BioPsych

This past week I had a long, hard week of studying, but come Thursday, it all paid off! I received a very high grade on my BioPsych test which helped to pull up my grade!! I am hoping that it happens again this Thursday.

Friday I went to a seminar on Children with Sensory Deficits that was offered through Burrel Hospital. It was an amazing seminar!! I enjoy going to these types of things because it broadens my knowledge on topics outside my realm of study.

Friday night I worked at a sleepover event at the gymnastics center. Lets just say, I didn't get any sleep! Saturday was rough!

Saturday I taught Love and Logic! this is going very well. It has been an exciting class to facilitate. I encourage all of you to facilitate a class while your here at Forest.

Sunday I slept in and caught up on all my homework for the week. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I know I am looking forward to the long weekend coming up!

Catch-up!

Well, because of all the fun traveling around, Ive gotten myself a little behind. It has been a nice two weeks, traveling to and from Chicago with the family and seeing my boyfriend. However, now I need to catch up on the school work. This weekend was perfect, it was a great time to spend time on my thesis, Biopsych paper, studying for Biopsych and of course, sleeping!

The plan on Sunday was to allow myself time to sleep-in. Of course, I took full advantage of this opportunity and did not wake up until 12:03!!! I suppose my body needed rest. I thought I'd make it until about 10:00 then I'd find myself wide awake. This apparently did not happen but it was nice not to see 6:00 AM for once, in a long time!

I also taught the Love and Logic class this weekend. I will be doing this for a month! It was so much fun, I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to next week. Although I do not have children I feel my co-facilitator and I did a nice job presenting the material.

Meet the Norton's!

This weekend I traveled to Chicago, again. This time my entire family, mom, dad and brother all traveled with me to meet my boyfriends parents, sisters and nephew. We had a wonderful time! His family ordered Chicago style pizza for all of us to try. (this is not one of my favorite meals by any means but it was a fun experience). On Saturday we were able to travel to the city where we experienced Millennium Park. This was awesome! We took pictures in the "Bean". This is a giant steal sculpture that shows your reflection, it is so perfect that you can take a picture of yourself in it and capture the entire city in the background...other than seeing the camera in the picture, you would never know you took it of yourself, it doesn't look like a reflection but an actual picture! We ate lunch at Ed Debevics, experienced Nike Town and headed back home. I think we walked a total of 13 miles in about 3 and 1/2 hours! We didn't have much time but were able to enjoy what time we had. After this we went back to his parents home, chatted, played Nintendo Wii, and then my parents, his sister, my boyfriend and I all went to a small bar where we listened to some oldies rock & roll music! On Sunday his mother fixed us all a huge breakfast and his older sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came to visit us as well. We then headed home. It seemed that both our families really enjoyed one another and had a great time!

BioPsych

So this is my fifth week of summer class. I am beyond stressed and anxious. My Bio Psychology class is my favorite class, I find it fascinating. However, I'm not doing well in there what-so-ever. It is so hard and there is so much to read!! It has been very stressful and doesn't look like it is going to get any easier!! I sure hope I can do well on the midterm this week and pull up my grade!

This weekend, I did take a trip to Chicago. My boyfriend had his family reunion this weekend. We had a great time, it was really neat to see so many generations!! Many of his family members he has not even met. It was a great experience! We also went to his friends bonfire. He has had one every year since they graduated high school. This was no ordinary, roasting marshmallows bon-fire, though!! They had entire trees stacked like a teepee, the flames were over 100 feet high, you had to stay almost an entire football fields length away because it was so hot! It was a very fun time. The next day we went to visit his sister and nephew. His nephew and I went to play with the new baby chickens at their farm, played with his new puppy and I chased him around the yard on his John Deere Gator.

I hope you all are enjoy your summer!

Camping

This weekend my boyfriend and I went camping in Robertsville, MO. This is close to St. Louis. This was only my second time camping! He was comming from Iowa City, IA and had to work late. So it was my job to set up the tent and start dinner. Well, by the time he got there, I had the tent set up, the rain fly on, a fire started and dinner was made. I didn't just cook any dinner though, I made steak, vegetables, and rice! We ate very nicely!! I was extremely proud of myself!! It ended up raining on us the first night but our tent did in fact stay dry. The next day we took a nice long walk around the camp site and down to the boat dock. The Merimac River was very high! Then we went for a short drive and ended up at the mall for a while. After that we came back to the campsite and cooked dinner. We looked up on my GPS system what sort of things were close to our campsite that we could do the next day before we had to head back to school. It ended up that Six Flags was only 16.7 miles from our campsite! We woke up early the next morning, packed up our things and headed to Six Flags. My boyfriend had not been since he was 8 years old, that was the only time he had ever been. I on the other hand went every year until my 3rd year of college. So it has been 2 years since I last went. We rode every ride at the park and then headed to Applebee's for dinner! We said our goodbyes and headed back for school.

