Cafe Victoria

This week at my college campus there was: voter registration, a visit from the local agency Sexual Assault Victim Services passing out information in honor of national RAINN awareness day (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network), the Student Government met in the ASB office instead of their usual student lounge (all 18 of them), more rental listings were posted on the housing board, the new president of the Inter-Club Council lead his first meeting, a good friend who is a spanish instructor turned in a book proposal to a publishing company, and I finally got my club advisors’ September newsletter out just in time to work on the October one.

Today’s high: Reading “Time is how you spend your love” written by Zadie Smith. I just started her book. On Beauty was recommended to me by a woman at Readers Books in Sonoma. I was returning a novel that I just could not get into and the woman recommended On Beauty. I love being part of local bookstores. I also love it when a line in a book stops you. Wakes you up.

I work with communtiy college students. So far this fall semester, I have noticed that some of today’s college students:

• Buy daily parking passes because they do not have enough money at the beginning of school to buy a full pass. At my college: $27.50 per semester. Just think…we are in the 8th week of classes. By now, they have paid more for parking.
• Love being on MySpace!
• Really are balancing working, raising a family, homework and still making it to class. Imagine this, there are no dorms on the campus. So, they can’t just crawl out of bed and go to class. They have to get in their car and drive. Some are coming from as far as 25 minutes away.
• For many, English is their second language.
• Are willing to wait for their first choice university, even if it means putting off transfering for another year.

Today’s high: The calm feeling you get when you ride a horse. Knowing everything is caught up at home, at work, and in life. And then you look back at the person you are riding with and realize sharing your life is the best thing you ever did.

2 years ago today, I found Matthias’ Match.com profile. (more…)

This week in Life, I returned to drinking Green Tea in the morning. Since Christmas in Zamora, Mexico (2004), I have been drinking coffee every morning. I have enjoyed the sweet taste of coffee and time. There is something about taking the time to drink a full cup of coffee while reading the local paper or looking out the window at your neighbors. I will miss it. How is life with Green Tea? Right now, the focus is on not to get that crazy headache that comes with no coffee. So far, so good.

I have discovered that getting an “A” in a grad school course is very important in the survial of graduate school. I got my first A this past summer in my “Student Learning in the Co-Curriculum” class. For the first time, I felt that my writing had finally even up with graduate school writing. I also started to feel like I had something to offer the field of Student Affairs. I’ve never been about focusing on grades, but for some reason, getting an A in a graduate course shifted my way of thinking. The A said to me; yes you can do it! And, yes you too have something to offer the field.

I am Victoria and this is my home page. I am excited to share with you parts of my life, what I recently have discovered regarding music, novels, family, friends, life and of course Grad School!
I currently am a graduate student in the College Student Affairs program at Azusa Pacific University. I am in my 2nd year. As part of my graduate program, I will be using my blog to post assignments and highlights from my research for the field of Student Affairs. Enjoy!