6 posts tagged “freshman”
I just finished my freshman year of college, but—I must say—the occasion felt less momentous than anticipated. This is probably because, unlike other years, it wasn’t really defined by a discreet, culminating moment. You know, the one you come to expect after the first twelve transitions from academic year to summer: a bell rings, papers start flying, kids start rejoicing, and—although it’s optional—the song “School’s Out Forever” should begin playing somewhere in the background.
By those standards, 13th grade ended in somewhat disappointing fashion. Everyone finished their exams at different points in the week, and I was one of the stragglers. And even once all the academic obligations were out of the way, it was still no occasion to deck the halls with reams of loose-leaf. Quite the opposite, actually: dorm rooms had to be spic, span, and thoroughly emptied of our possessions by move-out day. The worst part is that I couldn’t even play “School’s Out Forever” because I had already sent my speakers to storage. Somewhere, Alice Cooper was wincing.
But “all’s well that ends well” isn’t a saying I always ascribe to. On the whole, freshman year was good to me. Maybe it was me who wasn’t good enough to it. I could have flossed more, slept less, checked my mailbox more, spent fewer monies. But what am I saying? “Self-improvement” is something to think about at the end of the real year, not the academic one. I’m just happy to be back within 30 miles of DailyMe’s Florida office again.
I'll be working part-time for my favorite personalized news service this summer, and can't wait to be back. Expect to read about some intern adventures that are twice as funny, twice as wacky, and twice as office-y as last year's.
As Always - Peace, Love & Personalized Media,
- John the Intern
There’s a rumor going around that my school plans to rid itself of all printed books and literature in the next 25 years. Somehow I doubt it’s true, but the hypothetical is funny to think about. The transition would just leave too much space. It would be gratifying to see my alma mater blossom into the least claustrophobic school in the country, but that’s about the only foreseeable perk. Space saving is cool and so is the security of digital archives, but let’s face it—books and shelves are essential ingredients for aesthetically-pleasing interior design. To get rid of one would be to render the other useless, and then what would we fill rooms with? Still, after experiencing a year’s worth of frustration at campus libraries and bookstores, the solution doesn’t seem all that bad.
On the surface, my college’s undergraduate library is no more offensive than the one at my high school: No drinks allowed, no talking allowed, and—if you really have to—try not to be too loud. The major difference, though, is that my high school library was just a study space with decorations. Here, I have to interact with the leather-bound stacks that once served as background. And I’ve learned that checking out books is harder than it used to be. Of course, then I only researched within the kids’ section (where the books are arranged by color, and separated into “pop-up” style or “not”.)
Today I have to contend with something called the Dewey Decimal System if I want to find the right title. The name may sound like it belongs to some sort of candy-making machine, but mark my words-- DDS is not delicious or systematic. It’s just an ineffective method of sorting books. Here is the argument I would have with the guy who invented the Dewey Decimal System (presumably Mr. Dewey):
ME: “With all due respect, sir, I find it much easier to find books in stores, when they are classified by genre and positioned alphabetically-by-author. Why don’t libraries just do that?”
MR. DEWEY: “Well does your hot shot bookstore even have an eighth as many texts and multimedia as a college library?”
ME: “No, but a bookstore exists that carries eight times as many books as my bookstore. You can alphabetize no matter how many you have.
MR. DEWEY: “By gosh, Lad, I stand corrected. You have decimated my decimals.
But don’t get me wrong, it’s not like campus bookstores aren’t irritating in their own right. Go in to buy a hoodie your first week there (obligatory,) but don’t waste your time when it comes purchasing books at the beginning of term. 40% of the time they are cheaper elsewhere, 40% of the time you can borrow one from someone who already took the class, and 20% of the time they aren’t even necessary.
Books complicate my life these days, but I’m still glad that they exist. Whether they die out at the hand of the computer scanner--or else by something more Bradbury-esque--I’ll appreciate them while I can.
