Jaclyn Leeper (grad March 09)

Spring is Here

The spring quarter will officially begin tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoyed their week off of school. Now it's time to get back to work. This is an exciting time. I officially have one year left as a Sherman College student/intern if everything goes according to plan. Spring has finally arrived which means warmer weather. It also means that Lyceum, an annual event at Sherman, is just around the corner. The theme for the Lyceum festivities this year is "Inspire the Fire." Many of the employees and students at Sherman began working quite some time ago on the planning of this big event. A great deal of work goes into this each and every year and this year has been no exception. There are many excellent speakers who will be in attendance this year. To view information about Lyceum, visit Sherman Lyceum. For the past two years, I have attended at least some of the events Lyceum had to offer and found them to be quite entertaining and informative. There is also a banquet held toward the end of the festivities which I have to say was my favorite thing I have been to so far. Dinner is provided and a dance floor is available for anyone who wants to kick up their heels. It is a good time for everyone and I highly recommending checking it out this year. It should be good.

Back in Spartanburg (for less than 48 hours)

Last night, I got back from Paducah where I had gone to spend the Easter holiday with my family. Even though it was very cold and not very many people had the opportunity to wear their new dresses for Easter because they would have frozen, I had a great time. The trip to Lexington (where I went first to visit my brother) was very long because of construction that was taking place in the mountains. It took about two hours to go less than 10 miles. After getting through that rough patch, however, the rest of the trip went very smoothly. Time always flies by when I am at home. There are so many people to see and so many things to do in such a short amount of time. In Lexington on Friday, we spent some time at the mall and then went ice skating and had dinner. Later that night, it was time to head back to Paducah. In Paducah, we did a little bit of everything from attending birthday parties, to having dinner with the family, to doing a little more shopping. It was a great time. It seems like it has been much longer than a week since I took my last final. With so many things crammed into such a short amount of time, it seems like much more than a few days have passed. Tomorrow, I am taking care of a couple of patients in the health center and then heading to Jacksonville, Florida to spend the remainder of my vacation. I am looking forward to the warm weather and hope that I get to have at least a little fun in the sun. I am not looking forward to spending some more time in the car but know that it will be well worth it when I get there.

Spring Break is Officially Here

Spring Break has arrived, at least for some of us at Sherman. There are some students who still have at least one final tomorrow morning before they officially kick off the beginning of their spring break. As a matter of fact, I think this may be the first quarter that I have finished all of my finals on Thursday and don't have any left to take on Friday. Of course, I am not wasting any time getting my break off to a good start. Today, I am heading to Lexington, KY to visit my "little" brother (he's not so little anymore) who is going to school at UK and isn't going to get to go home for Easter because he has to be at UK for a tennis match on Sunday. After spending the day with him tomorrow, I am going to head back home to Paducah to see my family and spend the holiday with them. I am really excited. This will be the first time I have had the chance to head home since the Christmas holiday. It should be a great time. Luckily, it hasn't been quite that long since I got to see them because they came to visit at the beginning of the quarter. That however, was quite some time ago so I am really looking forward to it. I hope everyone has a great break. I know it is a much anticipated break, especially for those of us who just recently finished taking boards!

Boards Have Finally Come and Gone

The much anticipated National Boards are officially over and finals are about to begin. I have to say, though, it feels like spring break has already begun. I know I need to stay focused for just a few more days so that I can finish my classes off on a good note, but I truly feel like a huge load has been lifted off of my shoulders. Luckily, most of our teachers knew that we would be tired from preparing for and taking our Boards so they didn't make our finals worth too much of our overall grades in our classes. For the past couple of weeks, every time I had a free moment, I felt like I should be studying for my Boards. Now it's over and all I can do is wait to find out how I did. No matter what, it's out of my control now. To celebrate having survived the 650 questions we had to answer throughout the day on Friday and Saturday (760 for those of us who took the PT Board as well), several of the people from my class and those one quarter ahead of us got together on Saturday afternoon to have a cookout and just kick back and relax. Despite a couple of rain showers throughout the day, it was a great day for the event.

Yesterday, after having a good night's sleep, my boyfriend and I decided to head to Chimney Rock to do a little hiking and see what the park had to offer. We had heard it was a neat place less than an hour away and decided to check it out. We also decided to take my little Maltese, Ripley, along with us for his first hike. Little did we know that when we got there, we would basically be climbing a mountain of stairs. At first, I didn't know how Ripley would make it. I didn't even know if I was going to make it but soon found out it wasn't as bad as it seemed and Ripley was a little trooper. Chimney Rock Park was beautiful and we had a great time. We hiked all around the mountain and saw as much as we could in just a few hours. The majority of the trail was made of wooden stairs and walkways, a good place to hike for just about anyone, including those who don't like getting muddy. On the long trail that led to a beautiful waterfall, there was a little bit more of the pathway that consisted of nature (rocks, dirt, grass, etc.) but it wasn't your typical mountain trail.

Chimney Rock is less than an hour away from Spartanburg and is definitely a great place to go and spend the day. One thing to be aware of however, is that you have to pay to get in, so the earlier you go the better off you are (if you want to get your moneys worth). We felt that it was worth it in the end and hope to go back sometime in the near future. Some of the trails were still closed from the winter season but are supposed to be opening up again sometime in April. Below are some of the pictures that we took while we were there.