Kayaking: 

On October 5th at 2:00pm I went kayaking with two friends. We went and rented out the equipment from the campus center where we had to fill out paperwork and got help putting on life jackets. After that we then proceeded to carry the equipment to the point where the kayaks launch off into the ocean. The kayak seemed light at first when we were carrying them but as we kept walking it became heavier and heavier to the point where I almost had to stop and take a break but we eventually got down to the cove next to the point where the kayaks launch off. This was only my second time kayaking and the first time was a long time ago so the lady that was helping us had to remind me of a few things before we were able to go out into the water. She reminded us to use the power of our torso and rotation in our strokes and went through a plan of what we should do incase we capsize. When we got out on the water It was a little bit chilly with the breeze and I remember feeling like I should have worn a hat. Me and my friends cruised around casco bay in our kayaks and enjoyed being able to see UNE from the perspective of the bay. Eventually we all came to a stop and held onto each other’s kayaks and just drifted with the wind. This was peaceful and gave me a nice break from paddling. As we sat and drifted we talked and while we were talking a sturgeon fish jumped out of the water in front of our kayaks. I was shocked and horrified. I have never seen a sturgeon fish before and they are one of the most intimidating prehistoric fish I have ever seen. The whole time I was thinking how bad it would suck to flip over. Number one because of the cold water and number two god knows what was swimming in the water beneath us. We also saw two herons when we were out on the water. Before we knew it it was time to head back and eat dinner. We paddled back to shore and returned the equipment. The walk back to return the equipment was even harder because I was exhausted from paddling.Overall it was a really fun experience and I’m glad that we did it. In total we spent 3 hours out in nature kayaking.  

Working at the Tsongas center at UMass Lowell :

On Saturday October 8th I worked at the Tsongas center and helped film a Hockey game where the UMASS Lowell RiverHawks faced off against the Miami RedHawks. I clocked in at 4:30 and started to help set up the cameras and tripods. Then I started running the cables from the cameras to where they need to go and making sure that people don’t trip on them. By the time I was done with this It was almost time for puck drop. As I was heading out to the camera that I normally work on my boss approached me and asked me if I would be willing to work a different position. Although I would have preferred to be on a handheld camera because that’s what I normally do and that’s what I’m used to, I wanted to look like a team player so of course I said yes. He put me on the camera that’s operated in the control room and located underneath the jumbotron. I have never done this position before so one of my coworkers who had done it before quickly taught me a few things before the game started. To operate the camera I had a control panel in front of me with a million buttons. At first I had no idea what buttons to press and it was definitely a learning curve trying to operate the camera because I’m so used to the other Hitachi cameras where all of the shots are candid from the videographer but with this camera all the shots are already cued up and you just have to press a button to get to it. As the game progressed it became more clear to me what buttons I needed to press to get the angles that I wanted. But I still couldn’t get to the shots quick enough. The director would say “PTZ (which is the name of the camera) I want the coach of the away team” and by the time I could get the shot up it would be too late. So what I did during one of the breaks in between periods was i wrote down the #’S of the buttons that I noticed I was using the most and a label of what it was on a sheet of paper. For example #55 Team entrance or #40 away bench. Having the piece of paper helped me pick up the pace in the Third period and actually be able to get the shots that I needed. I thought I did pretty well for my first time especially with being thrown into 10 minutes before puck drop with no time to learn the equipment I was proud of myself.   

Cru: 

On Wednesday October 12th I went to a Cru meeting. You may wonder what is Cru? Cru is a Community of Christians and Catholics That get together every Wednesday In Decary room 205 to Share a good meal and explore god. Each meeting starts with a free dinner that is either handmade or takeout from a local restaurant. At this meeting we ate tacos from Coco bar and grill. The Tacos were so amazing. I love Mexican food. After eating tacos we got straight to business and talked about our plan of action. For this meeting we were creating school goodie bags for children in Africa. We created an assembly line with all of the supplies for the goodie bags and started packing them up. I was assigned the pencil and eraser duty and got put on the side of the table with people I hadn’t talked to before. While getting to know some of the new people around me I connected with an upperclassman who is also a communication major and talked to him about if he liked it here at UNE and what he was planning to do with his major in the future. I really enjoyed this activity and felt it helped me get closer to the community here at UNE and closer to my faith. By the time we were done packing bags at the end of our hour and and half long meeting we had packed 406 bags. Thinking about how happy the kids receiving the bags would be filled my heart with joy. It feels good to do something good for others like this and I havent had the opportunity to volunteer my time in a long time because of how busy I always am with work.      

