How College Spoiled Me Rotten

That sounds so wrong, doesn’t it? College spoiling someone…college is the place of wretched roommates, life-sucking tests and projects, dreaded final exams, and suppers of grilled cheese made on irons.

But that’s where we are wrong. Let me list a few ways college spoiled me.

1. Routine. I come from a house where the only routine is…no routine. Over the years, I’ve caught glimpses of the frustration that lack of routine can cause, but never fully appreciated it. I couldn’t understand why my older sisters came home from college with this annoying habit of constantly cleaning and wanting everything to happen right away. But now I understand. I love my routine at college. It keeps me sane. Every day, I wake up, shower, eat breakfast, go to work or class, and from 8 to at least 5, my day is planned. My evenings aren’t fully planned, but I always have a mental agenda. At home, it is nothing like that. And yes, it drives me insane. If we’re making supper, I want to make supper, eat supper, go on to something else,  not talk about what we might have for supper while browsing Facebook…..and eat 2 hours later.

1a. Cleanliness. This is not the case at all schools, but at mine, we are required to have clean rooms 6 days a week. Seriously. Our rooms are checked and there are penalties for not meeting standard. So things are almost always reasonably neat and clean, and if they aren’t, they will be within 24 hours. Not so here….and I find myself impulsively straightening things as I move about the house.

2. Access to everything. At college, I am a 5 minute or less walk from a gym, library, game room, snack shop (with 3 restaurants), dining common, soccer fields, running track, art museum, and planetarium. Here…..I have yet to figure out a work out schedule. I don’t want to pay for a gym for 3 months. I can’t walk into a dining common full of food choices, take my pick, and leave my dishes for someone else afterwards. This can be extremely frustrating.

3. Adulthood. This hit me just Sunday, but at college, everyone treats me like an adult. All of my professors are extremely respectful. They never treat us like children. The environment is one of respect and professional civility. Just two days after returning home, I took my sister and some friends (all high schoolers) out to eat. The typical southern endearments of the staff (“sweetie” “young lady” “darling”) caught me off guard. I’m no longer used to being treated like a little girl. Some might argue that in southern culture, they weren’t even doing that…just being friendly. In that case, I am simply no longer used to being treated that casually.

This all boils down to one thing: focus. I have become accustomed to everything in my life being focused on a single goal: making college work for me. When I’m at school, I seldom have to worry about anyone but myself. My only focus is success. Be that cleanliness, organization, agenda, or just a relief from all domestic duties, it is justified because my focus is school. At home, I have no idea how to cope. I’m still taking classes, so the focus is still there, but it fights with my family, boyfriend, books, British TV shows, and a full-time job. I just don’t know how to mesh that all.

How’s that for a first college post? High schoolers, go to college, it will spoil you! But you may have no idea how to live with normal people again…

Finals Week update

Quick update: I am smack dab in the middle of my finals week (started Saturday, which was horrible). So far it is going splendiforically and given my current laissez-faire approach to studying, that’s a VERY good thing! No fever or hospital stay yet (did I tell you guys that story about last semester’s finals? No? *Puts on to-do list of posts*) and so far no late nights studying. I’m not kidding guys! It’s finals week and I’ve gotten as much sleep as I do any other week of school! The only sad thing is that I need to start packing and cleaning and I don’t want to. Packing is sad and makes things look barren….anywho, I have 4 more finals and then my freshman year of college will be finished! Woohoo!!!

Other college students, are you surviving finals week?

(Yes, it’s very possible that this post was the result of procrastinating from studying. Don’t judge!)

Whether the sea is boiling hot

My first year of college is almost over. Let that sink in….do you have any idea how far away this has seemed? All the times during childhood that college was only a far-off dream…and now my first year is done! With the finish line looming and various academic pressures removed from my brain, I have started brainstorming a number of posts about my conclusions from this first year. I say a number of posts because there is so much to tell that one post would inevitably be TL:DR.

So, what illustrious topics will this series of posts cover? Allow me to whet your appetite!

In no specific order:

friends * growth * academics * personality changes * responsibility * distance and relationships * respect * family

I plan to write most of those posts in the next few weeks, interspersed with my usual commentary on literature and some issues that came up in my studies. In just over a week I will be back home with loads of free time! Totally kidding…I will be home, but not with free time….the full-time job and 15 credits of online classes will be running my life.

Other students….observations on the end of the year? Is it stressful? Fulfilling?

Readers in general, any of the topics I mentioned seem especially interesting? Comment and let me know. I might make it my first post!

Side Effects of Bibliophilism – Part 1

It seems like such an innocent hobby when you’re young…read lots of books, become smart in the process, experience super cool stories, nothing bad here (except the staying up late and parents telling you you read too much (I know, seriously?), but that’s not important). Now a little older, I recognize a few side effects of such obsessive reading. I’m not saying the side effects are good or bad, simply observing that they exist. Also, there are obvious side effects (did I mention excelling at some school subjects?), but I am not dealing with those.

Side effect #1: Treating everyone around you like a fictional character. No disrespect to anyone around me meant by this. Fictional characters are good. Realization of this side effect took awhile to dawn on me. I wrote about my fascination with people a few months ago, and started asking “why?”. Why would I look at some people and suddenly want to spend a significant amount of time picking their brain? I wanted to know what was going on in their head, where they had been, where they wanted to go. Duh! What do you learn about a character? Generally, you see some back story, read their thoughts, watch where their life goes. There is no privacy…you see everything. In the space of a few hours, I’ve probed the depths of a (imaginary) person, every tiny secret of their life.

