Let the Madness Begin!

You know the person walking down the isle is headed straight for your section and instant panic sets in. You’re next. Finally all of the months of hard work, practice two to three maybe even four times a week, all for the next two minutes and twenty-one seconds of Donna Summers and Pitbull. The flashlight waves over your group and everyone takes off. Everything that happens next is a blur; a blur of tricky lifts, formation changes, and sparkly jackets.

The 36^th annual Chi Omega’s March Madness dance competition took place on March 24^th at 7:30pm. Every sorority and fraternity participated in March Madness not only to get their chance on stage, but to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation.  The Make A Wish Foundation grants the wished of children who have terminal medical conditions. Some of the wishes include traveling, meeting famous people, or simply helping them do something they would have never had the chance to do on their own. When my cousin was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 12 he had to spend a lot of his time in the hospital and he was slowly falling behind on his schoolwork. The Make A Wish Foundation stepped up and bought him a computer so he could keep up with his homework and continue with his passion of writing stories. The guest of honor for the night was a 16 year old from the Bloomington-Normal area that recently received the wish of a lifetime. She was able to spend a week full of surprise and opportunity at the Winter Olympics. Her whole family stood on stage and thanked Chi Omega and the Make A Wish Foundation for giving them the chance to forget about the illness for a week.

This year Chi Omega picked the theme Opposites Attract, which would guide the sororities and fraternities in their music choice. The evening kicked off with an exhibition act by none other than the women of Chi Omega. There were many other exhibition acts including the Acafellaz and ISU Competitive Dance. Throughout the night six fraternities and nine sororities battled it out onstage for the first place title. After an intense competition the last sorority preformed their dance and everyone held their breath for the results. But before the results were announced we were all reminded that no matter our letters we are all still Greek. The All Greek Dance included a couple members from each house that participated. It was good to be reminded of the common bond between chapters. Finally the results were announced. Taking first place for the fraternities was also the winner of the best representation of the theme; Sigma Phi Epsilon. They danced to a mix of Luke Bryan and Nelly.  Gamma Phi Beta won first place for the sororities with a fantastic dance to the mix of the songs Barbie Girl and Space Jam. The whole night was a huge success and a great reminder of the importance of giving back.

Food, Fun, and Football

I’m sure many of you have scene a football game on TV, but have you actually gone to one? Going to a game is a completely different experience, especially in college. In high school I went to many football games, it was the “hangout place” on Friday nights for many students. I would dress up in my school colors, go to my school, and cheer on the team.  Typically I would get a few snacks in between and socialize with my friends, then go home or just hang out at a friend’s house. However, in college this experience is a lot more then just sitting in the bleachers and watching your school play. The only football game I went to this year was during homecoming, and that is something that I will remember for years to come. Since I’m I freshman I wasn’t sure what to expect during the homecoming football game. I figured everyone would be out and cheering on our team and then everyone would just leave and go back to doing their normal routine. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I found it what exactly homecoming was like. Many students and even parents wake up early Saturday morning and park their cars in all the parking lots around the food ball field, tents are put up, grills and lawn chairs are taken out. People come as early as 6 or 7 in the morning, and the game doesn’t even start till 3p.m. The hours in between are not only spent with friends but also family.  That surprised me because back in high school if parents came it was only to watch their sons playing football. In college parents come just to join the fun and food.  

While I didn’t wake up as early as most I still had plenty of time to enjoy the day. My friends and I picked the closes parking lot and just started walking through the crowd of red, white, and black (ISU colors).  There were cars and people everywhere, while music had filled the air. There were tables of food set up, people playing games of bags and everyone just having a good time. My first experience of homecoming was incredible and I know it won’t be my last.

The Wonderful World Of Water

"World Water Week", presented by Delta Sigma Theta, UNICEF at Illinois State and the H20 relief group. These great groups held a whole week's full of fun activity's around the campus of ISU and made a definite impact on how people think of water usage and the places that need it the most. I attended two of their great events, The water walk on March 24th and the water pong tournament on March 25th, they were both great events. The water walk was a very fun event, we all gathered at Ropp building and as a large group we walked about  two miles to a creek and filled up jugs of water and walked back to the water tower. It showed me that some people have to do this everyday and don't have plastic jugs to use, they use cracked bowls or baskets. It really opened my eyes to how easily we can access our  water and how others aren't so lucky. The other event I attended was Water Pong Tournament which was a blast, you chose a partner and played other teams to get further and further into the tournament. Unfortunately due to my partner lacking a certain finesse for the game, we were knocked out relatively early. The goal of this project was to raise enough money to build a well in a town in Africa, the estimated amount was thirty-five hundred dollars. With that money they would have clean and easily accessible water for the next twenty to twenty five years, in short, it would change their lives. This was a great gathering of mostly ISU students and faculty members and even some members of the community. All in all it was a fun event that if you couldn't make you missed out, but that doesn't mean you cant still help, you can still donate and help change a whole towns standard of living forever, isn't that worth a few dollars or a few hours of your time?

