It didn’t take long for the school year to get up and
running, and I’m well on my way to a (hopefully) productive and fairly
enjoyable semester. I mentioned previously that I was implementing a rather
complicated new year’s resolution, but I didn’t want to say any more about it
until I was more confident it would work. So far, though, it’s functioned very
well, so I’ll go into a little more detail.
The most noticeable part of my resolution is the fact that I
now go to bed by nine and wake up at five every day. Most of my friends don’t
understand how I do this, and it looks kind of extreme written on the page, but
I’d wager that I’m actually getting more sleep than most people in the college.
I have a regular sleep schedule, for the first time since high school, and it’s
actually very restful.
But why five am? The original reason is that I have ROTC
four mornings out of five and have to get up early anyway, so I might as well
just plan for it and have a sleep schedule. As it turns out, though, at least
for now, I really like getting up early, despite not being a morning person. I
do it even when I could sleep in, and especially when I don’t have ROTC.
For one thing, if you’re trying to quietly meditate on
philosophy or study German, five in the morning is much quieter than one in the
morning, as far as the college campus is concerned. For another, your morning
study will almost never be interrupted by phone calls or scheduled over for
other things (excluding ROTC, of course). I have my free time in the mornings,
and by the time I’ve done my Bible study and done some independent study and
worked out, I’m about ready to face the world and start the work day. And then
I work all day, but I’m done by nine pm. It’s a good system, if I can keep it
up.
It’s possible I’m saying so much about my sleep schedule
because not much else has happened yet. ROTC has started up – we had our first
workout yesterday morning – and I have more responsibility this semester than
ever, which makes me very happy, but also very busy with meetings and emails
and etc.
Our first activity for ROTC started last week, but MIT doesn’t
start classes until today, so our lab only included Harvard and Tufts. I very
much enjoyed just being able to walk to lab instead of drive, especially now
that all the snow has melted. The main part of ROTC, and my ROTC classes, haven’t
actually started yet, though, so I can talk more about that next week.
I did figure out, after a lot of
vacillation, what my final class at Harvard will be. I’m taking “Ethics of
Atheism,” which is actually in the German department, and studies the ethical theories
Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud (in English). In the lecture last week, the
professor spent the better part of two hours defining “ethics” and “atheism.” I
can’t say his definitions were terribly clear to me, but it looks to be an
interesting class.
Directly after my class on
atheism, I have my weekly Bible study meeting, which I’m looking forward to
starting today. I’m also continuing my participation in the worship team with
Christian Impact, which also starts today (everything seems to start today).
Tuesdays are my busy afternoons, but they’re also the one day I don’t have ROTC
in the morning, so it balances out.
What else has been happening? In
Arabic we’re discussing conspiracy theories in order to practice new vocabulary
and grammar structures. The first week of Arabic wasn’t my finest hour, but
things are improving, although my extra study of Arabic and my independent
study of German tend to get in each other’s way. On the bright side, the words
are pretty easy to tell apart.
Overall, I’ve had a very industrious past week; we’ll see if
I have time or energy to maintain this level of productivity once the rest of
my classes start and I have to concentrate on the quotidian. Still, new
projects and responsibilities give me energy, and I have quite a few going
right now, so maybe I’ll make it through without falling off the wagon entirely.
Have a lovely week, and best of luck to all our New Year’s resolutions!
Pictures: I'm having problems with my computer, so I couldn't manage to get many uploaded this week. Sorry!
Textbooks: also known as passive-aggressive book placement 101
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