Search the Community

So I did spring semester registration. I might push around some classes, but right now I'm taking: Italian 107 two theater classes Two 400-level history classes It's pretty good. I don't have any classes that start before 11 a.m., and I have Friday off. Which means Thirsty Thursday should be alive and well this semester. The best part is that I got into the internship class- I'll be working as an intern with a company called Gore. I think I'll be helping them catalog the history of their products, or something like that. It should be a blast. And it will be a great experience for them. The downside is that I'm not sure if I should take the other 400-level history class I'm taking. You see, I registered for a class that talks about how religion and politics co-mingled with each in America up to the start of the Civil War. It sounds mad interesting, and I love the professor, but I'm not sure if I should make the committment to two different 400-level senior seminars. As for the grad school situation, I've decided this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to take winter session, which lasts until the first week of February. I will take the GRE's in January. After winter session, which should boost my GPA, I will apply to grad school in the middle of February. I should hear back by the end of March. If I don't get into any of the schools, I shall change my graduation date and do another year- picking up either another major or another minor. I feel pretty good about all of this, I think. I've got a plan A, and a plan B. It's good to feel like I know what I'll be doing next year.

So right now, I'm at this glass-half-full deal when it comes to school. I'm a history major. I'm taking two 300-level history classes. They're both going really good- I'm earning an A in one, and an A- in the other. The problem is that my foreign language class, I'm pulling somewhere around a D, and in my geology class, I majorly bombed the second exam, which was worth 25 percent. Luckily, I did fine on the first exam, and the final is worth 50 percent, so I can probably do well. Still, it's a lot of pressure to deal with. I want to end the semester with over a 2.5 in an acculmulative GPA, and I'm not sure anymore if that will happen. So that's stressful. I guess I'll just have to remember my buddy Steve, and how he told me he will kick my ass if I don't graduate with him in the spring.

So I just got chewed out in Italian today. And it was my fault- I didn't do the work. And it hasn't exactly been the first time this semester that this has happened, and I think the professor finally just got fed up. I'm not really offering any excuses. I know it's all on me. And I know that I've got to turn it around. I also know that while there is still time to turn it around, that time ends soon. So. I give Mark Arbour and Adam Phillips full permission to slap the shit out of me if I don't do my homework from now on. Yeah.

3,700 Freshman Move to UD Freshmen are so goddamned adorable- so impossibly young, so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Last night I partied with some friends, and we enjoyed the spectacle of the hordes of freshmen looking for parties. We even helped one freshman who got just a little too drunk- the whole thing was kinda surreal- because it felt like just yesterday I WAS that guy, and now...it's four years later and I'm now the "cool upperclassmen", as the Freshman put it. It's weird being on the other side. Sloppy Drunk Freshman had a new buddy from his dorm that was Not-So-Sloppy Drunk Freshman, who kinda watched over him a little. Myself and my group of friends all basically said, "You guys will be best friends for the next four years." That's totally how college friendships tend to happen- they're forged through the patting of one's back while your new friend throws up because he's had too much to drink. And then you tease him about it the next day while eating Sunday brunch in the dining hall. Although I did have a bit of an epiphany- when myself and my fellow senior were exclaiming our pride at being seniors, Not-So-Sloppy Drunk Freshman said, "Why would you brag about that? That means you only have one year left!" He had a point, and I'll miss college (although the way things are looking I might end up taking another semester or a year), I have four interesting memories of college to contend with, that can't be taken away from me, and while I miss the excitement of freshman year and everything being new...I think I like myself a lot better now, at 23, than I did when I was 19 years old. Still, it's so weird. I mean, I'm technically not a 5th year senior, since I took 2008 off, but still- this fall marks 5th year of my college party experience. Now that I'm a grizzled veteran at this, it's nice to pass on my wisdom and experience... Finally. I WILL have a cute freshman boy. I will. I swear it. I'm going to be Mr. Robinson and enjoy the hell out of it. Although my friend Steve teased me for it- "You're 23, Jeremy. You are way too old to have sex with a freshman." He's prolly right, but whatever- I don't care if it would make me a male cougar- I'm going to do it! Adam and Mark, you got any seduction tips you can give me? I think the approach I'm going for is "the cool upperclassmen guy who buys beers and makes a nice party buddy, who just happens to be gay..." I think if I'm open about being gay, I'll be more likely to run accross guys who may be curious or questioning themselves- and because I'm a familiar, older, and more experienced guy- they just might come to me...

I was over at my favorite bar tonight. I was there for an acoustic guitar show by a guy named Jefe. Afterwards, I was watching a good amount of people crying their eyes out. Because it was the Jefe show they'd ever see at the Deer Park Tavern as a college student, you know? I was seeing one guy in particular. He was just bawling his eyes out, and comforting and being comforted by his friends. It went on for at least half-an-hour. I had a bit of a cry later in the car- you know, the "Oh no this is the end of college and it makes me emotional" deal, but I think in general I'm not feeling that sort of despair that guy is feeling. I contrast that to when I graduated from high school five years ago, and I just don't feel that same sense of,"my world is ending", that I did back then. Back in high school, I felt like the world was going to end as soon as I stepped off that stage- that because the world I had taken four years to build was over, that my life is over. And I don't really feel that when it comes to college, and I don't really feel that much despair about things ending. Part of it, I think, is just the fact of the matter is that I'm a 5th year senior. I mean, I know that technically I'm the class of 2010, but in my heart I'm the class of 2009. This isn't really the class I grew up with. I went through the feeling of saying my goodbyes to my fellow seniors last year, I think. This year has felt like an extension of college, but my heart's already moved on a bit. And I don't really have the tightknit, "we do everything together" kind of group that a lot of these kids seem to have. I transferred into UD during my sophomore year, and I just never really became part of any one group. I was more of just a "floater", I think. So there aren't really any huge emotional ties tugging me to UD. I mean, there's my friend Steve, and I do have some good friends, but University of Delaware just wasn't the center of my world that Cab Calloway High was. I'm ready for it to be over, and I'm ready to move on to grad school. I mean, I'll still always be the silly college kid at heart, and I don't think that will ever change, but I really think doing a 5th year of college prepared me for the end of it. It feels time, you know? Time to smile, time to reflect on my accomplishments and all the fun and all the tears and all the tediousness and the joy and the sadness...and just..walk forward. I might be a total blubbery mess on Friday on Saturday, but for now...I'm happy that I'm marching towards something new and away from the familiar.

While I was MIA from Gay Authors (Stupid life events getting in the way) I took a lot of technology classes offered by Microsoft and CompTIA to keep myself up to date on current technology and what not. Because of this I ended up changing my college major from a BS in Information Technology heavy in the security field to a B.S.Ed Career and Technical Education/Business, Computer, and Information Technology Education Program (Long winded title for Information Technology Teacher). I'm still attending Community College primarily to get my core courses out of the way and doing a transfer to Temple University. Well that's the program I'm in but could change depending on what other colleges are offering with a program like that (my academic advisor recommended that particular program). To sum it up at age 29, I finally know what I'm going to do in life and complete this goal, become a professional student and then a Computer Science teacher. The prospect of going through this program and becoming a teacher is very exciting but at the same time, very nerve wracking. I know I'm getting practice by teaching basic computer use workshops but still the idea of working full time as a teacher in a Primary or Secondary school is very harrowing. I know it's something that i want to do but at the same time I wonder if I can do it. I guess time will tell and I hope it tells me that it's what I am meant to do (As the saying goes, If you enjoy your job you never work a day in your life). On a final note, the main reason I was MIA for a bit from here was mainly because I was going through physical therapy for my back due to an injury I got. It got to the point that I could barely move or bend without serious pain affecting my back and knocking me through a loop, Two CAT scans, and most recently an MRI, later I was referred to a Pain Management Clinic run by Penn Medicine and now am going through more treatment for my back. As it turns out the injury I had that caused discs in my back to get screwed up and also land me with two cysts in my inner spinal column that are pressing on the messed up discs. This time around I'm getting steroid shots in my back and doing intensive aqua physical therapy in the hopes that we can fix my back without getting invasive since the next step would be back surgery to correct the problem. Wow. This turned out to be a long blog... but hey Caver Lector (Latin phrase for reader beware haha)

So this kid reads something far more advanced than biology in his biology class and his teacher takes it away from him. The thing is - he's dreaming up ways to save lives and proving to be very good at it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19291258