I don't understand why it's a big deal because I'm not really weird about it, but the 14 year old Sam deep in my heart has a thing for Justin Bieber. He's cool and smooth and everything the dorky me pined over eons ago.
I'm glad someone else recognized it!
P.S. Only 3 more days until Easter...and Facebook. Is that sacrilegious?
31 March 2010
29 March 2010
How rude!
At lunch today, a few friends--mostly seniors--and I were discussing how awful when small chat comes to the most dreaded question: "What are you doing after graduation?" I hate that question right now because, quite honestly, who knows? Really, please raise your hand if you've got it all figured out. If you raised your hand and it's two, five, or seven years more school, do you have a guarantee about what's after that? Yeah, that's what I thought. Put it down.
My friend Meredith was talking about how unbearable it is when the people who just graduated ask this abominable question and I concur wholeheartedly. That might be the most painful of all. Underclassmen have no idea what it's like so they're excused, but if you've recently lived through the anxiety of making plans and know what I call the senior scramble, don't ask me what I'm doing because you have nothing else to say or you're trying to be polite. I don't mind if you preface it with some apology about how rough things are now, and then ask if I have any leads. That's tactful and kind. But pah-leeze! It's hard enough being hounded by real adults and the evil voice in my head that I can't escape. I don't need your reminder of my deepest insecurities, thank you.
I was having this discussion with one of my Italian friends named Filippo last week. I was updating him about some new developments in my short-term life plan (which takes me out to about 2017) but told him that of course everything is subject to change. Filippo showered me with admiration, but I assured him that it wasn't anything to cheer about. These are all just ideas that aren't realized yet and that because I'm force to think about my plans, I feel like have to come up with something to say. On that day alone I had already been asked three times what I was doing with my life. And that's not even a bad day as the count can get up to nine or ten in just 24 hours! He explained to me about how that's a big cultural difference. Since it's not unusual there for young people to not have plans, he enlightened me, people don't even ask. I knew I need to be in Italy!
But it made me think: if no one really has defined plans, why are we always asking about it here? People seem to understand that in this economic climate and with the changing expectations of ages (mainly when most people marry and start a family) that people should have some time to figure things out. My thesis is all about emerging adults developing their identity (shameless plug: Come see my presentation on Celebrating Student Achievement Day!) and how that takes time. Gone are the days of working at one place and leaving decades later with a comfortable pension! It's a rough job market out there. We don't want to be stuck in anything we absolutely hate. Granted none of us are going to find our dream jobs right out of college, but give us a chance to figure out who we are first. Let's have some adventures and turn those experiences into a productive life.
My friend Meredith was talking about how unbearable it is when the people who just graduated ask this abominable question and I concur wholeheartedly. That might be the most painful of all. Underclassmen have no idea what it's like so they're excused, but if you've recently lived through the anxiety of making plans and know what I call the senior scramble, don't ask me what I'm doing because you have nothing else to say or you're trying to be polite. I don't mind if you preface it with some apology about how rough things are now, and then ask if I have any leads. That's tactful and kind. But pah-leeze! It's hard enough being hounded by real adults and the evil voice in my head that I can't escape. I don't need your reminder of my deepest insecurities, thank you.
I was having this discussion with one of my Italian friends named Filippo last week. I was updating him about some new developments in my short-term life plan (which takes me out to about 2017) but told him that of course everything is subject to change. Filippo showered me with admiration, but I assured him that it wasn't anything to cheer about. These are all just ideas that aren't realized yet and that because I'm force to think about my plans, I feel like have to come up with something to say. On that day alone I had already been asked three times what I was doing with my life. And that's not even a bad day as the count can get up to nine or ten in just 24 hours! He explained to me about how that's a big cultural difference. Since it's not unusual there for young people to not have plans, he enlightened me, people don't even ask. I knew I need to be in Italy!
