Getting By, Giving Thanks

There’s only one full week left of school before finals period – isn’t that crazy? Of course, there are a few days before Thanksgiving, but no one’s feeling that on-the-ball at the moment – thus the tardiness in this blog. And my last final isn’t until December 21^st, so I’ll be sticking around awhile, probably working on my thesis. But still – I am about halfway through my senior year of college. When did that happen?!

That said, I just finished my last midterm on Wednesday. It was logic; I was fairly worried about it – worried enough that I still feel kind of anxious in the aftermath, even though I can’t do anything about it now, which I can usually compartmentalize away. I did get an A on my ROTC midterm, though, as I found out this morning, so that’s one more worry out of the way. Now only a couple of papers stand between me and finals period.

I can tell I’ve been worked up lately by a couple of things. One is the fact that I keep waking up in the middle of the night; this morning I woke up, took my vitamin C supplement, and fixed myself a cup of tea before realizing it was only midnight and I had five more hours (I saved the tea for later). The other is my stomach acting weird, although it’s been fairly well-behaved for midterm season. We had weigh-ins for ROTC, and I’ve gained a few pounds, but it’s all muscle, so I’m happy with that. ROTC is also finishing up; today we have our final staff meeting. Everything is beginning to wrap up.

I’ve also had the chance to be a little more social over the past week. On Saturday night I went to the Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball and for the first time in four years actually changed out of my uniform and stayed a little while to dance. I used to feel more awkward just standing on the dance floor obviously not really knowing what to do, but then I realized that’s pretty much all that’s required, except for the people who get drunk and decide to go for it. We had a good time. I also got to talk one-on-one with several friends this week, which was a nice way to think over how the past few months had gone and share some frustrations.

What else happened this week? Attendance was pretty low at FUEL, between the cold and the rain and the dark and the general business, but we showed up and I tried out a kids’ song that at least I hope everyone enjoyed. We’re not having it next week due to Thanksgiving, which will make things simpler as I prepare to head home. I will be going back to Texas to spend Thanksgiving with the family, so I won’t be posting next week; I’ll start again the first week of December.

This weekend is going to be exciting as well; I have my ticket to Harvard-Yale, the one football game that everyone cares about here. The game is at Harvard this year, which is good, because I don’t think I could work up the energy to go all the way back to Yale again, although I’m sure the administrators would rather Yale have to deal with the logistics hassle. We’ll see what the weather’s like and if I end up staying for the whole thing.

Speaking of the weather, it’s still pretty warm around here, although it hasn’t diminished the foliage one bit. It has started getting dark around four, though, which is not motivating when it comes time to settle in for homework; I finish dinner (which I eat at five) and feel like it’s already time to curl up with some tea and go to bed. Fortunately, essays can be written just as well in bed as anywhere else, and I just received a care package from my parents with lots of soup and chocolate to keep me company.

That’s about all I have for this week. Have a happy Thanksgiving, and I’ll talk to you in a couple weeks!

Pictures:

You'd be forgiven for thinking I was driving home late at night, but this is actually about 5:30 in the evening on my way back from ROTC.

 From the Birthday Ball. This raises the question: can one person eat this much steak? And the answer is yes; yes I can.

 More of the ball:

Just beautiful.

Street art!

Workouts are still going great!

Care package. :)

Comfort food with friends is the best.

Scenery and Responsibility

Two more weeks until Thanksgiving – I’m certainly looking forward to a break in work and a trip home to see family and friends! There’s still a lot to do here, though, between my ROTC responsibilities and all the essays that are now coming due for the semester.

I spent all weekend on ROTC; the freshmen had their semester qualification boards, which they’re required to pass in order to stay in the program. I’m required to be on the board as CMC to make sure they know about uniform wear, customs, and courtesies. Hours of asking the same three questions over and over aren’t the most pleasant way to spend a weekend, but there were donuts, and all of us on the board were friends, so it went pretty well. Everyone passed.

That left me a little behind on my workload for the week, since the weekends are usually when I do most of my work. This was somewhat mitigated by the fact that my logic pset took me much less time than the last one. I’m not sure what made the same kind of problem so much easier, but it finally clicked (or at least I think it did – I don’t have the grade back, yet). At this point, I’m pretty much caught up.

Unexpectedly, one of the things that’s helped the most with my workload was seeing Dr. Strange in theaters. The plot was solid and the visual effects were stunning, but that wasn’t what really resonated with me. Of all the magical powers in the movie, the one I most want is the ability to stay up studying while one’s physical body is asleep – more than that, the idea of having something worth staying up for, night after night, something that is both interesting and influential, something into which to pour oneself. That’s what I love about learning, about studying, about synthesizing new ideas. And so I’ve returned to spending my free hours working on different ideas or writing up essays with thesis statements I actually care about proving. I’m not always sure where to direct it, but I’ve recovered my motivation.

