Trip Across PA - Waynesburg

I have never seen so much of Pennsylvania, even after having lived there for over 10 years! Daniel and I literally traveled across the state of PA, from Newark, DE to Waynesburg, PA - all the way on the west side of the state! The trip took about 5 hours, but it was a nice drive, especially since I had company on the trip. And Pennsylvania in the fall is beautiful - the trees and their marvelous colors.

Waynesburg seemed like a nice little college town. I had a pretty good turnout at the Grad Fair and as it turns out, one of faculty's sons attends Regent Law.

Dan and I are going to spend the weekend with our cousin Brad near Geneva College. Should be a fun.

Trip Across PA - University of DE

Okay, okay... I realize that Delaware is not in PA, but it was on my schedule, and I was already pretty close being in Philly. Daniel and I ended up switching hotels to the one right on the edge of University of DE campus because it had a pool & hot tub. That was a fun way to relax after after our fair. It is also where we learned about the YouTube videos of the "Trunk Monkey" from our friend Marnie of Albany Law School. They are halarious! (see post below - my fav is the chaperone!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8avOiTUcD4Y

Trip Across PA - Drexel

Next stop was Philadelphia at Drexel University. This was the biggest grad fair I have been to, to date. They actually held it in the train station in downtown Philly. That was pretty cool. Dan found a place to work on his school while I did my thing. We didn't stay in the city, but rather drove in from Delaware. Not sure I would have enjoyed going to school in the city. Way too much traffic and some "iffy" areas close by. Nice to visit though. Dan definitely agreed.

Trip Across PA - Lehigh

My first stop along my whirlwind trip across of Pennsylvania was Lehigh University in Bethlehem. There I connected with some fellow recruiters I had met in Kansas City. It is always nice to see familiar faces when your on the road so much. Definitely enjoy having Daniel along though. Makes the car trips much better. I also taught him to play the new board game I bought called Acquire. Good times!

Company on the Road

I was able to get home to see my family in Pennsylvania over the weekend of Sept. 20th. It is always good to get to see my family & also my nephew who is growing up so fast! I was also able to pick up a fellow travel buddy to go with me as I made my recruiting stops all across Pennsylvania - Dan, my 15 year old brother! One of the great advantages to being homeschooled!

Visit to Bryn Mawr College

I visited Bryn Mawr College, just outside of Philadelphia, PA. It was only after I left that I discovered that it is actually an all-girl school. Haha! I didn't have many students come to my presentation of putting together a personal statement, but I believe those that did show up found it helpful. Bryn Mawr has a beautiful campus with many stone buildings. One of the students described it as Harry Potter "like".

More New Hampshire

Here are some additional pictures of my visit to New Hampshire and Gordon College in Wenham, Mass. Actually while I was at the grad fair at Gordon, the recruiters at the table next to me actually new our secretary back in Regent Law Admissions! Small world.

Okay, just had to turn around and get a picture of this when I saw it. Not a bad idea for next vacation. Cuts down on packing. I believe you get a complementary towel too. Haha!

A Great Visit to NH

On Tuesday I flew up to Manchester, New Hampshire to drive down to Gordon College in Massechusetts for a graduate fair. It has by far been my best trip for two reasons: 1) I got a sweet rental car at a sweet deal, and 2) I was able to visit my grandfather who I have not seen in about 4 years.

When I arrived at the rental counter, I asked what types of cars they had. Turned out they were having a special on upgrades, and she listed them off, all for a $7 upgrade. At the top of the list was a convertable Mustang. I did my best to hide my excitement, and said "I guess I'll take the Mustang then." Inside I was estatic! "No way?! I can't believe it! This a dream. I love mustangs!" Yes I was just a little excited. Haha. It was a fun ride, though never was warm enough to put the top down.

I also was able to visit my Grandfather (Mom's side) who I haven't seen in about 4 years or so. I called him to see if he would drive down from Etna, Maine to meet somewhere for lunch. Manchester is only about 3 hours from him, so I said I would meet him somewhere for lunch. He liked the idea and told me to find a Wal-Mart somewhere for us to meet at, since that would be easy to find. We ended up meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire. It was good to see Grandpa Bickford and Rose. We had a nice lunch at a little steak joint, and I updated him on Dusty's wedding and all I have been up to since school. They decided to turn their little trip into an overnight trip and I ended up canceling my other reservation near Boston so I could spend the evening with them. We watched the movie "The Bucket List" and then Rose and I grabbed some dinner next door at the diner. I was able to get a little work done later that evening and still grab some time in the hot tub. :) It was a very nice visit!

