Why aren’t you doing those things now?

“For in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.”

— Baba Daoum

At the Michigan Legacy Art Park, one piece particularly caught my eye.

A marble statue, partially broken, with inscribed words represented the brokenness of the world.

It wasn’t until Wednesday evening that this particular quote really resonated with me. It was the last class period of my Political Science class and our professor was answering questions about his expectations on our final paper. He put it quite simply: it’s our education. He could care less if we botched our volunteer hours and made up a bunch of phony experiences. The point of his course is to learn hands-on. If you didn’t DO the hands-on work, then you wasted a lot of money paying for a grade that could have diversified your life experiences and taught you valuable lessons. This brought me back to the quote on the structure at the park.

What are we conserving? Are we really conserving what we love? Or at least, do your activities conserve what YOU love? Whose expectations are you living up to? If they aren’t your own, you’re going to be pretty disappointed when it’s over.

College, and past college, LIFE, is a place to grow; A place to learn what and who you love; A place to step out and explore anything you want at all. Personally, sometimes I get wrapped up in my requirements. Do I need that class for my major??? I don’t want to ask if I need to do something to fulfill someone else’s standard. I want to take a class because I’m interested in what I’m learning.

My favorite question of all time came when I took a life assessment. They asked for your personal goals, your dreams, and the things that you’d like to accomplish in your life to gain self-fulfillment. The second to last sentence asked you to simply reread what you had written and introspectively reflect upon what your desires were. 

The last question:

Why aren’t you doing those things now?

I challenge you, especially in the next couple of weeks while here we are taking exams, maybe you are preparing to apply to college, or your searching for the school that you’ll be able to call home. Sit down with yourself and ask:

Will _______ allow me to be who I am? To accomplish my dreams?

Ok, I’m stepping off my soapbox now.

Follow me on Twitter @hopeamanda15 or on Instagram: amandalynnporter.

Falling Foward

Wow. The last week has been a real blur. Hope had a nice little fall break starting Friday afternoon and continuing through to Tuesday evening. 

It was a much needed break for everyone, as things here remain quite hectic and midterms are upon us. Within the next week I have a bajillion things to do, a lab practical to study for, 2 class tests, and three papers to write. EEK!

Instead of starting on that daunting list, I thought I would tell you a bit about what I was up to all weekend long.

On Friday night, I stayed at Hope and caught the opening performance of Helen. It was really fantastic! I’m taking an English course that deals a lot with mythology and different Roman and Greek stories, so the performance fit well with the stories I’ve been learning. Also, a lot of people don’t realize that the play is modern. There are only five cast members and it’s set in a hotel room in Egypt. I really recommend checking it out this weekend if you’re around campus.

On Saturday morning, I was up early to attend the MMED conference in Lansing on MSU’s campus. It was a fun-filled day packed full with information about attending medical school. All the representatives from Michigan medical schools were there and students had the opportunity to get to know them and their school’s application process. It was also nice to be gathered with people with similar interests. I even saw my high school friend, Talia, there, who attends U of M!

Saturday night after the conference, I journeyed home to Traverse City, where the trees were absolutely gorgeous. My mom and I took in Michigan Legacy Art Park at Crystal Mountain on Sunday, and I got to have a great time catching up with family and friends at home.

The park was fantastic! All of the pieces, scattered around a 1.5 mile pathway, had some significance to Michigan history. They also had hot cider and donuts and taught us how to play the harmonica!

I hope your weekend was as special as mine was! Follow me on Twitter @hopeamanda15.

Nykerk!!!

Fall is a beautiful season. The leaves change color, pumpkins are everywhere, sweatshirts come out, and oh yeah…

Nykerk. The time has come again.

Trying to explain Nykerk in it’s entirety would be a complete disaster for me, so instead I shall direct you to our website. To put it in the simplest of terms, Nykerk is an annual competition between the freshman and sophomore women. There are three categories: song, which involves around 130 women singing a song and doing motions; play, which has 15 per grade and is exactly what is sounds like; and oration, which is one person giving a speech for about seven minutes. 

If you have been following my Twitter, then you know that I was chosen to be this year’s orator!!!!!! Words cannot even begin to describe how excited I am to have this amazing opportunity! I auditioned for orator last year, and honestly I am so glad that I didn’t get it. Not only did last year’s orator Claire Tally do a phenomenal job (seriously, she was amazing), but I had a great time doing song. I met so many people that I still talk to today and has a blast singing Eye of the Tiger on Nykerk night. Now every time I hear Eye of the Tiger I can’t help but bust out into some Nykerk moves!

