Midterms and Spring Break

It’s midterm time here at Susquehanna which means it’s almost time for Spring Break! I’m so excited to be going home on Friday. Unfortunately, there are some things I have to finish up before then.

My main task to complete before break is my Aesthetics and Interpretation midterm. This was a take-home midterm. I have to write 2 essays, roughly 2 pages each, which didn’t sound too difficult until my professor estimated it would take four to six hours. I really need to start on these essays tonight. I’ve blocked out two hours today to work on them. I’ll have to see how far that gets me!

I also have some more work to do for study abroad. As I mentioned before, I’m already approved by Susquehanna, but I have stuff to do for the program provider, IFSA Butler. I need to do a few paragraphs about myself and an academic statement, among other things, and get them sent out to Butler as soon as I can. I also have to make some choices on my housing preference form for where I’d like to live that semester. At least I have my ideal courses selected—Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Britain and Ireland, Writing the North: the Literature of the Troubles, and From the Vote to the Pill: Twentieth Century Women’s Writing. This would give me the elective credits I need for my Creative Writing major, as well as one religion elective for my Religion major.

For my Poetry course, I need to turn in three revised poems, but fortunately, the due date for that was pushed back to Monday so I will have some time to work on them at home, if need be.

At least I have one midterm done. Today I took my Intro to Asian Religions mid-term exam which included multiple choice, true or false, short answer questions, and an essay. I took up all the allotted exam time (I was jotting down my last sentence with 90 seconds to spare), but I feel confident about how I did.

I do not have many plans yet for Spring Break, though I certainly want to get in some sleep and relaxation.  A lot of friends from high school seem to have overlapping spring breaks this year so I’m planning on hanging out with them for sure! I am also going to be meeting with a historical society in Harrisburg to discuss a summer internship possibility in their archives. I also have a dentist appointment which is decidedly less exciting. No matter what my plans might be, I’m quite excited to be heading home Friday. 

Joy Castro Reading

I’ll admit that I don’t go to nearly as many readings as a Creative Writing major should, and usually the ones I go to are because a Creative Writing professor required—or strongly encouraged—me to do so. Maybe it’s because my tastes aren’t always so literary. Or maybe it’s because it’s harder for me to make sense of things when they’re read aloud. The latter is especially the case with poetry. Unless read slowly and sort of obviously, the lines of the poem become wispy and too much for me to hold and make sense out of—even when I think I’d be able to get the poems just fine if I read them on paper.

However, on Monday, as part of the Undergraduate Literature and Creative Writing Conference, I went to the Joy Casto reading without being required to do so, and I think it may have been one of my favorite readings I’ve been to so far as Susquehanna.

I had never read any of Joy Castro’s work before but I was very impressed. Castro is mostly a nonfiction writer. She read to us some standalone essays as well as excerpts from her memoir The Truth Book. She also read to us from her first novel, Hell or High Water, which is coming out in July.

Castro’s writing was lyric and evocative. It was often dark, but there was also humor laced through some of her work. Certain scenes and essays stick in my mind, including a scene of young Joy questioning religion and Truth Book, Joy and her mother peeling apples, an essay about her deceased friend whose life path had diverged from her own and an essay about aging and marriage. 

There's definitely an added impact to nonfiction when hearing it spoken by the person who has gone through it all. Though I am not much of a creative nonfiction writer, hearing Joy Castro read reminded me of the power and creativity behind the genre. 

Alpha Phi Omega Updates

I don’t think I’ve updated this blog recently on my activity with my service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, so I figured I’d bring you up-to-date.

This is the first semester I’ve taken a Little. A Little is someone who is pledging the fraternity that you help through the pledging process. It’s definitely exciting since last semester I was a tiny bit envious of all the other people who had Littles. So far there hasn’t been that much to do as a Big, except decorating a binder filled with all the information she needs for pledging and making her flashcards with the pictures and names of all the other pledges. Bigs and Littles have to meet once a week, and our meeting spot is in Mellon Lounge, a part of Degenstein Campus Center.  Last week we both got Java City, which is a plate to get coffee on campus. Due to me being a bit strange and not liking coffee, I ended up getting apple juice. 

