 I write this entry from the upside of Fall Break, those few days of down time that all campus has awaited with a sense of anticipation rivalled only by the Branch Davidians circa 1993. Thus, it’s hard for me to accurately portray just how far away this weekend seemed on Monday morning.Â
 That morning, over a light breakfast of two biscuits, french toast sticks, a hash-brown and enough coffee to stun a small bison, I prepared for a tough week of mid-term tests and papers. The first hurtle was yet another Core paper due on Tuesday. I decided to get an early start, so I started Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday night.. By some miracle of elbow grease and/or caffeinated beverages I put together four pages of what I felt was pure Nietzsche-analyzing gold. (Grade pending- stay tuned.)
 My Spanish and Russian history classes were both muy bueno, and thus on Thursday evening I faced my final obstacle: a group presentation for International Relations on Iran to be given Friday morning. Now being a nerd who loves current events and history, I thought I had enough leeway to go out with my friends that night…
 This moment is the collegaite’s equivalent of the first fifteen minutes of a horror movie- a group of young people stands around the entrance of an ominous-looking subterranean passage way and says ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ Well, we know what will happen: the subterranean cavern is filled with the survivors of a Cold War Air Force experiment who’ve been turned into flesh-eating zombies from uranium exposure.
  Needless to say I plunged headlong into the darkened passageway, and stood before my classmates at 9:30 the next morning looking like the embodiment of four hours’ sleep. While my partners and I pulled off a great presentation, it just has easily gone the other way if he hadn’t prepared well in the weeks leading up to the final. Future freshmen, consider this tale a proverbial Jonah, warning you that your standing in the social pipeline will not be irreparably damaged by you exercising some discretion when you have a group presentation on a Friday morning.
 The campus’ collective sigh of relief was palpable as Friday’s classes drew to a close, and it was with a light heart that I joined the mass exodus towards the parking lot for four days of doing absolutely nothing.
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