February 26, 2008
So, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but never got around to it until now. I think the best way for people to understand what life is like here is to see what one person does every day. Not just a brief summary, but a detailed timeline. So, I have done that for you. I randomly chose a day and it happened to be Tuesday. I only have one class on Tuesdays and it’s not always exciting, but it still represents a day in my life. It’s definitely not as busy as a Wednesday, when I have four classes, two Student Government meetings, InterVarsity, and often a tour. Yet, it still works just fine for this purpose. I took pictures of almost everything I did, which is often quite embarrassing. I have a feeling I got a lot of looks when I pulled out a camera and took pictures of my food. And I wonder what the guy behind me was thinking when he saw me take a picture of myself swiping into my dorm? Still, I did not take a picture of my class or me working out at the gym. Big groups of people make that too awkward, plus working out isn’t always the most glamorous thing in the world. So, let’s see what Tuesday, February 26th had in store for me.
10:15 AM- I wake up. Since I only have one class on Tuesdays and Thursdays and that’s at 12:45, I use Tuesdays to sleep in and recover from most of my 2:00 AM nights. No, I’m not really lazy, I just need all the sleep I can get. I spend the next hour and a half getting ready for the day. I check my Facebook, e-mail, major news headlines and also just surf the web a little. I also get a head start on my push ups for the day. I enter with 2400 push ups of my 3000 done for 3000-12. I would like to finish today and do what was meant to be done in two weeks in one week, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.
Nothing says “Good Morning” like doing some push ups with sore arms
11:42 AM- I leave my room in Gray Court and head out for the day.
I’m all set to go for my classes
11:45 AM- I stop by the Post Office to send a birthday card to my mom for her birthday. I was also hoping to get a package of ink cartridges for my printer, but it wasn’t in yet.
Checking my mail
Sending the birthday card to my mom
12:01 PM- I sit down to eat my first meal of the day. I almost always have breakfast, but I never really got to it today. I grabbed an awesome panini with turkey, pepperoni, mozzarella imported from Italy, and onions, as well as some yogurt, grapes, and a pasta salad. I pulled out my laptop as I ate and continued to catch up on the events in the world and also to entertain myself.
My lunch
12:23 PM- I leave D-Hall and head to Jepson Hall where my class is. I have my own private room where I do my pushups and people don’t stop and stare. It’s a quiet room and I go there to do another fifty push ups.
Doing my push ups in my “quiet room” before class
12:45 PM- My Foundations of Leadership Studies class starts. I didn’t have any homework due for it since we had to read most of Locke’s “Second Treatise on Government”. For each book we read, one class period is led by a student group. This was one of those days and they showed how Lockian principles were seen all throughout the Declaration of Independence and we also compared John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. At the end, we got a review sheep to help us study for our midterm next week. Sorry, no pictures for this one. To summarize the class, there are about twenty of us and we all sit together in a circle and often engage in discussions or simply listen and take notes on a lecture. The teacher is awesome and reminds me a lot of Tina Fey. She always tries to make it interesting and ties Machiavelli back into modern life. Great class thus far.
2:00 PM- Class lets out and I head back to my “quiet room” to do more push ups and to study. I recheck my e-mails and work on my Leadership application for InterVarsity. I’m thinking about being one of the leaders for IV next year, but am not entirely sure yet. The application’s very thorough and has us respond to a lot of different questions, ranging from our view of InterVarsity to the role of Christians at UR to our strengths and weaknesses. It takes a long time to complete.
I’m hard at work in my “private room”
3:35 PM- I leave my room and Jepson Hall and headed back across campus. I meant to go to a baseball game, but it was on rain delay. I stop at the Post Office to see if my package is in and it is. I pick it up and continue on my way.
3:47 PM- I return to my room and check my package, but need to leave it for a while since I have a lecture I want to attend at 4:00.
My package with my printer’s ink cartridges
4:00 PM- The Lecture sponsored by the School of Business starts. The speaker is Lance Ewing and he is a representative of Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns Caesar’s Palace and many other places in Las Vegas. He speaks on risk management and the science behind the gaming industry. He is a fantastic speaker and very interesting. I never realized how much of an art gambling is. The casinos and resorts know what they are doing and are very slick at it. They track patrons like crazy and it’s amazing what they do. Yet, almost all of it is strict business and math. I also learned that property along the Strip in Las Vegas costs $21 million per acre. There is a meet and greet afterwards with him, but I don’t't end up attending. It was incredibly fascinating since it briefly dealt with actuarial science and risk management and math which are still possibilities for me.
