New Normals

So it’s been a bit.


In the past couple weeks, I’ve driven ~10 hours on highways from Massachusetts to Michigan, negotiated a completely new living situation with strangers, started classes, gone to a new church, figured out where I’m going to volunteer over the semester, and set all the deadlines for my honors thesis. Senior year is here with a force.

I was worried about what was going to happen with my writing here once school began. As you probably know, I’m a school-aholic. Once classes start, I’m either eating, sleeping, working in the RC, or doing homework. Of course I also do fun things with my friends and talk with my coworkers, but my expectation during the school year is that I have my nose to the grindstone every second. This means that all my intentions of working out or doing more daily devotions or chipping away at other projects goes right down the drain. Almost nothing can separate me from my drive to do school.


It’s been a little different than that this year. I’ve been less school focused so far. Perhaps it is because my living situation is more of a commitment than it has in past years. I actually have to schedule time to be with my housemates, but I’m also more committed to doing random hangouts with them. We went out to eat on Friday night at a Haitian place, which is something that I definitely wouldn’t have done on my own. But, I am still feeling a lot of pressure that I’m putting on myself. During freshman year, I took this strengthsfinder test that told me that, among other traits, I was an “Achiever.” There’s a little all-consuming fire inside me that demands me to complete things and if I don’t feed it, it starts to affect my mood and my mental strength. That’s what is happening right now.

This is my last year of traditional school where my job is to go to class and learn, and I’m trying to enjoy it. I know I’m going to miss my department, my professors, my classmates (the ones who I know, at least), my job, and the other random bits of Calvin, but I’m still in a pissy attitude about it. I could be all theological about it and talk about the “already not yet,” but honestly I just want out of the vicious circle of needing to be busy at every single turn of my life.


I guess my life update is my housemates are really great. I’ve already gotten to the point where I can blurt random things out to my roommates, and they roll with it. I keep telling people that doing Project Neighborhood (PN) is like being a freshman again but with much better coping skills. The RC is as great as ever, and I’m a little nervous about outing the new people because the staff is already so close, but it’ll work itself out. I’m already thinking about student teaching, and I keep hearing that I need to start networking and looking for jobs. I’m taking a Comp Sci class which is making me thankful I’m not a CS major and an Education class which I’m more excited about the course material (developing my philosophy of education) than my professor. My thesis is already encroaching severely on my life, but I’m hoping I get a lot of work doup frontont and then be able to focus on my other classes.


I don’t know how much this space will be updated. I still want to write, but my experiences become pretty monotonous during the semester. I guess we will see what happens from here.


Podcast Episode - “Episode 121 - Michel Foucault pt. 1” Philosophize This!
I listened to this episode while driving into Michigan and had a 12 year old moment of “Woah, this is so deep! I feel enlightened like no one else had before!” So if you want to feel smarter than everyone else about postmodern philosophy or if you want to think about power structures, listen to this episode. For real, it made me want to read some Foucault on my own and made me understand a tiny bit why people would want to major in philosophy.


If you are in college, use your college database to go read a cool research article in your field or browse the latest of a research journal. In my researching, I’ve read some really cool stuff, and it’s making me unhappy at the idea of losing this database access when I graduate.