Touring in Taiwan

            Hi again, everyone! I’m sorry I didn’t write last week, but so many things were happening! We had a wonderful time in Taiwan; I could go on about it for pages, but I don’t think any of us have time for that. I’ll try to pick out a few of the highlights and post a few pictures. If you want more pictures and videos, you should like Under Construction on Facebook; they’ve all been posted there. Here’s th link, if anyone is interested:

https://www.facebook.com/underconst?hc_location=timeline

            First of all, there was the weather. After being in Boston for so many weeks of winter, we knew how to appreciate the wonders of a tropical island. There were mountains covered in green, the sun shone every day, and we wore jeans and T-shirts whenever we weren’t singing. I had forgotten what heat and humidity were – not anymore.

            All of our performances were great; we had the opportunity to sing twenty different times, and we spent every day shuttling from one place to another, rehearsing on the way. It was great, even though we didn’t think so all the time. And every time we arrived somewhere, they fed us; we must have had six meals a day. Everyone was showering us with food and gifts and bubble tea. By the end of the week our floor was covered in bags and boxes of gifts; the hospitality and warmth of the people left me dumbfounded.

            We stayed at a church guest house in Taipei a few nights, at a bed and breakfast in Tainan a few nights, and at a seminary one night. We spent a little time sight-seeing; we had dinner in the third tallest building in the world and went to the night market and the Chiang Kai-shek memorial. We also spent a lot of time just getting to know each other and staying up late at night talking. In fact, since we left to return to the US at 5 AM on Friday, Taiwan time, we just stayed up talking the entire night.

            Speaking of talking, I now know 10 phrases in Mandarin, ranging from “hello” to “where is the bathroom”. Now mind you, I’m not sure if anyone would understand most of them when I said them, but it’s always nice to know a little. I hope I don’t forget too soon.

            Memorable moments? Well, we spent a lot of time with kids, ranging in age from kindergarteners to high school and university students. We had one concert with kids we’d been teaching from elementary school, and at the end of the concert, when we’d finished singing some songs of our own, we were all blown away when the entire wave of kids (and parents) rushed back onstage to shower us with flowers. It was amazing; there was more than one person crying. I also sang tenor for the first time during that concert, which I thought was pretty awesome.

            There was the time when we were at a middle school singing and then doing a Q&A session with the kids. The questions were pre-written, in English (all the kids study English), and ranged from “Have you played dodge ball?” to “What does life mean to you?” Guess who had to figure out what life meant to them… that’s right. We had a great time at that school, and at all of the other schools we visited. Being in college, I don’t see that many kids – I’d forgotten how cute they were!

            Oh, and of course there was the moment at the airport, heading back to the States, when I logged onto Facebook to see that a close friend of mine is now engaged! Congratulations again! You should have seen my face – I must have gone around for the next half-hour just repeating “she’s engaged. She’s engaged!” The fact that I hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours probably also contributed to the happy shock.

            I have a lot of other memories – not-so-funny jokes that were hilarious at two in the morning, riding a bike through city streets for the first time, trying new foods, eating with chopsticks (I can’t eat rice with a fork now – it’s just weird), having good conversations, playing games, sharing my testimony, (usually) hitting the high A on Crown Him with Many Crowns… I could go on forever. The trip was wonderful, and to tell the truth, I didn’t want to come back.

            Coming back, you see, doesn’t just mean coming back to the US or even to Harvard. It means coming back to constant Wi-Fi and cell phone coverage and consequently always being on call. It means returning to responsibility, returning to work. And of course, it means returning to winter – having to deal with all that weird white stuff on the ground. But oases aren’t meant to sustain us forever, just to ready us for the next leg of the journey.

            That, in my opinion, was the best thing about our trip to Taiwan. It wasn’t just a fun week we spent going around and singing. It was a time of good friendship and fellowship and prayer and worship and seeking God. I  came to know myself and the people in my group better, and I was able to reset my priorities, to step back from my life and remember the reason I do the things I do. Taiwan helped me prepare for the next part of my journey.

            And so now I’m off again, already in the middle of assignments and projects and readings and quizzes. There are so many things to do, and no one is in the mood to start doing them, but we’ve started anyway. Happy Spring, everyone! Time to get back to work!

