Well, I had a very stressful weekend, but things have gotten
progressively better since Monday, so I’m hoping that trend continues. Where to
begin?
One of the things I’m wrestling with is my schedule; as I
mentioned last week, it doesn’t leave much time for focused study, which is a
large part of my workload this semester. In addition, most of what used to be
my independent study time has been rolled into workout time, so I’m not making
much progress there yet, either. Which means that weekends become my main
study/work days, and so can feel rather burdensome.
Then, on Friday, when I was stressing about studying and
several ROTC responsibilities I had coming up (which turned out to take most of
the weekend to get done correctly), I got a call from my parents. I don’t know
how many of you had the chance to meet our dog, Zoey, but we had to put her
down last Friday. When I was growing up, she was ‘my dog,’ and we all felt a
little like her passing was also a goodbye to my childhood. So that was a difficult
day, and I still had work to do.
Between that, and extra-curriculars needing to be redone and
redone, and a large list of assignments that just had to be slogged through for
most of Saturday and Sunday, I was feeling pretty down by Sunday night, and while
attempting to finish my problem set for logic, I ended up crying. (I know; I
cry quite a lot, actually. It’s very cathartic; I occasionally even force
myself to cry, as it usually rebalances my hormones and lets me go back to
being productive.)
And then, somehow, I felt better. Whether it was the fact
that I’d let it out, or one of my favorite songs coming up on my laptop, or the
fact that I managed to reach a much easier part of the pset, things have been
getting better since. And I know I’m not the only one having trouble; I spent a
large part of my weekend going through and compiling the Situation Reports for
everyone in ROTC – basically, a list of questions to see how they’re doing –
and the first few weeks of school are hitting most people pretty hard. It
usually gets better after this, though.
Christian Impact is going well. I led LIFE Group yesterday
and shared my life story (and of course brought snacks) and had the chance to
meet a couple new people. I also led worship on Tuesday night; we sang “Deep
and Wide” as a kid’s song in the middle, which was my idea, and everyone seemed
to like it. As a bonus, our guest speaker correctly used the word ‘contrapositively,’
which made me pretty happy.
Quick logic lesson: the contrapositive means that if “if p
then q” is true, then “if not q, then not p” is also true, and vice versa. That
is, if you know that if it’s Friday night, I’ll be at the movies, you know that
if I’m not at the movies, it’s not Friday night. But, “if p then q”
doesn’t imply “if not p, then not q” – if it’s not Friday night, it doesn’t
follow that I’m not at the movies; I might go every night. So there’s your dose
of analytic philosophy for the day.
I was happy to receive yet another care package from my
mother this week, containing all sorts of healthy treats. I’ve expanded my
taste for cooked vegetables a great deal since coming back to Harvard; I didn’t
like them much before, but now most of them taste great (can’t bring myself to
like kelp, though). I’m also happy that the protein powder I ordered online has
arrived; it was cheap, and it tastes like hot chocolate. I’ve started a new workout routine
that targets muscles much more specifically than the one I was following before
– never have I been so tired after so short a workout. So things are looking up
on that front, too.
Good luck to everyone else still trying to settle into the
semester, and I’ll talk to you all again next week!
Pictures: the leaves are starting to fall. This is near my dorm.
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