January, the month of resting, driving back and forth to Hy-Vee and a lot of Mock Trial.

J-Term

Most people spend January making resolutions, setting goals, oh and breaking goals. However, with the beginning of 2023, I spent a good amount of time relaxing and taking a much need break from my busy life at Drake. It was very nice to be home, with a much slower pace, playing board games with my parents and brother (specifically Catan), having my car and beginning able to drive myself on little drives around fountain lake. It was a good refresh and start to the year

It was great to catch up with friends and family that I hadn’t seen since August. I went to Texas to visit some family for Thanksgiving so it had been a full semester, about four months, since I’ve been back to Minnesota. It was very good to fill in my friends in person on everything that’s happens over the past few months.

It was a good time to do all the things that I normally wouldn’t have time for. I finally got around to making different playlists that my friends had been asking me to make for months. I read. Like…fun books. Which is something I never have time for during the semester. I even had time to plan ahead on my bullet journal/planner in order to get as organized as I could for the next semester.

I spent a good amount of time back at the place I worked at in high school. The floral department at my local Hy-Vee knows me a little too well. Most of my Be Reals from the month of January were indeed taken at Hy-Vee. It was nice to return to a creative outlet that I normally don’t get to do much anymore. Yes! Designing flower arrangements! It took me a few attempts to get back into the swing of it, but through out the nearly 4 years of working there, I have been told nearly countless time about how I have a “natural eye for design”. But I think Cheryl and Krystle may just be over hyping my design skills so I keep coming back during the summer months. Either way it was prefect for filling my sudden abundant free time.

Another thing that kept me busy through out J-Term and the month of January was Mock Trial. I knew that as soon as I got back to school I would have two weekends of back-to-back Mock Trial tournaments, so I spent a lot of time practicing, preparing and sitting on Zoom calls with my teammates to work on stuff.

Overall my J-Term was very good and was a much needed break. However, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t without its problems. Everything from car troubles with my little white 2007 Chevy Cobalt to late night facetime calls about what’s stressing me and my friends out. Crying in Walmart parking lots to having to clear the feet of snow off my car in the Hy-Vee parking lot after forgetting to grab my mittens.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth it to be back in Albert Lea. I feel like everyone loves to hate on their hometown and I guess I’m no different but there really is a lot of little things to like about that shrinking town at the cross of 35 and 90. The sunsets on the Icy lake, the snow covered garland hanging from the historic looking green light posts on Broadway, the collection of ice fishing houses on the lake – the slowness of it all.

Back to Drake

As I moved my life back to Drake to for the next few months I re-adjusted to a new schedule and back to what I claimed as my real life. The regularly scheduled program of Zoe’s life as if it were a TV show.

But as I tried to adjust, my first week was jammed pack with Mock Trial practice everyday leading up to our first tournament of the semester. It’s safe to say that last part of January, Mock Trial was pretty much the only thing on my mind.

After all week of practicing and preparing with my team we headed of to Lincoln, Nebraska to compete. After a long drive of listening to Noah Kahan’s album on repeat and running through everything we could, we arrived at our hotel.

The most, and I repeat, the MOST important detail of the weekend was that the hotel was Nebraska themed!! With custom corn wallpaper and red, white, and blue checkered carpet. It was definitely an experience.

If I’m being honest I blocked out most of the weekend out of peer stress and anxiety, however, a Mock Trial weekend is always a great weekend. Me and Natalie even did an Instagram takeover all weekend on the Drake Mock Trial Instagram account.

The weekend was very successful! My team, B team, got 2nd place at the tournament, which we definitely did not expect. We were beat only by the other Drake Team that competed, A team, which placed 1st out of over 20 different teams from everywhere from California to North Carolina.

So yes! Overall January was a pretty great month!