Spring Break and Snow Days

            The first time I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I remember being struck by the spring imagery; as the winter loses its power, leaves appear on trees, birds start to sing, and grasses and flowers begin to appear. I don’t think I ever understood the real power of the regeneration metaphor until now. After weeks of nothing but patches of dirt coated with hardened snow, finally – finally! – green plant life started to show its face.

            And this morning, it snowed again. And then froze.

            Oh, well. In four days I will be on a plane on my way to the tropical island of Taiwan. We’re flying out of New York, not Boston, which means that for an afternoon flight, we are leaving Harvard at 12am Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  That means we’ll miss Housing Day and all its included activities, but hey – we’re going to Taiwan.

We’ve been rehearsing a lot for this trip, and there are still several more songs we need to finish memorizing before we perform, including one in Chinese (not as scary as it might sound – except for the soloists, we all just sing ‘doos’ and ‘das’ like normal). We had a three-hour rehearsal yesterday, and it’s the hardest I’ve worked at singing for a long while, between memorizing the tunes and needing to sing at the top of or above the staff for long periods of time.

I came out of rehearsal with a tired voice and an energized spirit; we have some great times of community together. Speaking of tour, thank you so much to all of you who have supported and continue to support us through prayer and donations! As treasurer, I am doubly aware of what you’ve done for us, and I can’t say thank you too many times!

Hopefully I’ll have time to write a blog next week, and I’ll take lots of pictures and let you know how things go. Until then, though, I should probably stick to talking about what’s already happened. It’s been a pretty good week overall. I made an A on my physics module quiz, watched three different film versions on Pride and Prejudice (and finished the book), and had time to exercise. And besides that, my parents pleasantly surprised me by announcing that they would be flying up here at the end of the semester to help move my things into my House*!

The high point of the week was an a cappella concert I went to with Charlene, one of the girls in my a cappella group. The Radcliffe Pitches and Harvard Krokodiloes performed, and they did excellently. Their singing sounded wonderful – they sang a lot of older songs, from “When I Fall in Love it will be Forever” to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. They also had a lot of comedy incorporated, and we had a great time.

It was also an interesting week in Hebrew. Last Wednesday, in the interests of developing more abstract vocabularies, we had a discussion on ethical dilemmas. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a moderated discussion on philosophy or ethics, but no one ever gets to say everything they want to. The problem is exacerbated when no one is using their native language – I’ve never seen a group of people that looked so frustrated. Our TF nearly died laughing.

The only bad thing about going to Taiwan is trying to finish my normal homework, plus the physics take-home midterm and four papers I have due the week I get back. I'm not sure how everything is going to get done, but it'll get there somehow. I hope I get to post next week to tell you about Taiwan, but if not, you'll have a very long post with lots of pictures in two weeks. Until then!

*I don’t think I’ve explained this yes, but Harvard freshman live in Dorms, while upperclassmen live in Houses. Housing Day is the day we find out where we’ll live for the next three years, excluding transfers, and everyone gets super excited about it – upperclassmen run into the Dorms screaming their house names to let people know where they’ll be.

Planning and Prosecuting

            I’m not sure if watching a popular movie for analysis purposes is a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, your research assignments consist of reading and watching the things you watch for enjoyment in any case. On the other hand, when you’re watching them, not for enjoyment, but for close analysis, you end up noticing all the things that are wrong with them – in the end, at best they’re boring and at worst they’re disemboweled.

            At least, that’s how I’m feeling about Pride and Prejudice about now. I’m watching several different versions and re-reading the book, and while there are fruitful grounds for analysis, I kind of like to suspend belief for a while when watching; it just makes things more agreeable. I suppose, though, that if given the option to watch a popular movie for homework, I should take it.

            Pride and Prejudice isn’t the only movie I watched this weekend. On Saturday several Christian groups on campus and a couple of local churches hosted a documentary showing on sex trafficking (It was called Nefarious if you want to look it up). It was very intense; I think most of the people in the theater started crying. I’m not sure if that many people will actually do something about it, but awareness was raised.

            I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, really – about the gap between thinking and doing. I mean, let’s face it. It’s not usually the best idea to throw yourself and your money into a cause because a movie made you cry. Yes, this is a horrible thing. But there are a lot of horrible things out there. The entire world is broken, corrupted, cursed. You can’t fix everything. But you have to do something.

            In DOXA, the weekly large group of one of the Christian groups on campus, the speaker last Friday talked about habits – about how habits, not thoughts, really influence our actions. How our souls and spirits are shaped not by what we know or even what we believe, but by what we do. About how it’s important to implement habits that will point your heart’s longings in the right direction. Too often I sit and think and plan and don’t ever get anything done; I find myself desensitized to the brokenness of the world around me.

