Clipping A Night Owl's Wings

 I have adrenal fatigue.

What does this mean? I means that my life as a person who stays up till 2:00 am working on homework is over for now (except on the rare occasion when I have a paper due and even then I usually only get to 1:00 before I'm dead). It means that unless I get at least 9 hours of sleep, I'm dead. It means I take lots of naps. It also means that there are times when I have to skip school or church or work because I just can't get out of bed .

But what is adrenal fatigue? I think I've written about it before, but here is a nice handy definition :

"Adrenal fatigue is a collection of signs and symptoms, known as a syndrome that results when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level. Most commonly associated with intense or prolonged stress, it can also arise during or after acute or chronic infections, especially respiratory infections such as influenza, bronchitis or pneumonia" (http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/what-is-adrenal-fatigue). 

Some time my senior year, I managed to over tax my adrenal glands and they decided to go on strike. So, now, they don't work properly. They don't give me energy like normal people's do. When they aren't working it's not just normal tiredness. Although, most of the time it isn't so bad, last summer I basically had no energy at all and I lay in bed most of the day watching youtube videos. I've gotten better since then and I am able to function normally most of the time, when I get a good nights sleep. But when it's at its worst it feels like I'm trapped in my body. It takes every strength of will to keep moving and not collapse. The only thing that have way keeps me functional is lots of caffeine. I went from drinking at most 24 oz of Pepsi a week and the occasional cup of coffee or tea to drinking one of the bottles every day I can't manage to get a couple hours nap, along with coffee and sometimes several cups of tea. Even then, I still feel tired.

Unfortunately, things like staying up to late, having lots of stress, waking up too early, taking part in lots of physical exertion, all deplete your adrenals. So basically, as a college student, I'm screwed. And because of this, here I sit, at 4:30 in the morning, unable to get to sleep for some unknown reason even though I am exhausted. I'm worried about how I am going to make it through tomorrow and the last few days of school when my body was barely functioning already and now I have gone almost an entire night without sleep. Wondering what I'm going to have to miss, or what homework I'm going to have to let slip through the cracks just so I can get enough sleep to be able to function.

So yup. That is my life right now. I've been struggling with trying to go to bed early when I am naturally disposed to staying up as late as possible, and trying to manage to work and go to school. It's been kinda hard. Especially when I've been so busy that I have to stay up late working on homework and studying for tests. But things are getting better. I just have to be careful about how much I do. Try not to over book myself. It can take up to two years to recover from adrenal fatigue if you get enough sleep, reduce your stress, take lost of vitamin C, drink salt water, and some other random things, but it does get better. I hope. I just have to be patient and trust God, because He knows what he's doing. Hopefully, it will get better soon.

~Nat

27 Room Keys

Well, it's actually only ten...But I thought that "10 Room Keys" wasn't as nice a sounding title. Plus there is that little tie in to the movie which gives a sense of recognizability and pulls people in. And I'm the writer so I can do what I want. So don't criticize me!

 Even if there aren't quite 27, these ten room keys are still impressive. You see, they each represent a hotel that I stayed at during my speech tournaments (by the way...I would appreciate if you didn't tell the hotel that I stole their keys...). Each one represents a different story in the journey that was my first year of college forensics. I will not be telling you all of their stories because that would take too long, I'm tired, and plus I don't exactly remember them all. Remember, I'm the writer. I can do what I want. But, I will tell you a general overview of my whole speech year, because that is much simpler.

Before I get into my story about this past year of speech, I'm sure you all want to know how nationals went. I didn't end up getting to out of prelim rounds in any of my speeches, but many of my teammates did and they did an amazing job! Because of the great job they did, and the points the rest of us got in prelims, UNO got 5th in the nation for the second year in a row. Which, considering our team is significantly smaller and has significantly less funding then any of the other teams that got in the top ten, is pretty amazing.

Now, back to my story.

I started out speech, not quite sure how things were going to work out. I loved speech in high school, but this was a whole new cup of tea. I had a lot to learn about how they did it in college and at first it was kind of hard. I had particular difficulty with the monster know as extemp. To those of you who don't know what that is and want to find out click on the smiley: :); to those of you who don't know and don't want to bother to find out, just know, it is very time consuming; to those of you who do know, you know what I'm talking about. It was very discouraging for me because it was so time consuming. I just didn't have the time to do as well at it as I wanted to and for a perfectionist who is upset that she's getting a B+ in history class (darn you history teacher! Why can't we have some more extra credit?), not being able do the best I could drove me nuts. Once I got more used to the activity, I found it easier to make better use of the time I had and it started to feel more comfortable. Now I like extemp; which is a good things since I am banned from ever quitting since apparently it shows a person is good when they get to finals at a state tournament in extemp as a freshman.