Thesis

Well, its about time! Its about time I started making way on this thesis!! This weekend I finally broke down and wrote the first two pages....I know...sounds terrible right? I had my 10 page proposal completed and a full outline of all the topics I wanted to cover, with all the articles I wanted to use, and it took me so long to start writing. But now that I have started, I plan on writing a little bit each week!

I also was able to go to the Lake of the Ozarks this weekend to visit my mom. She was there for a conference and we met for dinner. We went to the Dueling Piano Bar called Peckers. It was a fun night and I enjoyed her company. My family went to Florida, it is the first family vacation I have had to miss, I know, its sad! But they had a wonderful time and I was able to see lots of pictures. Hopefully in the future our schedules will mesh better and I will be able to tag along again!

First Week of Classes- Fourth Term

Hello All!

Well I have finished one week of classes in my fourth term here! Yahoo!! I saw a client on Wednesday for the first time! It was a nerve-racking experience but wonderful at the same time. It was nice to actually see first hand what the career will look like. Hopefully not so intimidating but at least I got to try it out.

I am a little worried, we are suppose to have at least 15 hours a week of practicum work. This week I only got 8. Hopefully as client contact hours increase it will be easier to gain these 15 hours.

This weekend a friend and I went to the movies at The Palace, a nice movie theater in town that costs only $2.50 to see a movie. They're not new releases but they are not ones that you can rent yet either. We saw Made of Honor, it is fun to go to this theater every now and again. Next weekend we plan on going to Founders Park for "Movies in the Park" night. It is free admission with a ticket and $5.00 without a ticket. They are playing the Bucket List so it should be a fun movie to go see. I will keep you posted on how the experience goes.

You won't beleive it!

That's right...another wedding!

Its been one crazy summer! It has been filled with weddings! My best friend, all the way from the 1st grade, got married this weekend to a boy she started dating in the 8th grade. They went to kindergarten together!! They have been dating for 8 years!! I stood up as one of her bridesmaids. It has been wonderful to see such an amazing couple join their lives together. I was so honored to be a part of their special day!

This past week I was able to relax a little bit after all of my finals. We had a week long break. Most of my break was spent preparing for the wedding, bachelorette party, mani-cures and pedi-cures, decorating the church and of course the ceremony! But my mom and I were able to go to St. Louis for a girls day/night out and I also went to visit my boyfriend in Iowa City.

It is nice to be back and I most defiantly look forward to starting my practicum hours!

Weddings!

It seems like all of my friends are getting married! wow! What a weekend event this wedding was!!

I traveled to Ohio this weekend to attend a friends wedding. He married a woman from India. 350 family members and friends came from India to the event!! Unbelievable!! There were about 500 guests total at this wedding!

They had a Christian ceremony and an Indian ceremony! The Indian ceremony was very ritualistic. It truly was like walking into the movie Aladdin! Where the groom comes in on the white elephant (only they used a white horse) and there is a band that plays and lots of dancing and gifts. It was a wonderful event!

Once I flew back into St. Louis I was able to visit a friend who recently moved there. We had a wonderful time at Olive Garden catching up!

The term is nearing the end

Well- The term is nearing the end! It is time for me to really crack down on studying for my exams! I will begin tonight! I still have a bit of a project to finish up for my Foundations of Relationships class and then I will be done with projects for the term.

This weekend I went home for a bridal shower for one of my friends. It was a great time. I had been best friends with this girl since kindergarten! I had not seen her family in years, it was such a nice time to get together with them and catch up!

I also met up with a friend of mine for his 23rd birthday!! We too went to school together. We were reminiscing and talking about our 5th year reunion approaching next year! It is unreal that we are already this far along out of high school!

No more minor projects

I have finally finished all the minor and major projects due for this term. I feel completely relieved that I do not have to think about them any longer! I can now focus just on studying and my thesis.