Lance Ewing speaks on the industry of gaming and risk management
5:06 PM- I return to my room and try to install the ink cartridges. I have not been able to print anything lately due to ink issues and I was hoping this would fix it. However, it turns out that it is the one ink cartridge that I did not receive, the one that was a month old that was faulty. I called Canon Technical Support and they were absolutely fantastic, just like the last time I needed them. They’re sending me a new ink cartridge that should fix the problems, but I still can’t print anything.
The one without the red light is causing all the problems
I’m sad because my printer’s broken
5:38 PM- My technical issues are done and I get some more push ups in before heading to dinner. I also double check if anyone has contacted me.
6:00 PM- I head to D-Hall to have dinner with my friend, who I always meet for dinner on Tuesdays. He’s my InterVarsity Small Group leader and we talk about what’s going on in our lives. My dinner consists of sliced turkey, stuffing, cheesy rice, craisins, pears, a salad, and berry pie.
My dinner
David and I eat together every Tuesday
6:48 PM- I get back to my room from dinner and begin working again on my InterVarsity Leadership application. I also get in some more push ups. My hand looks crazy because it is the only way that I keep track of how many push ups I do. I always do twenty or thirty at a time, but would lose track without some constant reminder of where I am. My hand is always with me, so I just use that.
Hard at work on my bed doing the IV application
My hand keeps track of how many push ups I’ve done. Now, I’m at 2730
7:55 PM- I leave for the Weinstein Center to get in a good workout. I’ve been doing a really good job of working out lately. I ran over there and then biked nine miles while watching American Idol. I wish that I had some pictures because our gym is AMAZING, but I don’t know if others (and myself) like to be photographed while working out. Anyways, I got in a good workout and will probably keep going back to see how good of shape I can get in while I’m here.
A poor view of our Pier from the gazebo on my run over to Weinstein
8:06 PM- Bible study begins with the freshmen guys in the lounge of Thomas Hall. We’ve been making our way through the book of Mark and discussed the last part of Mark 8. We also do prayer requests for each other and talk about what’s going on in our lives.
Our Small Group
10:15 PM- Once Small Group is over, I head back to my room and finish up my InterVarsity application. I also investigate a squash tournament that is going on on-campus this week with almost every top-ranked player in the world participating. Of course, I also get in some push ups every once in a while to maintain my slow but steady progress. I also get hungry, so I grab a quick snack of graham crackers.
Swiping back into my dorm building
Grabbing a quick snack while still working
11:15 PM- I look down at my hand and realize that I have only ninety push ups left before I reach my 3000. If I wanted to reach my ultimate goal of doing them in one week, then I only had forty-five minutes left. For the next forty-five minutes, I work hard and do them slowly but surely. I was only doing a few at a time towards the end, but I was getting there. Finally, with six minutes to spare, I did push up #3000. I couldn’t even imagine doing them in two weeks, yet I got them all done in one week. It blows my mind. I thought I was in no physical condition, but I guess that swimming for years helped me have strong shoulders. I’m just glad that’s done now. I still have to memorize my twelve Bible verses to complete 3000-12, but I’m not worried about that.
Push Up #3000
My hand reveals that I have finally reached 3000 push ups at 11:55 PM
12:00 AM- Now that I don’t have to do push ups anymore, I’ve begun to focus on Relay for Life. I’m captain of the InterVarsity Relay for Life team and our first meeting is Wednesday. I sort through all of the forms, register the team online, and try to figure everything out. We’re ready to go now, but it’s taken me a long time to figure out how things are done.
There was a lot of paperwork to sort through
I was exhausted after working out, doing push ups, and trying to sort out Relay for Life
1:16 AM- I’ve finally finished everything with Relay for Life and start wrapping up all of the loose ends. I check all of my e-mails and communication again and see if there’s any new new stories and then start winding down.
1:30 AM- Time for a shower and everything else that everyone does before going to bed.
This is our shower. Yep. I took one.
1:54 AM- I begin my nightly devotional and journaling on it as well as pray for family and friends before heading off to bed.
My daily devotional I got from my small group leader
2:06 AM-Lights out and good night.
Now, today I didn’t do any homework and that is not usually the case. Homework is light right now, but not that light. Most of my classes had readings covering multiple days that I had already read. My CORE class has a paper due Wednesday, but I had already turned it in. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays involve much more time on homework.
That’s all for now. I hope that you enjoyed a peek into what a day in my life looks like. I’ll be back at the end of the week to recap what happened the other days this week.
Quote of the Week: We can’t win at home. We can’t win on the road. I just can’t figure out where else to play! — Pat Williams
Thought to Ponder: Why do all superheroes wear spandex?
Shout Outs: Everyone in the Admissions Office who reads these. I hope that you’re enjoying them.
YouTube Clip of the Day:
This is amazing and funny, in a very serious situation though
