Elie Wiesel's Visit to ISU

I have attended quite a few on-campus activities this semester but my favorite by far was when Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel came to speak. I read his heart-wrenching book, Night which described his experiences in a concentration camp. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would he share his brutal experiences or would he talk about other things? What he did talk about totally inspired me.
When I first saw Elie Wiesel, all I saw was a small elderly man but from the minute he started talking, he transformed from a little old man to a remarkable story teller. Wiesel told stories of people he had met throughout his life and how they had touched him. All of his words were enforced with extreme optimism. He only mentioned his time in the concentration camp briefly but if he hadn't, one would never have known about his experiences. He expressed how one should not dwell on things from the past but focus on things in the present and the future. After Wiesel said this, it truly inspired me. This man has been through so much in his lifetime, more than I could even dream of. I should not dwell on something like a bad grade on a test or a missed out opportunity. I just need to forget and move on. Elie Wiesel truly opened my eyes about how I should live my life.

Spring Break 2009

I’m am very sad that spring break is over to say the least. I had a fantastic week. I spent the first half of the week in Los Angeles. My friend goes to school at USC, so I went to visit him there. He picked me up from the airport and we went straight to the beach. We went to Santa Monica, which has a great downtown for shopping and an awesome pier with a mini amusement park. Matt and I started by walking up the pier looking at the various street vendors and then ventured over to the little roller coaster that is on the pier. We ended up riding the “Pacific Coaster” twice in a row. It was kind of little kid-ish but it was so much fun! We then moved onto the beach and relaxed in the sand.
The following day we went to the surfing capital of the country, Huntington Beach. We spent the afternoon surfing, or attempting to surf. I think I got up once. The highlight of the day was seeing dolphins when we were on the Huntington Beach pier. After surfing, we eased our hungry stomachs with amazing diner food. We spent the rest of the day driving around West Hollywood and Beverley Hills, looking at all the incredibly huge houses. My last day in California was spent chilling around USC. I attended a journalism class with Matt and getting delicious fish tacos for lunch. I then had to leave warm, sunny California to spend the rest of the week back home in Illinois.

If I Had $80,000 and Didn't Go to College

If I couldn’t get a college education, I would definitely spend my money and time wisely. As I have stated in an earlier entry, I am absolutely addicted to traveling. I think I would go on a year long trip to discover all places of the world that I have never been to. In every place I would want to go to a historical or educational site and would want to help with some type of service organization. I think I would try to visit every continent and with the $80,000 that I would have that was supposed to go to my education, I could definitely achieve that.
First off, I would love to go to Africa. Pretty much anywhere in the continent but Kenya particularly interests me. I think the minute I got there I would want to go on a safari. I have been an animal lover since birth so I would love to see and explore the serenghetti. I would take one of those really intense cameras with me and snap some great shots of the animals and maybe even try and sell them to National Geographic. After my big safari adventure, I would volunteer in a hospital full of AIDS victims. I would help nurses administer drugs or play with the children who are waiting for their parents while they are being treated. I would also want to volunteer at a school or an orphanage. I love children and doing all this volunteer work would be so rewarding. Visiting Africa is definitely something I couldn’t do at ISU.
Next on my adventure, I would want to visit the incredible historic site of Machu Picchu in Peru. This site is the very beginnings of Civilization and it would be so informative to see the many secrets that it has to hide. I love nature so I would definitely go hiking and camping around the area. I learned Spanish in high school so it would definitely come in hand when I’m navigating around the small, local villages. No history class could educate me as much as just visiting the wonderful Machu Picchu.
I would continue to discover countries all over the world and take part in service projects and just enjoy the surroundings. After all the rewarding but hard work, I would want to treat myself. I would probably go to some beautiful beach resort in Fiji and just relax and do a little exploring on the side. I have never stayed at a big luxury hotel like the Four Seasons so I would probably stay there and just have the most relaxing, beautiful vacation of my life.