- Normal start to the Fall Semester/Fall Semester??? I don’t want to be a downer (skip this paragraph if you’re sensitive about it!), but it’s an honest hope of mine… Obviously there’s a lot of talk about higher education in the US right now and all schools I feel are in this position. Will we have a delayed start? Will classes in the meantime be on Zoom? Will there be a fall semester at all? No one has these answers, but I strongly hope things will be as normal as possible. We just did course registration and today is room draw; both make me more excited for what’s to come, so I can only hope it’ll come. Honestly, if the semester were to be on Zoom or something of the sorts, I would not do it. It would be strange to consider graduating later than anticipated, but tons of others do it anyways, especially now. Besides, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. Ok, now I’m done talking about these types of gloomy hopes :)
- Motivation: I have a course load I’m excited about, but we’ll have to see if I’m ready to jump into the Smith rigor of everything. When I take breaks, I always get scared I’ll forget how to study and focus, and I think in a sense, I have lost some of this. But I think being in the environment I’ll remember. I just want to finish strong for my college career! This includes motivation to do extracurriculars, so we’ll see where this goes (will I join another lab??).
- Little Moments: Like Erin talked about (and maybe Naoni but she hasn’t posted yet at the time of my writing this), there are so many of those tiny moments that I treasure so deeply. Lately I’ve been stressing a lot about the timeline of post-grad activities, but in this I think I’m forgetting that there’s still a whole school year in between me now and me then! I start reminiscing about first and sophomore year. Despite some difficulties and the relative proximity in time, it feels very nostalgic. And that was when I would spend most weekends studying haha. I still fully intend to take my studies seriously, but there are things I want to do/can legally do now that I want to experience with my Smith friends before parting :’). One thing my sister told me about that we need to do is karaoke!! Also more trivia please hehe.
- My friends: I hope that I’ll be able to make the most of my time with all the people I care about. I noticed I fall into periods of hanging out with one person a LOT, but I don’t think that’s so unusual. I’m curious to see who the lucky person/people will be ;) . just kidding! But in all seriousness, I made new friends while abroad, so I wonder if my friends will mix or I’ll drift from some (don’t worry, I don’t see myself doing that with any of the OGs). Things to think about but things I can’t really control...
- Friedman! : I’m very excited to be living in an apartment this coming year. We’ll see how the whole cooking situation will go, I’m sure I’ll still be eating in the dining halls…. Which to be is totally justified because I NEVER ate breakfast yet technically was paying for it… Dinners really are to me a special time to be with friends, so I’m sure we could have dinners together in the Friedman (and cook!) and other dining halls.
- Breaks: It’s a bit premature, but I’m looking forward to doing fun things over the breaks. I haven’t seen my extended family in Texas for a year, so it’ll be nice to do that for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m not sure what I’ll be up to for J-Term but it’ll probably either be Medical Brigades or traveling? And Spring Break will be a good time as well (I’m banking on Montreal for real).
- Jazz class (idk this turned more into things I’m excited about rather than hopeful for, but are the two not the same sometimes?)
Despite the looming uncertainty (this word is starting to get on my nerves, but I guess it’s the most accurate way to say what I want to), I’m hopeful. Let’s all hope together <3
I get exactly what you mean about forgetting how to do Smith. Whenever I leave Smith for extended periods of time I feel like I won't be able to keep up with the work when I return. And usually, like you said, I lose some of the rigor I had before but it's not always the worse thing because that usually means you're putting your energy into other things like friends and hobbies and all those things last longer than schoolwork ya know.
Your apartment seems like it'll be a lot fun :) I'm happy you were able to get one!
I really want to do karaoke!!! Actually at the end of sophomore year, Caitlin and I did karaoke in Seelye and I was going to organize a karaoke party but I thought people would be too busy with finals. Or we should go to Gohyang in Hadley - apparently they have 노래방 lol
I like your dreams for senior year, and I hope you get to have a positive and productive senior year dude! Very excited to see Ninomiya next year and would love to prepare some cuisine with you and your housemates.
I'm gonna try to stay and hopeful too :')
Regina is such a doll, all her albums are good (including begin to hope). Anyway, I am hopeful the semester will actually start and will be live (though the opening of Ga may be clouding my perceptions on how officials feel about the rone). Anyway, I am just as excited as you for little moments and friend time too! That’s the highlight of college imo because never again in your life will you live so close to so many of your friends who have similar work schedules to you (specifically breaks and weekends and no before 8:30 and after 9(?) classes) As for karaoke, some of my friends and I did it last semester in the Bass basement and it was…
Regina Spektor a queen! I like your list! Idk you liked karaoke, i have a couple rap songs in mind that i want you to learn so your next performance can be killer. And yeah you don’t remember the nights you decided to skip to hang with friends you remember feeling bummed out about it. But when you hang with friends you never remember the stress or worry of school, you just remember having fun, you know.