Who wants to be half-naked and bronzed when you can wear itchy-scratchy sweaters and backpacks filled with textbooks and pens? More importantly, who wants to be free of all responsibility when you can find yourself staying up all night not watching episodes of Arrested Development but instead finishing up the last 4 chapters of Economics that you've put off?
Okay. I've put my return to Oberlin into a pretty bad perspective. Let's try that again:
Who wants to be brainless and sunburnt when you can be wearing striped sweaters and backpacks of knowledge?! More importantly, who would ever want to be away from Oberlin College for so long?!
Seriously. It feels great to be back. And besides, summer weather is overrated. No thank you, 90 degree weather and humidity.
It's as if everything is as I left it. Frisbees still fly across North Quad, sounds of steel drums and banjos can still be heard while walking through Wilder Bowl, and Stevenson Dining Hall still tastes lovingly forgettable (Sorry Stevie. It's sad, but more or less true). Everyone (okay, nearly everyone) that I want to see is within these 15 or so blocks. And everything that I could want to do (okay, nearly everything) is accessible here. Everything feels right.
There are also a sizeable amount of new and exciting things to do, people to see and places to go. First off, there's a new batch of 800+ students to love and hate and poke. There's a new, fully functioning Jazz Studies building that I will be spending so much time in (not true). There's a new, almost fully functioning building with new retail/restaurant space like Slow Train Café (a café, opened) and Sprouts (a juice bar, yet to be opened). And can I take a moment to gripe about how beautiful the new freshmen dorm Kahn is? It's freaking gorgeous. They've got a game room with 2 more foosball tables and 1 more billiards table than Barrows ever had. Yes, I know that I am bitter.
Finally of course, are new classes. Scheduling this semester has admittedly been a bit more stressful, and at this point, my schedule is still missing one more class. I guess it was only a matter of time before I ran into some scheduling dilemmas. Despite these problems, there are a couple of awesome classes that I am currently enrolled in (Color Theory with Susan Umbenhour and Approaches to Western Architectural History with John Harwood).
So although it's not the new year, I am going to post a list of new school-year's resolutions. They are as follows:
- Go apple picking. I have never gone in my entire life, and now that I am biking distance from an orchard, I really have no excuse not to.
- Stop wasting Saturday afternoons. They are the perfect time to get to know people, cook things, and not sleep in.
- Go to more guest lectures. Oberlin has such a wide array of awesome speakers that come to drop some knowledge on us knowledge-hungry Obies. I feel bad not taking advantage of this.
- Go sledding more. Enough said.
- Play more badminton. It's a sport that I love and that I don't play/talk about nearly as much as I should.
- Play more Settlers of Catan. It's the best board game ever, and I have finally found people that love it as much as I do. Little did I know that it's super easy to find Catan-lovers on Oberlin's campus.
- Get more comfortable with drawing/painting. Of course I'll still be silkscreening. But I want to find ways to incorporate the two (Or three? Bah. Confusing.).
If you can hear me, Oberlin, I missed you. So, so much.