The story of extemp essentially applies to how the rest of my speech experience went: I wasn't comfortable, I found it hard and so I didn't enjoy it as much at first. As time when on though, I grew to love it and am now even more addicted to speech than I was in high school. I fell in love with it all over again and I am going to be sad when I have to leave it. Even more than that, I fell in love with my team. I knew from my first meeting when I was auditioning for the team that they were special and I felt for some reason that I belonged with them and I do. All of the people I have met are amazing and are some of the most special people in the world. I am so excited for more years to get to know them all.

And that is basically it with my story. I learned to love speech again and I found some amazing new friends. I'm really glad God brought me to UNO. I'm excited to see what next year brings. I'm sure it will include a lot more good stories and definitely many more hotel room keys.

And now I should probably get back to writing my English paper....

~Nat

No More Missed Calls?

I never had any desire to get a normal tattoo...I'm not quite sure I would ever want this:

Not the actual tattoo (no duh). 

"If you think we're already attached to our cell phones, you're wrong. Nokia has obtained a patent for a tattoo that vibrates when you receive a call or text." -Christian Science Monitor


And honestly, why would you want to always know when you get a call? It removes the best excuse for when you want to avoid responding to someone: "I didn't feel my phone." Although, it would stop my brother from getting all ticked at me for not responding to him when I put my phone in my purse and it's on vibrate.

Picture taken from: http://troglopundit.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/phone-tattoo.jpg

I'm Back!

As is very apparent, I took a very long unannounced break from my blog. First, school just got so crazy that I didn't really have time to keep up dating. Then, when I actually had time, I didn't feel like writing and I didn't want to burn myself out by forcing it. So, I just stayed silent for awhile. But now, the writer in me is waking up again. Maybe it's because winter is (hopefully ending) or maybe because last night was the first time in ages I have stayed up till 2:00 am (don't worry, I got up at noon yesterday, as well, so it's fine). Anyways, here is an update for you all:

School:
 Even though last semester was crazy for me (never take a 8:30 am class the morning after a night class that goes till 10:00 pm and speech practice that often goes till 9:00 pm), I had a lot of fun. So far, this semester isn't as fun. I love my debate class and English Lit is pretty fun. But World Civ and Human Geography are boooorrrring. The subject matter is kinda interesting, but there is really no intellectual stimulation involved. There aren't any papers in Geography and very few in History. All that's involved is listening to lectures and taking test. *sigh* I miss paper writing.

On the other hand, forensics is going very well. I think I am finally getting into the swing of things.

Personal:
I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!!! Yes, I am very excited about this fact. Not so much because I have a boyfriend (honestly girls, they are often more trouble then they're worth), but because it means that I get to have the most amazing guy I have ever met be in love with me. Bryan has been one of my best friends for a long time and the fact that he can be more than that makes me very happy.


God:
I have discovered why so many college students fall away from God. It is very easy to push Him aside when life is busy. I've found myself kind of doing this. Especially because traveling to tournaments means missing church a lot of the time, it can be very easy to lose sight of Him. So, right now I am working on making time for him every day by doing devotions and stuff. So far, I have not always remembered, but I'm getting better, so that's good.

Thank you all for reading my blog and hopefully I will get back into updating on a more regular basis.

~Nat

Behind the Scenes

Have you ever wondered about a writers writing process? Well, here is a peak into what mine looks like.  This is a small selection from a paper I was writing for English.  It took me like an hour to write this much...

Appiah brings up some worries in connection with a *stops to think of words* persute pursuit of an individual life. *Takes a break to stir the taco meat* The first is that it could tend towards the arbitrary. *checks on the taco meat again* “Suppose, for example, I adopted a life as a solitary traveler around the world, fee of entanglements with family and community *doesn’t like this and erases it*  *changes “a pursuit” to “the pursuit”*  *goes back to the taco meat* To use his example, what is to stop a person from setting of to be *gets a text* *responds* a “Scholar Gypsy.” Some one Someone who merely flits from place to place “free of entanglements with family and *gets another text* *responds* *goes to check meat* *does dishes* *cuts up tomatoes* *starts eating tacos, sadly without sour cream* *gets chat message* community” and only making the money necessary to survive. *gets another chat message*  *gets a glass of milk* *eats more taco* *more chat* *stares at computer trying to think what to write next* This doesn’t make full use of the person’s tallents talents *pauses some more* *more chat* *and more taco* and is essentially a waste of their life. The second *pauses to think of word* charge against the *more chat* *tries to think of word* individuality is that it *more chat* is “unsociable.” (67) Because you place your views about your individuality *gets distracted by Katie’s TV show* a quest for individuality is based on your knowledge, opinion and will; there is the possibility that a person could become ingrown and only focus on themselves. 

