break – College Admission at Loyola

It feels as if finals were only yesterday….and I deserve 3 months of summer starting now. Time goes by too fast and we are already in the month of July. Next month, it is still surprising to me that I go back to school now as a senior. But for now, my summer has been semi-productive. It’s been nice to take a little break from school–I’ve been doing stuff around the house, helping out with youth groups and their events, and playing music for my church. I’ve also decided to go back to music school too and now, (starting this week), I began summer class to complete my pre-health class requirements.

________________________________________________________

Along with the summer season comes the wedding season. As a musician in my choir, I have played for a couple of weddings at my church so far and have enjoyed making the mass more beautiful and elegant by my music. Even just yesterday after my summer class, I biked to church to play for a 3pm wedding. I love doing things like this because I believe that music is “food for the soul.” Whenever people are down or people need to relax, it is safe to say all people find some sort of comfort through music. It is powerful because this means that music is a universal language that anyone can understand and find enjoyment in. My talent to play the piano and accompany singers or play the cello is something I take pride in. It has been hard to credit myself in anything I do, but through other people’s advice, I think it is good to acknowledge my talent and what I have to offer. Besides weddings, I play weekly for Saturday masses too and for funerals and whatnot.

In addition, my youth group had their annual 3 day camp at Camp Palos and I help prepare for it. More importantly, I was in charge of designing a faith-based “journey” (literal translation in English) that normally happens at nighttime. Here, kids get into their teams and travel into the woods to figure out clues and correctly go to each station to figure something out. The clues include deciphering Morse (written/listen), semaphore (written/visual), pigpens, knot knots, and other stuff like reading the alphabet backwards. These kids were taught all of these things throughout the school year, so they were able to do these things during the “journey.” It was quite fun traveling in the forest trails in the dark and hearing them scream (muah hahaha).

Last week, our youth group prepared a dance for a fellow priest’s 50th year of ordination. We did an awesome job during the reception and you can find the video of our dance here:

This week, my church will be doing their annual summerfest and they have invited 4 famous singers to come out to help celebrate. My youth group will be doing a booth in which we will sell thai tea, coffee, ice cream, and a bunch of other foods that I really do not know how to translate in English haha.

More and more things to come in the future before I go back to school, but I hope this blog help put in perspective of how my summer (half of it) has been so far.

Fall Semester Final’s Breakfast

By Husna Afzal | December 7, 2016

Finals are approaching faster than it may seem, and as nerve wracking that sounds, the bright side is that winter break is almost here! You should be preparing for finals because you’re going to have a lot of reviewing to do, depending on how many exams you have, whether they’re cumulative or not, and the level of easiness or difficulty of the content.

You should also know when your finals are scheduled, and if you don’t, here is the link: http://www.luc.edu/academics/schedules/spring/exam_schedule.shtml

NOTE: Make sure this matches up to your syllabus, and if it does not, bring this up to your professor.

Now enough of the scary stuff, FINALS BREAKFAST IS ALMOST HERE.

Finals breakfast takes place at the end of each semester, the Tuesday of every finals week! The fun part of it is that its at 9PM instead of the morning, so take a break from the stress and get together with friends. Take advantage of the free food, after all, food makes everyone happy.

I wish everyone the best of luck on finals! Do the best you can, make sure you have tons of caffeine, and be optimistic. You won’t have to deal with this again until August 29th!

Remember: Finals Breakfast Fall 2016: Tuesday December 13th, 2016 9PM-10:30PM in the Gentile Arena!

Post-Fall Semester Break

By | October 12, 2016

It is quite shocking that we have hit the midpoint of the semester. After 5 weeks, we get to go back on break for Thanksgiving and bring back the turkey dinner and start shopping for Christmas gifts. After that, we have 2 weeks of classes and we can finally say that fall semester is done. Obviously, the picture quote isn’t directed to college students, but in the long run, we should strive to finish off our semester well.

Digressing, it is hard to be truly bored when the city that you study at, is literally an urban metropolis of never-ending attractions and events. Especially if you are a student from out of the city or even out of the state, you will be definitely be fascinated with what this Windy City has to offer. (We’ll save the specifics of that for a later blog!)

Back on topic, fall semester break, comprised of having Monday and Tuesday (yesterday) off, was well needed. I was able to get caught up on assignments and finally regain the amount of sleeping hours I had lost. (In that time frame, the Cubs also beat the San Francisco Giants, which was fantastic!). When half of the semester done, you should be able to have a clearer picture of how well you are doing in class. At this point, you can check your grades and see whether or not you need with withdraw from a class or if you need to make some improvements to bring up your grade.

Especially with so many holidays and Christmas cheer in the stores already, it can be distracting to you and your studies. You may want to consider gifts to give to people while in the back of your head, you know you got exams and papers due. With that being said, PLEASE, FOCUS on setting your academics as priority and learn to organize yourself in an orderly way. REEVALUATE on what you need to do to get that well-deserved grade in your classes. AIM to make this fall semester a successful one, free from regrets.

Going to professors’ office hours to discuss topics that are unclear can only help you to understand concepts better. Seeing tutors work the same way. Maybe you might be sleepy during class at times like I am. Well, I now drink coffee throughout the day to stay alert and focus and now, I don’t feel that sleepy anymore. Experiment and find out techniques that will help you out to do well in school; everyone is different.

And remember… Winter break is just about 1 month long. You can relax and do whatever you want, stress-free of any class assignments (because basically, you completed the class).

Christmas Break Is Here!

By | December 14, 2012

I returned home to Cleveland, Ohio last night. I only had three finals and three papers, so it wasn’t too bad of a finals week for me. I’m looking forward to Christmas time, as my family goes all out for Christmas. Check out our Christmas tree! Happy Holidays!

Land of Enchantment

By | April 9, 2012

For Easter I decided to take a break from the Windy City and head to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was a great way to relieve some stress and relax from the craziness of school. The area is made up of an older community and the current hot topic of discussion is whether or not chickens should be aloud as pets. Everywhere we went someone had something to say about chickens. Personally, I don’t get it, I do not want one of my favorite foods as a pet.

Either way my favorite part of New Mexico is the sky. It is constantly changing and there is always something interesting from sunrise to sunset.

There is a reason it is called the Land of Enchantment and from the art that is everywhere, to the chicken debate, there is always something interesting in this wonderland.

I’m in Miami…

By | April 3, 2012

…beach!

Well, I’m not there now, but I will be in less than 72 hours! This weekend is Easter Break, so I’m taking the opportunity to get a much needed break from the stress of my semester by visiting my best friend at the University of Miami.

And while I’m extremely excited, I have a lot to do. So I thought that, instead of writing you a super long jealousy-inducing blog post, I would just show you the “to do list” that my biffle and I made last week on Facebook.

Enjoy, and if you can think of anything I should add to the list (I’ll be there from Thursday – Monday), let me know!