The Nykerk season kicks off with the Nykerk Rally, which was last Wednesday. All of the freshman and sophomore girls gathered in the Knickerbocker Theater, where we were introduced to the coaches and the executive board. They put on crazy skits that had everyone laughing. That really highlighted one of the reasons why I love Nykerk. Even though it is a competition, there is not as much of a rivalry as there is between the freshman and sophomore teams in The Pull. 

There is nothing like performing on the actual Nykerk day, but the real magic happens during the rehearsals, which start this week. It’s two hours a night of rehearsing, laughing, and bonding with the other girls, or in my case, with the coaches. Some of the practice days are themed, like crazy hair day and pajama day. As you can see from the picture, we like to have a lot of fun with it! One of the best parts about rehearsal is the skits afterwards. As you may or may not know, guys can join in the Nykerk fun too! They can be either morale boys or play boys. Both essentially have the same function: to make us girls laugh after a long day of practice and to make us posters. The skits are hilarious and always put a smile on my face. They come up with new ones every night; impressive huh? And even thought I’m not in play or song this year, I still get morale boys! I can’t wait to see what they will do for me!

Nykerk is coached by upperclassmen; the juniors coach the freshman, and the seniors coach the sophomores. This means that new coaches are picked from the sophomore class each year. One perk about being the orator is that I already know that I will be a Nykerk coach next year with Claire! I can’t wait to work with her and find out who our orator will be. High school senior ladies: start practicing your public speaking!

I will keep you updated on how Nykerk is going for me and will tell you what happens on Nykerk day, which is on November 3 this year. In the meantime, happy Nykerk season!

-Rachael

FALLing in Love with Fall Break

Hello everybody!

Another wonderful week at Hope College has almost passed. This was not any normal week, but it was FALL BREAK! We didn’t have class on Monday or Tuesday, so me and 8 other of my friends decided to go camping at Sleeping Bear Dunes! Not only was it the most fun I had ever had camping, but it was also my best fall break! Somehow a group of 9 girls managed to organize this trip and all return in the same condition. 

We left on Sunday afternoon after church. Once we arrived to the campsite we set up our tents and started the fire, because it was COLD outside! We cooked ourselves hobo pies for dinner. Hobo Pies are the best camping treat you can make, even better than s’mores. They are very versatile; you can make them on a grill or campfire. It starts with a cooking iron. This can be used directly in a campfire, or on top of a grill or stove.  It’s best to preheat the maker before using it. Then, you would butter or spray with oil each side of the iron on the inside, to prevent sticking.   Then put in your filling and close the maker and cook over heat until bread is toasty brown. We ate ours with pizza sauce and pizza toppings inside our bread. After we ate a delicious dinner we snacked on junk food and s’mores… basically the best part about camping. We sat around the fire and talked for hours and told stories. We even brought along a guitar and ukulele to play music and sing around the fire. 

After we put out the campfire all nine of us piled in one tent so we could use body heat to keep warm, and let me tell you… it was cold! Despite the coldness we all woke up ready to hike in the morning. We drove out of the campsite and found a place to hike called Pyramid Point. Once we made it to the top the scenery was so beautiful. We could see every shade of blue in beautiful Lake Michigan. We then drove out to the dunes and hiked for hours in the sand going up and down the dunes. It was quite the workout, but it was more than worth it. Also, once we finally reached the other side of the dunes and landed along Lake Michigan we saw seven other girls from Hope… what are the chances???

We then drove back to the campsite and prepped for dinner, but before we ate Kimberly and I ran on the trails in the campsite. Yet again, another beautiful sight. We all enjoyed a second night around the fire and played games. Sleeping was much better the second night, because the weather was warmer, and plus we had a heater on in the tent before we fell asleep. The next morning we packed up and headed to Traverse City. We explored the city and shopped in the adorable downtown. We sampled tons of different foods with cherry in them. I also had a delicious latté from the coffee shop. After exploring the city, Kimberly and I ran along the lake there and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. 

