Surprise prize

Today I discovered that the freebie requirement-filling, it-sounded-interesting classes one takes can have much greater consequences than I thought. Last fall I decided to take an intro philosophy class in ethics, because I've always been really interested in ethics as a topic of study and because it's something I'm interested in applying to science and research. Anyway, it was a perfectly good class but a bit dull, and taking a 100-level class as a Junior it was a blast from the past in terms of easiness and work load. Overall I enjoyed though.

Then a month and a half ago I got an email from the professor asking if he could nominate one of my essays for that class for the Philosophy department's essay competition, so I figured I might as well go with it, considering the paper was already written anyway. So today I strolled sleepily into my lab (I say sleepily because the end of the semester crunch has just made that my normal physiological state) and check my email, and there is an email from the philosophy department saying that I've been awarded "Best 100-Level Paper" and I get $100 for it (which of course made me wonder, if it was best 300-level paper would I have gotten $300?)! So that was nice. Especially since I just had to buy my monthly metrocard for $104 today...

Anyway, I guess it goes to show that taking classes just because they seem interesting really can pay off.

- Celine

Almost done

The semester is coming to a close - which of course also means peak busyness. I kind of like it though, there's something very focussed about the workload. And I've lucked out this semester - out of my four classes only two really have finals, those two are 6 days apart, and only the last one is cumulative. Then I get a whole 5 day break before summer classes being...

I've been having some frustrating trouble with my major though; there seems to be a lot of disagreement and very little clarity about what exactly all the requirements are. I'm currently registered for a special topics neuroscience seminar and an honors thesis seminar, but no one seems decided on whether I have to take both, or only the special topics, and whether I have to take one semester of special topics or two. So it's pretty frustrating, but hopefully the matter will get cleared up in the near future.

Honestly, these kind of issues are one of the main frustrating things that come up in college, at least in my experience. Not that they even happen all that often, but it seems to happen to everyone in any department at least now and then and it's really nerve wracking to not know what's expected of you to graduate. On the bright side, I've fostered a good relationship with the director of my concentration so I never feel awkward emailing him to clarify things, although that doesn't always help as much as one might expect.

And on the really bright side, I'm super excited to be all registered and ready for my senior year! I can't wait to be a senior, even though it's going to be a very intense year for me. I'm also registered for the GRE, and am slowly but steadily gearing up for grad school applications. But first I've got to get through finals...

- Celine

The Lounge on a Sunday Night

In light of the breaking news, a crowd of people gathered in the lounge to watch Obama speak and talk about what this means for the upcoming reelection. People were throwing ideas around about unity, freedom, and justice, but immediately silenced themselves at the sight of Obama stepping onto the podium to speak. It's these moments that define America and its citizens; the ability to bond in spite of our many differences. I'm just so amazed at the turnout of students who care when finals are coming up and tomorrow is the start of another week. Well I'm going to call it a night now, but to whoever is reading this: Peace and love and good night.