Crystal Amberlyn

Entering college, I knew my life would experience little change. As other students traveled to campus from hours away, I hopped in my car and drove a whole two minutes. As students said goodbye to their parents, met their roommates and decorated their dorms, I had the same house with the same room I had in high school. There was no need to say goodbye to my mother because I would see her every day. Commuting to college definitely has its benefits, but looking back, I wish I would have done things differently. No, I am not saying I wish I would have lived on campus. I only wish I understood the importance of change. As a freshman at Ohio Northern University, I wish I knew to go outside of my comfort zone and most of all, be myself. As a junior, I look back on the past two years and realize there is so much more I could have experienced. So many organizations I could have joined, and so many more friends I could have made. As a commuter, going home was more tempting than going to an...

It is the last week of November which means Christmas is right around the corner. As Christmas trees are set up in front of the windows of houses and holiday ads are stuffed in mailboxes, I cannot help but remember being a child writing my wish list to Santa. Since I am older now, I am clearly not asking for fun items such as a new doll or the famous Fingerlings. I may be considered too old to write a Christmas list, but this does not spoil the fun! ·        Spyro Reignited Trilogy When I was young, I grew up playing Spyro on my PlayStation 1. Recently, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy game was released for PlayStation 4. This game including the original Spyro trilogy completely remastered. I cannot wait to play it! ·        A Laptop Case As a graphic design student, I am on my laptop all the time. Must I explain this item further? ·        A weighted blanket While br...

As a college student, I have heard a lot of awful roommate stories. Fortunately, I have never had to room with a stranger because I live at home with my mom. I must admit living at home has a lot of benefits.   My bank account surely appreciates it. Now, it may sound as if I am living the dream, but you have not met my mother. I do understand my mom has been through a lot so she has a couple loose screws. I know I should not get angry at her, but I still get irritated by the things she does. I might not have an awful college roommate, but I think my mom can be just as bad. You would assume most mothers are quite clean, but my mom breaks the stereotype. It surprises me how sloppy she can be. If my mom cooks, which is rare, she will either leave out the leftovers on the stove or she will shove the entire pot into the fridge. I guess she does not like to use Tupperware. That is probably because she can never keep the lids and bowls together after she washed them!  This ...

On Feb. 1, 2018, Cheyenne Eldridge and I made and published our first podcast! You can click here to listen to it. This was a completely new experience for us, but we had a lot of fun in the process. Cheyenne and I have a lot in common. We are both sophomore graphic design students at Ohio Northern University, but we live in two completely different situations: Cheyenne lives on campus, and I live off campus. Therefore, we thought it would be interesting to explore the pros and cons of these two options. The process of planning out our podcast turned out to be quite simple. We referenced an article from MyCollegeOptions.org and added some of our personal experiences. The article made a lot of great points we were able to understand and relate to, so it was very easy for us to talk about them. In my opinion, the process of recording the podcast was the trickiest part. It took multiple attempts for us to get our final audio. It took us awhile to get down the intr...