So, what do you think?  Will this type of thing become as popular as movie behind the scenes? Yeah...I don't think so either So that you can actually makes sense of what I was writing; here is the finished section (I did do a few more revisions to it after the above was completed): 


Appiah draws attention to “a couple of worries” in connection with the pursuit of an individual life (66). The first concern is that it could tend towards the arbitrary. What is to stop a person from setting of to be a “Scholar Gypsy?”(67) Someone merely flits from place to place “free of entanglements with family and community” and only making the money necessary to survive (66). This doesn’t make full use of the person’s talents and wastes his life. The second charge against individuality is that it is “unsociable” (67).  A quest for individuality is based on an individual’s knowledge, opinion and will, there is the possibility that a person could become ingrown and only focus on himself.  


~Nat

Why Do We Take Vacations?

My brain is a contradiction.  I was blessed with a very logical and pragmatic portion as well as a completely flighty emotional one.  This leads to very interesting arguments inside of my brain.  One of the most common ones is the purpose of spending money on fleeting things such as concerts and vacations. My flighty emotional side loves the experience and doing new things; while my pragmatic part grumbles about wasting money on things that don't last. So why do we do this? I mean, I know we aren't Vulcans (if you don't know what those are you obviously didn't grow up with gigantic nerds for family members) but our actions should be governed by some logic, right?

My mom has a phrase that she always uses whenever we grumble about not liking a family outing. She says that we are, "making memories." Now, although she just applies it to situations that are less than desirable; she is kind hits the mark on this one. Isn't that why we-well everyone but my family pay big bucks to go on fancy vacations; to make memories?

 But even though there is a reason; the logical part of my brain still asks "what is the point of making memories?" For awhile, I didn't have an answer to that. But then, the other night, it hit me. Memories are what define us. They make us who we are. For example, when we lived overseas we used to have to take this horribly nasty malaria medicine. I mean it was bad. The worst thing that I have EVER tasted. To reward us for taking medicine like good little children; our parents would give us chocolate afterwards. I soon began to associate the taste of the horrid medicine with chocolate and it wasn't long until I began to dislike chocolate and refused to eat it. So, the bad memories I associated with the medicine erased my love of chocolate for awhile (don't worry; I have it back now).

But memories can have an even larger impact on us than just changing what foods we like. They can define out character and change our personality. A guy who has had a lot of betrayal or abandonment in their lives will be more closed off from people. A girl who was told everyday she was beautiful will be more confident and sure of herself. Our memories and experiences make us who we are. And this is the answer to the pragmatic bit of my brain; we spend money to make good memories because good memories make us better people. So go ahead, spend loads of money on your vacations! (Unless of course you want to send some of that money my way. I am a broke college student after all.)

~Nat

The First Week has Passed...

...and I think I love college.  No, seriously, it is so much fun. I have discovered that I like having a schedule when doing school, it keeps me from procrastinating too much. It is also fun being able to get out of the house a lot. It is a new and different environment to discover and I look forward to finding out more about it. The classes I am taking this year are English comp II, introduction to American government, introduction to criminal justice (yes I am a complete nerd and chose these classes because they sounded fun but they also count for my core which is awesome) and art . I am especially excited for my art class because I have never taken an art class and it will be nice to learn more technique for my drawing.

A few highlights:

1) Being required to buy art supplies.
2) Having extra grant money left over.
3) SPEECH! :D
4) Interesting professors.
5) An amazing clock tower on campus that plays music.
6) My classes being close to each other.


Some not so fun things:

1)Waking up at 7:00 am.
2) Having to go to be early because you are waking up at 7:00 am.
3) Lugging a two ton backpack around.
4) Knowing I will have to take tests.
5) Having a major ADD moment because I was sitting around all day (I was seriously super wired, it is not fun when you need to go to bed.)
6) Missing out on stuff because of my busy schedule.


~Nat