Up Late @ State

Up Late @ State is an activity held at 10 pm until 1 am at the Horton Field House for those who want to have a FREE good time without going out and partying. This event ended up being really boring. The laser tag was pointless. It wasn't dark enough and there was only one type of blow up thing to hide behind. They had a couple of games here and there such as twister and a giant game of operation. They also had a mini basketball hoop set up.  The one thing that everyone wanted to do was make a T-Shirt with a picture on it. The problem with that was that the line was way to long since everyone had wanted to do that. It was not even worth the wait. Throughout the night, they threw out some free t-shirts and mini basketballs which was nice. The food was kind of in a hidden corner so you couldn't even tell what it was. This event could of used a lot more fun activities. Also, they need more activities in general. There was not enough to do. I was bored from start to end. I ended up leaving early, which means I was there for only an hour,  because it ended up to be not what I expected. Hopefully next year things will be different.

ISU Basketball Game

On January 28^th, I attended an Illinois State University basketball game.  ISU versed Southern Illinois University of Carbondale.  The game was played at the Doug Collins Court in Redbird Arena.  We were looking pretty good this year so I was anxious and excited to go see the Redbirds play.  Before the game officially started,  the announcer read off the starters. The game started off really well for the Redbirds.  Jackie Carmichael (Junior) dunked the ball almost anytime he had possession.  He scored the first 7 points for the Redbirds.  Then a three-pointer was made to make the score 10-6 with around 14:00 left til the half.  From then on, the Redbirds continued to score. 

            At halftime, a woman on a unicycle was flipping bowls on her head, which probably sounds weird and strange, but it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.  She ended up flipping 12 bowls on her head.  It took so much concentration on her part, I honestly thought she would mess up, fall off, or drop all the bowls from her head, but she didn’t! I was really impressed and nervous for her the whole time.  I enjoyed the halftime performance.

            After halftime, the game continued.  The redbirds were moving farther ahead Southern.  Both teams continued to score, but at a certain point, the Redbirds kept scoring, but Southern didn’t put up without a fight.  Illinois State ended up winning 60-40.  It was a good game, but Southern could have done a lot better.

Chi Omega March Madness

Saturday night, March 24^th 2012, I attended the Chi Omega March Madness philanthropy event.  As I walked into the Braden Auditorium I was surprised to hear the chanting of the sororities and fraternities that we would soon be watching.  March Madness is hosted by the Chi Omega sorority, and is the philanthropic event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Thousands of friends and families to the sororities and fraternities entered the dark auditorium.  We all waited in anticipation to watch the Greeks perform to the theme of  “Opposites Attract”. This theme was the requirement for the fraternities and sororities to have two opposing music artists to come together. 

In the beginning of the event, the Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator introduced the event and were excited to announce that they had now raised over one hundred thousand dollars to date.  Then there was a short video, which led into the special guest of the evening, Katie.  Katie is a sixteen-year-old happy girl who had endured several surgeries due to a tumor in her brain.  It was great to hear her speak and see how the Make-A-Wish foundation has helped her forget about her illness for a short time. 

There were a total of fifteen different fraternities and sororities that competed in March Madness and also three non-Greek groups that performed in between.  First off was the exhibition performance of Chi Omega, which was a great kick-off to the event.  It was so entertaining to watch my roommate and friends dance on stage and show all their hard work off.   As we all watched both the sororities and fraternities compete with all they had, in the back of everyone’s minds were the awards. Each house danced their hearts out and they all looked awesome.  The last performance of the night was two or three people from each house in an All Greek dance.

Then it was the results.  In the end, the first place winners included Sigma Phi Epsilon for the fraternities, and Gamma Phi Beta for the sororities.  The sorority Phi Sigma Sigma, the winner for the past two years, came in a close second place.  All of the costumes were looked great and you could really tell that the fraternities and sororities worked hard to make this the event of the semester. Everyone had a great time, and I would recommend this event to anyone next year.  The money went to a great cause, the Make-A-Wish foundation and will be used to make a difference in a child’s life.

Open Mic what a Night

At 7 pm on a calm but chilly Thursday winter evening, a group of friends and I attended a soul inspired bombardment of meaningful lyrics and rhymes that explain a happy or hurt man’s heart and mind. As we walked into this soulful event created by Profound Pioneers Entertainment Group, which was located in the circus room at the bone, I saw everyone in their best dressed outfits. Music played from the speakers to set the atmosphere as conversation filled the room. We all waited patiently, eager to hear the poetic words from each artist who was soon to grace the stage. With all of our anxiety building up, the host got on the mic and hyped the already eager crowd even more; he made us laugh with a few jokes and then even threw in a few of his own lines to entice our hunger for lyrics. After his hyping up, he introduced the first act. The crowd gave a respectable applause then silence became of us as we waited to see what the artist had to say. He walked up with a retro styled outfit, fresh from head to toe and a clean snap back to top it off. As he got the mic he asked the crowd how we were doing and there was a minimal response. I could tell that he was pretty nervous and this could possibly be his first time. As he pulled out his iPod which contain all of his lyrics he took in a deep breath, and began to rhyme. The more he flowed the more the crowed felt his lyrics and the more comfortable I could see he became. The crowed snapped him off after he finished and the mc returned to the stage. After that performance everyone seemed ready to hear the next artist. But after the MC introduced the next artist the crowed seemed very displeased. His stage presence was not at all matching with the previous performer nor was his lyrics as substantial. This was not an issue though because afterwards the MC gave us a great laugh to build back the spirit of the crowed and from their on, we were bombarded by soulful lyrical poems that left us thinking after the artist were finish. The MC came out after the last artist was done and we were expecting to hear his conclusion so we could leave but instead he sang a song with his great voice. It left us all speechless. Then he spoke a poem that still leaves me thinking as I write this blog. It was an event that I will not soon forget.