Common Ground

One of the really awesome things about college, or I suppose life in general, is finding people who are interested in the same things as you are, whether that’s a fandom, like Harry Potter, or something more influential in your life, like your faith.  I’ve been very lucky to find people who share my interests at SU.

My Harry Potter Poster

Creative writing is huge in that regard.  Some of my closest friends, including my roommate, are fellow Creative Writing majors, with whom I can be nerdy about books or discuss the pains of revisions, conferences, and critique letters.

Speaking of books, I am a die-hard Harry Potter fan.  This love goes beyond the books and includes A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel, two parody musicals on YouTube about Harry Potter.  Very few of my friends were familiar with these musicals at home, but it seems like a lot of people here know about them.  In the beginning of the year, I was often singing “Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts” and “Granger Danger” with a friend here who’s also a big Harry Potter fan.  Additionally, I have people who can understand my raving about Ron and Hermione, my favorite literary couple, and my ranting about Ginny and Hermione, a couple that I find fairly irritating.

TV shows can be another area of common ground.  Just last night, I watched Glee with my roommate and my friend Karen.  It’s a lot more fun to watch, squeal and laugh and sometimes mock, with friends rather than alone.  I also had an awesome Boy Meets World marathon with my friends once and towards the beginning of the year had many viewings of one of my all-time favorite shows Freaks and Geeks.

As I said earlier, college has also been a great time to find and connect with people who share my faith.  I have great Christian friends in my dorm, and especially through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, I’ve been able to meet so many more people who share this important aspect of my life and values.  Particularly, the small Life Group I've attended has helped me make friendships with others of my faith.  

I love how natural it has been to find these people with common interests, and I love how these common interests have evolved into friendships! 

Spring Break--An Overview

It seems to happen whenever I set out to write a blog post, but again, I am impressed and slightly terrified at how fast this year is flying.  Today is my first day of classes post-Spring Break—the last quarter of the year!  I’ll admit, I was wishing for a few more days of break. 

I was lucky enough to have classes cancelled on Friday so I went home Thursday night.  When I got home, however, I still had to work on an essay for Romantic Novels that was due Friday at 4:00.  I, being me, had procrastinated.  The essay was about Wuthering Heights and Emma and how they portray intelligence in their female heroines.  This got sent in at 3:51 p.m., exactly 9 minutes before it was due.

Backstage during my last HS musical

Friday I did get to have some fun, though.  That evening I saw my high school’s musical.  My high school had a complete renovation since I’ve graduated.  It was very strange to be there—and it was especially strange to be viewing the musical, rather than being in it.  They performed The Wizard of Oz, and it was spectacular and adorable.  The effects, sets, and costumes were particularly great.  After the Friday show, the cast traditionally goes out to eat, and I suppose you could say I crashed.  It was nice to be able to spend time with friends in the show who I hadn’t seen in a while.

I also got to hang out with my friends Robert, Bev, and Kimber that weekend.  We went to Friendly’s for lunch and then headed back to Bev’s house to play a Wii game Just Dance.  My performance was horrifying—I think I lost every round I played—but it was still fun. 

Over break, I also had to go on a quest to find a paddle.  For Alpha Phi Omega, I have to decorate a paddle to present to my Big.  I’m worried about this since I lack all crafty skill.  At least I have a paddle and supplies, though.  When I went to Michael’s, there was only one paddle and it was cracked.  Then I went to A.C. Moore’s and they only had oak paddles that were very costly!  Fortunately, my dad was able to find a paddle for me at a different Michael’s.

A lot of my break was, admittedly, spent being lazy, sleeping in, watching television, going online, hanging out with my brother, etc.  The only schoolwork I really did was read Daisy Miller for Romantic Novels, not all that impressive since it’s a mere 81 pages, revise my personal essay a little for Intro to Creative Nonfiction (speaking of which, I have my conference about it today; I’m less nervous than last time, but not what I’d call excited) and go to PawsAbilities, a dog expo, for the experience component of my literary journalism piece. 

Maybe that laziness is why I’m missing it! 

Scholar's House: Plans for Next Year

After much thinking and analyzing and generally freaking out, I have landed upon a tentative plan for my living arrangements this year.  Ideally, I’d like to live in the Scholar's House.  The Scholar's House is a small living environment that houses about 23 people.  To live at the Scholars House, you have to be embarking on a personal project, somewhat academic in nature.  Getting into the Scholar's House is not based solely on lottery numbers, like it is for groups to get a place together or for two roommates to find a double.  Rather, there’s an application process to get into the house, and your project idea is reviewed. 

