Reflections of a Recent College Grad: Part I

I graduated last Saturday after a week and a half of no responsibility. It was every college students dream. Finally, a chance to be in college without that pesky homework to work on. My choices were sometimes less than responsible, so I will spare you the details, but I don’t regret anything I did. I got a chance to get to know some people I hadn’t met before (despite that fact that we had a plethora of mutual friends). I am grateful for the time I got to spend with them and with the friends that are now much better described as family (wow, that was sappy…).

Having the opportunity to live the irresponsible life for a while has given me much more to think about as I reflect on my college experience. I am trying to avoid what-ifs and regrets about things I did not do and instead concentrate on the positive reality of what I did do. Most of these what-if scenarios revolve around people I have met during the past two weeks (or knew before, but not as well). I am sad about missed opportunities to hang out over the past four years, but I am trying to remind myself that we are made of our experiences. Had things happened differently, I would be a different person. At this point in my life, I am actually pretty content with myself, so I am trusting that it was for the best that these people did not come into my life until now. After all, it could have been worse. I might not have met them at all.

Presentation Days

Our class has been finishing up our projects by presenting our research during yesterday and today. It has been really awesome hearing what everyone has done (even though we lived these projects for two months).

Good Job Everyone!

To check out some Panama Pictures go to

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040717&id=1308540045&l=67e6974d8d

My last day of class.

I attended my last day of class as an undergraduate today. It did not feel as monumental as I was expecting. Perhaps that is because instead of sharing this feeling with a large group of others, I only have 2 other people in the same situation. Well, in a week and a day more of my friends shall join me in the "We're done with undergrad classes!" category.

In other news, I am looking forward to reading everyone's submissions for our JINS book. Also, I am applying for an internship in Montana. It doesn't pay, so I don't know if it will work out for me. But we'll see, I guess. No harm in applying.

ISRAEL POST! (8 June 2009)

It is always amusing to look back and see what I thought was important to record.

June 8
Joan left so we no longer had two people on breakfast duty. Elizabeth asked me if I would cover breakfast that day, so I did. I listened to music while I cut bread, tomatoes and cucumbers. Listened to Oklahoma and then to Jesus Christ Superstar (very appropriate given the location). We split into two groups for breakfast because we had so many people. I only helped through the first group. (Last time Truman was there they had to split into different eating groups because they didn’t get along.)
Elizabeth taught us “Waltzing Matilda.” We sang “Run, Rabbit” and “Henry VIII.” I got complimented on my singing voice. That was nice.
I don’t remember where Elizabeth took us on our adventure that day.
Went swimming in the Sea of Galilee after lunch. Finn and Collette were there. Nic played whale/shark with Finn. It was fun to watch. Nic got melon with a couple of Kibbutzniks, and then Amber, Lauren, Nic and I talked to them for a while. After that I went back to my room and sat outside and talked with a few people. Another Kibbutznik named Daniel came by and talked to us for a while. He knew the owner of the Pub/ could get it opened for us so we asked him to open it up earlier for us so he said he could get it opened at 9:30.
Dr. Appold gave the evening lecture that day. It was originally going to be outside the dorms, so I went and set up all the chairs. Then the location changed to the roof… because it was cooler there.

So since I have returned from Panama I realize that I have lost or forgotten the location of many of the things I used everyday prior to my trip. Every once in a while I will stumble upon them as I am going through things in my room. Because of this, it does not usually bother me too much if I can't find something. I know it will eventually show up. There is one situation, however, where this did not hold true.

When I returned to the States, it was the beginning of spring time. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, the trees and flowers were budding and the pollen was flying. This created a need to break out the Kleenex/Puffs/Generic Store Brand Tissues. When I was finished blowing my nose, I looked over in the corner of my room to see that my trash can was missing. This confused me greatly because I knew I could not have misplaced it. It never gets moved; I just take the bag out and then reline the can rather than taking the entire can out to the dumpster. I was quite perturbed because I had no idea what could have happened to it. I didn't think anyone would have taken it since everyone has their own trashcans, and there was no way I could have misplaced it.

I was determined to solve the mystery so I ask the members of my household if they knew the whereabouts of my trashcan. I discovered that a to-remain-nameless individual had stolen my trashcan and was using it in the basement. My sister ran downstairs and brought it to the family room. "I found your trashcan," she told me triumphantly, right before she dropped it on the floor and broke it.

So now I have no trashcan.

I saved the life of an Ant today.

A brief story to demonstrate how going to Panama changed my life.

This evening I was sitting in my living room with my housemates when one of them saw an insect running on the floor. She exclaimed, "There's a bug on the floor! There's a bug on the floor!" I said, "It's okay" and moved from my chair to look at it more closely. She said, "Kill it! Kill it!" I replied, "It's an Ant!" She said, "Kill it!" I said, "How about I pick it up and take it outside."

Then I let it crawl on my hand, and I took it outside and set it free.