A Trip to Davey, an Audition, and Labor Day Weekend!

    Wow! What a few weeks it’s been. I feel as though I touched down on campus and haven’t stopped since, and that is coming after an already insanely busy summer. To save my breath, I’ll talk about some major highlights as of recent. Starting off strong, the Strategies and Campaigns class to a trip to The Davey Tree Expert Company SEED Campus. If there is any question about what purpose this campus serves, it is actually right in the name: Science, Employee Education and Development. This campus, freshly opening a little over a year ago, serves as a research center as well as employee training campus. I was in genuine awe over this beautiful place. Something I noticed throughout the tour of the campus was the dedication to sustainability not only in their work but in the literal groundwork of the entire plot of land. Everything they do is done with a purpose. From glass lined with stripes to prevent birds flying through, to golf courses made with research and testing in mind, everything was put on that campus with research and sustainability in mind. Getting the opportunity to visit them greatly helped inform how to move forward with our semester project. 

The day before the trip, we had our initial vocal auditions for the Ohio Northern University Holiday Spectacular. I was the first to sing at the vocal audition, due to the fact that we had rehearsal for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee later that night, our cast had to be the first group of people to go to get everyone out of the way. On Wednesday, the night after our trip, we had our dance audition for the show. It was a very intense day, we had our trip during the day, Spelling Bee rehearsal from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and finally our dance audition from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. So needless to say I got a good amount of sleep that night. I was very nervous for the dance audition due to the fact that last year went horribly for everyone involved. It was an amazing combination to learn, but very quick, and many people (including myself) forgot the combo when it was time to perform for the creative team. This year, however, was a wonderful experience. The combination was to a song that I loved, and movement that felt comfortable in my body. This is my fourth and final year auditioning for the show, and it is quite bittersweet. I’ve been grateful to have been in the show every year since I was a freshman, but that also means that it is my final year, and leaving the show behind after this semester is very sad. 

The last little highlight of these few weeks was Labor Day weekend. On Saturday, I visited my friends in Cincinnati to celebrate two of their birthdays, even though they both happened about a month ago, but I guess that is what it means to try and plan events when you all go to different schools. It was a super fun night, we took some pictures, went out for some drinks, and had a nice night in. On Sunday, my roommates and I had some friends over for a small game night and hangout where we ended up watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And that was quite fun. Finally, on Monday, we had a little viewing party of a recording of a show I was in over the summer. My roommates and I had invited the upperclassmen in our department, and the turnout was a bit lower than expected, so that was a bit of a letdown, but it ended up being a super fun night!