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.

Time Management

One of the trickiest aspects of being a college student is time management. It’s certainly something I deal with and it appears to be a struggle, to some degree, for almost all of my friends. College just feels busier than high school. Sure, during high school I got up by 6:45 a.m. (EEK!) and was stuck within school walls from 7-something in the morning to 2:45 p.m., no escape, no gap between classes except for that 4 minute walk through the halls, but after that I went home. Even if I had something after school, like musical rehearsal, I’d usually be home by 5:30.  My days start later here—thankfully—but end later as well. Mondays and Wednesdays, for instance, I’m busy from 9 to 4:05, with only a break from 1:00 to 1:45 for lunch.

There’s so much more to do after your school day is over as well. There are social distractions, for instance. Why read The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles for your Romantic Novels class, for instance, when you could be playing MASH with some of your friends? Yes, that may have happened just yesterday—though I did get my reading done, I promise!  There are a lot of very active extracurricular groups that can keep your schedule full as well. Tonight for instance, I hope to be able to go to an InterVarsity Life Group, which is a Bible Study at 7:30 (I've been skipping lately because I haven't been able to manage the time well enough to go), followed directly by pledge class and a chapter meeting for Alpha Phi Omega. There’s also that pesky issue of fitting some homework into that lineup.

Though I’m far from a time management expert, I think prioritizing is definitely helpful when it comes to time management. My strategy usually ends up being getting done what absolutely has to get done. A strategy to get ahead on my work over the weekends, however, might be a bit more practical, though it would seem awfully painful as I stowed myself away on a Saturday afternoon.

Typically, however, getting schoolwork done isn’t the issue for me. Pesky things like laundry are what fall to the wayside. I’ve been saying I need to do laundry since last week, and yet the clothing is piling up in my closet.  I really need to buckle down and get some done tonight. My pledge class’s group service project on Friday is an intergenerational prom at the Graysonview Assisted Living Community, and I have induction to the freshman academic honor society Alpha Lambda Delta on Sunday.  Both require nice clothes which, as of now, are wrinkled at the bottom of my hamper. 

I think tonight I may just skip dinner with my pals to get that laundry done and start doing research for my group project in Applied Biblical Ethics.  Then, before Life Group, I'll grab some Benny's dinner to go.  This actually sounds like a really good idea.  Maybe I should start planning things more often!