Peace, Love & Personalized Media,
-John the Intern
There’s a rumor going around that my school plans to rid itself of all printed books and literature in the next 25 years. Somehow I doubt it’s true, but the hypothetical is funny to think about. The transition would just leave too much space. It would be gratifying to see my alma mater blossom into the least claustrophobic school in the country, but that’s about the only foreseeable perk. Space saving is cool and so is the security of digital archives, but let’s face it—books and shelves are essential ingredients for aesthetically-pleasing interior design. To get rid of one would be to render the other useless, and then what would we fill rooms with? Still, after experiencing a year’s worth of frustration at campus libraries and bookstores, the solution doesn’t seem all that bad.
On the surface, my college’s undergraduate library is no more offensive than the one at my high school: No drinks allowed, no talking allowed, and—if you really have to—try not to be too loud. The major difference, though, is that my high school library was just a study space with decorations. Here, I have to interact with the leather-bound stacks that once served as background. And I’ve learned that checking out books is harder than it used to be. Of course, then I only researched within the kids’ section (where the books are arranged by color, and separated into “pop-up” style or “not”.)
Today I have to contend with something called the Dewey Decimal System if I want to find the right title. The name may sound like it belongs to some sort of candy-making machine, but mark my words-- DDS is not delicious or systematic. It’s just an ineffective method of sorting books. Here is the argument I would have with the guy who invented the Dewey Decimal System (presumably Mr. Dewey):
ME: “With all due respect, sir, I find it much easier to find books in stores, when they are classified by genre and positioned alphabetically-by-author. Why don’t libraries just do that?”
MR. DEWEY: “Well does your hot shot bookstore even have an eighth as many texts and multimedia as a college library?”
ME: “No, but a bookstore exists that carries eight times as many books as my bookstore. You can alphabetize no matter how many you have.
MR. DEWEY: “By gosh, Lad, I stand corrected. You have decimated my decimals.
But don’t get me wrong, it’s not like campus bookstores aren’t irritating in their own right. Go in to buy a hoodie your first week there (obligatory,) but don’t waste your time when it comes purchasing books at the beginning of term. 40% of the time they are cheaper elsewhere, 40% of the time you can borrow one from someone who already took the class, and 20% of the time they aren’t even necessary.
Books complicate my life these days, but I’m still glad that they exist. Whether they die out at the hand of the computer scanner--or else by something more Bradbury-esque--I’ll appreciate them while I can.
Peace, Love & Personalized Media,
-John the Intern
It’s mid-February, a time of year typically characterized by chilly weather and the red glint of St. Valentines Day. On a college campus in the wake of the 2008 Presidential Primaries, though, these are negligible conditions. The political climate here is hot, and I’ve only seen red when it’s accompanied by white and blue. All I’m trying to say is that my school, presumably like all others, has gotten really into this election. And like anywhere else, no two students are very like-minded on the matter.
Walk through the campus plaza on a given afternoon and you’ll be given a million different sides of the story: vote for him, vote for her, vote for the other him, vote for the old guy. At least Ron Paul’s people tried not to impose less than the others, asking only that I YouTube their candidate. Considerate, except I still use a 56K Modem; that’s still asking a lot of me.
As an impressionable freshman just shy of 230 months old, I feel pressure from all sides. People more verbally affrontive but not necessarily more informed than me are trying to push my hand in all sorts of directions. It’s a time that calls for self-inquiry. Who do I want to lead my country? Should I even belong to a major party? My generation has been raised on the “none of the above” option, so it’s not my nature to feel satisfied with choice A or choice B. That is, until I found out that only members of a major parties can vote in primaries.
So I ultimately compromised my round views to fit into a square party’s peg, but I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. Without enthusiasm, it seemed a feat to brave the long line at my polling station. Fortunately the mail-in-ballot I had acquired earlier allowed me to bypass the queue. I was surprised that most of the other people turned out the old-fashioned way, waiting for hours on end to cast their vote on the spot. We’ve all heard about poorly informed political decisions, but these were poorly informed methods of getting the piece of paper on which they could make these political decisions.
It is important to note that the ballot wasn’t all about choosing a new president; in fact, there were three additional legislative propositions for my state to vote on. I answered “no” to all of them without reading descriptions, because my parents didn’t raise me to be a “yes man.” And isn’t that the sort of logic that has driven the system for years? Not a rhetorical question, I seriously want too know if my reasoning seems too faulty.
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.
