Back from ‘Break’

                Well, it’s back to school yet again. Usually I write a blog on the plane, and then another one a week in, but this is a little different, for a few reasons.

                First, I spent the entirety of both plane rides attempting or managing to nap. I had a wonderful summer, but not a very restful one. I don’t usually sleep before transatlantic flights to avoid jet lag, which works pretty well but means you’re exhausted in the conventional way when you arrive. I had less than a day's sleep between my second-to-last day at Cambridge and my arrival with my parents in North Carolina a few days later. And while we had a lovely time in North Carolina, I had just recovered when it was time to fly back to Texas for a few days and then wake up at 3:30 to head back to Boston. So I just didn’t have the energy to write; I’m still recovering to some extent.

                Secondly, I’ve been too busy to write since I’ve been here. This is my third day back – the first day of classes – and I’ve been going nearly nonstop. I’ve unpacked, gone shopping, run errands, gotten my Wifi fixed, planned for the semester, met with advisors, gotten paperwork signed, and so on and so forth. It’s been rather hectic, and still is, to an extent. The beginning always is; hopefully things will feel a little more normal after this.

                I am hoping that this semester will be a little calmer than former semesters – I still feel a little weary thinking about last fall. However, this time around I don’t have any math or science classes; I’m studying things almost solely because I want to, which should make it easier. Also, after a great deal of consideration, I’m dropping a cappella. It’s just too many hours too late at night, and I have too many other things I want to devote my time to. So we’ll see what happens.

                I will probably try to return to posting on Tuesdays for the semester, but I haven’t gotten my class schedule completely figured out – I’ll let you know when I have – so that’s still up in the air. It will be more regular than this summer, though, I promise! Also, ROTC doesn’t start until next week, so news on that will have to wait.

                To return to my original organizational scheme, though, there’s one other reason I haven’t written a blog until now. Usually when I go back to school, it’s painful to leave, and I deal with that pain by reflecting on and writing about it. But this time I was too busy to process what was happening when I came home or when I left, so I didn’t have thoughts to write down. Consequently, this blog is about logistics and not emotional upheaval.

                Still, I have a few thoughts, as I always do. I have cautiously high hopes for this semester. Hopefully, with fewer outside commitments and a narrower focus, I’ll have a less stressful and more productive time than I had last fall. I'm also less stressed for more philosophical reasons. Studying abroad, and living a little differently, has given me a better perspective, an outside perspective perhaps, on school.

                Academia is, in a sense, a manufactured world inside the real one. Students do work with no purpose other than to be graded, with grades that serve no purpose other than to advance one to the next level of coursework. Of course, the learning is real, but often it’s parallel to yet independent of the actual grading system. The value of all the work done here is almost entirely constructed. And yet we worry so much about the numbers on our transcript, some people have had mental breakdowns. We're trained to worry about them; when you're little, school is the only life you know. It's full time. It's only when you get older, when you have to start worrying about real life, that you notice how constructed things are.

                Not that manufactured worlds are necessarily bad things. We all live in them, to one extent or another. The military is the same way; it’s really of no metaphysical significance whether your nametag is over your right or left breast pocket. And there's also etiquette; does it really matter if the fork is on the left? But we must come up with ways to order our world, and so we make rules. It’s a healthy way to live, so long as we remember which things are going to last and don’t get too worked up about the things that won’t.

                And with that thought, I really need to do my Arabic homework before tomorrow, so I will leave you to your musings. Have a lovely week!

Pictures: 

North Carolina was gorgeous, as always.

 Texas!

 Aaaand back to Harvard

 First day of School:

 They put full-length mirrors in the dorm hallways - haven't figured out why yet.

 My dorm room is a little bigger this year. I like it – although air conditioning/a ceiling fan would be appreciated.

 The view from my window onto the Radcliffe Quadrangle (the Quad):