Sarah Goth's Blog
Sarah's First Blog Entry
Allo! I'm Sarah Goth, a first-year student from Newburgh, Ind. All through high school, I was extremely involved — worked a part time job, member of French club, National Honors Society, English academic team, band, Student Council, set up programs for teens at my church — these were some of the activities that occupied my time. Now that I'm at Hanover, I find myself almost as busy as I was in high school. This semester I'm overloading on courses (taking more than the norm) and am really involved with People for Peace, a campus organization that centers on, you guessed it, peace.
In my free time, I try my best to spend time with my friends that I've met here, usually watching movies or making trips to the gas station for late night coffee, while talking — always talking about politics or fashion or current events or religion.
That's me! Sarah Goth. I look forward to telling you about my life here at Hanover.
Sarah's Blog - April 17, 2008 Updated
As I've mentioned before, my life is particularly hectic. I've had so much to do lately!
The week before last, I had another opportunity to do some free stuff. My anthropology class went to this great place to eat, Ramsi's Café on the World, in Louisville (less than an hour away!). We go to try all sorts of different ethnic food. Afterwards, we got some coffee and went to a Whole Foods store where we picked up groceries for this special South American dessert we made for class. It was such a relaxing trip and everyone was glad to get off campus for a little bit to eat great food.
The next day we had the Student Organization Excellence Awards. People for Peace earned nominations for a few of the categories, but we didn't know who had actually won the awards. People for Peace ended up being connected to almost all of the awards. One of our members, Liz Otte, received the Volunteer of the Year Award. She deserved it so much—she works so hard on campus to bring awareness and to promote environmentalism. She's the president of two clubs, and is helping to start up the new Roots & Shoots chapter at Hanover. After that, our advisor, Dr. Nasrin Shahinpoor, won Advisor of the Year for her work with People for Peace and another student organization on campus, International Club. Then, the president of People for Peace and my great friend, Erin Hougland, won Student Leader of the Year. She is such an amazing president and I was so excited for her to be recognized in that way. To top it all off, P4P won Organization of the Year!
At the end of the week, I had Theta's formal to look forward to. Even though I'm not officially initiated, I still got to go to the formal. I asked one of my best friends, Nick (we're not dating, contrary to popular belief), to go with me, and we had such a good time! We took buses out to a really nice Holiday Inn in Columbus and then had great food, a good DJ (I didn't know they existed), and a great time!
After Theta formal weekend, the college descended into Dead week and the impending doom of finals. It sounds worse than it actually is. Dead week is the last week of classes, and allegedly, it's when professors are supposed to give us a break with homework so that we can study for finals. However, it always seems that everyone has at least one paper due this week. I was lucky and got off with two smaller papers and a larger one. This week is finals week — I've already taken two of my four finals and I feel a lot better.
But last week, during dead week, I had plenty to do. Tuesday, I went to Indianapolis, Ind., to a non-profit job fair. I know that I want to work in the non-profit sector, so I thought it was a good opportunity for me. The Career Center set everything up and it turned out to be very beneficial for the upperclassmen that went. I got to look around and narrow down where I wanted to be later in life.
Wednesday, at our People for Peace meeting, I was elected treasurer for the group! I'm really excited about my new job of sorts, but it'll mean a lot of work next year, although that fits with my busy lifestyle already. In related job news, I just got a job in downtown Madison for the next school year! My friend, Erin, worked at this great little boutique in downtown Historic Madison called Whimsy. After she graduates, I'll get her job and I'll work there on Saturdays next fall! I know a lot of people do have extra jobs around campus and can really make that situation work for them. I've worked every year since I was fifteen, so this year was a nice break from that. Honestly, now I'm just excited to have money in my bank account again!
Everyone is looking forward to spring break! I know I am. I get to go on an Intensive Inquiry (yet another way to have free trips) to New Mexico. A bunch of my friends that happen to be in People for Peace are road tripping down to Albuquerque and Santa Fe to study Native American art. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, save for the four days of driving it'll take there and back. Nonetheless, I get to travel pretty much across country on a great spring break trip for less than $75. Amazing!
Sarah's Blog - April 4, 2008
There is never an uneventful week in my life. Everyone's getting ready for finals week here and it seems unreal that we're this close to the end of semester.
Last week was Green Week and on Wednesday, one of the most beautiful days of the year so far, I went on a hike with my friend Nick again. It was part of this program called Campus Recess and we were all invited to go out on The Quad to play games and hang out like we did in elementary school. My friend Liz was involved with the planning and it was so successful and fun just to relax outside for an hour instead of worrying about papers and exams. I went with Nick down the Bio trail, and we walked along a freezing cold creek. There was still a lot of water from all the flooding lately. It was wonderful and then I had to go back in to work on a paper.
