How to be a fifth year
Summer has ended. Without going back to my last post to check, I think it was written somewhere in the beginning of August? In that time, the days stretched out before me and 3 weeks felt like an eternity. 3 weeks? That's about 18 Nats games...it will never end! << end of summer philosophy. Admittedly, I was nervous about coming back to school where I know lots of people, but have very few absolute best friends left. They've all gone off and graduated and are being adults in some way shape or form. Yet here I am, a fifth year, still stuck down in Blacksburg.
Went hiking with Brooke and stumbled upon this lovely stretch of wilderness.
I say 'stuck' but I shouldn't. Blacksburg is awesome. I can walk absolutely everywhere, my jobs are on campus and so fun, my ONE class a week is going to be great too. Shannon and I got down to school, unpacked and immediately were whisked away into a weekend of meeting new people, stumbling down streets, and laughing a lot. Just like last year, the year before, and the year before that. Just with new groups of people. Everything must happen for a reason, and I think is true now more than ever thanks to Turner aka Turtle Place. It is absolutely heaven on earth, albeit very crowded. (Now that I am a fifth year and old, I am allowed to use words like albeit, btw)
Basically my summer winded down with more Nats games, more DMA, more trips dt DC, and an almost traumatic kayaking experience in PA. Seriously, I flew out of the kayak and smashed into a million rocks. One of the guides dove in and saved me. My paddle ended up bending in a completely 90 degree angle. As my mom put it, my legs look like a banana....super bruised. Fun! At least I got a gnarly picture out of it. I've been conspiring here to go on more adventures like that. Venture Out does climbing and rappelling days...who knew?!
At first being here was weird, and it will be weird to not have Wacky Wednesday lunches with Annelyse or be at Clay with the old crew, but being here is all coming back. We still walk into TOTS at night and run into a zillion people we know, that much will never change. And work is still great, although without Curtis, Alyssa and Tiara we are in a state of mourning for a while. I currently am on the schedule 26 hours a week, even more currently I am sitting here in the middle of a 6 hour shift. Which was a 8 hour shift because my ONE class a week ended two hours early!
I keep saying ONE in all caps because I am still astonished at this turn of events. I thought I needed 6 credits each semester, turns out I only need THREE! WHAAAT.
So like the title suggests, here's my advice for how to be a fifth year.
1. Scope out who's left. Tell people HEY. We're all fifth years together! Let's go out together. It works.
2. Start to figure out what to do with free Sundays. I'm talking straight up sorority-less Sundays. Its like a whole new world has opened up! So I took some hours at work.
3. Scope out the younger kids. This is a must. THEY'RE ALL YOU HAVE!
4. Work out more. Pick up a hobby. Craft something. Work harder on your projects. Join the Quidditch team. Portfolio work. Freelance. Now we have all this time to do stuff we always wanted to do but couldn't...or at least couldn't because I spent every free minute I used to have dt.
5. Apply for jobs. Apply for NOLS. This is what I'm planning on doing right after graduation (unless I can find some cheaper way to do it solo): http://www.nols.edu/courses/locations/pacificnw/pnw_sea_kayak_and_sail.shtml
Five things that I haven't even put into practice yet. I've been here a week, time to get crackin. (too bad i have no homework yet haha!)
I say 'stuck' but I shouldn't. Blacksburg is awesome. I can walk absolutely everywhere, my jobs are on campus and so fun, my ONE class a week is going to be great too. Shannon and I got down to school, unpacked and immediately were whisked away into a weekend of meeting new people, stumbling down streets, and laughing a lot. Just like last year, the year before, and the year before that. Just with new groups of people. Everything must happen for a reason, and I think is true now more than ever thanks to Turner aka Turtle Place. It is absolutely heaven on earth, albeit very crowded. (Now that I am a fifth year and old, I am allowed to use words like albeit, btw)
Basically my summer winded down with more Nats games, more DMA, more trips dt DC, and an almost traumatic kayaking experience in PA. Seriously, I flew out of the kayak and smashed into a million rocks. One of the guides dove in and saved me. My paddle ended up bending in a completely 90 degree angle. As my mom put it, my legs look like a banana....super bruised. Fun! At least I got a gnarly picture out of it. I've been conspiring here to go on more adventures like that. Venture Out does climbing and rappelling days...who knew?!
At first being here was weird, and it will be weird to not have Wacky Wednesday lunches with Annelyse or be at Clay with the old crew, but being here is all coming back. We still walk into TOTS at night and run into a zillion people we know, that much will never change. And work is still great, although without Curtis, Alyssa and Tiara we are in a state of mourning for a while. I currently am on the schedule 26 hours a week, even more currently I am sitting here in the middle of a 6 hour shift. Which was a 8 hour shift because my ONE class a week ended two hours early!
I keep saying ONE in all caps because I am still astonished at this turn of events. I thought I needed 6 credits each semester, turns out I only need THREE! WHAAAT.
So like the title suggests, here's my advice for how to be a fifth year.
1. Scope out who's left. Tell people HEY. We're all fifth years together! Let's go out together. It works.
2. Start to figure out what to do with free Sundays. I'm talking straight up sorority-less Sundays. Its like a whole new world has opened up! So I took some hours at work.
3. Scope out the younger kids. This is a must. THEY'RE ALL YOU HAVE!
4. Work out more. Pick up a hobby. Craft something. Work harder on your projects. Join the Quidditch team. Portfolio work. Freelance. Now we have all this time to do stuff we always wanted to do but couldn't...or at least couldn't because I spent every free minute I used to have dt.
5. Apply for jobs. Apply for NOLS. This is what I'm planning on doing right after graduation (unless I can find some cheaper way to do it solo): http://www.nols.edu/courses/locations/pacificnw/pnw_sea_kayak_and_sail.shtml
Five things that I haven't even put into practice yet. I've been here a week, time to get crackin. (too bad i have no homework yet haha!)
Comments
Post a Comment