Home » Posts tagged 'Juniata Student life'

Tag Archives: Juniata Student life

Categories

An Untraditional, Traditional Path

October 22, 2016

I’ve never been one for the traditional route, especially when it comes to academics. It started way back in adolescence. I tried on the homeschooling program for size in sixth grade. That wasn’t exactly my cup of tea and so I transferred from homeschool into a public middle school. In high school, I had a unique “magnet” creative/performing arts experience. It was anything but typical. It didn’t end there. For college, I started off with community college and then transferred to Juniata.

Juniata College was supposed to be my traditional experience. As I approach the end of my academic career here, I continue to reflect on just how untraditional it has been.

I didn’t end up here by mistake. I ended up here because it’s was the next piece of my puzzle. I searched for a four year university when I was in community college because I wanted to be like everyone else. I wanted to go away for college. I wanted to get the dorming experience, the meal plan, the activities, and the clubs–all that stuff that community college just didn’t have. I wanted to create lasting relationships with professors, students, and faculty. I knew exactly what I was looking for. When I signed up for Juniata, I was signing up to finally get my traditional experience.

It didn’t take me long to realize that Juniata college is anything but your average everyday college. It wasn’t soon after enrolling that I was individualizing my POE and mixing choir with newspaper all while planning on going into speech pathology and taking a service trip to the Dominican because, why not? Psychology and education can go together because I want them to, not because the school told me they have to. It didn’t take me long to realize that untraditional experiences find me because I’m just an untraditional person, just another Juniatian keeping Juniata weird. Juniata College has taught me many things, but most of all to love myself for who I truly am because it will always shine through in our personalities, and especially in our decisions.

 

 

 

 

Puppies and Poetry

September 27, 2016

Puppies

It’s not uncommon to find a furry friend walking along the science building or taking a stroll beside the library. Juniata’s campus is a very pet friendly environment, I mean come on, who wouldn’t want to play fetch on all that freshly cut green grass of the quad?

It was a Friday, the third Friday of classes to be exact. Things were finally starting to fall into a pace. I walked into my last class of the day, feeling the drag of a Friday afternoon. I realized everyone else was really feeling this drag, too.

Poetry, in my opinion, is a great class to end on. It’s a wonderful wind down after a week full of fast paced, non-stop, college life. Despite my positive feelings towards this class, it’s still an obligation that isn’t quite Grey’s Anatomy and so I took my book out with a sigh, watching the minute’s tick until we began.

As we waited for a few more people to trickle in, a student came running into the classroom out of breath. “Puppies!” she shouted, “There are puppies!”

“Puppies?” my professor exclaimed? “What do you mean puppies? Where?” I think I could tell he was trying to contain excitement.

“Outside! By the Founders Fountain! Can we go? Please?”

Everyone stared at my professor waiting for a response. Awkward seconds passed. “Puppies don’t have anything to do with poetry…” he began. More awkward seconds.

“Okay. Quickly.”

Then suddenly, the Friday drag was lifted. Everyone jumped, and I mean jumped from their seats, including the professor, out and down the stairway to the fountain and onto the grass to play with and love the multiple, freshly born puppies.

The first ten minutes of poetry that day were passing puppies around, holding, snuggling, and watching my professor tell them how much he loved them. A memory, I’ll never quite forget. A memory of Juniata I hold near and dear to my heart. An experience I don’t think I’d get in any other poetry class anywhere else.