I have made much progress on my thesis. I am almost finished with my proposal and will be turning it in shortly. I just have to round up a few more articles and I'm ready to take on the first rough draft! Yeah!

I am just looking over practicum options at the clinic today and trying to decide where I would like to be at this point. It is a hard decision but I think what will end up happening is whatever time fits in my schedule is where I will be placed. I am anxious and a bit excited to start seeing clients. This will be a great eye opener into what therapy will be like.

This weekend was pretty laid back for a change! Whew! I was able to work out a bit, work at both jobs, and go out to eat as well as accomplish a ton of homework. I am usually running around from here to there and am literally exhausted. But this weekend was different thank goodness. :)

Have a wonderful week!

A long weekend!

Wow! It was a nice long weekend, and much needed!! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. I traveled to Norman, Oklahoma where I was in my cousins wedding. It was nice to be away for a while and especially to be with my family.

The wedding went wonderfully and everything turned out just as it should. We had so much fun and enjoyed celebrating this important time in their lives together.

My family also visited Bricktown and went out on the town. It had many nice restaurants, ice cream shops, the Sonic Headquarters!, and some really big nightclubs! We also visited the memmorial. Although I had seen it before, none of my family nor my boyfriend had been able to experience that yet, so it was a great trip for all of us.

Observation

Well, I have just completed my observation hours at the clinic. It has been a wonderful experience. Although I only saw intake sessions, it has been very beneficial. I hope to see more therapy sessions before I start practicum.

This weekend I was able to see my boyfriend. He brought my bike down so we could take a bike ride together. We went on some amazing trails and had so much fun!! There is the trail right here at Forest as well as a trail that runs from Springfield to Bolivar. It was long but we stopped and ate lunch and headed back to Springfield. He also took a mountain bike path and ended up getting a flat tire and had to carry his bike for over 30 min down the bike path! (I'm happy I wasn't with him on this trail!) :)

This weekend I will be going to my cousin's wedding in Oklahoma. I will be standing up as her Maid-of-Honor. This will be a wonderful time! She is the first one of us to get married!!

I hope you all enjoy the holiday weekend.

Golf Tournement, NAMI Walk, and ALS Awareness Volunteering

This week/weekend has been very busy!! On Saturday there was the NAMI walk, Miles for Minds advocating for helping those with mental illnesses. We provided hot dogs, chips, juice, and water for the walkers at the clinic. It was wonderful to see so many individuals walking to help raise awareness for those suffering.

On Monday and Tuesday, my younger brother had his state golf tournament and I received a wonderful sunburn. He ended up shooting an 86/87 for the two days. This was pretty good. He fell right in the middle of all the golfers, so this was pretty good! It was wonderful to have the tournament right here in Springfield at Deer Lake where I could go watch!

On Tuesday evening there was a volunteer opportunity at Cox North for ALS Awareness. This was a very informative and wonderful to learn about all the resources that are available to individuals struggling with this illness.

There are plenty of opportunities to become involved here at Forest, I recommend you take every chance you get!! Not only is it educational but it is an opportunity to meet and socialize with those whom you will be working with in the future!

Midterms

Well, midterms are just a week away! Getting prepared for these will be a task! It seems as if we have just started digging into the meat of the class and we already have midterms! I've been keeping up fine with the readings and such, but it is always nerve racking at this time of the term. It is the true test of how much knowledge you have accumulated thus far.

I also have begun to make way on my thesis! YAHOO!!! Hopefully I will have a proposal completed by June and then I can really feel I have accomplished something.

This week seems to be filled with many exciting events. The NAMI walk as a fundraiser is taking place at the clinic, the Wii tournament for Boys and Girls Town, the training grants as well as the Pick-A-Partner class. I am sure I will be very busy but will have lots of fun too!

An Update

This weekend I went home to see my family. My little brother went to prom, so I had to see him all dressed up. Boy, did he look handsome! Little brothers grow up so quickly!! I was also able to spend some time with one of my best friends from undergrad. She is graduating this year and I went out to dinner with her and then went out dancing.

School is going well this term. The one class I am worried about is Statistics. It seems okay at this point but I keep hearing how hard it will get. This makes me nervous because I am not good at stats. Hopefully as I keep studying things will not be as bad as anticipated. So far, so good, I hope it stays this way. :)

The weather sure has been nice lately! I wish I only had time to go out an enjoy it. It seems that every time it is nice, I have to work or am in class. However, every time it is rainy and icky out, I seem to have the day off. Ha-Ha! Have a great week! Enjoy the beautiful weather if you have the chance!

