October 10th, 2008
Somehow, without my knowledge, half of first semester has passed me by. Fall Break is here marking the halfway point and I can’t believe it. Where has the past month and a half gone? Life is a giant blur and the pace of life seems to keep picking up. It was another quick week with a Richmond College Leadership Dinner, Collegiate Disaster Relief Team meeting, Student Admissions Representative meeting, as well as a Student Government and Cabinet meeting. Honestly, though, they didn’t take too much time this week. So, I had time for quite a few fun events in the process. I didn’t have much work since I worked really hard last weekend to get ahead. All I had was one main project, one simple measly project. However, it took me a majority of this week, ruining a lot of my plans for getting really far ahead in my studies. The project was an 8-10 minute epideictic speech extolling a virtue of our choosing. I chose “sincerity” and, after falling asleep two nights while writing it as well as spending most of Thursday on it, finally finished it. The Speech Consultants liked it, which gave me some sense of joy and confidence. I’ll keep practicing it and try to post it on here when I’m done.
With work and business out of the way, I had some fun this week. Last Saturday was the Multicultural Student Union’s Around the World dinner. As usual, it was fantastic. They served amazing food from so many different countries. There were the standard eggrolls, sushi, and Greek salad, but there was so much more as well. I had no idea what I was eating half the time, but it was good. After the dinner, I went to see “Wanted” at the Pier. It was the weekly free film showing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the movie, though, I did the unconscionable thing and went back to my room where I studied alone until 2:00 AM. It was pretty sad.
Food from the Multicultural Student Union Dinner
Sunday was spent watching football and also attending a Dessert Reception for Oldham Scholars. It is an annual event where the current Oldham Scholars welcome the freshman Oldhams. Of course, fancy desserts and pastries are an absolute must for this. All of us are looking forwards to our New York City trip in November. The planned events are to see an opera at The Metropolitan Opera as well as “In the Heights” on Broadway.
Later on Sunday, I was invited to attend a program for freshmen through the Office of Student Development. They went bowling and needed a certified driver for the University’s 15-passenger vans. It just so happens that I had just been certified, so I volunteered to drive. Not only did I get paid for driving the van, they also let me bowl with them. I might add that I did win both games handily and shocked myself with how well I did. They also treated me to snacks while we bowled. All in all, it was a very pleasant evening.
Going bowling on Sunday night
Another event from the weekend that is worth mentioning is our football team. We were dethroned from our #1 ranking after a loss the week before, but we stormed back by meeting the Virginia Military Institute 56-16. I believe that we are now ranked #5 in Division 1-AA. However, we play the new #1 team this week. It should be quite the game.
Even though school started again for the week, that didn’t mean that I couldn’t have fun. On Monday, eight other students and myself went downtown for dinner as well as a show. We finally made it to Capital Ale House for Dollar Burger Night, our first time this year, and then went to see David Sedaris at Richmond’s Landmark Theater. For $8, we saw a great show. David Sedaris is an essayist and humorist and it was quite entertaining to hear the stories that he had written. I’ve included some samples of his work below. It was also really nice to get off-campus on a beautiful evening and hang out with some friends downtown.
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David Sedaris’ work
Eating out at Capital Ale House with friends
The last fun thing was an InterVarsity Movie and Game Night on Thursday. It was held in my suite and it was mainly to provide a nice relief from studying for midterms since it is a high-stress week for most students. So, a couple of my friends and I got together and watched “The Office” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. However, my suitemate is a huge fan of Nerf guns. So, he decided to hold a Nerf gun war in our residence hall. He got quite a few people to join (I served as photographer) and a giant Nerf gun war ensued. It covered all four floors of our residence halls and was intense. Little did we know when we started, but we would end up playing Nerf gun wars for three straight hours. A few of the people simply started playing for a short break from homework, but were soon unable to break away. It was absolutely ridiculous. People walking into the residence hall saw them running around with Nerf guns and darts all over the floor and just shook their heads. By the end of the night, there were forts and barricades in our lounges created from furniture and chairs. However, it was a fun way to kick off Fall Break and I’m sure some of us needed the break from work. I have a gut feeling this will become a regular occurrence.
Preparing for battle
The aftermath of one of the battles
Transforming our lounge into a battle zone
So, those were several of the fun events this week. I also did take care of some important business matters. I met with my adviser to begin planning for next semester as well as to analyze what my goals are for the future. After talking with her, I am still considering taking another Rhetoric course and becoming a Speech Center Consultant. I am also having a better sense of what my degrees will be. I know I’m still early in my education, but I feel as though I should know what I’m doing by now. The Business major is definitely not easy and requires a lot of classes. After long deliberations and planning, it looks as though I will be double majoring in Business Administration and Leadership Studies with an additional minor in Law and the Liberal Arts. To do this, I will have to take five classes per semester from now until I graduate. It won’t be easy, but those are my current plans. As I mentioned in my first post as a Spider Diarist, I’ll let you know as my plans change, which is entirely possible.
Thanks for checking back in on my life. I’m hoping that Fall Break provides a nice relief for me, but I have some big projects that I would like to get taken care of. Take care and I’ll see you back here next week.
Quote of the Week: “It is the marvel of human nature that so priceless a jewel is so easily achieved. All that a man must do to make friends is to be sincere.” -William G. Besler
Thought to Ponder: What does Geronimo say when he jumps out of a plane?
YouTube Video of the Week:
What if all movies had cell phones?
