In Retrospect . . .

I feel the obligation to reflect on my first two weeks of classes. As I only have one class, a few meetings with classmates, and work tomorrow, so my week is pretty much over.

This semester is going to create so much tension between my shoulder-blades, that I am probably going to look like a big/giant-female hunched-back-witch (just because I am tall with a witch nose).

Let’s just say that I am really anxious about all of the work that  my academic advisor (instructor) will have me doing for both Rhetoric and Technical Writing. Also I am nervous about not truly deserving to be in the French class that I am in. I can catch on to most of the new words fairly quickly, but most too many of them go straight over my head.

I can see myself already, four inches shorter, complaining of a bad back due to aforementioned shoulder-blade tension.

I won’t even get to go home on weekends this semester, which I am terribly sad about. I love my family. I miss them already! I am going to NYC with the student newspaper over Spring Break, so if I do, I probably won’t get much/any family time in that week. 😦

There will be little-to-no-time to go home when my cousin comes into my hometown to golf with my Daddy. :,(

There will be no going out on week-nights, which I never do, anyway. So, that’s not a heart- breaker.

Thinking about this semester by thinking of all of the good it can and will do for me, it doesn’t really seem so bad. I just really have to push myself this semester.

I cannot get distracted by the opposite gender, no problem, they’re almost all just a bunch of goobers, anyway. :p

I will just need to stay focused on academics, which I have not been doing very well up until this semester. Less time spent on Facebook, or reading the blogs of other WordPress Bloggers. Essentially, I need to spend less time socializing, and more time doing schoolwork.

Ha, that might seem like a’ no-brainer’ to most people, and it does to me too. I just have a hard time actually following through on all of the marvelous plans I make to spend my time wisely. I actually need to knock it off with the planning and actually FOLLOW my plan to succeed this semester.

I will need to study my little butt off! I might actually know what I studied all semester, when it comes to exam-time! 😀

(2-11-15)

As I have taken one (biology) exam (yesterday), I can attest to the fact that I need to study much more often.

Who knows? THIS semester might be my turn-around! Prayers for a strong will to stay focused on academics for the next three or four months will be appreciatiated about this! 😉

During my first two weeks of the semester I learned that ‘France Today’ is basically a self-taught class, and that I am going to have a very hard time with keeping up with which-class-is-which between Technical Writing and Rhetoric, because they are taught by the same professor, in the same room. Hopefully, in a week or two, I will know my schedule by heart, and I will not be late for any more classes like I was yesterday. THAT was really embarrassing! I endeavor to be on time for every single class this semester. I absolutely hate the feeling of being late. 😦

But,  I have done a pretty good job so far. 🙂 I have gone to each session of my 5 classes for two weeks. I have completed all of my assignments.

Other than being late to one class, I’ve been on top of all of my classes. 🙂 I’ve turned everything in on time or early! 🙂

So far into the semester, I feel that I have done a really great job! I’m pretty proud of myself! 😉

I not only went to all of my classes, but I have completed all of my homework for each class. I even went to Gospel Choir after the student newspaper had our weekly meeting tonight!! I have to work on next week’s article for the paper.  Luckily, I have a few drafts stored up, and some ideas for at least one more article.

I already have about 12 drafts for my column in the paper.

I am so happy with my accomplishments so far into this semester. 🙂

I have been doing a pretty good Jesus Journal almost every morning and night. It helps me feel close to God. I have my very own weekly column about being CrAzY for our Lord, Jesus Christ. I still have my job in the equipment room doing laundry, I will soon have an official position as a ‘staff writer’ member in the paper! 😀 EE-GADS!!! 😀 😀 😀  I am eating relatively healthy and walking down and up the ridiculous hill on campus each weekday (at least once a day, sometimes two) so, I have a little bit of physical activity. All that I am lacking in my life right now if family time. I call my Momma on her way home from work when I don’t have class at 4:45 (happens to be Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays). I just miss my younger three siblings. 😦 I miss the oldest of my younger siblings all the time, and almost don’t feel like myself when she’s not around. But, we are both in college, and I have to accept the fact that she and I will not be living under the same roof forever. 😥

My point here is not how much I miss my family. I wrote this post to convey how well I am doing so far into this semester, and how I see the whole semester being a wonderful experience and have a wonderful change in my grades! 🙂

Jusqu’à prochaine temps,

God Bless 💜

Writer’s Disease

I love to write.
I really love to write.

I sit here in my room, about to leave for campus and I am writing by hand in my Jesus Journal. I try to write in it every day, just to feel like I am more ‘in touch’ with my God Almighty.💜
As I write in my journal, I can’t help but think about writing a blog, as well.

