How to Survive Finals

Week Before Exam

Procrastinate
It is important to procrastinate for a couple of days before exams. Enjoy these free days by going out and having fun so when you are freaking out the night before you can take a breath and say to yourself “Man that party was awesome! It was so worth it.”

Stock up on Caffeine
You are going to need the extra boost of an energy drink to get you through you all nighters.

The Night Before the Exam

Find a good study area
Pick some place quiet where there are no distractions.

Focus
When you are cramming it is crucial to stay on task. Try not to get distracted with facebook or texting.

Take mental breaks
When you feel like your brain is getting to over whelmed, take a mental break. Try watching an episode of your favorite television show or snacking.

Nap
You need a little sleep.

Hour Before the Exam

Review
Top of mind recall is really helpful for acing a test. Scan over your study material and text.

Find a ride
Find a buddy to give you a ride to class so you can review on the way and so you won’t be late.

After the Exam

Don’t Worry
There is nothing you can do about it now so stop freaking out. Say a prayer and forget about it.

The Face

Piercing blue eyes, framed by bushy brown eyebrows.  Strong square jaw line covered with scruffy brown hair.  Long nose that goes perfectly to a point.  Pouty pink lips, each lip is equal size.  Square dimpled chin.  Smooth alabaster skin.  A crocked smile that brightens up the whole face. 

Having kids will bring you closer

Having kids will not bring you closer, I have a friend who stop takeing her birth control and told her boyfriend she was still on it. So about a month ago he gets a phone call from his auntie, "she said you got a baby on the way he said no." So he go home and ask your girlfriend is she pregant and all she could say is What. He asked her again she replyed with the same answer, then finally she said Yes. Didnt think you could have kids so i stop taking a birth control pills.
So my friends boyfriend is very upset and feel like she stop taking her pills so she could get pregant on purpose and get him to marry her. Since she was pregant with his child.

1977 Olympics

This art is famous because it meant so much to so many people around the world, the fist being in the air is a symbol of black power. Each portion of this picture is a symbol that represents more than itself. As stated before the fist raise is a symbol of black power, not pictured are the athlete’s feet, in which both runners are wearing nothing but black socks to symbolize the African American poverty in America. Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner is wearing a black scarf to symbolize black pride. John Carlos, the bronze medal winner is wearing his jacket unzipped to represent to blue collar workers of America and a necklace to symbolize all those tortured in the name of prejudice and racism. All three runners have the patch for the OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) on their jackets. The OHPR was a committee who was put together to support all human rights, especially those in America. The OHPR originally tried to schedule a boycott of the Olympics but it didn’t work. The gloves on the hands of the gentlemen almost didn’t work either as Carlos had forgotten his gloves. The idea for Smith to lend Carlos his other glove, causing him to raise his left hand instead of the right hand normally raised came from Pete Norman, the Australian silver medalist in the picture. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was outraged at the sight of this because, not only were the fists raised, and the heads were bowed, but all this was done during the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner.” IOC president Avery Brundage deemed a domestic political statement unfit for the apolitical, international forum the Olympic Games were supposed to be. In an immediate response to their actions, he ordered Smith and Carlos suspended from the U.S. team and banned from the Olympic Village. When the US Olympic Committee refused, Brundage threatened to ban the entire US track team. This threat led to the two athletes being expelled from the Games. A spokesperson for the organization said it was "a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit." Brundage, who was president of the United States Olympic Committee in 1936, had made no objections against Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics. The Nazi salute, being a national salute at the time, was accepted in a competition of nations, while the athletes' salute was not of a nation and so was considered unacceptable. In 2008, the official IOC website states that "Over and above winning medals, the black American athletes made names for themselves by an act of racial protest. Later, on a trip to South Africa, John Carlos remembers staying in a village were he needed a place to sleep, he was taken in by a poor family, he recalled looking on the wall and seeing the poster of himself and Tommie putting their fists into the air. He said he asked the family what that meant, they asked him if he had seen it before, he told them no. They began to tell him how the two men with their fists in the air were kings and that their actions were great. He was astonished that his actions during the Olympic Games had such a worldwide impact. It was later speculated that the men had had their medals taken away from them; Carlos denied the accusation and told reporters it was at his home with his mother. To rumors that the men did this for popularity, after the podium stance Tommie Smith is quoted saying, “If I win, I am American, not a black man. If I did something wrong I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight. To this day a staue of the men stands at San Jose State University were the men attended and ran track. My own feelings on the picture is that these men went into the Olympic games, against the World’s t best, in spite of being treated like less than men at home because of their skin color, and won the gold medal. I think it’s a picture that after you learn about African American history you can be proud to see no matter what color you are, and that it proved to the world, not just the Olympics, that all things are possible, no one can stop you from being on top, No one.