-John the Intern
My college touts a wide array of academic opportunities, but I wish this emphasis on variety carried over to campus dining. Sure, the cafeteria staff provides plenty of options at each mealtime—it’s just that they all taste the same. No exaggeration: I know what my favorite dish looks like, but it’s at different times been labeled both “calzone” and “cupcake”.
But my main criticism isn’t of the cooks or their laxative-charged foodstuffs; it’s of my own finicky tendencies. I’ve felt these same sentiments build up many times before, and I fear it says something about me…maybe about everyone. It says that if I eat anywhere for four months I’m going to get tired of it. In a sense, it’s only a matter of time with any steady food provider before the romaine lettuce starts to look greener on the other side.
Not to say mass dining is all bad news. As a matter of fact, it offers some commodities that home cooking never did. Just ask any cereal fan: diverse selection (sugary and granola), and someone gets paid to sniff out the stale boxes. Plus, we all know that spaghetti tastes best with black hairs from someone you don’t know (Mom’s were always so blonde and flavorless).
As for finding recourse elsewhere on campus, the pickings are pretty slim. To make matters worse, the few existing alternatives do everything they can to sell themselves short. Seriously, not one of the available eateries will take the plunge and call itself a restaurant. Instead, we have cafes, snack shops, and smoothie joints—not one of which sounds likely to fill a belly. When I arrived in September, I may have freely associated coffee shops with the word “hip”; now, it’s more like “hungry”.
So where do I go from here? There’s always the option of buying property in the middle of campus, building a strip mall, and making sure to include a couple Chicken Kitchens. Or else I’ll just swallow my pride. How long would that tide me over for? And as far as the so-called freshman 15 plague when you go away to school – IMPOSSIBLE I say.
At any rate, I wish the blogosphere a “Happy, Merry whatever you’re celebrating”, and I’ll see you all in the New Year.
Peace, Love, and as always Personalized Media,
-John the Intern
The college life is oft credited for its lack of structure, but I see this as more of a mixed blessing. Because the unforced hand must bear a lot of responsibility, and the choices we make—as perceived by others—are completely our own. And just like under any government structure, students are frequently confronted with trade-offs for which they must pick a side.
In a co-ed dorm with a co-ed bathroom, it’s either privacy or hygiene (you are never alone in there, but it’s the only place you can get a good hand-wash these days); and when it comes to biking across the campus’s full sprawl, it’s either safety or style (refusing to wear a bike helmet may be man at his most irrational, but for some reason [the chin strap], many share his stance.) When it comes to finding good outside news coverage, however, our choice is more of an ultimatum. The only two options: ignorant bliss, or find it for yourself. So here is where my summer internship at DailyMe REALLY made it easy to choose the latter.
The only universal adjectives to describe a college campus are “insulated” and “digital” and hopefully DailyMe will find a large captive audience in my demographic. I mean, it’s not that no other news reaches us: each dining hall is well stocked with copies the regional rag, and we also receive a student-run daily. When I pick one of those up, though, I seldom get beyond the classified ads (psychological experimenters offer up to $25-a-week for willing subjects). Bottom line: I seriously give DailyMe props for creating a platform to give me all the information I want in the most convenient way possible and FREE – muy importante to the average college kid.
And it adds some structure to my day, too. I chose the automatic print delivery option (the only dependable paperboy left in this world), and it’s the best alarm clock I could ask for. My laserjet’s print-in-progress sound is just what I need to get my feet on the floor (I love the smell of toner in the morning). The way I see it, this system will only fail to wake me come the day when there is no news to print—and is it even worth waking up, in that case?
As far as my former Florida officemates - well, I haven’t seen them since long before their launch date. I do I share the occasional text message, email, IM and/or phone conversation with Mrs. Boss. It seems as though things are off to a real good start. I did hear that the atomic clock synchronizing dilemma peaked once again with the changing of weeks for Daylight Savings this year, but it’s safe to say that was a secondary business interest of the CEO.
And now for the part of my blog you really want to know…college life is awesome! (but you knew that already – right?) - More to come about the daily trials and tribulations of my freshmanhood in my upcoming blogs. The DailyMe Intern is back baby!
Peace, Love, and Personalized Media -
-John the Intern
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