Another year over...

Well, it's New Year's Eve once again, and yes, this is going to be the stereotypical "look back at 2010" post that needs to come this time of year.  I'm going to highlight a few of the great things that happened during the past 12 months.


Overall, 2010 was a pretty good year.  I started off the year spending a week and a half in Paris in January with my Dad.  J'adore Paris =) and it was a great start to the year.  I loved being there especially now that I can actually speak French to the locals (unlike the last time I was in France), and now that I care some more about all the history of the city.  It's definitely a different experience being in Paris once you're studied French literature/history.  Everything makes a lot more sense.  Below is a video I took on my last night in Paris, from the top of the Centre Pompidou (Pompidou Center, which contains a modern art museum).

The Olympics took place in February, and my favorite sport to watch was curling.  Later on in the month, I actually got to try out curling myself at a club near my school.  It's a lot harder than it looks!

March is basketball season!  With the pep band, I was lucky enough to travel to Hartford, CT and Palo Alto, CA with the band.  Spending the end of spring break in California with the band was one of my favorite college memories so far.  Taking a trip to Facebook and spending an afternoon in San Francisco with the trumpets (and some other awesome bandies) was an incredible way to finish out the pep band season, even if the team did lose in the first round.  As much as I complain about band, there's no way I would ever quit.  The friends and memories I've made as part of the Rutgers band will be with me forever.

Evidently not much happened in April, because I don't have many pictures from that month on my computer.  Rutgers Day and the Scarlet & White Game brought an official end to the 2009 marching season; my roommate and I and some other friends decorated our floor like the ocean for the floor decorating contest...but I think by this time we were all just ready for the semester to be over and summer break to begin!

May must be a great month for me to make a fool of myself.  From Rutgersfest to the ResLife carnival, the end of another year at Rutgers was right around the corner.  I think we were all starting to go a little crazy by then.  (Case in point:  see image.)  Once the summer break finally started, I spent a day in Philly with a friend where we went to the Top Chef tour and met Jamie and Nikki and ate some awesome food!

June, June...well, I started my summer class (16th century French lit) and started my 7th summer at Creek Run.  While it was by no means my favorite Creek Run summer, I still met some awesome people and made the best of it.

July brought Independence Day and Bastille Day, and I, of course, celebrated both.  July 4th was spent with my family watching fireworks at a nearby high school; Bastille Day, in New York City at a street fair with my dad.  What can you say- we love French!  My dad, one of my sisters, and I also did the Philly Challenge in July.  What that is is a race around Philadelphia with clues directing us towards places where we had to take pictures proving that we were there.  Although we didn't win (and did not even come close!), it was a fun way to spend time with each other and explore a city that's very close by but that we rarely visit.  Lastly, my family went down to Washington, DC for a day, toured some museums, ate some delicious cupcakes, and stopped by the White House.  Though the trip was brief, we all loved it!  I think July more than made up for June in busy-ness!

What does August bring but BAND CAMP!  Lake Greeley was a rainy mess this year, but that didn't stop the 2010 tRUmpets from making great memories and having a lot of fun.  A highlight of this year's band camp was the huge dodgeball rivalry between Kenny's team, Andy's team, and Any Team but Andy's Team (aka, the girls!)  It was a great, albeit slow, start to what turned in to a superb season for the marching band (although not the football team...).

September marked the beginning of the second half of my Rutgers career, and my 3rd year living in Brett Hall.  No comment on that last one......  I also chopped off all of my hair in September and donated 12 inches to Wigs for Kids.  It's a great organization that provides its wigs for free (as opposed to Locks of Love, which charges).  It felt great knowing that I could donate my hair for the second time in less than 3 years.

I went home in October for the first time this semester and surprised my parents, who were completely convinced that I was still at school!  It was my high school marching band's home comp, which I go to every year.  Unfortunately, Rutgers had a football game on the same day this year, but I was done there early enough to drive home and see my high school perform!  It was a fun weekend of seeing friends and family who I don't see, usually, except for breaks because of my crazy schedule.  Also, a shout-out to my mom, who turned 50 in October!  We had her surprise party in August so that it would really be a surprise!!

In November, I wrote a book.  It was my first time participating in NaNoWriMo, and although I seemed to go crazy at times, I'm absolutely glad that I participated.  The feeling of accomplishment at writing that fifty thousandth word and the people that it connected me to made the experience so worthwhile.  I also saw Les Miserables with my entire extended family as my grandma's Hanukkah gift to us all.  It had been about four years since I'd seen it last, and this time, I didn't even fall asleep ;-) !  It's hard for me to make it to all the family get togethers now that I'm busy at school, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to see everyone.

Obviously, the most important thing that happens in December is my birthday!!!  I finally turned twenty =D  I had a great evening celebrating with my friends a few weeks early, and then spending time with my mom on my actual birthday.  It was a very laid-back, but enjoyable, celebration.  I also traveled with some of the marching band brass line to New York City to play for the Heisman Awards Dinner.  I don't really pay attention to college football all that much, but it was a good experience nonetheless.

As you can see, 2010 was a busy and fun year for me with lots of great memories, great friends, and great experiences.  Here's to a 2011 that's even better!

