Deep Discussions

There was a point in my life when I thought about "getting an education" as related to numbers, GPAs, grades, letters... whatever you wish to call them. Although I am still not over that and still strive to make a 4.0 my first college semester, I believe I have started to go beyond the value of numbers. It's been a long fight.

Today in Calculus, a class that I would love to actually understand some day soon, we learned crazy stuff about differentiability, the chain rule, and continuity in 3 dimensional space---talk about complicated! But, truthfully, I think I find joy in the struggle. That somehow, staying up until 2am trying to comprehend a homework problem or understand a concept (even if it is agonizing at the time) feels extremely satisfying the next morning. Turning in those pages and pages of work that were the result of a week's worth of dedication feels absolutely amazing. And despite the crazy back-to-back schedules of Wednesdays, I am happy. (The mini-weekend on Wednesday nights are also a very big plus!)

After reading the series of poems for our Brit Lit class on Thursday that contrasted innocence and experience with respect to religion, I feel like learning is completely amazing. Just being able to tackle something as complicated as the question of why is there good and evil in the world in a simple poem blows my mind. And, really, can we acknowledge or recognize or even know good without evil????

Updates from UGA

This is really strange. I remember starting this blog in order to keep a record of my memories from senior year, but now it has carried over to college and I am not updating it.

So what to update you on?

Well, the other day in political science, I learned/realized that George Washington, the great founder of our country, did not win many battles in his revolutionary career (yes, you history majors/likers are probably thinking: wow you did not know that?!). He won by keeping the team together. Another reason why people should not be so selfish and start thinking about others more.

I don't think I have yet gained the Freshman 15, mostly because I have been walking to all of my classes and have cut the midnight Snellabrations down to 0.

Hope is sick right now, so everyone hope (or pray, I suppose) that she gets better soon!

I applied for an ACMP mentorship position, so hopefully that will come in soon.

There is a game against Arizona State this saturday at home!

I miss my parents a lot, but I don't think about it that much. Calling them is also pretty awkward because they're just like, "are you doing well?? okay. take care! goodbye." or every weekend I get the, "can you come home today? tomorrow? Sunday?" and give the usual response "NO DAD."

And... I have a butt load of homework from every class, so I should probably get cracking on that.

First Weekend

We are now 4 weeks into the semester, and this is the first time I am staying at UGA over the weekend. How pathetic.

Last night, Hope and I planned on going to Phi Slam which is this dry dance party run by a Christian fraternity that technically makes fun of the sororities/frats that party like crazy with alcohol. The theme was "puffed up, poofed up, pumped up, blown up," so Hope thought all week and came up with dressing up as the Powerpuff Girls. (Haha!) We found Camille and Christina and asked them to be ppgs with us. So... that was fun! Especially going to IHOP afterwards. =)

This weekend, I don't really plan on doing much except all my homework, tailgating a little bit (people started tailgating at 9:30pm last night and the game isn't until 7pm tonight--- ?!), watching the game, and ballroom dancing (!!! :D) on Sunday night.

College Plans

Hello :)

The first 3 (wow--- three??) weeks of college have gone by pretty quickly, and things have been going well. I've figured out the band thing and am now playing in the Symphonic Band (2nd chair, dudes! :P haha!!!) which only meets twice a week (yay!). I am not behind on my homework---except Political Science, but that class is just not my thing anyways---and have started to read the NY times more often since UGA offers free copies to students. Making friends is going okay. I don't have a lot of actual friends since most people I meet once and then don't really see them again, but a great way I've learned is through study groups (aka math). I hope to meet more people once I start joining clubs and doing things other than study.

In order to keep myself straightened out, I am going to list some of my college goals/plans for freshman year and beyond and see how it's matching up at the moment. (Feel free to ignore the rest of this post!)

College Plans:

1. Major/Minor/Career--

In terms of majors and minors, I want to major in Chemistry without dropping out like most people do after their first year. I am considering either a music minor or an English minor, and I think I will end up with an English minor and just play in bands. I'd also like to look into maybe doing a double major with Music Therapy which is this really cool program where you get to go out into the field and use music to heal patients. And, I am also looking into doing a Master in Public Health along with my bachelors in four years. I think some of this (aka doubling music therapy with the public health plan) is impossible based on the hours necessary for each major... but I will definitely work this out and come to some happy conclusion on what I am going to focus on for the next four years.

2. Random Freshman Things--

*I'd love to go ring the chapel bell after our Linear Algebra final with some people in our math class. My friend Kelsey came up with this idea when we were walking back to Myers from convocation, and I think it'd be a really awesome/fun thing to do! Especially since we spend Tuesdays together in a group of 5-6 doing hours of math (math homework is typically due on Wednesdays).

*I can't wait to attend my first UGA home game!!! It'll be so weird not to be in the band section for this... and looking at the drum majors I might just cry, but we'll see how it goes. Go Dawgs! :P

*I want to join some completely random club that I have never done in high school. I know a guy who joined Crew randomly, something he'd never done before, and ended up falling in love with it. I just want to find something random like that... like serendipity. =)

*Learning to play a sport--- FOR REAL. Playing ping-pong in the basement just doesn't cut it, I don't think. But, I definitely would love to play anything for rec in college... something along the lines of tennis, yoga, extreme ping-pong....? Oh, and I definitely have to start going to Ramsey on a regular basis.... Oy.

Hm, that really is about it right now--- can't think of much else.

Hope everyone who is in college and is reading this (?) is doing well.