Six Little Words

All I am isn't set yet.

Acting is my drug of choice.

This heart didn't come with instructions.

I'm just trying to be myself.

Friends and family, all I need.

All you need is God's love.

Eat, sleep, dream.  Than you die.

Earliest Memories

It was really late, or so I thought, and I was lying in bed. I lived where you could smell freshly cut hay on a daily basis, chickens running in the yard and kids riding bikes down the dirt road. That night I couldn't hear anything just the sound of my breath and my little feet rustling under my blanket. I lived in a small two bedroom, one bath house that was white. It was so small that you could always hear every one's conversations. I go on laying there loving this peacefulness! Then it happened......I heard this terrible burst of screaming and crying. It wasn't my mother so it had to be HER....my new baby sister. I understand that I wanted someone to play with, but I didn't know what I was asking for. I loved to sleep and lay in the tranquility of my room, but SHE was interfering. I just didn't understand how a ten pound, brown haired, blue eyed baby could make so much noise......and this was the night that I asked my parents if we could take my new sister back to the hospital because I wanted to SLEEP!!!

The New House

There was a big hole in the ground. A really big hole.

It seemed to be as deep as the ocean. I was clinging to my dad's leg and peering over the edge. We were in the field where our future home would be. The field was covered in luscious green grass. The hole below me was dirt. Dark, brown, dirty earth.

We walked over to the area that would be our basement. It didn't look like a basement to me. Sure, I was only four, but it didn't look like a basement to me. It looked like a hole full of dirt.

We saw the cement trucks pulling in. They started dumping loads of mushy gray goo into the brown hole. My parents carefully explained that they would put this in first, then the walls, then the upper floors, and at the end we would have an entire house. Perhaps they could even build me a swing set in the back yard with the spare lumber.

The expansive sky drifted upward from the cow pastures surrounding our plot of land. In a few months there would be a house here, and a vegetable garden and a swing set in the back yard. My dad would have "shop" next to the house to store his lawn mower and everything that mom wouldn't let him keep in the garage.

But right now it just looked like a hole. A big, brown hole.


"Earliest Memory" exercise, Tell it Slant pg. 60

That bright shiny light....

Imagine this--you're enjoying a fantastic movie. You have your popcorn, your extra large cherry coke, and your friends. The movie is great. The CGI actually looks real, there are enough one-liners to make you snicker at the right times, and the eye candy on screen is fantastic! You are so caught up in a scene that you're almost emotional--and then you see it. Someone on the 2nd row decides they can't wait until the movie is over to break out their damn phone and text someone. REALLY!? What the FUCK?! Are you sooooooo important that you can't wait 2 damn hours to see who texts you? I mean c'mon, you're 14 years old for fuck's sake!!! Nothing in your life could POSSIBLY be important at this point! And you know what, you have just ruined my movie. Now all I can concentrate on is that blinding light and my building anger. I wish I had something to throw at you....I wish even if i did have something to throw, that I could ACTUALLY hit you! (i never was very good at sports!) It's not so much that you are on the phone, it's that you think you're important enough to distract everyone else in the theater with that tiny little light in such a dark place. If you're going to be on the phone, why couldn't you sit in the back of the theater as to not distract anyone...why the hell are you in the 2nd damn row!?!?! Like Miss Franklin says...R - E - S - P - E - C - T. Get some you little shits! And THAT is what irritates me :-)

