With November closing, soon came finals as well as the final part of my project for EPICS. Here at Mines this means walking into the library as the sun rises and leaving when the moon begins its descent into the horizon, perhaps moving to your dorm or sleeping for a few hours depending on the following day’s events. It cannot be stressed enough how important study is here at Mines. It is vital to know how one studies best as well as how to remove the inevitable stress. The first of these will be learned with time, while the school helps immensely with the second. All throughout the week preceding finals there were plates of deserts, coffee, and cocoa in the common areas of the residence halls.

In addition to this, there was also a moonlight breakfast, which was just a chance to have breakfast foods for dinner, however, since the meal was completely free, regardless of whether or not you have a meal plan, it is a good chance to see some upperclassman friends you may have. I got to have dinner with my friend and fraternity brother, Will, which isn’t too common since he lives off campus so he isn’t required to have a meal plan like me, or for that matter, you next year. The day after this was a study lounge day sponsored by the Residence Hall Association which was just a good time to spend doing group study as well as enjoy some of the extraordinary catered food by Sodexo. While finals can be a stressful event at Mines, these events are nice as they show that the school understands and will do as much as it can to ease the burden carried by us.

My finals were not too bad, although I did study as much as I said. I’m pretty sure I saw the sun rise twice in the two weeks preceding finals. I’ll know for sure how I did later though. Only difficulty is that two of them were back to back, which normally isn’t too bad since you can ask for another time of the week of the professor of the class with the highest class number, but I didn’t because I had already booked my flight back home to Texas.

It’s nice after the stress of finals (and the stress of flying) to be back home with my family and friends. I wish I could say more than I’m about to, but the first two days were spent in bed catching up with the sleep I’ve been missing. I spent a bit of time at the local mall with some friends from high school so we can catch up, especially the four of my old circle of friends who went off into other states for school. I’m also picking up French and German with the help of Rosetta Stone as well as a site online that has foreign television shows so that I could maybe one day study abroad or at least travel over one of the various seasonal breaks, probably a shorter one because of the cost associated with overseas travel.

With that, I’m signing off for the semester. Enjoy your Winter Break, and have a wonderful winter holiday whichever one that is for you if you choose to celebrate one. Congratulations on your acceptance to the Colorado School of Mines, you’ve made a wonderful decision!

              My familiy's Christmas tree and nativity set!