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

NEW you, new me, new everything

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A lot happens at the beginning of the calendar year- organizing taxes, planning our summer holidays, starting our second and usually last semester of that year, and the beginning of the rest of our lives. I’ve been having a lot of these philosophical, big picture , “how is what I’m doing now affecting my future” thoughts and freakouts as this break ends. Am I supposed to know where my life is heading at this point, mid-sophomore year? What if  I don’t know how to make the the big picture happen in little steps?

But then I also had to think, what if my future is right there waiting for me to grasp it and make it happen this semester? If I happen to become lifelong best friends, or make the mistakes I need to that will be my wake-up call? There’s so much unknown out there all I know is there’s no good to dwell in the past, to dredge up the good memories or bad times. There’s only time for this NEW year, this new semester, new activities, new life and new me.

The holidays

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While I was scouring the internet for procrastination entertainment, during finals and let’s face it all throughout the semester, I consistently turned to watching the Ellen Show videos. Hosted by outstanding comedian Ellen DeGeneres this show has silly games, she interviews the stars of Hollywood and of real life and it has a lot of dancing everyday. Ellen’s enthusiasm and realness shines through the screen and her desire to share the goodness and understanding with each other always gets me. Honestly, if I’m tearing up in Harned in the midst of studying, it’s probably because I watched one of Ellen’s heartfelt videos. And while studying for my last exam on Thursday I watched a video that really out the holidays into perspective. The holiday spirit is the time for good food in the company of our family and friends, it’s all about the giving spirit. But watching this video about Jacqui Saldana on the Ellen show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH3pnH70vTs) made me realize the holidays can be the happiest or the saddest times of the year. Jacqui writes on her blog, www.babyboybakery.com, initially to share the stories of life with her newborn son Ryan, but continued to write about the heartwrenching pain and struggle of continuing to live after Ryan’s passing at the tender age of 3 years old. I can’t possible imagine how much pain she must be in and the strength of her family to push through and be able to laugh and share in the company of the rest of the Ellen show.

As college students and even adults, we often take for granted the good fortune we have with our health, family, and the opportunity to study at such an amazing school. We are all so blessed to be able to live each day knowing our parents are supporting our dreams to have a bright future after college, and the friends we surround ourselves with, lift us up and make each day a pleasure. And I hope we all recognize this love and comfort during the holidays, that there are people who may be feeling the emptiness of their lost ones even more and we should continue to envelop them in our love and being grateful for all that we have. With that in mind, I wish everyone the best of holidays~

 

“Be kind to one another” -Ellen DeGeneres

Finals Drag On

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During the time of finals there is no feeling of Christmas in the air at all. All the students are going through their piles of notes, stack of note cards, reviewing powerpoints and, or editing and re-editing their papers. There’s so much grasping our immediate attention we don’t have time to think about Christmas, family, our holiday shopping or the generally merry cheer. And that makes me sad to think about, that our exams have taken over so much, ask so much of us that we are anxious students this past reading period and finals week. There’s an imperceptible feeling of dampened all-night studying and general anxiety cloaked over campus as we pass the mid-week of Finals. Some of my friends didn’t start their finals until today! While some of my friends are already completely down and ready to get into the holiday spirit now.

I don’t recall my high school finals to be this studious or heavy feeling at all but I guess that’s the thing about college. In high school our grades only mattered to get into college if that and now, these grades determine our future- if we go to grad school, if we pass this class into the next upper level class or internship and job opportunities after college. The real world is out there and we can feel it watching us this finals week. And that’s the truth of it, some of my senior friends are graduating at the end of this week, and that’s crazy to think as well. Finals is the end of another semester, another chapter to our life, one more step closer to graduation and the real world. While i’m having all these mildly deep thoughts I’m going to get back to studying. But my one motivator to get through one more day? The fact I get to go home on Friday, that I will soon be back to the humid, warm, sunny blue skies of beautiful Hawaii and in the warm  embrace of my family of friends!

A hui ho until the end of finals!

It’s THAT Time of Year Again

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No not the holiday season, not those all-nighters and all-dayers in the library but…..

the mass consumption and buying of food with all our dining dollars before the semester is over!

