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 Decorating for Christmas Hey guys,
I was planning to spend Thanksgiving on campus as I did last year. A lot of people instantly get a pitying expression on their faces when I tell them this, but it’s really not bad. I live in California, but I grew up in New Zealand so my family doesn’t really care about Thanksgiving at all. Since I’ll be back in two weeks anyway, I really didn’t want to cough up the money and spend the time in airports for just a few days. My initial plan was to go to Boston and visit a friend, but she bailed on me and tickets were expensive anyway.
However, one of my best friends who lives in Annapolis invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner with her family, and I accepted. On Friday, they invited me to stay the rest of the break. I hadn’t wanted to before I went, because I was looking forward to the time to do homework and sleep; however, her family was very hospitable and my friend and I spent a lot of time on homework, so I decided to accept. I haven’t been home since May, so it was surprisingly nice to be in a family environment, to eat home-cooked food, to play board games with her younger brothers, and to decorate for Christmas. This was probably the best Thanksgiving of my life.
I won National Novel Writing Month a few weeks ago (to my own disbelief) so even though I didn’t get as much homework as I’d have liked to do done, I’m still in good shape to survive the rest of the semester!
Ema
 Because I am from California, I tend not to go home except for the bigger breaks. Thus, for Thanksgiving, I stay on campus. That is not to say that people do not invite me over for Thanksgiving break, but most of the time I have a lot of work I want to get done, and it’s nice to have some alone time.
Normally, I spend Thanksgiving eating junk food (aka Chex Mix) and watching cute romantic comedies. This year, I was invited to go out to dinner and watch a movie with one of my friends from work.
I had the best time ever! I have been going through a lot of changes this year, and she has been really understanding about all of it. I learned a lot about her past and how she learned things in her life, and I think it helped me put a lot of things in perspective.
After we had a bunch of deep discussions, we went to see Disney’s Big Hero 6, which was such a cute movie! It was nice to have something lighten up the serious conversations. This was a Thanksgiving well spent!
 I found this cute message from Alpha Phi Omega sitting on a water fountain in Hill Hall. One thing that I’ll miss about McDaniel when I graduate in May is that the Hill is generally a really friendly place. I’m always likely to be greeted with a warm and familiar smile on my way to wherever I go, and some people on campus make it a point to spread positivity to whoever they can.
One of my favorite groups that promotes positivity is the McDaniel Compliments Facebook page. Using Facebook’s messaging feature, students can anonymously submit compliments and other kind messages addressed to other students and groups on campus. These messages are reviewed by an anonymous group of students who oversee the page. I make it a point to submit compliments to McDaniel Compliments at least every so often, and it’s rewarding to see the spotlight on the person receiving the compliment, not the person giving it. However, the people giving compliments aren’t unrewarded — the McDaniel Compliments admins make sure that they respond to every message received with a Facebook sticker.
Recently, McDaniel’s co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega also did their part to spread some joy. They wrote out encouraging messages on pretty paper and sprinkled them around Hill Hall for everyone to enjoy — and I certainly enjoyed them!
Other positive groups on campus include the Happiness Club, which was recently formed by some of my friends. They do all sorts of activities, which have included creating encouraging messages and fun drawings all over Red Square with sidewalk chalk and volunteering at a local cat sanctuary. And on Halloween, lots of Happiness Club members dressed up and handed out candy in Red Square — which was happy and delicious!
Sometimes, I like to engage in random acts of positivity of my own. Recently, I’ve developed the habit on writing encouraging messages on whatever chalkboard or whiteboard is near me when I’m doing work in the library. This way, I have a message remind myself to stay upbeat, and I leave some positivity behind for the next person to find and appreciate. I should really start doing this more — maybe it will catch on!
Hi guys,
 A McDaniel delegate makes a heated point. I went on another simulation trip this past weekend–with Maryland Student Legislature to St. Mary’s College of Maryland, who was hosting our Fall Interim Assembly. For this event, I had reviewed and revised all the legislation since I am the state attorney general. The packets handed out to all of the attendees were thick with interesting bills which were all grammatically correct. I don’t think anyone realized how much time I had spent reading those.
As attorney general, I wasn’t able to speak for or against any bills, which actually made for an interesting experience. Instead of speaking, if I wanted a point to be communicated to the audience, I had to message a friend, explain my point to them, and convince them it was worth speaking about. In this way, I had my opinions expressed without personally expressing them.
We ended up running out of legislation, but a lot of people submitted “emergency legislation” which were quickly written (read: I had to edit them a LOT!) but still fun to debate.
As always, I loved seeing my friends from other schools. I’m super excited for March, when McDaniel will host our Spring Leadership Training Institute and Interim Assembly!
Ema
 I wrote my Spanish capstone paper on the works of Afro-Cuban poet Nancy Morejón. As we are nearing the end of the semester, life on campus is getting pretty hectic. Everyone is working on projects, presentations, and papers that we need to turn in before Thanksgiving break. Needless to say, we are all really busy.
I luckily have finished my first draft of my Senior Capstone. For Spanish, you have to take the Capstone course, which is on a specific topic. My Capstone is about literature written by Latin American women. It has a lot of feminist themes in it, and it talks a lot about it what is like to be a woman in different countries in Latin America.
Because the theme for the class is Latin American woman, we all had to write a fifteen-page paper in Spanish about a work by a Latina American female author. I choose Nancy Morejón who is a Afro-Cuban poet. The theme I chose to analyze was how she uses the past to inspire revolution in the future.
While it has been extremely difficult, this project has taught me so much! I learned a lot about how I feel about feminism and about how women in other countries think about themselves. It has given me a new perspective on issues that I was already concerned with.
Image via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Morejón
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