Tyler Rauch's Blog

FINALLY! Time to take a breath

     Is it that time already? I know I have written about the end of the semester coming to a close, but for the first time it REALLY hit me. I'm going to be a senior in four days...What? Wait...one more time...I'm going to be a senior in four days. OK in all honesty, that never seems to sound quite right in my head no matter how many times I repeat myself. As much as I DON'T want to say it, it is reality. As of Friday at the end of this week I will be completely finished with my junior year. Most students grin at the thought of being a grown up, but that just means that I have to leave the place I have come to love and call my home away from home. Hence why I am not as excited about being a senior as I probably should be.

     I am, however, VERY excited about the next chapter in my life which we all like to call Summer. I'm not excited because I get to go home and work in the Florida heat, sit in my jacuzzi, swim in my pool or go to New Smyrna beach, but to travel abroad for the first time in my life and work at one of the most competitive internships in the country. As I thought of it today I will be living in four different states and one different country over the next two and a half months. I'd like to think that this is only possible at a place like Queens :)

     This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to accompany a beautiful young lady to her Kappa Delta Sorority formal. I always love those things because food, dancing and pretty girls will never steer you wrong :)  I was also fortunate enough to attend my roommate Brian's mothers birthday dinner at the Palm in Charlotte. I can still taste the best steak I've ever had...Yummm! Sunday we had our Campus Union Board end of the year "thank you" lunch at Olive Garden which was DELICIOUS! In case you didn't catch it, let me recap this weekends meals for you. Friday-Steak at the Palm, Saturday- KD Formal dinner, Sunday- Olive Garden lunch...Does it really get much better? NOOOOOOOPE! And before that I was able to be a presenter at the Student Life Awards which also had plenty of delicious shrimp, fruit and little rolls.  Let's just say the event was a great success and Queens really outdid itself on this one. Student Life Awards is just one of the many events that recognize the contributions students, faculty and organizations make on campus. Certainly something that everyone should get the chance to attend :)   

     Now that I have backtracked a few days, I would like to elaborate on the week ahead. The way its looking now, I will be taking care of little "housekeeping" items such as calling banks about traveling abroad, taking care of getting a new phone, summer living plans and things of that sort that have to happen, but I have not had time to do for the first half of this week followed by some studying for the last half. See, I have two exams left before I'm completely finished. One Thursday at 9am and one Friday at 1:30. I mentioned how many papers I had to write and exams I had to take in an earlier blog, which makes this week relatively easy. By easy I mean I get a breath of fresh air from my usual life. The Student Ambassadors have concluded the year as well as Campus Union Board and The Academic Resource Center. Outside of lacrosse, these are probably the most time consuming things I take part in. I am sad for them to be over, but happy to have a few extra hours to take to myself! On top of all that lacrosse just ended last Friday as we lost in the 2nd round of the conference tourn. Certainly not the season we all hoped, but there is always next year. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger and I intend to fully learn as much as possible from this season.

     It is these reasons that I feel I can get a chance to take a second and breathe. Simply being a student is easy, its the other stuff that keeps me on my toes 9 months out of the year! I'm looking forward to sleeping in, getting the little things on the to-do list done, working out more, spending more time studying AND sleeping...Just thought I'd throw sleeping in there twice. It is certainly something I need more of in my life!!!!

     Tonight I am finishing up this blog, going to lift and heading off to my final Campus Union Board event of the year! This is a huge campus tradition called Midnight on Ice and I CAN'T WAIT! I love ice skating and since it's my event, I get even more excited! It's always a great time and the students always love it. Its a little sad though, because although I will be attending it two more times as a senior, this is the last time I will plan it :( I have been voted secretary and will no longer hold those responsibilities.  Tomorrow is reading day which is a chance for students to just study, read, sleep or destress (if thats possible during exam week). It's Queens way of saying take some time to yourself! I can't wait for this week and all that it has to offer. I know how much fun exam week always is, but this one should be at the top. I will be sure to write on my next post about how exciting it was and the things that went on, but I'll save that for next time. Until then be safe and I look forward to writing these next few blogs on how amazing the summer has started out to be!

Here are a few more pictures from the Student Life Awards :)

Is it already here?

     I cannot believe that the last official week of classes for my junior year is already here! This week is sure to be full of good stuff ranging from exams to the start of our conference tournament. This Sunday was probably the last relaxing Sunday I'm gong to have for a loong time!

     This past week was crazy for me (as you can read from my last blog). Fortunately I made it out alive and think it went pretty well. I did have quite a few papers to write, exams to take, a speech to give and a project due as well as a 21st birthday and a Saturday full of Queens events. I think the exams and papers went pretty well. As far as I'm concerned I am about where I'd like to be for grades. By no means do I have the straight A's that I dream of, however, Its looking like the possibility of 3 A's and 2 B's if I keep working hard. The way I see it, I've got my GPA where I'd like it and as long as I can keep it at that level or go up then I cannot complain.

     My 21st birthday was a blast. I can definitely say without a shadow of a doubt that I have the BEST friends, family and teammates on the planet. I can't say enough about the love that was shown for me by everyone and I am so thankful for it! Although my birthday was on Thursday, my parents drove in late Friday to help celebrate as well. We went to dinner twice and lunch once so its safe to say I was eating right these past few days! And lets be real here, the best part about birthdays is that you're bound to get gifts way after your birthday because half of your relatives don't have your address and there is nothing like getting cards or birthday wishes a few days after :)

     On Saturday I had Preview Queens which I thought went pretty well. Unfortunately I could not stay for the entire day because of our last regular season home game, but I still got to meet lots of wonderful people. I wish we had a little more time to sit down and talk to the students, however, the time we did have seemed like enough to help them start making their college decisions. After all, there is plenty of time considering they are all only juniors. On a quick side note of Preview Queens, I can't say how excited I am to know that a few more people might read my blog! I wasn't planning on it at the time, but we ended up putting in our plugs for the student blogs during my 25 minute info session! If you are one of the new readers that was at Preview Queens then THANK YOU!

