Semester II in Sum
I haven’t posted to Livejournal in several months, but I thought now was an appropriate time to sit down and write an entry about this past semester. I just got back from my second to last class, and thought it’d be a good idea to review the past four months academically and socially.
I’m sitting here at the end of my 5th semester of college. Wow, things have changed since freshman year. I’m living in an apartment with Jon, who I met my first year and also lived with last year. Chris and Andrew, who I would say are my best friends here, live across the street. I spend a lot of time there, and they spend a lot of time here. We play Halo, drink, watch TV and movies, shop, study, eat, and generally screw around with each other all the time.
School:
Just a year and a half ago I was going to be a sociology major. Coming out of Ms. Donahoe’s class second semester senior year, had me interested in groups and psychology. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with sociology, but I was pretty sure that’s what I wanted. The first day of my sociology class sophomore year at BU convinced me otherwise. The class consisted 45 people, all girls except for me and a gay guy. Not that I have a problem with being the only guy, but after listening to the professor talk about what college sociology would be like, I promptly dropped the class and added political science 101 to my schedule.
I enjoyed PO 101, and for some of that semester I wanted to be a PO major. However, after much soul searching and research I realized political science would take me no where and it wasn’t what I wanted. One of the few options left open to me by second semester sophomore year was communications. At this point I was still in the College of General Studies (CGS) and needed to take COM 201 to move into the communications school. I took the class not really knowing what to expect.
In COM 201 I found a niche. It was interesting and I felt it would leave me a lot of open paths after I graduated. Upon completion of a 70-page group Capstone project, I graduated from CGS and officially entered the College of Communication (COM).
And after a year at COM I know it was the right choice. The classes are interesting, I’m doing well, and things are in place. My writing has improved significantly. My official major is Mass Communication. My liberal arts concentration, which is a required part of my graduating from COM is political science. This semester I took Presidential Leadership, which I found very interesting, and overall a better class than I expected. This semester I will have achieved my highest GPA yet, largely because I am no longer in CGS, which severely deflated my average. Although, I did not get many of the classes I wanted for next semester, I got enough and I’m interested to see what semester two holds for me.
Social:
Socially, this semester has been pretty intense. After leaving the CGS core group behind, my bonds with Jon, Chris, and Andrew have intensified. While I am sad the CGS core I had for two years is mostly dissolved, what I have now is just as good. It’s nice to always have a place to go other than my own apartment where I can hang out and shoot the breeze.
Most weekends during the evening hours I have spent partying. Few times I have not gone out on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. I find that I get bored very fast in the evening when I have nothing to study and it’s been a long day of class. Most nights involve some level of drinking, but not all. Sometimes there is a movie or work at the arena.
Emily came up in the middle of October. We had a good time visiting the aquarium, IMAX theater, and Newbury St. We had a wonderful omelet breakfast at a place right by me called Crispy Crepes. While our relationship at times is strained, I’m still in love with her and don’t know what my life would be like without her. For three years we have experienced almost everything with each other. Happy times like both of our graduations. Sad times like Donna’s death. Boring times of nights spent in front of the TV on the couch where each other’s company seemed to pass the evening. We are coming up on our fourth Christmas together, which is impossible. She’s helped me get through some of the harder times at college, and she’s never failed to be there to back me up. I’ve tried to do my best to be there for her, and at times I’ve succeed and others I’ve failed. We keep trudging along though and fight to stay connected over some 450 miles. But the distance only makes the time we do spend to together that much better.
Work:
I have two jobs right now. One, is as a cashier at the year-old Agganis Arena. I like the time I spend there and it pays really well. The people I work with are mostly college students, but there are a lot of adults too. As one of the original employees I know a lot of the people there and in general the atmosphere is positive. I’ve learned a lot about hard work, more so through viewing others than my own work habits. There are people there who have worked blue-collar jobs all their lives and struggle to get by. The arena is their second or third job and it pays their rent and food, not their alcohol and movie tickets. Because of this I have gained a greater appreciation for education and it’s importance in the world.
