Archives for May 2013

Graduation Weekend

This past weekend was graduation/commencement! Boy, it flew by so quickly. Here’s a recap of the weekend’s events:

Friday- All freshmen, sophomores, and juniors had to be out of the dorms by 6 PM, unless they were in concert choir or helping at commencement. Once they left, campus felt much quieter and empty, as 2/3 of the student body had left.

Saturday- Throughout the day, many class reunions took place at the Goerz House, which is where Bethel’s president, Dr. Perry White and his wife, Dalene live. In the evening was the annaul Alumni Banquet, held in Memorial Hall. The banquet is a formal event where alumni who are passionate about Bethel College come to reminise about the past year and recognize those who have won awards. All graduating seniors were invited to attend. There was a fancy dinner, award ceremony where they recognized Outstanding Alumni of the college, and then a short business meeting. The female a capella group, Woven, sang as well.

Sunday- A Baccalaureate service was held at Bethel College Mennonite Church. It was absolutely packed full of people. Musical seniors shared their gifts and verses were read in 5 different languages. Hymns were sang triumphly. Reflections were shared by seniors and candles were lit, with prayers and hopes being said. The concert choir sang my three favorite pieces from this year, “O Nata Lux,” “Filled With His Voice” (a song that we commissioned a songwriter to write in honor of Bethel’s 125th year), and “The Lord Bless You and Keep You.” Although I didn’t sing in Concert Choir this semester because of student teaching, I was allowed to rejoin them for these three songs and that was extremely special for me. I heard from numerous people that the Baccalaureate service was a very powerful, meaningful service for them.

Commencement was supposed to be held at 4 PM in Thresher Stadium. However, due to the high possibility of severe weather, it was announced that it would be held in Memorial Hall, just like it used to be. The graduates gathered in the Fine Arts Center, like the original plan stated. However, we were quickly moved to the basement of Memorial, due to the fact that we were in a tornado warning. We did not get to process around the green as tradition states. They did move the threshing stone up the steps, so that we could still touch it on our way into the ceremony. Douglas Penner, former professor and president of Bethel College, was the speaker. Even though commencement didn’t go exactly as planned, we still had an incredible day and still recieved our diplomas.

After that, came the parties. I had a party with the 6 other girls from my mod who were graduating in the basement of Bethel College Mennonite Church. We worked together to get food and we ended up having a little over 250 people in attendance. There were many parties happening, both on and off campus.

Monday- We had to be moved out of the dorms by noon. The morning went quickly, full of taking countless loads of belongings to the car, cramming everything in and hoping you’ll have enough room, saying goodbyes to all the friends that you made along the way- some that you will see again and some that you will not, turning in your keys, and leaving the place that you’ve called home for the past 4 years.

It was a very bittersweet weekend, full of much excitement and some sadness too. The weekend is over now though, and I can offically say that I am an alumnus of Bethel College and that I have my Bachelor of Arts degree and diploma! Woohoo! đŸ™‚

Nationals Results

Sorry it has been so long since my last post about Nationals! Once returning back to Bethel things have been so busy, finishing up little things here and there and packing up to head home for the summer!

Our match with Oklahoma Baptist went very well. We ended up losing 2-7 but the matches were a lot closer than the final score shows. We won at two doubles with Bree Honer and Ashley Koester 8-1 and we also won the six singles with me (Madelyn Weaver) pulling out the win in straight sets 6-3 6-1. There were five points (matches) in there for us to have been able to pull out a win. These are the best results we have had at nationals yet and so it gives us hope and motivation for the years to come.

This season was a truly amazing one and I am sad it is coming to an end. We are losing two great senior women, Miranda Weaver and Shayne Runnion. These two have been tremendous leaders for our team and like sisters to me. They will be missed.

Thank you to all who have supported our team and have been keeping up with us and how our team has been doing during the season and while we were at Nationals. We have received so much support from our school including lots of snacks and drinks for the trip, a wonderful send off and even our own Athletic Director Kent Allshouse driving the 15 hour drive down to watch us play in Alabama.

We are all looking forward to what next season will hold for us!

Life’s a Great Balancing Act

Well, it has been a while since I’ve posted. My incredibly busy life has often gotten ahead of me this semester! This semester, while student teaching, it’s almost like I’m living two lives, all within the time of one.

I live the teacher lifestyle, who gets to school early in the morning, teaches all day, stays late after school for meetings or to prepare, and then still takes additional school work home. Then there’s the other lifestyle – the college student lifestyle. Ya know, the one where you stay up late with your friends talking in your mod lounge, going to half price apps at Applebees’s, or dining at Druber’s Donuts, which doesn’t open until 11:30 PM. The college student lifestyle where you work a lot to try to help cover student loans and still have spending money.

It’s been crazy this semester trying to balance everything, but I have loved every second of it. I loved spending my days with students in the classroom, who were excited about learning and truly wanted to be there. I loved being able to spend the majority of my days doing something that I love more than anything- working with children. I loved still being able to work on campus to earn money with a job that had flexible evening hours (yay, library!) and being able to live with my friends.  Student teaching is a balancing act and the best of both worlds!

Alabama: Day Three!

Well yesterday and today (Monday) have been very busy and fun-filled! Yesterday was our beach day. We had an early morning practice at the tennis center and then headed to the beach where we spent several hours laying out, playing in the water, looking for shells and we even saw some dolphins! We then ate dinner at a restaurant right off the beach called “The Hangout.” They have delicious seafood (for those who are into that sort of thing) and also delicious hamburgers! (my king of thing). After returning to our hotel, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and resting.

