Back to What?

Coming back to Susquehanna was very exciting, but I think I need to make it clear, to both my readers and myself, that coming back to Susquehanna is exactly that: coming back to Susquehanna. I didn’t come back to my freshman year, to Hassinger Hall, or to a top bunk. I didn’t come back to pick things up as they left off—not exactly. This year is new.

My room this year--before it got messy!

Not as new as coming into Susquehanna as a nervous freshman wondering what college will entail.

But still new. New enough that I am curious to see where this year takes me. New enough , even though I’m familiar with my friends, this campus, and the routine of work and classes,  that it’s taking a bit of adjustment to get back into the swing of things.

Or more accurately, to start a new swing of things.

Something I have to tackle this year is how to maintain and balance friendships with people who I used to live with but now don’t get to see on that same, day-to-day basis.  Only a certain set of my friends have that same right-down-the-hall status. Also, I’m still acclimating  to living alone. I definitely need to work out a cleaning routine because, without a roommate to consider, I’ve let things get a bit disheveled. Clearly, this isn’t the biggest issue with living alone, but it’s something I should probably work on!   

In another entry, I talked about how being a sophomore was good because I had a comfort zone from which to start. That’s still true. However, that comfort zone has had to shift and budge a little. It’s been altered—it’s been pinched by some discomforts, forces of change. Discomfort isn’t a negative, though.  No year can be the same as the one before. And next year I may, all over again, be contemplating on how to adapt to the changes of a different academic year.

 I’ll admit that, right now, I have a bit of nostalgic longing for my freshman year. I see people enter Hassinger—people that aren’t me—and go a bit gooey on the inside. Facebook shows me status updates from “this day in 2010,” and I relive that fresh, exciting period of time where I was just really discovering and getting to know the friends I have now.

I’m hoping that next year my time as a sophomore will elicit the same feelings.

Flood Clean-Up

There has been some horrible rain in Selinsgrove since I’ve returned to campus—and some terrible flooding.  The Isle of Que, an area of Selinsgrove that is right by the river, was one of many affected areas in Pennsylvania. Some students live there in off-campus housing and had to evacuate along with the Isle’s other residents. This weekend the Isle of Que became open again to its residents, and clean-up began.

Susquehanna students have definitely been involved in helping out with the flooding. The Center for Civic Engagement banded volunteers together. I heard a lot from Alpha Phi Omega about ways to help with the flooding, and I know a lot of my APO brothers were involved in clean-up and deputy duty down at the Isle.

I ended up going down on Sunday with the Selinsgrove Church of Nazarene. Every other Sunday, they have a worship service for young adults, but we used some of that time to help clean up and dispose of debris for a few families.

College is supposed to be a time for new experiences, and this certainly provided new experiences, like slogging through the mud to grab trash or planks of wood or feeling mud splatter into my hair as I helped heave something into a dumpster. I’ve found out something interesting about myself through all these new experiences at college: I’m not too afraid of getting dirty. I always think I’ll be more nervous, but as with my pledge class’s service project at the Campus Gardens, I found that I didn’t really mind—though I really did enjoy taking a shower afterward.

I knew there had been flooding, but it had been much worse than I had anticipated. It made my own problems seem tiny in comparison and my life seem very fortunate. 

The Comfort Zone

During my first week back, I discovered that starting freshman year and starting sophomore year are two very different beasts.

One of the main differences is workload. During the beginning of my first semester last year, I remember not having that much work to do; intentional or not, it felt as if I was being eased into the academic experience of college. This gave me a lot of free time in the evenings to spend with friends.  So far I’ve managed to spend a lot of time with my friends, but to do so, at least on week nights, I’m usually putting off homework.

It’s also quite different to come in already involved. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was a constant of my freshman year. Our first large-group meeting was on Thursday. Last year, I probably had some trepidation as I attended the first meeting of the year—being somewhat socially awkward and nervous about finding my place in that group of people, or more likely, just surviving the night.  As a sophomore I returned to something familiar and was able to catch up with friends.

My attitude in general is very different this year. As a freshman, things are completely new. The start of the year is very much about making friends and meeting new people. In a way, everything is in flux—to be determined. As a sophomore I may have power to change my course, but I also have established friendships. Making new friends is still a goal, but it’s certainly not as desperate of one as it was last year. Therefore, things don’t seem as high stakes, and I’m free from those freshman year jitters.