NaNoWriMo

In November, I will write a novel, 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30.  Why?  Maybe I'm crazy, but in the midst of 16 credits of classes, 9+ hours of research a week, and marching band, having an exciting plot twist or a new character to introduce is something for me to look forward to writing at the end of each day.


I've considered myself a "writer" since elementary school.  My earliest memory of writing meaning something important was in third grade, when I won a poetry contest for a poem I had written about outer space.  It was around that time when I realized that writing meant something more important than just turning in assignments.


As middle school arrived, I found myself writing more poetry.  I had never gotten much in to writing prose, but poetry became an escape.  I started many a notebook to fill with poems.  At some point, I also attempted to write a short story, but did not get very far with it.  So, poetry it was.


In high school, I continued writing poetry- albeit less of it than before- but was becoming more dissatisfied with what, I was beginning to discover, its limited role was.  I needed direction towards writing prose, what seemed like a long leap from what I had written in the past.  Senior year of high school, I took an English elective, Creative Writing and Poetry (a semester of each).  My teacher, Mr. Tortorelli, really opened my eyes to writing.  The poetry anthology that was the final project for the Poetry semester is one of the things I treasure most.  The comments he gave me on that project are still what I think back to for inspiration and to remind me that one person, at least, got something out of what I had written.  During Creative Writing, we were asked to write a short story, and that was my first experience with creating a plot and seeing it through to the end.  Though the story was only three pages, I realized that writing prose was something achievable.


Once college rolled around, I barely had time to write anything at all aside from papers.  My freshman spring, I enrolled in Creative Writing, hoping that by being forced to write for class, I would be inspired to write outside of it.  That didn't work so well- once that semester ended, I didn't write again, seriously, until less than a week ago- but for the class, I wrote a short story about a young mother who gives up her baby in an open adoption.  At some point, I'd like to seriously revise and edit that piece.  Unlike the story I had written in high school, this was more personal, as it was based (loosely) off of my cousin's adoption from China.  Not only was writing important to me, but I again realized how much of an impact it could have on others.


Being a Molecular Bio/Biochem and French literature double major does not give much time or reason for writing a novel.  I had heard of NaNoWriMo as a freshman, and now, as a junior, I am taking the plunge.  I feel like I have been getting so wrapped up in coursework that I have been neglecting things I used to love doing.  Yes, I love French.  Yes, I love biology.  But there are other things I love that have been getting pushed off to the sidelines of my life for too long.  Maybe NaNoWriMo is just the excuse I need to pull them back to center court.


It's day 6 of NaNoWriMo, and I am just over 25% of the way to 50,000 words.  The official count is 12,575.  In between studying for a Religion exam on Christianity and starting to find primary sources for a paper on the influence of French symbolists on future artists, I will be sure to find time to return to Vythnn.  Adam just fell asleep, and he can't wake up until I figure out what happens next!

bored out of my mind: a exploration in why.

It's one of those weekends...just when I'm used to being busy all the time, I find myself with nothing to do.  It's not even that I don't want to do homework (well, I don't- but who ever does)- in fact, I've already read a chapter of religion, 2 chapters of biochem, and reviewed about half a chapter of physics problems.  I went to synagogue, went food shopping, cooked 3 nights worth dinner (microwaving "leftovers" during the week is much easier), and moved my car over to Livingston (a feat in itself, with the new weekend bus schedule).


And yet, I've spent a good portion of the weekend with "nothing to do".


Maybe it's a product of an extremely schedule during the week and most weekends.  Maybe it's just my lack of ability to focus on one thing for a long period of time.


During the week, I revere the short breaks I've given myself in my schedule- half an hour or an hour here and there, but nothing crazy.  Even bus rides between campuses become what I look forward to as a break from academic life.  I always find these reprieves to be insufficient during the week; yet, when I am given more time off, I find myself at a loss for things to do.  When a class lets out even 5 minutes early, I am ecstatic.  Five more minutes to myself!  Yet, hours without scheduled activities leave me struggling to stay sane- much the same feeling I get when I'm sitting in class for that same amount of time.


I think it comes back to the saying, "Too much of a good thing..."  There needs to be a balance between structure and freedom so that neither becomes solely the problem or the reward.  As much as I know I will hate sitting in lecture tomorrow morning, right now, I wouldn't mind at all.


Another hypothesis I have come up with is the "rules" that are in place forcing us to do different things throughout the week.  Because of these "rules", activities that are not enforced become much more appealing.


For example, if I was, right now, given the opportunity to listen to an interesting lecture, I would go- because it sounded interesting and I wanted to hear it- not because I must.  Tomorrow morning, I am expected to attend all four of my classes and marching band rehearsal, and there are consequences in place if I do not (a zero on a quiz, points against the attendance percentage my final grade).  As usual, I will be at all of those classes tomorrow...waiting for them to end so that I can have my 5 minute, 30 minute, 45 minute break.


And, as easy as it would be to skip class and turn that 5 minute break into a 2 hour one, I won't.  Because I'm used to fitting what I need to do into shorter periods of time.  What would I do with those extra 115 minutes?