For some reason although we have the option to chose how big or small we want our meal plan and adjust our dining dollars spending there are still hoards of people with so much money at the end of the semester they buy drinks in bulk, buy everyone in Diversions a muffin or 10 pizzas in one night! Now I need to admit, I too have a bunch of extra dining dollars at the end of the semester, but I’m on the lightest meal plan and I still reasonably did not use up all my dining dollars. I ate my three meals a day, 7 days a week but I did consistently use my Cellar staff points to buy food as well (hey I worked for it, why not!) To get rid of some of them I asked some family to come in and eat on me, and I’ve bought meals for some of my male teammates. Let me to you, no matter what male athletes usually on the mega meal-plan have already refilled their dining dollars multiple times AND they never have enough dining dollars at the end of the semester!

However a little known tidbit is that all students can carry over 25 DINING DOLLARS to the next semester from the fall! That’s great! Except most people have way more than that so they need to buy a bunch of items anyway. It makes working at the Cellar during this time of year a little crazy. Yesterday was the first day of reading period and as a student-run operation we were only open 6-midnight to give us workers study time too! But when we opened at 6, the floodgates opened! There was always for the entire time until the end of my shift at 8:30 at LEAST five people in line, and the phone was ringing off the hook so often! I was in the back with my friend Mel and we just made pizza all the way through that shift, no breaks, refilling topics, grabbing more dough, don’t stop can’t stop!

Blackout

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Disclaimer: This article conveys the thoughts and observations of myself, the writer, and does not reflect the views of the Communications Department or University of Puget Sound.

When the news broke last Monday that the grand jury decided that there was NOT probable cause to indict someone, Darren Wilson, for a crime (of shooting and killing of Michael Brown), our campus was not silent. As many of the nation, our students spoke out on social media about our confusion, sadness, anger, and wealth of emotions we felt. And the welcoming and interest in the ethics of justice, equality, safety and security arose from this incident in our community is so good to see. UPS students care and we want to make it known our feelings and are taking steps to help each other be educated and act on our beliefs.

While I know that the grand jury did not and cannot judge if Michael Brown deserves justice and could only sift through all the evidence and testimonies to determine if there is probably cause to to indict someone to a crime, which the grand jury decided there was not. This doesn’t mean that other actions can’t be taken, another grand jury could be called to reconvene or a federal criminal trial could be brought on the charges of Darren Wilson violating Michael Brown’s constitutional rights. I think it’s hard to know what actually happened on that fateful day but one thing I think is clear, all people matter. Every American deserves the opportunity towards their American Dream to be treated with respect and prove their worth before being judged based on their appearance alone, and for that reason I #wishforjustice and believe #blacklivesmatter.

On December 1, 2014 one week after the grand jury announced there will be no indictment of Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown, the students, faculty and staff of the University of Puget Sound wore black to signify our commitment to dismantling institutional racism in our country. We stand together in solidarity as we mourn the death of Michael Brown and demonstrate our frustration with the recent grand jury decision. The UPS Black Student Union has committed to a series of peaceful protests to ensure that we continue the conversation on the implications that this tragedy has on our campus, community, and country. Please join this act of solidarity wherever you are located and whoever you are.

-Black Student Union, Black Out Event description shared on Facebook

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Off-Campus

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Puget Sound is often and fondly by all of us, home. And this home isn’t in the literal sense necessarily, it’s finding a place where we can be ourselves, share our learning and passions and grow as people. And while I’ve made some great and truly amazing friends living in T/P Garden Level last year and Theta this year, I’ve decided to make the decision to live off campus. And there are many factors attributed towards that decision.

The cost to live on campus is pretty expensive, especially compared to the off-campus housing opportunities. There are options to rent a room or share a room, and pay only the rent, utilities heating and cable bills as necessary all can amount, in my case, lower than the cost of living on campus. It also gives me the opportunity to have an off-campus meal plan, more suited to my eating and spending as well as make my own meals, here comes the mac n cheese, ramen, oatmeal and cereal days but it’s realistic and puts the power of what i’m eating more directly into my hands instead of just what the sub has. The third perk is choosing who I want to live with and where we are living. The different types of rooms vary in cost on campus along with room options through the lottery which isn’t ideal either. This way I found five amazing friends I want to live with and we can all have our own room, or share if we choose to, to look for large closets if that’s what we want or non-scary basements, to live as close to campus as possible or close to the nearest Starbucks. Having these choices and responsibility is really pushing all those lessons learned at home and growth as individuals respecting others space and holding my self accountable.

