Never Have I Ever... Until I Did

This past school year has been full of surprises. Not necessarily in the sense of completely out-of-the-blue unexpected, but more in sense of looking back and thinking, "Oh. That happened? Huh. That never would have happened last year."

I guess it goes to show that while I'm just one short year older, I really have changed. College is different. I don't want that to be lording it over my high school friends -- as in "ha ha, college is better than high school; I'm so grown up because I've gone to college for a year" -- because, among other equally important reasons, that would show more than anything else that I'm not grown up in the slightest. And I don't pretend that I've learned everything there is to know about the world or even about college in just the past eight or nine months or so -- I still have a long way to go.

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I'm an introvert. I know "introvert" is not synonymous with "shy," but I tend to be the shy kind of introvert. I don't like putting myself out there, and I don't like talking about myself. I'm not generally spontaneous, and I like having my ducks fairly well in a row as far as planning goes.

So as I walked across campus on the Monday of finals week, I was trying to figure out just why on earth I was doing so. My friend works in our campus's audio/visual department, and she had recommended me for a job. I was heading over to A/V to ask for my friend's boss, introduce myself, and find out about applying.

I could have just emailed her about it. No face to face communication, no being put on the spot, and a computer network between us. But when I sat down to write the email, I didn't know what to say. So instead I decided to walk over and say hello, which then turned into an impromptu interview -- and a job for this fall.

A year ago, I never would have done that. Six months ago, I never would have done that. Just this semester I was terrified of one of my profs for the first three weeks of class. Before now, I would have forced myself to agonize over that email for half an hour and then finally sent it off, fingers crossed -- or maybe never sent it at all. I wouldn't even have considered walking over to A/V to introduce myself.

But, against all odds and everything I've been for the past nineteen years of my life, I did.

Sometimes, I guess I even surprise myself.

Totes Legit Presh Adorbs

The other day I was sitting in my room studying when my RD came by putting up signs in the hallway. She had her one-year-old daughter with her, and since my door was open, our "dorm baby" (as the little one is often affectionately called) came wandering in for a visit. She is adorable.

I have this rocking chair on the floor in my room. Since I don't feel like describing it, here is a convenient picture:

Our little friend discovered the rocking chair, and it fascinated her. So my RD, RA, and I watched as she investigated the chair and realized to her delight that it rocked back and forth. Then she figured out that it was a rocking chair, and after a few tries, managed to actually sit down in it and tried to start rocking back and forth. Except she was too little, so mostly it just wiggled a bit. She was sad then, but I was still pretty impressed with her for figuring out what it was and how she was supposed to use it. Also, that was the most adorable thing I've seen all week. Or possibly all month. Either way, it made my finals week a whole lot better.

And now for something completely different:

Yes, that is a hippo in a rocket ship.

The end.

For the Sake of Humanity

Warning: minor rant ahead. Proceed with caution, and please, take with a grain of salt. I don't think rants are ever completely bias-free, and this one is no exception.

I am an English major. I am also, among many other things, a reader, a writer, a young adult, a student, and a person. But the main thing you ought to know for the next few paragraphs is that I am an English major. I'm an English major who will specifically be going for either writing or linguistics. In other words, grammar is quite important in my line of study.

Attention world: I am an English major, and I am sick of the grammar police.

I know, I know, English majors have a reputation for being the grammar police. I will not deny that I have been guilty on many an occasion. But sometimes I read things that make me want to find the nearest wall and hit my head against it a few times.

Now don't get me wrong – I'm against bad grammar as much as the next English major. I volunteer to edit papers and other writings for my friends, and I do correct a lot of grammar in those cases – because that's where grammar correcting belongs.

Recently I read a few very interesting articles on the Internet about very different topics (one was regarding the suspect of the recent bombing in Boston and the other was about being a writer). After reading the articles, I scrolled a little further down the page to the comments. I still don't know what kind of decision that was, but whatever the case, I glanced through a few comments. I'm sure the visible comments have changed by now, but two of them stopped me. On the article about writing, one commenter pointed out an obscure grammar error. The one that stopped me on the other article was a single line about how obnoxious she found the writing style.

I wish I could sit down and have a cup of tea with these people. I wish we could just have a conversation about these things. I wish they could see that they missed it.

It breaks my heart that these two people who took the time out of their days to read through those articles completely missed the point. There were so many things they could have said, could have thought – they could have agreed or disagreed with these writers and their articles, either one – but instead, they missed it.

I don't mean to say that they're wrong or that they don't have a point, because there's a time and a place for those things. On the other hand, though, I can't help but be sad for them because of what they could've seen, but because they were too caught up in preferences and protocol, they missed.

So please, be willing. Be willing to look beyond the errors and opinions and dig a little deeper. Be willing to be see meaning beneath the surface mechanics. Be willing to push through and search for truth even when the particular form is a little tough for you to swallow.

Doing this isn't easy. I've tried, and I don't always succeed. It's hard. But if you do, I don't think you'll regret it.

Please, don't miss it.

Arrrrrrrrrrgh

No, I am not a pirate.

There is nothing quite like being woken up at 2:30 in the morning by a fire alarm. Especially one that is super loud. And reverberates through the hallway. And flashes. Right above your bed.

My residence hall kind of has a reputation for being the one with all the fire alarms. Last year it was because of faulty wiring. This year, it's because people are stupid. (The wiring has been fixed, but we've still managed to have more fire alarms go off than the rest of campus put together.)

As far as I can tell, three questions remain:

1. Who makes mac and cheese at 2:30 am? (Answer: college guys.)
2. Who burns mac and cheese at 2:30 am? (Answer: also college guys.)
3. How on earth do you burn mac and cheese? (Answer: unknown.)

Of course, this the same floor of guys that put a big lump of frozen bacon in a pan at 1:00 am last semester and seemed to think it would cook. And left the room while the bacon was just sitting on the stove. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

But seriously, how do you burn mac and cheese? I mean, if it was stovetop I could understand, but how many college students make stovetop mac and cheese? (Answer: only the ones without microwaves. How many students at my college do not have access to a microwave? (Answer: none.))

Needless to say, there were some grumpy people standing outside at 2:30 in the morning. Because it was late. And cold. And raining.

Oh, college...

My Day In Stick Figures

As much as I love the rain, I'm a little afraid to go outside for the rest of the day. It's okay, though – know what the weather forecast just told me?

Figures.