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The Norton Wolf Pack
Go Getters 14 years ago No Comments

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contributed by The Norton Wolf Pack*

It all started one night in Norton Hall. Five interior design students (specifically, us) at High Point University were once again up late working on a project. The alter egos were out (we all have them), and we were doing what we do best: procrastinating. That’s pretty much how the idea of creating a collective blog all started. Procrastination. norton_wolf_pack-title.gifOur Professor taught us that Interior Designers are typically two things: procrastinators and perfectionists. For us it couldn’t be more true, and the combination is deadly. We didn’t know this in the beginning, but our blogging effort has become more than a procrastination tool. It helps us vent our feelings and get through those academic rough patches through sheer silliness, which, as we get closer to graduation, is more and more essential.

Sometimes we think we are bipolar. One minute we can be utterly upset, and with a snap of a finger, we’ll be rolling on the floor with laughter. It is something we experience every day. Going through all of this together has created a special bond between us. We get separation anxiety if we are apart for more than 10 minutes. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. We consider ourselves a wolf pack for a reason. Each member is an integral part of our success as future Interior Designer professionals. We work off each other and help each other out, which, in our minds, is the most important thing. It’s not only our ability to work together, but it’s our varying personalities that keep us going…

1 | Glynn CoCo (CiCi): hysterical without even realizing it
2 | Bianca: a sassy perfectionist, and occasionally mentally unstable (in a good way)
3 | Snookie (Snooks): a procrastinator with a Jersey attitude, but somehow gets things done at the last minute
4 | Pilot: focused, always prepared (pen in hair), and the most level-headed
5 | Smalls: always finished before the rest of us

It’s hard to say where we would all be without each other. The Norton Hall Wolf Pack is inseparable and probably always will be. As juniors, we freak out at the thought of graduating and going our separate ways. Hopefully, we won’t be too far from each other.

Who knows” Maybe one of us will even be famous…(hi HGTV…hellooooo Candice Olsen!) We all have dreams and we all have ambitions, and together we know we can make them happen. We are the next generation of designers. I hope you are ready for us world…because we are coming out in full-force.

.:: CICI ::.

A Little Off Track

Here’s how my day was supposed to go… Wake up at 8:30a. Shower. Get breakfast at 9:30a. Go to Norton and do work until 4p.

Here’s how my day is actually going… Woke up at 11:30a. Got into Norton by 12n. Been trying to work on my kitchen elevations but have been distracted by Snooks.

norton_wolf_pack-3.jpgI like to say I have the attention span of a goldfish, especially when it’s beautiful outside, and I’m stuck in the good old interior design building. Snooks just tattooed "WOLF PACK" on my knuckles with puffy paint. You can say I’m pretty hardcore now. Here’s my new tattoo! I think Snooks has a new calling.

Now she’s reading texts from last night and distracting me even more. Awesome. I’m starved annnd have already drifted away from my "to-do" list for the day. Story of my life. Well, of our lives.

Oh, The Mistakes We Make…

Everyone makes mistakes, right” Clearly. But, here in Norton, the mistakes we make just keep getting more and more ridiculous, especially sleepless night after sleepless night. The only thing we can do at this point is laugh.

As very loving friends, we like to lend a helping hand and lend a CAD block here and there. Bianca was so kind as to send me her floor plan so I could snag her ceiling fan. I was doing some creeping on the rest of her plan after I had copied the block of the fan into my CAD file. Noticed she had a very nice set-up for her living room (good job Bianc!) and moved on to her kitchen…and then the problem presented itself.

I sit there. Puzzled. Confused. Boggled. You want to know why” She had all of her light switches IN her oven. So I paused. Maybe she moved her oven to a different place and forgot to move the text box” Yeah, that’s definitely it. I go to see her kitchen elevations to see if that was the solution to the problem. Nope. Oven was where it was supposed to be. It was at this point where I had to ask. I don’t think it’s a good idea to put switches in an oven, but maybe, just maybe she had a method to her madness. Her response” Nothing but laughter and "What was I thinking”!"

All in all, we don’t only learn from our mistakes, but we find them hysterical.

<3

So it’s creeping upon 4:30a, and I’m slowly drifting. I’ve currently been tracing my perspectives for this project for almost the past hour. But, that’s not why I’m here.

norton_wolf_pack-1.jpgI’ve been so indecisive about this major. It obviously has its ups and downs (as you can see how our emotions can change at the drop of a hat). I often ask myself, "What on earth am I doing in design school”" The endless projects. The sleepless nights. I never imagined it being like this. I don’t think anybody does.

But, to be perfectly honest, I’m having the time of my life. Most college students live to go out and have a good time and have those "crazy nights" as their memories. This is different. I know that I’m always going to remember the nights that I spend with all of the Wolf Pack members and all the other girls in the major. Yeah, there are serious times when we need quiet, need to be alone, or have a break down (which happens quite often). But there are also times when we laugh until we’re on the floor. These are the nights I’m going to remember. I wouldn’t have made it this far with out these girls. They’re the ones that keep me going, and keep me motivated, and I feel like that’s the most important thing.

