Author Archives: rtanoue

About rtanoue

Hey! I'm Rachel Tanoue, a biology major neuroscience and bioethics emphasis in my sophomore year here at Puget Sound! I come from Aiea Heights, Hawaii (island: Oahu) & am super excited to live in the NorthWest! I'm a coxswain on the UPS men's varsity crew team, Hui O Hawaii member, Secretary on ASUPS Senate, a Theta & a Cellar-ite! Puget Sound offers so many opportunities in Tacoma, the surrounding areas, the academic community and in everyone else who calls themself a logger, I'm so excited to share all my thoughts and adventures with you! #oncealogger #alwaysalogger

GREEK WEEK

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Every semester the InterFraternal Council (IFC) and Panhellenic Council (Panhell) Programmers plan Greek Week. It’s basically the homecoming equivalent for Greek Life here at Puget Sound. We have a theme, we go to a volleyball game, host study hours, have a guest speaker, have a knowledge bowl competition, fundraising component  and last but definitely not least Greek Olympics. Its a full week for each of the houses to spend time within the whole Greek community cheering our volleyball team on at their rival game versus PLU, get those studying on for midterms, test our general knowledge for a fun night hosted by Order of Omega, the academic society within Greek Life and get a little athletic with tug-o-war, three-legged race, and more events at Greek Olympics.

greek week logo

 

This year’s event was themed medieval with members of Greek Life encouraged to dress as knights, peasants, princes and princesses, dragons, wizards and witches and more for activities.

In my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, shorthand known as theta, Greek Week is an opportunity for our chapter to come together and have fun! (Because a little friendly competition always is fun 🙂 And I definitely had fun this semester because our chapter got really into it, decorating outfits for the medieval themed dress up together, crafted props for our logger outfits with axes and supporting each other through the events, cheering our team on at knowledge bowl and participating or fanatically cheering at greek olympics! it was also cool and always fun to see how spirited the other sororities and fraternities were, it really was a week full of greek love and support reminding us about the bonds in greek life and the values we uphold. #thinkgreek #upstheta

The Independent Life

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Last November I made the decision to life off-campus. I thought THIS is what college is about! That THIS is independence that so many people at UPS do this, why not me? Luckily I already had five other friends I knew I would want to live with. That my friend, Nihal already has the experience to house-search, setting up bills and everything. Our house search was basically set up by her, since she spent that year living off campus she knew what to look for and what we should consider. There were many factors including- having six rooms, near to campus (or well reasonable since four of them had cars), cost and size of the house. We started our search through the trusted off-campus house search directory through our University. All the property owners/managers are trusted by the University and know they are offering housing to college students and have a good response from previous students experiences.

everything

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I’ve had so many thoughts bouncing in my head today. That after a massively full semester, I’ve had the most struggles and breakthroughs in my head today. Much like how I came upon the revelation of the true meaning of commencement, I didn’t realize how very much even with two more years to go there is much beginning in my life.

Junior year is the time for students to go abroad, I will not be among those students and to know my friends will be gone now until January or even from December to August.

To moving off-campus now that I don’t have to live on campus. I need to find and set-up my own bed, dresser, desk, do I even want those things or more in my room? How do I eat? There must be labeling of all things, I mean I’m sharing all the public spaces with 6 other people, friends yes but even I know from experience living or spending extended amounts of time such as vacations with people can stretch limits.

Ron Thom emailed us today to share he will be retiring at the end of next (2015-2016) academic year. He’s also our 13th President and will retire after his 13th year.

Some of my friends have even decided to not come for summer. They are sowing their oats at their respective campuses summer programs, volunteering or taking those steps to potentially move away from Hawaii permanently.

These may seem like trivial things in the future, or that defining moment where I see I had to be a big girl and make decisions about my independence, about how to deal with stepping out. And that’s scary, and it’s still two years until I will be thrown out to the real world (literally and figuratively xP)

To commence

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The 2015 Commencement Ceremony will be on Sunday, we will say goodbye and wish well 622 of our former classmates, friends, coworkers, significant others, flings, acquaintances and wonderful people. Ironically enough that same day will be two years from my high school graduation. reconciling both these revelations in my head is insane to even consider. Two years ago I couldn’t have imagined how much my life would have changed, how much I would love Puget Sound and on my way to figuring out my way.

Two years since high school, two years until college is over, so much can happen in two years. I thought between high school to college was a momentous moment, but this middle ground of college is the deciding point. Am I committing to my major or adding a major/minor, getting those credits I need? Do I want to study abroad? How am I building up my resume for after college? After graduation there’s no obvious socially demanded path that I have to take. Even more going to Puget Sound I now my education here is just another step to being myself, doing what I love in the future for a living, Yes, that may leave me struggling and lost for awhile but gives me the strength to figure out.

From high school we were just moving on to college in some form or the real world in some small steps right there. Commencement signifies the official end of the social norms of our education system, of the opportunity for us to truly be free to chose where we want to be, how we want to be and who we want to be. To begin the rest of our lives. Congratulations Class of 2015 on the start of the rest of your life! For me, I can’t wait to enjoy two more  years until the beginning of mine.

commence verb. begin; start

Small Liberal Arts Colleges

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Recently on Facebook I stumbled upon this article: Struggles Everyone At A Liberal Arts Colleges Knows on Buzzfeed that basically summed up every thought I’ve ever had at Puget Sound. The statements made in the post which were submitted by the buzzfeed community of people who go to schools like Puget Sound. I could name an incident or moment in time where I’ve had the exact thoughts of the things mentioned at Puget Sound.