Visiting Villanova

I had my first event this past Monday at Villanova University outside Philly. I road up the night before with my family after Dusty's wedding. It was a good trip, reminded me of our traveling days when I was younger, the car packed to the gills with bags, pillows, and snacks, with people all buried in the midst of it all. :) We stopped at a Red Lobster for dinner, and I had a good visit with my Mom while I drove part of the way, getting to hear more about their time in Hawaii. We didn't get into Philly until about 10pm. They almost spent the nite with me at the hotel, but Dad opted to finish the trip instead.

Thankfully my event was not until 7:30pm the next day so I was able to get myself organized and exercise before heading out to Villanova. I got there early in the afternoon so I had time to figure out where I was going. With 4 hours to kill, I went and introduced myself briefly to the Pre-Law Advisor on campus, visited the bookstore, and walked around campus. Its a pretty campus, with many stone buildings and a few churches on campus. I believe they are a Catholic school. There is a new building going up for their law school, which didn't even cross my mind to visit. I spent quite a bit of time in the library working on my future travels.

I had pizza ordered for the event and went over a little early to set up. With the help of one of the pre-law society students I manged to get my laptop set up for the powerpoint presentation and waited for the pizza to arrive. I had 10 students show up, which meant I had way too much pizza! I guess I should of figured that most would have already eaten by then. The students weren't too disappointed when they got to take some home.

This was actually the first time I gave the presentation. I think it went pretty well. I assured them that it was my goal to be finished in time for Monday Night Football, since it was Eagles vs. Cowboys. :) I started out with an introduction to myself and about Regent Law, and then began my presentation - THE PERSONAL STATEMENT: "The Silent Interview", which is some helpful tips on writing a personal statement for law school and other insights into the admissions process.

The students seemed pretty attentive, and I tried to keep it lively enough, interjecting some humor and personal stories of my experience. Most of the students seem to respect the fact that Regent is a faith-based school, and I assure them that they are getting just as good an education if not better as anywhere else - especially when it comes to experience the unique and encouraging atmosphere of Regent. They had a couple questions afterwards regarding the LSAT and my experience the first year of law school. I then had them fill out a card with their contact info if they were interested in recieving information about Regent and asked them to rate my presentation from 1-5 (bad to good), and to include any comments or suggestions. I averaged about a 4. The President of the Pre-law Society welcomed us back any time.

Overall, I feel like it all went pretty well. I had to glance up at the slides each time to see where we were going. I wasn't too nervous and as I get more familiar with the presentation it will go smoother. At times it seemed a little repetitative too. Flying to Manchester, New Hampshire next for a Graduate School Fair. Should be fun!

The Adventure continues...

"28 Tuxes"

What do you think? Its the title for a new movie I am thinking about writing, staring me of course (who else? Of course, when I had the beard I did get a couple Russel Crowe compliments..hhmm). At this point I would only have 20 more weddings to go!


I was just in my cousin Dustin's wedding this past Saturday. That's number 8 for my career as a groomsmen, which started in 2001. I have traveled to Iowa, Tennesee, Ohio, Texas, the rest being in Virginia. I have only been the Best Man once, and that I didn't even realize until I showed up for it! For one bachlor party I helped plan, we actually took my friend to Chucky Cheese. One other interesting (or uninteresting) fact is that three of the weddings were for buddies named Matt. (Long live the Matt Party!)

In all seriousness, I actually enjoy participating and celebrating with friends when they get married. I love hearing (& sometimes indirectly participating in) the stories of how God has orchastrated bringing the two people together. It is a reminder to me that God is always working & gives me hope for my future. Haha. Not to mention the food is usually good and the dancing is fun (once I get past my self conscienceness).

Who knows how many more weddings are yet to come, but I keep hoping for at least one more... ;)

Birthday ID Blues

So, I turned 28 this past week on the 9th. Not quite sure what to think of it yet. Not sure where the time goes. Can't really remember anything memorable about turning 27, but the lovely Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did give me a nice gift to mark this birthday. What was the gift, you ask? It was "one day". You see, a Pennsylvania drivers license gives you 4 years before expiring from your birthday. Well, mine was set to expire on 9/10/08. I'm in Virginia, mind you. So that either meant a day trip to PA or switching to VA. I was planning on waiting to get a VA license until I had a more permanent residence. Somehow I didn't think they would except
Mark Wohlschlegel
1 open couch
Virginia Beach, VA

At any rate, I decided to go with the VA license. It was interesting explaining to the DMV, "Um...yes, I have a minor emergency. My license expires today & I have no place to call home". It all worked out though, thank the Lord.

God is good. The adventure continues...

Kansas City

I am on my way back from my first recruiting trip. I went to Kansas City my two co-workers, Tom & Kirsten. I don't recall ever visiting Kansas City or Missouri before, though I have flown through there before.

