Time Flying, Deadlining, and Other Stories

            So, does everyone remember my last three blog posts or so, where I said I was hoping that my schedule would settle in? Well – it’s getting there. I have one more section to schedule, and then all I have to do is set my small group times accordingly and I’ll be good to go (ideally).

            But at the moment, I’m not too worried about that. Mostly because yesterday I was at MIT for ROTC at 5:45 AM and had a cappella until past midnight, with no naps in between. I don’t know if anything has the capacity to worry me right now. Luckily, today offers lots of chances for naps.

            A few interesting things have happened since I wrote last. I’ve written the rough draft of my first philosophy paper, for one. I’ve done swim PT with NROTC, which was pretty fun. I went to a very interesting talk by a former Navy SEAL and to a barbecue by my entryway. I know my a cappella part for four new songs. And the Navy, in five days, has managed to show me no less than twelve PowerPoint presentations.

            Classes are humming along fine. My Mondays and Tuesdays run mainly on autopilot, but that should end after this week, when we move the Monday a cappella practice to Saturday. Last weekend was blissfully free, and I was able to catch up on my rest and get a lot of my work done in advance. So besides the things I need to do daily, I have a little elbow room – which at the moment is being filled by naps. Yes, I know. One-track mind here.

            I also, incidentally, got my pset (problem set) done directly after my Calculus class yesterday, which made me very happy. Philosophy is always interesting; we’ve had some good discussions. I’m settling into NROTC; I think everybody is starting to get the hang of things, and with that everyone is becoming more comfortable. My Modern Middle East class is a lot of reading, but since I like history it’s no burden, and I’m excited to explore the connections between the time of Napoleon and today. And in Hebrew we’re reading a short story about identity, and we all know I’m always up for a good short story. My Hebrew computer (i.e. the one that types in Hebrew) is literally falling apart piece by piece (my parents have mailed me the part that fell off before I left), so we’ll see how that resolves itself.

            I also want to put in a brief word about my a cappella group, which for future reference is named Under Construction, or UC for short. They are an awesome group of people musically – even the warm-ups give me tingles – and also a great group of friends. Of our six hours of practice a week, an hour is devoted to Word Study, where we read the lyrics to a song and a correlating Scripture passage and then talk about the meaning of both and break into small groups to talk and pray together. Everyone is really supportive and open, and they’re also just a really fun group of people.

            There are, of course, always emotional conflicts as well. Trying to decide how I feel about being here alone, gaining independence; about the importance of good friendships, how they look, how long they take to form. But it’s amazing how un-conflicted one feels when one has had little to no sleep in forty-eight hours. All those problems just seem to disappear…

             I would like to add a short thought to my analysis of time passing a few posts back. We all know that time flies when you’re having a good time. I would argue that it also flies (supersonically) when there are deadlines coming up. When one is focused on a future goal, especially when one is too tired to pay much attention to one’s immediate surroundings, time doesn’t even seem to exist sometimes. I wake up and think – what? It’s Monday again, so soon? But apparently it is, because here I am writing.

So, here’s to another week. I hope yours is great, and please remember all of us beleaguered college students starting to worry about Midterms! Next time I’ll stop giving updates of classes and try to talk a little more about the social, emotional, and other –ial aspects of things. So stay posted! Until then!

PS – This is Harvard after midnight. Things are pretty quiet outside (it’s getting colder, by the way) but about a third of the lights in my dorm were still on last night.