Pre-Practicum/Observation

Today was my first day of observation at the clinic! It was a great experience. Although we only were able to observe one client it was fun!

We also go to eat a great lunch! I guess that is something that all blocks do, cook! Every week one person from each group is designated to cook for the group each week. This round we ate turkey roll-ups and Suddenly Salad the Chipotle Ranch brand.

After observing we sat in the group and discussed our ideas about the session. The supervisor also gave direction for the 'therapist' to point her therapy in the next session.

It was a very wonderful experience I cannot wait to see more of what I will be doing when my practicum block rolls around this summer!

First Week of Classes

One week of classes are down! This term I am taking Foundations of Relationships, Psychopathology II, and Statistics. So far it seems like it will be an enjoyable term. I am looking forward to Foundations of Relationships. This is where we will be going to the clinic to do our first observations!

Also this week was a trip to Jefferson City! We did one last Legislative Day to try to pass the RxP bill. We went door to door trying to inform legislatures on our topic. This bill would provide better access to those needing medication. Our state is in a true health crisis. Although this is not THE answer, it would be a great start! We had Jason Yager come sing at the Capitol and we also provided a BBQ lunch! This trip was very enjoyable and I believe very productive. Wish us luck and if you would like to contact your legislature please feel free to ask me any questions on how to do so. My email is mbrowning@forest.edu

Until next time-
Meleia

Spring Break!

Well, unfortunately I was not even thinking about these blogs until today! I'm sorry I have forgotten to post last week!

I hope everyone is/has enjoyed their break! Mine has been exceptional!

Last week I was able to come home on Tuesday and spend time with my family. All last week and a few days this week I have been substitute teaching and aiding at the schools back home. My boyfriend and I went back to Western Illinois University, where we went to undergrad and visited our friends. We had a pretty good time there.

Then, on Tuesday of this week, I came up to University of Iowa where my boyfriend goes to school. We celebrated my 22nd birthday and have just been hanging out. Iowa City is a neat little place. Most people think of corn, wheat, and soy beans, technically this is right, but in the middle of those fields lays a nice little place, Iowa City. It is a very artsy city. The university its self is huge! It has been fun to visit!

I hope all of you have a safe trip back to school!!

Finals

Well, two finals down, two to go! My Cognitive Assessment Final went well I suppose as did my Integrated Health Care Solutions Final. Hopefully the next two, Lifespan and Psychopathology I will go just as well if not better!

As for Easter, my parents were able to come spend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with me here in Springfield, that way I did not have to be alone the entire Holiday weekend. We went to eat several times in those three days, once to Logan's Roadhouse (they have great vegetable skewers), once to Buffalo Wild Wings, and once to Macaroni Grill! I love going out to eat so when my parents come down that is what we do. We also went to the movies Thursday night and watched Vantage Point, it was an interesting movie, very suspenseful! On Friday we went shopping here in Springfield and at Branson! Friday night we went to the Piano Bar where they had dueling pianos! All and all, this was a great weekend!

I did attend church on Sunday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. This was a nice little church, it was very small but had a modern twist to it. The church had the alter in the middle and the seating was on either side of the alter facing the center. It was very different from what I am used to but I enjoyed it very much. It was a family oriented place, everyone was very friendly and they had a great band and choir.

Finals

Well these last few days have been a bit stressful. Trying to round up all last minute details to projects, make sure everything is PERFECT to hand in and on top of that trying to study! YIKES!! It has been a lot to do in a little amount of time. My first final exam is tomorrow (Wednesday) in Cognitive Assessment. It will be a challenging test but once it is over...its over! I am looking forward to being finished with this term. It has been a ton of work and my mind is on overload right now.

My other tests should go well and I should finish the term with decent grades. At least I am hoping!

For Easter, I am going to be unable to go home. Our finals fall around Easter, if I go home I feel that I will not be able to study enough because most of my time will be spent in the car. So, unfortunately, this will be my VERY first holiday away from home, EVER! My brother may still come to see me. My parents are talking about going to Porta Viarta. LUCKY THEM! My brother cannot tag along with them because he is in the middle of his golfing season so if he misses practices he will then miss tournaments. So he may travel down to see me on Saturday night. I would hate for the both of us to spend the holiday alone.

