The Final Stretch--December!

We’ve reached the month of December! It really is the final stretch of this semester.

  

On Monday, my Sophomore Essay will be wrapped up—the final draft turned in and, after 8:30 p.m., the end of public Sophomore Essay presentations, my PowerPoint given. I need to work on my essay this weekend, but thankfully, most of the edits I’ll be tackling are minor. My PowerPoint also needs some tweaking.

 In Intermediate Fiction, we are on our last portfolio which we will hand in at a reading at our professor’s house.  I am not so confident about where I’m at with this portfolio as I am with my Sophomore Essay.Among other things, I need to do a major rewrite on one of my stories. I am not feeling too enthusiastic about either of my pieces this semester. Hopefully the magic will come back when I sit down to write!

My grammar paper is in need of some serious work too. The rough draft I turned in was admittedly not the best I’ve ever done. It doesn’t help that I’m finding it difficult to really take a side with my paper. I’m examining grammatical differences in two versions of the Bible and I am supposed to be arguing that one version is more rhetorically effective. Initially, I decided the modern version was more rhetorically effective, but examining the King James Version has made me realize some if its rhetorical strengths, as well. This essay is due later than my portfolio, though, so I still have quite some time.

There are also final projects coming up in Thought & the Natural Sciences and a final paper in Hebrew Bible.

Something else I am just finishing up is applying to study away for a semester. I will be turning in my two final forms today—then I will officially be applied at Susquehanna’s Office of Cross-Cultural Programs (the application to the specific study abroad program comes later)! Though filling out the application was a bit tedious, it also renewed my excitement for going abroad. I ended up with Northern Ireland as my first choice. I keep thinking, “This time next year, I’ll be in Europe!”

While these next weeks leading up to Christmas break are bound to be academically stressful, I am hoping there will also be time for fun. I am looking forward to the Christmas Candlelight Service, as well as our university president, President Lemons, reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to us in our pajamas. I’m also going to a young adult Christmas party at the Selinsgrove Church of the Nazarene on Saturday. As far as Christmas parties go, though, I am most excited for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Christmas party. Last year I received a clown mug as my gift!

All in all, though, I really am looking forward to break. It was nice being home for Thanksgiving, but it feels like such a short period. I am also looking forward to a new semester, new routines, and new classes come January.

Spring Semester

Today is the first day of the Spring Semester, and in some ways, it is surreal being back.  Winter Break was relaxing, but as I had feared, boring after a while.  Post-Christmas and especially Post-New Years, I was itching to return to Susquehanna.  I couldn't wait until I was back in Hassinger Hall again, with friends and fun available just a few doors down the hall.  Admittedly, I'm not as excited to start classes.  The feeling is more anxious than anything else, with a mix of surprise.  My thoughts are something along the lines of: What, I'm actually back, what, I have classes tomorrow, wait, what, now I have classes today, I have class in less than an hour and a half, what, when did this occur?!  All in all, I am glad to be back, but it's strange adjusting to a new routine, when I was so well-adjusted to my old one.  Speaking of adjusting, I also need to fix my sleep patterns--break was spent staying up and waking up late.  To my surprise, I handled waking up for work today fairly well. 

Whether I'm ready or not, the semester is here, and these are some of the things I'm hoping to accomplish the second half of the year:

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!  

The last three seem especially difficult so we'll have to see how they go.  Hopefully not the way of my resolution at the beginning of the year to eat breakfast everyday (it's been such a rare event that one of the few times I had breakfast at Benny's, I felt compelled to take a picture with my cell phone).

Other things I'm looking forward to this semester are experiencing a schedule that was completely picked out by myself and having people visit me.  I live a bit over an hour away so two of my friends from high school will be visiting me next month.  My brother, who is twenty-five, will also be visiting me in February.  I can't wait to give them a peak at my life here at SU!

Winter Nearing, Fall Semester Disappearing!

The Fall Semester is wrapping up here at SU.  Meanwhile, December has arrived!  All of a sudden the weather has gone from manageably cold to numbingly so.  Last night, as friends and I left West Village, we were greeted by snowflakes!  Though not Winter yet, the various campus buildings sporting impressive Christmas trees have definitely given me that feel. I'm consistently struck by the immensity of the tree in the Blough-Weis Library.  My roommate Sarah brought a tiny, adorable fake tree for our room and a few Christmas decorations.  Likewise, many of my hallmates have also embraced the Christmas spirit when it comes to dorm decor.