A few posts back, I talked about how I want to do my sophomore essay about representation of faith in Young Adult literature.  My project idea goes hand-in-hand with this.  Ultimately what I want to do as a writer is write novels, and in fact, those were the type of things I worked on before I came to Susquehanna.  This year I think I’ve made strides in my writing, but my only significant completed pieces have been for my Creative Writing classes.  Next year I really need to be working on a novel, and making it my project would ensure that I’d set aside that time for writing.  Also, I would like to start up another blog about Faith and Fiction that would provide reviews of novels that include or speak to faith, particularly those involving teenagers.

I am very excited about this idea and also about the environment of the Scholar's House.  Two of my friends are also applying, but I would still have a chance to meet new people.  Also, I love Hassinger which is a small environment (though not nearly as small as the Scholars House) so hopefully I would enjoy a small environment again.  Additionally, I’m actually looking forward to the idea of a single.  At first this wasn’t all that appealing to me, but I’m beginning to realize the benefits—one being that at the Scholar's House, I can try the single experience and it doesn’t cost me an extra $1000 like the rest of the singles on campus.

The applications are due March 18th, and I should find out if I get in the following week.  Depending on the result of who does or does not get into the Scholar's House, back-up plans might mean I'll end up in a triple, which is a room that is bigger than average and specifically designed for 3 people (Hopefully, this would be in West Hall.) or in a double.   Hopefully whatever happens will work out for the best!  

Spring Break

In the world of television and movies, Spring Break equals hitting the beach with friends and going to wild parties and getting up to all sorts of college-aged shenanigans. In my world (and it seems like the world of most I’ve spoken to), Spring Break means getting to go home! It means relaxation and much watching of the television. It means getting together with friends. It means doing laundry because a massive amount of dirty clothing has accumulated in my dorm room closet. It means getting in a few volunteer hours towards my total for Alpha Phi Omega by going to the library where I volunteered all four years of high school. It means hopefully getting to go see my high school’s production of The Wizard of Oz. It means working on my literary journalism piece for Intro to Creative Nonfiction. It means sending in my application for housing next year. Two friends and I are both aiming for the Scholar’s House.

It also means I am halfway through my second semester of my freshman year of college, which I talked about in my previous post. It just sounds so kooky to me! I can’t believe I only have a quarter of the year left.

Even if I’m a bit freaked out by the quickness of this year, I have to admit how excited I am to go home. I’m very fortunate in that, unlike a lot of my friends, I can leave Thursday instead of Friday. My classes end at 4:05 Thursday, and both of my classes are cancelled the next day. It will also be awesome because my older brother will be picking me up and this is the first time he will get to see my dorm room in person. Also, I will be making him take me to Red Robin after he picks me up, which I’m currently craving as I type.

More so, I think this is a point in the semester where a lot of people, at least among my friends, are ready to escape from campus life for a bit. With midterms coming up, the task of figuring out rooming arrangements for next year, and a bunch of activities in full swing, the past few weeks have gotten a little rough. And though I love SU and am not and will never be the go-home-every-weekend kind of kid, I’m definitely ready, and definitely in need of, a stretch of time at home.

I only have to get through two more days, write a 6 to 8 page essay on 19th century romances (I have about 2 pages...procrastination!), and take a midterm in Applied Biblical Ethics tomorrow.  Not so bad in comparison to the schedules of many.  I'm almost free!

Only 4 Years! Then Onto Careers!

This year is zooming past.  Friday I leave for Spring Break.  I’ll return to basically half a semester more of being a freshman.  This year has gone by so quickly, especially in comparison to my turtle-slow senior year.   Turtle in molasses, with a dumbbell on its back, slow. 

As a worrier who often looks to the future, this has me thinking along these lines: Freshman year is almost over and then I’ll be a sophomore and then I’ll be gone for a semester in Europe and then I’ll have one semester at SU as a junior and then it’ll be my final year and I’ll be a senior and then I’ll be in the real world  and college will be over!  (Yes, that sentence was intentionally crazy).    

It shouldn’t be surprising that I’ve been thinking about careers lately, even if I have time to spare.   

I came into college very decided on my major and somewhat decided on my career path.  I want to be a novelist, particularly a YA novelist, and I don’t foresee that changing, but I need another career to rely on for a living, unless I am blessed with exactly the right set of circumstances.  Upon entering college I thought I knew what I wanted that career to be—an editor, maybe in children’s publishing.  I was pretty much set on getting an Editing & Publishing minor.  Progressively, the minor and career path thrill me less and less. I am far from ruling out publishing and might pursue an internship in that field down the line, but lately I’ve been considering becoming a librarian. 

