THERE ARE LESS THAN 15 SCHOOL DAYS LEFT AHHHHHHHHH

Now that the title got your attention, FEEL MY PANIC. It's the breathe before the dive, people. Before deadlines hit. BAM BAM BAM! Before exams start. BAM BAM BAM! Before physical ailments spring up. BAM BAM BAM! Before people graduate. ....uh, I don't have a sound effect for that.

It's the glorious time of the year when the weather lightens up and even at 7am it is light outside. The UVA campus is glorious in its pink-flowered trees and fragrant azalea bushes. Even looking at The Week in Photos, you spy at least two photographs centered on flowers and trees, and a couple others with them peeking in the background. If you visit with Days on the Lawn or a random campus visit around this time, you'll be astounded by the beauty. I know I was when I first came.

Okay, I need to stop being so nostalgic now that I'm going to be a third year. Oh, you prospective students, enjoy life. Before I end my reminiscences, I want to point out that because this time of the year is about transitions, it also brings nostalgia and longing. Exhibit A is an email that one of my best friends sent me. The title was "and we thought they were so cool then...", and her body said "if your feeling anxious about the future, remember, change is good :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is6gtilerPk&feature=channel." Oh, Justin...

At 11am, I am going to go to the PURSUIT Conference. An 8-hour day affair, the Conference will take up my valuable time for studying. And I think it's absolutely worth it. On Thursday, a visiting Professor from University of Illinois commented that she was amazed when she realized that the time spent and knowledge learned from Professors is only a small fraction of the knowledge we learn in college. In fact, one could argue that the time in classrooms competes with time that could be spent in conferences, listening to guest speakers, and other ways of "learning." For those of you who have taken economics, think about opportunity cost. For those of you haven't, I recommend taking at least an intro economics class AND I will explain. :) For every activity that you do, there is a next best choice. For example, I am currently typing out this entry for half an hour now. That half an hour could have been spent searching for breakfast. Or it could have been spent starting on my ethnographic research paper. Instead, I choose typing this entry out, because I found more value in doing so than the others. (Or I am procrastinating... you decide.)

I applied for summer Resident Adviser and summer Senior Resident. Hopefully I receive one of the positions, because I will be here all summer long. Perhaps I am mellowing out, because this will be my second summer in Charlottesville.

On a random note, someone told me that people read my blog! Hello hello! Please post a comment!

proof of my procrastinating!

The Google Chrome browser for Macs came out! I probably could do a post on the supergiant of a company, Google, and how they're coming out with a Chrome Operating System (Chrome OS) as well as a browser and a new, newer email (see earlier post about Googlewave), and my, don't they look big now?

I need to write an essay that is two days past the deadline. Surprisingly, I am not stressed about that, but I just want it to be done! I am such a big procrastinator. My friend sent me an article called "The Disadvantages of Elite Institutions." It talks about how elite institutions give its students so many second chances, priming them for a world where extended deadlines, a support network, and guidelines are the norm. In contrast, universities such as Cleveland State ready its students for "lives with few second chances, no extensions, little support, narrow opportunity—lives of subordination, supervision, and control, lives of deadlines, not guidelines." (American Scholar) While that sounds like an advantage that elite institutions have, elite institutions give you a false sense of self-worth, ushers you into the upper-class and then "trains you for the life you will lead once you get there." In actuality, Mr. Deresiewicz talks about numerous disadvantages, the first of interestingly is you're "incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you." Just by that, University of Virginia would definitely fall under the category of "elite institutions." It is an interesting article, and if you are not bogged down with mandatory readings for classes, I would definitely recommend taking time to read William Deresiewicz's commentary.