Remembrance of Things Past

POP QUIZ!!!!!!
"Things fall apart, the center cannot hold."

Who wrote that? Bonus: What poem is it from?

Anyway, not that it really matters. Would you believe it, time took wings and flew! However, everything finished with a bang... a loud bang... and now my license plate is slightly glued to my bumper. Some lady didn't stop at the light and rammed into me. The damage is not much to speak of. Seriously, everyone was out to kill me today. The lady who hit me said, "Wow, we got lucky." No we didn't. I call that God's tender watch care over me. Let's see, I tried to change lanes and my blinker was on and some dude in a truck decided to come over from other lane and speed past me. Then there was this part where the right lane ended and some overexcited driver who was way behind me tried to speed up and slip past me. Good grief, calm down! It's not a race! Another girl tailgated me and there dude in front of me was going 60 on a 65 and I couldn't get over and the other girl was riding on my tail. Silly, silly drivers! Welcome to New Jersey. Go figure, all my driving issues today were in NJ.

I have decided I am going to be an emotional wreck on my graduation. I'll probably go up the aisle crying. It was so sad!!! I knew more than half the people that graduated today. I said goodbye to people I lived with, had class with, ate lunch with, and just hung out with. Sad day. And I decided to not try to be smart and get a really high gpa because then you have to go up separately and get an award. No thanks. Speaking of GPA, I might potentially have a 4.0 this semester! Now that is amazing. That's like... unheard of... yeah except that's one semester out of what... 9. I have decided however to not try anymore because then I'm labeled a geek, a freak, and just plain "Hermione." First of all, I like school. Second of all, I like working hard. Thirdly, at least I'm not one of those smart people that gets it without trying. However this week I almost seriously thought that being "smart" (I like to use "disciplined") is not worth it because of all the comments. But then I have to refocus and remember that I'm doing it to give God the glory using every ounce of my brain capacity that I can.

This year was pretty good! I went on a trip through memory lane looking through all my giant binders of each semester... except I need to sort out the Fall 07 stuff to put in a binder which I didn't do over Christmas break. Anyhow, I was looking through freshman year papers, Bible class notes, Dr. A's class notes... I have some really valuable information on all those tree slices! I have also learned A LOT in the past 3 years! Wow, what a lot of classes! 41 at PBU! Not that you're interested or even care, (I'm just waiting for my laundry) here are the wonderful classes I have been blessed to have (or sometimes have to tell myself that I am blessed to have had them):

Freshman year:
1st Semester
OT History 1 -- Dr Benware
Doctrine 1 -- Mr Krewson
English Composition -- Mrs Hook
Math Concepts 2 -- Dr VanBilliard
Teaching Bible in the Elementary School -- Mrs Kloth
2nd Semester
OT History 2 -- Dr Benware
Biblical Introduction -- Dr Emmons
The Four Gospels -- Mr Oliff
Math Concepts 1 -- Dr D. MacCullough
Anatomy and Physiology -- Dr Beach

Sophomore Year:
1st Semester
Church History 1 -- Mr Field
Children's Literature -- Dr Minto
Physical Fitness -- Mrs Hui
Life Management -- Mrs Hui
Philosophy -- Mr Harmon
Integrated Language Arts -- Dr Alexander (!!!!!!!!)
Early Childhood Mathematics -- Dr Alexander (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can you tell I like her?)
2nd Semester
OT Wisdom Books -- Mr Hook, husband of Mrs Hook
Pauline Epistles 1 -- Mr Allen
Prophetic Books 1 -- Dr Toews
Educational Technology -- Mr Weir
Emergent Literacy -- Dr Alexander (!!...you get the point)
Foundations of Special Education -- Mrs Rivera
Integrating Music, Art, Health/PE in the Elementary Classroom -- Mrs Benjamin, Ms Miller, Mrs Beach

Summer
Prophetic Books 2 -- Dr Toews
Literature and Arts of the Western World 1 -- Dr Minto
Intro to Second Language Acquistion -- Mrs Underhill
Language Fundamentals TESOL -- Mrs Underhill
TESOL Methods and Materials -- Mrs Underhill\

