Recession “very likely over,” says Fed Chief – do you agree?

It’s okay to be non-traditional.

After three quarters of taking online classes, I am about to set foot in a classroom again, and I’m a little nervous. I’m not afraid I won’t be able to find my class, or that I won’t know what I’m doing. The truth is – I feel like I’m ten years older than the average student.

But it’s not quite true. Over half the students at CSCC are “non-traditional students,” meaning they’re not right out of high school. And I tell people all the time that it’s really not that bad, that no matter how old you are, you’re almost certainly not the oldest person in the class. And if you are the oldest person in the class, I’ve noticed that the rest of the students look up to you, whether you deserve it or not (usually you do!).

And then I think that very, very few students are that magic age where they don’t feel a little self-conscious. I remember when I was 18, newly out of high school, and lost in a sea of 300+ students in my freshman courses. I went to what was then the biggest university in the country (OSU has since surpassed my school), and I was nameless, faceless, and lost. There were older students in my class then and I always used to think they had their act so much more together than I did.  And you know what?  I was right.

So now I’m that older student, and I’m feeling the flip side of this insecurity, and the faint self-doubt that comes with tallying the years in front of me.

Last night, we were outside on our patio, and our neighbor came by. He told us about how he’s been at OSU forever, and how he actually has more hours than he needs to graduate, but that when he was a freshman, he neglected to take one freshman level course, and that’s keeping him from graduating. Every quarter he thinks about taking it, and every quarter he decides he can’t face it, that he’s too old to be in a freshman class.

I felt for him, but the way I see it, he has three choices. One, he can never take that freshman course, and therefore never finish something he really wants to finish. Two, he can wait to take that course, and in the meantime continue to grow older every quarter. Three, he can take that course, walk into the classroom, and realize that everybody else is feeling first day jitters, too, and then three months later, he can cross the stage and receive his degree. Maybe he makes friends, maybe he doesn’t, but at that point, the class is over.

Which would you choose?

Why do we root for the underdog?

Saturday, as I was watching the BYU – Oklahoma game, I found myself cheering for BYU.  Why, you ask?  Do I have any affiliation with BYU or any particular dislike of Oklahoma?  Well, no.  I just like to see the underdog win.

I watched scores from other games flash across the bottom of my screen, and I kept hoping for another upset (not against any of my favorite teams, of course).  I do this every Saturday during the college football season.  I’ll jump on the Boise State bandwagon in spite of their blue field, and I’ll applaud Appalachian State for beating Michigan, despite not having a clue where Appalachian State might be located, or even having heard of them before.  And I’m not the only one.

Why do we like to see the underdog win?  My first answer is that it’s dramatic and unexpected, something to talk about, something that makes you pick up the phone and ask a friend:  “Did you see that?”  But upsets happen every weekend in college football.

I think the real reason we cheer for the underdog, both in real life and in the movies, is because we’re all to some extent outsiders.  None of us are born doing what we want to do – we have to go after it, to stand outside knocking and waiting for a while before we try to get in.  We have to go to college, fetch coffee in internships, or spend a year or two as an apprentice.  We wash dishes before we become a line cook, and we’re a line cook before we become a sous chef.

And seeing the outsider best the insider occasionally is almost personal.  I identified with BYU, with the shock and joy on their faces as they realized the fourth quarter was ticking down.  They couldn’t quite believe they had done it.    Sitting on the couch at home, I couldn’t quite believe they had done it either.

But then, that’s how you feel your first quarter or semester, the first time you try anything new.  You doubt yourself, you think you’re different, you think there’s too much of a time commitment or there are too many years and you’ll never finish.  To me, this disbelief and the disbelief of a football team pulling off a shocking upset are the same.  Anything can happen, but nothing happens without effort and action.

Three television characters, and how you can get their jobs by starting at Columbus State

Have you ever realized how many different careers get started at Columbus State? I was watching TV the other day, and I thought about how pretty much anything I wanted to do, I could start here on this campus.
1. HawthoRNe, Jada Pinkett Smith, TNT – This one should be obvious, right? The health care program at CSCC is huge, with lots of different opportunities. A student can become a Licensed Practical Nurse or a Registered Nurse. Start by seeing an advisor in Nursing.
2. Edna Krabappel, The Simpsons, FOX – So she’s not the most satisfied teacher around. I thought about including one of the teachers from the new Glee, but it was just too new. Most teachers are dedicated, fulfilled, and happy. With the transfer module offered at Columbus State, you can take a sizable amount of coursework at a much lower price before you transfer to a four-year school.
3. Tom Colicchio, Top Chef, Bravo – So this one’s not quite fair because a) it’s a reality show, and b) he’s more than just a chef – he’s a television host. But first he was a chef, and he takes his food pretty seriously. Just watch him tear apart a bland pasta salad or a runny panna cotta. You can become a chef apprentice under CSCC’s Hospitality Management program, and you too can learn the difference between a béarnaise and a béchamel. Start by visiting the Hospitality Management website under Career & Technical Programs.

As another quarter comes to an end, I realize I have a countdown…

Anybody else?  It’s not that I don’t love what I’m doing right now, but it seems like when you start focusing on what comes next, you’re less content, more restless.  I’ve been at CSCC for a year now, and again, it has been great, but I’m getting antsy and ready to move on.

So my countdown is one, maybe two more quarters.  School applications are due during autumn quarter, so anything I take after that will be for my own personal benefit (not that that’s bad motivation).  I’m a little sad to realize that I’m winding down, but more excited than anything else.  Anybody else about to start their last or second-to-last quarter?

