A Step into Reality

A sunburn, wet dirty clothes, sand in pockets, shoes and every crevasse of the car, an extremely tired body, a sparkling clean house, and memories/pictures are what all of us left Destin with. We all went our separate ways to our own hometowns. The sand-worn vehicles and beach-infested clothes were thoroughly washed. We took desperately needed recuperative time with our families and prepared for the voyage back to campus. I was lucky to not get sunburn or peel, but many of my friends are lathering up with lotion and aloe to treat their toasted skins.

Personally, I crashed 30 minutes after I walked through the threshold of my home. I napped for about five hours and then woke up for one of my mom’s fine cooked feasts. After my family and I watched a movie and ate popcorn, I slept the usual allotted night’s sleep. I was still apprehensive about waking up for the 9 A.M. service at my beloved church, but I managed to pull myself out of bed just in time. It is always nice to return to the church where everyone knows you and worship with some of your best friends. I didn’t even have the opportunity to reconnect with my other friends via Facebook until after church. Throughout spring break, I did not have access to the Internet, and honestly, I did not want to worry about the Internet and its obligations for a week.

The reality of school hit me when I checked my email. I found out that two five-hour engineering projects are due this week, peer editing for three different English papers has to be completed via an online comment program, and I had a large chunk of Calculus homework. Those assignments are at the top of the inbox and my life right now. The week long Jimmy Buffet chill mood will be forgotten until summer, because from the way it looks, I have my hands full.

Rest and an attempt at relaxation

Many people at the university had fun and exciting plans for Spring Break. The most popular excursions were mission trips, traveling abroad, working in their hometowns, and fun in the sun at many different beaches. My break consisted of visiting with the family and then traveling to Destin, Florida for the rest of the week. It was definitely in the hot spot for Spring Break. It almost seemed that our campus and several other Southeast campuses migrated to Destin like the snowbirds, retired Northerners, migrate in the winter in order to avoid the snow.

We had a random slew of boys and girls in the house. Nineteen of us pitched in and split the cost of a five-bedroom house. I did not meet some of these housemates until I walked into our comfy abode. Hindsight is 20-20, but this was not the best way to arrange living quarters for one week. Even though I only knew half of the crew beforehand, I liked almost all of them. Unfortunately, one girl and her boyfriend were causing too much drama and conflict. She ended up dividing the house, but everybody came back together after we voted her off the island. It was a cruel thing to do and I did not support forcing anybody to leave, but it was necessary. Everybody was expecting some sort of drama during our trip but not to this degree. Since I am anti-drama and refused to get involved, my trip was not interrupted by the cat fights.

Some of my guy friends and I just played on the beach with the Frisbee and football while trying to talk to as many beautiful ladies as possible. Our sandy escape was close and highly populated, because the short two-minute walk landed us on our beach and the public beach where most of our other friends would post for the day. If we decided not to chill and grill out at our place, I would usually drive the guys to wherever. Contrary to the popular image of spring breakers, I was a sober driver. All of the restaurants had delicious seafood, and the clubs attracted huge artists. I was able to listen to Corey Smith, Nappy Roots, US, and Dierks Bentley. If these did not fit our appetites or budgets, we would chill with friends at their places. I was planning on a slow-paced trip and catching some R&R, but my week turned into a fun and hectic trip. We always had something to do. Even though we did not take textbooks to the beach, we know we will have to hit the ground running when we return.

And the Winner Is...

This past week, Student Government Association (SGA) elections were the main talk of the town. I did not run for any position, but my roommate ran for a SGA Senate seat. I strongly believe in the civic duty of voting, and I exercise this right for SGA. I feel so strongly about this that I volunteered to help man a polling station. He and all the other candidates chalked every possible square inch of cement. Some even made stickers, flyers, facebook groups, t-shirts, and posters.

A couple of fiery debates took place on campus. I picked the more knowledgeable, well versed, pro-active candidate with an outstanding platform for SGA President. Unfortunately, he was the hopeless underdog. Many do not realize he was fighting a losing battle against a well-established “secret” political party. I did not know of this group until I moved to campus. Several campus organizations alliance themselves together in order to achieve SGA dominance. I do not agree with this practice, because the power rotates within them and not the overall student population. They have the possibility to promote their biased agenda and not properly represent the student body. The alliance has only been beaten three times since its creation with the most recent defeat in the 80s. I do not know if students are intimidated and feel inferior to its power or if they honestly do not care about SGA, but either way there was only a 20% student turnout to vote. I was very disappointed to hear about this low representation.

In previous entries, I have mentioned about having lots of free time. I have had this free time because of proper time management. I am currently taking 15 hours and majoring in engineering. My courses have begun to pull heavier loads of homework, which is no surprise to me because I have been anticipating hard material after the easy freshmen courses. Since I received AP credit for about 20 hours in different courses, I am a sophomore in the eyes of the university and therefore taking sophomore classes. For instance in my current classes, I had four 4-hour homework assignments due this week along with two tests and two papers. The earliest I went to sleep this week was 1:30 A.M., but usually closer to 2:00 or 2:30. I wish this was only a cycle, but I believe this is the precedent for the rest of college.