December 6, 2013. It is the Friday before finals week. It is also 4 degrees outside.
My day begins at 7:00am when I have pry myself out of bed, and climb, half delirious, down from the top bunk because my phone decided to take leap of faith and fall onto the floor, and the alarm has been ringing for a good five minutes. (Sorry, roomie...) After crawling around in the half-dark and silencing it, I immediately get back into bed and sleep until 8:30.
At this point my roommate is already up, dressed, and gone to breakfast, so I figure it's time for me to do the same. The showers this morning are luke-warm, which is very disappointing. Back in my room, I put on as many layers as I can, open my Coe e-mail, and do a five-minute Facebook check. Evidently it's snowing in Oklahoma and even a couple places in Texas. Here everything is impossibly blue skies and crisp, nose-numbing wind. I close Facebook, and remind myself that the weather reports predict snow on Sunday, which will also be a cozy 25 degrees! I have tea and trail mix for breakfast because I'm a real college kid.
At 10:50 am I bundle up some more in a coat, hat, and gloves and head to my first class, a freshman year seminar on the Harlem Renaissance. I practice the speech I have to make about the blues singer Bessie Smith quietly as I walk, and my breath makes clouds in front of my face. FYS moves quickly, I don't completely mess up my presentation, and we even get out a couple of minutes early. I make it to the caf before the lunch rush, have grilled chicken, french fries, and salad, and sit down with some friends from FYS. We chat about Jimmy Fallon, reality TV, and cafeteria pizza. The best part about this particular lunch is that they have a sugar cookie decorating station set up near the door, complete with cookies in holiday themed shapes. I eat star and stocking shaped cookies with green and pink frosting and of course, sprinkles.
After lunch I walk to the mailroom and am surprised to find out I have a package waiting for me! It's from Davidson, North Carolina which is where my aunt lives. As if sugar cookies in a the caf weren't good enough, this definitely becomes the best part of my day. I hug the package to my chest as I brave the freezing walk (now it's up to 16 degrees!) back to my dorm where (as is the custom whenever I get a package) I drop everything and immediately spend the next ten minutes trying to get it open. Luckily the gift inside makes up for any of the previous struggle. It turns out to be a big, warm, well-worn sweatshirt that belonged to my Uncle Stephen before he passed away in October. With it is an impossibly kind note from my Aunt, telling me he would want me to have it. For a while I just sit there, sweatshirt heavy in my lap, feeling so full of love and gratitude that I can't really move. It's funny how even the simplest acts of kindness can catch you completely off guard, and to know that a relative hundreds of miles away took time out of her day to send me something that belonged to my uncle makes me feel so incredibly lucky. Who knows how long I sit there, but after a while I get up and try on the sweatshirt. It's a perfect fit.
My literature class was canceled today, so at 2 pm I head towards Film Music. Since it's our second-to-last day of class, a plate of chocolate chip cookies and other sweets greets us at the door. I watch as my peers give presentations on a composer of their choice (I presented yesterday), and as usual we talk about Disney movies, especially The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I realize is a much more nuanced film than I originally thought. After class I spend some time writing this blog post and grab a few sheets of stationary before heading out for my shift in the Writing Center at 4.
I find the Writing Center dressed in christmas lights, and the front desk is graced by this lovely calendar, which reminds me just how close we are to Winter Break.
I spend the first half of my shift writing a thank-you note to my Aunt Elizabeth, and drawing a blueprint of my new house for a friend. Then I finally settle down to work on revising the Literature paper that is due Monday. When I finally resurface from the world that is Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star, and the dark, messy labyrinth that is my paper, it is 4:56 pm and already dark outside. Oh, winter. I don't think I'll ever get used to you.
I eat a dinner in the caf with Katie and Ella and then head over to the new study rooms in the science building to work on a radio show project for FYS. We get some work done and then head over to Ella's room to watch True Blood. We also go on a failed mission to get smoothies. At 12:30 am I head back to my dorm room, fall into bed, and sleep really, really well. And that's a day in the life of a college student.
Well, if you've made it this far, I commend you! As much as I hate to make this post any longer than it already is, I just want to take few minutes to acknowledge that this is officially my 100TH BLOG POST!!!! YAY!!! :D
I started this blog at the end of my sophomore year of high school. I've grown so much since then, in ways I probably haven't even realized yet. This blog has gone through many stages. It has suffered neglect, overactivity, and its fair share of half-formed ideas and unplanned, unguided tangents. But one thing it has always been is mine. It is a place for me to share my thoughts and connect with other people with similar dreams. It is driven by my love of the written word and my attempts to make sense of life's many intricacies. Blogging is something I think I will always come back to, even if I disappear for long stretches at a time. So, before I completely lose however many of you are still with me, here's to another 100 posts: may they thoughtful, creative, and always interesting.
