Changing Gears

The dark-chocolate coconut macaroon as a
2 AM study snack only mildly contributed
to my body's self-destruction in light
of finals week.

 Thursday morning, around 8:30 AM I finally collapsed into bed.  I had spent about 10 hours working on my Global Studies final paper, after pulling an all-nighter before to crank it out.  I dragged myself out once again at 11 AM to do final edits, met my friends for lunch, then sat in the student center distributing our student-published literary and art magazine called The Laurentian Magazine (check out our blog! http://blogs.stlawu.edu/thelaurentianmagazine/) and then, at 3:17 PM, I clicked send -- submitting a 17 single-spaced paged research paper on the implications of Senegalese people eating baguettes even though they've been independent from France since 1960!  This project has quite frankly taken my soul.
That afternoon, I played frisbee on the quad with the Ultimate team for one last time and it was probably my best and favorite practice.  The rain was calming rather than chilling, almost everyone was on a goofy high of relief from surviving finals and I was just jittery as heck from being immobile in the library, terribly exhausted and full of processed sugars.  My friends came by to pick me up and we proceeded to make a last dinner together (celebratory cocktails in hand :D).  We had an over abundance of food for the eight of us, as I jokingly checked to make sure everyone had enough to eat.  My friend Jenny remarked that I'll make a good grandma!  HA, ahem, after I make that first hurdle of.. oh, I don't know, a boyfriend?  Let alone a husband and then kids with kids.

The last supper we prepared had bruschetta bread (a favorite), whole wheat penne with mounds of sauteed vegetables, a field greens salad with tangerines, a fruit salad and raspberry-swirled chocolate cake topped with Ben & Jerry's ice cream of the cheesecake variety. YUM.

Anyway, I tried partying with my house and everyone else who was free, but I was too darn tired to rally to my fullest.  I went to bed and didn't drag myself out until 10 on Friday morning.  I did a decent job packing, forgot a few things in the shuffle, but I was becoming reservedly sad and anxious about my departure.  My house had a family brunch, I personally made rice pudding and chocolate chip banana bread (kind of adjusted the ingredients, my brain remains in a sluggish daze) and we had a huge broccoli-tomato-cheese egg scramble, home fries and pancakes.  I was elated to have shared my last two meals with my favorite people at school.  I demanded a family photo in front of the house that I now consider my home after one semester.  My parents arrived, I had some help puzzling everything into the car, I sought out a few more friends for hugs and bye-for-nows, I paid for a few friends' meals using the last of my meal plan and then we rolled on south, out of the North Country.

My roommate from this semester on the right, Claire, is going abroad to France in the fall (we obviously had a lot to chat about), and on the left is Olympia who is my roomie for next year!

 50 Park Street, 8 inHabitants.
4 are graduating, 1 is going abroad, then 1 is coming back from abroad, and 4 others are coming in including 3 freshmen that we've come to know really well this year.  It's an odd dynamic of people, but somehow it works, and I can't say I love it enough.

 I will be the first one to admit that coming home from college is difficult .  I do like the comfort and the access that it accompanies, yet my home life satisfies me in a different way than being at school.  My campus life fulfills the extrovert side of me, I tend to be more frazzled but loving all the activities and people and learning and traveling if there's time; whereas, at home I am only with my parents if not at work or harking my friends, so my introvert comes through with painting, reading, biking riding, running and reflecting.  That being said, after not being able to fall asleep until 3:30 AM because of finals week throwing my body out of whack, it was wonderful drifting around my home today in the near-80 degrees, cleaning, organizing, sweeping, wiping, storing, compartmentalizing and re-setting my life for the summer.  I never know what to do with my school work from the semester.  I went through all the papers and kept what might be resourceful in the future, especially since my majors are building up.  I only wish I had enough wall space to keep hanging all the posters, photos and art work!  My giant Senegalese tapestry will have to be stored until next fall, when these three months of vacation will have passed by quicker than I expected.

Obviously a lot of things are going to change, as they always do.  For now I'm going to hold onto the spirit of Hammertime, all the time and my amazement, amusement, embarrassment, bafflement and plain joy for what this year has done for me.  And now that it's summer, you'll be hearing from me quiteee often.

Listening:  The Maine's second album, Black & White