Highlights/Lowlights
Ally reflects on the balance between the extremes of "college is stressful!" and "college is amazing!"
Ally reflects on the balance between the extremes of "college is stressful!" and "college is amazing!"
This sentiment has been reiterated before, but Carleton terms are a 10-week sprint, not a marathon, like a semester system might be. It’s super hard to have time to stop and think, or just time alone to even process the events that I’ve been going to or what I’m feeling about any one thing or person. I want to try slowing down a bit, being more patient with myself and the people around me, instead of rushing through everything!
Highlights
I’ve been to two concerts this term so far. The first was Kanye West, at the Xcel Center. One of my best friends entered an I Heart Radio lottery for tickets weeks prior and was notified the day of that she had won tickets. Who gets a pair of two free Kanye West tickets?? Even though we are in Northfield- an hour away from the venue, we had to go. After scrambling all afternoon, we found other Carls to carpool with and relished in pre-Yeezus Chipotle pit stop, a commodity we don’t have in Northfield – even though El Triunfo tastes better.
I also saw Kishi Bashi in concert at First Avenue, in Minneapolis. He is an amazing performer and had the crowd jumping around and then silently swaying to the beautiful simplicity of his violin a few moments later.
This past Sunday night, Farm House hosted Friendship Fest, an event to make Carleton students meet other Carleton students and force community-building. However cliche/cheesy/unnecessary it is (because we already have great friends and community), it is exciting and also terrifying to sit down with someone you’ve never met and have a ~1-2 hour long discussion.
The event is based around a New York Times article that has 36 questions that “Lead to love.” In our case, it is intended to spark a platonic caring, friendship or just force a conversation with a new person. I don’t know if I’ll stay in touch with the person that I talked with, but it was an interesting social experiment and I like the intentionality behind it. No phones, no distractions, just talk to someone.
Lowlights
My Constitutional Law midterm exam was quite stressful and I’m relieved that it’s over. While I probably could have been more efficient in my studying, it took me so long to memorize facts about Supreme Court cases and information from the Federalists Papers, which is stuff that I think I first learned in 5th grade, and yet, can’t remember at all. I had so much coffee studying before that I couldn’t sleep very well the night before the exam – rookie mistake.
Stuffy Cold: Dorms are a incubator for germs and I’ve caught a cold that is going around. We can’t really afford to get sick for a prolonged period of time, (again, the 10-week is sprint). I’ve been sniffing around and trying to sleep some more.
I’m missing the quality/quantity/flavor of New York food. This happens to me frequently in Northfield; I love flavorful food and there is a limited amount of restaurants here, or different places to go.
It feels like I completely live my life in extremes, and go from being super stressed to being ecstatically happy and the time in between I’m trying to catch up on reading assignments. My roommate and I have been talking a lot about these extremes and how to best deal with them, how to look forward to fun events while also looking forward to the simplicity of doing homework in Sayles or in the libe. In some ways bouncing from one extreme to another, helps avoid a potentially boring routine as there always is something different happening but it isn’t necessarily the most sustainable tactic to manage work/academic/social life balance. We’ll see if I come up with other coping strategies but I’m in my third year and haven’t figured out a better method, please let me know if you have suggestions.
Ally, a native New Yorker transplanted to the Midwest, is an American Studies major. She loves to drink coffee or kombucha while learning about environmental policy. She also plays Ultimate Frisbee casually and wishes she was better at napping. Read on to meet the rest of our bloggers.