I’ve also become our chapter’s Alumni Secretary. I am working with another member on Alumni Relations to keep alumni informed about what’s going on in our chapter. Hopefully, we’ll also be able to relay information about alumni successes to current members. Maybe we will even have some of them come in to speak!  This was an appointed rather than elected position, and it’s kind of a nice way to get my feet wet, in terms of leadership. I don’t usually classify myself as much of a leader and tend to do things solo, so I think this will be a good experience for me.

The next big service project I’m signed up for with Alpha Phi Omega is the Relay for Life. Last year, I did it with some girls from my freshman residence hall. It’s definitely exhausting, since it goes from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., but it should be worthwhile to do it again! I’m hoping that APO will be able to raise a lot of money. I think we are going to have at least 3 APO teams. Of course, I also hope Susquehanna, as a whole, is able to raise a ton.  Other big projects coming up include 30 Hour Famine and Lutheran Youth Day, both of which I did last year. 30 Hour Famine raises awareness of hunger around the world, as well as money, and Lutheran Youth Day brings a lot of students from Lutheran youth groups to campus for worship and sessions. Both of those were very fulfilling projects next year, and I look forward to doing them again.

Undergraduate Literature Conference--Year 2!

Usually I can sleep in until 9:30, hurriedly get dressed, and get myself to class right on time. Today, though, I was up early for the annual Undergraduate Literature and Creative Writing Conference. For the eighth year, the conference brings together undergraduate students, not only from Susquehanna but from other colleges as well, to present scholarly papers and creative works. It also features speakers.

My panel was at the crazy early time of 8:30 a.m.—the same time that I had to read last year!  I’ll admit that this year was much more convenient, though, since last year it snowed and I had a much farther and wetter trek to the campus center, Degenstein.

Despite this 8:30 a.m. time, my friend Sarah (she’s also my Big from Alpha Phi Omega) showed up to support me, which meant a lot. It’s always nice during these kinds of events to know there’s at least one person there to see you.

The other readers on my panels had interesting things to say though it’s a bit hard to focus when you’re getting nervous. Two of the readers shared scholarly papers, one on Faustus, the other on Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and the other Susquehanna student read poetry.

I was sharing a part of my Scholar’s House project by reading an excerpt of my Christian Young adult novel Who Makes Things Grow. I think my voice was a bit shaky at first, but after a few pages, I got into the swing of things. Though I’m not in as far as I’d like to be in the novel, and though I certainly didn’t share a polished draft, I was pleased, overall, with the excerpt I shared. There was a lot of dialogue, but it was pretty representative of the tone of the writing. I also managed to get some amused smiles at certain lines; that’s always appreciated.

Afterwards, attendees had a chance to ask questions. I was asked about why I thought writing about religion was important for teenagers, which I was able to answer both with personal experience and some of the knowledge I attained from writing my sophomore essay (though, in hindsight, I can’t help but wish that I had more of that information ready to articulate). Someone else drew a connection between me and another presenter’s use of visual art in our writing. One of my main characters is a collage artist, and one of the dominant scenes in the excerpt featured him doing a collage of the cross. I talked a little bit about the role of art in establishing his character and conflict with his friends. Again, in afterthought, I have many things I’d like to add to that explanation. All in all, though, none of the questions caught me too off-guard, unlike last year when I was stumped by a question from a professor.

The panel ended early, and with some time to spare, Sarah and I grabbed breakfast—an act that’s tremendously rare in my world. I also got a cancelled class out of the conference since English professors spend their day there.

Soon I’ll probably attend the reading of visiting writer Joy Castro. I’m not familiar with her work, but a lot of my friends are going and it should be interesting.

