Taylor Larson

The Republican Debate

    ...is here, on campus! Diane Sawyer could literally be eating in Drake’s cafeteria, roaming Drake’s lecture halls, or watching the girls’ basketball game down the street. I can’t imagine, a woman I’ve watched on TV millions of times being within yards of me, but she is!

    I mean, I guess the debates are going to be pretty cool, too. For my graduating class especially, this next presidential election will be our first chances to vote for president. Needless to say, the buzz on campus is huge; everyone from staff to students is excited. And although I didn’t win a ticket, there are plenty of opportunities for me to watch at separate “debate watching” parties all over campus. Everyone is doing their part to make sure no one misses this once in a lifetime opportunity.

    Which, of course, means everyone, including myself, will be taking a much-needed break from their finals studying. I haven’t decided whether or not Saturday will be a complete waste, or if I’ll study between the festivities. I know what I should do, but we’ll see if it happens!

    This week, I face the challenge of meeting my first magazine deadline. I begged for stories through e-mail after seeing the budget for the Honors’ Magazine a few weeks ago and landed one that I thought was pretty interesting: an info on LEGO engineers.

    Of course, writing on LEGOs is interesting. Granted, my sister and I were more interested in Barbies and baby dolls than building cars and skyscrapers, but LEGOs were still a staple in the lives of every child in the 90’s.

    Today, there are all kinds of different LEGOs; the corporation has thought of everything from making models of The Black Pearl to making models of the Tokyo International Circuit. There’s a LEGO set out there for literally everyone (including every 30-year old man who still wants to fulfill his dreams of building and flying The Death Star).

    However, it isn’t the storyline I’m afraid won’t be interesting enough. I was asked to conduct an interview of an actual engineer within LEGO, and I’ve already run out of ideas as to who to contact. I’ve tried Mall of America’s LEGOland; they gave me the number to their corporate office in Connecticut, who were more help if I wanted to buy things from them.

    So I’m crossing my fingers: meet this deadline, and I can go home for Thanksgiving without worrying about anything!

    Anyone who knows me, knows the kind of planner I am; I had my schedule for next semester planned weeks ago. So, everyone can imagine my disappointment when I found the date that low-credit first-years can actually start registering: November 10 (which wouldn’t be so completely awful if those who didn’t have such a small number didn’t get to register almost a week ahead!).

    Now I’m stuck with a registration date that will probably leave all of the classes I want/need (that are outside of those that are required for my schedule next semester) full and keep me stuck taking classes I don’t want, or ones at all hours of the night with lousy professors.

    Again, for those of you who know me, know I’m about to lose it. I check the class postings online several times a day to make sure that mine aren’t full. For now, I’m keeping with the freaking out strategy, praying, and advocating for all other students to take classes other than mine. 

    Last week, I saw hands-down the scariest movie of my life: Paranormal Activity 3.   I mean, it was the sleep-with-the-TV-on-and-double-check-with-my-grandma-to-make-sure-she-hasn’t-made-any-deals-with-demons kind of scary; I spent the vast majority of my time in the theater hiding under my jacket with my eyes closed asking my neighbor to explain to me why everyone was screaming.

    In all honesty, I think what makes the series so scary is the reality of the situation. The movies are filmed on video camera and are about demons that you never actually see. Anyone could have them, they could be after anyone (because of anyone’s grandma), and there’s no real way to get rid of them. It amplifies every noise you hear, and makes you think everything that isn’t in the place you left it was moved by some ghost.

    The next morning, I had a regret moment and asked myself: Why did I pay money to see a movie that I knew would scare me so much that I wouldn’t really watch it? And why would I pay to see it again?

    Are scary movies and haunted houses really worth it?

    Today, I found a new term for cabin fever mixed with stress, fear of the unknown, and over-exhaustion: Midterm Madness. This week I’ve been asked to do some major studying for tests that could potentially make or break me AND plan my classes for the next semester (as well as a Plan B-Z for when my first choices of classes are inevitably full).

    And unlike my lucky friends who are Pre-Pharmacy and have their entire lives planned for them, I must do the dirty work myself with the help of a few suggestions, guidelines, and help from about fourteen professors once I officially declare my second major and enroll in the honors program. I’m busy trying to decide what classes are best for me, what kinds of classes I want to put off for future semesters, and how many credits I can handle (all questions I feel like I need a genie or crystal ball for.)

    So here’s to what I’m sure will be a no-sleep-coffee-binge-deactivate-my-Facebook week. Hopefully, it’ll be easier than it sounds.
   

    For the majority of my college career (a little over a month) I’ve been solely focusing on the positives, and I’ve found that there are many things I appreciate about college life that I didn’t get in high school.

    This past week, however, could quite possibly go down in history as the one thing I actually miss about high school: Homecoming Week- the one week out of the year where school spirit at OHS was hopping, I could take a tiny breather from homework, and life was good. And now, to get in the Homecoming spirit, I have to watch the senior moms’ dance on Youtube (very cute, by the way!) and scan through Facebook albums of the pep rally, bonfire, game, and dance.

