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!

Well its official....
EA 3 is kicking my butt! I've fallen so far behind and the quarter is quickly beginning to slip away!! Last week's problem set wasn't too bad because there were only 2 problems and they were both MATLAB problems so it was just plugging in numbers and plotting graphs. This Week... 4 problems and it took forever to do!!!

This week won't be as bad as the last 2 weeks.... cause midterms are a thing of the past... and the future.... since next week I apparently have a Sociology test and an EA "Quiz."
Oh God, how I despise engineering. Someone needs to remind me why I'm doing this to myself!!

~Me