Mr. Macke Mauldin

Today, we were talked to by Mr. Mauldin. Mr. Macke Mauldin is the President of Bank Independent, a bank that is based in the tri-city area. Mr. Mauldin talked about how we should be kind and gracious because people tend to remember bad and rude behavior, and he pointed out that jokes at other people’s expense can be severely damaging. He then went on to talk about values that are important. All of that was well and good, except that he seemed to always tie back to Bank Independent. He gave us the 5 words that BI operates by. He gave us plenty of examples of how BI has made a mistake and accepted it. He told us a great story about how the Bank was founded by his family and it has stayed in his family throughout the years while the Bank has many families work together for the company. I think my favorite part was when he subtly dropped the bank's phone number when answering a question for a student. While I feel he was saying good things, it seemed very commercial and rehearsed. 

Judge Gil Self

Last Tuesday in Forum we heard from the honorable judge Gil Self. Judge Self talked about the values that are required to be a good judge as well as a good person. These values include the courage to do what is right, regardless of the consequences and even though it could be difficult. But also we need to respect and follow the law and that won’t always line up with what we personally believe. Judge Self said that the reason he became a judge was because he feels he has a good sense of fairness and a serving heart. And the most memorable thing that he said was that we need to take chances, or we won’t get anywhere.

A Full Month

            So in the past week we passed September 12^th, which marks my one month of living here. And it seems like I have been here forever. I have gotten my class routine down to a science, handling my class work pretty well and making sure I get to class at the best time as to not be late or far too early, and while I learn new things in ROTC every time we meet I feel like it is nothing I can’t handle. The people I’ve met from all aspects of this school are people that I seem to have known for years. Since my last post nothing too exciting has happened though. I did Land Nav in ROTC last Wednesday from about 2 to 10:30 in the afternoon, which was fun but very difficult when it got dark.  I made a webpage for my CS 110 class and practiced sequences through Light-bot and have an assignment to design 3 levels by Friday. We have been talking about various parenting styles in my honors composition class and turned in a paper today on our views on it, and I feel the presentation of my paper could have been better, but oh well notes for next time. Well as I said there isn’t that much going on this week, just going with the flow of things. So that’s it for now, see you next week.

Week 2

            So this past week has been very eventful. Last Wednesday, there was an official ceremony inducting me into the U.S. Army as a Second Lieutenant. Now I am still a cadet in the ROTC program, but my rank is now waiting for me at the end of four years. Also our dorm played Zombie Wars, which was basically a giant game of tag. I got out Thursday night while trying to make it back into my dorm after Zumba though. Friday I drove back to Huntsville and spent the weekend with my girlfriend. It was lots of fun and we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when I got a little sick. Monday I started off with a really strenuous PT and then went to my classes and had interesting conversations and at the end of the day I went to a fun program. That's all that really happened last week but i am excited for forum speakers to start up this  next week.

Getting Started

I am Graem Cook, and I am a freshman in college at the University of North Alabama. While here at college there have been many new experiences, as you can imagine. One of the new things that I am doing is this blog. I have never blogged before but for one of my classes we are to keep a blog of our experiences at college and especially how our Honors experiences have affected our time here. Now as I mentioned, this is the first blog I have ever attempted, so let’s see how this goes.

            Well I think we should start from when I moved in and go from there. I moved in on the August 12^th, which was a week before most everyone else, because ROTC had a leadership conference to get us acclimated to the program. I liked it and it was a good way to meet my Cadre as well as the cadets that I will spend a lot of the next four years with. I also met a fun group of Honors upperclassmen that had also moved in a week early for various reasons. It was really good to meet these students because they told me a lot about the campus as well gave me some outside ROTC human interaction, seeing as there is only one other cadet staying in Lafayette. A day or so before the rest of the freshman were supposed to move in, us early bird learned the fun way that the fire alarm is tied to the power grid. This means that whenever there is the slightest power surge, the alarms will all go off. We all happened to learn this at about 1:50 AM and not many people were satisfied with the response time to turn off the alarms. I met plenty of new people as they started moving in and our dorm gradually started filling up, and we would hang out in the lobby when we had free time, and the group always seems to be different depending when I make it down there (a small trend that seems to always be happening, and I continue to meet people there).  After a week of small communication with various people and getting used to the routines of classes, we had arrived at the weekend and with it the Fall Honors Memphis Trip (8/24-8/25). This trip is an annual event that all of the freshmen in the Honors program go to Memphis, TN. We left at 1:30 on Friday afternoon and drove the two and a half hour drive to Memphis and we watched “The Other Guys” on the bus. When we got to Memphis we were free to do what we wanted and I ended up going to the Hard Rock Café with a small group of students, and afterward we got on the trolley. We rode it to the end of the line, but then we had to walk back, which was interesting. We got a lot of really cool pictures of downtown Memphis though while we were walking. When we finally got back to the hotel most of the honors students hung out in the hot tub/pool until it closed at 11. When the pool closed, everyone really went on to their rooms to sleep. The next day we left for the Memphis art museum which was really fun. We hung out there for about 2 hours before we went to lunch at a really good BBQ joint that was near the museum and zoo. After lunch we went to the zoo and we split into small groups on our own to explore the place. It was really good to hang out with these new people in such a relaxed and fun way. The last thing that we saw there were the penguins, but they were a slight let down. They just stood around in a big group, it was weird. After the zoo we went to Huey’s in downtown Memphis, which was delicious, and then started the drive back to Florence. When we got back to UNA most of us shuffled off to get some sleep. In the following week, a lot more people were in the lobby at various times and we got even closer as a group. Classes seemed to become more normal as I become more used to my schedule and I ironed out problems. This past Thursday I finalized a switch in my schedule between two classes and I think I’m ready for the year.