Living, Homework, Breathing

Hello again. This is another post from the college student. Stephanie wanted me to do another post about college life, but college hasn't been all that eventful. Other than creating a cure for cancer in my chemistry lab, designing a self-driven full-size airplane in my engineering design class, and scaling cliffs in my free time, nothing much has happened up here. Just kidding, I'm not really doing those things, but I am doing some things.

The joys of learning chemistry...

However, I'm still trying to figure out Calculus!

I've been doing homework, studying, learning, eating, sleeping, washing my hands, showering, walking, biking, driving, bus-riding, smiling, laughing, reading, praying, being with friends, doing blog posts, looking for jobs, touching up my resume, exercising, shaving, mowing the lawn, and cleaning. That pretty much wraps up my life in once sentence, but I will go into detail on a few of these topics.

First of all, of course, I am doing my coursework, studying, and going to class. I had my first round of tests in Chemistry, Calculus, Engineering Design, and a Mechanical Engineering Analysis course, and those went alright. The Engineering Design and ME Analysis tests went well (although I don't actually know the score for the Analysis one, but feel pretty good about it). However, I didn't do as well as I hoped on the Chemistry and Calculus tests, so now I have to begin the impeccable task of bringing my grade up. So I've been doing a lot of studying. I've also begun my first design project for Engineering Design. We're doing "reverse engineering," which means we are taking apart a coffee pot and analyzing each component, its function, putting it back together, and finally modeling it up on SolidWorks 3-D Modeling.

Also, probably the most exciting thing in the past few weeks was the Engineering Career Fair two Tuesdays ago. For those of you who don't know what a career fair is, it is where tens to hundreds of companies go to a college or university and recruit students to work for them. The Iowa State Engineering Career Fair is one of the best, with over 400 companies, so lots of students go to it and most often find a job or summer internship. I talked to about 12 companies, and although I was a first-year student, some of them seemed somewhat interested in hiring me as a summer intern. The resume-reviewing process is still continuing, so it will be a while before I know for sure what I am going to do this summer. The experience itself of being at the career fair and talking with recruiters was definitely something that will help me for the future.

This is from the 2011 Iowa State Career Fair, and this year's was about the same...lots of people.

I also have been accepted into a club, Freshmen Leaders in Engineering. So far, we haven't done a whole lot except prepare for the career fair and elect officers. But I think it will be a good experience and give me some good opportunities to grow as an engineer.

Besides that, I have been exercising most mornings that I can drag myself out of bed. I also enjoy getting together with some students from church most evenings for dinner, church service, or just being together.

Through all of this, God has been there for me even at times when I wasn't completely focused on Him. He has guided me and given me grace to stay close to Him each day. College life is a great challenge for a young Christian, but through it all, I have drawn closer to God and learned how to overcome by His grace!

This looks similar to what our deck looked like after giving it a fresh paint job on a nice Saturday afternoon.