The long and winding road to the end

So the question has been asked how I feel now that I’m 39 days away from graduation. (I don’t think it was phrased exactly like that, but hey look! I’m 39 days away from graduation!) In a word, how I feel right now: exhausted. This has been my buzzword for a few months now, as a hellaciously busy winter quarter melted into a spring quarter almost equally painful. I also just finished up a four-day Jaunt of Doom, culminating with a Wednesday wherein I submitted a personal essay for my writing class (an essay in which my irreverence is totally going to get me in trouble), took a corrosion midterm for which I didn’t memorize nearly enough and then jumbled up the stuff I did memorize, and gave my senior design project presentation, which actually went over very well (praise be!). Just like in my old history major days, there are some people who are more open to thinking outside the box (in this case, embracing the interdisciplinary bakeware material and cornbread quality analysis), and then there are some people who love the box, embrace the box, dream of the box nightly (all those people who laughed at Amanda and me when we presented our project poster last quarter). When I got home this evening, I almost immediately fell asleep for two hours. And then awoke with a slightly sore throat. Just what I need now: swine flu!

Also alluded to in the comment section of questions is Europe and me visiting it. My plans are very, very loose, not unlike most of my commitments, but the vague “plan” is to make my way across the Atlantic sometime toward the end of July and spent a few weeks acquainting myself with the sites of some of my favorite history lessons that I no longer remember. That means I’m going to Germany. A couple of MSE seniors will be working in labs in Dortmund, so there’s that potential fiesta, and then there’s the trip to Dresden and the Czech Republic’s Prague that’s been seven years in the making. There’s also talk of Paris and/or Amsterdam. A lot of this hinges on airfares remaining relatively low. Otherwise, hey! It’s time to camp out in Hocking Hills!

And since I received two comments regarding my love of the old Nickelodeon staple, “Hey Dude,” I’ll also address that, although I’m not sure what to say. “Hey Dude” was corny, but with better acting than most kids shows. And then there’s the fact that it took place on a dude ranch which is just about the coolest location for a job, if you ask me. I wouldn’t mind going to a dude ranch sometime. At least then my habit of addressing people with “Dude!” wouldn’t be so awkward.