Ben, ‘11

October 23, 2007

It is now Tuesday night and work has been frantic. I realize that I have become a true colleges student; I oversleep for classes, procrastinate, and eat pizza regularly at 3 AM. I had a 1-page paper, a 3-page paper, and a few tiny essays due for CORE on Monday for our Midterm. I thought I liked the class, but it was really frustrating writing about stuff that you didn’t really care that much about. Plus, the questions were really bad, you know “What are the similarities…” and “What are the differences…”. They’re now done and I’m past it. However, I am about 120 pages behind in that class. I’m supposed to be reading Nietzsche, but haven’t quite started. I’m supposed to be done with it tomorrow. I think the rest of my class is in the same boat.

I also had an 8-page paper due today for Public Policy. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but nothing was set in stone. I finally started it the night before it was due. I faded in and out of consciousness that night and got up early to start working on it. I finished it with fifteen minutes to spare but, due to printer problems, was still a few minutes late to class. The paper was on a Presidential candidate whose health care platform I support. I chose Mike Huckabee. Yes, he’s running for President even though you might not have heard of him. Anyways, I hope that it gets a good grade, It went a little long to ten pages, but it is done.

My social activities for this week have been fairly light. I did a Scavenger Hunt with InterVarsity and that was so much fun. We would have automatically won if we had captured the King Goose from our lake, but he barely escaped. I contributed the test with an A, a cell phone that hasn’t received or sent any calls that day (since I just got a new one), and a pay stub. We didn’t win, but it was one of my favorite events since getting on campus.

My Scavenger Hunt Team

The Bounties of our Scavenger Hunt

Friday night, I went to an electroacoustic performance with my friend Jimmy from Boston (who disowned and revered the Red Sox within a three day span). I didn’t really know what it was, but it was free, so I went. It wasn’t my kind of music, with wheelbarrows and flowerpots being used as some of the instruments and all of the music being interpretations of motion paintings that somehow dealt with math. Yeah, I was confused too. After that, I was a typical teenager and went to see “Transformers” at the Pier, which was free and sponsored by our Campus Activities Board.

The Electroacoustic Music Festival

Saturday brought the football game and I decided to put off my homework and go to that. We won handily and had a good time. Homecoming is next weekend and I can’t wait. Since the game, however, it has been mainly homework.

Last night, I chose my Class Cabinet to assist me in putting on social events. There were a lot of good applications, but I could only select nine of them to be a part of the Cabinet. I felt bad turning some people away, especially since some were my friends. I guess every leader has to do that at one time or another, though. We are up and running and who knows what we’ll end up doing?

Other brief highlights:
- I overslept for my Economics class for the fifth time this semester on Friday. I think I am just sleep deprived. To solve this problem, my alarm clock is now a foot farther away. Let’s see if this helps. I feel bad about not going to class, but an 8:15 AM class is not as easy as it sounds when it’s almost all lecture. Next semester, I don’t plan on having any 8:15s.
- I made another Sheetz run to get some food and take my mind off of studying. I think the total trips is up to six now.
- I turned in my Tour Guide application and had an interview for the position. I’ll see in about a week whether I get to be one.
- I went to Karaoke Night for InterVarsity. I didn’t participate, but the guys beat the girls.

The men dominating InterVarsity Karaoke Night

- I sat down with my CORE teacher for her to grade my first essay. She read it, made some marks and simply said for me to revise it when I had a chance. I don’t think this is very common, but I’m not complaining.

- I got my Public Policy midterm back and I got an A-. I was worried, but thought I did well. With only four grades in the entire class, this is huge for me.

- I joined the InterVarsity Intramural football team. We lost the game, and I didn’t play too well. I dropped one pass right through my arms that would have been a crucial play for us. I never was great at football, but I’m another body to help.

- I participated in a Psychology experiment. It earned me $5 and wasn’t hard at all. They wanted to identify my nutritional motivation. Basically, I told them that I haven’t been as healthy as I used to be and that I think that someone can lose a lot of weight. They also gave me a taste test with “healthy” M&Ms and regular M&Ms. I ate more of the healthy ones and I guess that’s what they were studying. Either way, I got $5 for eating some M&Ms.

- I attended Friday Free For All. This is a weekly occurence of free events on campus. This week had our comedy improv group “Subject To Change” perform. They were hilarious and are very talented. One of our acapella groups also performed.

One of our acapella groups performing at Friday Free For All

Even with a “slow” week, I have been pretty busy. My life is fairly typical for someone here, except maybe more active in the arts and organizations. I keep making more friends and I think some of my other friends think I don’t like hanging out with them. That’s not true. I just like hanging out on my own sometimes to get away and I can find my own sources of fun. This weekend, I am heading to Chicago with my scholarship group. It is free for us through the scholarship and I think it will be a lot of fun.

Quote of the Week: “In America, any by may become President and I suppose it’s just one of the risks he takes.”- Adlai Stevenson
Thought to Ponder: If a duck only had one leg, would it swim in a circle?
Shout Outs: My Cabinet: Jimmy, Jimmy, Grant, Pete, Buddy, Tim, Andrew, Chris, and Rachaphum. Alex (for saving my life by letting me use your printer to print my Public Policy paper)