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It’s so weird to be saying goodbye to McDaniel after three years. There have been so many good times, but now it is time to move on to my next adventures abroad! I think the hardest part has been saying goodbye to people. You really make bonds here, but once you leave, everything changes; however, I have faith that my real friends and I will keep in touch!
Because I am leaving early, I got the senior send off from my favorite job in Admissions’ Office. They give the seniors gifts, and I got to sign the senior wall first this year in the Gold Lounge! It is one of the best jobs on campus, and I am really going to miss it. It has been an honor to work with the fabulous staff there! Who knows? Maybe I will come back to work there one day! Here’s to new adventures!
 Gift from Admissions
Last week, we had a duck hunt on campus where the Office of Student Engagement (OSE) hid rubber duckies around campus, and the people who found them would get a prize. I had all but forgotten about the duck hunt when I found my lucky duck!
He was just sitting on a table outside of the Pub minding his own business when I scooped him up and took him to the OSE to receive my prize. I got 22 Jumpstreet on DVD which was hilarious because I have yet to see the first one. However, this was a great event because finding that duck really made my day.
It’s things like these that I am going to miss about McDaniel when I am abroad!
 My ducky and me!
UMBC, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, held a vegan festival, VegFest, this past weekend and I attended with a few friends.
I’m not a vegetarian, though I tend to eat very little meat, so I did feel a little out of place. However, I attended with two friends, one of whom is a pescatarian (meaning she eats fish but not meat) and one of whom is a really hardcore vegan so it was delightful just seeing their joy. While Glar does serve vegan food, the options are definitely more limited. This past year, the vegan/vegetarian options have been particularly delicious though, as we now have a chef who is vegan himself.
To my surprise, some of the food booths had lines that, per people near the front, were about two hours long. Vegan Treats, a bakery, apparently sells the best cupcakes you’ll ever eat. My vegan friend was disappointed because while she really wanted some, we didn’t have time to wait in the line. The food we did ate, from a smaller vendor, was really good–lots of vegetables and tofu!
The highlight for me was the animals. An animal shelter had set up a booth, and volunteers were waking around with dogs up for adoption. They also had cats, to my excitement, and I was very sad that I was unable to adopt all of them as they were so incredibly sweet. Additionally, another organization was supporting humane treatment of animals and they had pigs there. One could adopt a pig, and one could also by a pig painting–a painting by a pig! We got to watch as one of the pigs ‘painted,’ using its hooves to create artwork, and it was really neat.
 The end of the year is always a vibrant time for live music at McDaniel because all of the ensembles perform live.
There are a lot of music groups at McDaniel–flute choir, percussion ensemble, band, orchestra, flute quartet, string quartet… the list goes on for a while. Some consist only of McDaniel students, but others have members of the community performing as well. When I was in flute choir, I enjoyed getting to meet older people from the community who simply loved to play and wanted to improve.
My favourite this year was bass ensemble, which was at 4:37PM on Friday. The instructor, Bo, theorises that if one of the bassists is in their room in Rouzer Hall at 4:30 and realises they’re supposed to be at a performance, it takes them seven minutes to grab their instrument and head to Levine Hall, where all the music classes are. Three of my good friends were performing, and since they’re not as popular of a group I got to see them in the really intimate setting of a music practice room.
Band and orchestra also always give very solid performances and it’s really cool to see my peers playing instruments. There’s always somebody who plays an instrument and hasn’t told me about it, so I’m always pleasantly surprised by the talent of the performers. There are two jazz ensembles also that always make me want to dance.
Since one of my best friends is a music major, I often attend these performances just to see her. They’re always a pleasant break from that end-of-the-year finals stress!
 I created a Twitter account for Contrast Lit Mag this year. Twitter has been around for what seems like FOREVER now, and chances are, you have a Twitter of your own. (But if you don’t have a Twitter, there’s nothing wrong with that.)
When I first came to McDaniel, I was surprised by how enthusiastic some professors were about Twitter. I hadn’t bothered with Twitter in high school because I thought it was a place people went to share meaningless thoughts and life happenings, like little frustrations and what they ate for dinner. I also already had Facebook and Tumblr — surely, two were enough.
But eventually, I hopped aboard the Twitter train the spring of my sophomore year because it was time. So many student organizations and administrative offices on campus use Twitter and lots of professors use it too. (I also figured it would be useful to know how to use in case I decide to seek social media jobs outside of campus.)
I discovered that Twitter is actually a really useful place to find out what’s going on around campus and in the world outside of campus. (I don’t watch a lot of news while I’m at school because I get pretty busy, so seeing headlines on Twitter has been very useful to me.) I also found out that tons of academics are on Twitter and they tweet links to lots of interesting and intellectual articles. No wonder so many of the cool professors are on Twitter!
Since then, I’ve tweeted for the McDaniel Free Press and the Writing Center. I even created a twitter account for Contrast, McDaniel’s literary magazine, which I co-edited this year.
Some professors even bring Twitter to the classroom. In my New Media Writing class, we had to tweet about our readings as part of our class participation grade. I found that tweeting readings was useful exercise in condensing complicated thoughts and a great way to engage with others about texts and information. We also had to create separate Twitter accounts for our brand creation project. All of us were required to choose a specific aspect of campus to create a brand about, and we had to use Twitter, Tumblr, Storify, and Pinterest to curate these brands. My project was called McDaniel Coffee, and it was an enjoyable experience.
I’ve learned that Twitter is a lot of fun. With plenty of friends, bands, and parody accounts to follow, being on Twitter has been a great experience for me. I share silly thoughts and happenings and art I find online with my brother, who’s now also in college; it’s been a wonderful way to stay connected. I tweet encouragement to my friends, who use Twitter to document their progress on major assignments. And most excitingly, I’ve tweeted at some favorite bands of mine and gotten retweets and responses back. Very cool!
So if you like Twitter, McDaniel might be for you. And if Twitter’s not your cup of tea, don’t fret — though we may find a way to get you hooked!
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