I left on Tuesday morning, on a different flight than my co-workers. I had been originally been scheduled to go, but was then needed in DC. That changed, so I was back on for Kansas City. I flew through Philly & was supposed to arrive about an hour after my coworkers, but I actually ended up beating them in because of the storm that followed us there. They were about to touchdown but then their pilot pulled up because of sidewinds & they had to pop up to St. Louis to get some fuel. I arrived about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and waited in the nice rental car site for over an hour for them to arrive. We stayed at a Hampton Inn.

That night we met a potential student & his family for dinner at a local Olive Garden. It was a very nice visit, and we look forward to him attending Regent next fall. This family turned out to be friends with the family of one of my roommates in college! Small world. It was also pretty cool that one of the passing waiters heard us talking about law school and asked us for some information.

I had put on my facebook status about flying to Kansas and Melonie, a good friend from my generation joshua days in Cali facebook me wanting to know where. I ended up being only a half hour away, so Kirsten & I met the Scifers for dinner. It was fun to see them.

The law school forums were pretty good. Our first one was at Kansas University. I didn't even think of it til halfway thru how unwelcome I might of been if I mentioned where I was from - Go Bucknell Bison! We had the table right inside the door - talk about prime real estate! Got to talk to a handfull of students interested in Regent. One even drove down from Tulsa just to see us. Another fun thing was getting to know the other recruiter from the other schools. Many of them are recent graduates like myself waiting on their bar results. No doubt we will be bumping into them again on future trips.

Kansas City was pretty cool. It rained most of the time we were there. Tom told us that rave about their bbq, and he was right. We must have been asked at least half dozen times if we had it. We actually did the night Kirsten & I went out with my friends. It wasn't half bad. Oh, and if you decide to go visit the "plaza" be sure to specify which one. There are like 3. We had some free time one day and went looking for it. Whenever we asked how to get there, the locals would argue how best to get there & how far away itr was. We did end up finally finding it, the Club Plaza, a nice outdoor shopping area, with spanish looking architecture. It had stores such as the Gap, Tiffany's, Tommy Bahammas, etc. It is known for having fountains all over the place. We didn't have that much time to look around. It was pretty cool though, and I recommend it if you have some time to kill.

I am back in Virginia now waiting around in the Norfolk airport waiting for Kirsten & Tom to arrive. Hurricane Hana is visiting, but thankfully did not interrupt my flight. Time to go for now.

The Adventure continues...

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I know, I know... It has been a long time since I have made a post, over a year no doubt. A lot has definitely happened since then. I will just have to give you a brief recap.

Last summer I finally figured out what I had done to my knee the previous Spring Break when I was skiing in Colorado. I had a torn ACL. Had surgery at Christmas and have had a reletively quick recovery. It is still not 100%, and I can't be as active as I'd like.

I am a very broud uncle of my now 6 month old nephew, much thanks to my sister Kariann and her husband Matt. His name is Brandon Scott, and he is the cutest little guy in the world! Another reason I love going home to visit.

I graduated from Regent Law school on May 10th this past year. A week later I went home to watch Mandy graduate from nursing school. Hannah also graduated from high school and has recently acquired her drivers license. Boy, am I getting old. :)

The celebrating was all short lived as I began studying for the bar. The best way I can describe it is as the "longest shortest summer of my life!". I was studying around 10 hors a day for 5 days a week, and some on the weekends. I decided to take the Virginia Bar because most of my contacts are down here & I love my church family I have been blessed with at Sovereign Grace of Chesapeake. I broke up my studies with church, friends & tennis.

I took the bar the end of July, making the trip to Roanoke with 1500 others. It was a pretty brutal exam, with a few surprises, but God was faithful. Because of having a last name near the end of the alphebet, my seat faced the very back wall of the huge auditorium, meaning I didn't have to look over the sea of people as I took my exam. I got a laughed when I saw my exam ID# 0666. To me it was just a number because my God is greater than that. I got a kick out of showing people it. I was glad that I got it as apposed to someone else who might of been distracted by it. I am happy the bar is over & am a free man until Oct 17th when the results come out. It was tough, and I feel it could go either way. It is in God's hands now. I just hope the graders were watching Michael Phelps in the Olympics while they were grading my answers! ;)

As of right now, I am a man without a home. I just working for Regent Law as a seasonal recruter. I will be traveling all over the country representing Regent at graduate & law fairs on different campuses. I am stoked, as I loved my experience at Regent, love to travel & enjoy talking to people. A great fit! The later part of my travels will put me back on the west coast in Cali, Oregon & Washington! This is in part my reason for reviving this blog, to share my adventures while on the road. I will try to be a better poster. :)

Well, that is all for now. The Adventure continues...