Our group then loaded up our three cars and drove three hours back to Hope. This fall break was so incredible and a nice escape in God’s creation. I love the girls who I went camping with, and could not have asked for a better group. This was definitely an awesome bonding experience and one that I will always remember. College sure is full of fun adventures, and this was just one of them 🙂

Adventures in Illinois

You know how people always say that breaks are supposed to be relaxing and stress-free? Well, my Fall Break was pretty much the opposite of that. Let me make it clear: this was one of the most fun breaks I have ever had because it was full of spontaneous adventures, but it was definitely tiring. Since I was not able to go home to California because the break was not long enough, I traveled all throughout Illinois and met up with a lot of people and did a lot of things. Let me give you a play-by-play of my weekend:

Friday: After finishing classes, I rushed back to my dorm to finish packing up my stuff for the weekend. I frantically ran to my friend’s dorm room and we headed out on the road for a 2.5 hour car ride to Illinois. The entire ride we listened to soothing, mellow, fall music—the perfect playlist for the beginning of the fall season.

Upon arriving, I stayed at my friend’s house and met all of his family and we headed to our other friend’s house who happens to go to Hope as well who happened to bring some of our other friends to Illinois, too. I got a tour of the town which was breathtaking—the changing colors on the trees and the feeling of autumn made me realize how much I really needed a break from school.

Last year, I went to another friend’s house for Fall Break and maybe it’s just me, but the feeling I get when I’m in another town during the fall and seeing the beautiful scenery and drinking apple cider makes me fall in love with the area and the Midwest. California and any West Coast area never gives me this feeling because there isn’t a change in weather. Anyway, later that night, our group went to a high school soccer game and walked around their town for a while. Even this seems somewhat hectic, but in hindsight, it was the most relaxation I was going to experience all weekend.

Saturday: I woke up and my friend drove me to Wheaton College, where I met up with a friend, Alex, from my hometown. We then took the train up to Northwestern University in Evanston. Coming from a background of little knowledge about public transportation, this proved to be pretty stressful for me. Once we got to Evanston, we met up with one of my best friends, Melissa, and she gave me a tour of Northwestern and I met her friends and got to experience what her life is like at college. Later, we made cookies for a potluck at one of her friend’s apartments—let’s just say that pumpkin-spice cookies are to die for. After meeting more people, we headed out and got some custard and later watched Friends—seriously one of the best shows ever made. It was hard to believe that it was only Saturday after all of the things I had done and the traveling I had done so far.

Sunday: It was time to head out of Evanston and back to Chicago to visit my other friend, Shannon, and brother. This is the point when I started getting used to traveling around by myself. Though I spent little time with Shannon because she had homework, my brother and I spent the day walking around the city, catching up on our lives, going to see Perks of Being a Wallflower, and eating some amazing/high-caloric food.

Monday: This is the point during the fall break where I realized that it was starting to wind down. I took the train from my brother’s school to Chicago and then back to Wheaton to hang out with my Hope friends again. This was the most stressful traveling experience because I had to coordinate which Metra train and CTA subway to take in order to get back. During the rest of the day, all of my friends and I watched some television, played football, took a walk through cornfields, threw corn at each other, played cards, went to Portillo’s, and simply hung out before we had to head back to school the next day.

Tuesday: Fall Break is almost over! My Tuesday was used for getting packed up and heading back to Hope for a short week. Upon arriving back at school, there was still some homework to be done before classes started which is always a bummer, but the past four days of complete freedom from classes was absolutely amazing! I definitely learned how to navigate public transportation during this weekend, to say the least. The best things about this weekend besides visiting friends and family was gaining an appreciation for time off, being thankful for my friends who welcome me into their lives and towns and simply enjoying the fall and this time of year before winter comes.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @hopeleslie15.

OSU or MSU?

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for my delays with blogging; these past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. Last weekend my parents came to visit me in Holland. I was so happy to see them. I’m not going home for fall break, so I’m glad I was able to spend some time with them. On Friday night we ate dinner with Matthias and his family at his house. My parents loved talking with his family, and after dinner my parents came to my cottage, and I opened my birthday gifts from my parents. They also brought caramel apples and pumpkin cookies for my cottage. 

On Saturday morning my cottage hosted the women’s pancake breakfast. Campus Ministries provided us with pancake batter, peanut butter, chocolate chips, syrup, plates, silverware, napkins, Lemonjello’s coffee, water, and cups. We left our door open for any women to come into our house between 10:00-12:00 PM. It was kind of like an open house. I enjoyed meeting new people and cooking chocolate chip pancakes. It was fun to have our house filled with a variety of people. Campus Ministries does an awesome job of creating a sense of community between the upperclassmen and underclassmen. On Saturday some of the sophomore RAs brought their freshmen to our house. For some of the freshmen it was their first time being in a Hope cottage, so it was fun to show them around.

