Wow... I think I'm still in shock... I'm afraid that this is all a marvelous dream and that when I wake up McCain will be President...

Illinois Senator Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States!!!

And I got to vote for the first time in a presidential election!!! (I've been waiting a long time for this!!)

On November 4th, I woke up, went to my one psych class, had lunch, then got on the EL to go home and VOTE... I made it home and voted. I had some dinner at home watched some election stuff, helped my sister install Microsoft office.
Before I began to get ready to get back to campus... I saw that Obama won Ohio... when I saw that I had a really strong feeling he would win.

My Mom took me to the CTA pink line stop and I began my trek back to NU. I made it to State and Lake St. and stood for a few minutes in front of the ABC studios and at that moment Obama had about 207 electoral votes. There were at least 2 Chicago cops on every street corner downtown... I kind of wanted to stay in Chicago but knew I couldn't get close at all, besides I have an early start on Wednesdays. I got on the Red Line and lost service on my cell phone in the subway, that's when I lost contact with the outside world... After I got service again, I called home and my sister yelled into the phone, "Obama Won!!! They just said it, at 10 o'clock!!"

I couldn't believe it!! I was so excited and nervous that he would give an awesome speech before I made to campus and a TV!! I was on the phone with my sister and she was telling me what was going on. I made it to campus 3 minutes before Obama gave is victory speech. I watched it with some of the people in my dorm. To be honest chills ran up my spine and it was definitely an emotional moment for some of my friends.

I feel really optimistic about the future, can't wait to see what happens next.

Wow! Its been forever since I added anything to this blog. Don't really know where to start... I guess I can start by saying that I am currently am back at Northwestern. I've been back on campus since Saturday afternoon. I'm am now in the works of transferring out of engineering and into psychology, oh and hopefully will get more information on completing a high school teaching certificate.

I am taking 4 classes this quarter:
Psych 215: Psychology of Personality
Psych 201: Statistical Methods in Psychology
History 210: United States History to 1865
Anthropology 213: Human Origins

so now I'm gonna focus on school, so I can get awesome grades and finally have a wonderful college experience. Although it might be hard... so many distractions, but I'll get more into that later... I should go to bed now.

So... um... last quarter of school didn't go as well as I wanted it too... I really thought I knew what I was doing... apparently not... so I talked to some advisers and deans and we all agreed that I had to re-evaluate whether I want to be in engineering or not... and to be honest... I totally saw this coming... so now... I'm almost pretty sure that I do not want to doing engineering anymore... and my reasoning behind this is cause even though I was struggling just as much as my classmates and friends they all actually seemed to be at least a little bit interested in what we were supposed to be learning and they all looked forward to working in the industry... and I dreaded it... I was not interested in the material and was so not looking forward to getting a job in engineering... so now what?

well... I think the whole reason I got into BME was because I wanted to go to med. school to be a pediatrician cause I wanted to work/help kids. Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way... there are other careers in which I could help kids and enjoy... so now I pretty much just have to figure out what the hell that is!! I'm taking a quarter off from school so I can clear my mind and be selfish and figure out what the hell I want, though I will be taking classes at the community college... to show the school that I'm not just being lazy...

Wish me luck... damn this is gonna be tough...

this has to be one of my favorite videos of all time!! I laugh just as hard each time... never gets old... Waverly Films is awesome!

I am not a student at the Northern Illinois University.... but I knew a few kids from my high school who went there...

When I heard about the NIU shootings my heart stopped I reached the nearest newspaper and quickly rustled through the pages to find the article... I madly searched for names of the victims but they weren't there... later I searched for articles online and went on facebook to find out what I could... I hoped so much I would find no bad news about any people I knew... then I found an article with the victims names... reluctantly I realized that among them was Catalina "Cathy" Garcia aged 20 years old from Cicero... my heart sank... I only knew her vaguely but just the fact that our lives had crossed paths at school made me feel so sad... then I remembered that she was actually best friends with one of my friends and soccer teammates... Its so sad to know that these kind of things happen... It makes me wonder how something like this could have been prevented, why do they have to happen?

I spoke with my mom on the phone and she asked me if I had know Cathy, she also told me that back home in Cicero they had been talking a lot about Cathy and they even interviewed her parents... Its nice to know that everyone has been so supportive of her family and of the school... lots of us former classmates have been talking a lot about it... My mom mentioned how sad it is that it's usually the good who die young... tragedies like this always seem to happen to people who have something going for them, who have a bright future... that is what makes a lot of things so tragic... and guess that makes sense... Cathy was going to school cause she wanted to be a teacher, she loved working with kids... although I can't really say much about her since I wasn't too close with her I can say she was a good kid with a bright future ahead of her and with lots of friends and family behind her back...

As of right now it all seems a bit surreal to me... like I'm going to wake up and realized that it was all a dream but I think it's all starting to sink in... then I think I will break down and cry...

My thoughts are with Cathy's friends and family in this difficult time, as well as the families of the other victims...

Hopefully... Someday we can bring an end to tragedies such as these...

More on Cathy
In Memory of Cathy, Facebook Group

Wow its been a really long time... since I last updated this thing... I think I might have forgotten about it... oops

Any who... um... well last quarter didn't go as bad as it could have gone... but I am definitely more optimistic about this quarter... which is weird 'cause usually winter quarter is the worst... the classes that I am taking are as follows:
Chem 102-1, Inorganic Chemistry
Gen_Eng 205-4, Engineering Analysis 4
Civ_Eng 216, Mechanics of Materials
Psych_337, Human Sexuality

As you can imagine... the only class that is interesting right now is Human Sexuality... its definitely and entertaining class... and even if it wasn't about sex... it's still more interesting than figuring out how much a steel bar will deform when you place a force on it... But I'm really trying to pay attention... because as I future Engineer/Doctor... I'm supposed to do the job right... so rest assured... I will learn my stuff...

At first I was scared of Mechanics because it was going to be similar to a class I took last year... EA 2 and I barely survived that class... plus this time I wasn't going to have my friends with me to do homework/labs/study with cause only two guys I know are in the class... and I don't really talk to them much or see much of them around campus... except for the few times they actually show up to class... but I was doing our homework assignment by myself last week and to my astonishment I was able to figure out most of not all the problems on my own!!! Then the few questions I had the TA answered them with ease.... so I'm feeling pretty good about it right now.. but who knows how long it will last... hopefully all quarter!