But it made me think: if no one really has defined plans, why are we always asking about it here? People seem to understand that in this economic climate and with the changing expectations of ages (mainly when most people marry and start a family) that people should have some time to figure things out. My thesis is all about emerging adults developing their identity (shameless plug: Come see my presentation on Celebrating Student Achievement Day!) and how that takes time. Gone are the days of working at one place and leaving decades later with a comfortable pension! It's a rough job market out there. We don't want to be stuck in anything we absolutely hate. Granted none of us are going to find our dream jobs right out of college, but give us a chance to figure out who we are first. Let's have some adventures and turn those experiences into a productive life.
23 March 2010
So I'm told
So I'm told that there are 24 working days remaining in the current school year at Meredith College. That's five and a half weeks plus finals. It's hard to believe that it's coming to a close, but I'm pretty ready. I feel like I've done everything that I came here to do in four years and am plenty ready for the next adventure. Still, I can empathize on some level with the various reactions on the spectrum of graduation.
Let's face it; graduating from undergraduate is no small feat! Many people don't have the opportunity or privilege to get to this point in their formal education. But it's important to keep it all in perspective. One of my classes this semester (which seems like a hodge podge class based on the things that we seem "to cover") discussed about how popular culture seemed to make high school appear like it was the end of life as you knew it.
Prom was supposed to be the culmination of all your worth and if you were a loser your senior year, you were nothing. Some people even returned to high school to make things "right." (And that's just a sampling of some of the classics, if you will.) My friend Jen pointed out that more recently (read: mostly post-1990s except for a real classic), college, which is slightly more accessible, has filled that role. Anyway, the point really is that I don't want my life to end now as much as I didn't want it to end when high school is over.
If anything, I think formal milestones like these should be an opportunity to renew your dedication to making your life whatever you want it to be. Specifically making sure that each day is a chance to make your ideas about the worth of what you are doing reflected in how hard you live life. So live life hard! I'm not saying there aren't things that I will recall with some amount of nostalgia, but that's the way memory works. Still doesn't mean that I want to be an undergraduate at Meredith College forever. Love it and leave it, or so I'm told.
Let's face it; graduating from undergraduate is no small feat! Many people don't have the opportunity or privilege to get to this point in their formal education. But it's important to keep it all in perspective. One of my classes this semester (which seems like a hodge podge class based on the things that we seem "to cover") discussed about how popular culture seemed to make high school appear like it was the end of life as you knew it.
Prom was supposed to be the culmination of all your worth and if you were a loser your senior year, you were nothing. Some people even returned to high school to make things "right." (And that's just a sampling of some of the classics, if you will.) My friend Jen pointed out that more recently (read: mostly post-1990s except for a real classic), college, which is slightly more accessible, has filled that role. Anyway, the point really is that I don't want my life to end now as much as I didn't want it to end when high school is over.
If anything, I think formal milestones like these should be an opportunity to renew your dedication to making your life whatever you want it to be. Specifically making sure that each day is a chance to make your ideas about the worth of what you are doing reflected in how hard you live life. So live life hard! I'm not saying there aren't things that I will recall with some amount of nostalgia, but that's the way memory works. Still doesn't mean that I want to be an undergraduate at Meredith College forever. Love it and leave it, or so I'm told.
21 March 2010
To start things off
I've been thinking a while about starting an everyday blog just for cool things that I find online or strange stories that occur in real life. I was finally moved to do so because I'm off Facebook for Lent. There are a matter of days left until Easter--and I can't believe I've actually done so well--but I thought it'd be fun to have a sound off spot of my own.
Also, I've found some fillers for the time I would have normally wasted on Facebook. Some things are intellectual and others not so much. My new favorite website is The Atlantic. They give you a chance to come up with how you feel about different issues by bringing articles from different perspectives and also have some really wonderful editorials. Today I read a re-post and decided that it was worth sharing. Happy Sunday!
Also, I've found some fillers for the time I would have normally wasted on Facebook. Some things are intellectual and others not so much. My new favorite website is The Atlantic. They give you a chance to come up with how you feel about different issues by bringing articles from different perspectives and also have some really wonderful editorials. Today I read a re-post and decided that it was worth sharing. Happy Sunday!
Please Bring Strange Things.
Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
and the ways you go be the lines on your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing
and your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well loved one,
walk mindfully, well loved one,
walk fearlessly, well loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
be always coming home.
-Ursula K. Leguin
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