My second job I have only had for two months. I work as the lead campus representative for Valorebooks.com, an online textbook company that buys and sells used college textbooks. I promote the company and earn an hourly wage in addition to commission. It’s an okay gig and I’ll probably drop it after this textbook season. If anyone wants to help me out they can buy their textbooks from the Valorebooks.com Web site and use the promotional code: bubooks. You’ll get an additional 5% off. And yes, that is a shameless plug.
I still get asked the question of what I want to do after college. As of now I have not found a good answer and I hate telling people that I don’t know. In recent weeks I’ve leaned more and more towards becoming a high school teacher with aspirations to go into administration. However, I still want to be a cop, executive, small business owner, and a chef, so we’ll see how that works out.
Political Views:
My political views have definitely been “liberalized” since high school. While I’m far from considering myself a liberal, I’m certainly on the side of a moderate liberal. I don’t know if this is because I’m living in Massachusetts, or perhaps because Emily has gotten that deep into my head. Either way it doesn’t really matter. I don’t think I’ll ever be fully on one side or the other and I am perfectly content remaining an independent and sitting on both sides of the fence. I remain steadfast in many of my views and it’s a bitch getting me to change my mind, but it is possible. During Ms. Donahoe’s sociology class I was one of the few supporters of the Iraq war and the administration’s approach. Looking back, I still believe war was the right thing, but I am now extremely critical of how the whole thing has been handled and of the administration itself. Also, had everyone in the class been against the war our discussions would have been extremely boring, and I feel that my dissenting voice added a lot to the validity of the class discussion, or at least made people think. I’ll always play devil’s advocate.
Concluding Thoughts:
I have much to be thankful for this holiday season. My family has always been there for me and I’m blessed to be able to attend college with little to no debt. I will always be appreciative of that and I will never take it for granted. Secondly, Emily who is essentially my family, has always been there. I am thankful for her support and love during our fourth Christmas together. Lastly, are my friends both at home and here at school. I’m glad I still have those friends who I was close enough to in high school to still remain in contact with today. One of my biggest concerns coming into college was making new friends. Thankfully, I can sit here two and a half years later and say that I’m surrounded by a great group of people who I love and admire.
So that concludes my first post in a while. It was a good one I think. Thanks for reading. I wrote it in Microsoft Word double-spaced and I only wish 6-pages went by this fast when I’m writing a real paper.
I’m sitting here at the end of my 5th semester of college. Wow, things have changed since freshman year. I’m living in an apartment with Jon, who I met my first year and also lived with last year. Chris and Andrew, who I would say are my best friends here, live across the street. I spend a lot of time there, and they spend a lot of time here. We play Halo, drink, watch TV and movies, shop, study, eat, and generally screw around with each other all the time.
School:
Just a year and a half ago I was going to be a sociology major. Coming out of Ms. Donahoe’s class second semester senior year, had me interested in groups and psychology. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with sociology, but I was pretty sure that’s what I wanted. The first day of my sociology class sophomore year at BU convinced me otherwise. The class consisted 45 people, all girls except for me and a gay guy. Not that I have a problem with being the only guy, but after listening to the professor talk about what college sociology would be like, I promptly dropped the class and added political science 101 to my schedule.
I enjoyed PO 101, and for some of that semester I wanted to be a PO major. However, after much soul searching and research I realized political science would take me no where and it wasn’t what I wanted. One of the few options left open to me by second semester sophomore year was communications. At this point I was still in the College of General Studies (CGS) and needed to take COM 201 to move into the communications school. I took the class not really knowing what to expect.
In COM 201 I found a niche. It was interesting and I felt it would leave me a lot of open paths after I graduated. Upon completion of a 70-page group Capstone project, I graduated from CGS and officially entered the College of Communication (COM).
And after a year at COM I know it was the right choice. The classes are interesting, I’m doing well, and things are in place. My writing has improved significantly. My official major is Mass Communication. My liberal arts concentration, which is a required part of my graduating from COM is political science. This semester I took Presidential Leadership, which I found very interesting, and overall a better class than I expected. This semester I will have achieved my highest GPA yet, largely because I am no longer in CGS, which severely deflated my average. Although, I did not get many of the classes I wanted for next semester, I got enough and I’m interested to see what semester two holds for me.
