jmarra@whig.com

Having completed all of my semester final exams, I would sure like a break, just to take a breather and maybe a nap. Instead, I am packing.

Carter

For the next eight days I will be enjoying a learning project for school: Christmas in Washington, D.C. The group from Quincy University that is going with me includes one professor, one friar and 14 students. Most of them are history majors, but not all. Every student comes from a different walk of life and location. Two were soldiers, one is a nurse, another is a biologist. One wants to be a lawyer and two want to be accountants. The rest run a gamut of different future career goals. Some are from Illinois, one is from Florida, two from Missouri and one is from Ohio. It is one motley crew, to be sure.

We leave at daybreak on Thursday, spend a day in Chicago, then head east by train to Washington. We have a busy schedule, to be sure. There are 8 museums and the Library of Congress on our list, Arlington National Cemetery, and we even get to spend a day with Senator Dick Durbin and watch the U.S. Senate debate about the “fiscal cliff” we are all heading off. If the weather works out we will cap off the trip with a night tour of the National Zoo and have dinner in the former home of Light Horse Harry Lee, the Revolutionary War hero.

In addition, we are giving some time to a special project. We will be spending a day working at the national capitol homeless shelter, the largest homeless shelter in the United States. I don’t think we will make a tremendous difference in one day, but at least the staff members, who normally serve meals three times a day to a homeless population almost the size of Quincy, might get a break.

I look forward to sending back my weekly reports to you all “from the front,” so you can be right there with us as we experience so many new things. This trip makes my fifth to the nation’s capital, but every time I have gone I have seen things I didn’t see before, and I have never gone with the same friends or family, which makes it all the more interesting.

If you have never been to Washington, I recommend it highly. I also recommend that if you have children that have a chance to go on a school trip there, send them. The sights and sounds will last a lifetime. See you all in a week or so!

– Greg Carter

It’s time to study hard. This week is the roughest week at Quincy University of the semester: final examinations. It’s a week of second-guessing everything you know you learned and taking tests that would make a statue blush. It’s also a week where the faculty and leadership of the school give a little bit back to the students.

Carter

I took a break from studying for my algebra and Cold War course finals for an hour of relaxation and a special event that happens every semester: Cram Jam. I know, it sounds odd to say that it is important to take a break from the things that grind the brain down with stress every now and then, but this is one case where I think it is.

Cram Jam is an event designed to ease student stress. Massages and paraffin treatments, a guy who makes balloon animals, Christmas music and pictures with Santa Claus are all included. The best part by far is that I was able to eat dinner with Quincy University President Robert Gervasi, and this time he was the one cooking and serving the meal.

Think about that bizarre paradox. I am a student: one of many amassed at this fine school. My grades are great, but I am not the most active student on campus. Heck, I don’t even live on campus. All the same, the president of the school took time out of his night and undoubtedly more important projects to throw on an apron and cook pancakes for the student body. After the food is all handed out, he takes even more time walk around, eat with students, talk to students and laugh. This is the thing we need most at this stressful time.

Does your college student attend a school where the leadership takes that kind of interest in him or her? If not, it is time to transfer back home to Quincy University. I have never worked anywhere or gone to school at any institution where the president is willing to get “hands on” at any task outside of his office. This place sure is different, and in good way.

Dr. Gervasi knows my name. He asks me how I am doing when I see him, and he makes some fine pancakes, too. That kind of personal service from the top down is what every college student should experience. I think students going to massive public schools are losing out in a big way.

Well, I suppose I had better get back to the grindstone for a few more hours. Wish me luck out there. I will need all I can get for the algebra test.

Gregory Carter

So how about the water around Quincy these days? I am sure the City of Quincy people will fix it up. No worries there. This article is an appeal to all of you who out there with kids in college. This week is the last week of classes for most schools around the country, and next week means examinations.

Carter

If you have kids out there at some close-by or far-away school, why not send them a small gift package of stuff that will help them with these brutal test? Foods that are high in protein and Omega-3 fatty acids actually help the body retain information and stay strong for the long nights of studying for exams.

Don’t send caffeine or stimulants. Those are bad for you, especially with tests. Instead, prepare a nice bed for your college student to crash on when he or she gets home. Despite all the warnings about how unhealthy and counterproductive it is to stay up all night studying, tens of thousands of college students still do it. If your student is one of them, provide a place to sleep. This enables the mind and body to rest and download all the information they have been trying to cram in over the past few weeks before they came home.