All in all, I had a good experience with the conference today, and it's made me feel more prepared for the reading I'll eventually be doing for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Preparing for a Semester Abroad

Last month, I was approved for studying abroad a semester in Northern Ireland at the University of Ulster.  Specifically, I’ll be spending my fall there. Though that was definitely exciting, it was only the beginning of a long process. Some of Susquehanna’s study-abroad, or GO (Global Opportunities), options are available directly from our university, such as SU in London: Regent’s College. Others, though, are through outside providers. The program I’m going to attend is through a provider called IFSA-Butler. Because of that, my application journey was not over once I had Susquehanna’s stamp of approval; I also have to apply directly to IFSA-Butler by March 1st.

On Monday, I attended a Q & A session about the application process and learned more about applying, as well as the other steps I have to take before I go abroad. Hearing about these details makes everything seem more real. 

One of the most important things I have to do is get approval for the courses I want to take while abroad. While I’m in Northern Ireland, I hope to take something that can count for one of my Central Curriculum requirements—my Artistic Intensive requirement. I also will probably be taking a course or two for my Creative Writing major. To make sure courses transfer, I need to get approval from department heads. For the Central Curriculum ones, I need approval from the registrar. There are a lot of great courses available at the University of Ulster-Coleraine, where I’ll hopefully attend, including tons of interesting literature courses. The hard thing is that, there, a full course load is only 3 classes. I’ll have to limit myself! Depending on the courses I take, I may be able to leave, after a semester, with a Certificate or Advanced Certificate in Irish Cultural Studies, which would be cool to have.

Another concern is my living situation when I come back to Susquehanna in the spring. Typically, students enter a housing lottery to get the room they want for the next year, but I can’t do that when I’ll be gone first semester. My basic options are to find someone who won’t be here in the spring and switch places with them or to let Residence Life find me somewhere to live. Something I have to consider is whether or not I want to have a single next year. I’d much rather have a single than room with someone I don’t know well or at all. Also, at that point, I will probably have lived in a single for 1.5 years (all of this year, sophomore year, and I think my semester abroad) so it might be a tough adjustment having a roommate again—especially if it’s not the ideal situation. However, singles are also more expensive.

I’m expecting that getting ready to go abroad will get a little stressful at times, but I am convinced it will be more than worth the hassle once I’m actually there!

At Schools Not So Far Away

Last night, I went with some members of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship to Bucknell University for a talk and a Q&A with David Lamb, author of God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? and Old Testament scholar. He addressed some of the problematic texts in the Old Testament and our popular conceptions of God, as portrayed in the Old Testament. Then the room was opened up to questions. This was particularly interesting since people came into the talk with vastly different opinions about the Bible.

According to Mapquest, Bucknell is about 13 miles away. Its proximity is what allowed for such a short-notice trip. Our InterVarsity chapter didn't plan on going until the night before.

A few weeks ago, for my Introduction to Poetry course, we met at Bucknell to attend a poetry reading by Mark Doty. The class broke up into different cars, got oursevles there, attended the reading, and got back to Susquehanna all within, approximately, the normal timespan for our class.

These two times, I've only seen Bucknell in the dark, but I'll be able to see it in the light later this month. Bucknell will be hosting InterVarsity's Dig-In, a weekend-long conference that brigns together students from different colleges in the area to study Scripture. Last year Susquehanna hosted, which was super convenient for us. This is also convenient for Susquehanna students because, at the end of the day, we'll be able to return to our dorms rather than stay overnight with Bucknell host students, which is what students who come from farther distances will be doing.

Penn State is much farther away than Bucknell but it is still a reasonable distance for special trips. This semester, I went with a gorup of friends to a concert at Penn State's Bryce Jordan center called Witner Jam.

Visiting these colleges inspires some reflection on Susquehanna. Penn State, for instance, feels like an entirely different world. It's enormous and bustling and overwhelming, and I can't really imagine going there. Bucknell also seemed to have a different atmosphere than SU.