And while I’ve had amazing roommates on-campus (I’m actually going to be housing with my current roommate next year) it’s time for another new step, because in two years when I graduate I most likely will be living on my own, finding where in the world do I want to try and make my mark and my living situation while doing so. What’s great is that UPS supports this growth within it’s students. We found our house among the many listings on the UPS website, articles about safety and protection services Security offers, someone to look over our leases and the many options of subletting, moving in, lists, and more. I’m excited for this new step next year and can’t wait to see how it goes!

Fall or Winter?

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The first of November has came and gone, where has the time gone?! We have a mere 5 weeks of awesomeness left in this semester! And this change couldn’t be better acknowledged by the insane weather we’ve been having in Tacoma this week! On Sunday my weather forecast, which is highly inaccurate most of the time but isn’t most weather apps?, predicted SNOW on Thursday! I was jumping in my boots! Until I realized the many times last year my weather app predicted snow for naught, and my excitement tempered. I mean, c’mon what’s the likeliness we were actually going to get snow this early in the year? Highly unlikely as it turns out, no snow this past Thursday sadly.

What makes the prediction of snow all the more ironic is the rest of the week was predicted to be completely sunny. No clouds, clear blue skies, sun rays beaming down upon us and cool temperatures of 30-40 degrees! How did I to manage to enjoy the warmth of the sun if the brisk cold winds and temperature was an average of 34 degrees all day you might ask?! Clue: I wasn’t. I had to break out my down jacket and layer up, no slippers anymore unless I wanted my toes to freeze up.

photo 4

 

But the most surprising thing about this drop in weather is the wind! These Pacific Northwest winds are vicious! On Tuesday night the winds ravaged Tacoma, knocking the power out that the emergency generators came on (twice!), blowing the shingles off the nearby hospital and dropping branches bigger than myself on the ground. I have the rosy red windburn cheeks to prove its ferocity! But I’m loving this weather change, the cool temperatures (polar vortex again?), the possibility of snow this winter, the warmth of the November sun, clear views of Mount Rainier and breaking out my boots and sweater layers more often. I don’t know if this unusual weather can be classified as fall or winter precisely but it’s Tacoma weather and I love it all the same.

photo 1

Our adult responsibilities

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I was texting my little sister yesterday and was surprised to find out she didn’t have school today! I knew today was Election Day but why did that mean they didn’t have school? As I thought it over I realized it’s because it’s Election Day! But not because of how amazing an American right it is and everyone should go out and vote but because in Hawaii many public schools are used as polling places for the various districts. And I think that’s kind of amazing to make it easy for people to vote as many people don’t specifically get time off to vote. I also learned via the internet earlier today that the state of Washington mails in their ballots. That’s really cool because it puts the accountability and the right and power directly into the hands of all their constituents which I can relate to because I completed my mail-in ballot last week. And it’s an interesting process since I’m away, I don’t see the political ads on TV, the radio or people sign-waving on the streets (is that a thing only in Hawaii?). And I think politics are so messy with negative campaigning and fighting to control the power cajoling during the campaigning and not following through during their terms. And that’s something we hope to change, that in college, in life we see how truly valuable hard-working people with good intentions are and being fair. Voting is a right we all, over 18 year olds, have and must use to the fullest, WE decide how our future will be by choosing the ones we believe will do the best to fulfill our county’s, district’s, state’s, and nation’s needs. Here’s a cool video that promotes voting among young people. Everyone has a story and is affected by the daily actions and bill politicians constantly argue over, they are our voice and we need to choose them wisely to help us tackle the issues we want to fix, and there are many as the video shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rijpU5yD55I

Voting is also just one of the many adult-like responsibilities being a college student with. It’s a lot to realize how different college is from high school but there are still so many things that we need help figuring out. Money is the first and biggest hurdle to learn and deal with as a college student. It’s crazy to think about how much money it costs to attend higher education now and the multitude of ways we must figure out to afford it. And then there’s spending and living money we college students need to have, but we must learn to budget our money to last the year, going out to Silk Thai or Trapper’s Sushi, Met cookies and more.

Last week I attended a Panhellenic sponsored Finance Talk by Professor Linda Livingston titled Saving, Investments, and Retirement. She brought up a lot of points I didn’t realize that I think are invaluable to know. Saving is short-term, and you should have enough savings to live off of for 8 months without pay! And the best way to save is through credit unions (shoutout to my Mom for signing me up for a credit union)! Credit unions are non-profit federally insured and way better than banks because they have shared branches, higher interest rates than banks and no hidden fees. Linda then goes on to explain savings should NEVER be used in investments. The stock market is volatile, but it’s the only market to invest in and make a gain, you have to be patient and wait for the return driver, you gotta play the game. And in the market, the cheapest one is the BEST one, if you play it safe there’s no way for you to win! Retirement does seem so far off into the future, we’re only in college right now! But it’s never too early to save, to think about paying traditional IRAs, paying taxes at your retirement with a tax deduction now or ROTH IRAs, paying taxes now but not at your retirement. This summary was just that a quick introduction into the many opportunities and pitfalls of dealing with finances, something in the very near future for us. And I think the least we can do now is start saving, we don’t want to be broke college students forever.

