Their hearts were full of spring…

I spent my spring break on campus.  It’s true, I am that cool.  Granted, staying on campus was not my first choice.  I would have much rather gone up to Chicago/Holland to see any of the various people I know up there.  However, money would not allow as much.  Money pretty much wouldn’t allow anything.  So I stayed on campus, to work on my senior paper and to watch the kids I nanny.

I was nowhere near productive in my senior papering.  I spent one afternoon working on it.  Granted, I worked very hard for those few precious hours that the library was open (I understand that most students weren’t on campus, so the library didn’t need to hold regular hours…except that the vast majority of students who did stay on campus were there to do work, namely in the library.  We all got screwed over).  But all I managed to do was footnote one section of my paper.  They’re some damn good footnotes, but I really needed to add a lot of content to my paper.  Which is why I’m still awake at 3am, the Monday morning after spring break.  Full rough draft due Tuesday, I’ve got about half the necessary length and only a third of the needed content.  Damn it.

I did have a really great time during break though.  Because my silly little freshman dorm wasn’t open for the week, I stayed in my favorite East Village apartment, home to Rachel (my four year best friend at Rhodes), Lucy (my sophomore roommate), Ruthanne (a dear friend from RUF), and Amanda.  All of the girls were out of town save Lucy, and it was fantastic.  Because we lived on different sides of campus last year and have both been ridiculously busy this year, I hadn’t hardly seen Lucy since we were roommates.  So I and forgotten how perfect the two of us are together, how well we understand each other, and how we function in exactly the same ways.  Which is to say that we both spent the entirety of spring break on the couch, with our laptops, watching movies/tv and eating.  Granted, we did go to two movies in the theatre (The Other Boleyn Girl, which I wouldn’t recommend, and In Bruges, which I wholeheartedly recommend).  We also spent a lot of time talking about life and faith and the future and politics and art, as is pretty typical of college students in general and senior in specific.  We especially enjoyed getting all bundled up and traipsing around in the 7 inches of snow we got Friday afternoon/night.

But now that spring break is over, it’s time to get back to work.  In some ways, I’m not really looking forward to the rest of March.  In fact, the last week of the month is going to be utter hell.  In that week alone I have a final draft of my senior paper due Tuesday, a presentation of that paper at the Women’s Studies Symposium on Wednesday, a feminist theology paper and presentation on Thursday, and potentially my senior defense also on Thursday.  And Peer Ministry Council’s semesterly campus-wide worship service that Tuesday, for which I am leading worship.  Aaggghhh!  I also have a feminist theology paper due in about 12 hours, a presentation of that paper this Thursday, a full rough draft of my senior paper due Tuesday, a propsal of my senior paper for the Symposium due this Wednesday, a full outline of my final feminist theology paper next Wednesday, and daily quizzes for my violence and the Bible class.  And probably other things that I can’t remember.

Holy hell.  That’s insane.  I’m clearly handling it well, since I’m sitting here at now 3:45am blogging instead of senior papering.  I’m enjoying a lovely cup of Ugly Mug coffee, Saving Grace blend.  I love me some Ugly Mug, and I’m so sad that the original shop closed before I came to Memphis.  Along with my heavily creamed and slightly sugared coffee is a bag of popcorn.  This, my friends, is my official all-nighter food.  Mostly because I pull all-nighters in the Chaplain’s office, and that’s generally all there is to eat up here. 

I also drank a cup of Republic of Tea’s ginger peach tea earlier.  Absolutely fantastic.  I’ve always wanted to be a tea drinker.  I feel like drinking tea is a little quirky in a not-hipster sort of way, and very cozy and homely and a little nerdy.  All things I want to be.  Because neither of my parents were raised in the south, we never had sweet tea growing up.  I feel like I’ve missed out on a huge part of southern culture, and I just haven’t managed to develop a taste for it.  I do love to drink certain kinds of hot tea, though.  Mainly mint and fruit teas.  They’re not my favorite beverage, as they’re a little thin, but they’re perfect in certain times and places (I have this weird thing about “thick” beverages…milk, apple cider, coffee, orange juice as opposed to water, apple juice, tea, etc).

 (Also, I meant to mention before that there is one really great thing about March.  Actually, several.  The most obvious is the NCAA tournament.  Easter break aligns with the first weekend of the tournament, which means that I get to do nothing but watch basketball for days.  Glorious!  Another thing is the possibility of going to Birmingham over Easter break.  I also expect to hear from Vandy and Princeton any day now (hopefully that will be great).  However, the thing that I meant to mention was that my friends Jeff and Miles began their attempt at a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail yesterday.  I’ll be meeting up with them, as well as our friends Erin and Myles, at Hot Springs, NC on March 30.  I received two drunken voicemails from the guys the night before they left, which has gotten me pretty excited about seeing them.  And I’m just generally excited about their hike.  Jeff’s blogging about the hike, to the best of his ability.  They’re pretty cool kids, you should check it out.)

Protected: It is like a balm, it is like a jewel…

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Cabbages and kings…

I find it a little amusing that I wrote in my last post (so long ago, my apologies!) that I expected my interest in fundamentalist Mormon literature to continue into this year.  I actually had absolutely no idea at the time that very topic would become my senior paper.  It actually baffles me that the culmination of my undergraduate education is a paper about sex and violence in fundamentalist Mormon polygamy.  Because I’m actually breaking the rules and not writing my paper on a topic with which I’ve done previous study.  I’m also breaking the rules by writing on a topic with which no faculty in my department has any familiarity.  Ooops.  Imagine that, me ignoring the rules and doing what I want (I may or may not feel pretty awesome doing original scholarship…which in other departments at Rhodes isn’t that big of a deal, but in the RS department, it kinda is).

In any event, it’s pretty fascinating.  And rather depressing.  However, it ties in well with my two other classes this semester: Feminist Theology and Violence and the Bible.  All that to say, my semester essentially consists of reading about rape and sexual assault.  I assure you, it’s good times.

I am, however, no closer to figuring out what I want to be when I grow up.  I believe I’m just about to the point where it really doesn’t bother me…but not quite.  I’m a little anxious about not getting into seminary (I’ve learned to not be so sensitive about using that word, especially since my top choice is now a seminary and not a divinity school).  Because if I don’t get in anywhere, I need to really start thinking about where my life is going and how I might steer it in that general direction.  Regardless, I still very much have a job in the Canyon this fall.  Which puts me in a much better position than most of my comrades here.  Except, of course, my friend Matthew, who’s gotten into every seminary to which he’s heard back from, got a full ride to one of them, and was asked to apply for the premiere scholarship at his top choice.

It’s all very strange that this is the end.  I’m pretty sure I won’t really start believing it until September or so.  Which will be a little bittersweet, seeing as the past two September’s I’ve just wanted to leave school and go back to the Canyon.  But I’m sure that this September I’ll want to not go to the Canyon and instead go back to school.  But I’m not convinced that’s a bad thing.  Anyone who knew me in high school can tell you that I was miserable pretty much the whole time.  Some people are made for high school; I was most certainly not.  I was very bad at high school.  And I was entirely too self-aware for my own good.  But my last semester of high school was great.  College is turning out the same way.  And I’m ok with that.