    Even this week, “Homecoming Week” at Drake, isn’t as exciting. There are events planned, windows painted, even a foam dance party on Saturday night, but is the spirit the same? Not even close. I’m sure there are probably students here who don’t even realize what week it is, could care less about the football game and school spirit, and wouldn’t dance in foam if their life depended on it.

    So, my point is this: don’t wish yourself out of high school too fast. Everyone from the homesick to the college-lovers of each class at OHS will find something to miss, especially Homecoming.

    This week has taught me one thing: I should major in procrastination. I leave things for the  In other words, I’ve officially boarded the train to Procrastination Station.

    Before move-in, not even a month ago, I promised myself that this year would be the year I stay ahead on my reading and learn to write essays days before they were due. Instead I keep asking, “What can I do right now instead of my homework?”

    The answer? Clean the fishbowl, straighten my hair, write another blog, check my e-mail for the third time, glance at the Facebook newsfeed, take a nap, re-organize my desk, do some laundry, go to the gym, play Angry Birds, call my mom, take a walk, find something good on TV; literally anything other than finding something really productive to do.

    And as I’ve found out, you can’t catch the procrastination bug without the stress bug, too. I’d done my fair share of freaking out until I passed a beyond-inspirational poster the other day: “Stress less. Everything always finds its own way of getting done.” (Which must be true, right? Posters in college don’t lie to you, do they?)

    So, I decided to equate my college-life to the imaginary life on the poster. If I can find a middle between being a procrastinator and an over-achiever, that’s the road I’m going to pick.

    Last year, a few of my best friends from OHS and I lost touch because they graduated and started their college lives. Although we said we’d visit, Skype, and message each other on Facebook, I felt as if each time I saw them was the first time in months. There were plenty of times when I considered shooting them a text but thought better of it when I considered all of the important “college things” I’d be distracting them from.

    To stay closer this year we made a pact and started the “traveling notebook.” In it, we write entries behind our individual dividers, then send it on to the next person in line. Today, I received the infamous package and wrote my first entry.

    I talked about the generic stuff: how happy I am at school, how nice my roommate and friends are, how well my classes are going, and how much fun I’m having with my free time. I offered up my extremely comfortable futon to anyone willing to drive to see me and lied about how good the cafeteria food is here to entice them even further, then decided I’d save my better stories for my second entry.

    In the end, I’m really happy my friends and I started this tradition. I closed my entry with a line about how terribly I miss them all and reminded myself how happy I am that we’re sharing a notebook instead of a pair of jeans.

 

    Every Friday I get up before 9 to attend my “multimedia lab,” which I would usually dread. For the last two weeks, though, we’ve done nothing but learn about social media and how we can use it to our advantage. A class about Facebook: isn’t that every college student’s dream?

    We spent two labs making our own accounts on Foursquare, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+ and finding anyway we could to advertise ourselves. We were required to make posts, add friends, form circles, and check-in at Drake University- all things that my professor says will help us find jobs and internships later.

    Today, he explained what the whole class already knew: potential employers will google your name to find out things about you that you wouldn’t normally put on your resume or that your references wouldn’t say about you.

    With that, he advised one last word of caution: be professional. As he so kindly put it, “Don’t put on Facebook what you wouldn’t want your grandma to see.” Which is okay by me, because I’m “friends” with my grandma, anyway.

    The more and more time I spend on campus, the more and more I think that the Freshman-Fifteen is completely fabricated. In my life, I have never done so much walking, climbing stairs, and carrying what feels like thousands of pounds of books.

    However, some of my classmates are used to it. Bigger high schools obviously have more stairs, more square-footage (which means more walking), and less time for students to go back to their lockers. Coming here from OHS, I realize I had a huge advantage at a smaller school: I wasn’t out of breath when I got to class. I never really had to rush; in fact, there were days when I was downright slow to get to class, and I still made it on time.

    My mother’s main concern, though, was me not having a sports practice everyday. And honestly, with all the extra time I have when I’m not in class, I’ve made it a point to go to the gym, join group exercise classes, or take a walk with friends.

    With the extra miles I’m speed walking to class, and the free time I have to spend in the gym, I don’t think the freshman-fifteen is real. Come next summer when I try to put my shorts back on, I’ll let you know.



 

    After my move-in on Wednesday, it began. In my mind, this weekend set the precedent for the rest of my school year; if it went well, I would have no problems. Needless to say, I was definitely nervous.

    I kept thinking to myself: college is what you make of it. Well, what if I look back twenty years from now and wonder why I chose the direction I did? What if I’m not happy with what I make of my college experiences?

    Right away, I began to meet new people. New faces, really, because who can remember that many names at once? We were grouped by FYS (First-Year Seminar, a class that I chose based off of my interests that other students with the same interests pick, too), and I was surprised at how quickly we began doing little ice-breakers and conversation starters. I was even more surprised to find how easy it was to find something I had in common with almost all of them.

    And I am happy to report that after the weekend was done and our scheduled social lives were over, I began receiving text messages from floor-mates and classmates who genuinely wanted to see me; my social calendar started to fill, and I am beyond happy to know that some of these one-time acquaintances will be my friends for the rest of my life.

    About the author: Taylor Larson of Coal Valley, a 2011 graduate of Orion High School is now a freshman at Drake University, Des Moines.