Junior Year
1st Semester
General Epistles -- Mr Bosco
Teaching Science in the Elementary Classroom -- Dr Alexander (!!!!!)
Elementary Spanish 1 (Mrs Sparling...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Astronomy -- Mrs Gossard
Developmental and Diagnostic Reading in the Middle School -- Mrs Rivera
Diagnosis and Evaluation of the Exceptional Learner -- Dr Cook
2nd Semester
Pauline Epistles 2 -- Mr Schmidt
Church History 2 -- Dr Hard
Lit/Arts Western World 2 -- Dr Bancroft
American Pop Culture -- Mr Palladino
Elementary Spanish 2 -- Mrs Sparling
Cultural and Linguistic Diversity -- Mrs Underhill

Now normally people do this kind of thing when they graduate, but I was all inspired by the graduation ceremony today so I would like to talk about my favorite professors or most influential professors.
Dr VanBilliard and Dr MacCullough -- they taught me math concepts and I never really understood math until then. However, that was 3 years ago so I don't understand math anymore. Academic boulemia. I was still adjusting to college and didn't learn how to retain information. But it was pretty cool when I was taking the class! My favorite memory of Dr VB's class is gambling day where we talked about the Christian's response to gambling. We even gambled with math games on cool TI-83 calculators.

Dr. Alexander -- She is the most amazing education professor that I have had so far! She has such a thorough knowledge of subject matter, she makes the class interesting, and she pounds the information into your brain that you could practically dream out lesson plans. (Ok not quite) It is easy to retain information from her class because even though details might fade away, the main principles remain. I have a feeling Dr A's voice will be in my head when I begin student teaching. I can actually hear her teaching right now. I am sad I'll never have another class with her during my PBU college experience. It wasn't until I had Dr A that I thought I might be able to teach some day.

Mr Oliff -- He taught me to think abstractly. I am actually sad I never had him again since he is so intense and he really teaches you how to think! I had headaches coming out of his class. His class was still one of my favorites.

Mrs Gossard -- One of those wonderful VA teachers that is now at PBU. Her astronomy class was INTENSE. It was so hard, but as an educator, she is excellent. She is so dedicated to her students. She does everything she can to make students learn and she expects a great deal out of her students. Even though I thought I would die in her class, she is a wonderful teacher!

Mr Palladino -- Class discussions and big class debates are not my favorite things in the world. However, Mr Palladino definitely helped me think a lot. He is not your ordinary professor. He challenges higher thinking and teaches you to love your education. Education should not have a beginning or an end, according to him. Education happens all the time. He challenges his students to pursue academic success and think outside the box. He challenges his students to be Biblically-minded, well-educated, and professionally competent men and women of character... and that's the PBU mission statement in case you were wondering.

Dr Hard -- I love Church History. I loved his class. His class was a lot of fun... cellphone hokey pokey, Star Wars, Star Trek, stupid jokes that don't really make any sense, "Let's hear a Hoo-Rah! Oh that was pathetic!!!", "Happy Birthday to you!", "Oh great, we have visitors," "That's your cellphone AGAIN?!", "You're in the front row!!! Next time play with something valuable and I'll keep it," etc....

Mrs Sparling -- I was really sad during the last day of Spanish. She is an amazing woman. She taught us some valuable treasures in Scripture as we memorized verses in Spanish. She also told some really great missionary stories. Her testimony is definitely a shining one! She challenges her students to live by the Book and to read the Word and study the Word and hide the Word in our hearts. I will miss this class A LOT!!!!

PBU definitely has some star teachers. The education here is valuable, especially if you try to get the most you can out of it. Mrs Sparling reminded us before finals week that even if we might not understand why we have to take a certain class and we feel that we will never again use it in life, God has put us here for a reason and we ought to give it our best in the time He has given us to study. There are some classes that I feel were a waste of time, but there is always something valuable to learn, even if it's just patience and sanctification. Of course there are funny memories like Dr Allen's corny jokes, Shakespeare is gansta!, Lit and Arts with Dr Bancroft.. just about every class, Mr Hook and lament psalms, Restaurant day in Spanish class, and other things.

GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

You know, PBU should pay me to advertise for them.

Anyway, to wrap up... Some memories of this past year:
Suitemate bonding with Elena and Colleen... Danae and Jessi estan mi shrinkos... Heyyy, Chopped Liver!... banquets... Squirrel attack... MuKappa memories... Danny-isms... New Orleans... the new PBU president... Ultimate Frisbee... tutoring at Faust... Spring Formal and Philly...

This post was more for my benefit than anyone else's. My feet are really cold. Anyway I should hope my laundry is done now. Therefore I am going to bed!