In
philosophy we’re discussing what you do with a relative judgment that happens
to be shared by everyone. One such judgment seems to be this: last week at
Harvard was just bad. Obviously, this isn’t objectively true, but almost
everyone I talk to had a fairly horrid week, including me. Because teachers
like to give multiple midterms throughout the semester, I suppose because
people study more for “midterms” than for “tests” or “quizzes”, once midterms
start, they never actually stop; I have friends who have their last midterm and
their first final only about a week apart. And of course, essays and projects
have to be added in to all this.
So
pretty much everyone is feeling a little better this week, but we’re still all
at least partially counting down until the holidays. If you saw me every day,
maybe you would notice the change. At the beginning of the year, perhaps
partially because of carryover from the summer, I dressed nicer; I wore skirts,
I put on jewelry and makeup, I did my hair. That has eventually drained, and I
now head to class in jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie, spending thirty seconds or so to
make my hair publicly presentable. My work, fortunately, has not taken the same
hit in effort, and I do feel much more energized than last week, but still – a
break will be very welcome.
Why
was last week so hard? Mainly because of my physics take-home exam. It took
forever – longer than it took me to do all my philosophy reading for last week
and write a Philosophy and a Hebrew essay. At five till five, all those of us
scrambling to finish in the lab submitted and then finally looked up and
around, a little shell-shocked. And then I and a friend went out to get shakes
to celebrate. And after that, my day went much better.
Not
that I got much rest this weekend. All the time that I’d spent on physics
instead of everything else now had to be compensated for, and it took me until
yesterday to finish that. On Saturday afternoon we had our ROTC Pass in Review.
We looked sharp, and the Deputy Commander of the US Special Warfare Command
came out and spoke. This semester I’ve gotten a lot closer to the ROTC
community; we spend more time together, and I feel like I know my way around
the battalion more. The Pass in Review was a good opportunity to just sit and
talk with people. Still, that left me less-than-ample time to catch up on work.
And
this week? This week has so far been nice, but it’s about to get really busy.
Under Construction* is having its fall concert on November the 1st,
and there’s lots of prep to be done as treasurer and as part of the group in
general. Our practice time is doubled, but we’re all excited to be performing –
and to have six hours of extra free time a week afterwards. I’ll let you know
how the concert goes!
Luckily,
this week has been good so far. For one thing, I slept until 9 this morning,
which was very nice. For another, yes, you heard me right – I’m wearing a
t-shirt, a hoodie, and jeans. The weather is cool, but a pleasant kind of cool
that doesn’t extend to the point of discomfort, excluding the sub-45
temperatures before sunrise. And Physics this week is like shooting fish in a
barrel. As in, we’re talking about diffraction angles, and one of the problems
involves trying to shoot a fish in a barrel of water. And then the fish shooting
back at you. My physics teachers cannot be faulted for lack of creativity.
To finish, a few
fun facts about my dorm room: it’s one of about only three rooms on the floor
that’s carpeted, it’s less than half the size of the adjoining single, and
whenever they turn the heater on, it sounds like there’s an angry chainsaw
ghost banging away at the piping. The walls are also extremely thin – you can
walk down the hallway and know who’s on the phone, who’s playing video games,
who’s watching TV, etc. You have to be kind of careful.
Well, that’s this
week’s news. I’ve attached pictures of the pumpkin-carving contest results (I
didn’t participate). Happy Halloween!
*my a cappella group
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