Day #8090 - A Weekend Away in Campustown

Under other circumstances, I might feel bad about not updating this thing in a week, but hey, I've been busy and it's not like a whole lot of people actually read this thing anyway. Chances are that if you read this blog, you also live in the same house as me and share my DNA. So there ya go.

I'm currently sitting in the South Lounge (the one that faces the quad and looks like it could belong in Harry Potter) of the Illini Union in Urbana, IL. The graduate school program I'm in is primarily online, but we are all required to come to campus once a semester for a designated weekend for class. It's been fun being back - yesterday and the day before I hung out with my friend Ali, have been enjoying this awesome weather by taking long campus walks, and even went to the Illini hockey game last night. It feels nice to be surrounded by other students and other people, even if just to do homework, rather than doing homework around the house all day. It's kind of weird though that the leaves haven't changed colors yet, here. I guess it's been too warm still.

Classes are going alright. I'm in a really good position as far as work is concerned for the class that met yesterday. My group has made a lot of good headway on our final project. I was really excited about the class that met today, but unfortunately that didn't last as long as I would have liked. The fact that I have such limited experience in schools and absolutely zero experience working in any library in any sort of capacity is starting to weigh on me. We talked about the final project for that class today and after the professor was done explaining all of it, the only thought that went through my head was "I genuinely don't think I can do this." So I'm frusturated and freaking out to say the least. As soon as I finish writing here, I'm going to do some reading for another class and just hope that tomorrow goes better. Class is only scheduled to go until 4 I think, and then I'll hit the road. If all goes according to schedule, I'll be back in Schaumburg just in time to watch How I Met Your Mother at 7 and then the Blackhawks vs. Blues game at 7:30. I figure it'll be necessary to chill out after 3 full days of classes and 3 hours of driving. Might as well try to push off the worry until at least Tuesday.

So I guess that's really it from here. I know, I know. My life is terribly exciting and you're all incredibly jealous. Have no fear, I'll be back in suburbia and my life as a hermit before you know it.

Day #8067 - Smells Like Season Spirit

For the last couple of days, I've been eying the trees on my street when I drive to and from home when I'm running errands and whatnot. Early last week they still looked the same as they have all summer, but lately I've been spotting a few golden tips here or there breaking through the monotony. Finally when I went out to get the mail this morning, it felt like the change of seasons was truly upon us. Not just because more leaves are turning golden, orange, red, and rust with each passing day, but today there was finally that autumn smell.

Strange as it may sound, that smell is one of the things I miss most about being down on campus. I miss walking outside to class this time of year, wearing jeans and a hoodie with my earbuds in, feeling a cool crisp breeze in my face that carries the smell of falling leaves, football games, marching bands, and adventures to come. Of course part of me loves the fact that if fall is finally here, that means winter and regular-season hockey is right around the corner too. But I'll take the preseason for now, that's enough for me. One of the reasons I love being in the midwest so much as that we get to actually see the seasons change gradually rather than just waking up one morning and BAM! blizzards or even worse, living someplace where the weather is just the same all year round.

It's a great smell and a fun time of the year. Is it completely crazy to say that lately, I actually like going to my classes, doing my homework, and just soaking in the season? They said on the news that yesterday's temperatures were 20 degrees above normal. Here's to hoping that the weather figures out we shouldn't be wearing shorts in late September. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go out on the porch and do more of my reading homework for today (in the comfort of an old Illini sweatshirt, of course).

Day #7997 - Finally

Well I can feel a little...different, yeah we'll go with different, now when I say "Hello readership!" because as it turns out, there are really some readers out there! Finally! Granted, this one reader who did take the time to leave a comment was anonymous and accused me of calling vegans unhealthy (which, to be clear, that is not what I said! As with anything in life, I just believe people need to make educated and informed decisions), but hey, a reader is a reader and the more, the merrier! Though for the future, I guess I wonder if I'm allowed to be a little picky and request that you at least leave a name (even if it's not your real one) - anonymous comments still feel so distant. Anyway, so that happened today!

In other news, LIS502 will finally be over after tomorrow's lecture in the morning and final exam in the afternoon. The words "totally psyched" come to mind - not that I haven't enjoyed the experience, because I really have and look forward to the things to com, but it will be nice to be back in my own house and let my brain decompress a little from this information surge that has been underway. Intense, but in a good way. Tomorrow I really would be okay with getting a B! haha

Well back to the grindstone, I suppose. Keep those comments coming!

Day #7996 - New Recruits

I really need to remember to post here in 4 days when I will now be over 8000 days old! wooot!

In other news, I will be very happy when this class is over with in a few days. Everyone who is here for the first section is completely wiped, and it was just funny today when we left lecture this morning and saw all the people who are here for the second session. I feel like a high school sophomore - we just want to warn the newbies and tell them "Start studying for the final now! Memorize the readings as soon as you can! You're not going to sleep for the next week and a half!" But then I see that they're so smiley and excited and I just don't want to be the one to ruin that haha.

Focusing has been a bit of an issue lately, and it's only becoming a greater challenge as the desire to sleep is growing. We had lecture this morning, we're about to have a discussion section now, a break before another lecture around dinner time, and then a short break before having to give group presentations tonight until 8pm. Then we have a paper due tomorrow morning at 8am, lecture, study study study, another lecture Saturday morning and then my final that afternoon. And THEN I'm done!

Keep it classy, readers!

***5:42 Edit***
Just got my paper back that I turned in two days ago. I got a B, which maybe I'd be more okay with if I wasn't such a perfectionist. Feeling good about the presentation tonight, it'll be hard to mess up the paper due tomorrow, and scared to death about the Final Exam on Saturday. Can't wait to be DONE!

