-10/8/2009
My 5 on AP Calc got me out of my math requirement. I fulfilled my science requirement with psych this semester. I've met psych nerds like me, people who loved human development and will be continuing it later. I have friends who are English nerds. I spend so much time on Japanese and I'm learning it better than I have ever before (I should be doing so now, but it does get a bit boring after a while).
"I think I should study psychology in college. I spend too much time analyzing human behavior as it is."
-10/13/2009
I love psych. So much. I'm so glad I'm taking social psych next semester.
"We got to Connecticut College. It was a bit secluded, because it seemed separate from the neighboring town, if that makes sense. But some of the material I've received from the school tells me about New London and how great the area is, so I'm assuming if I had spent more time there I would have noticed it. We were there on a Sunday night, so there weren't many people around. A few here and there, but I'm assuming everyone else was inside finishing up weekend homework or something. We stopped in the admissions office (which was supposed to be closed, but the nice people inside still let us in for a bit) and picked up a course book and some fliers about certain majors. The campus was quiet, but very nice. I feel like if I had been able to attend a tour I would have a more definite view of the college, but for now I'll just have to go with my observations. I feel like I am not making sense in this post. Moving on."
"Even at Connecticut College, while there was basically no one outside, the few people we saw were very nice and considerate- one girl walking by asked if we needed help, and the people in the admissions office (which was supposed to be closed) were also very nice."
- 11/4/2009
Conn is secluded, but I don't mind. The campus is gorgeous and I always feel so busy that I don't really notice. New London is a bit ghetto, but I get off campus when I tutor, and there are parts of the town that aren't so bad.
People here are so nice. Even though they can be loud and drunk on Saturday nights, they will always hold the door open for you. It's a weird, unspoken thing at Conn, but people seem to love holding the door open for other people, and thanking people when they do. People will go out of their way to do this, holding it for longer than is normally socially acceptable.
There's an honor code and people actually follow it. Cases of stealing are very rare and are big events when they do happen (someone stole textbooks a few weeks ago and it was a big deal). I'll say it now: people at TJ just weren't nice. They did what they could to get by. Everyone was out for themselves, and cheating was common. I just took self-scheduled final exams, where I signed out my exam, went to a writing room where there was no proctor, and it would have been completely easy to pull out notes and cheat on the exam. But no one would ever do that here.
"I don't care how great Virginia colleges are, I need to be up north."
-11/8/2009
I love this weather.
"Then it's senior year, which is stressful until you're accepted into college, and then it's partying until you leave for college.
I want to go to college now :("
-12/13/2009
If it weren't for the goddamn video yearbook, this would have been completely true.
-1/6/2010
Damn robot school.
Conn didn't require SAT scores. I sent them anyway, but they didn't see them as properly showing your academic ability. And actually, while I bitched about it in high school, I was definitely prepared for multiple choice exams in college after years of TJ.
"In ten years when I look at my life, I will definitely graph it as hovering around slightly sub-par "happy bliss" of my childhood, a steady downward slope of happiness from halfway through seventh grade that reaches rock bottom all throughout sophomore year, and then random upward spikes and a slow but steady increase throughout the rest of high school. My hope is that this graph will jump to an unprecedented and steady high all throughout college. Beyond? I have no idea. That is not on my agenda at the moment."
-4/11/2010
One semester of college (almost) down. Completely true.
"I need to go to college now and study everything. This is what goes on in my mind if I let it wander enough, but I always get stuck short because I don't know enough. If I start looking things up, I'll find I don't have the time because I have other things I need to do. As I've been writing this, I've been neglecting my physics homework. Just a little while ago, my mind was a train swiftly moving down the tracks, gaining momentum, stumbling here and there but continuing along, excitedly. I just picked up my physics and looked at it. Now the train has stopped and I am behind it, trying to push the enormous freight train with my non-existent strength. Maybe it budges an inch, but I keep getting tired, looking up, and seeing all the other trains zoom past me, completely at ease. They hit their bumps too, but they power over them and chug along. We are all these trains, and school is where we should be able to find where they can go along the tracks swiftly and powerfully. Maybe not high school, because there you are still trying out the different tracks. It is college where we can finally stop pushing these trains with our skinny little arms and start shoveling coal into the engines. Comb out the bumps. Smooth out the bumps. They should be there to push you along. Hit a hard spot and dig your way out. Sitting behind a rock wall with no idea how to get through it, armed with tons of dynamite and instructions in a language you do not understand, does nothing. I'm so sick of being that person, and for once I want to be the one who understands the language. I want to be the person who can run their train efficiently and learn and understand and not want to cry every time she thinks about going to her classes or doing her homework.
I want this so badly."
-4/25/2010
I get it in college. I sit down with my textbooks, study, participate more than in high school, understand lectures and discussions (for the most part), and when it comes to applying knowledge, I'm in the top of my classes.
"The only think holding me back from Connecticut College is the fact that it isn't as well known and I'm worried TJ kids will judge me for going to a college that isn't Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, or any other Ivy-quality liberal arts school. I love Conn College. I've visited twice, and each time I've been greeted by the nicest people imaginable, from my interviewer, to the head of admissions, to the random student we passed on that cold Sunday evening who randomly asked us if we needed help with anything. The college has a fantastic international program, with a language house where international students and foreign language majors go to hang out and eat international food, a special degree program involving a research project and interning in a foreign country, and intensive language study. I've heard fantastic things about the Japanese professor, and the library even has an Asian art reading room.
Conn has lower test scores and a higher acceptance rate than any of my other colleges. They aren't TJ kids of the liberal arts. While I wouldn't trade my TJ friends for anything, I don't think I could stand another four years in an academic environment with those kinds of people. I want to take a half step back, maybe be the top of my class again for once. I want to go to a school that has the programs I want and not just a name that people recognize. And truthfully, College Prowler ranks Conn with William and Mary, Wesleyan, and Northwestern in academics. It's not a bad school. This is about me and my education, and if this is what I want, then nothing can get in the way of that.
-12/16/2010
This requires a post on its own, but I'll respond briefly. No college is perfect, but I love being at Conn. That phrasing is actually one I haven't used yet, because "I love Conn" isn't quite what I mean. I don't care for the Conn identity, or lack thereof, which is preppy rich white kid from 20 minutes outside of Boston. But I love being here, I love the campus, I love my friends, I love my classes, and I love thinking about what I'm going to do here in the future. I've been getting involved, I've been planning for future research, study abroad, everything. I'm really happy at Conn, and I don't think I'd have been as happy at any of my other colleges.
And with that, time to return to studying nihongo.
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