National Tooth Fairy Day

Who doesn't have fond memories of losing their first tooth?  Well, I don't remember the actual time and place, but I know I was really young.  Children grow up thinking that when they lose a tooth, a mystical fairy will come and trade that tooth for money.  We tried to rationalize why someone would want to do that by making up stories about how the tooth fairy had a giant castle made of teeth, fully equipped with tooth furniture, because when we thought about it, we realized how silly it seems.  

At my elementary school, losing a tooth was a huge deal.  If you lost your tooth during school, you got to get out of class and go down to the nurse's office and she would give you a little box for your tooth! Then when you returned to class, you would get your name on the tooth board, a special little white board shaped like a tooth, to let everyone know that you had lost a tooth that day.  It was a great honor for a seven-year-old.  

I remember when my sister found out there was no tooth fairy.  After losing her tooth the day before, she put it under her pillow and woke up to find the tooth still there.  She came to me and told me the tooth fairy had forgotten her.  I told my parents that they hadn't given her any money and they told me they didn't even know she had lost a tooth!  The next night the exchange happened, but now my sister was suspicious.  Later that week she was looking for something in my dad's dresser and found her tooth box! What a devastating feeling it is to realize that something you had believed in is not true.

Tomorrow on tooth fairy day, take some time to think about what the tooth fairy has done for you! :)

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!!

This past week has been National Engineering Week, a week to celebrate all of the things engineers do for us in our everyday lives.  Friday in particular was introduce a girl to engineering day.  Surprisingly, there are still very few women in engineering today, despite the increase in popularity over the past few years.  Being at Purdue, it seems everywhere you turn there is an engineer behind you, male or female.  However, it is more likely that person is male.  

Research shows that girls and young women lose interest in subjects and the fields of study leading to engineering careers long before they enter college.

Ever since I was a little girl in elementary school, I was always encouraged to like math and science.  It ended up that I really did and still do enjoy solving problems in these subject areas.  I remember going to various "women in math" workshops where we would take a day off from regular school activities and spend our time doing fun math problems and working with other girls to solve them.  It was a really cool experience for me because I was able to use my love of math to work toward solving something that may have been too challenging in another setting.  Activities like these existed all through middle school and high school, although I did not take place in all of them.  

According to the National Engineers Week Foundation, only 20 percent of undergraduate engineers are women.  That's an improvement, but still not nearly as high as that number could be.  Being an aspiring engineer at Purdue, I find myself surrounded by guys in most of my classes.  Although there are plenty of girls in my classes as well, it is obvious that engineering is still a male dominated field.  It is the community's job to introduce girls to engineering, but once they have made the decision to become an engineer it is the job of their chosen university to keep them interested.

Purdue has a variety of programs for women in science and engineering to participate in and become associated with.  The biggest organization in this area is the Society of Women Engineers.  This is a national organization, with one of its biggest branches being right here at Purdue.  I am involved with this group and it is one of my favorite groups on campus because it is filled with fun, normal girls who are diverse and interesting.  We have social gatherings, such as a spring dance, and we also do community service and host a job fair in the spring semester.  It is a great organization for a female in engineering to get involved in because it sets you up with some resources and older people to talk to who have already been through the things you are going through.

Other organizations that Purdue has to offer for women in engineering, science and technology include Phi Sigma Rho, a social sorority for women in these fields, and WIEP, the Women in Engineering Program.  Both of these organizations have their benefits.  Phi Sigma Rho is a social sorority which is comprised of women with the understanding that they are all in challenging majors, so there is a very flexible committment schedule compared to other social greek life.  WIEP has a mentor programs which sets up a first year engineering student with an older student who meets with them regularly and checks to see how classes are going throughout the year.  All three of these organizations do a great job at making women feel like they are not alone in their pursuit of a major in a male dominated field.

International Friendship Day

College can be a terrifying place.  Being on your own on a big, scary, unfamiliar campus can be lonely and make you feel very uncomfortable.  However, I have found something really great about college, you are never really alone.  There is always someone in the dorm room, study carol, or classroom next to you going through the exact same thing you are.  The only thing you have to do is step outside of your small world and meet these people!

When I came to college I knew very few people.  There were about 12 people who came to Purdue from my graduating class and a few more from earlier classes.  So naturally, at first I called those people up to hang out in my free time because it gets tiring having to introduce yourself to fifty new people a day.  People find comfort in having people around who come from the same background as they do, and that's ok for a while.  However, in order to become a more fulfilled and open-minded person, you need to branch out and meet all types of people.

My BGR leader told our group a great quote about trying new things,

There is no growth in your comfort zone, and no comfort in your growth zone.

I found this quote to be increasingly true as my early college days went on.  Experiencing things for the first time is scary! Think about your first day of classes, your first lunch in the dining courts, or your first exam in Elliot Hall...all potentially terrifying things.  However, once you got over the initial feelings of discomfort, you open yourself up to a world of new possibilities.

The same goes for making new friends.  College is the perfect place to find the biggest variety of people you may ever see.  Each person has something different to offer and it is really amazing to see all of these unique personalities come together in one place.  It is the time to find who you really are and be that person.  By being yourself and staying true to that, you are going to meet far more people than if you just join every club you see a flyer for or if you don't go out there and try in the first place.  

