Third Year Council (TYC) Valentines

TYC unfortunately decided that sending anonymous valentines was a good idea. They set up a google doc so that you could send your unrequited love an anonymous valentine and they would act as cupid and deliver your message.

The way they decided to deliver the message is via books in Alderman. That's right. I'll include the email that I received V-Day morning.

The date is February 14th and someone is thinking of you,
Search around Alderman, here's what to do,
Look for book _______ALD PQ 2193 B7B6______ right away,
The message inside might just make your day!

That's right. It's complete with garish emoticon hearts. (For those of you not at the University, ALD PQ refers to the book number of the Alderman library system. How PQ comes to mean Floor 4 Old Stacks, I do not know.)

So of course being the inquisitive person I am, I take the effort to hunt down this book and find my message.

The message said:

"You're so sexy... perfect for me."

and it was anonymous. FML I have a stalker.

The Light Ahead

Things are looking up! A common phrase for the sentiment of "WOHOO! The future looks bright!" (Another metaphor, excuse me.) As I sip my Lady Grey tea, I am enthusiastic about things that will happen in the future. I am eager for events in the future to happen. In other words, I am employed!

... for the summer. I will be a digital strategy intern at an advertising company. Does anyone know anything about Winston-Salem, North Carolina? If so, COMMENT.

I am also thinking a lot about marathons. For some reason, marathons seem to be the hottest thing right now. One of my colleagues is training for a marathon, the resident graduate student of our dorm is running a marathon, and my father is running long-distance with marathon runners every Sunday. Last year, one of the RAs I worked with had run a marathon and because he worked out every day, he did it very casually. I found out that one of the bloggers whom I follow diligently runs marathons. She's my age.

Marathon running is about physical and mental endurance. I'm sure the physical aspect of it is apparent to you, but unless you're a long-distance runner, the mental endurance is something that may need explanation. One mile is 5,280 feet. Let's say that is putting your foot in front of you 5,280 times. It sounds like a lot, but in truth you probably walk way over amount in a day. So three miles (5k) is 15,840 times, five miles (8k) is 26,400 times, and ten miles (16.1k) is 52,800 times. A marathon (26 mi, 42.195k) is 138,435 times. You're putting your foot in front of you 138,435 times. Your body is repeating the same motion over and over for 4 or 5 hours. Have you ever done anything 138,435 times? You blink about 20,000 times a day and that's automatic: your body does that for you. For a marathon, that's when mental endurance kicks in. What is driving you after the 5,280 step?

No, I am not running a marathon. However, it's a thought that's in my head and I've never thought about it before. Even when I was running cross country, the most that I've run is 7 miles. Even then, I disliked running races. Perhaps I should think about running a half marathon? Thoughts?

Three. Two. One. Poof!

So currently I am taking 19 credits. At the College of Liberal Arts and Science (CLAS, Arts & Sciences, or just simply the College), the maximum is 17. To go over, you'd need to course action into classes and perhaps get permission. I haven't quite gotten to that point yet, because I haven't "officially" signed up for my major seminar. I know I'll get into it, so why signing up just yet?

I guess you're next wondering why I am taking 19 credits.

• The economic answer might be that I want to maximize the benefit of spending over $10,000 on tuition alone, and because it is a sunk cost, I might as well as max out on credits (and go a little over?).
• The psychological answer might have something to do with the incentives of the classes themselves and how they are all so individually interesting.
• A fourth year might tell me that it is because I want to have an easy fourth year and take as many classes now as possible.
• A third year might tell me that it is because of the realization that there are only three semesters worth of classes that are left and I want to take as many classes that I want to take before leaving college (forever).
• A second year might gape at me. Oh, you'll understand soon enough.
  
• A first year might tell me it's leftovers of my overachieving self from high school kicking in for a final spurt.
• A baby might cry at me.
  

They're all right.

