12 posts tagged “college”

    So I went to my first frat party last night and, to say the least, I was underwhelmed. The only difference I can see between frat parties and high school parties is that the people are older, there are kegs, the music is louder, and everything is covered in beer. Seriously. The floor, the walls, the stairs, the tables, all glistening and wet. It's kind of gross. But I learned a few things that I figured I would share:

• When you get the feeling that you shouldn't wear flats, don't wear them. Seriously. You have an intuition for a reason, and that reason is so that you don't get your feet soaked walking around the Rutgers campus in a torrential downpour. (To be fair, I didn't even know we were going anywhere but the mall... spontaneity is fun, but dirty.)
• GPS is a godsend.
• Don't sit on the toilets. I don't sit on any public toilets, and let's just say that that warning is magnified tenfold every time you step into a frat house.
• You will not be able to find cups. Every cup you find will be dirty. Just give up.
• People will bump into you and not apologize.
• People will make out right on top of you and then fall over in a drunken stupor.
• "I'm okay to drive" means "Wrestle the keys the hell away from me before I kill us all." Designated drivers are a good thing.
• You don't like rap, top 40, or hip hop? Get used to it, because it's the only thing you're going to hear for the next five hours. Over and over and over. But it's okay, because I learned something: life really is hard out there for a pimp.
• No matter how many blankets you get, or how many different ways you try to orient yourself with your friend on one college bed, you will be cold and uncomfortable and someone will end up falling off the bed.
• Just keep a toothbrush on you at all times. And PJs in your car, if at all possible. And your ID, for that matter.
• There will be semen on your friend's roommate's pillow.

depth

    My Princeton University interviewer asked me a question about what I am planning to do this summer, a question about which I had been thinking but had not formulated a coherent answer to in my mind. I take a strange (or merited, depending on your views) pride in being a future-oriented person, but I really just have had so many different ideas of what I want to do this summer that I haven't been able to choose one particular path. Up until a few days ago I've had some vague daydreams about traveling and last-minute high school bonding experiences, but let's be serious: I'm sort of missing the, oh, twenty-thousand spare dollars I would need to save up to embark on an epic Verne-ian (all hail pseudo-literary terms) journey. I'll probably go on some lame road-trip or something with Eliav*, but I do need to get a job to make money for college. I would get a job in a store, but let's just say I wouldn't exactly thrive in a retail environment.**
    And so I started thinking about getting another internship, since I generally enjoyed mine at the local paper last year. I've been looking around for one and by the looks of it the Village Voice is looking for a photo intern, so I think I'll give that a try. I'm worried that I'll be considered "too young" for most of these internships, which is really a pity because I don't see what (besides age) is different between me and an upperclassman college student. Worth a try though, right? I just need to get organized and I'll be able to explore my options further. Internships probably won't pay much (or anything), though, so I don't know if I'd even be able to substitute that for a job. Maybe I'll try some more freelance photo work? Oh well, there's still time. There will be time, there will be time.****

*Side note: Eliav and I decided to go on an adventure last week after band practice. Since he just turned eighteen, our main goal was to (legally) drive past twelve. Dream big, right? We grabbed his guitar and my tambourine and made our way to the Long Branch beach with his handy-dandy cellphone GPS system. And let me tell you, common sense alerted me that the beach would be colder than Springfield (a decidedly non-beach area), but I most certainly not expect to be transported to the Arctic circle the second we got near the boardwalk. "Near" is sort of a vague term-- let's just say that there was a pointy fence standing in the way of me and sandy happiness, and the fence was winning. We ended up getting home at 11:30 anyway, so Eliav and I just drove around aimlessly until midnight, both letting out an anticlimactic "woo" once the clock struck twelve. You know exciting the whole Cinderella story was when you were like four? Yeah, invert that to understand how fun that "adventure" was.
**This is the scenario:
(CHARLINE stands in the corner, pretending [but failing] to be interested in the "intricacies" of multicolored velor tracksuits. Enter LADY.)
CHARLINE: (frightening grin) Hello! How! MayIHelpYou?!?! Wooooooooould you be interestedinnnnnn anything in particular???
LADY: Um, no, I-I'm good, thank you.
CHARLINE: You're good?? You're just good? Because really, I think you're excellent!!
LADY: (shying away) Um, I'm going to go... elsewhere... (moves to another part of the store to look at overpriced jeans)
CHARLINE: (moves up close to LADY) You're looking at those? No no no, I much prefer these (picks up a pair) for my side job. They keep me warm on the streets and give the customers just the right taste. I mean people say that men don't want to buy the cow if they can get the milk for free, but baby, my milk don't come free! (furious hip-shaking)***
***Keep in mind that this wouldn't be retail-induced insanity but rather a way to keep myself amused.
****That reminds me! I've been keeping in mind that I wanted to re-read some Eliot (The Wasteland &c. is sitting on my end-table buried under The Portrait of Dorian Grey and Science of Sleep [which I have yet to watch]). Someone please add more hours onto the day! At least being a second-semester senior will free up some time.