Unfortunately, life outside of books doesn’t work that way. I have no excuse to become so knowledgeable about a person, no basis for probing them. Probably best for them…real people deserve privacy from the intense curiosity of strangers. I watched this side effect play out in my relationships too. The best excuse you have for that type of deep probing is the guise of a relationship. With no conscious intent whatsoever, I believe I may have enjoyed the high of figuring out a few of my partners as much as I actually enjoyed the “relationship.” My depression after those breakups was more from the sudden lack of connection rather than any real hurt. I have yet to decide if that was unfair to the guys…I’m just aware of it for my future relationships.

This side effect is a mixed bag. Is it bad, my desire to probe the depths of a person? Probably. However, my fascination of people leads me to be accepting and more appreciative of humanity, which is clearly a good thing. It balances out…I am fascinated from afar, with no threat to anyone’s privacy.

Has anyone else experienced this side effect? Please tell me I’m not alone!

Opera is not just socially acceptable torture

Confession: College makes me feel very uncultured. I am at a liberal arts university, where my exposure to music and drama is considered as important as my classes. I love it. Especially the drama! Plays are very cool. As are concerts….I attended a cello concert last semester and loved every minute of it.

Tonight there was a performance of Verdi’s Requiem at my school (first time in 25 years, I found out). I mostly went because I had a bunch of friends in the choir and my dad told me I should (I trust my dad’s taste in music). But it was still opera….so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

It was amazing. I was mesmerized. For a sleep-deprived college student, it’s saying something that I stayed awake through an hour and a half of singing. At the very beginning I wasn’t impressed. But after a section or two, I managed to keep up with the Latin (yay for translations in programs!). When the “Dies irae, dies illa” section started, I was hooked. To use modern terminology, it was epic. Stupendous. Awesome in the most traditional sense of the word. Full choir, booming orchestra, bone-shaking drums….it definitely makes an impression. The guest singers did a marvelous job…I’m particularly biased toward the mezzo-soprano, who was extremely classy and had a wonderfully rich voice (Latoya Lain, if you’re interested).

On a spiritual level, I had not anticipated how rich the lyrics would be. It was like reading a prayer. A gorgeous, rich, almost scriptural prayer. I was also happy that I could understand some of the Latin.

Give opera a chance…give culture a chance. It may be one of the most beautiful things you ever experience.

 

Magically Ordinary

Confession: I engaged in a highly dangerous activity for a college girl.  I…..browsed Pinterest. If you are unfamiliar with this hazardous practice, I encourage you not to research it. But definitely finish reading this post, because Pinterest actually isn’t the theme. I am clearly desperate to escape my homework, because I worked my way through the humor, geek, and women’s fashion categories before perusing the Quotes. Now, not that I have anything against quotes, but they tend to be…sappy. Also sketchy. How to make a quote pin: Find a random picture, write words on it, slap a name on the end. Voila! But I can’t really diss it, because the quotes did give me a blog idea, yay!

What are the magical moments in your life? Not the “man of your dreams got on one knee and asked for your hand in marriage” magic. The simple magic moments. There are obvious ones: sunrises, sunsets, animal antics, moving sights of nature, etc. But it could be anything. A bright color, a smiling child. I am going to list a few of my favorite magic moments of the past, and then this week I am going to keep a log of my favorite moments, which I will then share next week. I encourage you to do the same…acknowledging magic makes it ever so much more powerful in your life.

 

*Lying in the backyard with my dog, watching the stars * sitting out in the sun reading * watching snow fall for the first time in my life * having a little boy run up and tackle hug me * the little girl at work who told me I looked like Rapunzel * sitting on a bridge over a creek, soaking up the sun and reading * wandering the library, memorizing the placement of each book * nights at the fair full of laughter and adrenaline * holding my puppy for the very first time * dancing around the living room with my little sister * staring out my window mesmerized by the green, blue, and gold that came through our pine tree * the smell of freshly cut grass and sweat on a soccer field * the running of any water…river, lake, ocean*

What are your favorite magical moments?

Castles

What do you dream? Everyone has different dreams. I’m not asking what your “dream” job, vacation, or partner is like. When you picture your future, what do you see? Perhaps you don’t think about your dream very often. Or perhaps your dream is the glittering light at the end of tunnel, driving your every step.

Dreams are beautiful. They provide goals, a reward, an escape. Sometimes we build dreams we don’t even realize exist. Realized or not, they build a hope inside, a glorious expectation. Our dreams change too, normally in imperceptible amounts, a tweak here or there. Sometimes though…sometimes a dream castle crashes to the ground, demolished by something…anything.

Where do you go without a dream? How long do you mourn the death of your dream? Or….do you continue to dream with the same castle, rebuilding it piece by piece? It is a dream, after all, something that can be hoped for with little basis in reality. At some point though, disbelieving reality becomes pitiful and dreaming becomes delusion.

Dreams…the realm of two-faced Janus, promising either beautiful realization or heart-wrenching denial. How long is it worth dreaming? How many dreams must be demolished before one is realized?

“I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”

Life would not be worth living without dreams. They must be accepted in all their glory and danger. Each crashing castle is simply the chance to build, slowly and painfully, another more glorious replacement. Dreams must, always must be dreamed….in an Inception-like manner, I suppose one could say that the hope of dreams is a dream itself. Regardless, for life to maintain its glitter and potential, dreams must not be forsaken. I do believe in dreams. I do. I do.