Well, wish me the best with finals. I most certainly wish you the best and I hope you have a wonderful Spring Break!! I hope you have plans of relaxing and seeing the ones you love most over your break. This opportunity seems to become more scarce as we get older.

Principal's Conference

Well this weekend has been full of excitement! My mom was nominated for Principal of the Year in the state of Missouri, by her fellow principals. It is quite and honor especially since there are only 13 chosen for the award in the entire state! The banquet was on Saturday evening and they all were announced and introduced that evening. Our entire family was able to come and celebrate and congratulate her!

The winner will be announced in two weeks. They will come to the winner's school unannounced and surprise them with the award. She said she feels she did well in her interview so hopefully the winner will be her! Although there were many other deserving individuals on the stage.

There are only two weeks left of classes, so now its "nose to the grindstone" as I finish up some last minute projects and studying for tests. It will be a tiring and stressful two weeks but it will be nice when it is all finished and I can say I have completed two terms successfully! Then of course is Spring Break....I am looking forward to this every day!

What were the results?

Well, my midterms all turned out fairly well! I am excited and somewhat relieved!! I am happy to have the stress of the midterms out of the way! Now I am preparing for finals and finishing up last minute projects that are due soon.

It seems like this term I have had to travel so much! The last few weekends have been filled with wedding preparations for both my cousin and my friend. This weekend though I traveled up to Iowa City where I was able to meet my boyfriend and his family for a fun filled weekend. I suppose we didn't do anything to exciting but it was nice to see everyone.

Next weekend, I am heading to the Lake of the Ozarks. My mom was nominated for Principal of the Year in the state of Missouri. So our family is going to watch all of the excitement! After this weekend, there will be no traveling until Spring break! I need time to just loaf around!

This weekend was absolutely beautiful outside!! I thought for sure Spring was around the corner. But, were back to the weather man calling for snow tonight. ARRG! I hope this weather lets up soon. I am originally from the Midwest and should be use to the weather. I don't think it would matter how long I lived here though, I will never enjoy the cold, snow, and ice. Hopefully I live on the beach someday! :)

Well until next time....have a great week!

Midterm Results

Well the results are in and it seems as if my midterms went okay. I only had one that I am semi disappointed in. I believe I should have studied a bit harder for this one. The majority of the test results were good though!

This weekend is another fun filled weekend away from Springfield. My best friend from high school is getting married this summer. So this weekend we are going dress shopping for bridesmaids dresses!! I am very honored to be a part of her special day. I believe the dresses are going to be black. I think this will be very elegant and not to mention, very pretty and possibly we can wear our dress more than once!

Oh yes! I almost forgot!! I tried sushi for the first time this week. Although it was not something I would ever order myself, I am very happy I tried it. It wasn't horrible. A few girls and I went down town to Kai restaurant and ate some of their half price appetizers. Sushi was one of them. I hate fish but I enjoy the sushi bar environment so I thought I would be adventurous while I was there. It turned out to be a not so bad idea! :)

I hope all the new students are enjoying their first term and midterms went well for all of you!

ONE MORE!

Just one more midterm left to go and I will be finished with tests for this week! YAHOO! We still dont have feedback on how our tests last week went so I will be anxiously awaiting the scores!

This weekend I went home to throw a bridal shower for my cousin. She is getting married in May and I am her Maid-of-Honor. We had a wonderful time and were able to spend time with friends and family we had not seen in quite sometime! It was very nice and tons of fun!!

This weekend it warmed up a bit so all the ice melted!! Last week we were off of school for a day and a half due to the terrible ice storm that came through. It was not as bad as last year I hear so I consider my self very fortunate! My advice to new students, bring a HUGE ice scraper and tons of D-Icer!! I do not think you can possibly have enough!!! It came in very handy when trying to open my car that had turned into a solid block of ice over night!!

Midterms

This week is midterm week. This weekend has consisted of studying for those midterms. No, not a very exciting process. But non-the-less it must be done. I feel I have a pretty strong handle on the material and will do fine on the tests. Last quarter's midterms were not too bad, I felt as long as I kept up with the material and reviewed, I would do well, and I did. So, I have taken that same route this term too. Hopefully it works out in my favor again.

Midterms are a bit more scary here. Unlike undergrad, you only have this test and your final to determine your test grades, in undergrad you had a test every three weeks or so. It is important to keep up with the material and lecture notes. Review in the last week before the test and go over the study guide to be sure you have covered every detail. You should be fine!