     After Preview Queens, we had our last regular season home game against St. Andrews. This is a team that has always beat us in the past, but coming into the game we were very evenly matched. This game was also HUGE for our tournament seeding. If we won it would put us as the second seed for the tournament which would give us a first round by and give us a lot more potential to end up in the finals. If we lost, we would have to play a much harder path to the finals and seed us fifth. Luckily we won despite the rainy conditions that for a while seemed like they would cancel the game. It was also our senior day and our last chance to send them out with a bang. They've worked so hard for four years and they deserved it. We have our next game for the second round of the Conference Carolinas tournament on Friday at 2pm. I can't wait!!!

     As far as this week is concerned, I have one final on Wednesday and a few exec meetings, however, since it is the end of the year, we have successfully wrapped up all of our final meetings last week which means a little more free time to study and really get into gear so I can finish strong. I mentioned that this would be my last relaxing Sunday for a long time just because I have exams to study for, packing for Spain and Detroit followed by my John Belk International Program study tour to Spain and the internship with Ford immediately after that. Once I am full swing into the JBIP trip and the internship I highly doubt I will be doing much relaxing. What about after the internship and Spain trip you ask? Well, I leave immediately to come back and work orientation as soon as I am done in Detroit. By no means will this summer be anything but exciting and busy! It's great practice for everything I will encounter my senior year as well as once I graduate.

     I certainly look forward to keeping up with the blogs over the next few weeks and into the summer, but cut me some slack while I'm in Spain. I am sure I will have plenty to write about as soon as I am settled in Michigan. I really do look forward to sharing the Ford experience with everybody as I progress through the summer. Thanks to everyone who has taken part in a Queens event this year or is looking to! You all make Queens the wonderful place it is :)

     Until next time, take care and be safe!

P.S. I wanted to share a few photos from the night it snowed this year. I mentioned that I had to get a working computer and a cable to upload photos so here they are :) Thanks for your patience!    

A paper a day keeps the doctor away!

     OK, so you can tell by the title that I obviously have quite a few papers due this week. Now, by most circumstances this would make most students a little upset. I, however, find that when it comes to be that time of year when all the papers seem to be due one after the next, that I can't help but smile! See, the more papers that are due in a more concentrated period of time generally means one of two things. Either A) you are majoring in political science, history or English or B) IT'S THE END OF THE YEAR! In my case, its the end of the year which means my John Belk International Program trip to Spain followed by my 10 weeks with Ford. This also means that I won't have as many finals to take because the papers take their place. See, a week full of papers isn't so bad after all :)

     Outside of the papers I have a speech to do which I LOVE because public speaking is sort of my thing. For those of you who have met me in person I'm sure you found out quickly that talking is also sort of my thing :) I forgot to mention that one of the papers is for a scholarship that I was selected for and if I receive the money, it will be awarded for my trip to Spain. Who wouldn't want to write a paper for some serious cash to use overseas? The last big project that I feel I should talk about is a corporate finance project that will be done on excel to demonstrate the ability to compute certain values using a spreadsheet on the computer. It won't take entirely too long, because when interviewing with Ford, I had to do a case study which involved a financial analysis and I got VERY familiar with excel during that period. That pretty much does it for my week in terms of homework. To recap I have three papers, one speech, two finals and an excel project. Although it looks bad, I can assure you that I'll come out on top.  Weeks like this are what being a college student is all about.

     At the end of the week I have a pretty big day. I turn 21 on April 10th (Thursday) which I can't wait for! I've waited what feels like 50 years for this to happen and its hard to believe it's Thursday.  Because of lacrosse games and class, I won't really be able to celebrate until Saturday night. Nonetheless it should be a great time and I can't wait!

     We play our last game of the regular season which is home against St. Andrews at 2pm. We are coming off of a big win against Lees McCrae college in Banner Elk which our team really needed. I started so it felt good to get the win and get our confidence back before we head into the conference tournament. Depending on Saturday we will find out if we are getting a "by" or playing a lower seed. There are so many factors that we'll just have to wait and see before I make any predictions.  Wish us luck!

     Tonight I was inducted into the Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society and elected as the communications Chair. It is certainly a big deal for me, because this is a prestigious honor society and something that is a testament to my hard work the last few years. It feels good to be a part of this society, but feels even better to get elected to an exec position! This of course is coming off of a huge shock that happened Friday afternoon. I was elected President of the Student Ambassadors and I can't begin to tell you how much of an honor that is. I was running against two of the best candidates at Queens and am honored to have been chosen! It seems like my senior year is shaping up to be a good one! I love the opportunities  Queens provides its students to get involved and the chances you have to grow and move up in those clubs or orgs. I hold an exec position in every club that I am a part of and started as a freshman or sophomore in each one at the lowest level. I suppose I'm still in shock. Pinch me!

     That about does it for me here, I have to get running and finish some reading for management and outlining of paper number two. I finished number one about 20 minutes ago and figured I'd take this opportunity to update you all! I hope everyone is doing well and don't forget to shoot me any questions you might have! Until next time, BE SAFE!