This makes me realize that I might have a problem. It’s almost like the opposite of writers block, I just can’t get enough words onto a page or into a blog post.

How might I resolve this “issue”?
Well, until I figure it out, I’m going to litter both my Jesus Journal and my blog with words. 😏

Jusqu’à prochaine temps,

God Bless 💜

What is Technology?

Today, in Technical Writing, my class discussed technology. We discussed it in quite detailed manner. Our instructor discussed several different kinds of technology that we will become acquainted with in the course of this semester.

We left the room understanding the following idea : Technology is brilliant. It is how we communicate. It is how we share ideas. Technology is how we create ideas, even how we create ourselves in the eyes of others.

Technology is basically the core of modern education. How many people know of an eleven-year-old-girl that has had an iPhone, after a Droid, but then had the option to go back to a Droid phone?

I do. My baby sister had a Droid, got the renewal (switched to an iPhone) then switched back to a Droid. All before her eleventh birthday! Technology is taking over our world. Literally. Technology is everywhere!!

Technology is how we communicate with other countries. It allows people of the modern era often view other cultures. It allows us to see what is happening all the way across the world. Technology is a great tool that can be misused, or used as if it were an almost-holy-experience.

Technology often aides young people, but as was discussed in my Technical Writing class today, it can also really screw up someone’s life. Starting at a relatively young age.

Technology, such as cell phones, are often used to capture images, and sometimes can be used to capture images of young college students doing un-impressive things in the eyes of future employers. It is important, as my instructor said, to behave yourself while in college, and always conduct yourself in a mature and relatively professional manner.

The example given in class today was a story during which a young man told a class that my instructor was teaching, when said young man became inebriated, and cursed about something ridiculous and raised his middle finger to the camera, while being filmed. That video was posted online, and the video, while it may not have contained the young man’s full name, it contained his face.

This may not cause a problem, as not all companies are as through as others in the process of hiring people, the video might be the unspoken reason that he is turned down for a job in the future.

I do not intend to give an air of conceit by saying this, but this story made me feel embarrassed for the young man.

My instructor did not disclose the name of this young man, wisely, I am the oldest of four siblings, and I attribute that with causing me to be responsible, but I would never EVER be as foolish and irresponsible as to be videotaped doing or saying such vulgar things.

This is mainly because I endeavor not to use profanity at all, but also because I do not want to be seen that way by prospective employers, my technologically savvy parents (my Father is tech-savvy, my Mother probably doesn’t even understand what a hard drive is) or anyone else.

I do prefer to be seen in a professional manner, though I am still an undergraduate college student.

Technology is our friend. But, technology can also become our worst enemy, depending on how well we behave in certain situations.

Because we can never know *for sure* when we are being filmed or recorded, it is the best policy to always keep our tongues clean and our behavior at it’s best.

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois ,

God Bless.

Station Two

Hello, once again. 🙂

In the Protestant Campus Ministry group tonight , we are doing prayer stations and journaling is station two. Since I have found a new love of writing in my blog, I have chosen to write a blog about how I experience God in my daily life.

I experience God, first of all, by waking up in the morning. It is by the grace of God that I am alive and that I live through each night.

I am so unbelievably, undeniably thankful to Him that I rise each morning and have the pleasure of experiencing other children of God each day. I could never spread the love that I feel from Him, or explain how I feel about Him with words to any other person.

My passion for wand desire to spread His word is unbelievably strong and I am so thankful that God gave me the ability to ‘go tell it on the mountain’ for the whole world to hear.

Some might call me sexist for this, but I have a hard time looking at female pastors with the same amount of respect as I do male pastors. Because of that, I feel that it is not my place to become a pastor, but instead, perhaps, to become the spouse of a priest/pastor. But, only God has control of that aspect of my life. I am not in a position to challenge Him, so I will never rush myself into anything. I am more than happy to let Him lead me through life, and have Him tell me where I am to go next.  I will follow Him to the end of the Earth.

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois ,

God Bless.

XoXo

L’espirit

Hello, all. 🙂

Today is a day in which I feel utterly complacent.

Yes, I am quite content with my life as it is right now. 🙂

I am youthful, I am in relatively good physical condition and I have no serious illness or ailment (aside from the common runny nose) . I am in a decent place in my academics (though, it could almost always be better) and have a hopeful outlook of my life after college.

Of course, I will always have a home to come back to with my parents, and probably some of my friends would be more than welcoming were I to need a bed to crash on.