p.s. I don't care what angry bloggers say, I like Vampire Weekend's CD. I can't really elaborate at the moment as Michel Gondry is calling me to my portable DVD player, but I think that people are focusing too much on the Ivy League background of the band. It's about the music, not the college they went to. They are certainly verbose lyricists at times, but their words match with and complement the music the way good bands should function. Plus, any band that would write a song about Oxford commas is good in my book (for the record, I hate when people don't use them).

juxtapose

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    I think today was really the first day that it hit me that my friends and I are going to be separating in less than a year. I've known most of these kids since I was four, and I can't imagine being without them for a few weeks, let alone a few months. I guess that it'll be easier to keep in touch with them with the advent of facebook and instant messaging, but what about those things that the internet cannot replace? I'm sure I'll repeat this lament twenty times over until September (and likely after that as well), so I'll keep the tirade to a minimum.

    To make things a bit happier (sort of), here's an end-of-the-year mix (although it's not so much a mix as it is a "songs I really like now" dump... I'm not really innovative or hip as far as this list goes, so don't poke fun):

Little Green Bag George Baker
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk
Queen of the Fishermen Tacks, the Boy Disaster
I Turn My Camera On Spoon
Hustler Simian Mobile Disco
You're a Wolf Sea Wolf
House of Cards Radiohead
Only Shallow My Bloody Valentine
I Am Hated for Loving Morrissey
I Want Wind to Blow The Microphones
Volcanoes Islands
Little Brother Grizzly Bear
Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning Morrissey
Alkoholik Vulgargrad
Starman David Bowie
Where Is My Mind? The Pixies

    I was deferred from Brown a few days ago. While I was initially (somewhat presumptuously, I realize in retrospect) shocked, and consequently quite upset, I've warmed up to the idea of regular decision more and more. I think that this will give me something to work for, as well as the opportunity to see which other schools (if any) want me to attend. I feel somewhat of a renewed purpose now, although upon hearing the news I had felt quite to the contrary. I wouldn't have admitted this to myself a few months ago, but I find myself gravitating more and more towards film making as a future career. I will never abandon my love for the English language nor my admiration for and enjoyment of its literature, but film making will provide me with a somewhat clearer path for the future (although jobs will likely be just as, if not more, unattainable in film making than they will be with an English degree). I am trying to keep in mind that because my interests have wavered over the past four years, at times changing dramatically, I may not necessarily be steadfastly interested in film over the next four years that I spend in college. Because of this, I don't really want to go to film school; I would still like to attain a well-rounded liberal education, but perhaps with more concentration on film work and script writing than I had originally intended.
    The only thing I can truly say that I am bitter about in this experience is that, from what I understand, there is more of a preference for male applicants this year (I actually think this has been growing over the past few years) than there is for female applicants. I've always been somewhat of a feminist (albeit a crap one in terms of stereotypes), and I guess that I'm just sort of angry that all of the things I've been told my entire life about how the genders are equal have boiled down to be completely untrue at this present time. Keep in mind that I was never naive enough to truly believe that men and women have equal opportunities-- sometimes males get the upper hand, other times females do, and I understand that that's simply the way life works. I just don't understand why a male who is less qualified than I am to attend a certain school gets preference over me. I guess that's the wrong perspective on the matter, but I think that'll fix itself once I've had more time to the think about the situation. I guess we'll see where I end up in March/April.

