Playing Catch Up

Tribesmen,

I cannot believe that it’s the middle of March. It’s been a blur to say the least. This post, as many of my most recent, will be a collection of various thoughts about the last few months/weeks. Bare with me!

Spring classes are okay. My course load is English heavy, naturally, so I’m spending a lot of my time reading or writing. I’m taking a Non-Fiction Writing seminar class, which is one of the best classes I have ever taken. It really forces me as a writer and reader to face myself head on to take my complexities and give them articulation. Hemingway got it right when he said, “There is nothing to writing. You just sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” And the beloved Chelsey Johnson is such a gem. I’m thankful and honored to have had such a stellar guide throughout my entire year of writing both fiction and non. Many kudos.

Half of my friends are studying abroad this semester, as I’ve mentioned before, and the other half is nervous and scared about graduation, about their future. Though I’ve managed to meet a bunch of great people who I know will become essential appendages to my well being (you know who you are), my heart still goes out to all of my comrades. I actually had made legitimate plans to visit my good friend in Scotland for spring break, but due to frustrating flight changes the trip would have cost more money than ideal for merely a week’s visit. It was sad, yes, that chat about dissolving our reunion. But I’ll see him sometime soon—expect a post about that indeed.

I will definitely be spending my summer interning in Manhattan this summer, but I’m not sure with which publication yet. So far I’ve been offered an internship with BULLETT magazine, an interview with Lucky, and I have heard from ELLE. I’m waiting to hear back from both the Conde Nast and ASME (American Society of Magazine Editors) programs. Their responses should drop anytime soon, so I’m eager for the news. Finding somewhere to live in the New York area will prove difficult, though. I’ve learned this semester that if you don’t have ample supply of both time and money then you’re screwed. In this case I’m somewhat without the latter of the two, but I’m still exploring options. I’ll keep you posted.

Spring semester always proves the most irritating for me. The weather is sublime, yet how can I read or do anything productive when the Sunken Garden looks like a beach? The entire campus is littered with sun tanners, field players, and other troupes of free spirits frolicking about. Can’t the spring academia just be filled with outside oral presentations or nebulous discourse?

And I feel so rushed in the spring, too, with all of this exchange of housing and registration. I just finished my first rounds of midterms (one of which went extremely well in a class that I’m taking pass/fail and it irritates me that the Registrar will not let me flip my choice so I can actually receive a grade and GPA boost) and now I’m expected to configure my home and schedule for next year? Classes look fine besides the fact that I’ll be a senior. But W&M, you do too much.

As my supervisor mentioned in our staff training, friendships are tested during this time of year. Whether it’s a lack of communication or just opposing communication, there’s somewhat of a palpable tension about next year’s housing situation. I’m gracious that I’m squared away, but there’s something I can tell anyone who’s having problems (thefreshmenwhoIinteractwith) it’s two words: chill out. Friendships will last beyond whomever you choose or end up living with next year. Sometimes we spend our time over thinking everything until we forget the real meaning of what’s important to us, and other times we’re desperately avoiding those who we actually need to be friends with. So chill out and let friendship flow. Embrace change now or you’ll suffer later (believe me).

That seems to be all on my mind right now. I’ll post more, I promise. I’ll reconnect.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the sun.