Flash Back … Flash Forward … Make it Slow Down

Hey guys,

I decided to spend a little extra time on the blog this week because there is so much to add. First of all, I can’t believe that my Junior is basically over, just a week and a half of finals to go and then I am boarding a plane back to Massachusetts. The proof is sadly in the empty storage boxes that were delivered to my front door step on Friday which have to be packed by next weekend. So I am going to reminisce a little bit about the whole year and all that happened, because so much has! Junior year was definitely as hard as many people have said but it was so rewarding.

Some of my favorite things from this past year were:

• Going to Las Vegas for Phi Delt Formal
• Landing and my dream internship with GE Healthcare in their Commerical Leadership Internship Program in Sales and Marketing
• Going to see Swedish House Mafia live in Downtown Los Angeles
• Building a tuning ciruit for a guitar in EE 202
• Viterbi Ball with all of my engineering friends
• Getting accepted to the Progressive Degree Program in Engienering Management
• Voting in my first election
• Having my twin brother come out to visit me and see USC for the first time
• Mardi Gras invite with the wonderful ladies of Gamma Phi
• Eating a whole Turkey Leg with friends in Disneyland
• Running my first two 5k marathons of course in good company with my girlfriend Taylor
• Seeing Timeflies at the Troubadour
• Being a Freshman Academy Coach

I also took some of my toughest classes this year including Organic Chemistry, Linear Systems, and Molecular Biology but I managed, and am managing, to do well in all of them with the help of a little extra studying and some supplemental instruction sessions. However, one of my favorite parts of this semester was getting involved outside of the classroom. Over the last year a lot happened on the leadership front:

• Elected Executive Vice President of Administrative Affairs for the Interfraternity Council for the 2013 school year
• Finished my last semester as Vice President of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity
• Served as a Freshman Academy Coach in Fall 2012 and returning for Fall 2013
• Finished serving as the Vice President of Finance for Order of Omega for the 2012 to 2013 academic year
• Elected Order of Omega President for  the 2013-2014 academic year
• Picked as a Peer Mentor for Phi Delta Theta and will be a attending the Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute in Miami, OH on July 27-30
• Continued working at my Work Study job at the Viterbi Admission and Student Affairs office for the third year in a row

I can’t believe that so much has happened over the past year and it seems like just yesterday I was stepping off of an airplane in LAX wondering what my semester had in store for me. I have a lot to look forward to this summer. As I mentioned before I will be interning with GE Healthcare in their Commercial Leadership Program as a Sales and Marketing Intern. I just finished up all of my pre-employment paper work and if all works out I will hopefully be working for their Performance Solutions Modality which was my first choice. I will let you know once I get my final assignment. I am excited for the summer because there were only 16 people from around the United State accepted to this particular program and I am looking forward to networking and forming close ties with all of my colleagues. I am sure I will learn so much from each one of them. In addition, many of interns I will be working with have degrees in business, sales and marketing, or biology. I am looking forward to this increased diversity as I try to gain a better grasp on the business world as it relates to the biotech industry. I will be living in Milwaukee which will be a blast and I already bought my Lollapalooza tickets! I am so excited to return this year because I had so much fun last summer to Lolla. Remember these gems from my Lollapalooza post last summer? We also are making plans to maybe do the Rock N’ Roll Half Marathon and go to Summerfest too (Pretty Lights and Fun. in one place, sign me up!).

First thing is first though. I have to finish these finals and then I fly home to say hi to my family really quick. Also my sister Jocelyn is graduating from college so I get to see her get her diploma. I am so proud of her! Then I will be embarking on a road trip from Boston to Milwaukee which I am going to try to kidnap my brother for, because who wants to road trip alone? Once in Milwaukee I will get all settled in and I start work on May 20th! I am still struggling to deal with the fact that I will be a senior next year and will actually start taking graduate level classes toward my Engineering Management degree. Ahhhhhh. Time really does fly so make sure you are enjoy the ride!

Best,

Brenton

Now Playing: This is What It Feels Like by Armin Van Buuren with Clarity feat. Foxes (Acoustic Version) on deck.

 Armin Van Buuren – This Is What It Feels Like