Last Day!

Today is the last day of classes. For me, it's the last day of class in my last fall semester. Whoo-hoo!

Don't get me wrong, I love college, but it's very exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course, "last day of class" means the beginning of finals, but that's okay with me. I don't really worry that much about finals, and mine are pretty evenly spread out this year, so no big deal. I actually enjoy finals week a lot, since everyone's still around, but a lot of us (engineers being a major exception) have more time to goof off than we did during the semester. After finals, though, everyone goes home, and I'm stuck here just working. It's relaxing, I'm sure, but tragically boring.

I do have one really fun thing to do during the break, though. I'm flying to South Carolina next week to go see my brother and my sister-in-law. This is the first time I'll see my brother since he got married in May. Whew. It's been forever! I think I'm finally starting to get used to life without him, but it's still hard sometimes. This trip will therefore be a very welcome treat. Plus, I love travelling to new places. South Carolina may not sound very exotic, but my bro says things are definitely a bit weird over there. Before he went into the service and was stationed in the South (Alabama and now SC), I always imagined that Southerners were pretty similar to us Texans in most ways, with maybe a few slight variations in accent and dialect from region to region. We're all kinda similar, us non-Yankees, right? WRONG. From what my bro says, I ought to bring my passport to get down there! Even the food is totally different. He says he's going to make me try boiled peanuts (apparently a local favorite, but it sounds disgusting, doesn't it?), although we can stay away from the so-called "barbecue." Haha. There will be pics and posts for y'all when I get back, of course.

Well, I could keep rambling for a while, but whatever. A lot is going on outwardly in my life right now, but nothing particularly worth writing about. I've also been living in my head a lot, but none of that is particularly good posting material either. So I'm quitting while I'm ahead. Don't want to be late for my last Greek class, anyway...

:)

Senioritis, or Something

I had the craziest thing happen to me today.

Well, it wasn't so much an outward thing that happened, so much as a thought that ran through my head. I was tempted to quit school.

Don't worry, I have absolutely no intention of throwing away all my hard work for the past 3 years. I fully intend to get this degree. But it was just one of those thoughts, that you don't even entertain seriously, but can't help but be attracted to. "I'm not pursuing a career in Classics. I just want to be a writer and have kids or something. I don't need a degree. I could really use more time to research/write the things I've been wanting to write..."

And so on.

Maybe this doesn't seem earth-shattering to most of you (most people I know gripe about school at some point or another), but for me, this is unprecedented.

My life has pretty much revolved around school, for years. It wasn't just a means to an end (I've really never been career-driven), it was an end in itself. I devoted my entire high school career to earning the scholarships I would need to pay for college; and once I got here, school remained the number one priority. I devoted the vast majority of my energies to achieving perfection in every single class; partly because I enjoy learning things (I honestly do), but mostly because I was driven by an unhealthy perfectionism (the 4.0 was an absolute must) and a need for some kind of goal to direct my life.

Last semester I was dead set on going to grad school after I finished my degree, not so much because I need a master's degree, but just because I was terrified of having to deal with a life in which all I had was a pharmacy job or some other repetitive, endless career. Life without school was this terrifying vaccuum.

In recent months, God's really been showing me just how skewed my priorities have been. (That first B I earned last semester, and my completely irrational devastation that resulted, kind of forced me to reevaluate.) I've come to recognize that I've been pretty much insane this whole time. I used to justify it in my mind, and with other people, by saying that my relentless study was the result of a desire to glorify God in what I was doing, and there may have been a grain of truth there, but I was mostly just trying to find fulfillment in school in itself. As nutty as that sounds. (Seriously, I don't expect you guys to identify with this situation. I'm not the only one who thinks I'm crazy.)

So today, when I was tempted to quit school, I was a bit disturbed on one hand, but pretty encouraged on the other. Wanting to be through means that I'm getting over this need for school as some sort of crutch. It means I view other things in my life as more important. Maybe I've turned a corner!

Or maybe I'm just a senior. :)