and so it ends...
The walls were once again bare, the beds stripped, and the buzz of the a/c strangely loud as it echoed throughout the barren room. As I officially said farewell to the Penthouse this afternoon, I was just a little bit sad, way too contemplative, and kind of hopeful about what life has in store for me. Everything but a stylishly crooked Bon Jovi poster was removed from the hopelessly depressing off-white walls of the Lafayette St. dorm, and I must say that I am not sorry to see the last of that roach infested hell hole I had the displeasure of calling home for the last 9 months. Even though Mike continues to say otherwise, there is no way that I will ever again step foot in Lafayette as a resident of the building. I simply refuse. When I return from London in the Spring, there's a chance I'll get Coral Towers, and if not, then Maddie is going to pull every string she can so that I wind up in Cliff Street with her. Simple as that.
The end of this last semester of the first half of my NYU experience was most definitely the most successful thus far, and more than likely the least troublesome. There were moments of extreme emotional distress, but as I've come to realize, those will always be there. Regardless of how under control I think things are, there is always some catastrophe waiting in the wings to come and strike me down so that I remember to not get ahead of myself and to always expect the unexpected. For the first time since arriving at the illustrious NYU, I truly enjoyed all of my courses, and had some pretty amazing professors. I found myself discussing the difference between the A that I worked for and the A- that I am likely to get in one class, before realizing that I sounded like an asshole and quickly shut up. This has been the first time in a long time that I came to expect to get my papers back with A's on them. I'm still waiting for grades to be posted, but I am truly hopeful about what they will prove to me. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But at least this bit of hope I shall cling to until I am shown otherwise is more than I've had for the last 3 semesters.
The experience of living in the Penthouse was truly one of a kind, and I'm still not sure what my thoughts on this particular arrangement are. I will always believe that the apartment was too small for 11 girls to realistically live together in, and I am convinced more than ever that NYU has really lost interest in the well-being of the students in favor of creating more revenue from us. That being said, I am glad that I was able to find such an amazing group of girls, all of whom taught me something about life, and were awesome to talk to, go out with, and mostly just hang out with acting stupid. I will miss them all dearly, especially next semester when I will be an ocean away, but I also look forward to more adventures around the city now that some are in the apartment (oh, excuse me, the caroline... haha), and others are RA's, and still others don't know where they will be come September. I am glad for the experience of this past year, I would never do it again, and I still advocate for singles, but at least I can say that I have lived in a penthouse suite in New York City.
And now I'm back on the isle of staten, awaiting the return of the rest of the gang. The nice thing about NYU not having days off during the year is that we get out nice and early. The unfortunate thing is that almost all other colleges are still in session for a few more weeks. Oh well. I've purchased a few new books and DVD's to keep my occupied as I search in vain for a temporary job that would make me some money for the next month. I have the Met game on the 28th, and perhaps a few encounters with the boy who pretends to dislike me even though he knows he would be bored without my nonsensical comments, stories, and thoughts. Although I will say this, it sucks to be the one who's more emotionally invested in the relationship. I've never actually been that person before, or at least I've never been that person when it's actually a real relationship. The few, read one, other time this has happened was because it wasn't a real relationship and I was only hurting myself trying to pretend that it was one. But alas, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
So for now, I look back on sophomore year as the year that simply was. It was necessary. It was good at times. It was awful at times. It was fun, sad, thrilling, exciting, ridiculous, entertaining, boring, hard, fast-paced, full of new experiences, life-changing, over all to quickly while at the same time not over nearly fast enough, and many other things besides. I look forward to my 6 weeks in Nicaragua, and I am beside myself waiting for my August 29th departure to London, plus completely looking forward to camp on the 21st of August. And so I eagerly anticipate the beginning of a new chapter of my life as I take the next few days to unpack, take stock, reorganize, and update the end of this last installment.
The end of this last semester of the first half of my NYU experience was most definitely the most successful thus far, and more than likely the least troublesome. There were moments of extreme emotional distress, but as I've come to realize, those will always be there. Regardless of how under control I think things are, there is always some catastrophe waiting in the wings to come and strike me down so that I remember to not get ahead of myself and to always expect the unexpected. For the first time since arriving at the illustrious NYU, I truly enjoyed all of my courses, and had some pretty amazing professors. I found myself discussing the difference between the A that I worked for and the A- that I am likely to get in one class, before realizing that I sounded like an asshole and quickly shut up. This has been the first time in a long time that I came to expect to get my papers back with A's on them. I'm still waiting for grades to be posted, but I am truly hopeful about what they will prove to me. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But at least this bit of hope I shall cling to until I am shown otherwise is more than I've had for the last 3 semesters.
The experience of living in the Penthouse was truly one of a kind, and I'm still not sure what my thoughts on this particular arrangement are. I will always believe that the apartment was too small for 11 girls to realistically live together in, and I am convinced more than ever that NYU has really lost interest in the well-being of the students in favor of creating more revenue from us. That being said, I am glad that I was able to find such an amazing group of girls, all of whom taught me something about life, and were awesome to talk to, go out with, and mostly just hang out with acting stupid. I will miss them all dearly, especially next semester when I will be an ocean away, but I also look forward to more adventures around the city now that some are in the apartment (oh, excuse me, the caroline... haha), and others are RA's, and still others don't know where they will be come September. I am glad for the experience of this past year, I would never do it again, and I still advocate for singles, but at least I can say that I have lived in a penthouse suite in New York City.
And now I'm back on the isle of staten, awaiting the return of the rest of the gang. The nice thing about NYU not having days off during the year is that we get out nice and early. The unfortunate thing is that almost all other colleges are still in session for a few more weeks. Oh well. I've purchased a few new books and DVD's to keep my occupied as I search in vain for a temporary job that would make me some money for the next month. I have the Met game on the 28th, and perhaps a few encounters with the boy who pretends to dislike me even though he knows he would be bored without my nonsensical comments, stories, and thoughts. Although I will say this, it sucks to be the one who's more emotionally invested in the relationship. I've never actually been that person before, or at least I've never been that person when it's actually a real relationship. The few, read one, other time this has happened was because it wasn't a real relationship and I was only hurting myself trying to pretend that it was one. But alas, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
So for now, I look back on sophomore year as the year that simply was. It was necessary. It was good at times. It was awful at times. It was fun, sad, thrilling, exciting, ridiculous, entertaining, boring, hard, fast-paced, full of new experiences, life-changing, over all to quickly while at the same time not over nearly fast enough, and many other things besides. I look forward to my 6 weeks in Nicaragua, and I am beside myself waiting for my August 29th departure to London, plus completely looking forward to camp on the 21st of August. And so I eagerly anticipate the beginning of a new chapter of my life as I take the next few days to unpack, take stock, reorganize, and update the end of this last installment.