On the Road Again...

Hey folks,

Aside from having a ridiculous amount of work last week, I also got to take a few trips for a few different Stonehill events.

Last Monday, most of the Admissions office packed up and went on the road to the Basketball Hall of Fame for an accepted students reception. I've done one of these in the past, and previously the reception was much smaller and held in the house of an alumnus. Obviously, this was a bigger event, with more people and much better food!

We left around 2pm and the drive was a shade under 2 hours. The reception didn't start until 6:30pm, so Evan, an admissions counselor, decided to kill time by walking around the museum and playing some of the interactive games. There's a fun one where you stand in front of a blue screen and pretend like you are playing one-on-one. Your image is then transferred onto a television screen and it's looks as though you're playing a video game. Check out Evan getting poster-ized by WNBA player Dawn Staley.

On Wednesday night, I attended a reception for Boston for former Senator Paul Kirk. Kirk was a former Stonehill trustee and has kept close ties to the school. It was held in the Joe Moakley Courthouse overlooking Boston Harbor. It was a beautiful night and I'm happy I got the chance to meet the Senator.

My friends Brenna and T.J., two former interns in his office, presented him with a citation. Then, he got up and said a few words. I also had the opportunity to eat some awesome food and mingle with some of the Boston Poly Sci "elite"; I think there may have been a few circuit court judges, the Boston District Attorney, and the executive director of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. I guess it's never to early to network!

Alright, that's it for now. It's getting kinda late.

Take care!

Easter, Elections, and Everything After...

Hey folks,

Well, after my birthday was through Winter give in to Spring and I was home to celebrate Easter with my family. I left Stonehill on Wednesday to head back to Connecticut.

Easter this year was held over my Aunt Mary and Uncle George's house. It was a pretty small crowd this year. My cousin recently had a baby, so their family as well as their parents went up to their house to celebrate with them. So before I write any further, let me introduce my new cousin Callie Reese.Anyways, the Easter table consisted of my mom and dad, my Aunt Mary and Uncle George, their daughter Steph and her husband Rob, and their nine-month old son Chase.

It was a beautiful day out so we had drinks and appetizers on the deck outside, while we waited for the honey-baked ham to finish cooking.

After a filling lunch, I spent most of my afternoon playing with Chase and watching some basketball on TV. When I got home, I turned on ESPN to watch the WORLD CHAMPION Yankees take on the Red Sox in the Season Opener.

While at school, things have also been progressing nicely. Before break, I began my campaign to be elected President of the Senior Class. Below you can see some campaign posters of mine. My slogan was "Big shoes. Bigger ideas." I wanted to get the seniors more of a say in both class committee and SGA Senate. I ran against the incumbent President, who was elected last year. The polls were open from Wednesday until Friday morning. My roommate and campaign manager Tom was amazing at getting my supporters to the polls through text messages, facebook statuses, and direct appeals.

Friday afternoon came and went and I was anxious as I got back from dinner without any results. Sure enough, at 7:21pm, I was informed via email that I had won the election!!!

As you can probably imagine, I was pumped! This had long been a goal of mine and we celebrated accordingly! I'm looking forward to making senior year our class' best yet!

After I told my parents about my victory, they decided to surprise me and come up on Saturday evening to take me and my friends out to dinner. But first, they came bearing a 12 inch sheet cake, with the words: "Congratulations, Matt" on it! Eamon joined us as we feasted at Pasta Bene. I had some great pasta and--my family being what they are--made sure to fill the table with appetizers, drinks, and dessert!

In the morning, my parents and I had breakfast at a really great local bakery: White's. It was full of really good homemade danish and pastry. My mom wanted me to get some things to bring back with me, when I settled on a bag of chocolate chip cookies, she kept telling me to get something more. I kept refusing, so sure enough, she decided to do the shopping for me and my fridge is now stocked with tiramisu cake and chocolate cupcakes..oh yeah, and the sheet cake!

The perks of a presidency...

Take care!

Winterfest '86 (and other random moments)

Hey folks,

It has been a momentous few weeks here at The Hill. During which time I have turned 21 and have some incredible moments along the way. Though with these last few weeks have also come an inordinate amount of work. These next few posts over the next week or so will help to catch up on all that I've been up to.

First things first, on March 24th I celebrated my 21st birthday! Though it was mid-week, my friends in Dunster and I were able to stay up late and welcome my birthday in style. At midnight, we had a big countdown and soon rushed into the common room for a nice celebration.

Later that day was layout for the Summit. I had my trusty associate Allyson take over the News Editor duties for the night, while I had the chance to enjoy myself. While I was at layout, the staff surprised me with the announcement that I had been appointed Editor-In-Chief next year. I was pretty shocked. I'd have never thought that as a nervous freshman submitting two pieces for The Summit, that I would be named Editor-In-Chief by senior year.

As the week wound down to a close, the boys and I had to indulge a longtime goal: seeing the movie Hot Tub Time Machine. It was one of those movies that looked so ridiculous, yet so funny. We kept seeing trailers for it whenever we'd go to the movies, so Eamon, Ray, Steve, Conor, and I piled into the car Friday night to see it. It's about these 4 middle-aged guys who go back in time to Winterfest 1986 (a party in a fictional ski resort) through a--you guessed it--HOT TUB TIME MACHINE! It was hysterical. We loved it!

The next night then seemed then to directly relate to the night before. Me and my eight closest friends went to celebrate my birthdays at Dave and Busters in Providence. I sometimes need to scratch the certain itch deep within me that longs for me to school 10 and 11 year olds at trivia, while Eamon loves to play Time Crisis, complete with all the appropriate grunts and yells. We ate in the Providence Food Court and spent a few hours playing games in D&B.

While there, I gave my friend who goes to Providence College a quick obligatory text, telling her I was in town and saying hello. Not thinking anything of it, I sent it and got back to my hosting duties for night. I soon got a frantic phone call from her telling us to come to PC, there was apparently big goings on. I was skeptical, but I'm always up for random moments so my goal was clear: since 2 carloads had gone to D&B, I had to enlist at least a full carload of my friends to come to PC with me or we couldn't go.

I managed to convince Conor and slowly but surely we got Eamon, Tom, and my friend Ray onboard and our next mission was getting to PC. My iPhone was doing just fine until we hit a detour and we were soon lost in some of the sketchier areas of Providence. After some lucky guesses and quick thinking, we made it to Providence. After getting my the guardhouse and onto campus, we were struck by the sight of unitards, side ponytails, and Members only jackets...looking at each other we began yelling, "HOT TUB TIME MACHINE!"

Meeting up with my friends at "80's night at MacPhails", the PC campus hangout, we enjoyed the live music and just generally acted silly. Ray, Tom, and I were dancing onstage to "Don't Stop Believing" and "Jessie's Girl." The place was packed so our Stonehill selves blended in well except for the giant Stonehill t-shirt Tom was wearing. Conor pulled some strings and got the lead singer to give a birthday shout-out to his "good friend Matt Gorman." While I'm sure he was expecting a chorus of loud cheers to commemorate the occasion, his toast was met with a confused mutter among the populus. No one seemed to know who the heck this guy was getting a shout-out. Meanwhile, five clowns from Stonehill in the corner were cheering! The band then ripped right into a great version of Tom Petty's "American Girl".

A pretty good birthday week, I'd say.

Take care everybody!