Another difference: one of my friends has a car this year, and we can finally go off-campus without limiting ourselves to the free shuttle schedule. We’ve already made a few trips. Last Sunday we went to Target, Saturday we went to the mall, and this Sunday we headed to Wal-Mart and Weis.  The chance to get off-campus is always helpful. Last year, campus could feel a bit suffocating after long stretches without leaving. However, chances to get off campus also equal chances to lighten the wallet.

All in all, there’s been some more work and some big changes, but I also have a nice comfort zone. “Comfort zone” usually has a negative connotation. Throughout the year I’ll definitely need to go beyond this zone, breaking its boundaries, but I also think a comfort zone can be a nice haven and a good starting point.

Why I'm Here In The First Place

Already I have a feeling that this year is going to be a busy one.

After completing my Grammar and Science homework last night, I really felt the urge to begin writing my short story for Intermediate Fiction before I went to bed. I have to send out my story Friday so it was important to start on it. I was adapting an idea from something I had written a few pages of over the summer, but I didn’t use any of those pages. Instead I took inspiration from there, but started fresh. Though perhaps it was the looming deadline that motivated me initially, I think it was the writing that kept me staying up. The words were just flowing; whether or not they are any good, I will leave to be determined later.

Finally, homework complete and story started, I was ready to go to bed.

Once I was wrapped up in my blanket, my mind started racing. I had so many ideas for how I wanted the story to play out, and I could’ve cranked out many pages more—even finished a rough, rough draft of the story, if I had the time. Unfortunately I had reached my tired, loopy stage, and I had to wake up fairly early today. Some of those wispy ideas are surely lost, but I did manage to turn on the light, stumble over to my desk, and scribble out some prose. In the end, I didn’t get to bed until 2, which was later than I had anticipated.

Moments like those are a good reminder of why I’m studying at Susquehanna in the first place. While my schedule is going to be kept full with all of my classes, with my Sophomore Essay, with organizations and chapel services and friends, I came to college as writer. I came to college to study my passion. I came to college to hone my skills so I can better write stories that I love, stories that are in me, stories that I think should be told. It’s easy to forget about that when I’m caught up in other stresses.

Obviously I can’t neglect everything else to sit around my dorm room and pound the keys on my laptop all day. Nightly writing sessions at such a late hour, for the sake of my health and sanity, have to be a no-go.  Even if I don’t have all the time in the world, though, I do have to make the time, sometime—not only because my classes require it, but because I love it.

Starting Sophomore Year

After a summer of watching Doctor Who on Netflix, messaging college friends on Skype, and hanging up clothing for minimum wage at my local Salvation Army, I am back in Selinsgrove for my sophomore year.

And believe me, I’m excited about it.

I will definitely miss my family and friends from home, but while at home, I definitely missed Susquehanna.

Today marks my second day of classes. So far I’ve gone to Intermediate Fiction and a little later in the day will have Hebrew Bible. I’m very excited about Intermediate Fiction—so excited that I may have, a bit foolishly, chosen the first date for workshops. I need to have a 6 to 25 page story read to send out to my classmates by September 2^nd! Thankfully, I have a lot of ideas for it, and I have some things already written that I could use.

Yesterday I attended English Grammar and the Writing Process, Thought & The Natural Sciences, and Sophomore Essay. My sophomore essay is going to be something about the portrayal of faith and religion in YA novels. Over the summer I read about six books to give me some background on it. I think I am going to focus my idea by specifically examining how YA novels represent religious doubt and its consequences and analyzing the accuracy or the helpfulness of such representations. This essay needs to be 15-20 pages long, and the first draft is, I believe, due in October. I definitely need to get to work on it. 

Probably one of the biggest differences so far is living in a different dorm. My dorm this year is smaller and a bit quieter. I have a single, a room to myself, instead of sharing a double. It’s nice to have my own space, but it’s also a bit strange since, so far, I’ve associated college with having a roommate. Some of my friends from my freshman dorm, Hassinger, are living with me in this new dorm, the Scholar’s House, so that definitely helps with the transition.

