Ben, ‘11

September 26, 2008

Once again, you find me at 2:30 AM on a Friday morning. Somehow, I have already had one month’s worth of classes. I can’t believe it. Regarding this past week in my life, there have definitely been plenty of ups and downs. It seems like that is always the case with me. There’s a popular saying that I like. It goes like this, “Life is a lot like a roller coaster; they both have plenty of ups and downs, but you will never forget the ride.” Well, it seems like those ups and downs come daily for me now. I’ll start with the highlights.

Last weekend was Family Weekend, which is always jam packed with activities. I ended up attending Family Weekend Worship and Family Weekend Brunch for InterVarsity. I also went out to eat at a very nice restaurant in downtown Richmond. I capped it off by watching our football team play a fantastic game and win handily, then attending a great a cappella concert in the Greek Amphitheater with all four student a cappella groups. Oh yeah, did I mention that I didn’t actually have a family for any of this? I was an orphan, but two of my friends’ families adopted me. Thank you to Buddy’s family and Sarah’s family! Because of our fantastic football game, our team moved up in the rankings and is now ranked #1 in the nation for the Football Championship Series. The team is incredible and we are so excited for this year. However, in order to attend the game, I passed up the chance to see Madeleine Albright speak on-campus. I guess life has its trade offs.

InterVarsity Family Worship

Family Weekend A Cappella Concert

Other fun events happened Friday night. A friend won tickets to a concert at The National, which is a downtown Richmond music venue. We had never heard of any of the bands before, but the tickets were in the VIP lounge and the offer was too good to pass up. So we went. It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was a fun way to spend a Friday night. We returned to campus just in time to watch a Mentalist perform. I remember his show last year and I definitely wanted to catch him again. What he does baffles me. While blindfolded, he can guess the currency of a bill in his hand and also the serial number of that currency. He also did some crazy mind readings and other tricks. Great show.

The concert at The National

Video of the this mentalist performing at other events

More fun events happened this week when we had a local TV reporter visit our Camapigns 2008 class. We had a very interesting conversation with him about how the media handles campaigns. We have been discussing this a lot lately, whether there’s a bias in the media and how certain topics should be discussed. Needless to say, it was pretty fun talking to a local TV celebrity and seeing how engaging and open he was. Our professor is a regular on the TV station, serving as a political expert for their news segments, so I guess he pulled some of his connections to get us this special visitor.

Lastly, I am writing a Narrative Speech for my Rhetoric class. I could hardly stay awake to work on it the night before my Speech Center appointment, but I pulled it off at the last minute. Naturally, I was worried that it wasn’t my best work. However, the speech consultants loved my speech, which really made my day. They also encouraged me to consider being a Speech Center consultant next year. All it would take is one more Rhetoric class in the spring and I would have a simple, well-paying job. I’m quite interested and it seems like it’s something up my alley. I can be academically critical at times and do enjoy proofreading papers, so I need to decide if that’s something I want to pursue. My Rhetoric professor is begging me to do it, but I’ll have to decide for myself.

With all of these things going on in my life, it’s easy to see that I don’t have a ton of free time. Adding on to my already long list of events, I have classes with difficult tests along with group projects that I take the lead on and so much more. Lately, however, I have been starting to get dragged town. I like what I do, but it seems like I am pouring so much more out of myself than I am getting poured back in. Frankly, my life violates the conservation of energy law. Energy intake is low, but energy output is high. Maybe I’m just cynical in thinking that not a lot of time and energy are being poured into me right now, but I think everyone who takes on responsibility in several area runs into this same problem. I know some of my friends are in the same boat. Whether it’s a frustration with the women’s Cabinet regarding a falling through of plans on their part, making last-minute schedule changes for an organization, attending training workshops, going door-to-door handing out things for Student Government, tabling in the Commons for an organization, or volunteering all Tuesday morning at a local middle school’s ESL program, I just feel that I am giving all I can into these groups so that they do well, but I’m not really being rewarded as much as I would hope. It’s even more frustrating when you set expectations for other people and they don’t meet them.

I’m trying to work out a solution to all of this, but I’m not there yet. This is just how I’m feeling right now at 3:30 AM. Somehow, though, I will be up and ready for class in four hours. I will make it work. I wish I could be all happy and cheery all the time, but that’s not the life of any college student. My life, however, is looking up for this weekend. I’m doing fanastic in terms of homework and my schedule is fairly light. Let’s just hope for the best. My friend got Rockband, a type of karaoke music band game, which has been a huge hit as of late. Maybe I’ll get some quality time in with that this weekend. Like I said earlier, my college experience has had a lot of ups and downs, but I know that I will never forget the ride.

My friends playing Rockband

Quote of the Week: “You grow up the day you have your first real laugh–at yourself.” - Ethel Barrymore
Thought to Ponder: Do prison buses have emergency exits?
Shout Outs: Buddy and his family as well as Sarah and her family for adopting me
YouTube Video of the Week: