Sic Fugit Tempus
It's been almost a year since last I posted on this thing. I guess since I never got into the habit of using it to communicate with friends at college, it has become less a part of my life than it was in high school. Still, it's still here, and I think one or two people will still read it if I post, and anyway it can be nice to write things down every once in a while.
Time has been passing lately. Of course, it always does that, but sometimes it is more noticeable than others. I'm now a junior in college, so more than half way through my time at Williams, and those years seem to be going by awfully fast. It's a fact I began to notice strongly over the summer, perhaps in part because I was working with a lot of students who were either in grad school, about to enter it in the fall, or going into their senior year and applying to grad schools. By next fall I too will need to be applying to graduate school, and I'm not really sure where I want to go or exactly what area of geology I want to study. For a while, I had been certain I wanted to do planetary geology and had had Brown in mind as my top choice for a grad school, since they have a particularly good planetary geology department and are a place I'm familiar with in a location I like fairly well (though in a city, but unfortunately that's harder to avoid for grad schools than for undergrad). Now, though, as I've studied more geology I've found that there are so many different fascinating directions to go in, and I do like being able to actually go in person to the rocks I'm studying, so I'm thinking of doing terrestrial geology of some sort instead. I'm particularly considering structural geology, which I had a class in this past semester that I liked a lot. I'm hoping to do summer field work followed by a senior thesis in structural geology, which will help me determine how much I like it, though I'll have to apply to grad schools well before the thesis is complete.
Well, besides the future getting closer, what's been happening in the nigh a year since I last posted? Plenty of things -- such is life -- but for a brief overview:
This summer I spent doing seismology research, including a total of about four weeks in British Columbia doing a seismic survey of the Coast Mountains there. It was an absolutely fantastic experience, and one of the best summers I have ever spent. I'm not sure seismology is quite what I'll end up going to grad school in, but it's in the same general area of solid-earth geology and it was a great subject to spend a summer learning about and doing fieldwork in, and much that I learned will surely carry over regardless of what I end up doing.
This past semester was probably my hardest yet, and rather busy and stressful school-wise. I had three labs a week in addition to the lectures for my four classes, which really ate into my free time. Quantum mechanics, which I had been looking forward to, turned out to be a particularly difficult class, and I often felt that I wasn't understanding things quite as quickly as I would have liked. Somehow, I still managed to get A- in that class and in comparative literature, both of which I was expecting B's in based on my grades prior to the finals. On the plus side I took two geology classes, geomorphology and structural geology, and enjoyed and learned a lot from both.
Right now, I'm in and nearing the end of Winter Study, taking one class pass-fail for the month of January. In the spirit of taking something completely different for the month, I'm in a class called Drawing as a Learnable Skill, which intends to teach those who were never able to draw realistically how to do so. As you may well know, I'm not much good at art, so it's been an interesting and sometimes difficult experience, definitely a good thing to take for winter study rather than as a semester class. I'm certainly not going to become an artist out of it, but I think I have improved in my ability to draw. And it is a challenge, which given that I've been feeling a bit unmotivated lately is a good thing.
I continue to fence at Williams and even went to one tournament this fall, though I did horribly. I've also been doing a bit of martial arts with a group on campus, mostly taekwondo, but also some aikido again since we finally got mats this winter study to practice it on. Also during winter study, though not as part of any group, I've managed to do a bit of skiing, particularly cross-country which I definitely like better than downhill, though now that a lot of the snow has melted, that's not much of an option at the moment.
The fencing team has continued to be a large part of my social life, though I feel it's become less of a cohesive group this year than last and also a bit less socially active, though we've been doing better over winter study now that we have more time. In general, I still have a fairly quiet life, not being a complete loner, but not going to raging parties much either. On the romance side of things, I'm afraid there is still nothing to report. I continue to be a terrible coward in that domain and to have an odd tendency to be attracted to girls from foreign countries.
I have not been doing well at writing things lately. I finished one short story over the summer, started another, and wrote one poem, but that was about it. I miss it, but I've had trouble finding the time and the muse has not been very inspiring either. Maybe I can manage something in the next couple weeks before spring semester starts and I get too busy again.
Well, that's all that comes to mind for now. If you've read all the way to the end of this, you get the great reward of being able to read my last paragraph (as does anyone who just skipped to the end, but without the same sense of satisfaction). If not, well, I'm partly writing for my own self anyway, to get a few thoughts in order, so it doesn't really matter. On to other things now, I suppose, for time I'm pretty sure is going to keep passing, and I might as well pass the time with it.
