Junior Year Update

Hi everyone! I just finished my first semester of junior year and I thought I’d share a more personal look into how my life went.

School

I’m still a graphic design and journalism major. It was a pretty tough semester on me in terms of workload even though I only technically took 3 “real” classes. I took 12 credits of classes, 6 classes overall. Mondays and Wednesdays consisted of Women’s Strength Lifting from 9am to 10am, then Typography from 11:30am to 2:30pm.

Strength Lifting

I loved my strength lifting class and highly recommend taking a class like this, or an intro to weights class if they offer them at your campuses’ rec center! Having it with only girls in the class made me feel comfortable if I didn’t know a certain exercise or if one of the other girls in the class pointed out my improper form. We would have a sheet for every day and now I have a full binder of workouts from my whole semester. I definitely noticed a big improvement in my fitness overall and I’d love to share a workout routine if you’re interested.

Typography

My typography class was very hard. The whole graphic design program at my school is really hard, not going to lie, and a lot of work, but it definitely pays off in the end. There were several nights I was up til at least 1 or 2am working on my projects due for the next day. This was my favorite project of the semester when we got to rebrand an airport anywhere in the world. (Any other design majors out there? I’d love to follow you on Behance!)

Tuesdays and Thursdays consisted of Intro to 10K Training from 8am to 9am (ish), Message Development (journalism) at 9:30am to 10:45am, and Principles of Visual Communication from 11:30am to 2:30pm. On Tuesdays I’d also have my journalism lab from 2:30pm to 3;45pm and every other Thursday for the first half of the semester was a Hallmark Symposium lecture.

Running

Intro to 10K training was a true mental test! All the class essentially consisted of was showing up in proper workout attire and running. We also had a few lectures about proper nutrition, foam rolling, etc. I began to learn that I actually enjoyed running (what?) and especially enjoyed running longer distances. This class motivated me to get out and run–because getting a B in my 1-credit running class would be extremely lame.

Journalism

My journalism class was fairly easy and we just created several different television, radio, and print ads. I’m a fan of this one that I made–I thought it was pretty clever. This class wasn’t particularly difficult, but because it was right after my running class, I found it difficult to stay awake sometimes! I would have thought that working out in the morning would keep me energized but it had the opposite effect sometimes. I’m still trying to figure that one out–I think it may have been an issue with not eating enough after running.

Design

My other design class was also difficult. I found that I enjoyed these sorts of projects more. We designed two posters for an event (I picked Carnival in Rio), an album cover for Nirvana, a restaurant rebranding, and a motion graphic. The motion graphic was our last project in tandem with our type project, and I loved learning Adobe After Effects for this project. We were assigned a font and then had to illustrate certain characteristics of the font.

My journalism lab was just an extension of the lecture class. The Thursday class, Hallmark Symposium, is a lecture series presented by Hallmark (did you know they’re headquartered in Kansas City?) by notable designers and artists. We had to attend 5 out of the 7 lectures offered so I just knocked out the first five in a row. The most exciting speaker was Andy Beall, a Pixar animator who’s worked on several noteworthy films like Up, WALL-E, The Incredibles (I and II), Brave, Ratatouille, Monsters University, and more! It was very cool to hear his insight on the little nuances that make great designs.

Sorority

As you might know, I’m an Alpha Delta Pi and I’m living in the house again this semester. It’s extremely convenient and I like living close to all my friends in the house. However, as I’ve gotten older I’m excited to live in my own house next year with several of my friends! I also finished up my position as PR chair and decided not to run for a position again.

Etc

I love my job more than ever and I’m enjoying every second of it. I got to work during fall camp in place of sorority recruitment and it was the best decision for me. It still makes me laugh thinking of how I got involved in this. Even though most of my childhood was spent going to every home KU football game imaginable, I’d spend practically all of them reading or playing on my Nintendo DS. I also spent more time than ever hanging out with my friends and developing closer friendships, and I’m especially thankful for that.

As of now, I’m taking an ethics class over winter break. I’m also attempting Vlogmas! My first two videos are up on my channel now. I’d love if you watched them and subscribed as well! My first two videos were interesting but I’ve decided to only make videos on days that I’m doing exciting things. I don’t like watching vlogs of other people sitting around and studying, so I chose to wait until winter break to start filming. If they go well then I think I might continue until I get back from winter break.

Thanks for reading!

xo, Hannah