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Yesterday, before I dashed off to the spelling bee, I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of this year’s issue of Contrast, McDaniel’s literary magazine.
The unveiling of Contrast is a lovely way to honor the hard work of all of the writers and artists who submitted to the magazine as well as that of Contrast’s editorial board, which is comprised of students who evaluate the submissions to decide which ones are worthy of Contrast. (I’m a member of the ed board, and our meetings are one of my favorite activities on campus.) I always enjoy the opportunity to mingle with my peers and favorite professors in Harrison House, a building by Admissions with a fancy living room space where the English department likes to hold special events.
While I didn’t have time to mingle as much as I would have liked, I was able to enjoy some of the tasty refreshments (which included fresh fruit, cookies, brownies, and tiny quiche) as I listened to winners of our contests read their pieces aloud to a packed house. Even though I had already read all of the pieces in the magazine because I’m on the ed board, it was fun to find out who wrote what. (With the exception of the editors-in-chief of Contrast, during the judging process, no one on ed board knows who wrote what.)
Contrast is a wonderful way for McDaniel students across disciplines to submit their creative work and show it off to the world. Now that’s something worth celebrating.
Tonight I finished off this week’s trifecta of fun English major events (which also included Shakespeare in the Square and the Contrast Lit Mag unveiling) by going to Carroll Literacy Council’s 15th “Anyul Spelin’ Be” as the alternate for the English department’s “We Spell McDaniel” team.
This was my third spelling bee on the team and my best yet (even though as the alternate, I didn’t actually have to spell anything) because this year, WE WON!
That’s right–by correctly spelling words including bemoan, aspartame, melatonin, and cheongsam (and some other teams spelling their words incorrectly) We Spell McDaniel was able to win the coveted first place trophy and eternal glory.
Even though I didn’t actually participate in the spelling bee, I still had a lot of fun. Dinner and dessert is always served at this event, and this year’s was delicious. And more importantly, there were pencils and paper at each audience table, so Kathy, the English department’s secretary, and I got to play along and see who could spell the most words correctly (and other words the most correctly).
I’m so proud of my team, and I’m so glad the seniors got to win their last spelling bee.
Each year, for as long as I’ve been going to the spelling bee, we’ve gone to Hoffman’s, a local ice cream place, for ice cream afterwards. Tonight, we earned it!
 We won first place in the spelling bee this year! Here’s the winning team and our fabulous supporters. P.S. With our three seniors graduating this year, we’ll need some new spellers for next year. If you’re coming to McDaniel next year and are a super speller, drop the English department a line so you can help us seek another victory!
Hey there,
Today marks 27 days until I return to my home–Yellowstone National Park. I am so excited that I can hardly breathe. I worked there last summer, and a few of my friends, including four of my favourite people in the whole entire world, are coming back and I’m so overjoyed to be able to see them again. I’ll also be working in the gift shop this summer, and since I love talking to people, I think I’m going to have a great experience.
 These are the friends you make in Yellowstone.  I work a mile away from this beauty! This may be my last summer in Yellowstone for a long while, however. There are a lot of really strong summer programs for students studying political science that I looked at vaguely. This summer, my heart was set on going back to Yellowstone (and I had put my application in the day after I got home last summer) but in the future, I’ll take advantage of other opportunities I’ll have.
I’m really, really thankful for Skype, because I’m not sure how else I’ll survive without my McDaniel friends. It’s incredible how close you can grow to people so fast. I found that over summer, living away from home, and the experience was only intensified by sharing the struggles of homework, the love of learning, and all experiences for nine months of school here.
 I’m a little obsessed with sunsets. One thing I’m considering doing in the future is WWOOFing. WWOOF stands for Worldwide Workers On Organic Farms, and basically, you can spend a period of time volunteering for a family that feeds and houses you on their organic farm. Theoretically, one would work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, and have the rest of the time to explore the location they live in. It’s for volunteers, so participants don’t get paid, but the value of having a house and food would be more than worth the work. I’m planning on studying abroad in Morocco my junior year, so I think either the summer before or after would be a great time to go to Europe for a summer and work and play.
