Students’ Views

So, I didn’t have any specifically great topic to talk about that’s witty and seems to move toward some kind of point. So I’m just going to sum up the past couple of weeks in as messy a fashion as I can.

Yesterday was the first day I had Operation Achievement, which is a program here at SU which pairs SU Students with students in middle school. It’s two hours one day a week, and the first hour always begins with an ‘enrichment activity.’ This Tuesday’s enrichment involved splitting the mentor/mentee pairs into three teams and having a relay. First everyone on the team had to put their heads on a bat and spin around 10X, after which they had to run to, around, and back from a cone. Then everyone needed to figure out some riddles. Next came a fun one, everyone had to put on a shirt, tie, and wig and run to and back from a line. Then came some word problems, after which was the last event, where everyone had to put a whiffle ball on a spoon and take it to, around, and back from a cone.

My team, the Pterrifying Pterodactyls, came in last place, and was the only team with two words for a name, which just goes to show where that gets you, lol.

I was kind of sad at the beginning of the OA meeting because my kid, Chris, didn’t show up. I was paired with a girl, Lacey, whose mentor hadn’t shown. I had had a disappointing experience in OA when I did it my first semester at SU. My kid never showed up and I was always alone and it irked me. They have since enacted an attendance policy that kicks you out after 4 unexcused absences. My student showed up towards the end with his mother, and it seemed like he had gotten confused with buses and whatnot. So hopefully this semester will be better.

Today was pretty okay. I was asked to do a five minute speech about Obama’s platform this afternoon at 12pm, during lunch. The university was observing Constitution Day, and they had decided to further celebrate it by having an Election 2008 Forum, where representatives from the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian organizations would come and speak for five minutes (it ended up being like 10 min each) I hadn’t prepared until this morning, because I didn’t have any morning classes. So I was at the library picking things off of the internet and then I spent about an hour in my room rehearsing it. I had an outline to follow with a couple of built in witty comments or quips. It turned out okay, but I was so nervous I didn’t eat much and I had the shakes for about two hours straight, and it took a long time even after the fact to wind down. I received some compliments which helped me feel better about the couple of times I stumbled around for a bit.

I joined SU Radio and it is going to kick off next week for me, I’ll host my show for the first time. It should be awesome, I can’t wait to begin sharing the awesome music I spent hours and hours combing Emusic for this summer. It’s going to be called “The Resistance” since what brought me to Emusic in the first place was the fact that I was dead tired of commercialized music and I noticed the playlists of radio stations were getting shorter and shorter.

It seems like I always have these ideas of where I want the semester after summer break to go, and it always surprises me. Things fall through, other opportunities pop up. All in all, it turns out good. At least, so far. And I do feel pretty happy with the way things are going. I’m a pretty lucky guy, I’m not sure how many other people could say the same.