Day #7993 - Intellectual Property

Good afternoon, my few but faithful readers! Hopefully the number of people actually reading this will someday increase, but for now, it's just a small group discussion. Works for me. Keeping it cozy.

I'm currently camped out in the GSLIS building (that's the Graduate School of Library and Information Science) here in Champaign and after this afternoon's lecture and tonight's discussion group, I will officially be halfway through this class (in terms of time, not necessarily in terms of work)! woot! I really am enjoying getting to know the other people here and have officially decided that right now, I'm a fan of this whole "being a grad student" thing. The 60 of us are bonding everyday over living in the dorm, needing to jump up onto the lofted beds, and the general information overload that's freaking everyone out. It's hard to put off thinking about the final exam because there's so much other stuff to get done first, but when it's less than a week away, in a normal semester I would have started studying for that already.

Anywho, it's our lunch break now until 4pm and I'm working on my paper regarding "the intellectual property rights of indigenous peoples" and basically what are museums supposed to do if, in this case, Native Americans walk in and ask for their stuff back. This paper is all I have really been able to think about for the last four days and it's already due tomorrow. Now the English major in me hates this - normally when I get a paper assignment, I like to mull it over in my head and think things out for a couple days before jumping into writing. No such luxury this week, though. I got a B+ on my first paper which I know isn't bad, but still. This is me we're talking about. I think though, with this paper due tomorrow and the time constraints on top of the 80 other things we LEEP students have going on right now, what I have written for this assignment is honestly the best I can do given everything else. So hopefully that'll be enough.

That's it for now. Not terribly exciting, believe me I know. I'll get my swing and sarcasm back soon, I promise!

Day #7991 - The Long and not-so-Winding Stacks

Every year in the back of the iBook (the assignment book that U of I sells that's all school themed) there is a list of things students should do before they graduate. And let me tell you, when I was a freshman I thought this was the coolest list ever. Like an undergraduate Bucket List. Some of the things were more common ("Play frisbee on the Quad", "Attend a barndance") while others were a little more out there ("Attend a lecture that isn't one of your own").

(On a sad note, "Ring the bells at Altgeld" isn't on this year's list, which is a bummer because that was seriously one of the coolest things I have done on this campus. Also gone is "Get free condoms from McKinley." - what is this public school coming to??)

Another item that was cut from this year's list that I had always wanted to do in the past was "visit the main stacks in the library," but for whatever reason, I just never got around to it. But today, that changed. As further part of our orientation (and we didn't even really start the class part of our class until 3:30 this afternoon), we got to take a tour of the Main Library building including going into the stacks. Awesome? I think YES!

Day #7990 - Bootcamp

Since my second day of LIS502 aka "bootcamp" doesn't technically start for another seven minutes, I figure I can squeeze out a quick burst into the blogosphere! The drive down to Champaign was fine on Wednesday and I had all of the typical "day before the first day of school" jitters. In some ways, yesterday went a lot better than I thought it would, but in others it was really overwhelming and I wasn't able to really calm down until after I talked to Mom and Dad. "Information overload" puts it kindly, but I think that after I'm able to get the stupid printing all set up here and talk to some people about what classes I should take and what I'm doing with my life, I'll feel better. In the mean time, I'll just keep reminding myself to work hard here because at least after this is vacation in August!

Not that interesting, I know. I'll try to come up with something a bit more human-interesting as the day goes on. Hopefully this class will spark the imagination.

Day #7363 - A Change in the Air

The weather here finally feels like fall. Especially in the past week, it's been all over the place ranging from the 40s to the 80s. Today was nice because it was in the mid to low 60s - threw on a long sleeve shirt and a baseball hat with my jeans and I was good to go. One thing that I kind of hate is that there's not time in my schedule right now for me to sit out and enjoy it. I would love nothing more than to just sit out on the quad with a book and my ipod and read in the afternoon. Unfortunately, the soonest I could do that is Wednesday afternoon and even then, not for very long due to meetings and whatnot. But when I finally get to, it'll be sweet.

In life outside of the classroom, things are okay. There are things especially in the social realm that I wish I had more control over, but since I don't, I'm just accepting it and counting my blessings. As the saying goes, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to accept the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." But I'm confident that things will eventually turn around - it's just got to be a matter of time, right? In the meantime, duty to my homework calls...

Day #7197 - Halfway There

There really is nothing quite like Urbana at the end of the school year. The weather becomes warm and teases you in the worst possible way - the more gorgeous it gets outside, the more time you're forced to sit in the Union or the dorms or the library and try to pour over the volumes of notes we've been compiling for the past 16 weeks. I also made the kind of random observation the other day now that the trees here have bloomed - when the flowers open up all over campus, I'm constantly reminded of the smell of clean laundry. It's so refreshing, it's like a mini-wake up boost in the middle of the day.

With every passing test, I can't believe that by the end of this week, I'm officially halfway done with my undergraduate career. I know that it's terribly cliche to say "I can't believe how fast it goes by" but the sentiment is so true. These past two years have been some of the best and the worst times of my life, but I really don't think I would trade them for anything. I wonder how different my college years would have been if I had gone to St. Mary's or ISU or Bradley. I'm sure I would be saying the exact same thing. No matter where I would have gone to school, I know I would have learned similar things, probably done similar things. I guess these lessons are the sort of life lessons that Ms. Howard was always talking about back in Discovery. I remember how she was always going on and on about how there's so much more to the world than what we become used to in our individual homes with our solitary lives and how there are so many more lessons out there to learn beyond the ones that we have in classrooms. I can't help but feel that next week when I get on that plane, I'm fulfilling a part of my destiny that maybe she saw coming but I was never sure of. The world is ours not for the taking, but for the exploring. If we took it for ourselves, then what would the future get?