Listen people, I'm feeling the time crunch. Why do the years speed up after first year? My fourth year friends are graduating and planning to buy balloons similar to this. The more ridiculous, the better. And I will say from the two graduations I've attended before, that there are some hilarious ones! Think four people holding 2, 0, 1, and 0 balloons. Think a host of sea animal balloons. Think sorority girls getting all the same pink balloons... and the same dress... and the same shoes.. well, you get the idea anyway! When college kids are talking about buying balloons in mass, it's either someone's birthday, a revival of prom, or graduation. One of these days, I am going to buy a balloon just for the heck of it, tie it to my wrist, and wear it to class. Then I'll let it go and look like this.

The way I deal with frustrations is to make a statement against it. (See earlier balloon case one more time.) In any case, taking 19 credits also might be my way of saying I'm not leaving college after three more semesters. See? I'm immersing myself in college-ness. Classes! Learning! Fun!

Driving to Richmond

I've been in Virginia for three years now and I haven't visited much of it. In fact, I joke around that the international exchange students see more of the US in a semester than I have in a childhood. Chicago? Nope. Las Vegas? Nope. Seattle? Nope. Austin? Nope. Savannah? Nope.

So I say with pride RICHMOND! Here I come!

Given I never saw Albany in my nine years of living in NY and there was a certain disdain with going "upstate" in NY, which to some city residents meant fifteen minutes north. However, I feel like Richmond can offer something more to the average tourist than Albany did. At least it has the distinction of historical significance. First, in 1610 with visitors from the famous Jamestown. Then in 1775 Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" speech (summed up even more succinctly as LIBERTY! OR DEATH!). Perhaps the apex of its urban career was when Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America. Apparently the White House of the Confederacy still in tact for curious visitors.

My friend needs to go to Richmond for his GMAT test and I am driving Zipcar. Do YOU know of any thing to do in Richmond?

The Internship Dilemma: To check that or to not?

Since January 3rd, I've been interning at Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC). It honestly has been the ideal internship. I am gaining design experience by designing a promotional brochure for CCDC, which will be sent to potential donors, volunteers, and board members. Mandy Burbage, my supervisor, has been heavenly, laid back, and very supportive. CCDC is large, airy, and quite beautiful. I have loads of freedom to design, research, and check facebook (for inspiration, of course!).

As a prime member of the multi-tasking generation of Millenials, I've also been searching for summer internships, updating my resume, coding my personal website, checking my online banking account, replying back to hosts of emails, adding contacts on LinkedIn, experimenting with Photoshop, and teaching myself PHP. Did I mention that I also check facebook at least five times a day? Casually, of course.

Here I am at one of the best (unpaid) internships I could ask for, and yet I am still doing other things. While I feel a little guilty about all of the things mentioned above, as I feel now, I would still feel extremely indignant if facebook was blocked, my computer was monitored, and my screen was public. This amazes me. Where is my work ethic and where am I drawing the line? (A rhetorical, academic question, I assure you.)

If I look at it from a productivity point of view, I am being extremely productive. I am not watching movies online during work, or worse, watching porn. I am doing things that will have tangible benefits later on (preferably money). However, if I look at it from the point of view of traditional work ethics, my behavior could be seen as unethical. Of course, another factor to it is that I am not being paid for my time.

Yet, I also want to point out the accessibility of all of the earlier mentioned things. Checking my HSBC bank account only takes three minutes, and searching for summer internships does not involve a trip to an office but a click away. There are hosts of sites that teach PHP, one of which is PHP 101, and they save me a trip to the library. So while it may seem like I am spending all of my time doing other work, in actuality it might add up to only a couple of hours. This goes back to the point of productivity. I know that designing might take only a couple of days out of the two weeks that I am interning. So if I am doing other things because I can quickly, am I... bored?

Truthfully I do not know the answer to all of these questions, but I do know that other Millenials are facing the same questions and that as a generation, we will have a serious influence on the way the workforce works. Or perhaps we'll quietly assimilate to it. Who knows?