Though I’m sad to be leaving my friends and teachers, I’m so excited for summer and the experience it’ll offer me.
Ema
I hope everyone had a great Easter! I know I did! I left school on Friday and headed home for the weekend! The drive was not too bad because I did not hit too much traffic, which is always a bonus!
When I arrived home I immediately ran to the snack cabinet…but no worries I had a delicious home cooked meal that night…salmon to be exact! I forgot how much I loved my mom’s cooking. That night I caught up with my family and chatted at the dinner table for hours while taking mini breaks to throw in a load of laundry. That’s another benefit when going home–free laundry!
One of my goals for the weekend was to catch up on sleep so I went to bed fairly early. On Saturday I woke up and had a big brunch with my family. I was in charge of the toast and muffins while my dad covered the scrambled eggs.
Saturday was gorgeous out so I played some basketball with the family…a little old school knock out. It was so much fun! Then I went for a run with my brother-luckily I was able to keep up. After the run, I was able to chill and hang out for a little until dinner.
After dinner, my brothers and I played this game we found called cantor! I am currently obsessed with this game! I would say it is a combination of Risk and Monopoly…so it’s a great game. Best part is…it’s actually playable. The game only lasted about 2 hours…unlike Risk which can take over 4 hours. After that I was kinda exhausted to I hit the hay.
The following morning was Easter! I dyed an Easter egg and I made it into a Minion from Despicable Me! It was so cute! We went to my Aunts house for dinner and had our usual Easter Dinner, Lamb with green beans, and baked potatoes! After dinner I had to make my way back to McDaniel. So I loaded my car with all my laundry, snacks from home, and was on my way! Luckily, I did not have too much homework. But all in all, Easter was a success!
Hi guys,
D-Day for high school seniors going to college — May 1 — is coming up and I know a lot of my friends are struggling to decide where they want to spend their college career. This makes me reflect on my own experience in picking a college.
I was that obnoxious kid everyone hated who submitted all her college apps waaay early, on Halloween. I had spent all summer working on those apps and was ready to go. The benefit to this was that I had heard back from all of my schools except for one by mid January, which was quite a relief. My early decision school didn’t work out financially, but I was left with quite a few options. As I’m from California and the schools I was considering were all on the East Coast, I took a week off school in March to come and visit, tour, and stay overnight at as many schools I could.
 Besides, who could resist these sunsets? When I visited McDaniel, I shadowed Dr. Mangan’s Creative Writing: Poetry class and basically spent the whole class period crying of happiness and joy at the fact that such a class existed. I was able to participate and offer input on the poems students had brought to share and I was impressed by the quality of the work, and by the methods Dr. Mangan had been teaching them. She made me feel like part of the class, and afterwards shepherded me around to meet other members of the department. I’m taking her Creative Writing: Fiction class next semester and I can hardly wait.
I then met with Dr. Naumov from the computer science department. I had been semi-considering a English-Computer Science double major, but I had a great fear of math. He spoke with me for half an hour and had convinced me that I would be amazing at math if I just gave it a try and I would have no problem with the major. His confidence was inspiring, and I thought it was wonderful that teachers actually took time out of their days to meet with prospective students. I’m minoring in Computer Science and taking his class now.
Additionally, when I walked out of Hill Hall looking for Lewis Recitation Hall, a random student started talking to me and tried to tell me I should be a Political Science major. At the time, I was planning to minor (though now I am a major), and it was great to hear from the average student. I was also flattered that he thought I was an actual student, not a prospective!
Though I really liked many of the other schools, my mum and I kind of looked at each other when we met up at the end of the day and I knew then that we were going to make McDaniel work. And so far, though I may complain about the lack of Trader Joe’s stores nearby, I’m definitely glad I made that decision.
Good luck!
Ema
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