I know that other students and student groups sometimes visit these schools for concerts, readings, etc. It's not something I usually take advantage of since I don't have a car; in fact, these are the only three instances wehre I've been to other schools while at Susquehanna. Still, though there's plenty to do at Susquehanna, it's nice that there's the option to drop in on other colleges when there's special events that interest you. The best part is that after said events, at least if at Bucknell or Penn State, it's not too long before you're back to being cozy in your room at Susquehanna.

A Broadened Path

Going into college, I was fairly confident about what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to go into publishing, preferably young adult or children’s publishing, be an editor, something like that. And I was also going to be a Young Adult novelist. Pretty simple.

But as freshman year proceeded, I felt myself opening up to different possibilities. The prospect of publishing became less attractive, and the idea of librarianship came into the picture. With that came ideas of different kinds of librarianship—university librarianship, rare books librarianship, even work in archives.

Now, this year, particularly this semester, I feel myself opening up to even more possibilities as I become engrossed in my second major. I feel like the academic study of religion potentially holds something important for my future. But I don’t know what. What could I do with a graduate degree in religion--become a professor? That idea is fairly intimidating. I never thought of myself as a teaching type of person. Still, I’m drawn to the idea of graduate school, research, academia, etc., albeit hesitantly. This hesitance is, of course, appropriate because most of these ideas are wispy, newly floating in my head; plus, grad school would only be an option if I was fully or nearly-fully funded. Still, I can’t help but feeling like there is something there—something in this Religion major that may translate into a direction for my career.

Perhaps religion and librarianship would somehow find a combination in theological librarianship or the archives of a religious denomination--though that's a slim, slim field.

There’s communications to consider as well. My scholarship at Susquehanna includes an Assistantship in Advancement Communications. When I graduate, I’ll have four years of internship experience that would give me an edge in obtaining an entry-level communications job. Do I want to be in communications? I’m not sure. It’s the most practical choice out of everything I’ve considered, and the idea of communications for a non-profit I care about has a certain level of appeal. Maybe I’d be able to combine Communications with religious studies and work for a non-profit that deals with something like ecumenicism, which promotes unity and understanding between Christian denominations.

Even writing possibilities have expanded. For my scholar’s house project, I originally planned on completing a full draft of a Christian Young Adult novel, but I have found myself hardly motivated, in terms of fiction. Instead I keep turning to poetry. I’ve even adjusted  my project so my end-product is not a novel draft but a collection of writings dealing with faith—including both a segment of a novel and poems.  

For a girl who’s always been fairly set on what she wanted to do—at least the be-a-writer part of the equation—it’s unsettling that college hasn’t narrowed down my path but broadened it.  I’ll admit, I hope this broadening will suddenly contract senior year—that I will be led, clearly, to a pathway that is both fulfilling and financially viable. In fact, I would like for that contraction to take place now. In the meantime, though, I’ll have to try to make the best of this broad path of possibility.  

The Bounce Funplex and Other Weekend Events

Yet again I’m at the start of another week—the fourth week of classes! This semester already seems like it’s flying by. It’s hard to believe that after this semester is over, my next semester will be in Northern Ireland (a prospect that is kind of scary but also very exciting). After that I’ll only have three semesters left at SU.

There are still so many Susquehanna firsts I have left to explore. This weekend, I participated in something that must be akin to a Susquehanna rite of passage; I went to the Bounce Funplex. The Bounce Funplex is very close to our campus. Basically, it has this huge floor of trampolines to bounce on, with trampoline walls as well. There is also a foam pit to jump into, with a trampoline floor leading up to it. On Saturday, friends and I went for one hour of bouncing. We could’ve paid for two, but I’m glad we stopped when we did. It was fun but absolutely exhausting! I definitely left sore, and I hadn’t even dared to attempt flips or other hardcore jumping feats.

When we arrived back on campus, friends and I grabbed dinner and took it to the Open Mic Night sponsored by the literature and slam poetry clubs. This night was at Susquehanna’s coffeehouse, Charlie’s. The place was packed so we ended up sitting in the back. Though we didn’t stay the whole time, we got to hear a few great poems, a song, and some of a nonfiction piece.