If you want one more thing you can do, send them some music to study by. Everybody here at QU studies with headphones in, so it must be a popular trend. I personally listen to rap music when I study hard. I would also recommend an album called “The Big Come Up” by the Black Keys. My friend Olivia turned me on to these guys and this fantastic album a week or so ago. Think Buddy Guy if you like blues music, but amp the guitar up just a tad. Find out what your college student likes in music and get it, or just give them an iTunes gift card or something.

If they call you before the exams, wish them good luck and give a boost of confidence, then tell them to sleep the night before. The hard reality is, if any student takes good notes, pays attention, and plans in advance of the test at all, they know the material, but might just need a little confidence boost.

Most of my friends will tell you I try my hardest to throw out compliments every time I see them, and encourage their confidence. I am the first to admit this: I hang out with smart people. Why? Because they are smart! I don’t feel my I.Q. fall when I talk to my friends, and that is very important. I know what they are capable of and have no problem telling them so.

Heck, wish us all luck.

— Greg Carter

This is one tough week. As I gear up and get ready to take six final exams next week, I can’t help but be distracted. It was 71 degrees out when I woke up this morning. I get to wear shorts in December; something I thought was only possible if you lived on the Gulf Coast or the Mississippi Delta.

Carter

This week means a whole lot of getting ready, or as they say down south, “fixing to” do things. I have to turn in eight major writing projects, prep for finals and pack for the school trip to Washington, D.C. I also have lines to recite and practice for Quincy’s annual Knights Templar inspection next month. All I really want to do is grab some Fatback’s brisket and head down to the park. Terribly distracting weather, this is.

This is sort of a sad week, too. This Friday I take my last class forever with Professor Terry Riddell, who is probably the best English teacher I have had since Mrs. Grace, way back in fifth grade. Since I have completed all of my English requirements and then some, it is time to say goodbye and concentrate on heavy-grade history projects and student teaching.

Somehow, however, I think I will make it through. With yet another tough semester coming to a rapid end, several of the best classes I have ever taken now behind me forever and all my friends talking about “going home” for Christmas, I know I can see this through. After all, it is December and I have Christmas cards to mail.

Between the fog and the warm weather, I think this might be some kind of payback for the monsoon season that was virtually the entire fall season. I can’t urge everyone in the Quincy area enough to get out and enjoy these next several days of good weather. The best cure for winter blues, they say, is sunny and warm weather, and here we have it. I hope I see a million motorcycles on the road in the next few days, and bring out the restored hotrods, too!

Once these good days are over, remember that it really is December, and there are stockings to be hung and trees to decorate. Bring out the ornaments, wreaths and lots of Perry Como music! For the moment, however, let’s all get outside and enjoy ourselves.

– Greg Carter

I attended two dinners over Thanksgiving weekend, and one was a real eye-opener. I had my friend Ethan over for the traditional “stuff yourself silly” dinner on Thursday, then on Friday my fiancée and I stopped over at the home of the Quincy University friars and had a rare treat.  We had dinner with Brother Terry Santiapillai.

Carter

We had been planning this dinner for several months to satisfy our mutual “bizarre foods” craving. Brother Terry is originally from the island nation of Sri Lanka, located off the coast of India. One day I walked up and asked him if he knew how to prepare Indian food, and he matter-of-factly said he did. It was wonderful. This was my first time eating Indian cuisine and I have to say that Quincy desperately needs an Indian restaurant.

The point, however, was not lost on me. I wanted something different, and all I had to do was ask. That is the nice thing about Quincy, but something people who move here don’t readily know. If you need something here, you just have to ask somebody. It is easy enough to drive along Broadway and get a solid feel of where you can shop and what is available, but that view doesn’t begin to cover the layers of things at your fingertips here. You can certainly look in the phonebook, but that doesn’t really help either.

You really need human contact. When I needed to find the right gift for my fiancee’s birthday, all I had to do was ask the ladies down at Premier Diva. They educated me, provided examples and gave suggestions where to find products they did not have in their store. If you can’t find what you are looking for at Hy-Vee, ask the clerk that always wears a bowtie and biker gloves. Not only is he a riot to talk to, he knows the Harrison store down to the inch. Need the right fertilizer for your garden project? Go see my friend Randy over at Keller & Sons. Need an event calendar or a map? Stop by the  visitor center on Gardner Expressway. The wonderful staff there will set you up with all you need, just as they did for me 18 months ago.

I know these are only a few examples, but there is simply not enough space to write down what is available here in Quincy. All you have to do is pony up the courage and ask. You never know the valuable contact or new friend you might gain, and the information you will miss can’t be calculated.

As you contemplate New Year resolutions over the next month, put that one on the list. Make it a solid resolution to go someplace in Quincy and ask for something. Just ask for one thing, one time, and a whole new world might unfold before you.

— Greg Carter