Today started off with an early morning as well. We headed to the tennis center at 7:30am to play a couple practice matches with other teams who are in the National Tournament as well. This helped us prepare for our first official match of the tournament which is tomorrow at 1:00pm. Immediately after our matches we grabbed some lunch at a place called “Firehouse Subs” where we met an NFL football player! His name was Brandon Maye who played at Clemson, Mississippi State and then went on to Tampa Bay. After becoming injured, he has currently left the football business, wrote an autobiography and is doing some motivational speaking!

Then it was time for one of my most favorite parts of the day. The tennis teams who come to the National Tournament have opportunity to go into elementary schools all over Mobile Alabama to teach the young kids how to play tennis. This was a blast! Our team along with three others were sent to one of the schools in Mobile, which happened to be the largest. There were three rounds of kids which lasted 20 minutes leach. We played with Kindergarteners, First graders and second graders. They were adorable! I had so much fun teaching and playing with them and they were having just as much fun learning! One of my favorite moments from this experience was with a young kindergarten aged boy. He had his racket in his hand, a ball in the other and looked up at me and said: “If I hit the ball straight up into the air, how high would it go?” I replied with “Oh, it could go pretty high!” His response: “Could it go all the way up to God?” My heart just melted. My experience with this young boy will never be forgotten, him fully expressing his faith as a young child, so open and innocent, not worrying what others will think or say, something that I sometimes fail to do.

After this fun experience the day was not over! We came back, had a few hours of free time before it was time for our 2013 NAIA Banquet of Champions. This is a fancy dinner hosted inside of our hotel for all of the tennis teams men’s and women’s who made it to Nationals. Everyone dresses up and sits with their team at designated tables for the program. One of the things they do at the banquet is  announce awards and recognitions for the NAIA. Miranda Weaver, a senior on the tennis team (and my lovely sister) received the award of “Champions of Character” in which one person from each team is awarded. Miranda, Steph Shogren and Shayne Runnion recieved the Scholar-Athlete award which entails either being a junior or senior with a GPA of 3.5 or above. Last but definitely not least was that Same Gaeddert, one-of-a-kind assistant coach was the regional winner for Assistant Coach of the year and therefore was nominated for the NAIA National Assistant Coach of the year. Our team is so proud of him! That is definitely well-deserved.

That’s it for now, I will update again on how our first official match against Oklahoma Baptist University goes tomorrow. Until then!

Fun in Alabama

The women’s tennis team is now here in Alabama safe and sound! We left Friday after lunch and after two long days of driving we finally arrived at our hotel in Mobile. For dinner to this chicken place called “Raisin’ Canes.” We went to the restaurant last year as well which was DELICIOUS! We also tried out the hot tub and swimming pool at our hotel. Now, we are getting ready to head out to this coffee shop with amazing smoothies and gelatos which is a block away from our hotel.

Tomorrow we are going to have a morning practice at the tennis center and then we are heading to the beach for the rest of the day! We don’t play our official match until Tuesday, but coming this early helps us get acclimated to the hotter and more humid weather that Alabama has.

Fortunately I along with several others finished all my finals before leaving for Alabama so on this trip I am really able to relax and enjoy it! (besides a few small journals/reflection papers). Traveling with the tennis team has been so much fun (as always) and I am looking forward for the rest of the trip!

Alabama Bound!

Results from the conference tournament for men’s and women’s tennis:

The men played McPherson in their semi-finals match who is ranked nationally as a team. They lost 5-2 but they played hard, had some great matches and played them even better than they did in regular season conference play!

After a 5-0 win over Kansas Wesleyan the women’s tennis team is going to Nationals in Alabama!

We leave for Alabama this Friday. That means that we will be missing finals week. Missing finals week means that we need to make sure that we get our finals taken before Friday! Yikes! This makes the ending of the school year twice as stressful for us as we are trying to figure out how we are going to get everything done. However, the up side to this is that we will get the school work out of the way so we can just relax and enjoy Alabama, the beach, and the nationals tournament!

Stress Busters:

Learn how to say no: Yes we all do need study breaks or social contact once in awhile, but if your friends want to go out but you really need to finish that big project or study for that big test, don’t be afraid to say no. Same with studying in a group. That can be a fun way to study and in some people’s cases very helpful. However, if you are one of those people who do better and learn more by studying by yourself, don’t be afraid to say no to that either.

Deep breathing: This sounds almost two simple but if you are getting to a state of being really stressed, then stepping back and taking a few deep breaths from your abdomen can really help calm you back down and help you to refocus.

Women’s Tennis Conference Tournament

Well, today is the day of the women’s tennis conference tournament. The winner of this tournament gets to proceed to nationals in Alabama! The Bethel women’s team has won this tournament and gone onto nationals the past four years and we hope to make it a fifth!

The semi final against Southwestern College was this morning at 9:00am in Wichita at Genesis. The Bethel ladies swept the match 5-0. In this tournament, the first to five matches wins. This means that the rest of the matches being played are stopped and are not finished. The girls won the three doubles matches and the two singles matches that finished, getting the last two points, were Bree Honer and Stephanie Shogren.

Because of the poor weather continuing on into May, today we have been playing indoors, however due to a mix-up in communication about courts we will not be able to play our final’s match against Kansas Wesleyan until 7:00pm this evening.

The men will play their semi finals match tomorrow, Friday the 3rd at Wichita Country Club at 9:00am for those who would be interested in coming out and supporting!

 

Now for a few more stress busters like I have promised:

– If you have some bubble wrap, pop it! If not, here is some virtual bubble wrap just for you:) http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/

– Stop and take a few deep breaths

– Practice Mindfulness – focus intently on an object such as eating and slowly savoring a piece of chocolate, or noticing the weight or color of your pencil, etc.