I am excited about what this year has in store! I hope to grow as a person and a writer, form new friendships, and just have a lot of fun along the way. It’s strange no longer being a freshman and seeing all these new faces on campus that are—gasp—actually younger than me, but it’s also nice to return to a familiar place.

Even if I have to get used to walking everywhere from a whole different side of campus.  

Evaluating My Goals

For what may be my last post of the year, I wanted to take a look at some of the goals I set for myself this semester. After all the last day of a college class usually includes an evaluation of the course and the professor. This will just be a self-evaluation.

Here are those original goals.

1. Keep up with my New Year's resolution.
2.  Write more often, and not just for my Intro to Nonfiction class
3.  Read more often, and again, not just for class.

4.  Enlarge my social circle at Susquehanna.  Meet new people!  Make new friendships!
5.  Get involved in new activities, like Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity, or a reading board for a literary magazine.
6.  Procrastinate less.
7.  Study more.
8.  Cut down on my addition--fries!  

It’s kind of frightening to see how poorly I’ve executed these.   My New Year’s resolution was to follow a read-the-Bible in the year plan, but then I got behind and behind and more behind and now I’m super behind, so I’m deeming that a failure. I will try to catch up this summer. I’ve written in little spurts things unrelated to class, but not anything substantial.  I haven’t devoted enough time to reading for pleasure as I should have.  In fact, I’ve devoted, basically, no time. 

The social goal is one where I’ve made a bit more progress.  I’m not exactly overwhelmed with new friends, but I think I know more people now and know some people from first semester a bit better than I had.  I’m happy to say that number five has been completely achieved. I pledged Alpha Phi Omega—much of that experience came up in previous entries—and was on a reading board for RiverCraft.

My level of procrastination is probably quite similar to first semester, and I may actually have studied less.  Fries—well, I certainly don’t think I’ve increased my fry intake. Then again, I can barely think of that as a possibility!

Perhaps the top goal for next year should be to achieve more of my goals!

Wrapping Up

Including today, I have 11 days left on campus. I have often pontificated on this blog about how fast everything seems and how the year is practically over already, probably in an exaggerated fashion. Now it’s a reality. The year is almost over, and these next 11 days are a matter of wrapping things up.

Tonight I’ll be completing my last paper assignments for two of my courses, Sociology and Applied Biblical Ethics. For Sociology, I am writing an ethnography, basically a study on a society, based off the movie Shawshank Redemption. For Applied Biblical Ethics, I have to write a reflection on our final action assignment, which was to take a 24-hour period to live more deliberately—to live “unplugged” from media technology. I failed pretty miserably at it.  After these are turned in, I’ll only have exams left for these two classes.

I have one 5 page paper left for my Romantic Novels course which I have until May 7^th to write.  The biggest thing left to do is my portfolio for Intro to Nonfiction. Last semester I was very intense about my fiction portfolio. I did lengthy rewrites in a very short span of time (gah procrastination!).  Basically, by the end of it, I was a creatively drained portfolio zombie. I hope that prepping my nonfiction portfolio is not as huge of an undertaking.

One way I want to wrap up the year is with a final excursion to the used bookstore downtown. Yesterday, during my attempted 24-hour sans media, friends and I took a walk downtown. 3 of us were wearing jeans. A mistake since it was really, really hot during our walk. Unfortunately the bookstore was closed by that time, but we were able to stop in at The Kind Café and pick up drinks. I got a delicious strawberry-banana smoothie which I enjoyed as we sat outside. Friday the bookstore is opened later, so we’ll probably go then.

I’m looking forward to this upcoming weekend.  It’s basically our final weekend and is Spring Weekend here at SU. There are going to be different events, like a carnival and a circus party at TRAX. I’m not sure which events I’ll actually be attending, but I do know that I want to have a fun weekend with my friends before summer, even if we just end up staying inside and watching movies!

Speaking of summer, a part of wrapping up the school year is prepping for break.  For me and a lot of people, one aspect of prepping is finding a job.  I filled out lots of applications over Easter Break.  I haven’t been hired yet, but I am hoping something will pop up.  I also plan to do lots of writing this summer—finally, not for class!—as well as reading. And of course, hanging out a ton with my friends from home.

Oh yeah, and missing SU.