Why Should We Pick You Over Your Brother?

For many people this week involved the Industrial Round table interviews, but for me, I had an interview this week that was the most important one of all.  The Paint Crew Advisory Board interview.  If you don't know what the Paint Crew is, never talk to me again.  Just kidding see this.  As a "lil freshy" getting my foot in the door was hard enough, but thanks to the best big brother in the world, Brian, he got me into the Paint Crew last year, meaning I get all the e-mails that are sent out to all of the Paint Crew, including the Advisory Board application.  When I got this e-mail, I immediately decided I was filling it out.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be apart of the advisory board, especially this season!  So I fill it out, and wait.  I get an email back from Tom, the president telling me I have an interview at 6 on Wednesday.  I was so ready! Especially since Brian had his before me, so he could help me out a little bit so I could be as prepared as possible.

The day is here....
I'm excited all day for this interview, I can't really concentrate because I just want to get my classes over with so that I can start this interview.  I get done with my English conference early, so I go on over to Rec 116 where my meeting will be.  I get myself ready, go over my card of stuff that I had written down; and wait, and wait, and wait.  I was there 45 minutes early, because my conference didn't take as long as I thought.  So I think I was making myself more nervous sitting there, but I had nothing else to do.  Finally, it is my turn.  I was so excited.  As soon as I walk in, I just felt like I belonged.  They were really cool about everything.  We did our introductions, and I immediately played the name dropping card, and as soon as I told them that, they were even more cool with me.  Mike Klein was the first person to say something, and if you know anything about Mike Klein, you would understand.  He was the first person to get kicked out of line, because no one from his group was there, and now he is the Vice President of the Paint Crew.  As soon as I said my name and the Brian was my brother, he said, I can tell... but you are pretty much the polar opposite of your brother, and I like it.  I knew this interview was going to go great after that.  Tom, the president, was next with asking the questions, first it was tell us something interesting about yourself, and I pulled out the ACL card, of coarse taking it back to the basketball team! I said how I was a lot like Robbie, Mike gave me the weirdest look I had ever gotten.  I told then at the end of my Junior year, I too tore my ACL.  But also, I told them that I hate IU more than I love Purdue.  They really liked that one.  :)
The first real question I was asked was why I wanted to be apart of the Paint Crew Advisory board.  I said this is going to be a special season. Sorta like Brian did in his blog, Final Four or DIE!  I said that I wanted to be part of the advisory board the year we won the National Championship.  Tom really like that answer.  I said some other things too, but I can't remember what they were.
Then, I get the question why should we pick you over the other people that applied?  I told them because not only do I love Purdue and have a huge passion for the Paint Crew, but that I have a much smaller learning curve thanks to Brian.  But since I put on my application that I was president of the booster club for school, they asked me about that and what ideas I had about making the PC better, I told them some ideas that I had... they seemed to like those as well.
The last question of the day was by far the best though.  Mike Klein looked at me and said "Melissa, look at me... I have a question for you." I though "Oh, great, what is he going to ask me?" He begins to smile, and says "If there are two people fighting for the 9th and final spot on the PC Advisory Board, why do you deserve it more than your brother?" I was shocked for a second, I didn't know what to say.  Tom looked at Mike, looked at me, and said, you don't have to answer that.  Mike said, "Oh yeah you do."  So I thought about it for a second, and decided that I was going to give them a pretty awesome answer.  I told them something to the effect that I am so much more outgoing than Brian, I would be willing to do anything for the PC to make it better, whether that be dressing up like an idiot, jumping up and down, standing on things, yelling til I lost my voice, anything to help make the PC the best student section in the nation.  They all started laughing, and Mike said... Far enough. Thanks for answering that.  It wont' leave the room. :) Then the interview was over.   I feel like I accomplished what I wanted with the interview, making myself sound like the type of person that is willing to do anything to make the PC succeed.  They seemed to really enjoy talking to me and I felt like I fit in with them so well. 
Hopefully, I will be letting you all know soon about the joys of being part of the Paint Crew Advisory Board this season!

For now,
Boiler Up!
Melissa

Weekends Like These

I officially LOVE long weekends as a college student!  Most students go home, so you really get to know the "core" group of people that you have been and will continue to spend your time with over the next 4-5 years.  For me, this weekend was one of those.  While a large number of kids from church went home for the Labor Day holiday, I stayed up here.  This was one of the best decisions I have made as a Boilermaker  so far.  The weekend went a little like this....

