The last Football Season

Being a senior itself is a very sad time for most college students. We all know that we have to leave this fun time in our life and grab life by the horns, or at least get stabbed then start doing something. Well another thing that i just sadly realized is that this last game was my last time that i will be sitting in the student section on the hill with all my friends. I LOVE sitting on the hill, slightly inebriated, screaming my butt off trying to push the tigers towards another victory. I would love to tailgate still in the future, even attend the games, but i am doubtful of this actually happening. I plan on moving wherever my career takes me and the money leads me. Seeing the games first hand became a big part of my time here at Clemson. Freshman year, being from Georgia, and never really growing up in a single place for too long, i never had a team to go by. I actually did not even watch college sports at all. Getting to Clemson every Saturday just seemed like another reason to party. Now i realize that the game can cause more nerve racking excitement than anything else i have experienced. I am gonna miss those Saturdays spent in Glorious Victory, and sometimes devastated loss, with all my friends.

Buckley's

So when looking up the blog post for this week not to long ago, i just realized it was about watching advertisements over this past week. Well i think that not actually paying attention helped me realize which ads stuck out more. This only thing that i can remember is watching a new commercial about Buckley's Cough Syrup. The commercials are hilarious. What they do is link the bad taste of cough syrup to random other liquids which just by the smell you would think they have to taste bad. Like a blindfolded taste test of Buckley's vs Puddle on Floor of Public Restroom, in which the end result was not being able to taste a difference. They then end with two check marks, one for it tastes like crap, the other for it gets rid of coughs. This is stuck in my head and so are the other commercials cause they pretend to use anything rank or spoiled in the taste tests which everyone will know about. It also makes me want to use it, so ill try it next time i get a bad cough.

Group Communication

For the most part i found that communicating with my group was very effective. We in general used emails for communication and when needed called each other on the phone. Our meetings went over fine ever time. Derek and I being out of town for the first one or two was a little difficult to catch up and be on the same page. The only problem i found was not everyone checks their email at the same time. I know this makes sense but that was probably the only real problem. It is more or less playing tag with emails, but you are still able to leave long enough messages and questions to move forward with the project. Our meetings went over fine and we worked out the schedule every time we had a meeting. I think the separation of work worked out well for the most part. Sometimes it was hard because not everyone had the program required to open some documents so it took longer to try and merge things and re-organize. I hope that in phase two we can work out a little more before hand what we will do and how we will put it all together. Other than that i am very happy with our group and the progress we were able to make.

Interview

I feel that the interview ended up going pretty well. I have had a few in the past, mostly done through highschool, but one done for my internship this past summer. I felt a little unprepared for some of the questions. They were not difficult but i just paused a little to long it seemed like. I am not sure if that can really be changed though, just nervousness. In a real interview i feel like i should know more about the company. I did a little research for this one if a question happened to come up, but i would like to have more questions for the interviewer. At my internship interview it was more or less an introduction to the company and its employees. I was walked around by the person that was to be my "supervisor" and was shown past projects and everything else. I really enjoyed that aspect of the interview cause it enabled me to realize if i would like the place or not. Another thing i realized with this mock interview is that i need to buy a tie.

Chicago

This last week i went with my architecture class to Chicago. Like i expected it was a lot of fun. The biggest thing that shocked me was the temperature. Even though i loved it, i was not thinking that it was going to get that cold. Being from the North i miss all those cool autumn days with jeans and a sweater. The air smells crisp and clean and it feels that much better when you finally take your shoes off inside. This was my first time in Chicago and ended up loving it. My first impression was a little different. We came in on the subway from O'Hare and it was not the best of journeys. It was pretty cold, while i was wearing shorts and a shirt, and the hotel had a strike, a small one, going on at the front. On the first day we went on a nice walking tour with our two teachers of the loop and we discussed all our buildings we had to research, mostly ones with historical presence. I enjoyed myself there, eating chicago style pizza, twice, amazing steaks at Morton's, also the most expensive meal i have ever eaten, and everything in between. I went out a couple nights but one night that was the most fun was when we went to the area around Wrigly field. It was mostly a younger crowd and it ended up being a blast. I enjoyed my last saturday there being a free day. I got to check out a museum, walk around the city more, and watch the columbus day parade. All in all Chicago turned out to be a really fun time, as well as educational.

School

When first thinking about applying to college none of the questions or answers have been formed yet. I had no clue what i wanted to do until senior year in high school, and i was still not right. The college education system is wrong in having such specific courses and degrees. Of course there are those 50 or so percent that go undecided until they end up with a useless degree where they really learned nothing towards any type of career. For those that know they want to do something more, or that they may want to follow in a number of careers that take up 4 years of college study alone, it is a lot more difficult.
I have been wasting the last 4 years doing architecture. Not wasting because i am not interested in it at all, but recently I decided that i want to do more than just architecture. Also for engineering it is extremely difficult for someone in their fourth year to drop because anything else would just take so much longer. Being an out of state student that also means a lot more expensive. I think that the system could and should change. I want to do engineering now, that is how i think and i realized i would probably be able to do that a lot better than architecture. My problem is that i am not going to do engineering. I have spent so much time doing architecture, and a switch to engineering would put me right back to a first year student having 4 more years ahead of me.
I think that is where the problem lies. The inability to switch majors. This is not the problem for everyone. Not saying that it is easy, but the majority of business type majors have a similar class schedule and can make that leap from Finance to Accounting. With things like architecture and engineering, there is no way that you could because they have specific courses to take each semester. I think the change would happen there, even if making them 5 year programs. The first two years of study should be a better overall general education and minor study. There can be schools, such as languages, arts, math and sciences, but going one route should not hinder your possibility of switching later on. Then i think that third year is experimental, maybe the first semester you try engineering, a good overview of the major, simple generic studies that get you interested or turn you off. The fourth and fifth years should then get you into a deep study of the major itself. By this time i feel that the majority of people would have a good idea of what to do.
This may seem like it would affect those that know for sure what they want to do, but it is the opposite. The people who are hell bent on doing one thing the rest of their life, GREAT! This idea would help them out. The first three years can be electives related to their study, a minor that compliments their major, and anything else that can be taken to get them ready for even an internship over the summer in their desired field of study. They might even realize that it is not what they want to do, and still have the chance to jump right in to something else. I just think that trying to have your mind made up in high school, so that you are on the "normal" 4 year graduation path of college, is a little much.

Traveling on Resumes

This was definately the most interesting article to me. I love to travel. It might be the fact that i have never lived in a place that i can remember for more than 4 years. I think the reason i love to travel is the different communities and ways of life that you get to experience everywhere knew you go. I think putting something that has truely changed you in the slightest way should be mentioned. All though not an expert by any means, i feel that seeing so many different European cities has helped me better understand how city life works and how it survives. Also the more new stuff that someone tries the more they realize what they actually like. Traveling has also helped me not be so shy about trying something different, whether it be food or communication or even travel. All these things i would like to portray my very best in my resume, and at the least during the interview.
I liked hearing the part about how the one company hired the man who traveled the country because he thinks outside the box. Not being in the workforce yet fulltime, what my views are based off of are others experiences. For the most part it seems that majority of companies are afraid to take risks in people that are concerned about themselves above all else. I will have to be happy to be any type of productive in the work force. I also agree that traveling gives you a break to re-examine what you are doing with your life. I hope that Architecture offices have somewhat of the same views when it comes to considering employees who travel. I do not plan on stopping anytime soon.