Keeping Up With Kayleigh

My 10th Birthday! Growing up, birthdays were always a very big deal in the Jarkowsky household. My mom always made sure to make our day incredibly special in any way possible. No matter how old we got, we would always walk down the stairs to the house decorated with balloons and streamers, the table decorated with a card and presents and our favorite breakfast treat. Later in the day, she would make our requested dinner, and the entire family would gather around our dining room table. Spending time with my family was always my favorite part of birthdays. Once I moved to college, I dreaded my birthday. I dreaded the feeling of waking up and not getting to walk downstairs and see how my mom decorated. I dreaded not getting hugged by my parents. I dreaded not feeling special. Most importantly, I dreaded not being able to spend my birthday with my family. I also felt stupid that I was a college student who still felt like birthdays were a big deal. But in my family, no matter how old you g...

All ready for auditions and callbacks! Last week we had auditions for the annual Holiday Spectacular at ONU! As Musical Theater majors, we are required to audition for every show so this was my fourth and final audition for Holiday! It is extremely bittersweet and I find myself getting sentimental about every 'last' I come across, even though it is the beginning of my senior year. My freshman year I did not get cast, which is pretty normal for freshman. Instead, I chose to be a Youth Performance Supervisor, which we call YPS for short. I was able to take care of the kids cast and help them learn the show. Doing this allowed me to still get to be a part of Holiday my first year and get to know the show and the other students outside of my class more. My sophomore year I did not get cast again which was definitely a letdown. I chose to sit that year out and not help backstage and instead get more involved in other ways on campus. My junior year I finally got cast as a singer/danc...

We are getting to the point in the semester that everyone is burnt out and patiently waiting for the end of the semester. Every break we get is needed and these breaks are the only reason some of us are making it through! Although we just got back from spring break a few weeks ago, I was so ready for Easter break. Unfortunately, I could not go home for Easter since it was too long of a drive for a short break, but my friend Lenore was kind enough to invite me home with her for the weekend! My other friend Ella also lives too far away to go home, so Lenore's parents kindly opened their home to both of us. We left early Friday morning and began our 5-hour drive. Lenore lives in a suburb of Chicago, and I was excited to go since I'd never been to Illinois before! It was so refreshing to get off campus for a few days and be in a city and not stuck in Ohio surrounded by cornfields. I was a little sad that this would be my first Easter away from home and that all my family would be t...

Valentine's Day is a day full of love, flowers, cards and joy for most people. For some others it is a day full of sadness, defeat, hopelessness and loneliness. So many people see Valentine's Day as a holiday only for people in happy relationships. The truth is that Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate love, whether that be platonic or romantic love.  I myself have found it hard to find the joys on Valentine's Day as a single woman. For many people it is hard to find the joys in a season of singleness and I understand that. This year I promised myself that no matter what, I would look around and see all the platonic love that surrounds me. Growing up I always woke up on Valentine's Morning to flowers, chocolates and a card from my Dad on the dining room table. I am so blessed with a Dad who shows me love not only on Valentine's Day but also every other day of the year. I have been a little sad thinking about how this will be my first Valentine's Day away fr...

When I first came to ONU, I had never felt so lonely in my life. I knew that coming to a school 8 hours away from home wouldn't be easy, but I did not expect it to be this hard. I am a homebody at heart but I also am an independent person so I thought that I would adjust easily to college life but it was quite the opposite. Bid Day! Since I grew up in a large family it was quite the culture shock moving away from them and living in a quiet dorm when I am used to always being surrounded by family and noise. I had never met my roommate prior to moving in and she is on the volleyball team so was hardly ever home. Because of that we didn't get to know each other until several weeks into school. I am in a small major, so outside of that I didn't know many people. My fam! I felt as though I was missing something. A part of me was left at home and I felt like I would never be truly happy here. There were a few people on campus that knew I was struggling with this feeling of loneli...