I will check in with you next week to let you know how my tests went! :) WISH ME LUCK!

WOW!

WOW!! I cannot belive it is almost time for mid terms!!! It seems like I just started my second quarter here and we are already half way through! Time is flying by!!

My best advice to you as an incoming student is keep up with the readings. The more you engage yourself in the readings (required and suggested/non required) the easier it will be for you to follow along in class and participate. Also, if you keep up with the readings it will mean a lot less stressful studying for you when tests being approaching!

As for me, I feel I have a pretty good handle on things at this point. I have taken 14 hours this term, a total of 5 courses. It has been nice because two of the classes dont start until next week (February). This has allowed me to focus on my three hardest classes and then gradually add the other two into my schedule along the way.

Good luck to all of you new students on your first tests!!

This week has been filled with all sorts of excitement! From giving IQ tests to hanging out with the girls, this week was great! My cognitive assessment class, although TONS of work, is extremely interesting! I have come to enjoy learning about these tests and administering them.

Not only was this week full of school work but also a friend and I tried out a couple new places in Springfield. We tried out a Vietnamese restaurant here in town call BamBu. It was pretty tasty!! We also went out with several girls from our class and experiences Sholtz and Dooleys Karaoke night! All and all it was a fun week of getting to know people and a few neat places around Springfield!

The weekend!

I feel that I finally got some time to catch up on things and possibly be a bit ahead of the game this weekend! Since we had Monday off I was able to go home and see my family as well as watch my little brother play basketball.

While I was home, I worked very hard on all my readings and homework assignments, especially for Cognitive Assessment. It seemed overwhelming how much work was due in that class, so having a long weekend to get ahead was great. Now I can relax a little and have more time for myself.

When you're here it is much different than undergraduate school. You get a week and a half for breaks, if your lucky. Its almost as if you are being weened into the real world. I thought I would have had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the fact that I am missing a bunch of my brother basketball games. However, for your first three terms you don't have class on Friday, so you can get home on the weekends occasionally. I tried to schedule my classes so I have class early on Thursday and late on Monday, This allows driving time on Thursday and Monday and I can spend the entire weekend with my family.

The transition here hasn't been bad, 2 weeks break for Christmas was a bit of a shock but once you get back, its not too bad at all. It is a lot to adjust to but things here are wonderful, and the education you receive seems to be pretty outstanding.

RxP Movement

Currently psychologists in Missouri are trying to pass a bill to give psychologists the right to prescribe medications. This would be only after the psychologist has finished another Master's, after completing their Doctorate. Although not the single answer to better and more accessible health care in Missouri, it will be a move toward that goal.

This week I was able to travel to Jefferson City to help advocate and collect co-signers for this bill. This experience was phenomenal. Not only did I learn more about the movement but I was also able to network with many other psychologists, legislatures, and representatives.

When we first arrived we listened to the introduction of the bill and a few supporters speak in favor of the bill. We then broke up into several groups and received a list of all the representatives in the House. At this point it was our duty to advocate and collect as many signatures as possible. The last email I have seen from our President, Dr. Skrade, states we have received 60 co-signers and we only need 85 "yes" votes to move our bill along. I think we are going to accomplish our goal!

It was a very exciting day and we met some pretty amazing psychologists. I feel that Forest has many opportunities to take advantage of and this was one of the many! If this bill passes I will be proud to know that because of my help and many other strong supporters it was able to help Missouri pull out of their health care crisis.

First Quarter at Forest

Entering into my first quarter here at Forest was a bit nerve racking. I moved down to Springfield in June! It was my first time to be more than an hour and a half from home. (I know, Crazy, right?) However, the transition was pretty smooth. Right away I visited the school often and familiarized myself with the faculty and staff. I also took a job as the front desk assistant. This truly helped me the feel more comfortable here. I was able to become familiar with Springfield too. Being from a tiny town in northeast Missouri...this place was HUGE! I joined Ozark Mountain Fitness club so I could have down time for, myself!

Classes went smoothly, being adjusted to a new environment was the hardest part for me. Of course it was a lot of work and it takes a ton of dedication, but doing something you are passionate about always takes a little of the stress out of the picture.

My advice for starting out would be to move in early, get settled, be familiar and comfortable with your new 'home'. Things will go much smoother if you can enjoy one new thing at a time as apposed to being overwhelmed with several.

Good luck!!