Archive for the ‘classes’ tag
Slump
So it’s no surprise that I haven’t been keeping up with this blog, and the truth is that I’ve been in a pretty major slump lately, in just about all aspects of my life. My cousin Isabelle put it nicely when she called it “transition depression” over lunch a few weeks ago. I’m “graduating” in 9 days, though I have to be back here in the fall to finish up the last of my courses. I had tried to take 27 credits this semester and it turned into a train wreck; I have a habit of taking off more than I can chew and then being all surprised when it doesn’t exactly pan out the way I want it to. Read the rest of this entry »
Sensing a theme
Throughout my college career, several semesters have stood out as having a common theme, as if all my courses seem to be about the same over-arching message. More than likely it’s because I have a certain idea in my brain that I’m thinking about, and that could influence my choice of classes or what I get out of them, but sometimes it seems uncanny how similar the ideas are between the different courses.
The theme of this semester seems to be centered on objectivity and subjectivity. These are ideas I’ve dealt with a lot as a journalist, but lately I’ve really been thinking about it a lot. As I wrote in one of my papers for Covering Race lately, as a journalism student I’ve been told that objectivity is the highest ideal. I’ve pursued it, trying to keep my personal beliefs and opinions out of the discussion. I always had the feeling that perfect objectivity was unnattainable, but lately I’m feeling like even imperfect objectivity doesn’t even exist.
Not much to say
I had a good day, and I guess I’ll leave it at that. Enjoyed my classes, got a letter of recommendation from a professor I respect that was better than I could have imagined, came home and made French onion soup and fudge with the wife and finally got around to watching the first episode of The Wire. Ivona didn’t like it because it’s not fun (she loves Entourage and the Sopranos because they’re fun shows, but The Wire is a little too serious for her I guess).
That’s about it, I guess. Nothing earth-shatteringly amazing, but an all-around good day. But let’s be honest, I just posted so none of you vultures will ask for money.
Maybe it’s the weather
I think I used to be a much more passionate person. I used to care more about a lot of things. I used to get excited and worked up and interested. I feel like I’ve stagnated a lot in the past few years, maybe even since starting college, and I’m hoping I can get back to where I used to be.
Ivona said tonight that she likes when I write blog entries because it’s like a window to my inner thoughts that I don’t normally vocalize or go out of my way to share. I realized that’s largely true, and not necessarily because I don’t want to share things with her, but when I don’t write it’s almost like I don’t even think about things too deeply, or analyze my own feelings. Writing is the only way I know how to figure things out, of being truly introspective. The only time I really felt like that without having to write to get at it was when I was living in France; being in a place where you don’t really speak the language at first forces you to be pretty introspective. Oddly enough, I did some of my best writing (the non-introspective kind) when I was there. It’s part of the reason I want to go back so badly.
