Thursday, March 4, 2010

Time flies when you're busy!

I've figured that days go by like hours and weeks go by like days.  I don't know if I will be able to keep up with this pace.  I keep as busy as ever though doing things that I think will help me learn, grow, and become who I have set out to be.

Here are some of the things that I keep myself busy doing:

Sunday

1.    Church has always been important to me.  I usually start my Sundays early in meetings, and then the  regular three hour block, and then meetings after.  I love to be involved and meet new people.  I love to be around dedicated people that help make Sundays the day of spiritual uplifting and recharging for the week.  It has been great to be in a new ward to learn from new experiences and people.

2.    About a month ago, I was called as a Ward Mission Leader.  I have been in various leadership callings, but this one has stretched me already.  I've been working on getting things for the nine or ten ward missionaries to do to help the missionary work go forward.  I've also been able to go to some teaching appointments with the full time missionaries.  It has been excellent to be able to feel many of the same feelings I felt on my mission.

3.    About once or twice a month, the Institute puts on a fireside.  I joined the Fireside Committee to be more involved with institute and good people.  It takes up the whole evening of the fireside.  We set up chairs and refreshments, then usher.  We then watch the fireside and then hand out the refreshments, take down chairs, and sweep the floor.  By the end I am usually exhausted, but it is well worth the fun we have while we're working.
   
4.    I usually end the day by going to ward prayer.  Quite a few people from the ward come and there is a spiritual thought and a prayer and then we hang around and talk for a while.  This is usually held at someone's house.

Monday

1.    Monday mornings are great for me.  I am usually able to use the time to catch up and prepare for the week.  If projects are due that week, I can work to catch up.
 
2.    I am taking the Institute class, The Gospel and the Productive Life.  It is a great class that talks about setting goals and accomplishing them.  There have also been sections on time management and finances.  I've really enjoyed learning more about those things.

3.    Early in the afternoon, I TA for the ME 1005 lab.  In the lab the students learn Solidworks.  This is a shorter lab because there are only 6 students and they are usually able to get done with everything pretty quickly.  Right after that I have a meeting for all of the TA's. 

4.    In the evening there is usually an activity planned for FHE.  This last week, we got together and played games.  It isn't necessarily important for me what we do as it is to be around good people.  Free food and candy is also a great addition. 

Tuesday

1.    Tuesday mornings also turn out to be great for catching up with homework, or I have an occasional extra meeting with a professor for TA stuff.

2.    My first class is Artificial Intelligence.  I've enjoyed the topics we are learning there because they are different than what I have been learning so far.  It is certainly stretching my capabilities.  It's always good to be able to accomplish something I didn't think I could do before.

3.    My next class is a Robot Control class.  This class seems to be combining things that I've learned before and teaching more advanced things that are used to control robots.  It has been a difficult class, but at least this week I feel on top of it.

4.    At five, I have a Parables of Jesus institute class.  The lessons have been great this semester and I really feel like I’m learning things that help me directly in my life.

5.    Tuesday evenings usually are good for homework again.  There is always plenty of homework or grading to do so it's good to have a lot of extra time.

6.    At nine, there is usually a dorm devotional, where the members of the ward that live in dorm buildings close to each other get together for a spiritual thought and a prayer.

Wednesday

1.    In the morning I teach a lab for the ME 1010 class.  These labs usually consist of an hour of computer programming, then two hours of motors, circuits, sensors or working on building robots.  It is usually a fun lab to teach.  The students are great and make it fun to work.  There are about 12 students in this class.

2.    In the early afternoon, I go to Viewmont Elementary to be a Mad Scientist.  I teach an after school workshop on robots.  This can sometimes be a very frustrating time especially when the kids have had a long day at school and want to go home.  It can be fun when I can see that they are actually learning something and having fun with science.

3.    Wednesday evening is the time that my fraternity usually meets.  We usually start with the brotherhood circle.  We go around the circle and talk about what’s going on in our lives.  This has been a great way to get to know everyone and feel united.  After that we usually have some kind of activity planned, usually with a chapter from the sorority.

Thursday

1.    I TA for the 3 hour lab for ME 1010 again.  Pretty much the same thing as before, but this time there are about 20 students in the class.

2.    Artificial Intelligence and Robot Control class again.

3.    I’m usually free for the rest of the day to work on homework and other things.

4.    There is usually something going on with the fraternity or an activity for the ward or at the institute during the evening.

5.    There is another dorm devotional at nine.

6.  At 10:10 pm the fraternity meets at the Pie Pizzeria for Pie Night.

Friday

1.    Friday morning I have TA office hours where I spend time in the lab helping students with questions they have on assignments and homework.

2.    In the early afternoon I have a meeting with the professor that is the advisor for my thesis project.  This is the time that I report on progress that I’ve hopefully been able to make during the week.

3.    During the evening there is usually an activity or a date planned or a chance to catch up with homework.

Saturday

1.     Saturdays seem to fly by even though I am usually free most of the day to decide what I want to do with it.  Usually I use the time to work on projects, clean the house, make a trip to Bountiful to see my parents, grocery shop, or do laundry.  Evening time always seems to come way too fast and I realize I only got half of what I wanted to do done.

2.    Evenings are usually spend doing what I missed doing during the day so I don’t feel guilty.  Or I go hang out somewhere or go on a date.

Anyway, this is my usual week.  There are more things that seem to come up all the time that need done, so that’s why I always feel like I’m catching up.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fun/busy schedule! I'm glad you're enjoying life. :)

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  2. I wish I had time to be lazy like you. Also, I can't understand why you don't come visit me--it sounds like you've got a lot of time on your hands.

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  3. That is a schedule and a half. It sounds like fun classes all around though. I'd be too scared to do that kind of self-assessment of my time.

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