Went and voted: 

On November 9th I went out to Biddeford High School and voted. Earlier in the day I educated myself about who was running and what they stand for to make sure I’m voting appropriately.  I also texted multiple good chats of mine and let everyone know that I would be going out to vote and that if anybody wanted to come with they were welcome to. I ended up getting three people to come with me. They were happy just to go for a drive and get off campus for a little while. On the car ride over we jammed tunes and had a very much needed karaoke session. When we got to the highschool there were so many people there. I have never voted before and neither have my friends so the first thing that we had to do was stand in the registration line. They had about 8 people there helping people register but the line was still long and slow. When I finally got up to the help desk my wifi crashed and I couldn’t get the paperwork up on Uonline that proves that I’m a resident. I stepped out of line and I panicked. I almost thought that the trip had been for not, I didn’t know what to do. Then one of my friends had the brilliant idea to turn on the hotspot on her phone and to let me connect to it. Once I was connected to the hotspot my Wifi came back and I was able to pull up the information that I needed on Uonline. Unfortunately though, I did have to wait in the long line again. Once I was finally able to get registered I went and voted and got my sticker. I’m glad that I went out and voted. It made me feel like I did something good.   

Cupcake Decorating: 

On December 5th Featherman held a Christmas activity/ craft get-together in the lounge areas on each floor and my friends invited me to join because I don’t live in featherman, I live in Avila. On the First floor You could decorate a Gingerbread cookie, on the second floor you could make a Gnome out of a sock, on the third floor they had Christmas coloring books and lots of markers and crayons and on the fourth floor you could decorate a cupcake. Me and my friends decided that we wanted to decorate cupcakes. I decided that I was going to decorate my cupcake like a Christmas tree. I saw this thing on Tiktok where you put a pretzel in the middle of the cupcake and then put icing on the pretzel and it looks like a Christamas tree. I wanted to try it out. So I ran back to my friend’s room and grabbed one of those skinny pretzels. My final result definitely didn’t look as good as what i was trying to mimic online but hey the cupcake was still delicious either way. One of my friends decorated her cupcake green and then drew a little red heart to represent the grinch and my other friend made her cupcake a snowman. I thought this was a really cute idea and a great way to help students destress from the last few weeks. I wish that Avila could do things like this but I will definitely try to attend when featherman hosts events like this again in the future. I had a lot of fun and writing this and thinking about how good that cupcake was is making my mouth water.  

Went to Saco River Wildlife center: 

On December 7th I drove to the Saco river Wildlife center. I reached out to multiple different places about wanting to tour their facilities but after reaching out to 7 different places they were the first people to get back to me and I was so happy that they did. Just from seeing what they had to offer and some of the things that they do I was super excited that I was going to be able to go there. It was about an hour drive to the center. When I got to the center I was greeted by a rehabber named Katrina. She was so happy to have me and started showing me around immediately. The first thing she showed me was all the animals that they had inside. They had porcupines, raccoons, bats, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks, you name it! All the animals looked very well taken care of and they all had different kinds of enrichment in the cages. As we made our way around the facilityKatrina explained how they run things and how they take care of the different animals. She was happy to answer I had and did a very good job explaining each animal and why they were there. She also said that winter was usually their slow time but that they were still packed to the brim and looking for room to expand.When she was done showing me around I interviewed her and asked her these questions.

1.) Why is animal rescue and conservation important? 

2.)How can I get involved in animal conservation? 

3.) How did you get involved

4.) How do you receive funding to operate your facility? 

5.) Tell me about your most meaningful rescue? 

6.) What are some ways that the community can help your efforts? 

The interview was 30 minutes long and very engaging and two other staff members came over to help answer some of the questions as well. They all got very passionate when sharing the details of their most meaningful rescue. They shared a lot of valuable interesting information with me during the interview including that they had done around 400 rescues this year alone. I was shocked by that. The volunteers there truly do the very best they can for the animals in their care. The whole experience was really fun for me and just made me want to learn even more about animal conservation and wildlife centers. I’m even considering doing an internship with them now.