Social:
Socially, this semester has been pretty intense. After leaving the CGS core group behind, my bonds with Jon, Chris, and Andrew have intensified. While I am sad the CGS core I had for two years is mostly dissolved, what I have now is just as good. It’s nice to always have a place to go other than my own apartment where I can hang out and shoot the breeze.
Most weekends during the evening hours I have spent partying. Few times I have not gone out on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. I find that I get bored very fast in the evening when I have nothing to study and it’s been a long day of class. Most nights involve some level of drinking, but not all. Sometimes there is a movie or work at the arena.
Emily came up in the middle of October. We had a good time visiting the aquarium, IMAX theater, and Newbury St. We had a wonderful omelet breakfast at a place right by me called Crispy Crepes. While our relationship at times is strained, I’m still in love with her and don’t know what my life would be like without her. For three years we have experienced almost everything with each other. Happy times like both of our graduations. Sad times like Donna’s death. Boring times of nights spent in front of the TV on the couch where each other’s company seemed to pass the evening. We are coming up on our fourth Christmas together, which is impossible. She’s helped me get through some of the harder times at college, and she’s never failed to be there to back me up. I’ve tried to do my best to be there for her, and at times I’ve succeed and others I’ve failed. We keep trudging along though and fight to stay connected over some 450 miles. But the distance only makes the time we do spend to together that much better.
Work:
I have two jobs right now. One, is as a cashier at the year-old Agganis Arena. I like the time I spend there and it pays really well. The people I work with are mostly college students, but there are a lot of adults too. As one of the original employees I know a lot of the people there and in general the atmosphere is positive. I’ve learned a lot about hard work, more so through viewing others than my own work habits. There are people there who have worked blue-collar jobs all their lives and struggle to get by. The arena is their second or third job and it pays their rent and food, not their alcohol and movie tickets. Because of this I have gained a greater appreciation for education and it’s importance in the world.
My second job I have only had for two months. I work as the lead campus representative for Valorebooks.com, an online textbook company that buys and sells used college textbooks. I promote the company and earn an hourly wage in addition to commission. It’s an okay gig and I’ll probably drop it after this textbook season. If anyone wants to help me out they can buy their textbooks from the Valorebooks.com Web site and use the promotional code: bubooks. You’ll get an additional 5% off. And yes, that is a shameless plug.
I still get asked the question of what I want to do after college. As of now I have not found a good answer and I hate telling people that I don’t know. In recent weeks I’ve leaned more and more towards becoming a high school teacher with aspirations to go into administration. However, I still want to be a cop, executive, small business owner, and a chef, so we’ll see how that works out.
Political Views:
My political views have definitely been “liberalized” since high school. While I’m far from considering myself a liberal, I’m certainly on the side of a moderate liberal. I don’t know if this is because I’m living in Massachusetts, or perhaps because Emily has gotten that deep into my head. Either way it doesn’t really matter. I don’t think I’ll ever be fully on one side or the other and I am perfectly content remaining an independent and sitting on both sides of the fence. I remain steadfast in many of my views and it’s a bitch getting me to change my mind, but it is possible. During Ms. Donahoe’s sociology class I was one of the few supporters of the Iraq war and the administration’s approach. Looking back, I still believe war was the right thing, but I am now extremely critical of how the whole thing has been handled and of the administration itself. Also, had everyone in the class been against the war our discussions would have been extremely boring, and I feel that my dissenting voice added a lot to the validity of the class discussion, or at least made people think. I’ll always play devil’s advocate.
Concluding Thoughts:
I have much to be thankful for this holiday season. My family has always been there for me and I’m blessed to be able to attend college with little to no debt. I will always be appreciative of that and I will never take it for granted. Secondly, Emily who is essentially my family, has always been there. I am thankful for her support and love during our fourth Christmas together. Lastly, are my friends both at home and here at school. I’m glad I still have those friends who I was close enough to in high school to still remain in contact with today. One of my biggest concerns coming into college was making new friends. Thankfully, I can sit here two and a half years later and say that I’m surrounded by a great group of people who I love and admire.
So that concludes my first post in a while. It was a good one I think. Thanks for reading. I wrote it in Microsoft Word double-spaced and I only wish 6-pages went by this fast when I’m writing a real paper.