Hello happy people,

Over the past couple weeks I have put considerable thought into the stated purpose of these (and really any) student blogs, and the phrase ’seeing what college life is really like’ keeps standing out. I think it is valuable to remember two things when thinking about that idea. First, that life in college and anywhere else is based greatly on what you make of it (as I believe I have stated before) and secondly that college life still falls under the broader category of ‘life.’ Life here is much like life before and after graduation. And while I recognize there is a wealth of popular opinion to counter that argument, I defer those opinions to a professor I had only once (and who, despite our limited interaction, provided some remarkably insightful comments about life) who said (to greatly paraphrase) “there is no ‘real world’ when one leaves college. College is just as ‘real world’ as anywhere else. You people [students] have to balance your personal lives, full time academic schedules, many of you have jobs and extra curricular activities and I know several of you commute. This is just as real as the world you’ll find when you graduate.” The professor, mind you, when on to use this argument to discuss how if we were habitually late for class we would be habitually late for work when we graduated, etc. But the argument in and of itself stuck with me. And I was reminded of it when confronted with some of the issues of this term.
As you folks may have noticed, there’s been a lapse in my posts. I explain this only by saying that I, like any other student here, am subject to the same real life laws that people in the real world are subject to, which sometimes includes some hilarious and not-so-hilarious misfortune. To recap briefly, personal issues, a short emergency room visit, an automotive failure, academic issues, and all manner of other small and incredibly annoying misfortunes (like leaving a pen in a load of laundry and causing ink spots to appear over all of my clothing) have plagued me over the past couple weeks. But things look to be on the rise: my health is recovering wonderfully, even though I cannot say the same for my clothes.

The past few weeks, I feel, should remind us all that while some students may go to college for free, party all the time, never go to class, and in general not take any responsibility for their lives, I think that this group is in such an overwhelming minority that those students should not shape (as I feel is so often the case in popular culture) the perception of students. We, like any other population, live in as real a world as any.

And now, for the general updates.

I am making significant progress at a project I have been working on for a fair amount of time at my internship. The project involved me learning –essentially from scratch- some of the basics about Visual Basic, ASP.NET, XML, XSL, and some commercial web-services. It has been a really significant learning curve, but I have made some really appreciable progress so I’m glad for that.

Classes are going relatively well, which is to say that they are -as is their nature- challenging, time consuming, and worthwhile experiences. Hopefully in a post soon I will talk a little bit more about my honors thesis. I’m quite excited about it, as it lets me research into a subject that is important to me.

As a junior, I met with my advisor to schedule my last round of classes. We spoke at length and made sure that I would be able to graduate in four years, fulfilling the requirements for a Computer Science major with an English Writing minor while simultaneously fulfilling the requirements to graduate with honors. And there was a strange sense when I realized I would have exactly enough time to get in exactly the classes I needed. Everything fell into place, and it allowed for the moment when you realize graduation isn’t that far away. And then you also realize that doesn’t change the one paper being due next week, and so that moment was short lived.

Oh! And the first study abroad orientation met since I posted last, and I must say I am very excited about the program. Which I suppose should go without saying, but the opportunity to be able to meet the other people going on the trip, including the professor that would accompany us, was really nice. The folks seem to be cool people, and I’m glad for the opportunity to get to know them better over the course of the orientations, pre-study abroad class, and the program itself.

I think that’s about it for me.
So there.

Welcome back everyone.
Or should you be welcoming me back? I’m not sure.

In any case, it’s the beginning of Spring term and all the excitement associated therewith. Rall Symposium presentations, tons of fun activities from student orgs, not the least of which will be COW, wonderful classes, warm weather, etc etc. And -before you go thinking I’ve suddenly become overly bubbly - the graduation of some of our dearest friends, as they go off and leave the Ivory halls forever.
Are we balanced now? Fantastic.

Classes this term look to be the general mixture of excitement and challenge.
Okay, I suppose there are some people for whom that’s not the norm, but I truly feel (and have probably said so here) that college is almost entirely what you make of it, and that if you don’t take the opportunities that are presented to you then you’ll be less satisfied with your experiences than someone who has. And North Central, I have found, is rife with opportunities for those who keep their eyes open and actually talk to their professors.
Which means that, for the most part, I’m really happy with my classes despite how difficult they often are. This term, I’m working on my honors thesis (amazingly exciting, but from the background research I did over spring break, it’ll be a crushing amount of work - even though I have a year and a term before I graduate / it’s due), taking a class on constitutional issues (taught by a professor who routinely provokes students to engage them in the content of the class), a class dealing with Linux (how can you not love Linux?), and, in the latter five weeks of the term, my pre-study abroad trip for China / Japan (and let’s be honest, it hasn’t fully sunk in yet, but I’m excited all the same).

In any case, I’m really excited, desperately busy, and looking forward to the rest of the term.

Talk to you folks again soon.