Although there are only five weeks until the sweet comforts of our hometowns and moms’ cooking, nothing in Chicago is letting up. Although I’m currently in the middle of a nice lull in school work and commitments, I can feel the stress rising to unprecedented levels all around me. Not only are we trying to make the most of these last few weeks by studying our heads off and calculating hypothetical GPAs, we are starting to reflect on the year that we’ve had here. Personally, I’ve tried not to reflect just yet. I spent all of my high school years writing reflective essays and explaining the growth I had undergone, but all of that feels out of place here. Instead of reflecting, I keep my head forward, seeing what is next on the horizon, whether it is a summer internship or time schedules for fall quarter. Perhaps I will remind myself of the joys of self-reflection, but until then, I concentrate on things I can still have an effect on in the future.
Speaking of the future, I hear buzzings of Scav all around me. I have no idea what to expect (from myself or any of my classmates). While it’s a joy to look at lists from years past, some of the items are simply inconceivable. I’m overwhelmed looking at past lists and know that the list this year will not disappoint. Although I don’t plan on being a huge part of Scav, I hope to witness a fair number of “uncommon” antics over the course of the weekend.
Additionally, I’m looking forward to Summer Breeze in two weeks. I have to brush up on my rapping to get ready for Ludacris (which sounds like a great study break idea) and associate myself with Neon Indian and Cults so that I don’t feel too out of the loop while at the concert. I’m also excited that I will have several friends in town for that weekend and will be able to show them that we do have fun here every once in a while.
This past weekend, I ended the majority of my spring commitments. On Friday and Saturday, I participated in University Ballet’s performance of Stories from Childhood, which was a great time. On Sunday, I went to the Southside Scribblers presentation day in Ida Noyes where we passed out anthologies of the kids’ work and listened to them read their stories. Both experiences were really rewarding, not only this weekend, but over the course of the year and I plan to participate in them again next year. With these 2 commitments ending, I have much more free time on my hands, and only wish the rain would let up so I could spend my afternoons at the Point instead of the library, but perhaps this is just Chicago’s way of reminding us that school is not quite over yet.