand Canyon

all of us at the Grand Canyon

those are just the Grand Canyon shots, I haven’t updated the Sedona ones yet, but I will! So stay tuned 😉

I’m going to try and update frequently throughout the semester, seeing as I posted once (this will be the second time) all summer. But a summer of lifeguarding and hanging out doesn’t really provide much basis for interesting blog posts, hence my hiatus, but never fear, my exciting, action-packed Elon lifestyle is just around the bend and I should have much to report.

That’s all for now!