I am confident. I am (or at least, I try to be) calm and with a level-head. I am social enough, while to stay on top of my school-related-obligations. I am involved in enough groups (Protestant Campus Ministry [PCM] and the school’s student newspaper) along with my 4-6 hour/week job in the laundry service at my school’s gym. The only thing that I truly have to complain about is the bus-shuttle service from my apartment complex. That’s probably a corporate problem that I will have to call a million people about on Friday.

But, I am going to look into it on Friday when I have a little bit more time! I love being in a college-town setting. I feel like I am learning so much more when I am surrounded by Ph.Ds. and other students, even if I’m not actually learning! I will have to move to another college-town after I graduate. I just love the vibes of it! 🙂

I have a very idealistic mind, and I always assume that everyone that I meet is a good person. This is a bad thing for me, in regards to some men (if you call them that) that I have met in my life. I’ve learned from them, and I am a bit more cautious in regards to trusting most guys. There are some really great male-friends that I have, whom I would trust in the thickest of tumult. They have shown me that they truly are good people, and are deserving of my trust.

I entitled this blog “the mind” because I wanted to convey to the few readers I have my exploration of my academic-self. I love to expand my mind and study everything from European History to self-help-books. If it relates to me in some (any) way, I am eager to learn about it! I just want to show others how much fun learning can be, and see if I can get people to join me in loving to learn!

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois ,

God Bless.

XoXo

le Coeur

I just want to kind of throw out random thoughts and emotions going on in my heart and in my head throughout my daily life. Initially, I started this blog (last week) as a requirement for a course that I am taking this semester in college, but I think that I am going to do a blog everyday, even after I graduate from college. This soothes my mind and helps me feel like I am accomplishing something everyday. Plus, I think it will look great on a résumé once I start looking for jobs after college! Eventually, I hope to be able to write blogs in other languages, as my advisor/instructor does. But, I am probably a long way off from that!

However, I am currently in a French 4 class. I should be in a French 3 class, as the last course I took was level 200. But this just didn’t work out chronologically. I hope I am able to keep up in my level 4 class. I’m already getting nervous, and it’s only one and a half weeks into the semester.

Today, I was just reminded by the head of the English department at my school that I will need to create an ePortfolio for graduation, with ten documents showcasing my skills in writing documents in different contexts such as professional, journalism and narrative writing.

I take part in my student newspaper every week and I just started this blog about one week ago. But, I feel that I haven’t really accomplished enough during my time as a college student, so my heart feels nervous about this requirement that I have.

Because I feel that I have not written enough documents, my heart also feels slightly uncomfortable with throwing them out there as if they were the work of a professional. I feel that I am not a professional, I’m just a student. I do not have that kind of literary confidence yet, and I doubt if I ever will. I try to write only about things that I am passionate about, or deeply interested in, such as French culture, or European History. However, obviously that is not a very good idea to write on for an American Literature class.

Fortunately, my Technical Writing course for the semester will have me doing all sorts of compositions in different kinds of documents and I will be able to procure a few different documents from that class and hopefully put them  into my ePortfolio. This way, I will have the ePortfolio at least started by the end of this semester.

I am definitely struggling with how to approach this ePortfolio matter. I feel like I am all over the place with it.

I hope that my advisor can help me out with it.

But, I guess that I’ll just have to wait and see.

I think that I need a few more daylight hours in each day. Between travel time, time spent in the bathroom and eating, I simply do not have enough time to do ALL things needed to be done for school. I am approaching this semester with a relaxed attitude and I hope that this works for me, because I might just have to drop out of school for a while if it doesn’t.

If I would say that to my mother, I can already hear her screaming at me telling me that “THAT IS NOT AN OPTION!”. I love her. She’s harsh and gets angry at me pretty easily, but she is also extremely supportive of my endeavors. She loves me. I love her. 🙂

There is a certain requirement on how long my posts are to be, and I feel like I am making things up to make it longer. That makes me feel irresponsible and unworthy of the high credibility that I am held to while in college.

Since I am making up thinks to talk about, I will call it the end. I’ll be back later! 😉

Jusqu’à la prochaine fois ,

God Bless.

XoXo ~Alexandra

Sur Moi (About Me)

Hello, all.

My name is Alexandra and I really am quite a storyteller. Granted, I have quite a story to tell about something that happened in High-School. Plus a few stories from before, and some from after.

I started this blog at 21 years old (birthday in March) courtesy of requirement by my Rhetoric/Technical Writing Professor/Advisor whom I admire very much. I could go on and on about why I admire him, but this post is about me, not him . . . I digress . .

The reason that I posted this is because I feel as if I should give you a short background on who I am, where I came from and my different passions in life.

