Aaron - Journal 6

November 26, 2003

"only one week before finals"

 

Doing some work in the Elmwood lounge with Jon Mitten, Jon Keener, and Phil

The past few weeks the excitement of my life has settled down to a dull roar. The weather has been weird; first cold, then warm, than downright hot, then cold again - all with intermitent rain showers. The end of the semester is fast approaching. As I write this, I am checking in to my airline reservations online to visit my grandparents and friends for Thanksgiving. After the break, we will only have one week of classes before finals week.

For Honors Seminar, also called Ruling Ideas, I wrote a research paper on the development of talent and gave a preentation to the class on it. It was pretty interesting. The conclusion I came to was we have a responsibility to put the natural abilities we have been given to good use. Fortunately, we often like doing what we're good at, so refining those skills is often a pleasureable experience.

Dinner in the Royals den with Phil

The Elmwood lounge has definately become the place where I like to hang out in my off-time. Movies, games, conversations, snacks, and study groups tend to all congregate there. One night, after a particularly rousing game of taboo, we watched an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was absolutly hilarious. We didn't stop laughing for hours. I have spent so much time in Elmwood lately that the resident director asked me to fill out a form for Elmwood residents. The guys on the first floor north hall have been nice enough to adopt me.

Trevor and Rachel goofing around in Elmwood

Of course, there was the bioethics conference as well. There were no classes that Friday; we were all expected to attend. A few days before, I volunteered to help fill the bags for attendees. We had a pretty good assembly line going, but it still took the 50 or so of us a very long time to fill all 1300 bags with pappers, cards, a pen, a scratch pad, a meal ticket, and a schedule booklet. The conference itself was great. I was working on my Talent paper for Ruling Ideas that weekend, so I was only half-tuned in for much of it while I typed my paper. My little break-out group was great, though. We were all biochemistry majors, and our group leader was the biochemistry professor. Together we wrestled with cloning, invetro fertilization, genetically modified plants, etc. The discussion was quite engaging.

As I wrap up my first semester at college, it is stunning to see how fast the time has flown. On the other hand, it seems like I've known my new friends for years...