the best advice

A Love Letter to College Freshmen.

Everyone should read this. Freshman or senior, and everything in between! This is the best advice anyone could ever give a college student. ENJOY!

the BEST first day ever

Senior year is already off to a great start! I knew it would be good, but who knew it would be THIS good? Here is a breakdown of my day.

I woke up around 10am (after briefly waking up at 7:45 to send KJ off to her first day at her new internship).  I hopped in the shower around 11 and got ready to go on campus by noon! I met up with a neighbor from home, Jeannie, who is a freshman now at Tech. We ate at Hokie Grill and it was awesome getting to hear about her first experiences at VT.

From there, I went to Pamplin to meet my new adviser! She and I went over my class schedule and got to know each other a little bit. I am definitely on the right track to graduate in May, don't worry Mom and Dad!

My first and only class on Mondays is at 2:30pm, so I had a little time after my adviser meeting before my class started. So I went outside and sat on the Drillfield. It was the perfect day in Blacksburg today! Then I went to my International Marketing class, which only lasted about 30 minutes since all we did was go over the syllabus. That's my kind of first day!

So it was 3:15pm when I first entered Virginia Tech's newest dining hall, Turner Place. I walked in and it felt like I was in Disney World! I met up with Alli at the Jamba Juice line, and then met my little for dinner. We decided to try the new hibachi grill, Origami, since it opened at 4 and we were right on time!

We were the second table ever to be served at Origami! What an amazing experience!! We had an awesome chef who definitely made us laugh AND cooked the best vegetables, fried rice, and chicken I could have ever dreamed of. And we got to meet 8 new friends sitting around the hibachi grill. My stomach is smiling just thinking about it! I'm so glad little and I took advantage of Turner Place this afternoon. I don't know the next time we won't need to make a reservation or stand in line for 45+ minutes at Origami.

Since dinner, I have just been relaxing at the Alpha Phi house. We have our first House Girl meeting in an hour followed by our first Alpha Phi Exec meeting of the semester. I can only hope the rest of my week is equally as great as today has been. Here's to senior year!

gearing up for SENIOR YEAR

Well, it's as official as it will ever be! Today is my last first day of school. Senior year feels so bittersweet. I don't even know how to describe all the emotions going through me right now. I am excited, nervous, anxious, and very, very sentimental.

The past few days have already been unforgettable ones as I have geared up for the start of senior year. I have seen friends and sisters who I have missed terribly the past 3 months, I have moved into the presidential suite of the VT Alpha Phi house with my favorite friend KJ, I have enjoyed downtown Blacksburg with my fellow Hokies, and I even started my new job with VT Athletics as a Sports Marketing Intern yesterday at the VT Football Autograph Signing and Hokie Hi Spirit Picnic.

I now know how fast your college years fly by at Virginia Tech, and elsewhere! So my advice to any college student is don't sweat the small stuff. Take in every moment. Every laugh, every lunch date, every late night phone call. Every meeting, every bus ride, every walk across campus. These are the best 4 years of your life! I know this for a fact. And I cannot wait to see what my last year has in store! I know it's going to be the best of the best.

BRING IT ON, SENIOR YEAR!

my summer with SCA

So I know I should have written this post MONTHS ago when my internship with the Student Conservation Association ended in June, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and reflect on my experience until now.

The first 6 weeks of summer I spent commuting to Arlington to work as a Marketing Intern for the SCA. Mrs. Reimann, one of my Mom's close friends, worked some magic and landed me this internship with the Arlington office. I was so grateful that they took me in and allowed me to work for them, essentially creating my own intern program.

Throughout my 6 weeks, I worked on many different projects. I started off working on the SCA's summer programs for high school and college students. I used travel sites to book planes all over the nation for the students, managed excel sheets, emails, and annual reports, and worked on the students' training materials and packages.

A few weeks later, the SCA had me exploring their new social network, jointhesca.org. I created a page for myself and started building content from there. I went through thousands of pictures from past SCA events to upload to the page, helped the D.C. network grow, and helped SCA alum get connected to the site.

My favorite and final project, however, was assisting the VP of Marketing in the planning and execution of SCA's 55th Anniversary Day of Service and Reception. Together, Jamie and I picked the venue, worked with the caterers, managed the VIP and RSVP lists, and did everything in between to make the event absolutely amazing!

June 26th was my last day as an SCA intern, and I couldn't imagine a more perfect ending than the SCA 55th Anniversary celebration! I learned more than I could have ever imagined by working for this non-profit for 6 short weeks. And I cannot wait to use the experience I gained at the SCA in my future Marketing career!!

BULLIN'

For the past 3 days I was at the LARGEST session of Hokie Camp ever, serving as a counselor for the RED BULLS. We stayed at a 4-H camp in Smith Mountain Lake and had way too much fun!! My building group (McComas) consisted of 12 awesome campers: Andrew, Cory, Heather, Emily, Sarah, Kelli, Jair, Katharina, Kyle, Eddie, Grayson, Nate. Words cannot even begin to describe how great these campers are! They are going to do BIG THINGS at Virginia Tech. 

Throughout the 3 days at camp, we did a lot of team building, went canoeing and kayaking on the lake, learned about VT traditions, had countless dance parties, created some bullin' cheers, played some intense games of dodgeball and ultimate frisbee and of course, made life-long friendships! 