First of all, I serve a MIGHTY, MIGHTY King. His name is Father, and I love nothing/nobody more than I love Him.  He rescued me from a terrible death (car accident in 2010, aka, my ‘story’ from High-School) and He is the reason I live now! I base all of my major (and most minor) decisions on what I think He would want. I was baptized Lutheran when I was about 3 years old and I have been a JesusFreak ever since I was in High-School, but I became infatuated with Him when woke up from my coma in late 2010. He is my everything. I love my Savior.

Obviously, I was in a car accident a few years ago, and I learned a LOT from it. The accident showed me who my true friends are, or are not. It brought me closer to God. It made me the young woman I am today. It was a force for good. A force for God.

Before my car accident, there are quite a number of stories that I have as well as a few after the car accident. Everything from mud-fights with my INCREDIBLE cousins in Ohio, to Christmas gift exchanges among the whole family, my Catholic-Irish family is why I live so happily in the House of the Lord. Both of my parents are the youngest in pretty big families. My father, the youngest of five kids, is where the LOVE of Irish football comes in ND ALL THE WAY, BABY!! My mother, the youngest of four kids came from a slightly quieter home, less crazy fun stuff. So, I guess you can gather that the mud-slinging-cousins that I mentioned are my paternally-related cousins. There are 14 cousins on my Daddy’s side of family, and four on My Momma’s side. So, you could say that my family is huge. I love it! 😉

The Irish is from my Daddy’s family. By the time you go down the line of ancestors, I am among the 7th generation of American-born-Mullen/Irish descendants. So my blood really isn’t entirely Irish. I shamefully admit, I am probably about 75% (+?) German along with other Western-European countries thrown in there. My Daddy’s Mother’s Maiden name is Lightfoot, so there is obviously some Native American in my blood too.

Most of the Mullen family, spare three cousins, chooses to embrace the Irish in our blood though. We definitely know how to liven up a party. 😉 😉

I love all of my family so much. There isn’t a thing that I wouldn’t do, if it were in my power, for any member of my family, on my Mom’s or Dad’s side.

Given the fact that I love my family a lot, I also love to serve others. Not just the ‘needy’ need help. Nobody can do everything, no matter how hard they try. I dream of a day when I can afford to send food to starving children in cities within these beautiful United States of America. If given the opportunity, I will move on to densely populated cities in other countries and make the difference that I can there.

If I am ever able to afford it, I want to start a community center in my hometown. The people of that town did so much for my family and myself after my car accident. I want to give back to my hometown by any means possible.

But, that will probably not be until well after I finish college.

I am still seeking my undergraduate degree in English with a minor in French as well as a minor in professional writing. I try my best to eat whole/one-ingredient-foods but it’s a struggle to keep fresh produce around without a driver’s license. I love French Language and culture, as if it were not clear as the title of this article (About Me) is in French and my profile discusses the possibility of teaching English to young adults in France.

I have been to nine other countries in my young life. Yes, NINE!! The first of my international travels was across the border to Canada with my mother and two of my three younger siblings as my baby sister had not been born yet. Then I hopped onto a plane and went to what was then the UK (England, Ireland, Scotland, and Whales) with the Student Ambassador program People to People [p2p], France and Italy (with my High-School Advanced Placement European History teacher and his wife along with some of her High-School students) and most recently I was in Poland and the Czech Republic (with a professor and a few students) from my current University.

I write this as a 21 year old college student, hoping to impact the world in some way with my life. I am young, I plead for the Lord to use my youth to His advantage and help me impact the lives of others as I have been impacted by doctors, nurses and therapists in my life, just as soon as I finish college.  😉

I will keep you updated on all of that as life goes on. 🙂

Jusqu’à la prochaine temps,

God Bless.

XoXo

Can’t get enough done!!

With the beginning of a semester, I am overwhelmed with assignments, blogs to post, essays to write, studying to be done, and online quizzes to take. I have hardly been through a week and a half of my 13, or is it 14?, or is it 15? week semester. I don’t know how I am going to survive this three/four month academic session. I think that I’m just going to explode! This is so crazy!!

But, I have to do this. My GPA needs to look better. I need to stay involved with both the student newspaper and Protestant Campus ministry. There must be enough hours in the day to accomplish all of my goals. I need to do well.

Being stressed out is dichotomous for me. My body hates it, but my mind goes crazy with all of the goals, and I love it. There is no way for me to describe what I mean except by telling my readers that I THRIVE when I am being stretched in every-which-way all at once. I need to take a biology quiz now, and the longer I focus on this unnecessary blog, the harder it is for me to pass this quiz well.

