College Life

It's interesting what an effect sleep can have on your day. For instance, yesterday I headed off to college with about 4 hours of sleep under my belt, and while my day became progressively better (for reasons I shall explain momentarily), it started out very bad indeed. Today, I slept for twelve hours and world looks so much more beautiful than it did yesterday.

So. I have just completed my first week of daily school in 7 years. Is it bad to say I'm already looking forward to Christmas break?  Well, maybe, if you didn't know my schedule. This is kind of what it looks like.

6:00 am: Wake up
7:00 am: Be at bus stop
8:00 am: Arrive at college
8:30 am: First class starts
9:30 am : Tuesdays and Thursdays, second class starts. MWF, start waiting
11:20 am: T/Thu class ends
1:30 pm: Precalculus (yay! ... not really.)
2:45 pm: Be at bus stop
4:00 pm: arrive at home
4:30 pm: music lesson
7:00 pm: Youth Symphony rehearsal on Mondays, or private practice rest of the week
11:00 pm: bed time, but not until I've packed a lunch, taken a shower, and finished all my homework

Now, my readers who have attended public school for a while may be scoffing at me. Because, really, seven hours of sleep isn't too bad. Just wait until Problematic has to pull an allnighter to study for an exam.

I see your point. Really, I do. I understand that homeschooling has accustomed me to a life of luxury. Waking up at 8:00am. Going to school only once or twice a week. I know I've had it good, and it's kind of pathetic to be complaining.

The problem is, the schedule I just gave you is the one that I held to this week, not the one that I actually need to be scheduling. Somewhere in that mess of events, I need to get to to the gym, apply for private college, write essays for scholarship competitions, finding a job,and dare I mention ... my social life? I have seriously only had "meaningful" interactions with one person I knew from before I started college. I've talked a lot with two other people, but I had never met them before college. Not only that, but I had only even heard of one of them.

Yay for making new friends? I don't know. I miss my friends from my former life. I've been tempted to get back on the old speech and debate forums just to see how my friends are doing. Rubbish recently emailed me about collaborating on some music together, which was pretty nice of her. But besides getting together for coffee and chocolate cigars with the Professor and Cassandra a couple weeks ago, the only interactions I've had with my peers are what I see on my Facebook feed.

College isn't too bad. My music theory teacher is has an awesome pedigree: he started out as a metal head, became a beatnik when he ran out of metal, and then got interested in classical music when he ran out of jazz. Oh, and did I mention he's  a Berklee grad with a primary instrument of bass? Yeah. He's a beast.

My political science teacher is, um, interesting. The jury is still out on that, so I'll get back to you. And Precalculus? My teacher is a knight, so ++ for that. He's one of those mathematicians who obviously love what they're doing but are completely incapable of passing that love onto others. The thing that makes that class a little more bearable is that I'm making friends with my neighbor.

Okay, seriously. What are the odds that the person I just randomly sat next to on the first day likes to spin vinyls for fun and a little profit? Seriously? It's interesting, but the whole format of "I see person X for one hour every week day" is kind of strange for making friends. I'll post more about the progress in upcoming weeks.

Really, the hardest part about college is the waiting. Who would think that waiting could be so tiring. I've got a limited number of options to fill the time. I can do homework, but that doesn't take four hours. I can practice piano and voice, but that still doesn't fill things. There's the computer lab, but it get boring staring at a computer screen in the middle of the day for hours. If I had my violin with me, I might have enough to do to fill four hours. However, there is no power on earth that could induce me to bring Ignatius to campus.

Why? Let's put it this way. Ignatius, himself, is now worth over $1,200. The case is worth about $500. My bow is worth another $500. My set of replacement strings is worth about $120, the shoulder pad, about $100, and the chin rest, $50.  The entire package, all 2.5 cubic feet, is well over $2,000. And let's not forget that I had to pay for that over the course of several years. I would not bring Iggy to campus, to haul around on public transit, to potentially forget on the bus or in class or wherever I may spend my time in between.

But if you hear of a beater violin in my area, I'm more than interested.

So there you have it. The week in review. I am so thankful it is the weekend.

B