With love,
–CiCi (Glynn CoCo)

.:: BIANCA ::.

7 Is The Magic Number

Story of our lives… EVERYTHING in life takes 7 times longer than we expect it to. Conclusion” There is no way to do everything that needs to be done and expect it to be good. This is a bit of life knowledge we wanted to pass on from Ms. Sisk. I, Bianca, learned it the hard, hard way…as did most of us. I think for me its closer to 20 times longer, but the Wolf Pack is training me to cut corners. It’s not cheating…just being more efficient.

norton_wolf_pack-4.jpgAnyways, though we rarely see the outside world, we learned that these skills can be applied to real life situations, not just design school. Our travels to Dunkin’ Donuts proved that theory. Five of us ordered donuts and some variation of coffee… 30 minutes later (what was she doing…picking and crushing the coffee beans herself”)… we walked out half-satisfied. 30 minutes for take-out! Definitely an instance where it took 7 times longer than expected.

At least Pilot was in her happy place staring into the refrigerated cabinet and longing for the cakes. Some sort of serene calm came over her while the rest of us got irritable and antsy to return to our jail cell called Norton. Especially me, since once again it was my fault for taking so long. (They made my drink wrong.) Which brings me to my next point…

The diet of an Interior Design major is not a healthy one. Some examples:
Hot Pockets at 1:30 am
Hot Tamales (Pilot’s personal fave)
Goldfish
Cherry Coke
– Coffee
– Vending machine snacks (sometimes we get free ones from shaking the machine)

The common denominator is caffeine or sugar.

I think we’ve left you with enough to ponder for one post. Apply the magic number 7 to your lives…its freaky how accurate it is.

On The Verge Of A Breakdown

So this is unusual… We don’t normally ALL break down at the same time. We don’t quite know how to handle this situation. Ingrid turned off her phone. Pilot is twitching. We made an executive decision to forgo one of our pointless assignments in order to complete our project. By the way, everyone…Ingrid is making her first guest appearance here in our blog, and what an entrance she made. If you are sensing our bi-polar tendencies, then you are right on! This blog is turning into a therapeutic outlet to our unstable state of being. Glynn CoCo, hurry up with that Mental Hospital project…it might be soon that we all end up there.

Peace and Blessings,
–Bianca

.:: SNOOKS ::.

Stress
 
How, at the age of 21, am I so stressed out and consumed with work that I have to schedule in showers to my day and hate doing so because I know it’s taking away from either more work or the few precious hours of sleep I might get” After being in Norton all weekend for a minimum of 12 hours a day, I wonder if I was dropped on my head as a child that I became crazy enough to go through with this major.

I further wonder what it would be like to have a normal major, a social life, time to sleep, eat, and maybe have some free time to myself. I pretty have to schedule in a break down every day so I can give myself 2 minutes to go cry in the corner, have a minor freak out, yell at myself to get over it, and then go back to work. From here on out I think stress should be ILLEGAL, or I should at least have enough time in my day to clean my room, do some laundry, and maybe watch an hour of TV. Is that so much to ask”

I know that since it’s nearly 2 am and I’ve been working all day that this seems a little more dramatic than it will in the morning, but sometimes I really wonder if we’re all crazy for working our butts off like this. I have friends that tell me I’m so lucky to know what I want to do with my life, but at what price”

This blog has become somewhat of a godsend. We all have turned it into our own outlet to vent, scream, share our laughs, joys, triumphs, and everything else in between. It is somewhat comforting to know that all the things that have been said, screamed, or cried out of stress in Norton will make its way somewhere outside of those walls into the real world we rarely venture in to. Right now, though, a few hours sleep before class in the morning is what I need to clear my head. Thanks for listening to the freak out, world. Maybe my heart rate will drop just slightly now.

How To Be Sick In 2 Hours Or Less

Step 1: Meet up with friends for lunch, feel fine, excited even. This is the first real meal you’ve eaten all day (since Cheetos and a bottle of water at 9 am are not exactly substantial for any meal, let alone breakfast).

Step 2: Start eating. You’re eating REAL FOOD! This is amazing! It’s not from a vending machine or a convenience store. OMG, I’m in heaven.

Step 3: After about 5 bites, start feeling sick, oh no I might vom (short for vomit) all over the place, and in the caf. I don’t want to be the kid who throws up in the caf.

Step 4: Run to the bathroom, make sure you don’t actually vom, recollect yourself long enough to go back to the table and collect your things.

Step 5: Collect your things, go back to Norton (you read that correctly – Norton, not your room) because your entire life is in there basically and you have to e-mail your English paper that’s due in 2 hours to your professor.

Step 6: NOW you may go to your room, take a Tums, lay in bed with your lap top and do more homework. (There’s no downtime here even when you’re sick – productivity is key.)