In high school, people were so concerned with what group they were associated with that they really didn't give themselves a chance to open up and let people see who they really were.  College life really has a laid-back feel that allows people to be themselves and share that with other people.  I have met such a diverse group of people from California to Connecticut and even some from far away countries.  It is really cool to see how someone who lives miles away, goes through so many of the same things as you do on a daily basis.  

If you really allow yourself to just be yourself, you will be able to find a mixture of friends who share some aspect of your life.  Whether it be my love of music, my passion for delicious food, or my enjoyment of exercise, I have found at least one person who shares one of these qualities with me, and I have made some really wonderful friendships out of it.  

Friday the 13th!!

Overall, I am not a very superstitious person.  I have broken many mirrors in my lifetime, spilled many a saltshaker, and even crossed paths with a few black cats, but I wouldn't exactly say that these things have made me an unlucky person.  On the contrary, I feel that I am a very lucky person when it comes to having great friends, a wonderful family, and a great education.  However, today just seemed to be an unlucky one for me and the people around me.

 I was fooled by the bright shining sun when I woke up after a rare occurrence of 10 hours of sleep.  It seemed like today would be day three of the wonderful 50 plus degree weather we had been having, but that was not the case.  I checked weather.com to see what it was like outside and it turned out that it was only about 37 degrees at the moment--not terrible for the freezing weather we are supposed to have in February, but still colder than the days before.  It seemed like a very low-key, relaxing Friday, but around 1 o'clock things got interesting.

After getting out of CS 159, I met up with a couple people from my class and walked over to Ford to grab some lunch.  We got to the dining court and put all of our stuff down at a nice table by the window.  I got a nice salad with raspberry dressing, some guacamole dip with chips, and I was in the process of getting a hamburger when disaster struck.  Today was the first day I had gotten a hamburger from the dining courts here, and I don't know why but today I just really had a taste for one.  So I wait in line for a minute, grab a bun, grab a hamburger, and walk over the the condiments station.  It seemed like everything was going smoothly as I put on some pickles, a tomato, and some lettuce.  I walked a few steps further to the ketchup and mustard and as I was putting the top of my bun on my newly created creation my tray slipped, my salad flew toward me, and my guacamole dip jumped off of my tray and loudly onto the floor, drawing all attention in my direction. 

It is a dreaded moment when someone drops a something in the dining courts.  They must make the plates and bowls there out of some super-echoing material because no matter where you are in the dining court, you can hear if someone drops their tray as if they are standing right next to you.  Luckily I didn't have one of the breakable plates, because those not only make a noise twice as loud but they shatter everywhere!  

As I gather the rest of my food and check out the awesome new pink stains on my fleece from my salad dressing, I apologize to the worker who had run over to clean up my mess.  He told me it was ok, but NOT TO DO IT AGAIN.  I chuckled, but he didn't seem to be joking so I scurried away from the situation.  When I got back to the table, I wiped my now pink-stained hand off and shunned my salad from the rest of the food on my plate.  

As we all started to eat, my friend realized that she did not have her phone.  Everyone has a slight panic attack when they can't find their phone, because now-a-days everyone's life is on their phone.  No one really knows other people's numbers anymore because we never have to dial them, so if someone does lose their phone, it is pretty a given that they will make a facebook group asking everyone for their numbers.  The odd thing, though, is when you get an invitation for someone's "Help, I lost my phone" group, and you never remember giving them your number in the first place.  When that happens to me I usually just ignore the invitation, in the nicest way possible of course.  But back to the story.

My friend looked in her coat pockets, her backpack, and all around the places she had been in the dining court, and her phone was nowhere to be found.  She couldn't remember when the last time she had it was, which always seems to slip people's minds when they need to remember such an event.  So she decided to head back to the classroom we were in to look for it.  I haven't heard from her yet on if she found it or not, but I hope she does!!

In the middle of all of this, I checked my phone and saw that I had two missed calls and three text messages that I had missed in the midst of all of my food-spilling chaos.  Lately my phone has made it a habit of not telling me when someone is calling, or displaying the wrong time whether it is nine minutes off or an hour off, but that's for another rant.  I am going to the University of Illinois this weekend to visit my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, and as it turned out, his car wouldn't start.  He was planning on picking me up later today but when he got to his car it was completely dead.  Unlucky event #3.  However, the last of my three messages was my boyfriend telling me that he had found someone else who could drive, so that bit of bad luck, luckily, didn't last for long.

So the moral of my story is, it doesn't matter if you believe in crazy superstitions about random days, or if you are generally a lucky or unlucky person, but at any given time you may be hit with some bad luck.  The best thing to do is just roll with it and laugh about it later because you can't take life too seriously.  The best days are the ones when things don't go perfectly and you get to tell a story because of it! No comedians get their jokes from experiencing perfect days every day.  They tell you the stories about when they saw someone get hit in the face with a tire, or when they slipped all the way down the stairs of the Purdue Union.  The best thing to do is just enjoy life the way it happens, and find some time to smile :).

