I’m staring blankly into the screen of a Macintosh, nestled away in the corner of the Erb Memorial Union’s computer lab. One hour is all that separates me from an anthropology exam that I’m not ready for – not at all. The elements of a textbook mental breakdown are at play: It’s early. I’m surrounded by computers. Frankly, I can’t stop wishing I were somewhere else.
This has been a long term. I knew coming in that J202, affectionately known throughout the J-school as “Info Hell,” was going to challenge me in ways I’d previously known only in the most elaborate Japanese videogame. Weekends normally spent blowing off steam through the healthy outlet of substance abuse have been replaced by extended library trips and hours of mind-numbing annotations. The word itself is enough to make any journalism major shake in his bootstraps.
So you can imagine the dilemma I was facing when the Emerald contacted me about a potential opening for a columnist position. Being the go-getter that I am, I jumped at the chance to make a name for myself. A few weeks of field reporting proved I was ready for the big leagues, but would I be able to handle it? The responsibility of keeping pace with a class that demands a 100-page typed paper at the end of the term, coupled with the journalistic duty of maintaining a weekly column, was asking a lot. But opportunities like this don’t just come around a second time, so I stuck with my life-long motto (I was born with a birthmark on my hip that says “Go big or go home”) and went big.
Now I don’t usually ask for much. Four pairs of pants hang in my closet, which I wear on a carefully planned rotation system. A quick look through my refrigerator reveals the dietary repertoire of a well-fed 8 year old. But if there’s one thing that I’ve always wanted (besides a date with Jennifer Lopez), it’s my own column. And now I have it.
Still, all this achievement-oriented thinking has taken its toll. I’ve lost five pounds this term, and not the kind of pounds that make you excited to take your shirt off during inappropriate situations – the kind you rely on for energy. I’m engaged in perpetual warfare with my immune system. This writer is badly in need of a weekend at home.
But enough about me. How are you doing? No doubt you’re facing the same ups and downs as I am, struggling to make it through the day-to-day grind of winter term. At least I know, as I sit at my computer and neglect anthropology, that you’re all in the battle with me.
This term has taken more out of me than I ever expected to give. Like a baseball player sweating under the August sun, we’re stuck in the dog days of the 2006-07 academic year, and I’m starting to get worn down. But this is the end of week 7, people. The light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter each day. We just need to hang on a bit longer.
So as you huddle in the EMU, or the library, or the computer lab – with your class notes and essay outlines scattered around you like debris from a war zone – take a minute to look around at your fellow students, and think about what we have in common: We’re all trying to get through this term as best we can. We’re all coming down the home stretch. And we all get to do it over again in the spring.
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We’re all in this together
Daily Emerald
February 22, 2007
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