Tag Archives: carletonuniversity

Why I Relay 2015

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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.

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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?

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Home Sweet Home

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Hi, my name is Morgan and I think I’m an adult…

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You know what’s hard?  Growing up, that’s what’s hard.

When we’re little, all we want is to stop having to sit at the kid table, to get treated like adults, to be what we said we wanted to be when we grew up.  When I was younger, I was determined that I was going to work at Tim Horton’s so I could see my dad every day.  If only it were so simple.

I’m starting my second year of university in September, which I am really excited about.  I’m living off residence in the same apartment complex as Mikey with my BFF Jess, and I’m getting even more freedom than last year.  This all sounds awesome, but honestly?

I’m terrified.

Growing up means having to pay for lots of stuff, even if you don’t have any money.  It means that your parents, who (bless them) are helping you pay for your education, have to fork out even more money, with even less scholarship funds available to them.  It doesn’t help when you don’t get your scholarship renewed because you didn’t make the cut.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that when we’re younger, growing up seems like the best thing to happen to us.  But when we’re actually grown up, sometimes all we want is to go back to the times when the most we had to worry about was sitting at the little kid table and deciding whether we wanted to be a princess or a mermaid when we grew up.