[Note 2: My mom really did bug me until I posted this.]
It’s almost Thanksgiving, ducklings, a fact that is at once both relieving and terrifying to me. It’s a relief because to be honest I feel like I could use a few days of not having class, where I can just collapse onto my bed and sleep for hours at a time. Seven hours, even. Maybe — I know this is a lot to ask for — maybe even eight or nine.
…Sleep and I have been somewhat estranged this week, I don’t know if you can tell.
But, of course, the flip side to that is that in addition to seeing my family and sleeping and cooking delicious food, I need to use the available time in order to do work. A lot of work. Work that I may or may not have been sort of avoiding for the past few days.
But enough of that! Back to the recap of my week to date.
[Under the cut: Spring Awakening, Oh! Megan, the beginning of my sure-to-be-illustrious (not really) career in voice acting, and a minor — minor! — rant about the future.]
I didn’t actually do that much during the beginning of the week; I had five to eight pages of my thesis due for a class presentation, so I spent a lot of time holed up in my room alternating between desperate procrastination and reluctant writing. I did manage to finish the five pages, which was an interesting experience, even if during the discussion section of my Thursday presentation I did realize that I’m probably going to have to scrap most of it, or at the very least Frankenstein it and use its bits very sparingly in my actual draft. It’s cool, though, I didn’t like them very much anyway.
So aside from homework (I also have a short story due Tuesday), I basically just made a variety of stirfries (stirfrys? Spelling?) and salads and ate ice cream. Until Thursday, that is, when I went to see Oh Megan! (sex education speaker Megan Andelloux) give a talk. Well, actually what happened is that I went to see her speak, was unfortunately late, and was denied entrance, which led to perhaps the most amusing denial-of-entrance speech I’ve ever gotten:
CFA Employee: “Sorry, there are too many people, I can’t let you in. Would you like a vibrator?”
Me: “…Sure?”
Apparently they just had a giant box of vibrators to give out to the attendees, and there was enough to serve as a consolation gift to anyone who got turned away. Of course, in the end I actually managed to get in, mostly because there was a thing at 8 pm at the Career Resource Center for Google that I was considering going to, and it was already 7;15, so I figured I might as well join the two dudes sitting on the window ledge outside with their ears pressed to the glass. It worked surprisingly well, actually, but I’m pretty sure one of the other employees took pity on us and was like, “…there are three empty seats scattered in there. We can fit you in.”
After that I felt like skipping out in the middle to go to the Google thing would have been ungrateful or something, so I ended up staying. I don’t regret that decision, since Megan was hilarious and succinct and wonderful as always, but I do have… mixed feelings, I guess. Recently a lot of my friends have been doing things to prepare for the future — networking or applying for things or interviewing for Princeton in Asia, as Has-Been-Mentioned Housemate Natalia went to New York to do just yesterday. I… have not. I have not, because thinking about the future gives me hives, and I’m pretty sure actually planning for it would give me a heart attack.
But the Megan vs Google thing seemed almost metaphorical for the two issues I’m kind of stuck between this semester, namely: do you live in the moment or live for the future? Do I focus on my thesis, or on enjoying my senior year, or do I focus on what’s going to happen after graduation?
…Okay. I’m going to write a paragraph, a single solitary paragraph about this, and then we are going to skip it and pretend I never said anything and move on with our lives, okay? Here goes:
This exact issue, this tension, is part of why I’m never thrilled to be asked what my post-college plans are. Because how am I supposed to balance this? How are any of us supposed to navigate between focusing on this last year of college, of grades and theses and this last uncomplicated year with friends that we really get before we graduate and have to move onto the real world, of the research that’s supposed to be taking up all of my free time and energy — how do I do all that but simultaneously prepare for my future, network and apply and consider my potential options? How am I supposed to figure out what I’m going to be doing in seven months when I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing right now?
Aaaaaaand we’re done. Moving on!
So that was my Thursday night, anyway, and then on Friday night I went to see Spring Awakening with a few of my friends, including Housemate Katie. It was a good production, although I have mixed feelings about certain aspects of it, including the actual script of the musical itself. The heart of Spring Awakening is the music, though, and the cast were all incredibly talented singers, so that worked out. (Also a shout-out to the musicians in the pit, who are just as if not even more freakishly talented, and I don’t just say that because the cellist is a fellow Anthropology major in my thesis seminar.)
After Spring Awakening, Housemate Katie and I chilled at our friends’ house for a while and had a very long conversation that ranged from weddings to politics to child abuse, which was interesting and sort of random, before we started yawning and headed back to our house. Of course, instead of sleep we proceeded to watch Rags, a TRULY FANTASTIC Nickelodeon genderswapped retelling of Cinderella with Keke Palmer and Max Schneider. Seriously. This movie is amazing and absolutely everyone in the entire world needs to see it and love it like I do.
Saturday, I did… things? I don’t know, homework was involved, probably. Oh, and one of my friends was shooting part of her thesis film in our house that morning, which was an interesting thing to wake up to given that I had fallen asleep way too late the night before. It’s kind of cool to know that I’m going to see our house when I watch the senior thesis films at the end of the year, though.
Although actually, not only am I going to be seeing my house, but I’m also going to be hearing my voice, since on Saturday night I did some voice acting for this year’s only animated senior thesis, which is being done by the boyfriend of Delightful Housemate Kristen. Fun, right? I get to play a bullying 12-year-old boy. Really, there’s nothing quite as flattering as getting an email telling you that you’re just really well-suited to playing a pint-sized asshole who’s getting progressively more addicted to laughing gas.
…No, really, it was terribly flattering, although it was sort of hard to overcome what are apparently my naturally feminine speaking patterns, however that works. Apparently guys usually drop the ends of their sentences and girls usually go up? And actually, recording was really amusing too, since I spent most of it with my fingers in my mouth (to simulate having a swollen jaw/cheek), and then also spent probably a good ten to fifteen minutes recording incidental noises, like breathing. And screaming. Fun fact: I am very good at breathing. Screaming while still sounding like a dude? Well, we’ll see the finished product, I guess.
And oh, boy, this is already longer than I really like my blog posts to be, so I’ll try to wrap things up. Suffice to say that I ended up leaving on Sunday for New York to stay with Lovely Sister and go to a concert, and subsequently ended up leaving with her to go home for Thanksgiving. As I finish typing this, I’m on a DC-bound bus, waiting for my chance to fall into my bed and pass out.
I’ll catch up with you again sometime this weekend, ducklings. I’m off to have a truly delicious Thanksgiving, and hopefully get a metric boatload of homework done; I hope you guys have an excellent week, whether you celebrate or not.
[Original tags on this post: as I post this I am no longer in New England and it is great, awesome movies, happy thanksgiving!!!, here is where I admit shamefacedly that I have never actually seen any of the prior senior thesis films,homework stuff,LOOK I DID THINGS,oh megan!, second stage is the best stage, theater]
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