            In a cappella we learned a new song on Sunday. Well, I say song. It’s actually an epic compilation of eight different songs, all of them centering on the theme of being asleep and numb and then waking up to God’s love and salvation. It sounds awesome – or at least it will, when we finish learning it – and it also made me wonder what I’m asleep to, what I need to wake up to.

            There isn’t a definite ending to this musing – I’m still figuring it out. It’s life, after all – nothing is ever neatly wrapped up. And there are always other things going on; it’s rarely clear what events are really at the center of the story. It’s just something to think about, something to help guide me in an as-yet-undetermined direction.

            Speaking of undetermined directions, Housing Day is coming up. At Harvard all the freshman live together in several different dorms, while the upperclassmen are divided into houses, which they belong to for their last three years here. The house selection is completely random, but today opens the applications for ‘blocking groups,’ which is where you specify which other people you want to be in your house (it doesn’t assign roommates, just which house). I’m blocking with another girl from my Hebrew class, so we’ll see what happens.

             A few things happened over the weekend. I spent a good part of Friday finishing my Expos essay – yep, the same one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago – and turning it in. I always end up rewriting my papers several times before they’re much good, so I don’t really mind, but it was good to be finished. I ended up at the MIT ROTC unit most of Saturday; a Rear Admiral came to visit who is in charge of Israeli-Palestinian security. The talk was really interesting, and the sandwiches and cookies weren’t bad, either.

I also prepared a presentation for this morning’s Naval Science class on Texas Independence, since yesterday was Texas Independence Day *cue patriotic music*. It went pretty well; instead of putting relevant pictures on, I filled in the PowerPoint slides with cartoons about Texas, and I think everyone liked them. Overall, it was a pretty good week – no busier than usual, and no major disasters, or none that I know of.  So best wishes until next time. Have a thoughtful week and a late but happy Texas Independence Day!

 

 

Do Not Go Gentle Into Monday Morn

          I memorized “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” this morning, for absolutely no rational reason. Mainly, it was because I was in a bad mood at having to get up at 5:10 in the morning, and a poem that says “rage, rage” four times seemed appropriate, even if I was raging at the rising of the light instead of the other way around. It’s a good poem to memorize, especially because if you know the title, you’ve already memorized about a quarter of the lines.

            No, that wasn’t actually a very important fact, but I was trying not to start out with some version of “Hello again; it’s been another week!” – which I have now included anyway. Well, you can’t win them all.

            In any case, PT was actually pretty good once everyone woke up. This morning we had swim PT, which consisted of a few laps, a few exercises, and two relays. The relays are a good way to get people to put in effort, but they also mean that you don’t do anything for about a third of the workout, other than waiting for someone else. Still, I enjoy swimming. Class also went well; I haven’t studied the War of 1812 in a while, but it brings up good memories from various classes throughout the years. They also passed out awards last week in lab for ROTC, and I ended up getting a few for academics and my PRT, which was nice. I hope I can keep it up for future semesters!

            I came back in time to shower, change, and get some work done before heading to my Expos class. We’ve now turned in the initial draft of our first paper and are talking about revision. In addition, we’re having the expected plagiarism brief; we’ll probably talk about it during the next class. As many times as I’ve heard this talk, some things about it still strike me as a little off. If you don’t know or don’t remember, plagiarism is a very big deal in academia – you get the idea that “once you start down the plagiarizing path, forever will it dominate your destiny.”*

            I understand the importance of integrity and original work, but the near-paranoia about plagiarism that occasionally manifests in the academic world still puzzles me. How, exactly, can you 'own' an idea? I believe in objective truth, which means that you don’t invent truth; you discover it. I understand wanting credit for your work, but the concept still strikes me as bizarre sometimes.

After Expos today I went to Hebrew, where we talked about life in a kibbutz and watched part of a documentary. It was very interesting – I think I’m going to go to the library and watch the rest – but it was also very depressing. I can’t imagine growing up and only seeing my parents a few hours a day, and we spent a while in class discussing various issues and their varying effects on people. We thought a lot of the ideas were pretty strange, but then, we grew up in the antithesis of a socialistic society, so I suppose we’re predisposed not to understand.