As a freshman, I've heard about many Susquehanna traditions that I have not yet experienced for myself.  One such tradition I'm anticipating is the upcoming Annual Christmas Candlelight Service.  Chapel service this Sunday will be a dress-down day, and afterwords people will stay to help decorate for the service (and eat pizza-yay!).  I definitely want to attend this decorating as well as the candlelight service itself. Usually on Sundays, everyone who attends chapel is right there on the stage.  It'll be awesome to see Weber entirely full!  Another Christmas festivity I'm looking forward to is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Christmas Party.  Hopefully I'll also be attending Lutheran Student Movement's last meeting of the semester, which includes a gift exchange and caroling!

Though I'm so looking forward to break--I practically require it--I am going to miss my friends here a lot, so it's nice that I will be getting a little bit of Christmas here at SU, with them, before my Christmas at home.

The only thing dampering my holiday spirit is end of the semester work.

I have two final tests, Intermediate German and Colonial Latin America.  In Thought class, I have to edit my final paper, which must be at least 8 pages.  Mine is about social media in Iran.  So far I feel pretty good about my first draft.  It focuses on The Twitter Revolution and speaks a lot to the use of social media--like blogging, for instance!--in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election.  My Perspectives course wrapped up today, with a final class where we were treated to breakfast, but I still have to turn in a self-reflection about a group project we worked on. This, too, must be 8 pages, a seemingly magic number among college professors. 

The most important final project to me personally is my portfolio for Intro to Fiction.  Regrettably, I haven't been working on my two stories all that much since they've been workshopped, but I really hope to knock these revisions out of the park.  The rewrites are pretty extensive for both stories.  At the very least, I am starting and ending each story in a different place, even if I'm not quite sure where those ends are yet.  My first person story has evolved from a scene with a cheesy romance ending to a story that will be more real and messy and heartfelt.  My third person story received a much better reception, but it will change so as not to rely on a structural quirk.  Instead it will allow the reader to stay with the story and go forward.  It will begin right where the tension does, rather than taking the reader through background before letting them enter the conflict.  Perhaps this weekend I can lock myself away in my room and rewrite!

Frankly, just as I expressed in my previous blog entry, I still cannot believe this semester is almost complete.  I arrived here in August.  And now it's December!  The older I get, the more amazed and startled I seem to be by the passage of time.

Back at SU: Already Looking To Next Semester

After a short Thanksgiving break, I am back at Susquehanna.  Though I returned Sunday evening, and today is Tuesday, I still don't feel as if my focus has completely recovered, though it better come back soon since I'm approaching my first college finals (Should I be more worried about this than I am?) and have to throw together a PowerPoint and oral presentation tonight on social media in Iran, on top of other homework.  I have a feeling, though, that my focus will be further impaired, due to the fact that one of the few shows I watch while at school, Glee, is on tonight.   

It's strange to think that my first semester at college is almost over.  I'm almost 1/8th of the way through college!  I know, I know, that means I have 7/8ths left still.  Even so, I'm a bit nervous that this college thing will just start going faster and faster until, before I know it, I'll be graduating.  Sometimes it's still weird to think that I'm even here at all, after anticipating college for such a long time.

Speaking of next semester, I was very lucky when it came to registration.  Over break, I received an e-mail saying schedules were up.  To my delight, I was placed into all 4 classes I signed up for--and at the times I signed up for them too!

Here's what my SU spring will look like:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday:
Introduction to Nonfiction, 1:45-2:50 p.m.
Thought & Civilization, 3:00-4:05 p.m.

Tuesday/Thursday-:
Applied Biblical Ethics, 10:00-11:35 a.m.
Principles of Sociology, 2:25-4:05 p.m.

I also will have work from 9 to 1 on Monday and Wednesday and 10 to 12 on Friday. 

I'm excited to see what I think of my new classes and my new schedule; obviously, I hope to think of them favorably.  I also wonder what else next semester will have in store, like new people I'll meet in my classes and perhaps new friendships.  I plan on getting involved in some different ways next semester.  For example, I might start going to Lit Club.  I wanted to be a part of it this semester, but it conflicted with my schedule.  Also, I want to participate on a reading board for Susquehanna's literary magazine RiverCraft. 

But even more so than next semester, I am looking forward to Christmas break.  It will be an adjustment, having such a long stretch of time at home, but it will be a welcome one.  Especially after enduring these upcoming weeks of projects and portfolios and finals.