I volunteered in a library all throughout high school, and I loved it, but for some reason, I never thought about it as a career all too seriously.  I didn’t think I was communicative or outgoing enough for the position, though I think college has given me more faith in myself in those regards. 

The more I contemplate, the more I love libraries as institutions and the more I believe that they have the power to effect change.  In Applied Biblical Ethics, at an InterVarsity conference I attended, and other aspects of my religious life on campus, my attention keeps being brought back to poverty.  In Biblical Ethics, especially, we’ve discussed how poverty, usually on the global scale, cannot just be addressed by charity, but by larger social institutions and structures—by the way in which our world works.  Improving literacy, whether globally or in the U.S., is key to educational success, and opening up doors to education for someone is key to helping them exit that cycle of poverty.  

I think libraries can be so influential if they assist in instilling a love of reading or in giving someone the means to nurture that love, especially someone who would otherwise not be able to do so.   I could often make purchases at a bookstore when I was younger.  This is not the case for so many.  Libraries provide other great resources of well.  Even in my middle class suburban area, I know a lot of patrons where I volunteered relied on the library for internet and computer access, greatly important for job searches.   

Particularly, I am thinking about being a children’s and young adult librarian because I love those books and would love to help that age group.  However, I don’t think I’d like to be a school librarian but would prefer a public library setting.   

Being a librarian would eventually mean going to grad school to get a MLS, Master’s in Library Science.  This definitely freaks me out.  In the beginning of the year, I told people that I would not go to grad school.  4 years was enough for me, thank you very much.  And how would I afford it?  But I am, I’ll admit, opening up to the idea, especially of working for a few years and then going for it online. 

Maybe by my senior year, these four years will have seemed slow (though I doubt it), and maybe I will have a completely different life plan worked out (more likely), but I’m glad I have a place to record these thoughts, so I can see how I opened myself to new possibilities and how that has allowed me to evolve. 

Dorm Storm

As a pledge of Alpha Phi Omega, I need to complete a certain number of service hours.  I gained my first hours in a recent project that was especially fun.  I participated in a "dorm storm", where I helped collect T-shirt and other shirt donations for the One Shirt Campaign, which was ran by the Center for Civic Engagement.   The One Shirt Campaign takes shirts of any quality level--they can be ripped, stained, whatever--and asks specifically for one item from each donor (though people can donate more).  The fibers from these shirts are then recycled into new shirts for the needy. My role, and the role of my two companions, was to hit up three residence halls (we took Hassinger, North Hall, and Seibert) and knock on every door asking for donations.  It was a really good cause, so I’m grateful I was involved for that reason.  Mostly, though, I realized that this kind of service--that leaving my comfort zone--could actually be fun. 

I am not exactly the most boisterous or outgoing person, and approaching strangers generally fills me with dread, but something about the cause or not being alone released me from those fears.   I found myself knocking on the doors of strangers and talking to them about the project.  Me, who always gets uncomfortable about fundraising activities because she doesn’t want to ask people for money!  It was really nerve-wracking when people answered a knock with a “Come in,” because I didn’t want to barge into their room asking for donations when they were expecting a friend.  Yet I went in anyway, despite any feelings of awkwardness.

This experience showed me that I shouldn’t necessarily shy away from doing something just because I’m not sure if I’ll be good at it.  I didn’t think I’d be good at that project, and I actually think I was.  I definitely didn't think I would enjoy it, either, and it ended up being a lot of fun. 

A good reminder to keep my options open! :) 

TV!

College has had one unanticipated impact on my life; it’s severely cut down my TV time.

I love television, to an extent that I think has, at times, surprised people.  Maybe it’s the storytelling aspect of shows.  Or maybe it’s the chance to calm down my overactive mind and slip into a somewhat vegetative state.  Either way, I spend a lot of time watching TV at home, whether its reruns just to have background noise as I’m on my computers, favorites like Glee, Conan on late night, ridiculous Degrassi, or reality shows like America’s Next Top Model, Project Runway, and the Amazing Race. 

But something about being here, at Susquehanna, has severely limited my use of the television.  I’m at the point now where I only make time to watch Glee on Tuesdays at 8, and the rest of the time, unless my roommate is watching something (rare, since she watches a lot of shows online), our TV is off. 

I think business is probably one of the main reasons for this.  There seems to be so much more packed into my day that I can’t really work my TV watching around it all.  Also, it’s nice to have a TV on when you’re alone at home, just to avoid eerie quiet, but for me, being alone here is rarer.  I have people to talk to and socialize with, that is, if people aren’t busy doing homework.  Or okay, even if people should be busy doing homework. 

I'm looking forward to Spring Break, though, because whenever I've gone home so far, I've spent a lot of time lounging around and catching up on all the TV goodness I've missed.