Drafting process

When i sit down to write I always have 3 things.  My computer, my solitude, and my Ipod.  I always go to a spot in the library where i can sit alone because i think better when I'm not distracted by other people.  It really helps because if I'm around other people i'll become easily distracted and start talking.  I need my computer because my mind moves to fast to use a pen and paper.  I usually spend about 30 minutes just listening to music and brainstorming ideas that I could write about.  This is usually the hardest part for me, just getting going.  Some people find the music a distraction but I can get lost in it and just let my mind wander for a while.  This helps me a lot to relax and just let the ideas come naturally to me and not force a topic.  I'm usually listening to Third Eye Blind with some occasional Incubus.  Those are the perfect bands to write too because there not too soft to put you to sleep and there not to loud to mess up your train of thought.  Once i get an idea, i just start typing on my computer.  I usually just let it flow and don't stop to really think about it until I'm done.  Originally I'm just trying to get all my thoughts onto the page and this is why i can't use a pen and paper.  If I don't have my Ipod i usually get more distracted by how quite it is or by little sounds like people whispering, papers rustling, etc.  If i have to use a pen and paper I usually get a hand cramp from writing too fast and my brain is usually moving to fast for my hands to keep up.  When I sit around other people I can still get my work done I just need to plan on adding about an extra hour or two for the time spent being distracted or talking.  Overall as long as I have my three things, i can write all day.

Fairy Tales

Three fairies, golden maiden, spinning wheel!

Step-daughter, servant, glass slipper.....PRINCE CHARMING!!!

Seven dwarfs, poison apple....awaken kiss

Green tights, captain hook, crocodile clock

Belle and Beast. Castle, curse, mirror

Red cloak, forest....grandma's house...WOLF!!!!

Wild Kingdom

Sitting on the u-shaped couch, mostly with people I had never met before, the muted TV was playing scenes of elephants being shot by villagers. Myself and my female neighbor winced as we caught a glimpse.

"Oh gawd, I hate seeing that stuff."

"Oh! Me too."

"I usually turn the channel as fast as I can."

"I can watch people getting hurt but when it comes to animals..."

The man next to her says, "They showed this water buffalo being brought down by tigers. Once they had it down, one held onto its head while the others ate it and it was still alive."

She and I sat there quietly looking at this imbecile who obviously had no idea we were already in pain from the scenes on the tv.

He finished off , "The animal kingdom is way more brutal on itself than humans ever could be." 

Today, as I rounded the curve from north I-540 toward the NWA Mall, I had slowed to about 45 m.p.h. Off the right shoulder a hawk flew and seemed to hang right in front of my windshield. The moment stopped as he held his prize in front of me for me to see. In his claws was a plump field mouse, tail twitching quickly - then he flew away. Usually I can save the lives of mice and chipmunks, even snakes from my cats' death grip - but there was no way I could save this field mouse. I imagined, for a second, what was next for the little critter. 

Then I realized - the man is right. The animal kingdom IS more brutal on itself than humans ever could be. 

The Ontological Layer

Daughter, sister, friend, mentor, student, athlete, dreamer, believer, pretender, instigator, white, Irish, Hungarian, Texan, Razorback, Gymback, gymnast, hard-worker, aunt, lover, fighter, child, grownup, unique, individual, different, proud, stubborn, grounded, lost, looking, searching, finding, living, dreaming, breathing, thanking, love. Life.

My Earliest Memory

My mom yelled up the stairs for us to get down there. Now. By the tone of her voice it was evident someone had done something. Something she was clearly not pleased with. Evidently the problem at hand was that my mother had found hair all over our bathroom. Apparently someone had decided to take the initiative in cutting their own hair, and the evidence lay spread on the counter and floor of the bathroom. While no one was willing to confess, the topic was dropped. For now.

We made our way to gymnastics class. My mom, my sisters, Katie, Kelly, and me rode backseat of the car. Kelly turned to me and made a comment that spiraled out of control. "Molly's hair looks uneven." All of a sudden, to everyone in the car, my hair look insanely uneven, and I was placed with the blame of the hair cut mess. I knew it was Kelly who had done it. Not me. Operation Payback would begin soon enough.

We stood in the front hall way of the house, and Kelly began egging me on. Teasing me. Pestering me. So I did it. I took a huge bite. My teeth sank into the hand, and I bite down hard. Tears began to stream down. My mom came running. "Look at my hand!" I yelled. Kelly's face filled with utter confusion. "Kelly bit me!" Grounded- Kelly, that is. Who was wrongly blamed now? :)