Why I Relay 2015

Posted on March 13, 2015 by morganrobyn22

Last Friday was a day of firsts for me. I pulled my first all-nighter ever (I don’t count the 20 minute power nap I took at 5:30 AM) and I participated in my first ever Relay for Life. As I’ve said before, I am not good with people/participation so I had never joined a team and done Relay for Life before. This year however, Jess and I participated with Red Zone and sacrificed a night of sleep – cancer doesn’t sleep, so for one night, neither did we.

As with most people, I have been affected by cancer in more ways than one. I thankfully have never had it, but numerous people in my family and my school have fought back against it. Last Friday, I mainly relayed for my grandpa. My grandpa died August 30, 2008 after a battle with brain cancer. He has been gone for some time now, but I was grateful to have the opportunity to walk for him and remember. I could be super sad that he’s gone, but I’m happy that his suffering ended and that I got to spend as much time with him as I did when he was alive. He was a great guy, super deaf but always really funny about answering the phone and watching TV. Seriously, he would watch Sportsnet reruns ALL DAY without the volume on. Drove us crazy as kids, let me tell you. But it is still sad that he died, and relay gave me a chance to really remember him and think about him without feeling judged for crying in public – which happens more than I like admit. I’m super emotional about everything okay, don’t judge.

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During the night, there was a Luminary walk – super sad songs were played, and tears were shed. It started out okay, but eventually pretty much everyone broke down. I am so happy that Red Zone was there, they were so supportive of everyone in the group. Everyone was hugging, holding hands, and crying together. It was a seriously beautiful moment, and I’m proud to say that I was part of it. Lots of love to Red Zone, y’all rock <3. You guys also made Jess and I feel really welcome, and for my first all-nighter, I couldn’t imagine a better group of people to share it with.

As a school, we managed to raise over $100 000, surpassing our goal and impressing everyone. Props to the organizers who made it such a fun, moving event, and shout out to the students who participated – you are all champs, well done team. Next year I shall prepare for Relay for Life by sleeping for a full week, because it has been discovered that Morgan doesn’t run well on little sleep. But I’m prepared now.

Who do you relay for?

Home Sweet Home

Posted on October 16, 2014 by morganrobyn22

Home sweet home.

You know you’re home when you can’t imagine being happy, content, and comfortable anywhere else. I still consider home as my log house in Huntsville, the place I’ve spent the better part of 20 years in. But I have a secondary home now, one that is just as comfortable and cozy.

I moved in with my friend Jess at the end of August and it’s been such a cool experience. We have to fend for ourselves, buying food and making dinner ourselves instead of sitting on the couch while someone else caters to our every need.

Of course, I’m lucky enough to have my AMAZING parents help me out with rent and tuition, which is extremely fortunate considering I’m still a poor university student.

Our apartment isn’t the biggest, but it’s the perfect size for the two of us. We’ve furnished it in a very humble, cozy way – it almost reminds me of a cottage. We lucked out and most of our furnishings are just items that our families didn’t want to keep around anymore (my parents have been hoarding things for forever, just waiting for one of us to move out). Having a room that a queen bed can fit in, let alone having a queen bed to myself is a magical thing – one that I haven’t quite gotten used to (she writes as she lays on the very far edge of the bed). I have so much space that I don’t quite know what to do with it… maybe I’ll start doing yoga, who knows?! Things might get crazy!

Jess and I are also fortunate enough to have four of our closest friends live super close to us – Mikey and his roommates, James and Jamie, all live three floors up, while Tyler lives two apartment buildings over. I’m lucky because I went to high school with these boys, but Jess has gotten used to them by now – it’s not like she really had a choice…

I’m looking forward to living here for the foreseeable future – it’s an amazing location, with lots of parks and walking paths close by, as well as the Rideau Canal and Mooney’s Bay practically right outside our door.

Do you think Jess and I sound awesome? Well, you’re right! Feel free to follow our shenanigans on Twitter @MJRoom220!

Fall Orientation 2014

Posted on October 15, 2014 by morganrobyn22

A new school year is upon us folks. It’s scary, but it’s the truth.

The beginning of this school year finds me living in an apartment with one of my best friends and participating in Carleton’s fall orientation program in a new and exciting way.

This year for frosh, I was a Facilitator, which basically means I was part of a stupendous group of people in charge of a bunch of first year students from a particular building.

This years theme was “Join the Conspiracy” (a conspiracy is a group of ravens… get it?) and my team was called the Evil Geniuses. The Evil Gs were in charge of fourth floor Stormont and Dundas and they were seriously the best group of facils EVER.

The whole reason I wanted to be a facil this year was because of how much fun I had during my frosh week, and let me tell you: it is WAY more fun to do frosh week as a facil. You no longer care about how awkward you are because you’re too busy making friends with the people you’re essentially going to spend all of one week with.