Hokie Camp was hands down the best way to end my summer! I love getting to see the transformation of new students over the course of those short 3 days at camp. I feel so honored to be a part of their freshman year experience. And now we are all back on campus together to start off this fall semester!!!

Welcome to Virginia Tech, Class of 2016!

my life as of late

Surprise, surprise. Summer seems to have gotten the best of me yet again! The past week or so has been so jam-packed with exciting summer activities that I have lost track of my blogging. So now I am going to attempt to catch you up.

DEEBZ AND STEAN ADVENTURES

After Deebz surprised me in Blacksburg for my birthday, we had the rest of the week to spend together in NOVA and DC. So we definitely took advantage of that week! We went into DC and took a private tour of the Capitol in our matching Romney for President tanks, went to Leesburg outlets with the whole Terminello fam, took a trip to Nationals Park for a Nats game, laid out at the pool, ate at all our favorite NOVA restaurants, watched the Olympics, and hung out with old friends.

Deebz and I both agree that this was our most spontaneous trip together yet! Not only because I had no idea she was coming, but because we sincerely had no idea what we were going to do each day and every day ended up being better than we could have imagined!

ROAD TRIP TO BETHANY BEACH

Last Monday, Ryan and I decided to road trip to Bethany Beach for the day to visit Roy and the Copans. We left super early (around 6:30am) and got there just in time for a full day on the beach. We laid and played in the sand, splashed around in the ocean, ate crepes and lots of fudge, made a delicious dinner for the whole family, and hit the road to head back to NOVA around 9:30 that night.

It was the perfect beach trip! So glad I got to spend some time with my favorites. 

FAMILY VACATION TO SEA GIRT, NJ

This past weekend my family and I spent on the Jersey Shore. We left early on Thursday and just got back tonight. There is nothing I love more than family time on the beach. Last year my family went to Maine while I was at Orientation, so I missed our summer family vacation. Safe to say I was so happy they planned this trip so I could be there!

Now my family always vacations somewhere along the Jersey Shore for the most part, but where we go is almost always different. We have been to Cape May, Ocean City, Point Pleasant, and everywhere in between. But this year we tried something new and headed to Sea Girt, NJ.

Sea Girt is a very small, quaint town surrounded by beautiful houses and landscaping. We stayed in a cottage at the Beacon House, which was just a block from the beach. It was ideal!

Right next to the Beacon House was the Parker House, which was an awesome restaurant and tavern. We went there for almost every meal! My favorite thing to get off their menu was the $10 lobster. I had it twice for lunch, and had lobster macaroni and cheese one night for dinner. Yumm!

I was so sad to leave Sea Girt this morning, but I know that this week will be exciting as I start packing and preparing to return to Blacksburg for my last year at Virginia Tech. 

twenty one

It has now been well over a week since I turned 21 on July 26th. But the celebrations haven't stopped since midnight on my birthday! Let me take you through just how AWESOME my birthday has been this summer...

July 26th happened to fall on the last day of Orientation this summer. It was definitely a bittersweet day, but an unforgettable one nonetheless! When it finally turned midnight, a bunch of other OLs celebrated with me outside of Slusher. We had brownies (thanks Alex!) and sang Happy Birthday for the first time of many.

I woke up just 3 hours later to start my final day of Orientation! Carly gave me a birthday crown, just like last year. But the best part of my morning came when I went on stage to do opening session and saw my BIG, Anna, sitting in the front row with balloons! I knew she was coming to visit me that day, but she told me she wouldn't be there until skits at night. I was so surprised and excited to see her!!

Of course, I had a great last day of Orientation with all my OLs and OAs. The best was at the end of the night when the OAs pranked all the OLs during skits. I will never forget my Terminions' faces that night. Loved every second of it!

The next day was the closing luncheon for Orientation and moving out of Slusher. After all of that emotion, I gathered all the OLs and my friends who were in town to go to dinner at El Rods. I was so happy to have Anna, Sav, and KJ come into Blacksburg to celebrate my 21st with me!

What I didn't know, however, was that KJ was bringing along an extra special birthday present! When KJ came into El Rods, I was walking around the restaurant talking to different people at other tables. When I saw KJ, I gave her a big hug and she asked me if I wanted to open my birthday present. I responded, "ummm can't we do that later?" And she said that she had worked VERY hard on it and that I needed to come with her. So I went back to my table and sat down while she pulled out one of the greatest surprise birthday presents I have EVER received. My BFF Deebz!! She flew in from Florida without me knowing to celebrate my 21st with me. I still can't believe the two of them pulled it all off without anyone spoiling the surprise. I am so grateful!

The rest of the night I spent downtown and at 901 with all of my best friends and 2OL2. It was the best 21st I could have asked for. I will NEVER forget it!!

I then spent the weekend in Blacksburg with Deebz, KJ, Carly, and some of my favorite Phi Sigs. We went to the Homeplace for another birthday dinner on Saturday night. I loved being able to take Deebz to some of my favorite places in Blacksburg!

On Tuesday morning I left Blacksburg to come back to NOVA to spend the unanticipated week with Deebz! When I got home, my family had the traditional living room table set up with all of my birthday cards and presents so we opened them that night!

Then I celebrated my 21st one last time on Thursday night with the fab4. We all took the metro into Rosslyn to meet Kelsey after she finished work. We went to a cute pizza place right outside of her office building for dinner and then went into Georgetown to get ice cream and walk around!

I feel so blessed to have such great friends and family to celebrate the big moments of my life with. And my 21st birthday was no exception!!