A Constant State of Being Sore

Summer workouts, fall season, off season conditioning, spring season. My collegiate volleyball career seems to always keep me in a constant state of being sore. Most of this is thanks to my wonderful coach who I love, but who also always changes our workouts every Monday. While this is great for getting my body into tip-top shape, it's killerrrrr for my muscles. I always seems to be sore! For example, our summer volleyball workouts started this week and I was expecting to be a little sore since for the first week of summer I was having fun and doing workout video's rather than hitting the weights hard. My soreness exceeded my expectations! The day after my first official workout I could barely sit down on the toilet! It was rough; and, I know that this soreness will only continue for the next two years of my life...and I wouldn't have it any other way!

While being sore is at times annoying, it also gives me a secret feeling of accomplishment. I know that I worked hard in the gym the day before, and while my body might not be able to be pushed as hard today as it was yesterday, I know I'm working all the right muscles and will soon see the results of that! What would be scary is the day that I do a workout and am not sore after accomplishing it. That only means that I did not push myself as hard as I should have!

All the sweat (lotssss of it!), all the sore muscles, and all the days that I would have much rather spent laying in bed rather than dragging myself to the gym is all for my love of volleyball. I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to play the sport I fell in love with in the 7th grade still, now at age 20. While my mother says I should focus more on school work (I got all A's this semester, by the way! she has no reason to worry..) my true passion in life is playing volleyball for the Belmont Abbey College Crusaders. My teammates are some of the best girls I have ever met in my life and they have become my true sisters. Every time my body is screaming at me to quit and I have thoughts of just skipping out on a few sets I think of all 17 of my sisters and I know that they are pushing themselves just as hard as I am pushing myself. We all have a common goal and work as hard as we can to be in the best shape to accomplish it come fall. I can't thank them enough for being the pushing force I need when all I fee like is a giant blob of nothingness.
I cannot explain my excitement for this next season in any other way then this......AHHHHHHEKKKKKYAYYYYEKAOWA[FOIEJAF JEIOA[WORIJMVJFIEOPOUHNVGHREO[FJIOOOO!!!!!!!! Yes, I am VERY excited! :)

The Juniors <3 My Instant Best Friends!

My Ultimate Support System

(Please excuse the awkward garden backgrounds...my coach is an art major, she doesn't prefer the normal gym or volleyball net background, thus the garden! :) )

Technical Difficulities.

Blogspot didn't let me upload pictures of me and my German friend last night...so here they are! :)

My German Friend.

I've come down with a bit of a head cold. Since my head is filled with nasty things like boogies and mucus and all that good stuff I am in a state of writing block. So this will be pretty short...

I just got back home today from visiting my friend Dorothea who is taking summer classes at school. She is not only one of my good friends, but she will also be one of my roommates next year! YAYYYY!! She is from Munich, Germany and she is awesome! :) We had a great time this weekend going to the beach and having some quality girl time.

Today is also her birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOROTHEA!

Stumble! addict.

It's finally summer! The three months people wait all year for. I would be just as excited as the normal college student if I spent my summer in Erie, PA with all my high school friends, but instead I am in Greenville, NC. I don't know anyone that lives here except for my Aunt Betty and Uncle Bill. I love them, but they're no one to go to the beach with, or shop all day like an almost 20 year old should be doing. I am currently unemployed and pounding the pavement for any type of job I can get. The rest of my day is spent doing a Jillian Michael's workout video (she's awesomeeeee!), watching a lot of reality TV on garbage channels such as MTV, TLC, and Bravo, and my newest hobby, using Stumble Upon! 

In my stumble setting I have many things tagged as my interests. One of them is crafts. This has given me manyyyyy ideas for my apartment next year with Angela, Kayleigh, and Dorthea!! SOOOO EXCITEDDD!! :)) Another interest I have tagged is videos. I have never been much of a YouTube watcher, because frankly, I think most of the video's on there are stupid. But I have stumbled some VERY cute and funny videos these past days and I am here to share them with you! ENJOY :)

A very cute wedding proposal can be seen here....
http://www.youtube.com/mattandginny

And a very funny and cute baby can be seen here...
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6439074/baby-discovers-the-joy-of-destroying-evidence

My blog posts are few and far between now a days, but this is because I do not have a lot going on here in Greenville, so in the next few weeks and I hopefully find a job and explore the city a little more, I will keep you posted!! But until then, I'll just share some useless crap I find on the internet. :)

Act like a 12 year old sometimes...it's only healthy!

As I approach my 20th year in existence I've been examining my life more and more.  I am half way done with college. Two more years until I am shoved into the real world and the one constant that has helped me to get through anything and everything, volleyball, will be over....for good! While those thoughts are enough to make me have a mental breakdown, buy out the whole chocolate section in Walmart, and Red Box the most sappy chick flick available, it's a reality that I will have to deal with so very soon!

