Ah, another milestone has passed- I've begun my second year at university. The intensive summer band camp began last Monday (not the one two days ago, but the one a week and two days ago), and was heralded by rain. Lots of rain. It was kinda strange packing everything up again and moving out. Over the summer I had gotten so used to being back home- it was almost like I had never left. I managed to get my jobs, see my friends (although I'm sad it was only twice), and co-exist somewhat peacably with my family: pretty much like it was in high school, only not. It was kinda strange this year moving back in: it was just my dad helping me with my massive amount of stuff (and when I say massive, I do mean massive- 2 cars full!). My mom was at work all day and couldn't join us, which was kinda really sad. That probably also could be the reason that I didn't have sheets on my bed until roughly 11 that night, but in any case.
I have got to admit, this being my second year makes such a huge difference. For all that my credit hours made me a sophomore last semester, I've only begun to feel the changes of being a sophomore now. I feel older and wiser, and it makes me laugh to see the new freshmen making the same mistakes and errors in judgement that I did. That, and the fact that in every one of my classes, save one, I know somebody in it. Can you say yay? It makes it all the more compelling to go to class (as though skipping were an actual option for me). I now live in the top notch of housing, with my own bedroom with a locking door, and a full fridge and microwave- quite an improvement from my tiny mini fridge, community bathrooms, and a microwave down the long long hallway that I had last year!
So, I appologize in advance, but I MUST rant somewhere about the stupidity of some of my classes. That is to say, one in particular: teacher math. Math 128 is interim math for teachers, and supposedly should teach you how to teach math. Great, fine- whatever. I fully admit, there's been some new termanology added to the curriculum since I sat in the little student desks. It's great to learn something like lattice multiplication, which obviously helps the kids! However, what's not cool is learning the same stuff that my brother, a freshman in high school, is learning, only slower and a bit more dumbed down. Friends, I wanted to dig my brain out with a spork. Thinking about that class and sitting through an hour and a half of it makes me want to start the process even now! Near the end I was doing worksheets (which, by the way, were printed off a website geared for supplying teachers with worksheets to give to their elementary school students) that had no purpose, just so I didn't have to listen to the professor read the notes she had typed out from the book to the class. It astounds me just how little some people know, too. I know, I'm far from the norm around here: going from AP Calculus in my senior year to teacher math 2 is a bit of a jump in the wrong direction, according to most. But still... there were girls in my class utterly bewildered with the basic concepts of geometry that my teacher attempted to teach us. Terrible.
Anyway, i don't think I have much energy left to post more, so I'll say sionara for tonight. :)
~r
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Where does all this time go?
Today's theme, I think, is time and its passage. I've been thinking a lot about it recently, what with my second year of college coming up and my little brother starting marching band. It's rather funny how you wake up one day and BAM it hits you: you're no longer an eight year old kid whose primary concern is learning your times tables and trying to earn your allowance. Freaky how it doesn't seem like that was all that long ago.
I just remember how, when I was a little kid, things like going to college seemed always expected but so far away it was hardly worth your while thinking about it. A third grader will bubble on how they want to go to Baylor or UT, just like mom and dad, but do they really know anything about what that means? Obviously, they really didn't. It's just like how girls sit at the lunch table with their best friends daydreaming about marrying the cutest boy in their class, planning their weddings and doling out positions of bridesmaids to all her friends. I still remember all of that, but it's all crazy how it's now happening. About a week ago, my best friend from third grade got married. Married. How did all that time pass between us just talking in her bedroom to her getting married to a man she plans to spend her life with? She was the first, and two days ago the second girl who I graduated with, knew for four years in band, got married to a guy she met her first year at college. I was kinda reeling from it for awhile- these are ladies not even old enough to legally drink at their own wedding, yet they're getting married. The third girl I know of is getting married in a couple weeks. Crazy.
Yet as I was sitting there thinking about this, I kinda took a step back and realized that I'm nineteen now. Nineteen years old- eight months from now, I'll be leaving the teens behind and turning twenty. Twenty! I mean, I know it's just another birthday like any other, really, but beneath all that I'm just in a state of disbelief that I'll be twenty years old. That just seems so... so old. I'm talking about moving off campus, cooking my own meals, having my own pet, paying bills... and all I can think is "How did that happen??"
It's crazy, now that I think about it, that I haven't had closer reflections on time before. Given my utter fascination with history, you'd have thought that I would be a sight more insightful into the passage of time. I spend so much time reading about people who lived over four hundred years ago, studying their names, their personalities, their habits and how they lived. Yet (and I'll go and regurgitate what you've probably heard from every history teacher you've ever had has said) what strikes me is that things haven't changed all that much. I think that's one of the greatest things about history: even though fashions and names and lifestyles have changed, other things, like personalities and behaviors haven't. Crazy, right? I feel comfortable writing a piece of historical fiction about a woman who lived around the mid 1500s because, all in all, we're not all that different.
I'll end with this: walking around these historic homes in New Orleans on vacation, and seeing the homes of plantation owners around the Mississippi River really made me think just how much we could probably learn if we looked to the past. Technology is great, but they were pretty dang resourceful back in the day. Maybe we shouldn't so quickly ignore what's behind us and rather take from it some knowledge and a little appreciation for what our ancestors did.
-r
I just remember how, when I was a little kid, things like going to college seemed always expected but so far away it was hardly worth your while thinking about it. A third grader will bubble on how they want to go to Baylor or UT, just like mom and dad, but do they really know anything about what that means? Obviously, they really didn't. It's just like how girls sit at the lunch table with their best friends daydreaming about marrying the cutest boy in their class, planning their weddings and doling out positions of bridesmaids to all her friends. I still remember all of that, but it's all crazy how it's now happening. About a week ago, my best friend from third grade got married. Married. How did all that time pass between us just talking in her bedroom to her getting married to a man she plans to spend her life with? She was the first, and two days ago the second girl who I graduated with, knew for four years in band, got married to a guy she met her first year at college. I was kinda reeling from it for awhile- these are ladies not even old enough to legally drink at their own wedding, yet they're getting married. The third girl I know of is getting married in a couple weeks. Crazy.
Yet as I was sitting there thinking about this, I kinda took a step back and realized that I'm nineteen now. Nineteen years old- eight months from now, I'll be leaving the teens behind and turning twenty. Twenty! I mean, I know it's just another birthday like any other, really, but beneath all that I'm just in a state of disbelief that I'll be twenty years old. That just seems so... so old. I'm talking about moving off campus, cooking my own meals, having my own pet, paying bills... and all I can think is "How did that happen??"
It's crazy, now that I think about it, that I haven't had closer reflections on time before. Given my utter fascination with history, you'd have thought that I would be a sight more insightful into the passage of time. I spend so much time reading about people who lived over four hundred years ago, studying their names, their personalities, their habits and how they lived. Yet (and I'll go and regurgitate what you've probably heard from every history teacher you've ever had has said) what strikes me is that things haven't changed all that much. I think that's one of the greatest things about history: even though fashions and names and lifestyles have changed, other things, like personalities and behaviors haven't. Crazy, right? I feel comfortable writing a piece of historical fiction about a woman who lived around the mid 1500s because, all in all, we're not all that different.
I'll end with this: walking around these historic homes in New Orleans on vacation, and seeing the homes of plantation owners around the Mississippi River really made me think just how much we could probably learn if we looked to the past. Technology is great, but they were pretty dang resourceful back in the day. Maybe we shouldn't so quickly ignore what's behind us and rather take from it some knowledge and a little appreciation for what our ancestors did.
-r
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