Sure, by the end of the week you can hardly walk from all the blisters and sore muscles, and you might be sleep deprived for the rest of the year, but it is all worth it. Knowing that you helped new students – whose position you were in not too long ago – feel more at home in their new environment is so rewarding.

I made some amazing friends and it gives me so much joy to be able to walk around campus and interact with so many more people than first year. Frosh 2014 was a great start to what I can already tell will be an amazing school year. I’m so looking forward to doing it again every year I’m at Carleton (and I love it here so much that will be a few) and getting even more involved in the Carleton community.

#evilgsforlife

Help find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Posted on June 8, 2014 by morganrobyn22

Hey guys. I’m fundraising for Shinerama in support of Cystic Fibrosis. I wasn’t sure if I was going to post this on here, but I figured hey, why not? The lovely people of the blogosphere are awesome, they might give something.

If you can’t, do not fret, I’m not forcing you to do anything. I just thought I’d put the idea in your heads for future reference.

Thanks a million.

Please support me as I raise funds to help find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. Make your donation here:.

An Update after the Break

Posted on January 10, 2014 by morganrobyn22

Well, this ones gonna be a long one, considering so much has happened since I last wrote.

I had exams in December, only three but still. My first ever university exams… yikes. Honestly, it’s pretty much exactly like what you see in the movies and hear about from older kids. People stumble around the halls, hyped up on Redbull and coffee after not sleeping the night before. They openly walk around in their pajamas, and no one judges because they’re doing the same thing. Kids are crammed into every available study space on campus, more kids on campus at one time than you’ve ever seen before. And the exam room? Well it actually is a huge room with hundreds of desks to accommodate all the kids who will be writing their exams in there all at once. I had kids next to me writing engineering exams while I was writing history.

Overall, I did really well on my exams. I got a 78 on my Canadian Studies exam, a B+ for Canadian History, and a 92.5 on my European History exam (highest in the class, NBD). They’re pretty scary, but as long as you study and know what you’re talking about, you’ll come out on top.

I got back home on December 19th (thanks daddy!) and had a joyous reunion with family and dogs. We had Christmas on the 20th in order for my dad to be present, because he had to return to work on the 22nd. As usual, my parents insisted we weren’t going to get much for Christmas this year and yet I got about the same as I always do. We’re spoiled we are! A big shout-out to Michael’s family for welcoming me into their home once again for Christmas, I had a great time, as always.

The break as a whole was lovely, relaxing, not having to worry too much about school, catching up with friends, eating alllll the bad food… yum. New Year’s Eve I got to see some friends I haven’t seen in a while and it was so much fun. Oh, and I got a long overdue haircut, thank God!

Time soon came however for me and my fellow students to return to Carleton (thanks for driving us mom!) and the grind. So far so good though! Hopefully this semester turns out to be just as good as last. Fingers crossed!

Is this the real life?

Posted on November 30, 2013 by morganrobyn22

Okay, I just need to talk about this one thing.

We have a place here in residence called Oasis, it’s basically a mini food court that’s open really late at night for all the partiers and cool kids. I’ve been a few times, but I usually get my poutine and ditch, mostly because I have no one to sit with and the music sucks and is too loud.

Well, late last night (really it was very early this morning) I went with seven friends, found a table and we bought twelve songs. What happened next was epic.

Bohemian Rhapsody (a song that you have to sing, whether you want to or not) came on, and the guy at the cash turned it up for us, and we just started belting out this song in the middle of a fairly packed Oasis. We get some weird looks, but we don’t give a crap – it’s Bohemian Rhapsody!

Then, we hear it.

Across the room, another group of students started singing with us. We were practically singing the song to each other across the room with fist pumps, drumming, and head banging.

Little by little, people started joining in until we had basically the entire student population of Oasis singing this song with us.

We harmonized and grooved along until the end, and then went back to our conversations as if nothing had happened, but I thought to myself, “This is what makes people awesome. The fact that THAT just happened… wow.”

I don’t know why, but it was just so cool. We didn’t know the other people singing, but it didn’t matter. Bohemian Rhapsody united us that night in such a way as I had scarcely seen before, especially at Oasis.

Any way the wind blows.

Almost done!

Posted on November 29, 2013 by morganrobyn22

Okay seriously. It seems like only yesterday I was starting my first day of classes, and now I’m about to start my last week of them for this semester. I mean, how?!

Let me just say this: if you think time flies in high school, just wait until university. Seriously.

I’m down to my last four assignments for this semester, and looking ahead to my three exams. I don’t wanna.

This semester has been insane! I got new friends, a new roommate (as of tomorrow), had new experiences… it has been a blast. I’m a little frightened that it’s going to be over soon though… Oh well I guess, I can’t be stuck in my first semester of university forever!

Holy crap. I’m almost done my first semester of university. Yikes.

Here, There, and Everywhere

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