Step 7: You feel better now that the Tums has kicked in, are grateful for a short second that you can head back over to Norton to do work, think for another second about how awesome it would’ve been to actually have a stomach virus or something so you could really lay in bed all week, start twitching at the thought of all the work you could be doing while you’re hypothetically sick, snap out of that day dream and head back to do some work.

How Ironic

After being in Norton from 9 am – 4 am (that’s 19 hours, people), I’ve finally returned to my room. While flipping through the TV channels to see what is on at 4 am (I like to fall asleep with the TV on), I’ve stumbled upon The Dr. Oz Show. This particular episode was on the dangers of not getting enough sleep (that would be the ironic part since its on at 4 am, and I have not gotten a good nights sleep lately).

Of course, being sleep-deprived, I was intrigued at what could happen to you. I learned that women have a 45% higher chance of heart problems, you tend to look and feel older, and if you get less than 6 hours of sleep a night you have a 50% higher chance of viral disease, heart attack, and stroke.

"Lack of sleep is associated with mental decline and overeating (which leads to major aging conditions)." STRAIGHT FROM DR. OZ, PEOPLE: WE’RE LOSING OUR MINDS BECAUSE WE DON’T SLEEP! All right, maybe not quite to that extent quite yet, but all of these all-nighters are certainty not healthy. OK, I’m going to stop my ranting now and actually get some sleep since I have an interview at 9:30 am and a midterm tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Stressed out,
–Snooks

.:: PILOT ::.

Free Pancakes!

It’s the morning after a very late night. Caffeine is a necessity. I woke up this morning with a drawing of a goldfish cracker transferred from my arm to my….foot”!”!

General education classes are creating a bitter mood in most of us. Psychology is the least of our worries in all that we do. Not to mention people will not stop telling irrelevant stories about people no one knows. Staying awake has become a competition between CiCi, Smalls, Snooks, and myself. Facebook and silly online games are the name of the game. Snooks’ phone just went off for free pancakes at IHOP tonight. Free food….I think YES. The anticipation of warm fluffy goodness is the only remedy to our lack of energy. Let’s see what else today brings.

Ironic Ctd.

In continuance of Snooks’ post in the wee hours of this morning, our psychology professor is currently lecturing on sleep deprivation. She is discussing how the lack of sleep is directly associated with the immune system, weight loss, mental stability, and memory loss. Memory loss”!”! No wonder a late night in Norton can become a bit hazy like a night at the bar.

In the words of Snooks: "The universe is torturing us!" While we collectively yawn and Snooks sips on her coffee, we are all sitting here with faces that closely resemble mug shots: mouths hanging open, eyes half closed, etc. Spring break is less than 24 hours away. I’m sure there will be many more eventful and unstable moments in the day to come, so keep reading.

–Pilot

.:: SMALLS ::.

Spring Break

It’s not even spring break, and I already miss my interior design girls. It has been approximately 3 hours since I last saw them, and I am already missing them. How in the heck am I gonna survive a whole week”! Survival strategies/tips are welcome if anyone has any!

As I try to pack, I find everything else to do but that. All the washers are full right now and laundry tonight is not looking too great. Looks like I will be taking it all home.

Peace out,
–Smalls

It’s A Beautiful Day. Naturally, Let Us Enjoy It In The CAD Lab

It’s a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and where do we seem to find ourselves” If you guessed outside enjoying the wonderful weather, you couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s crunch time, which means that every waking moment will be spent in Norton Hall trying to finish our projects just to realize we have other classes outside of design that we maybeeee should do some work for also.

norton_wolf_pack-2.jpgThe only thing standing between us and spring break is about 6 sleepless days and nights. I know that I’m looking forward to being able to go home and relax, but I’m not sure how much relaxing will be going on.

The weekend we return back to school the Interiors and Home Furnishings Club (or IHFC for short) is taking a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. Since the majority of us are on the Executive Council (myself being the president, Pilot our VP of events, and Smalls an SGA rep), we are the ones in charge of making sure this trip goes off without a hitch. So as much as we would like to run away from the world of design for a week, we’re bringing it home with us to do some last minute planning.

I’m very excited for this trip, though, and it will be rewarding to see all of our hard work pay off. It is this kind of personal satisfaction that makes being in this major bearable. We drive ourselves so crazy that we’re all convinced we’re mentally insane, but then we look at the finished product, and the late nights and sleep deprived days are worth it. We’ll report back later since its pretty calm in the CAD lab right now, but it’s just the calm before the storm of crazy that begins tonight. Who knows” Maybe there will be some late night tag or pushing each other across the room in rolly chairs…

*contributed by…
Chelsea Carico [a.k.a. CiCi/Glynn CoCo / interior design student / nap enthusiast]
Alyssa Bellefleur [a.k.a. Bianca / interior design student / sassy perfectionist]
Lauren Graback [a.k.a. Snooks / interior design student / professional procrastinator] Kaitlyn Carpenter [a.k.a. Pilot / interior design student / resident tall shelf reacher] Rebecca Morris [a.k.a. Smalls / interior design student / in-house speed demon]