Don’t expect to hear from me until Wednesday at the latest. Why? Midterms.

Midterms run the rest of this week and next week until Thursday, I think (I should find a schedule or something). My schedule is probably not as extreme as I say it is, but still midterms are important. Remember my post about College being a chariot race? Imagine Midterms as the last corner on the first lap, only chariot races have about a dozen or so laps if not more. And as chariots are very unwieldy, midterms are an easy place for you to lose control and slam into a wall.

Yeah, the metaphor kind of got away from me there, but it still makes sense to some degree.

So, back to my original sentence; I intend to spend as much times as I can study or otherwise not goofing around. I’ve got a paper or two that I need to finish up, and some other things I need to finish up as well… yes, I am doing my blog post right now, but it’s my job; I’m supposed to inform you guys about what’s going on here at Wabash, and what’s going on is midterms.

Yay us. This week’s been too long.

Well, it’s certainly gotten a lot colder lately. Must be Fall…

I am making these assumptions because we don’t really have this kind of weather in Oregon.

Here, you can tell when it’s Fall; the weather gets colder, leaves start changing colors and all the cute fuzzy animals start disappearing… as do the bugs, so win there. You actually have a semi set time where people start to bundle up, clearly defined seasons that help you plan out your day and what you are doing.

In Oregon, you have rain.

Yeah, that’s pretty accurate

It rains a lot in Oregon. And I do mean a lot. That Thunderstorm we had a few days ago? Just get rid of the lightning and stretch it out a month or two, and you get a good idea about what it’s like in Oregon. Expecting a pleasant spring followed by a nice, warm summer? Nope, rain. Baseball game? Nope, rain. Want snow in winter? Nope, rain. Romantic date? Make sure it’s inside, because rain. Part of the reason I wanted to go to college outside of Oregon was because the year before we had so much rain that I got sick of it, and I lived there for 13 years!… Okay, I was probably over-reacting, but it was still a lot of rain.

Worse, it doesn’t even have the courtesy to be somewhat warm when it rains. Here you get a bit of humidity, but remember what I said about getting rain instead of snow? Even when we should get snow, we get rain. So not only are you soaked, you’re also frozen, probably sick, and you can barely move coherently because all you clothes are waterlogged… although that probably has to do with being soaked. Whatever.

Anyway, the weather here will take some time to get used to… Actually, I kind of miss the rain. Sorry, Indiana, but Oregon’s got something I’m a bit familiar with.

So, today I was waiting around for Film Class to start and I saw a few people touring Wabash. From the looks of them, and from their shiny red folders and name tags, they were most likely prospective students. I would have introduced myself, but since I was still waiting for class to start I didn’t really have that option (and now I am sad).

Getting new prospects is good; not only does it keep the college afloat, it brings new people in that we the students of Wabash get to interact with. Like any other large scale social and education setting, colleges tend to have small groups form among the students, and they are usually self contained 75% of the time (they will come together for certain projects). Having new people come to the college allows these groups to diversify, maybe even interact with other groups. And you get a chance to make new friends, because friends are important. Most of the people you go to college with are going to be your best friends for life (and I mean that in a serious way, not a cheesy ABC Family way [and I apologize if you watch ABC Family]).

Anyway, if those prospects do decide to come to Wabash (and I hope they do) it will brighten this place up even more… and now I’m sounding incredibly cheesy and clichéd… that’s kind of a problem…

Space.

 SPORTS! (AUUGH!!!) YOU’LL BE GOOD AT THEM!

This isn’t actually a blog about sports. I’m not much of a sports guy, and if I was all the sports I find interesting and cool have a bad case of not existing.

You wish your sports were this cool

… and you wish you were as cool as Charlton Heston

What I want to say is that college is kind of like a sport… except that sport is not football or swimming but is in fact Chariot Racing.

Bit of history: chariot racing was the sport in Ancient Rome. Yeah, Gladiator Games were all good and fun, but chariot racing was where it was at. People won or lost fortunes through chariot racing. Riots started because of chariot racing. Revolutions started because of chariot racing. Chariot racing was the football of the ancient world, with thousands of people filling up the circuits (the Circus Maximus being the most famous) to see their chariot teams compete.

What does this have to do will college? Well, chariot racing was very high stakes and very dangerous; you crash, and you have a real good chance at becoming roadkill. Likewise, college is very high stakes; you screw up once, like turn in a paper late or bomb a test, and you have a really hard time trying to catch up and not fail. I’m probably overemphasizing the stakes of college, but you can’t just wuss out and expect everything to work out in the end (this isn’t high school, after all). You need to stay focused and not get distracted by everything going on around you, or you’ll cut that corner and start making the walls go faster (40K joke; comment if you want that explained).

Remember what I said about focus last time? Yeah, keep doing that.

(Disclaimer: other than the picture of me, I do not own any images in this blog post; they belong to Studio Mir and MGM)

One Month… or thereabouts, I haven’t really kept track of time.

It’s been a month since I started at Wabash. Yes, I have been bogged down by classes and events and what have you, but that’s kind of the point. I get a chance to get out among people I don’t really know and learn about topics that I actually find interesting without having to deal with a bunch of other, less interesting topics.

Of course, there are other things that I have to deal with; I’ve been working on my time management, and I do think the pressures of college have helped me a lot in that regard. I’ve been planning out my days and picking out important things to focus on, something that I never really did in high school (and several other people can attest to). With everything going on around Wabash (be it homecoming last weekend or some big exam), having a schedule really helps me get things done, because I have a clear goal that I can focus on. And focus is everything; do you know what you can achieve with good focus. Other than staring at things for a very long time, you can get pretty much anything done. I managed to paint 47 30mm tall miniatures with focus… and actual painting, but focus was really important!

Not mine (well, the blue guy is, the other guys belong to Professor Porter), but you get the idea

… Yeah, I’m ranting now.

Anyway, happy one month of Wabash. Hopefully it will continue.