One thing is for sure–I am glad to be back in Grand Forks and back at UND.

I spent this summer in my hometown of Billings, Mont. working internships at both the city newspaper and a local television station. Between getting articles published and hearing my voice on TV, it was an amazing summer where I learned more than I could have expected. I am a recently declared Communication major with hopes of going into sports journalism and broadcasting in the future. One of the highlights of my summer was covering a camp in Billings put on by an NFL player and a couple of his NFL friends.

I worked a lot of hours this summer, and it made the summer go by very fast, as it always does. As much as I used to dread going back to school in the fall, this year I was more than ready to head back to Grand Forks in August.

Although this semester has been the hardest so far in my college career to find the motivation and focus to do my schoolwork, there is something about fresh school supplies, a new college sports season and even the bad things (like the smell of Simplot).

This fall I’m back working at the Dakota Student again–something I enjoyed and learned a lot from last spring. When I first started working at the Dakota Student, I had no experience in media writing, but I learned a lot quickly and it prepared me for my internships this summer.

As fast as the summer went, I can’t even imagine how fast this semester will go. It feels as if we just started classes, but it’s already the middle of September, and it’ll be October, November and December before we know it.

I’m excited to get this semester really underway and I am looking forward to all the new things Grand Forks and UND have to offer this year.