On Friday, I was sitting outside my Spanish class, waiting for it to be out time, and my professor walks by and decided to sit down with me, normally I would be a little creeped out by this, but I was watching a YouTube video that Brian had posted.  She is watching it with me.  I've decided from this, she is pretty cool.  Then I decide to show her (WHAT??) this awesome video.  She though it was awesome!  Then she proceeded to tell me that she was going to let us out of class early today.  She made the entire class happy then.  So after I get out of Spanish early, I go back to my dorm to realize my roomie has left me for the weekend!  I was sad about this.  When you are in a little room with someone for this long, you begin to be excited to get to go back and talk to them.  And plus I knew this weekend was going to be awesome!  So then around 6 we go down to a local park and decide to play "volleyball" no one was really into playing. But that was totally fun.  We made sand castles while we were waiting for it to be our turn, and just having a good time talking.  Then, Jacob, Michael and Andy decided to make a human totem pole...

As soon as we get there, everyone takes a couch, or chair or something, but the cousins wanted to love one another and decided to sit together.  Michael is very excited about this, Jacob on the other hand, make your own decision.

So after that excitement, we decided to go back to Avery and Katherine's house and get some pizzas and watch a movie, well the pizzas happened, but instead of movies, it turned into Mafia, and Catch Phrase.  Then all the carbs started to set in, and we were all really hyper, so thankfully, Avery has a park right across the road from her house, so about 10 of us went over there at about 11 and played Ghost in the Graveyard, Tag, Hide and Seek, all those game you play when you are about 8 out on the playground.  It was awesome!  There was hiding in bushes so we wouldn't get tagged, there was some random falling to the ground when a car would pass, because if you didn't know this, you aren't supposed to be in the park after dark.  Who knew?  After we worked off all of our carbs and were calm again, some of us needed to go to Wal-Mart and get some food, and other school stuff.  Since we were with upper class men, we decided it would be a smart time to go.  The ride over there was quite the fun ride.  I was in a car with Avery, Caleb (Avery's little brother), Jacob, and Michael.  Let's just say we had a lot of fun.  Between the singing and "dancing" it was a very eventful ride over to Wal-Mart.  Once we got there, we actually just got our stuff and went in line, but remember, this is like 12:30 AM and I had been up since 8 so I was getting a little sleepy by this point.  Then, while we are waiting on Kyle to get through the line, we are all sitting on the benches.  As Kyle walks over, he was like this would be the perfect photo.  Look homeless.  So we did.

Then, we decided to look crazy.... Notice the change in Michael's face.

After the midnight Wal-Mart run, we go drop people off and then I go back to Avery's and spend the night.  We stayed up til about 3:30 watching A Walk to Remember.  I love that movie! :)

Now on to Saturday:  I go back to campus and get ready for the day.  We are going over to Audrey's to watch the Purdue game...So at 2:30 Jake comes over to pick up the 3 of us who are going over there... Another fun ride! :) So we get to the house, I am helping with making the desserts and stuff for the game.  Everyone else gets there around 3 and we sit down to watch pre-game and we are being very HOPEful.... well, there was a very sad outcome to said game, Noter Lame got the best of us, but I did see some Hopeful things that came out of the game!  We ate dinner, and then came back to campus.  Laundry is what I filled my Saturday night with.  Thrilling right?  Not so much... But I had Sunday to look forward too because I knew that my friend, Ashlyn was coming up!

Sunday:  Get up, go to church, then after church we all decide that we want to go eat together.  Me, Ashlyn, Brian, Bryan Dallas, Micah, Jacob and Michael.  It was a good time! :) We had a lot of fun getting to just sit and have a meal together.  Then Sunday afternoon, Ashlyn and I walked around campus and I showed her the ins and outs of Purdue.  As I am showing her, a family walks up and asks me if I am familiar with the campus, I tell them yes I am a freshman this year.  That proceeds into a campus tour.  It was fun!  Then we all go our separate ways and Ashlyn and I go get Den Pops! Yummy!  Then we came back and hung out until the song service later that night.  That was such an uplifting time! :)  Then we went over to a families house and ate, played volleyball, and then when it got dark, we watch Up on the side of the barn! That was a cool thing! I had never done that before!  Then we rode back with Kyle and Michelle.  

Monday:  We got up, I did homework after Ashlyn left, and then played soccer with some people at church.  I got hurt too! Me and Rachel ran into each other and I messed up my jaw, oh well. I will survive! Then I went to eat with some girls on my floor, the by that time, ROOMIE WAS BACK! So, we went to play basketball.  And then the weekend was over. :(  

This weekend was one of the best for quite a while and I can't wait to have another one like this!

Boiler Up!