            A few interesting things have also happened outside of class. Last Saturday was Cultural Rhythms, and Under Construction performed in the matinee and the evening show. It went great, and after we performed in the matinee, we saw two other groups performs: an African dance group and a Chinese martial arts group. We had a great time. Since we were performing, though, I didn’t have my phone on me, so I couldn’t take pictures for you. Sorry!

I’ve also temporarily taken on the responsibility of leading Bible study for UC; we usually have about an hour per week where we connect the songs we sing to passages in scripture and seek to focus on the meaning behind the words. It was great to be able to serve, and of course my dad helped me since he does this for a living. I can’t over-stress how much of a blessing this group is to me. We had a great Bible study and a great rehearsal – and afterwards we enjoyed a few tricks by a brother of one of our members, who’s a magician.

            Overall, I still feel like I’m behind on work; I can’t seem to jump ahead. As soon as I get one thing done, another pops up, but hopefully everything will get done before its time. It’s hard to believe that midterms are already beginning, even though I don’t actually have any. In a way, I want the semester to go quickly, so that I won’t have to worry about my classes and I’ll get to see my parents, but in another way, there will always be things to worry about, and I’ll only be speeding towards times of longer separation. I suppose I’ll compromise and attempt to be content with the actual speed of things.

So, have a great week, maybe memorize a poem or two, and remember – don’t plagiarize!

PS – I also watched Frozen this weekend, and I’ve had “Let it Go” stuck in my head for three days now. It’s a very cute movie, but a very dangerous song – “no right, no wrong, no rules for me.” Self-will needs to be guarded against, not coddled. The movie gets this right, but everyone singing the song seems to forget it.

PPS - I forgot to mention that I also went to a talk on Defense Intelligence at the Kennedy School - that's a picture of Michael Flynn, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency with David Sanger, National Security Correspondent.

*Ah, thought you had me there, didn’t you? I’m fairly sure this quote falls under the banner of “common knowledge,” but if you haven’t seen Star Wars VI, this is an allusion to a quote from Yoda.

Three Days, Free Days

           President’s Day meant a three-day-weekend, and I think everyone needed it. For me, Thursday was the low point in last week. Instead of just snowing, it rained on and off all day long, which made for very slushy, very inimical weather. Besides that I was trying to get a bunch of things done, and more things kept appearing that needed doing, and my physics lab ran half-an-hour late due to technical difficulties. I had hoped that the devices in physics labs would like me better than their chemistry counterparts, but it wasn’t meant to be. The day ended with the 12:30 am submission of a grant application before I finally got to sleep.

            I’ll get to the weekend in a second, but I wouldn’t want to skip Valentine’s Day. They had candy hearts in the dining hall – the last time I remember having those was 1^st grade! Apparently it’s a tradition in UC for the guys and the girls to get together and do something cute for the other group. And this year, everybody forgot, which led to a series of awkward secret meetings and conversations.

“How are you guys doing with the song?”

“The song – oh, yeah, we’re doing great! What about the girls?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s great! Ah - let’s just do sectionals a little longer, okay?”

“Sounds good, okay!”

Everyone turned a blind eye to the fact that we obviously weren’t in sectionals: half of our tenors are girls, and they were with us. We did eventually get the song learned, and just as we were finishing up, the guys came into our room with an awesome rendition of “My Girl” – or in this case, “Our Girls.” We coupled this with our own performance of “Just the Way You Are.” It was really sweet. And we also had truffles, which make everything better.

Saturday, though, was the real high point of the week. It takes a lot to get me to decide to do something – without a lot of prior planning, I’m liable to just stay on course. Apparently, this is the metaphorical version of mass: conformation to inertia. So I was pretty excited when I determined that I was actually going to go into Boston for the morning.

I visited the Museum of Fine Arts, but I got there before it opened, so I spent thirty minutes just walking around and enjoying the scenery – there were some monuments in that area, and an adorable little bridge over a half-frozen stream with lots of squirrels and ducks and geese to take pictures of. The museum itself was also splendid; I didn’t get to spend nearly as long as I would have liked, and I want to go back (it’s free for Harvard students). The most popular exhibit was the impressionists – Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Cézanne, and others. I hadn’t been to a museum in forever, and I had a great time.

I had lunch in Boston and then headed back to Harvard to visit the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) and Peabody Museum (both also free). They were much smaller than I’d thought, but very interesting. I’ve never seen so many skeletons and stuffed animals on display before. Those displays were more for education than pleasure – now I’ll know a wombat if I see one – but they were enjoyable as well.

