New Room

At first I thought it was the weirdest loft ever but once we put our stuff in now its super cool. Being back at Coe is great. This semester is off to a good start

Revisting High School

So today I went back to St. Anthony with Aaron, Jon Slye, and Donald after a quick run to Chipotle in order to visit our favorite old teachers. On a whole, I have to say the visit wasn't even close to as awkward as I thought it would be. There were some awkward moments of course, for example people you didn't especially like who are still in high school and trying to decide whether or not you should respond to their greetings or not. However, I got to see nearly all of my favorite old teachers. We talked for a significant length of time with teachers such as Lulai, TK, Senior B, Ms. P, and to our pleasant suprise, the one, the only, Mr. Wayne Terry. We also talked to Mrs. Jurichko, Wiggins, Haugen, Kron, and Applehoff for a moment or two. We unfortunately didn't catch Gauchie, Macleod, or Urdahl but all and all, I enjoyed talking to my teachers. I do have a lot of good memories of high school even though it wasn't the greatest of course. All and all, I was glad I was able to go back and revisit those people who had influence on my education and on my life.

Where have Joe Couillard's blogs gone?

Seriously Joe? Where are they!?

New Years continued again(read first one and proceed upwards on page)

Before college, I went to China(more specifically Taiwan and Hong Kong) with the band at Coe. Although the band was mostly made up of adults, I was able to meet some good people and make some lasting bonds of friendship. Most notably are the 4 other freshmen on the trip who, like me, had not experienced any of Coe College. The 5 of us went to school after the trip knowing each other quite well and I'm now confident that at any time, I could go to any of them for anything. Then I started college. The first few weeks were indeed, quite strange. Everyone seemed to be running around and making friends and although I was meeting people, I did feel a little left out. That soon changed however, as I have made the best friends of my life at college. The turning point would have been rushing for fraternities and joining Lambda Chi Alpha along with 20 some other freshmen. Because of the friends I have made, I have been asked to live on their wing next semester, a great honor for a freshmen. In addition, at college I have learned a lot about myself and how people look at me. College has given me a lot of confidence that I didn't have around kids in high school and for the 3 weeks I've been home at college, I've wanted to go back to have more fun.
There's no denying it, 2008 was a huge year for me. Even though it was a horrible year for the economy, I was always remember 2008 as a positive year for myself and for the country(the election, crossing fingers, hope he does well). If anyone actually actually reads these, I hope your year will be viewed positively, even if everything didn't go your way. Happy New Year!

A New Year continued

Although high school was over, Patriots continued into the summer. I enjoyed the company of friends at Patriots but Patriot this year turned out to be one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire life. No, it definitely was the most frustrating. After being a surprise choice of section leader, I was given a section with half rookies who turned out to be nearly hopeless at learning marching band things. What was so frustrating to me wasn't that my section wasn't the best, as usually is a frustration for me, not being the best or at least damn close, it was that no matter how hard I tried I felt like I had zero impact on how anything went. Directors and student leaders were extremely frustrated with me but even they had no ideas of how to handle the situation. Eventually however, the situation inevitably had to get better and we did improve earning the bands "most improved section" for obvious reasons. In addition I received brass MVP which was like a nice "thank you" from everyone which I was very grateful for. The patriots trip was a good get away but it didn't do especially well with connecting with people in my grade. Again, the problems with kids in my grade. Never the less, when Patriots ended, all my direct connections to the high school were severed and I prepared to enter college. The beginning of college will be written about in the next post.

The New Year

So as 2008 comes to a close and most people are going crazy, I have begun to reflect some on the past year. Since entering grade school, 2008 has always been a year that teachers have always put on our radar since it is the date of my class' high school graduation: thus the class of '08. True to predictions, I believe 2008 was easily the biggest year of my life. Many of the things that were a constant in my life sadly came to a close. But with one door closing I flew through more open doors. 2008 began with the senior slide in high school and trying to decide where I would continue my education. Luther, my original front runner was beginning to wane for a number of reasons such as length of time from application to being accepted, lack of affordable scholarship money, and questionable ethics in some aspects. Choices I had long since neglected such as Coe and St. Mary's were rising. In the sports world, I had revisted my love of running in the previous year but now had my eyes glued on a tennis state championship. I played and worked out nearly everyday along with spending many weekends in places such as Grand Forks, Souix Falls, and Rochester playing rigorous tournaments in order to better my playing ability. In the end I didn't even make the state tournament after electing to try doubles with Will G and losing to a tough Blake team. I have since avenged our doubles lose by beating one of the kids badly in a tournament this December. Jazz band was always fun, but in 2008, it became absolutely amazing. We won the Eau Claire jazz festival and had our own concert which turned out to be one amazing night. The funny thing was that high school tennis and high school band came to a close both on the same day, May 22nd, which was the day of our section tennis tournament and our senior concert which I won the Louis Armstrong award for jazz band, my biggest accomplishment in high school. Then suddenly, it was all over. I was walking across stage on scholarship day and again at graduation, and high school came to a close. The last day of classes had a cook out, a couple of bands, and a dance and I had more fun at that 5 dollar dance then I had at all the other dances combined. I need to do another post because this one is too long.