One stick, two stick, POP!

February 6th must be a busy day because today is also bubblegum day!! Who doesn't love bubblegum?  Some of my fondest memories of this sticky snack include images of a dusty softball field or sneaking pieces into my elementary school classrooms.  I even remember when I first learned to blow a bubble; it was such a great accomplishment! Bubblegum is just one of those things that makes you smile and feel good no matter where you are or what you're doing.  Here are some fun facts you may not have known about this delicious treat.

** The biggest bubble ever, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was 22 inches in diameter, 1 1/2 times the size of a large pizza.

**Double Bubble was included in the ration kits for soldiers serving in WWII.

**Sixty to seventy percent of bubble gum is sugar :)

**Chewing gum burns about 12 calories per hour (not quite enough to count as your heart healthy exercise)

**Chewing gum on an airplane will keep your ears from popping (I always chew Big Red on planes)

**The top ten most popular brands of bubble gum are as follows:

1) Hubba Bubba Max

2) Stride (my favorite daily gum)

3) Trident

4) Bubble Yum (my favorite gum to chew during softball games)

5) Bubblicious

6) Orbit

7) Big League Chew (gum that looks like strips of chewing tobacco and helps promote athletes to chew gum instead of tobacco)

8) Double Bubble

9) Extra

10) Winterfresh

Which one is your favorite??

Wear Red Day

This month is National Heart Disease Awareness Month, and February 6 is the day to show your awareness and wear red.   Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women so I am going to talk about some ways to help reduce your risk of a heart attack or other heart related injury. 

When it comes to a healthy heart, it’s all about eating right and exercise.  These are things that not everyone likes to do on a regular basis, especially when there are so many more fun things to do rather than run around a track and so many more delicious things to eat besides celery.  Here are some tips to make these tedious tasks fun and easy.

Instead of going to the gym to tediously lift weights or run on a stationary object, do something fun! There are so many more options out there such as just dancing around your room or taking a walk around the neighborhood.  One fun thing my friends and I have taken too is group exercise classes.  At the Purdue Co-rec. there are “Group X” classes which offer a variety of hour-long classes to attend from ‘Cardio Blast’ to Kickboxing to ‘Get on the Ball’!  The pass only costs 40 dollars for the semester and you can go to as many classes as you want.  It’s a great deal!  The classes are taught by really fun and upbeat student instructors and whether you go with one friend or 20 they are a blast!!  The cardio classes really get your heart pumping and the classes focused on body sculpting do a great job of toning. 

To get your daily amount of fruits and veggies—aim for the colors of the rainbow!  Remember ROY G. BIV!!

R: apples, red peppers, cherries, cranberries, pomegranates, strawberries, tomatoes, watermelon

O:  oranges, tangerines, clementines, carrots, cantaloupe, squash, sweet potatoes, mangoes, pumpkin, peaches

Y: Pineapple, yellow peppers, papayas, lemons, apricots, corn, bananas

G: green apples, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, green beans, broccoli, cucumbers, green grapes, honeydew melon, kiwi (my personal favorite), limes, green onions, peas, green peppers, spinach, zucchini

B, I, V: blueberries, June berries, purple grapes, raisins, prunes, figs, eggplant, blackberries

With all of those options, how can you not get the right amount of daily produce?  You also can’t forget your three daily ounces of whole-grain foods such as whole-grain cereals, whole-wheat bread and pasta, and brown rice.

By doing all of the things above, you will reduce your risk of high cholesterol, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.  So start your heart-healthy routine today!!

Punxsutawney Phil's Big Day

As most of us know, Monday February 2nd was Groundhog Day.  I feel like this day was made a much bigger deal when we were in elementary school.  It was an event that would take up the whole day.  We would have pages to color and fun activities to do throughout the day. Now, if we even have the time to remember that February 2nd is Groundhog Day, we may think about it for five minutes at the most and move on.  No one really takes the time to think about where this holiday came from or what it means.  So for all of you busy college students, here's a quick re-cap.

For thousands of years, Candlemas, the Catholic celebration of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple, and Groundhog Day have been celebrated on the same day.  We all know that there is a phrase about what happens when Phil sees his shadow, and this is the formal one:

If Candlemas day be sunny and bright, Winter again will show its might.

 If Candlemas Day be cloudy and grey, winter soon will pass away.

So this means if the groundhog sees his shadow there are six more weeks of winter, but why six weeks?  Apparently, this tradition started with the early Christians in Europe.  It started mainly as a celebratory milestone in the winter, where the weather on that day was important, but the groundhog didn't come into play until later.  This tradition was passed on to the Germans who concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day a hedgehog would show its shadow predicting six more weeks of winter, which they called "Second Winter".  

The tradition was passed on the States when the Germans came to Pennsylvania, where they decided the groundhog was a close equivalent to the European Hedgehog.  Apparently, this was an animal known for its intelligence because it was deemed to be smart enough to know that if it saw its shadow, it would scurry back into its hole for six more weeks of winter.  I bet that was more than you ever wanted to know about Groundhog Day, but I hope it answered some long thought about questions! :)

By the way, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow.  Are you surprised?