The only really weird part was seeing a human skeleton standing next to those of various primates in the Hall of Mammals. It was kind of sad looking at all the stuffed animals, imagining how much power and magnificence they would hold if they weren’t dead. But a human skeleton used to be a person, a person with dreams and wants like mine, who could communicate with me if they were still alive. Who knows? Maybe that’s where my skeleton will end up someday.

As I walked back from the HMNH a light snow had begun, and the street was quiet enough that the hush of the new-fallen snow could be appreciated. It was a perfect, peaceful ending to my holiday. After that it was supposed to be back to work, since it was only early afternoon, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so instead I gave up on my other goals for the day and finished my short story instead. It turned out longer than I’d thought – 49 pages, single-spaced – but I like it, which is more than I can say for some of my writing when I’m done with it, so I’m happy.

The rest of this weekend has been spent drafting papers, working through a take-home physics quiz, and reading through chapters and articles for various classes. We had a social for UC last night that I went to for a little while, which was pretty fun. And now it’s time to sit down, plan out the rest of the week, and make sure everything gets done. But my feet are propped up on the heater and comfortably warm, my sweats are soft and comfy, and at the moment I’m very calm and satisfied with life, and with the weekend in general. So I’d say, in the overall balance, this week was a success.

Rhythms and ROTC

            Well, I finally started the day by getting up before eight! ROTC started this morning – we had our Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA), which consists of sit-ups, push-ups, and the run. It was inside, which was lovely, since the track was covered in snow and it was twenty degrees outside, not counting wind. I did well, and afterwards we had class and then headed back to Harvard for breakfast.

            I like this semester’s NROTC curriculum better than last semester’s. The course is called “Seapower and Maritime Affairs”, but it’s actually Naval History. I’ve always loved History, but I haven’t had the chance to take any classes since my sophomore year of high school, so I’m looking forward to it.

            In Expository Writing, we’re already preparing for our first paper, one on Persuasion. I liked the book, though I wouldn’t have had time to read it if I hadn’t needed to. Today the entire class was a long discussion about the book. One of the things I love about Harvard, and college in general, is the increased focus on discussion, prompted by interesting material and participation as a percentage of the final grade.

            Physics and Hebrew are also going well; I’m starting to get into a rhythm, though lately that rhythm has included more procrastination than was strictly necessary. There’s a four-day weekend coming up, though, which should allow me both to enjoy a day off and reach my goals with regard to work.

            Our a cappella group auditioned for a spot in Cultural Rhythms, a big annual event in Harvard, and made it! In fact, they said they wanted us not only for the larger matinee show, but for the evening show as well! Under Construction had never gotten a spot in the matinee show before, so we’re all very excited. We’re also excited about our upcoming tour to Taiwan – we’re learning new songs and sending out support letters. Everything is happening really fast!

            I’m filling my time with all of this, church, and the Christian groups at Harvard, and maybe looking into diving into a few new extra-curriculars this semester as well. I’ll let you know if I do. Right now my free time is occupied with a short story I’m writing. I haven’t written anything in a long time, but I’ve always wanted to write a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery, and I finally made up a plot one night and decided to go ahead and put it on paper – or on my Google Drive, as the case may be. We’ll see if I have time to finish it.

            I’ve also been using my free time to memorize more Hebrew, and now I’ve added Arabic to the mix as well, though my pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired. I just want to build up a base that I can use for this summer, when, if everything goes well, I’ll be taking an intensive Arabic course. So, outside of a constant flow of work, it’s been nice for the past couple of weeks – lots of sitting around and sipping tea and studying.

            It’s still very cold, though it hasn’t snowed today, which means I’ve been spending a lot of time in my room, thankful for my fully-functioning heater. The ROTC lab was cancelled last week due to snow, though, so I do give the Boston Winter credit for letting me sleep in last Wednesday. Harvard didn’t cancel classes, even though some were cancelled anyway because the professors were unable to drive here. One more note on that – if you ever move up here and go to buy a coat and boots, remember that these are the main articles of clothing most people will see you wearing every day for months. Make sure you like them! And yes, I love my coat and boots – I couldn’t do without them.

            Well, I need to go to Hebrew, and I’m sure you all have things to do, so I’ll leave you to it. I wish you a safe and joyful week, and I’ll talk to you again next week! Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Presidents’ Day!