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    A friend of mine just got admitted to Columbia University, and although I am certainly extremely happy for him, I can't help but agonize over my own academic future. This past week has been undeniably torturous, moreso each day. I know that it isn't "that big of a deal," and that I shouldn't freak out over what university I get into, but something about being so unsure over my future is just ripping my stomach in two. The next 48 hours before I get a response from Brown are going to be stressful and horrid, and I just can't help but imagine myself stuck at a school at which I will not be happy. I mean, I know that a situation is always what you make of it, blah blah blah, but at some point this past week, the strings connecting my logical mind and my emotional mind just snapped. Everyone keeps reassuring me that I have nothing to worry about, but for some reason their points just aren't getting to me. I keep telling myself, "Listen, if you don't get into Brown, you'll go to Princeton, or Columbia, or Harvard, or UPenn," but for some reason that's just not comforting. At this point, it's the desire to know, the desire to be able to say that I know where I'm going, that I (at least vaguely) know what I'm doing.

    Turns out I'm more anal about planning than I thought I was. Go figure.

    So here are some (mainly brainless) things that have been keeping me sane over the past few weeks:

The Up Series (Seven Up / 7 Plus Seven / 21 Up / 28 Up / 35 Up / 42 Up / 49 Up)

Freaks and Geeks - The Complete Series

    I have been procrastinating all day. This usually isn't a problem, as I have developed a weird form of productive procrastination I refer lovingly to as "pro-proc" (I don't really... I would probably get beat up if I said that out loud)*, but I have an SAT II Math II test that I should be studying for.

    In any case, for the sake of doing anything but what I should be doing, I figured I'd make a college update. Sam Jackson*** reminded me that my last update is now horribly out of date, so here's the updated (and final, sort of) list of schools I'm applying to:

Brown (ED)
Columbia
Barnard
NYU
Harvard
Princeton
Rutgers Honors (Safety)
Carnegie Mellon (Eh... I figured I needed another target school)
UPenn (I don't know! I initially didn't want to apply to UPenn at all [Pennsylvania, ick], but my cousin, who lives in Philly [right next to Jay McCarroll, no less!], has been swaying my opinion of the city more to the positive side. I'm still a bit wary about adding another college to the list, though, so we'll have to see how this one turns out after I visit my cousin.)

*I put studying on hold to blog, take/edit photographs, bake, etc. while most kids just stare at a wall (or their computer screen)**
**Ignore how self-congratulatory that sounded. Procrastination is bad! It leads to unwanted pregnancies.
***Yeah, that kid whose blog I was complaining about. I guess that goes to show how awful I am at gathering first impressions of people through the internet. (How's that one for a big duh?)

    I want to rant a bit about college/admissions blogs. Today, in my lovely jetlag-induced-stupor, I ran into the self-congratulatory wonder that is "The Sam Jackson College Experience." Jackson seems like a nice kid, but he made me realize that it's not the standardized tests that made me abhor junior year, it's people's reactions to each other's scores. Let me put it this way: generally speaking, kids from my town aren't smart. When they heard about my SAT scores (and I'm just bringing them up to make a point, don't hit me with sticks), I basically got the non-violent shit kicked out of me. Apparently, SAT scores have a way of bringing up weird kinds of caveman-esque behaviors. But from what the Experience says, it seems that these "behaviors" differ quite significantly between public schools like good ol' JDHS and private schools like Jackson's Philips Exeter. I'm not going to lie (NGL, lollrz*), I have some weird northeastern-public-school-kid bias against private schools. But the more I read Jackson's blog, the more my animosity is, in a sense, validated. Whereas, in my school, people get made fun of for getting good SAT scores, in his, these scores foster competition and seemingly genuine anger towards people who get better scores. Honestly, the more that I read shit like this, the warier I get of the attendants of Ivy League schools. I don't believe in grade competition, but rather personal advancement and competing with yourself to do better. But thank god this crap goes away after college. Oh, wait... you say we're living in a narcissistic material-fueled capitalist society? Shit.
    (And just for the record: I don't have a problem with Jackson, he's extremely literate [as I'd expect from a future Yale attendee] and fairly amusing [as I'd expect from a blogger], it's honestly just some of the things he mentions that make me angry. Blame the man, not the people.)

    Oh hey, and I just got feedback from Susquehanna University-- apparently I'm a published poet now. One of my pieces is going to be in the next issue of The Apprentice Writer. Sweet, huh?