Farming for Strength.

This has been a draining week. Unexpectedly went home last Thursday, seven hour drive. Step practice every night til 11:30. Waking up for 8 o clock class next morning. Every morning. Tests every week. Guess you just gotta keep on pumping and going. Found out my big brother last night in ATO. So happy to have the Honors Program's own James Cochran as my big bro. It's gonna be great spending time with him in years to come. Step Show and the Halloween Carnival are coming up, so two big things I have to get ready for.

I really enjoyed the speaker last week. I could relate to him a lot better than some of the other speakers we have had in the past. Although he didn't talk about values very much, some of the students in our class probably have never been exposed to agriculture. I think it was a great experience for them. One thing that interested me was how the crops are a little different up here than in northwest FL. We mainly grow cotton, peanuts, and some corn. We are actually the top peanut producing county in Florida. I never heard him mention peanuts. Another thing is the rate of subdivision growth here in North Alabama especially over near Huntsville clashing with availability of land to farm. I wonder how much that really is affecting farmers in that area?

A Man With a Plan

I LOVED the class with Ross Berry, CEO of Shoals Hospital. He is a prime example of what it means to work hard, and you will be rewarded in life. The way he started the class comparing the two guys and how one had everything going for him yet screwed it up, then one guy who didn't have quite as good background succeeded in life as a business man. Turns out the man with a not so good background was Ross. I love hearing success stories because it shows that an individual's hard work and determination can make a difference in success and one's future. Not the help you receive from someone else, or just because you are in a bad situation and think it's not possible. Mr. Berry beat the odds and statistics of young men in that category.

Values with a Sales Pitch.

These past two weeks has been crazy. I am determined to not have an 8 oclock class ever again. Staying up late for Step Show plus waking up early is not a good combination. Anyhow, school is still going great. Homecoming was amazing because my family came up and I got to spend the weekend with them. Plus it was my parents first ever college football game! UNA won 41-0. Hopefully we will do that good this weekend against VSU so we can at least get second place in the conference. High hopes lead to great things. I'm also hoping to get to a volleyball game soon too, plus I'm ready for basketball season!

Fall Break is near, and I am extremely thankful for that. Driving 7 hours home to Florida to spend the weekend with my friends and family is such blessing. Grade wise, I am still doing fine with all A's. We have a mandatory 5 study hours required of us in ATO monitored by our scholarship chairmen, Christian Beyens, who happens to be in the Honors Program too. I think that is a great idea to keep our GPA up.

As for the speaker, I think it was just a sales pitch. All he talked about was the values his bank had and how they were used. Didn't really teach us bout the importance of those values or why they used them. Just all the great things about his bank. That made it kind of hard to pay attention. His five values he thought were essential to banking and how good his business is were people, community, strength, service,and convenience. All those are good values, but he used them as a sales pitch for his bank, not teaching values.

Chuggin' Along.

This has definitely been a struggle. The struggle is real. Had a cold since Tuesday. Finally feeling better today though, I guess my medicine is kicking in. Officially became a pledge in Alpha Tau Omega. TOO excited for that. A great group of men focusing on philanthropy and becoming the men we want to be. Bid Day was on Saturday, got doused with bottled water and a huge slip and slide. Probably didn't help my cold very much. School has fully kicked in, with tests in all my classes. So between studying, ATO, Homecoming, and my family coming up, I am gonna be very stressed and pushed this week. Not very much sleep. Still looking for a job, both of my interviews ended up unsuccessful. I am loving the interview experience though, I know it is benefiting my skills!

I ended up finding a Taekwondo school last night here in Florence. I have been practicing Taekwondo since I was 7, so I am very excited to see if the school here is similar to mine back home.

Last week Judge Self talked about the courage needed to do what is wrong and right. In his position as a judge, he faces this conflict everyday. It takes courage just to put yourself in that position. Courage is another one of those important morals we all learned about the first and second week of class. I couldn't even imagine being in his position with that much power to determine the way a person's life goes. I applaud him and that courage.

Dr. Cale

Got through all my tests last week with a 95 or above! That was a huge relief. The past week has been very stressful since I wanted to make sure I started off on the right foot. In other news, I made the Alpha Tau Omega step show team. Tailgated for the first time, and went to my first UNA football game! Pretty exciting weekend to say the least. I'm ready for Homecoming though, my parents are coming up to visit! Still continuing my job search through LionJobs. I have an interview this week that I am hoping goes well. As for the speaker last week, Dr. Calhoun really proved a point about STEM research. I have always enjoyed math and science, but I never thought of it as a career field. Our families and teachers in high school don't give us the idea most of the time. It's always be a doctor, lawyer, or politician. No one thinks to be an engineering or software technician. It's always other occupations. So is that the root problem or is it the high school curriculum that doesn't highlight math and science? In high school I was required to have 4 years of English, but only 3 of science and math? Doesn't that speak for itself?

Week 2.

The past week has been pretty hectic. I previously bought Alabama tickets for last weekends game, so I went to Tuscaloosa for the weekend with a few friends. Had a great time, but it seriously cut down on my study time. It showed me what Dr. Brewton explained to us in our first class, that when you start to get to busy to study, it gets hard to study right and on a timely manner. Luckily I have time to study, but it still showed me how important it is to carefully plan your time according to academics. I have a Chemistry test and an A&P II test this week, so I have been shut up in my room pouring over my material. Hopefully I will do good. One thing I picked up from last week's class is the importance of values. The exercise made us cut down to our top five values, leaving out other ones we really liked. So what values do we hold the closest to us? And do the ones we picked go with what society thinks our values should be, or what they really are? Just a lot of questions came into my mind, and the importance of living to our values.

First Honors Blog.

Well, I have never blogged before. Didn't really know what it was either. So props to Dr. Brewton to enlightening me to this! This is my blog about my time here in the Honors Program. My name is Gavin Hall and I am a freshman here at UNA. I am from the little town of Marianna, Florida. Majoring in Nursing. I am loving it here, even if I am seven hours away from home. The Honors Program creates a tight knit community of people, especially the ones that live on campus in Lafayette. Well, we had our first Honors trip to Memphis last weekend. It went WAY better than I expected it too. I met a lot of new people that I haven't came across yet because they do not live in Lafayette. It was a great way to start building relationships and meet people that didn't necessarily have the same views, or were raised different than I. The Brooks Museum of Art also intrigued me. I have never been exposed to art very much, so my time there really showed me how diverse art is and how it varies from country to country. I was very happy that I could relate to a few of the paintings. I LOVED the zoo. Haven't been to a zoo since I was a baby, so I didn't remember a whole lot, but now I can! Well, that's all folks. Hopefully I will get better at this as the weeks go on and I listen to new and exciting people.