After the pancake breakfast Matthias and I drove to Lansing to watch the OSU verse Michigan State football game!!! We enjoyed watching OSU beat State 17-16. It was an intense game to watch, and the crowed kept a high intensity the entire game. I also enjoyed watching the marching bands. OSU’s drum line had some incredible routines. The theme of half time was beach boys so they formed a bunch of awesome scenes from Beach Boys Songs.  

After the game I talked with my parents and then basically worked on homework the rest of the night. On Sunday my parents took me and some of my friends to our favorite breakfast place deboer’s, and then my dad Matthias and I golfed in Saugatuck. I enjoyed golfing with my dad and having my parents in town. They really like visiting Holland; my mom likes to come up with any excuse to visit anytime. It’s a good thing we live six hours away or else I am sure I would see her every weekend haha. 

I hope you all enjoy your weeks and enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

1-5 Perfection

This past weekend I had the opportunity to witness the 115th
Pull at the Black River in Holland,
MI. The Pull, which is the
oldest, and most intense, college tradition in the nation, brings together Hope College
students, faculty, alumni, and family to cheer on freshmen and sophomore
students during this big tug of war.

A Little Info…

So for those of you who might not know anything about The
Pull, here’s a little info:

  • The Pull is between Odd and Even years (Freshmen
    and Sophomores)
  • There are forty members of each team (twenty
    males and twenty females)
  • Odd year has ten upper classmen coaches and Even
    year has eleven coaches
  • The longest The Pull can go is three hours
  • The Pull is held over the Black River in Holland, MI

This year, four of my good friends participated on the Odd
Year team: three actually on the team and one of them as a coach. Knowing
someone on the team definitely made it more exciting to watch and made the
victory that much more sweet!

Congratulations Austin,
Alexis, Jess, Bri, and the rest of the 1-5 Team! Y’all did wonderful and it was
so fun to watch you win and swim in the river!

P.S. If you would like more detained info on The Pull, check
out the website below!

Photo Credits: Bri Nelson, Bruce Smith

Extra Pull Info »

Super Saturday

Don’t you love Saturdays? It’s the weekend, so you can sleep in and leisurely do your homework and still hang out with friends. Well, this past Saturday was pretty eventful for me. The campus can be pretty boring on occasion, but this Saturday was full of a LOT of stuff. It was pretty monumental in multiple ways: I got my first package of the year from home, the Pull on Black River took place, and it was my roommate’s 20th birthday. Let me just walk you through this day. Ready? Here we go:

MY FIRST PACKAGE! On a lazy morning, I usually check my email looking for any
updates from professors or clubs and when the magic words “Mailroom
Notification” pop up, I’m the happiest person alive. I think most people here
at school will agree with me that getting a box from home is one of the best
feelings ever: you feel like it’s your birthday because you get something
special in the mail plus you usually get food or some sort of goodies in that
box that any college student would love to have.

I got this notification on Saturday, so I was super pumped
to go to the mailroom to get the box and see what kind of random things my mom
and dad sent me, but of course I walk over to DeWitt right when it closes… meaning
I have to wait until Monday to get it. Ugghhhh!!!!! It’s so frustrating to know
that a box is waiting for me to open it, but I have to wait 36 hours to get it.
Monday came and I opened it and the first thing I saw was a bag full of York
Peppermint M&Ms. Have you ever had those???? They are so good that I ended
up eating half of the bag in 2 hours…oops. Next, I got some pretzels, almonds,
cashews, Chewy bars, NutriGrain bars and the best of all… a homemade coffee
cake! I know you guys probably don’t care what was really in the care package,
but it made my day twenty times better. Whenever I’m having a real bummer of a
day, getting that email turns my entire day around. Not only do you get some
awesome stuff, people are jealous of you. That was just the beginning of a great weekend.

THE PULL! As a
few other people are posting on their blogs, they are talking about the
legendary Pull that went on Saturday. I’m an Odd Year, so I’m completely
biased for the sophomores winning this year. Last year, we won as
freshmen and the theme we had this year was “Perfection,” so we had to
live up to that title. After a little over two hours on the rope, 2015’s
Pull Team won for the second year in a row (which is very rare)! Not
only did we win, but we set a record for gaining the most rope for Odd
Year (a little under 80 feet). If you don’t know what Pull is, look it
up on YouTube because it’s SO MUCH MORE than a simple tug-of-war. It’s
intense. No other word can describe it. After three weeks of ridiculous
training, the freshmen and sophomores “tugged” it out and put on quite a
show. What’s even better than winning was seeing all of the pullers and
their moralers hug each other and celebrate. All of the blisters and
bleeding paid off and created some amazing memories.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!
My roommate Cheryl turned 20 on Saturday too, so it was a pretty
monumental day for everyone. With such a hectic afternoon with Pull,
everyone was pretty drained from all of the excitement. Regardless of
how tired we were, Cheryl and I managed to head over to Good Time Donuts
for celebratory donuts followed by an awesome game of Apples to
Apples. This may sound like a pathetic birthday, but it was so much
fun!!!! If you have a good group of people playing, it can become the
most entertaining game you have ever played. I know this is not the typical sort of birthday, but “typical” is so overrated, right? Since we couldn’t finish
the night off with playing a board game, we watched the amazing  Matt
Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum. What a great movie. Seriously. It’s so
good. Watch it.