Thanks for reading. This is therapeutic for me to pour my emotions into a blog that I don’t personally know most of the followers of.

God Bless~

ON THIS DAY (Auschwitz)

The name of a small city, in Poland means *holy* in old Polish. Ironically, this ‘holy’ place would be where over 4.1 million people loose their life. I think the idea was that they are going someplace holy, both spiritually and physically.

While most people in the twenty-first century agree that Adolf Hitler was a terrible person and undeserving of the life that he lived, we must look at the way in which he convinced about 250,000 men to kill all of those people.

The man was a rhetorical genius! It’s too bad he did not use his genius for a purpose for good. We could have done some great things in the world, had Hitler not been a certifiable lunatic.

During the first 24 hours of arriving in Auschwitz, up to 80% (1.3 million people) of the train cars full of Jewish peoples were often killed by the SS officers, by order of Adolf Hitler himself.

The reason I am posting about this place of horror about one year (Dec 26, 2013-Jan. 18, 2014) after I visited is because today (January 27th, 2015) marks the 70th anniversary of the Russian Army rescuing 70,000 victims of Hitler’s assault.

As my colleague at my school’s student newspaper just said “How ironic! The Jews are safe, but now we’re after homosexuals.” and I only agree with her to a certain extent.

Only a handful of states un the U.S. still have a ban on homosexual marriage.  Most states are ‘keeping up with the times’ and have legally allowed women to marry women and/or men to marry men. Pennsylvania, even, has had an allowance policy for almost a year.

Personally, I am 100% heterosexual and very much ‘into’ men. But, I do believe that love is love and nobody or power, God aside, has the right to judge another person based on their way of practicing of love. It is not my place to judge. It is no human’s place to judge.

So, I just love.

I just felt the need to spread the word that on THIS day, seventy years ago, in a place far from home in the United States, is when 70,000 people were saved from starvation and working their bodies to death (literally) in Auschwitz Poland.

Therapy

Believe me when I tell you that if a therapy exists, I am pretty sure that I’ve been through it at least on a trial-basis.

Physical therapy? I’ve been there, and humbly, I thank all of my physical therapists from a time ago. I would not be who I am without the rigorous exercise that I was put through in PT.

Occupational therapy? Yes, even that I have been through. Occupational therapy, along with my mother’s relentless pushing, is the main reason that I am able to type on this computer with both hands. Thank God for both my OT, and my mother.

Psychological therapy, also, is something that I have been through. Re-training your brain to be ‘normal’ in society is probably the hardest thing that I have ever done. Can you imagine waking up after a three-month-nap, barely being able to speak, barely being able to move, being able to hold your fork or spoon by only the assistance of your mother? Can you imagine waking up to learn that ‘the summer of your life’ is over and was spent in a hospital bed instead of at the beach with your friends and your sister? Can you imagine waking up and not understanding why you are so horribly thin that you look malnourished? Can you imagine waking up with tubes coming out of your ribcage? Can you imagine everyone that you come across look at you’re a ghost, or an alien?

Well, that is how I spent my senior year of High-School.

Music therapy. Oh, the deep seated love I have of music. Everything from Classic Rock to Jazz to Classical music. They all soothe my soul, and connect me to the deep, deep, deep drift of this world. Music is where I go when I am stressed. When I am angry. When I am sad. When I am joyous beyond compare.

Music is how I connect with my Savior. Music is what makes me feel peace.

The therapy that I began this blog post with is very different from all of those therapies though.

The therapy to which I believe I owe my life is the therapy that true love provides. Mostly, I have received this therapy from my family. My family means more to me than I could ever say. After the ‘bad thing’ happened, family was all that I really had. I mean, sure, there are a few dear friends that stuck by my side. But most of them bailed on me. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to watch a friend go through what I did, on top of my own problems. So, I have decided to rise above what some people think I might do, and just keep turning the other cheek. Sure, it started to smart the first time I lost a friend, the second time, the third. But I have come to a point in my life where I love with everything that I have, but I expect nothing in return. It hurts much less. I do not think of myself as heartless.

After all, I shed more love every day than there are clouds in the sky during a thunderstorm. I just realize that some people are incapable (or unwilling) to lay their heart out in the open.

I want people to have the opportunity to feel loved, cherished sand valued more than any other soul on the Earth. I want everyone to get the chance to feel the healing , therapeutic powers of love.

I want them to lay helpless on a hospital bed, near death, and to feel the warm body of their dearest, most cherished cousin by their side, after a brutal argument with nasty words not worthy of repetition.

That is what love feels like.

That is the therapy that only love can provide to heal a broken body.