When it rains, it pours

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If for one second I thought Tacoma was going to persist in the summer sun-loving weather we’ve had up last week, this week’s downpours would prove me wrong! Fall Break was last week and as the Pacific Northwest rain welcomed us back to classes. And at first for this sun-loving Hawaii girl it was such a bummer, no more slippers (flip flops for those mainlanders), shorts, light breezy tops and gorgeous blue skies Tacoma has! But I forgot how beautiful the rain could be here too.

At first I would only wake up to see it rained overnight, then to raining at crew practice in the morning into all day raining. So officially dug into my closet to pull out my rain jackets and they’ve been getting very good use. The torrential downpour on Wednesday made everybody break out their rain jackets and rain boots, including myself, with only a few brave souls still walking around without a waterproof jacket. Some might say the rain ruins everything, that they can’t go outside, they’re stuck inside and their car is getting dirty again or some other excuse to avoid the rain. But we Loggers love the rain! The rain looks beautiful from our room, from that trendy cafe downtown, from the many study areas in the Library, and all over campus as usual.

All the rain makes us appreciate those sunny days and blue skies afterwards even more!  The clouds clear to a beautiful rainbow and make the blue skies even blue-er. It’s because of the rain we have such amazing camps grounds, the lush green grass (its very deceiving there is buckets of mud underneath them, stay off the grass! xP ) flower beds, shrubs and trees! The rain isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, its hard to anticipate when you  emerge from class all bundled up for the rain to a break in the downpour. The rain signals the changing of the season into fall, the transition into the early sunsets, we’ve learned to get creative about what we can do outside and how much fun we can have inside as well!

ASUPS Cares

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Last night I attended my first ASUPS (Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound) Senate Meeting, and tonight I attended my second. Let me make immediately clear, our Senate is a hardworking group of dedicated individuals willing to ask the difficult questions, and challenge each other to improve the actions and hold accountable the responsibilities of ASUPS as a whole for us, the students.

I can’t speak to how the Senate has functioned in the past; at my first meeting this Senate tackled the difficult task of taking action on the compromised state of the current Fall 2014 Elections. They looked at all aspects of the topic and decided to halt the Election so the Election Process and Committee could be revised to uphold the higher standards and responsibilities we aspire our future Senators to have. They took immediate action to fix the problem willing to call an Emergency Senate to finalize the changes, by sacrificing part of their Parents & Homecoming Weekend.

Since the new elections are going to be conducted soon, I encourage all students to get involved. There are all kinds of ways to represent and participate in Senate, by running in the election, coming to the Open Forum to share ideas, issues, or information. I truly believe everyone could benefit from coming to a Senate meeting, as an active participant or passive one to personally see the good ASUPS is trying to share with us. Even check out their website (asups.ups.edu) for tons of links, updated information and ways to get involved! All the clubs and even sports fall under the jurisdiction of ASUPS and can be supported through funding, participation and insight into the development and implementation of new clubs, events and other opportunities! I wish more people could hear and know about the multitude of options that are available to make Puget Sound their own within this community.

I’m so excited to be working with ASUPS this year; it truly is an organization guided, decided and acted with the students. Yes there is a staff, faculty and Dean Representatives but tackling the issue and being a part of the solution is all with our student’s initiative and that is so powerful. Being a part of this group will truly help me manage myself better after college, working with others following the interests of the community. Even beyond the Senate, the Media Board, Programmers and Directors all have responsibilities and ways to make UPS even more so Home for everybody and find their niche, to combine intellectual interests with hobbies and participate in our democratic society.

ASUPS is awesome, come and check it out, I’m sure you’ll see how much they truly are for us students and make any idea become a reality, don’t be afraid to speak up, every individual is a part of ASUPS. I just got in on this amazingness as a sophomore, the opportunities are endless truly, and this experience makes me so proud to be a logger. #oncealogger #alwaysalogger

 

Happy Parents & Homecoming Weekend Everybody!