Later on that night, I headed over to the Sock Hop at TRAX, Susquehanna’s nightclub. I wasn’t sure I would stay that long, but I had a lot of fun. The dance was 50s themed and featured older music to swing dance to as well as contemporary music.

SU Swings! offered a swing lesson in the beginning of the night. As a not-so-skilled dancer, I was a reluctant participant. I kept feeling bad for my partner about the stupid things I was messing up (I'm a bit directionally challenged)—but I still feel like I learned a little bit. I've discovered that I don't like being bad at things, which sounds like a trait everyone probably shares. However, I think I get particularly frustrated when I don't have a natural aptitude for something--so frustrated that I stop before I can learn the new skill. In that sense, I’m a bit excited for myself that I participated in the lesson at all.

Sunday was not as interesting, as I mostly just stayed in sweatpants or pajamas, did laundry, worked on an essay about the Bhagavad Gita, and generally ignored the Super Bowl's existence.

I am hoping this will be a good week leading up to an exciting weekend, as well. Already on the agenda is a reunion of my friends from my freshman dorm, Hassinger, on Friday evening. I basically see all of them but rarely all at once, so it will be great to have them all together.

Appreciating My New Major

I’ve mentioned previously how much I’ve been enjoying my classes this semester, but I wanted to talk a bit more about how much I’m enjoying my religion classes. Last semester I bumped up my Religion minor from a Religion major. There was a decent amount of stressing on my part as I debated this decision. I’d be adding more requirements! I needed to be sure I’d get things finished! I didn’t want to majorly overload! And anyway, I’d be studying abroad for a semester! You know—those types of things. But I knew it was something I really wanted to do, and I ended up doing it.

This semester has definitely been confirmed that I made the right choice.

I am enjoying my Intro to Asian Religions class because everything is entirely new to me, so I feel like I’m learning a lot. I had a bit of background on the religions from a World History class in high school, but not an extensive understanding. For example, I know I once learned the caste system. But now I’ve read some of Hinduism’s most important texts, The Bhagavad Gita,  know the different forms of yoga (they don’t all have to do with meditating and stretching; in fact, the most popular form of yoga in India is bhakti, which is all about devotion to a god), and have an elementary understanding of concepts like rta and  dharma. I know the Hindu story behind creation and that the escape from the cycle of the reincarnation, into the Brahman, is called moksha. And this is really just the beginning of the course!

 I appreciate learning about a religion that shapes much of the world and is foreign to me, and I also appreciate its interaction with my faith. Rather than acting as a threat to my own Christian point of view, I think it actually inspires reflection on my faith.  I would love to one day take some comparative theology or comparative religion courses to engage even more heavily in that type of reflection.

My favorite class of the semester, though, is my Luther: Life and Thought course. As someone who, up until freshman year, had never attended a non-Catholic church service, I’m not exactly a Luther expert.  However, I think this contributes to my interest in the Protestant Reformation. Though I probably have more Protestant leanings, I think I have some Catholic sensibilities as well. Because of all these things, I find the divisiveness and lack of understanding that sometimes occurs between Protestants and Catholics really upsetting; I also find the relationship, differences, and history academically intriguing.

Anyway, I am learning a lot about the practices and theology of the Catholic church during Luther's time, as well as information on Luther's life (I'm particularly interested in the fact that he was often, in his early years, in spiritual crisis) and some of the figures in it (like Johann Von Staupitz—a very fun name to say; also, that almost everyone important was named Johann). Probably the most interesting part is learning about some of Luther’s theological concepts, like his ideas on free will (which I think I disagree with) and the state of a Christian as simultaneously saint and sinner.

I am actually enjoying these classes so much that it’s been making me think how I can incorporate my Religion degree into whatever my future career may be. I don’t have anything about that figured out yet, but I do know that I am excited to keep on taking Religion courses and learning more!