            PS - Yes, I'm attaching still more pretty pictures of the snow! Note the half-buried bicycle...

Snow Days and Schedules

            So, it’s back to the old routine of fitting everything into the schedule. First come the classes. Then the labs. Then the sections. Then the extra-curriculars. Then the study time and meals. And then the breaks and socializing, if there’s any time left. That remains to be seen.

            I wouldn’t say classes started gradually, but they came in staggered waves, so I had more time to spend with friends. This meant a lot of dinner meetings and a Super Bowl party with my a cappella group (the girls’ chatting was punctuated with the occasional “Yes! YES!” and “no, No, NO!” from the other side of the room). And my a cappella group also sang at the church I attend here which was pretty cool. Everyone couldn’t come, so I ended up soloing for one of my favorite songs. Afterwards I went to a kick-off event with Cru and got to help out and meet new people. It was a great evening.

            It’s been kind of crazy lately, scheduling wise. I’m still not sure when my ROTC class is; we’ve changed it about three times, and I think it’s still in flux. I don’t know when my physics lab time is, but that notification could be coming soon. And we haven’t set a cappella rehearsal times yet, but I’m hoping they’ll be better than last semester’s. Keep your fingers crossed.

            On the other hand, the work is all rolling is as if it were the middle of the year already. We’re starting to plan out policy papers for my National Security of Middle Eastern Countries seminar, and I’ve already finished my first physics p-set. ROTC starts with a lab at 6:30 tomorrow morning, although class is delayed by a week while we figure out which day it’s on. And in Hebrew we’ve picked up where we left off last semester; we’re now studying history and reading selections from Altnueland (not in German – in Hebrew).

            I had Expository Writing (Expos) for the first time yesterday. Now, if you don’t already know this, I love writing and literature. I want to be a good story teller, and I understand the importance of effective communication on all levels and how essential that is to making a difference in the world. Still, spending half an hour on a nine-word sentence seems a little much. I doubt it took Jane Austen that long to write it.

            I don’t enjoy writing and painstakingly revising essays, but I’ve done it before, and there is an immense satisfaction that comes with looking at a piece of writing and knowing that it’s well-crafted. But I can’t write for writing’s sake. As horrible as it would be to have an important idea and not be able to express it, I think it’s much worse to speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have nothing to say. Thus, writing about how someone else writes isn’t really my forte.

Still, I am convinced that in every aspect of life, whether it be a philosophical treatise, a novel, or a calculus textbook, we can catch a glimpse of the enduring truths that define the universe, that all connect somehow to the One who gives them significance. And so I will sit and talk about one semi-colon for half my Expos class and then dive into the reading to see what truth I can glean. And when I find that truth, I will want to write.

Okay, diatribe over. As you can tell, I haven’t exactly figured out my thesis yet. I’ll let you know if I find one. In the meantime, I’m trying to deal with the constant dings and rings that tell me people are emailing and texting me more things to add to my to-do list. The semester has barely started, and already I want a break. Though this week is better than last week, now that I’m past the rough adjustment from vacation at home to work at school.

I know I’m not the only one who sometimes thinks that school is interrupting the learning process. I enjoy studying – I do. At the moment, I spend most of my free time memorizing Hebrew vocabulary; I’ve made it into a sort of mind-game, and I look forward to playing. (It wasn’t assigned; I started over the break.) If there weren’t so many deadlines, I would probably feel the same way about Jane Austen and Herzl and Physics and National Security in the Middle East. As it is, I think to myself at least once a day, “Wouldn’t it be lovely if I could devote a few years to just studying…?” And then I wonder what exactly has gone wrong.

Not that I think there’s much to be done about it; that’s how life is. If you need to service large numbers of people, and you need to be able to tell how much they’ve learned, and if not everyone is terribly self-motivated, you need an education system that does things this way. And I appreciate all the efforts that go into allowing me to do this; this is probably as close to ideal as things get in this life.

And so it’s really up to the student; like so many things in college, it’s a choice. Go equation-hunting or actually learn the theory in Physics? Scribble off the assignments or actually learn the language in Hebrew? Scrape by and meet the requirements or try to grow as a person in college? And though it isn’t always easy – in fact, I can’t remember a time when it was – the answer is pretty obvious.

Make it count.

 

PS: These were taken yesterday, during the milder snowstorm. Can you spot the squirrel?