And while the title of the articles does indicate the points are struggles, I would say they are also the benefits of going to a liberal arts college. Colleges aren’t just for individuals who want to be a doctor or lawyer, they are for people with a passion for learning, wanting to gain more knowledge about our world and decide how we can impact it. At a liberal arts college we can pull together interdisciplinary learning to be confident in doing unique for ourselves and valuing the arts. yes, I’ve taken some really interestingly named classes such as Medical Discourse and the Body and Constitutional Controversies. Both were my seminar, freshmen English classes that combined redefining writing research papers and how to participate in college-level discussions. And I can’t wait to take a Connections course here, I’m hoping for Health and Medicine but there are so many fascinating options of study that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy if I didn’t come here.

And the one thing I am so happy to be a part of is the community, that we can hold discussions in class about the readings we actually did, that I know the names of my classmates to interact with that, I know the names of the people who make my chai lattes at Opp (thanks Em!), silently laughing in the Library because I accidentally fell down. These experiences in our Puget Sound, liberal arts, community, wouldn’t be possible if I went to a big state school, or a one-track college to just get my science degree. These can be  the struggles if you don’t like someone or you see people that saw you make a complete fool of yourself last night, but those are the small things that when I’m gray and old I won’t remember, I’ll only remember the good times.

Taking a Break

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It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on here, and I’ve had many times where I thought to myself, “hmmm that’s interesting maybe I should blog about it” only to inadvertently get distracted and not actually post anything or the feeling of “maybe I should post something, I’ve been blog silent for so long” but I didn’t want to post any foolish nonsense. But then I realized, blogging is just supposed to be a way of expressing myself, for me to throw my thoughts and feelings out into the world and maybe when I’m out take a look back (because hey anything you put on the internet will be there forever… right?) on those formative college years.

If there’s one thing I noticed in the spring semester, it’s that everything is BUSY, like beyond busy! Throughout the semester all the events, schoolwork, planning ahead, applications and end is reaching a crescendo and piles of things to do. The wind has been picking up, but so has the heat so it’s like the even out almost. The cumulative nature of learning is definitely building up like year this semester is coming to a close and all that information is necessary to succeed but in reality we’re been storing information from kindergarten from preschool. A human’s brain is most plastic the first three years of our lives, so basically everything we know, our habits, our behaviors are all built from our experiences before we were three years old! Who needs college anyway right?

The Get Away

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I thought coming to college there would be time to explore Canada, all over Washington and possibly Oregon. But in actuality college is more time-consuming, travel time is too much time. I think the only time I’ve been to Seattle is for crew regattas and Thanksgiving with my roommate, there isn’t even time to make that 45min-1hour drive. But the one thing we have is technology. The ability to stay in contact, if we so wish with our friends and family, to make friends and explore other places through those new snapchat events.

Spring Break Blues

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College is a long arduous process, it’s one we entered into voluntarily but I don’t think we really understood how much it could actually take out of us. There is no easy way, there just isn’t and that’s part of life. That there are struggles and differences in acceptance and learning styles of people that you have to overcome, you may love all your professors as people (it’s so fun and adorable to find out professors are married to other professors, whether they’re in the same department or across campus) and more.

Uncertainty is alright

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This week has been on of those weeks, where everything seems to be convening on these few days with everyone in the world wanting to pitch in their two-sense and win the argument, trust, support or right to something. But guess what, sometimes the things that you want, aren’t entitled to you. Sometimes you need to think about if your actions are completely transparent and reflective of your intentions? We’re all humans and the need to be emotional, supportive and trusting are valuable traits to strong relationships and building ideas but sometimes the greater good may step on these values.

And think these are invaluable lessons to learn, we’re still in college so there is less pressure on making the right decisions but rather finding our way in the way we grow and prosper to become contributing members of society. However at the same time, college is moving so quickly I don’t often feel like I have a good grasp on what opportunities are available to me, how I may take advantage of them and allow me the peace to find my path. We’re supposed to look four, three, two or past our last semseter to be planning out each detail. We have only been on this Earth for 17-21 years, have we seen it all to know what we want? I definitely don’t think so, but everyone’s individual experiences shape their perspective on life, on what is feasible in life. I can only hope we can allow ourselves to be vulnerable to ask for the support and advice from our peers, professors, advisors, coaches and faculty, staff at the University of Puget Sound.

 

I guess you can say I’m not ready to grow up yet, and its rapidly approaching anyway.

Out in Public

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I think everyone at one time in their life was (or still is) afraid of doing things in public. Society has all these set standards on what we should be doing, how we should be doing it and where we should be doing it. Today’s Valentine’s Day and I didn’t have any special plans except to participate in my crew team’s ergathon fundraiser. Erg is a land rowing machine that simulates the pressure and stride of rowing with a monitor to measure stroke rate, speed, distance, time and our supporters can donate $10 for every 1K we row or $1 for a power 10 (10 fast strong strokes at 150% effort). Despite the number of students who didn’t know us, or lack of carrying real money around and that weird feeling you get knowing you want to support a good cause but you don’t have money and you’re a broke college student and hungry but you can actually see all the hard work your friends on the crew team are working. And I think while we may not have raised a huge amount of money at our ergathon there were a lot of friends, classmates and even prospective students and families on tour that got to see how hard all the rowers work and what crew is about.

We had hour erging shifts for everyone to get their daily Saturday workout and show our campus (at least those that were up and ventured to the Sub in the morning, although we kept going until 3pm) more about crew. We’re a more obscure sport, we don’t have an official DIII conference anymore and by nature of the sport, smaller teams, less knowledge about it (it’s a legs sport guys NOT an arms sport) that being out in public was good!