With a pretty crazy week this week, I’m so ready for fall break next
Monday and Tuesday. I’m sure my next post will be all about my
adventures. I’m heading to Chicago because I can’t really head to
California for a few days because it’s definitely not worth the long
travel and pricey ticket. Anyway, until after fall break, have a good
one!

Class of 2015 Pulls ahead….for the second time!

This weekend was the 115th annual Pull.

One of Hope’s most unique traditions (in my opinion), the Pull, is often viewed as a giant game of tug-of-war between the freshman and sophomore classes at Hope.

But really, it’s so much more than that.

  • The Pull brings a sense of “mini-nationalism” about the campus between odd and even graduating classes. It gives us something other than academics or sports to be proud of our peers for. As an underclassman, this also helps assimilate new students into the general population as juniors lead the freshman and seniors lead the sophomores.
  • It brings a little bit of “celebrity” to the participants, as everyone on campus knows if you’re a “puller” or a “moraler.”
  • It creates a huge buzz around campus. Nearly everyone is excited (maybe not always outwardly) at least about who will come out ahead.
  • It’s a huge game of strategy. Though some teams are stronger than others, it’s really the mentality, the leadership, and the game plan that help one team come out ahead.

It’s pretty hard to completely grasp the situation until you are actually in front of the pits, cheering for your friends that are screaming in pain and agony to win this for your class. Ya, okay, that doesn’t make it sound so appealing, but really, you have to check it out.

PLUS. 15 has won two years in a row. Which is ridiculously awesome. So, next year’s freshmen, we’re ready for you. 17 FIRE UP.

GUESS WHAT HOPE HAS…? Ok, you didn’t guess. Photos from Pull all the way back in the early 20th century. Check these bad boys out.

Confused? Read up on Pull.

Check out more Pull photos here, and check out the winners all the way back to the original (or at least what we think is the original) pull.

My Weekend!

Hi all! I hope everyone got a chance to relax and have some fun this past weekend. I know I did, so I thought I would share it with you!

Friday night: Friday was my friend Hunter’s birthday, so there was a little party for him at a cottage where some our friends live. We ordered a bunch of pizza, made cookies, and watched Hitch. It was a great way to unwind after a stressful week!

Saturday Morning: My friend Ann (the same one pictured above) went to the farmers market to get pictures for one of her classes and I decided to tag along. The farmers market in Holland is open every Saturday and Wednesday from May until November. For some reason, I never went last year, so it was my first time going. I can now say that I would like to make it a weekly trip as much as I can! There was so much to look at and choose from, as well as different musical acts located throughout the market. It definitely made my Saturday!

Saturday Afternoon: If you’ve been following my Twitter, then you know that I had a big test today. In preparation for the test, I spent the rest of my morning and part of the afternoon studying.

Saturday Afternoon, continued: The Pull, which I talked about in a previous post, was on Saturday. It was awesome to cheer on my classmates as they pulled to victory! They even set a new odd year record for most rope pulled at 79 feet and 8 inches!

Saturday Night: Believe it or not, this is where I spent most of my night: in the media productions lab in Martha Miller. I have a communications assignment due this week and I thought it was better to get it done sooner rather than later. For 3 and 1/2 hours it was just me in there.

Sunday Morning/Afternoon: I spent most of the day studying for my test. I went to the new Biggby’s and got a chai latte. It’s my new fave!

Sunday Night: I had my first rehearsal for the Nutcracker! I’ve never danced before, so auditioning for the show was a huge step out of my comfort zone. Luckily, everyone gets a part, so I was given the part of the soldier. I really like my part; it’s short and not too complicated. Perfect for the first-time dancer! I spent the rest of the night doing more studying, going to the Gathering and a business meeting for my sorority, and homework.

What did you all do these weekend? Leave a comment, I would love to know!

-Rachael