The End is Near

It is nearing the end of the school year and the “World’s Coming to an End” syndrome is going around. There are many ways which people deal with the end nearing. Here are just a few:

The Its 5 o’clock Somewhere Crowd—the people who have totally given up on going to class or doing any work. Most of their days are spent tanning in this lovely weather, drinking beer, hosting barbeques and playing golf. All I have to say, it must be nice to be these kind of people without a care in the world. But you will be screwed when it comes down to the final days of finals.

The Library Group—Yes, I noticed all of you spending hours in the library, hoping it would help. They carry around oversized backpacks with all this year’s books and their laptops. Then, when they finally make it to the library, they on Facebook, AIM and Twitter to announce to the world they are here to work and, subsequently, get stuck in conversations and get little to no work done. My advice would be to leave the technology at home and write out the paper by hand (archaic, I know). At the very least, don’t connect to the internet and I guarantee you’ll get more done.

The Doom Sayers—The people who crowd Academic Services and the Writing Center, because, most likely, they slacked off the majority of the semester and are all now Chicken Littles, proclaiming the sky is falling. Relax. If you look at the amount of work you have as a whole, you will never get anything done. If you tackle thing one by one, then you will be fine.

The Sentimentalists—This usually applies to only seniors or people transferring. They try to capture everything with a sigh, stating over-sugary sweet proclamations like, “This is our last trip to Keene.” When you know, a few months ago, they were saying, “Keene sucks I can’t wait to get out of here.” To these people, take a picture, it lasts longer.

The G-Word Bombers—Also applies to seniors. Those few jittery people who either become depressed when you mention graduation or freak out. To these people, get over it! Seriously. Everything happens for a reason. There is a reason for this new chapter in your lives.

When I Grow Up...

            Isn’t it funny when you look back on old school assignments and see what you wanted to be when you grew up? I know, personally, my aspirations included being an elephant, a Spice Girl, a teacher and a writer. Some of these goals lose their thunder after a while, especially when you discover that, as a human, there is no physical way you can grow up to be an elephant. Others stick with us, like, for me, being a writer.

            This is a topic I have been thinking about a lot lately with graduation, gulp, three weeks and counting. I wonder how I went from elephant to Spice Girl to teacher to writer to editor. I tell everyone that I want to be an editor because I used to love correcting my mom’s tests, but after seeing the hostile environment that comes along with teaching, I could never do it.

            Then, there are always those people who laughed at your dreams. I am guilty of this whole-heartedly. When my little brother told me he one day wanted to be a fry cook like Spongebob, I told him he needed to get his butt to culinary school. Well, karma struck back on that one, because guess what I do three nights a week for $7 an hour? You guessed it. I’m a fry cook.

            You have to wonder though, do recessions take away our “when I grow up” dreams? Does money and power standing intervene on achieving our dreams? Do you really think the CEO of ExxonMobil or one of those lovely Wall Street stockbrokers dreamed of being just that when they were kids? I’ll tell you a secret. I don’t think they did.

Kindle Killers

I have noticed something the last few weeks of school. When you mention a Kindle to an English major, he or she glares at you like you were the one to shoot Bambi’s mother. Not even kidding. So I decided to dedicate this week’s blog to:

Why This English Major Decided to Get A Kindle

1. Free books— The day I got my Kindle, I downloaded 22 books for $1.95. Why is that? Twenty of them were free. Yes, isn’t that wonderful? Most of the classics are either free or relatively cheap, which will definitely help when you have that B.A. in English and living near poverty level.

2. Multiple books—I pretty much accepted early on in life that I was going to have back problems like my mom because of all the books I carry around. During school, I am usually reading at least three novels at once, more out of necessity than need. I’ll go to work with one novel then really wish I brought one of the other ones instead. With the Kindle, I can carry around a hundred books and not break my back.

3. Borders closing—Along with Uno’s and Blockbuster, Borders has joined among the ranks of things I love and died during the recession. The one near my house is closing, thus making the next closest one in a different state. And I refuse to go to the Barnes and Noble. Now, I can download books without getting shipping charges from Amazon.

4. I hate small print—Yes, I will admit. You all feel the same way. When you read a novel and there is small print, it becomes associated with difficulty, or at least it comes across as really condensed. I like my font the same size as Times New Roman size 12 font at least. It makes it easier to read and thus more enjoyable.

The Kindle is not a death to books, but just makes books more accessible. I promise, owning one won’t kill books, maybe just kill less trees.

Excuse Me, Can I Smell You?

There is something about the morning that smells good. Fresh coffee, sizzling bacon, flipped pancakes, the first burst of spring air, still fresh with dew and wonderfulness. Or, if like me, you chose the cereal route for breakfast because it is less expensive and quicker, there is always the morning commute.

I know, you are thinking, you live on a college campus, what commute would that be? Keep in mind, this is New Hampshire and everything is up hill. My school takes pity on seniors, who live the farthest away from campus, and provide a shuttle that takes them up two monsterous hills to the main campus.

Now that we are all caught up, time to discuss the morning commute. Everyone smells really good. Some have probably stepped out of the shower five minutes ago. Some are donning expensive perfumes/colognes like Dolce & Gabana or Calvin Klein. And all these wonderful scents mask the stale leather seats of the tin can shuttle.

My friend and I were once lucky enough to sit in front of this guy who smelled amazing. I wanted to ask what he was wearing so I could get it for my boyfriend at the time. Because, truthfully, if I smelled that everyday, it would be amazing. The guy was soon gone, which depressed me and my nose. I haven't seen him since; he is the illusive good-smelling guy-- like Big Foot with a gift card to Express.

So when you are stuck on the stifled morning commute, or just coming into work, take a sniff. Breathe it in. Smells good, right? And if you do find that delicious smelling perfume or cologne, ask the girl/guy what she/he is wearing. Don't let good-smelling Big Foot escape from you.

Winter of Our Discontent

I know most of my entries are about weather. But I live in New England, weather is a big part of our lifestyle, as is Dunkin Donuts. Snowing in April is something that is actually commonplace but I must admit, this is not ideal.

            In March, the month that comes in like a lion….and truthfully comes out like lion if you look outside your window….it went from snowing to 65° weather to light jacket weather to flip flops to what the fuck. However, I am not one to complain about snow days and here are some options if you feel bored already:

1. Shake and bake. I usually have the urge to bake things on snow days. Like a last dying wish urge to make brownies. Usually I avoid the baking and go straight towards my world famous bacon mac and cheese, because I know my neighbors will make sure that there is nothing left with it after I am done, which is good because no one wants leftover mac and cheese everywhere.

2. Have a movie day. My roommate loves Harry Potter and she has been slowly exposing me to her culture. We have watched the first four movies on the lazy weekends of last semester. Today, we watched the fifth and proceeded to make fun of both Cedric Diggory’s death and applying Bostonian accents to random characters (i.e.  professa).

3. Kindle party. I recently got a Kindle from Amazon and joined the Kindle club of Lakeview 25, which consists of me, Katie and Caitlin. Caitlin and Katie had their Kindles out and were reading free books and celebrating having both free books and not having school.

4. Play outside. It’s snowing and you have all this snow gear, what are you going to do? Yes, even in college, building a snow man is as fun as it was when you were five. We throw snowballs, build snow men and women and make snow angels. Not to mention this one time where one of my friends chased after another during a snow ball fight. It was a hunt to say the least.