To Oregon and Back

Hey, sorry I haven’t written much lately. I was in Oregon for the whole weekend last week. As you all know, I am on the college volleyball team. We left last Thursday at six in the morning for a tournament in Portland, Oregon. Portland is approximately 16 hours away from here. It was a long drive!

On Thursday we loaded up the vans and everyone immediately fell asleep except for me and one other girl…and the drivers, of course! It was pretty much a boring drive for the first 5 hours. Everyone slept.

After a little while, some people woke up and we started talking and messing around. I was excited about the trip and was even more excited that most of the people in my van were some of my close friends. We had alot of fun. You may remember a girl named Jamie I talked about in an earlier post. Well she slept the whole way there! I didn’t know someone could sleep so much!

Finally, we arrived at Multnomah College in Portland, Oregon, on Friday. We played two games and they were very close so I didn’t get to play too much. A couple friends and I deemed ourselves the cheering section on the bench. We had a great time. (I think our coach got annoyed with us because we were having such a great time while losing! It was awesome!)

On Saturday we played two more games and ended up splitting them 1-1. The first game we played the host team, Multnomah and we lost the first two matches, but came back and won the next three matches! We were so excited to beat the hosting team! We ended up placing 5th in the tournament and Multnomah ended up in last place in their own tournament. How embarrassing!

On Saturday after the games, we headed back toward home. Once again, everyone slept. We did get some time together and all grew closer together. Overall it was a great trip and we all had a lot of fun.

A Working Girl

On Monday, I started my first job ever in my life. I work at Signature Fundraising. Woo-Hoo! I know, fun stuff. It was fun the first day then the second day came then the third and so on.

Once I got there, they had me fill out a bookload of forms. They also had me bring an i.d. and my social security card. That’s odd! Right now someone is probably stealing my identity. How do you know that this is the real Erin Goddard writing this and not the thief…pretty scary! Don’t worry it’s really me.

Back to my story. So they gave us a tour of the facilities. That was loads of fun! Then they split us up, and put half of us in the warehouse, and the rest in the offices. Oh yes, I was put in the warehouse-the hot, stinky warehouse. There were only three of us girls and the rest were guys. Not bad you say? It wouldn’t have been that bad if the guys were cute, but they aren’t.

All day long we stand at a table and fill prize bags. We put a deck of Spongebob cards and inflatable little beach ball in a bag and tie it up, then throw them in a big box. For those of you reading, if you get a prize similar to that one you had better appreciate it. People sweat over making those things! We must make over 2000 each day. Also we only have a 10 minute break at four. So that is about the time I only get to sit down, and boy is my back hurting.

Anyway, we were all working along and suddenly we ran out of cards. Hallelujah! We were finally done. But oh, no! Our manager pulled up in a forklift with a whole new, probably, 200 boxes of cards. UHHH! Back to work again! Life is hard! (You all are probably saying to yourself “Well isn’t she a bright one!” ) Really, life is hard, but as long as we keep going, things will be okay.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Some Lemonade

Tonight was volleyball practice. Man, do we really work hard at practice or what? I was really working hard because we play a team on Saturday that is really good. One of my friends on the team told me that the coach is only taking 13 girls this time. Well you probably already know where I am going with this.

So all through practice I was working my hardest. I was trying so hard to get on that group of girls that was going. The motive I had was that my brother and sister-in-law were going to be at the game to watch me. This would be the first time my brother had ever watched me play volleyball, so you know I was really working hard.

It finally came down to it. Coach made the announcement that theses three girls see her after practice, “Renita, Kate…..and Erin” Oh man my heart sank right then when I heard my name. I knew that my brother would have to wait another time to see his little sister play. But wait there are only 15 girls on the team, and she was taking 13. Could there be hope?

It came down to Kate and myself. Now Kate was the girl who had told me in the first place that coach was only taking 13 girls. Coach looked at me and said, “You girls have made it very difficult for me to decide who is going and who is staying, but this time I think I am going to take Kate.” I tried to hold back the tears, and I was doing pretty good until Kate came up to me and said, “Erin, I know you have family coming to the game, and I am going to tell coach to take you and not me.” I said, “Go ahead. Loser, I’m better than you anyways!” No, No, No! I did not say that. I just smiled and said, “Thanks, but you deserve it more than I do.”