A lot of this effort has gone into my thesis. It’s a difficult balance, because I prefer thinking in very broad strokes and overarching connections, which doesn’t always translate well to a research paper. I think I’m figuring out how to connect my specific research into philosophy and middle eastern policy to one of my areas of broader interest: how the foundation and assumptions behind our beliefs, or lack thereof, influence our everyday decisions or, on a larger scale, our national policy. Not there yet, though.

In ROTC we had a drill lab, so I had the chance to teach drill for the first time in nearly four years, which made me really happy. I really enjoy teaching drill – not so fond of the actual marching, though, I have to say. During the second half of the lab, we talked about a scenario involving us as Junior Officers trying to make decisions given a tense situation in the South China Sea (we were assured that, if the situation ever arose in real life, it would be handled above our pay grade). There was also a brief reminder on the importance of remaining neutral in political discussions when functioning as a member/representative of the military. It was a little awkward wearing my uniform around on Wednesday, but it was a good reason to not get involved in quite a few heated discussions.

Well, I don’t really feel like I had any days off last weekend, so I’m about to head into my first weekend in two weeks, which is nice. We do have the Birthday Ball coming up on Saturday for ROTC, so you’ll hear about that in my next post. Otherwise, it’s just more essays and a couple more midterms, and then we’ll be into the final stretch of the semester. I’ll keep you posted!

Pictures:

Mostly scenery this week - it's autumn!

If you can zoom in, the hands of the man in front of me are making the universal sign for 'oh-my-goodness-why-didn't-I-wear-gloves?"

 If you ever wondered what the front of Widener Library looks like close up...

Sometimes things are so gorgeous you just have to stop and stare (and take a picture - this isn't enhanced, by the way):

November Notions

                This week has been fairly eventful – as in, full of events. I’ve had a special event or meeting nearly every day. Most of them were purely business; I won’t bother mentioning them here. But a few deserve special note:

                On Tuesday, the former SECDEF Chuck Hagel came to speak at the Kennedy School, and beforehand he had a Q&A session with cadets and midshipmen which I was able to attend. It was very interesting to hear his perspective, and it also afforded me the chance to see/meet members of the other ROTC programs, including a cadet from Texas whom I’d met at a Harvard event in San Antonio over the summer.

                On Wednesday, Vice Admiral Cullom came to speak at our battalion lab. He was a SWO(N), and his brief on the Surface Warfare community was interesting and very well-presented (he understood the great merit of punctuating powerpoint slides with videos early in the morning). In the evening he came back to MIT to join a few of us for an informal discussion at one of the pubs near BU (I was technically the assistant officer in charge), which was very enjoyable. It’s amazing how many Admirals and other VIPs I’ve had the chance to meet during my time here.

                Well, that was the excitement of the week up until now. Today is my chance to catch a short breather, and then we’re conducting qualification boards for the freshmen all weekend, and I have to be present for all of them, so that will take up the majority of Saturday and Sunday. I’m also headed back to Portsmouth tomorrow morning for the second part of my commissioning physical. It’s been a very ROTC-heavy week. So I’m taking my weekend a bit early; today is a study-work day, but tonight I’m going to see Dr. Strange, which I’m looking forward to.

                My thesis is slowly taking shape; I can figure out the general flow of my background research and somewhat how to parse all the different considerations, but I haven’t had enough free time to just set aside a day and ponder it all until I figure out what I want to say. Hopefully that will happen sometime in the next couple of weeks; if not, maybe I can use the plane ride home for Thanksgiving. At the moment, though, I usually just have enough time to get done my work for the week ahead.

                You might be wondering what ever happened with that logic pset from last week. It did not go well – but it didn’t go well for the vast majority of the class, either, so I’m not too worried. We’ll figure it out eventually, and now that I have the answer key, it’s much easier to make sense of. We’ll see how the next problem set goes.

                What else? How about health and wellness? I’m a little sick; I don’t know if it’s due to the weather change or the fact that I haven’t been getting as much sleep as I need for the past few days. On top of that, being under the weather makes me not hungry, and I have to keep reminding myself that man does not live by vitamin-C supplement alone. Hopefully I can get some sleep over the weekend and it’ll wear off. I did finish my first workout program – you can tell it was designed for males; my upper and lower body strength are pretty out of proportion – and started a new, more tailored, one, which is exciting.

                That’s about what’s happening here. And no, I didn’t do anything for Halloween; I stayed in and studied. Hopefully in a couple of weeks, though, things will ease up, and I’ll have time to plan a few trips and spend some productive time alone with my thesis. I wish everyone a crisp and chipper November, and I’ll talk to you all next week!

Pictures: I always have more pictures of foliage to share. :)

 The TF in section attempting to explain deductions:

 My water for the month (I drink all of it):

 Someone painting in the park: