stealing their adaptation
While I have always treasured my independence and self-reliance, there is no denying the impact certain friends have left on my life. And as all friendships go, or any level of relationship really, I tend to pick up traits and features from other people and incorporate them into who I am. Everyone does this, most people don’t realize it, but with my tortoise-shelled glasses of psychological frame I never stop my attempts at figuring out why I am who I am.
There are some traits of mine that are clearly noticed in other people. For example, it’s a fact that my habit of constantly drinking water was stolen from Derek (despite that he also drinks espresso non-stop, I had already acquired that feature). Even with my distaste for those Nalgene bottles, I still drink water with every meal and have it close-at-hand when typing/reading/wasting time/etc.
That’s a surface trait, of course, and they are easy to find correlating origins to. Personality traits are difficult to narrow down, and I would think that those are clearly combinations of certain aspects manifest in my closest friends. Additionally, I would assume that the media I allow my time plays a part; for me, that would be books, music, and film, in that order.
With VT only two months away, I’m sweating bullets that no aquatic janitor could keep up with. I am so, so, so very, very ready to get back to school. I want to learn. And I want to learn as much as I can. You can call me competitive, and I am, but that’s not the whole story. My self-motivation has been built on the examples of people I’ve spent time with. They wouldn’t know it just by talking with em, but I glean from them their perseverance and make it my own. I scrutinize what makes them tick, excel, and achieve, and I store it away without any outward sign of having grasped it.
One of the best things to happen to me in the last year has truly been my roommate from the fall 2004 semester. We knew each other vaguely going into the semester, but I see that our personalities played a round of racquetball that complimented both of our fortes. Having two mega-motivated people in a 10 by 12 room for five months does wonders, or miracles, if you wish. My GPA didn’t skyrocket, but I blasted through the semester with a vigor and intensity for education that I’ve never had before in my life. And it. was. amazing.
Now, I am ready to return. I want to tackle classes, have late-night study sessions, and spend endless hours with my Bollo’s regulars. There are times when I am so anxious to return that I physically feel my body temperature increase and I get antsy. Yes, antsy. Like… bugs. Or, more specifically, ants.
If you want to know the basis for my accelerating passion, understand that I follow the rule that being crazy-go-nuts will take you very far. Perhaps, this entry can be considered my late, respectful JF graduation speech to those who walked this past weekend. Yeah, sure. Congrats to them.
June 14th, 2005 at 2:12 am
Well, drinking so much espresso, I better be drinking twice as much water.
Caffeine: That Crazy Diuretic. This has cultivated my water-guzzling habit.
That, and the Cesspool-of-Filth-and-Disease-That-Is-College. And I’m not talking about lewd and/or torrid sexual activity, mind you. Not at all.
Rather, of the late-night cram sessions, high-pace and stress-filled semesters, 32,000-plus people-from-all-over-the-globe, etc… — all smooshed together in an iddy, biddy living space — the exchange of ideas is certainly not the only thing being cultivated in this culture. Ick.
We’re talking Walking Puhneumonia during my first semester at Tech.
PUHNEUMONIA. How does anyone below the age of 60 even get pneumonia in the first place?! I didn’t think that happened. Shows how much I know . . . .
Oh, and did anyone ever tell you I sometimes have OCD-like “cleaner” tendencies/paranoia? Cause that’s a lie.
:: Silence. ::
:: MAN IN GIANT CRICKET SUIT walks on stage carrying badly tuned violin. Proceeds to plays 3 reps of screeching “REEECH-EEEECH”. MAN IN GIANT CRICKET SUIT walks off stage. ::
:: Silence. ::
:: DEREK coughs once, feebly. Looks around. ::
Yes. Well. On that note I HAVE TO GO NOW NALGENE IS OUT OF WATER.
~dk
June 14th, 2005 at 11:38 am
I have been out of school for over a year now. I am SO ready to return as well. When the last school year started, I felt out of place since it was the first year I had been out of school since I was 5. I am not sure if I am SO read to return because I am “ready to learn,” as you say (I am manage to learn whenever I wish to), so much as I am ready to be re-immersed in to an environment of passionate learners and creative people. *Toasts* To returning to our shcolastic environs!
June 14th, 2005 at 11:26 pm
Derek - I get pneumonia at least once a year because of my asthma; seems to just spring up when I don’t want to deal with it. I think I dislike water bottles because I only like cold water and cold water usually has condensation forming on the exterior of its container; thus, a water bottle I would be carrying around starts to “sweat” and then the moisture gets on me and then is transferred to papers or whatever and I just hate that.
Cliff - “passionate learners and creative people”, amen.
June 15th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
As a person out of the environs of college life for a year now I understand the itch to learn… and I highly suggest providing oneself with a salve for the first year officially out. Even though I teach and I’m around all those itchy kids all day long my own brain hungers and starves for feeding! Watch out, when you least expect it the hunger pangs return. The good news: you can learn outside of school. It’s just more challenging to fit into life. Enjoy your years of feeding!
June 15th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
scissor sisters remixed?!?!? this i must hear.
also. nalgene bottles are ugly. but i do love my pink starbucks water bottle. it’s superneat because it’s like a liter. and if i drink two a day thats like…a lot of water.
and i am also SUPER ready to go back to school. hurrah for single rooms!
June 15th, 2005 at 11:17 pm
Abigail - Remixed!, and it is very good. The pink Sbucks water bottle is very nice, yes.