You know you never really know what great friends you have until it comes down to a trial in your life. I could have easily gotten mad at the coach or at Kate. I could have quit the team, but I didn’t. I didn’t because I know that there was a reason. I know I’m only a freshman and most of the girls on the team are more experienced than me. I will just have to work a whole lot more next time.

Computers for Dummies

Well I’m back and boy have I got a story for you. One of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays is called Microcomputer Skills. I know it sounds difficult, but it is probably the easiest class…well at least for me it is.

Well, I was walking up the stairs to the computer lab on my first day of school. I entered the lab and found a seat fairly close to the door. I was happy when I saw one of my high school friends walk in, and luckily, there was a seat next to me open. All that happiness vanished as soon as she walked through the door.

I didn’t know her, but she sat down at the empty computer next to me. I said the complimentary “hello” with a smile of course, and then class started. Now just looking at this girl she looked nice and smart, but then she opened her mouth. I knew I was in trouble as soon as she asked me, “Are you good with computers?” That was it. Could I handle this? Was I fully prepared on my first day of college for her? I would soon find

out.

Our teacher told us that if we didn’t have a book to share with the person next to us. Well I looked over, and low and behold, she did not have a book. Not to mention she was sitting on the end of the row so I was her only neighbor. I thought to myself, “Maybe she is having a rough time her freshman year.”  So the kind person that I am, I let her share my book. The teacher told us to start on page 58 and work our way through on our own. The first instructions was to push the Control button. That was easy and I hurried along and got to the end of the page. I then asked her if she was done so that I could flip the page. She said no. I noticed she was having trouble so I politely asked if I could help. Bad move, Erin, bad move! She said she was having trouble with number one. Okay, I can handle this.

I read the instructions out loud, “Push the Control Button.” She did nothing. Maybe she didn’t hear me. I repeated myself. Then she started pushing random buttons on the keyboard. I thought in my mind, “Are you serious?” She just looked at me. I pointed to the Control button, “This is the Control button.” She smiled and said thank you.

Well that was over. But oh no, it had just begun. I noticed she was having trouble again. So I asked her, “What’s wrong?” Bad move again. She pointed to the instructions. I read, “Click on the word.” I kind of just looked at her. She said, “What does this mean?” I said, “You need to click on this word” and pointed to the word. Easy, right? Nope. She clicked above the word. “No, click on the word.” She clicked before the word. So finally, I grabbed her mouse and clicked the word for her. She smiled and said thank you again. I gave her a loving grin as I tried to hold back my frustration.

Oh you are probably saying to yourself that’s all of my story. Well it’s not. The instructions said to right-click the word. I was working on my own stuff when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked at her. She smiled as she said, “I need help.” I thought to myself, “Boy is that true!” I told her, “Just right-click the word.” She immediately went for the keyboard. “No, just right-click your mouse on the word.” Again she went for the keyboard. Finally I just got her mouse and did it for her. Then the teacher announced that class was over. Hallelujah! I was free! I quickly rushed out of class and went straight to my mom’s office to recuperate!

I knew college would be difficult, but I was not prepared for this!

New Life, Day One

Hello! My name is Erin Goddard some of you might have read my sister’s blog, Daily Dose of Lauren. Yesterday was my first day of my freshman year of college. Yep, pretty exciting. Some of you might be starting your senior year of high school, I know how you feel.

When I was in your shoes I didn’t want my year to be over because then I would have to go to college. Well that day came, I finally had to step up and go to college. I was pretty scared at first, but then I got out of my shell and met new people. I have met some really great friends. I also tried out for the volleyball team, and I made it!

Well we had a tournament last weekend and we really bonded as a team. I met this one really cool girl, and her name is Jamie. She is a senior this year. The reason you should meet new friends is that they can really help you out. Jamie has made me felt welcome to college ever since I started.

So if any of you have been to college think back to that one person who really helped you out your first week. I think we can all thank God for good friends.