Time has been passing lately. Of course, it always does that, but sometimes it is more noticeable than others. I'm now a junior in college, so more than half way through my time at Williams, and those years seem to be going by awfully fast. It's a fact I began to notice strongly over the summer, perhaps in part because I was working with a lot of students who were either in grad school, about to enter it in the fall, or going into their senior year and applying to grad schools. By next fall I too will need to be applying to graduate school, and I'm not really sure where I want to go or exactly what area of geology I want to study. For a while, I had been certain I wanted to do planetary geology and had had Brown in mind as my top choice for a grad school, since they have a particularly good planetary geology department and are a place I'm familiar with in a location I like fairly well (though in a city, but unfortunately that's harder to avoid for grad schools than for undergrad). Now, though, as I've studied more geology I've found that there are so many different fascinating directions to go in, and I do like being able to actually go in person to the rocks I'm studying, so I'm thinking of doing terrestrial geology of some sort instead. I'm particularly considering structural geology, which I had a class in this past semester that I liked a lot. I'm hoping to do summer field work followed by a senior thesis in structural geology, which will help me determine how much I like it, though I'll have to apply to grad schools well before the thesis is complete.
Well, besides the future getting closer, what's been happening in the nigh a year since I last posted? Plenty of things -- such is life -- but for a brief overview:
This summer I spent doing seismology research, including a total of about four weeks in British Columbia doing a seismic survey of the Coast Mountains there. It was an absolutely fantastic experience, and one of the best summers I have ever spent. I'm not sure seismology is quite what I'll end up going to grad school in, but it's in the same general area of solid-earth geology and it was a great subject to spend a summer learning about and doing fieldwork in, and much that I learned will surely carry over regardless of what I end up doing.
This past semester was probably my hardest yet, and rather busy and stressful school-wise. I had three labs a week in addition to the lectures for my four classes, which really ate into my free time. Quantum mechanics, which I had been looking forward to, turned out to be a particularly difficult class, and I often felt that I wasn't understanding things quite as quickly as I would have liked. Somehow, I still managed to get A- in that class and in comparative literature, both of which I was expecting B's in based on my grades prior to the finals. On the plus side I took two geology classes, geomorphology and structural geology, and enjoyed and learned a lot from both.
Right now, I'm in and nearing the end of Winter Study, taking one class pass-fail for the month of January. In the spirit of taking something completely different for the month, I'm in a class called Drawing as a Learnable Skill, which intends to teach those who were never able to draw realistically how to do so. As you may well know, I'm not much good at art, so it's been an interesting and sometimes difficult experience, definitely a good thing to take for winter study rather than as a semester class. I'm certainly not going to become an artist out of it, but I think I have improved in my ability to draw. And it is a challenge, which given that I've been feeling a bit unmotivated lately is a good thing.
I continue to fence at Williams and even went to one tournament this fall, though I did horribly. I've also been doing a bit of martial arts with a group on campus, mostly taekwondo, but also some aikido again since we finally got mats this winter study to practice it on. Also during winter study, though not as part of any group, I've managed to do a bit of skiing, particularly cross-country which I definitely like better than downhill, though now that a lot of the snow has melted, that's not much of an option at the moment.
The fencing team has continued to be a large part of my social life, though I feel it's become less of a cohesive group this year than last and also a bit less socially active, though we've been doing better over winter study now that we have more time. In general, I still have a fairly quiet life, not being a complete loner, but not going to raging parties much either. On the romance side of things, I'm afraid there is still nothing to report. I continue to be a terrible coward in that domain and to have an odd tendency to be attracted to girls from foreign countries.
I have not been doing well at writing things lately. I finished one short story over the summer, started another, and wrote one poem, but that was about it. I miss it, but I've had trouble finding the time and the muse has not been very inspiring either. Maybe I can manage something in the next couple weeks before spring semester starts and I get too busy again.
Well, that's all that comes to mind for now. If you've read all the way to the end of this, you get the great reward of being able to read my last paragraph (as does anyone who just skipped to the end, but without the same sense of satisfaction). If not, well, I'm partly writing for my own self anyway, to get a few thoughts in order, so it doesn't really matter. On to other things now, I suppose, for time I'm pretty sure is going to keep passing, and I might as well pass the time with it.