Thoughts on college in no particular order
It's only Day 3 of college classes and I'm already blown away by how much I'm learning. Predator-prey dynamics! Existential anxiety! Theories of storytelling! I can practically feel my mind expanding like a helium balloon. There's so much I don't know about...well, everything, and it's dazzling. Color me highly excited.
I've got some really great professors -- I like all of them so far, but two in particular stand out. One, who teaches my Nations and Nationalities class, is a tiny older fellow who looks a little like Einstein but is the most compelling lecturer I have ever encountered. He sort of prowls the classroom, gesticulating wildly and getting all up in people's faces on occasion. It's a bit hazardous, I've learned, to sit in the first few rows, but that will not stop me. The class is fascinating as hell.
The other professor whom I completely love/am baffled by is my Creative Process teacher. She reminds me strikingly of Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter -- henna designs on her hands, a ring on every finger, and an entire jewelry store's worth of prayer beads draped around her neck. She hand-wrote our syllabus in calligraphy because she "wanted to give us something beautiful, to show that I truly care about all of you." The class is going to be all about storytelling, or as she put it, "love and loss, and how those two tributaries flow together to form the river of creativity." She may be out there, but I really, really like her.
I'm glad I've got a somewhat fluffy class like the Creative Process to counteract some of my others -- Nations and Nationalities has an entire unit on Evil -- genocide, crimes againt humanity and other atrocities that may or may not result in me crying in class. Likewise, Global Environmental Issues could easily be renamed Ze End Of Ze World 101, or perhaps How Humans Have Irreparably Fucked Shit Up. I'm gonna be dealing with some heavy, heavy stuff this semester, but it'll be an amazing experience for sure.
Still a little homesick -- oddly, I notice it most between 6 and 9 PM, when the sun's going down -- but it's getting better. I seem to be coaching my friends through their own homesickness long-distance -- apparently this involves sending multiple emails full of stupid inside jokes, Treasure Planet references and U2 videos. Even just having the freedom to text one of my buddies between classes with a "What's up? Thinking of you" helps a lot, I think. I know it's helping me.
TL;DR -- having fun, adjusting rapidly, excited about a super-interesting year. :