Deadlines and Dorm Rooms: 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!