Roz Wills and Eli Cohen

So, Summer Orientation is over, and 275 people now know about this blog. I suppose, then, that I should write a new post. Summer orientation went great. I get all smug when I can answer people’s questions and give out information, so this is the perfect job for me. I made a handful of friends, plugged the Goucher Pyrate Alliance a few times, and collected about 800 forms by the end of the week.

I know everyone had *most* of their questions answered, but I assume that everyone still has a few points needing clarification. If it’s something administrative, by all means e-mail school offices. The support staff are friendly, and they serve no purpose other than to help you. Seriously. They have nothing to do but answer your e-mails. Also, E-mail your professors if you’re confused about the content about a class you signed up for. I know that’s weird coming off of high school, where you most likely didn’t talk to teachers outside of class. In college, though, you’ll be e-mailing back and forth all the time. Lastly, if you have a question that requires an honest student perspective… well… I’m here. eli.cohen@goucher.edu. Go for it. I check my e-mail just about every day.

-Eli

So, I’m back on campus for the summer. I’m working at the CTLT, where I work during the year. Basically, my job over the summer is to learn how to use a boatload of computer programs that I’ll never have time for during the year, then I can come back in the fall and teach people. My current project is Final Cut Pro, which is a great piece of video editing software, but it’s not the sort of thing you can pick up in a few hours. It’ll be good to know, though. I’m getting paid to learn how to use a piece of software that most people pay hundreds of dollars to take classes on. It’s a marketable skill, is what I’m saying, and if the whole Peace Studies thing doesn’t work out, I can always teach digital arts classes for a living.

That brings me to the subject of today’s post: THOSE people. The people who say “what do you do with a _________ degree?” I’m lucky enough to have a supportive family who want me to get a job that pays the rent, but more importantly, want me to be happy. They’d rather I just barely pay the rent doing something I enjoy than major in accounting, make a lot of money… but be stuck doing accounting.

Every student deals with some of that. Some more than others; any visual or performing arts student is going to hear it. The trick is to ignore it. Most people don’t end up working in the same field they got their undergrad degree in. It’s all about building skills and learning what you like. You have to major in SOMETHING, but it doesn’t have to be the thing you’ll do for the rest of your life. My chemistry teacher in high school had an English degree, then went into Chem in grad school. My brother has a degree in psychology, but works with computers. He’s always liked computers, but he decided to study something else (although he took a couple computer science classes while he was in school). He says the psychology degree helps him understand people, but he’s not actually doing work in psychology. You’ll hear hundreds of stories like that if you look for them. Not everyone needs to hear it, but I know some people have nagging parents, grandparents, other relatives, friends, or whoever. If that’s you, don’t worry. You’ll have a chance to try the whole “independent thought” thing out in college.

As previously mentioned, I’m on orientation committee, so everyone who’s coming to summer orientation, I’ll see you there. I had a great time at mine last year. Looking forward to meeting the lot of you. If you’re the sort of person who would read a school-commissioned student blog to find out if you’d like the school… well… I’m the sort of person who would *write* a school-commissioned student blog. Go figure. I’m sure we’ll be buddies.

-Eli

Alright…I guess I’ll get us started off, since I haven’t woken up enough to study French yet and I can instead give you some bleary-eyed ramblings about college life.

Before you all start making guesses about why I’m bleary-eyed, let me clarify by saying that I was up until four last night helping a friend in Massachusetts with a trivia contest. And I guess we’ll roll with that as something to talk about, since I don’t have any other real ideas at the moment.

THESIS STATEMENT: One of the things that startled me most about coming to college was the fact that there is no one at all to tell you to go to bed.

I spent my entire life (until last summer) with a bedtime of 9:00, barring events with friends and such, and it was pretty rigidly enforced by my parents; if I wasn’t in bed, they tended to start making a thing of it and usually I was too lazy to attempt to fight the system. Nine is, perhaps, a slightly more extreme bedtime than most people my age had, but the fact remains that probably most of you had some sort of similar restriction on your evening schedule. In fact, it was probably necessary that you did, because high school (in MoCo, Maryland, at least) generally requires you to get up at like 5:30 in the f***ing morning in order to catch the bus. I made it through the age of 17 with this restriction on my back and basically thought it was the normal way of doing things.

Then I came to college.

“Hey, Roz, let’s go watch a movie in the Japanese room.”

“But it’s two o’clock in the–”

“So?”

“Oh. Yeah, you’re right.”

Maybe I’m just easily weirded out, but it was honestly bizarre to realize that if I did NOT go to bed at 9:30, no one was going to care. As a matter of fact, I would make a conservative estimate and say that if you DO go to bed at 9:30, people will probably look at you slightly funny and wonder if you are feeling ill. These days I actually probably get more done at night than I do during the day (which I tend to spend napping — a skill I never cultivated at home), and I don’t think I’ve gone to bed before two for the entire second semester.

So where am I going with this? I guess I’m saying that one of the things I learned in college is you can, and almost certainly will, survive on less sleep than you currently think you can. And it’s fun. However, this comes with a caveat — don’t be dumb about it. I happen to be a night person anyway — mornings are not my thing and therefore staying up all night actually helps my productivity. Some people are not that way (my father for instance…I have no idea how he gets up at four every day). And even if you’re not a morning person…if you find that you’re making yourself sick, go to bed. I swear to God, sometimes we just forget — the lure of homework or the internet (my drug of choice) can be very distracting. So keep an eye on yourself.

That being said and my first contribution to this blog being completed…I am going to go study French now. Wish me luck!

– Roz

“The truth is usually just an excuse for a lack of imagination.” — Garak, Improbable Cause

**************

Hey boys and girls,

I’d like to follow up Roz’s post with a story about my first night here at Goucher. My friends and I had a long day of meeting new people during orientation. That’s something to be ready for (whether you end up at Goucher or anywhere else), you’re going to meet and get the names of about 300 new people you’ve never seen before. Most likely, you’ll remember about ten of them, tops. Most people, you’ll remember “I met a guy named Nate… can’t remember what he looks like though.” Or conversely, maybe you’ll think “There was that girl with the crazy hair… who was she again?” You’re not going to remember everyone, and you’ll feel a little dumb asking people for their names over and over again, especially if someone remembers yours. It happens to everyone, though, and it’s nothing to worry about.

But back to the story. Emily (now my girlfriend), Robyn (now one of my close friends) and I went outside at midnight to take a walk. We had met over summer orientation, and we found each other the first day, but we had only spent all of 2 or 3 hours together. We still didn’t know each other that well. The three of us decided to take a stroll because none of us were tired. We walked around campus aimlessly (we only really knew where our dorms were) and found our way to the big rock behind Hoffberger Science Building. We sat on that rock and just talked for two or three hours. We talked about life, and our hometowns, and how college was different than high school. None of us really knew what to expect from the coming weeks.

One of the things that came up in conversation was how nobody really cares that we’re out at 2:00AM. As long as you’re not committing any felonies, or keeping people up, nobody cares what you do. A campus security guard walked by, and I half-expected him to tell us to go to bed. Then I remembered that we were in college. If he was going to say anything to us (which was unlikely) it was going to be “So… it’s pretty late,” and we’d say “Yep,” and he’d leave. That’s it. That’s the funny thing about college. I don’t know what that says about college other than that it’s a more free place. The only solid rule is “don’t piss other people off,” and most of us are good at that.

-Eli