But, I prefer to focus my time on lighter subjects in life, like what happened on the Real World: Las Vegas last night, or how gorgeous the Royal Wedding will be tomorrow. Anyone that has spend at least five minutes in my presence has more than likely realized that I love to crack jokes. Good ones, bad ones, horrible ones...doesn't matter! I will do ANYTHING to make someone laugh. Laughing is my favorite thing to do! And what makes laughing even better is laughing with someone else! (let's get real, people give some serious dirty looks when there is only one person in a group laughing. that's just fact!) During one of the great conversations that my friends and I had at the Caf during lunch we talked about acting like a silly and carefree 12 year old. While we would not reccomend this as an all day, everyday lifestyle, we all agreed that acting like a kid who doesn't care about what others think, messes around and cracks jokes, isn't thinking about how much homework they have to finish or how stressful their life is, and just has some genuine, carefree fun is the BEST THING EVER! Talk about a stress releiver. Even if it is just for a few moments, those moments will be the memories you will never forget. Around campus I saw a sign that read "You can always retake a class, but you can never relive a party." While I don't fully agree with having so much fun that you're forced to retake classes (that's a LOT of wasted money!), I do agree with scheduling out your time in order to leave some space for goofing-off and acting like a kid. You're never too old to let loose and dig into your inner child.

I know that someday I will have to grow up and become more responsible, but I hope I never loose my inner child. I plan on being 98 years old, living in a nursing home, and still cracking jokes to all the toothless old people around me! YOUNG AT HEART <3


*Special thanks to Sydney Dunavin: my #1 blog supporter. And for being a part of the Caf conversation I explained above (along with Kay and Rem).  And another special thanks to Trey Ennis who said that after reading the first line of my previous post he was not impressed and decided not to read the rest...I hope I jazzed this one up a bit for you!

Just some funny pictures of me and my friends. They make me laugh...if they make you laugh, that's great too!! :)







Currently Living in the Best Years of My Life

This past week my suite at school had the joy of hosting Mrs. Jubb (my roommate's mom).  Because Angela had surgery on her torn labrum Mrs. Jubb came to stay with us to help nurse sweet Angela back to health. Besides having a loving mother figure in the suite for a few days, something we aren't normally used to in a college dorm, Mrs.Jubb is a great talker and a great listener! We can always count on her to keep the conversation going with some great words of wisdom. It is a true skill!

A normal night for suite107 consists of some late night girl-talk. Almost nightly when we are all finished with our homework, relaxed for a little while, and right before we get ready for bed us girls get together, chat about our day, complain about the male gender, our classes, and think about the great things that tomorrow will bring! There is always a guarantee of laughing until our stomach hurts, giving each other the best advice about life, and occasionally we even give each other manicures if we had a realllll bad day. (some real girly stuff, of course!) One time this past week when we were having our nightly chat Mrs. Jubb peeked her head in the door, said "You know, you girls are in the best years of your life!", and then walked out into the other room. While it was only a few words of great wisdom, it got me thinking...

We really ARE in the best years of our lives! When will we ever get the chance to live with our best friends, have all day to attend 3-one hour classes, and get to act as irresponsible as we want and just be referred to as acting like a "college student"?! While our number one priority is getting an education (don't worry mom!) our number two priority is making memories that will last forever! As I am finishing up my second year as a college student I have already made a million memories and am more than excited for the next two years of "the best years of my life" to make a million more!

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever" 

--Gandhi

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens."

--Kahlil Gibran







volleyball volleyball volleyball

Well, I have to admit that I kind of forgot I had a blog. It feels like forever since I have blogged! So here's a little recap of what has gone on in the fabulous life of Julianne Pisano in the past month....

Spring volleyball is in full force! We have had three play dates with a bunch of different schools. Working hard to get rid of all the cobwebs that we've acquired over the winter. So far so good! Besides batteling some injuries, the team is looking better than ever! We have one final tournament this weekend here at the Abbey and then we'll be preparing all summer for the fall.

As for the injuries...my best friend and roommate, Angela, has a torn labrum (something in her arm) and is getting surgery to fix it on Tuesday :( It will be a little bit of a recovery time, but we are all praying that she will recover quick and be back for the fall. As for the next few weeks...I will be her personal assistant! :) It's going to be hard living life with one arm for a few weeks; I'm her go to girl!

I apologize that my life only consists of volleyball events, but this will be the last one! I promise! Our volleyball team has been busy planning and fundraising for a mission trip to Nicagaura for this summer. We will be there for 7 days and will have the opportunity to work with special children and play the Nicagaura national volleyball team. It is going to be such a great experience! If you want to support us on this trip donations are accepted!! Email me and I will let you know of all the info. Of course keeping us in your prayers is a great donation as well!

Besides volleyball, I go to school. Only 12 more days of classes and 3 finals stand in the way of me and SUMMER! It is going by extremely fast and it's a hard task to stay on top of my school work when I would much rather sit outside in the beautiful weather watching a baseball game. Or just soaking up some sun! But I will be very happy when it is finally summer and the livin' is easy!

While a day in the life of Julianne Pisano is nothing to brag about, I have the best time of my life because of all of my great friends! Having the ability to make a normal sunday night into the funniest and most entertaining night ever is a true gift. God has truely blessed me with the best friends I could ever ask for.