The very next day, Thursday, was so amazing. My mom and two younger brothers came to visit me and to go to the Jane Goodall lecture. After I got out of class that morning, I got to go out to eat at some of the sweet places in downtown Madison (all my mom's treat—remember how good free stuff is?). At three, I had a VIP reception where I got to meet Jane Goodall! I was so excited to meet such an influential person. I've been really lucky and blessed to get such great opportunities this year, and meeting famed primatologist, anthropologist and humanist Jane Goodall was really amazing. After we briefly got to meet her, I headed over for her lecture in Collier Arena, in the Horner Center, the sports facility on campus. Her lecture was so inspiring for me. She's really involved with peaceful endeavors, but doing so in a culturally appropriate way. Her message was simply moving and we had more people on campus then I have ever seen. Afterwards, my mom took me and a few friends out to eat at a local pizza place and I spent the night relaxing with my wonderful family.
Sarah's Blog - March 26, 2008
So last week was cra-a-azy busy. Last weekend, I went to Washington, D.C. for free! People for Peace paid for all of it. In three days I spent $5 and that was at Starbucks. We were going to go to a protest, but it was cancelled, so we went anyway to see the monuments and hang out in D.C. We were so lucky because it was such a beautiful day. Kind of a rough weekend though — every time we got in the car we got lost, we were in the same car for at least 20 hours and we got lost in the city — but overall it was wonderful, partially because it was free!
"Free" is a pretty big deal when you're a college student. I've had such great free experiences here. I took a group to go see the Dalai Lama when he came to Bloomington, Ind., last fall. This semester I organized a weekend retreat for People for Peace and hopefully my anthropology class will get to go out to eat in Louisville, Ky., for free in a few weeks.
We also have had wonderful speakers come to campus. I got to meet Jean-Michel Cousteau when he came in January and this week I get to meet Jane Goodall, famous primatologist and anthropologist. I've been amazed at what opportunities I've had here at Hanover. I thought it was so small that there wouldn't be much to do, which is not true at all, for me at least.
People for Peace also organized a Battle of the Bands this week to raise money for this great music festival we hold the first weekend of May, Wake up and Live. But I'll talk about that more in a different blog. Before the bands played, we tie-dyed shirts and I ended up with deathly blue/ purple hands. The bands were surprisingly good. My friend's band, Ragged River Family, played one of my favorite Decemberists songs, "Mariner's Revenge." It was awesome—she played the ukulele and they won! So they'll play Sunday night at Wake Up and Live.
Wednesday, my week got a lot more hectic. Greek life can seem pretty big here. All first semester and through winter rush time, when most people join fraternities and sororities, I remained uninterested and honestly, highly critical of the Greek system. Almost half of my friends joined, but a lot of people stayed unaffiliated, or non-Greek.
Lately, I've been invited over to Kappa Alpha Theta (referred to usually just as Theta). My "wife" on Facebook joined in the winter and she has tried ever since to get me to try out Greek life, but I was still hesitant. Wednesday, I got an open bid, which is an invitation that I have to accept or decline within 24 hours. I decided to go for it and I joined Theta! I'm in the pledging process right now, but it's going really well so far!
Sarah's Blog - March 14, 2008 Updated
Well I've certainly had a busy week! Last Friday after all the snow, so many students went out on The Quad at midnight and we had a huge snowball fight. Upperclassmen had told me to look forward to the first big snow of the year because that's when we have the traditional first big snowball fight. I loved it — got tackled three times and was completely covered in snow. I rolled down the hill at The Point, saw some deer, and had a lovely evening.
The next afternoon, I went on a walk to take pictures of the snow with a friend in my dorm. I don't think I've seen so much snow while I've lived in Indiana. The campus was covered with a perfect layer of snow.
Normally, Indiana weather switches at a whim. So by Wednesday, most of the snow had already melted and it got up to 60 degrees outside! A lot of people were out enjoying the weather and our beautiful campus. One of my friends knew where to find an amazing waterfall with a great overhang, so we hiked out there, took some pictures, and got a bit muddy. I'm kind of a nature freak sometimes.
Today I leave for a trip to Washington, D.C. with People for Peace. I'll let you know how it is when I get back!
About Sarah
Year in school: Freshman
Hometown: Newburgh, Ind.
Major: International Studies
Wants to be: humanitarian aid worker, children's rights activist
Hobbies: People for Peace!, looking at style.com, watching all the movies on AFI's 100 list.
Where I hope to travel: Everywhere! Especially Africa, India, all of Europe.
Where I've traveled: Mexico, France, Italy
Favorite Movie: Happy Feet, 300, Vertigo, Pan's Labyrinth, Princess Bride, Princess Mononoke
Scariest Movie Ever: I don't love scary.. but I do love 'The Others'
Who would play me in the movies: Emmy Rossum
Favorite Hanover memory so far: Having dinner with Jean-Michel Cousteau, watching movies at File House and hiking.
Facebook or MySpace: Facebook
Biggest hope or dream: My purpose in life is to help others. I hope to do that by working in third-world countries with children. My dream? That I'll make a difference in this world a change for the better.