Also, to all the writers out there, I really have to recommend a class I took this quarter – ENGL 285 Writing to Publish.  It’s not offered every quarter, but it was so helpful and practical, the professor was super nice and knowledgeable, and the other students in the class were such good writers!  If you see this course offered, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Can’t afford OSU – USC tickets?

According to yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, ESPN is planning on broadcasting the game in 3D at IMAX theaters in Los Angeles, at theaters in Texas and Connecticut, and at a SINGLE theater in Columbus.  I haven’t seen anything official yet, but rumor has it that tickets won’t be available for sale, and instead a radio station in Columbus will be giving them away.

Now I’m not a huge OSU fan (I went to the University of Texas), but I can appreciate that this is a huge game with huge implications for the season.  And I would much rather see OSU come out ahead than USC.  (I really wanted Vince Young to win the Heisman the year Reggie Bush won it.)  Still, the thought of college football being broadcast in 3D thrills me.

If anybody hears how ESPN is planning on distributing tickets, let me know.

What do you refuse to give up?

I’ve seen a lot of articles in the past few months about tightening belts in this tough economy, and about the things people are willing to give up. It seems that certain things are the universal firsts to eliminate, items like lattes, dinners out and expensive cable packages. Other expenditures don’t get eliminated, but they do change. For example, you might shop in clearance, but you still need new clothes, or you might stretch the time in between haircuts by an extra month or two (or go to a student!).

But yesterday, I read an interesting article online about what individuals absolutely refuse to give up, unless it means starvation, and these personal things vary widely. One man refused to give up a collection of animation cels he had patiently collected over his lifetime, and one woman refused to give up her Corvette. Another woman claimed she would share her cat’s food before she would skimp on taking the cat to the vet.

I started thinking about what I refused to give up. At first, I thought I would refuse to give up books, but then I realized that I had already limited book purchases, preferring instead to go to the library. As far as cable, I don’t watch a whole lot of it, although I am excited about the new season of Top Chef starting this week.

So what do I refuse to give up? The list is not long: Saturday mornings at the farmer’s market, high speed internet at home, and pad thai at least once a month. (I’m willing to learn to prepare a lot of dishes at home, but this is not one of them – luckily I found a place near my house that serves fantastic pad thai at a reasonable price.) I also spend money on a couple of magazine subscriptions, but it’s not much, and besides at this point, they’re already paid for.

What do you refuse to give up? I think it’s an interesting question with a revealing answer – I feel like you can tell a lot about me just by looking at my list. Is it happy hour on Friday afternoons? Or charitable donations to public television? Is it art supplies or Xbox games or popcorn at the movies? It seems that when we can’t have everything, our choices are much more meaningful.

Columbus State students present How I Learned to Drive

Did you know that Columbus State has an active theater program? Next week, they present their final offering in their season of comedy, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive. Critics claim the play is as funny as it is disturbing, and that the characters “will niggle at the memory for a long time to come.” Performances are in Nestor Hall Auditorium, and they’re free. You can catch the play from August 19 through 22 at 8 pm, and there’s a matinee Thursday at 3, which is the performance I’m planning to attend.

What if you want to participate in a play, rather than just watching one? You can do that too at Columbus State! Students who want to become involved in theater at Columbus State generally contact Professor Nancy Kephart for information. She lets prospective students know when the auditions are and how they need to prepare. Students are cast through auditions, but the play production is also a theater course: THEA 180 Theater Practicum.

If you want to act, but have no experience, you should enroll in Columbus State’s acting class: THEA 280, taught by director Frank Barnhart. All students who want an emphasis in theater should begin by taking THEA 100: Introduction to Theater, which is a prerequisite for most of Columbus State’s courses.

“Students who take our theater courses generally do well when transferring to four year institutions,” says Nancy Kephart, the director of the upcoming play. She also adds that brochures about the theater program may be picked up by the first floor elevators in Nestor Hall.

Time flies in the summer…

Isn’t summer supposed to be relaxing?

My summer has been so busy that I’m almost looking forward to the fall. We’ve gone to a wedding in Indiana (that took 4 days) and then the next weekend we moved. Now it’s two weeks after that and we still have boxes everywhere. I’m not kidding – our downstairs bathroom has a shower stall that is currently temporary housing for power tools we have to keep away from our son. And on top of all of the chaos, we have houseguests – my in-laws. For ten days. And today is my son’s second birthday, and we ordered his gift from Amazon, and when we looked up the tracking number, we realized it was shipped to our former house.

So what can you do but laugh? So things have been a little hectic, and I don’t do so well with hectic, but even in the midst of forty boxes of books, we’ve been eating really well and having a great time. We’ve been cooking like crazy, and my mother-in-law is just as impressed with Ohio’s farmer’s markets as I am. And at least the move is a good excuse for not having a spotless house when in-laws are in town…

I love a fair!

My in-laws are in town for ten days, and we’re going to do a bunch of tourist-y things, but we’re also going to head down to the Ohio State fair, which is going on until Sunday. My husband and I went last year, and we had a great time, because there really was something for everyone. I liked the rides and all of the cooking demonstrations, my son liked the animals, and my husband liked all of the food, especially those things called elephant ears. We found everything to be really reasonable for a state fair, and it wasn’t too crowded. Someone told me that we can purchase discount tickets at Kroger before we go, so I think we’ll take advantage of that offer.

We’re definitely going to check out the livestock, eat some fair food, and ride the Ferris wheel.  We’re looking forward to spending the afternoon at Ohio’s very pleasant, very accessible state fair!