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Hi, my name is Daniel Mills I am a student in the NEXT Program here at Northwestern College. I am all the way from Blackstone, Massachusetts staying in my college dorm room here on campus in Orange City, Iowa! First time when I met Mr. Menning & Mrs. Martin on a Zoom meeting, I had a good feeling about making it here to Northwestern College. Shortly after meeting them both on a Zoom meeting, I got a call from Mr. Menning three days later and I was in shock. I was in happy tears for at least an hour after hearing the best news ever! I got in.

            When I first met Mr. Menning and Mrs. Martin for a tour on the Northwestern campus for the first time ever in my life, I felt like a different person then. God has opened a door for me when I got accepted here to Northwestern College. I will be staying on campus in Colenbrander Hall for the best two years of my life in a dorm room by myself living independently! When I first started living independently in my dorm room it helped me gain more confidence and maturely. My parents are so, so proud of me that I am experiencing the college life. Especially everyone that I know in my family are so proud of me by being here at Northwestern College. 

            When Orientation took place on the campus green, it made me feel welcomed to the Northwestern College Campus/community. Orientation was on a nice Fall Day. It was such a pleasure to be at orientation till it ended. I was so, so happy to see everyone who participated in the orientation event including the NEXT students, professors, parents etc. Go Red Raiders…

Sincerely,

      Daniel Mills

Over the last month, I have been working at the bakery, swimming, and participated in Rush. Something that I am looking forward to is going to Orlando, Florida in June. Working at the bakery has been a new experience for me because I just started working at the bakery in town. I started back in January and have been working about 4 days a week ever since. It has been a really good experience because I get to learn new things all the time. My favorite thing to do at work is to help my boss make donuts because I get to take out the donut holes from the middles and throw them into a bucket. Sometimes I help clean the tables and fill the cooler as well.

Most Monday and Thursday nights, or on the weekends that I go home, I get to go swimming. I swim for the special Olympics team, and I practice at Dordt and Morningside University. In the last month, I have spent my time learning how to do a flip turn in the water and I have gotten good at it. I have been practicing a lot and I have been told that my form is improving, and I am getting faster. I have been mostly focusing on getting ready for nationals in June. They are in Orlando, Florida and I get to stay on a Disney World resort with my team. The team Iowa is giving us lots of clothes and shoes for nationals so I can’t wait to try it all on and wear it in Orlando.

My Rush team and I practiced almost every night for a long time to make sure that our dance was one to remember. It took awhile for everyone to get on beat and learn all the sign language but eventually we got it. Even though we got it down, sometimes it was still difficult to stay on beat. We were the first dance on all three nights of the show and the show was good. Everyone that I talked to really liked our dance and we even got a standing ovation with lots of cheering and clapping. I was proud of everyone who danced, and I will definitely miss it. Some people even cried after we did the sign language, that made me feel really good because I know they appreciated our hard work. On Friday the middle school and little kids joined us in the show and they were fun to watch because they were also really good. My mom and dad came to watch the first night and they liked it too. John and Bailey were very happy with our dance too, Bailey taught us the dance after her sister choregraphed it and John also helped teach the dance. We all had matching black shirts with the word “relate” on the front and “Northwestern next” on the back, Bailey and John had the same shirts but in white. I liked the shirt a lot because it was really soft and the design was my favorite out of the three choices we were given to decide on as a group. I was super nervous the first night but got nervous with every show. On the Wednesday before the show, everyone got to show the other acts their dance, and some people even started crying then too.

Overall, my month has been good because I have gotten to spend my time doing all the things that I love.