Stuff.

There are boocoos (as my momaw would say) of things swirling through my head, and rather than write a book, I'm going to do the minimalist thing and make a list. Hooray for laziness!

1. I've gotten back into drawing and painting and such. It's a pretty good stress reliever, plus it helps cover up holes on the walls in my room. Bonus! I've also tried to teach myself some new songs on piano, mostly Adele songs because, I mean, once you go Adele, you never go back.

2. I get a new phone in October, which is incredible news for those of you who have seen my phone. It has a will of it's own, calling and texting people in other states who I've never spoken to. Or better, texting people I know to inform them that they "probably have cancer." Oh, and calling the cops while I'm at work. Thanks for that, LG.

3. It's UNBELIEVABLY hot. The sun has taken some issue with Tennessee and is now trying to destroy it by drying out the ground in hopes the whole state will just spontaneously combust. Unfortunately, it's so humid here that the air replenishes the earth's water supply as quickly as it's evaporating. If only we were so lucky to spontaneously combust...

4. College classes are starting again in a couple weeks. That's not as thrilling as it sounds, and it didn't sound very thrilling to begin with. I loathe being confined to that campus all day, walking around in the beams of death falling from the sun or, in winter, having to ice skate to class. I managed to squeeze all the credit hours I needed into two days this semester with the occasional Monday lab. That's tolerable, right? Actually, "sufferable" is a better word.

5. Chick-fil-A is getting on my nerves. I know I should be thankful I have a job in these hard times, unemployment is skyrocketing, the apocalypse is nigh, etc. etc. It's kind of depressing when you make 1.2 billion chicken sandwiches in an hour and you look up and realize they've all been sold and you need more. Or better, when you get a complaint from a customer that the cores of her tomato slices "were not properly removed." Really? Bite me.

6. My friend, Maddy B, dropped off the face of the earth for a few months and has emerged a professional photographer! You want to click here and check out her stuff. You also want to subscribe, so you can get album after album of awe-inspiring photographed goodness right to your email. Do it.


Welp, that's all I got. If I left anything out, I'll add it later. Probably not actually.
   

Open Letters: UT Edition.

I realize that almost every university in the country has issues with parking, but the University of Tennessee's parking situation is quite possibly the largest corporate screw over in existence.

The staff can pretty much park wherever they want, including most of the garages we're required to park in. That only worsens the ratio of roughly 2.8 students per parking spot UT currently boasts. That being said, at times, we students have to get pretty desperate when it comes to parking.

I was in one of those situations recently, and if you haven't already guessed, I received my first parking ticket. 34 minutes in a 30-minute parking zone. I was pretty pissed about it. It's not even the money that set me off; it wasn't even that much. What infuriates me is that I know how these people operate. I know they purposely leave their parking situation in shambles because it's making them truckloads of money. And, even more angering, I know they have no intention of ever fixing it. As long as they can continue building onto Neyland Stadium, they couldn't care less.

I decided all this anger ought to be used for something constructive, so I wrote them a letter. This is a completely over exaggerated version of what I wrote. Well, some of it is exaggerated...

Dear UT Parking and Transit Services,

Despite the fact that you very clearly have no intention of improving the atrocious parking conditions we, your paying students, face on a daily basis, I'm going to point out the flaws and pretend that you care.

First off, the Board of Appeals is a complete and total joke. Not only did it take them two days to respond to my half-page parking ticket appeal, but when they responded with a "copy" of the appeal, they didn't even reproduce the full document. This indicates to me that they didn't even consider the appeal, at least in its entirety. I'm sure there's some type of legal loophole I could exploit here, but I'll refrain for now and just keep all this on file for future reference.

Granted, I'm not contesting the citation, I have already paid the fee for my four-minute violation. So, rest assured, my horrendous criminal act has been set straight. Your staff is doing an excellent job of keeping their priorities in order. We're down to only three or four murders on campus a month, and if I remember right, there were less than twelve muggings in February! That's a record, right? But those parking violators, none of them get off free, do they? Nope. That's right, you keep spending all that money on ticket-happy, unarmed rent-a-cops. Why not just cut spending on legitimate campus security entirely? I mean, we don't NEED to light our streets at night. If they're worried, students can carry flashlights! Who cares, right? Keep up the great work, guys.

I hope whoever reads this is intelligent enough to comprehend (and possibly choke on) the sarcasm in that last paragraph. Honestly, do you take us for idiots? We know we're getting royally screwed. It's obvious you're not good with money, but the least you could do is give us a two-space per student ratio. What exactly do you do with our tuition money anyway? You're obviously not putting it towards the educational staff, and after Fulmer's recent debacle, I wonder if you're even putting it towards a quality athletics staff.

Ultimately, I realize nothing will change. No response is required because I know it will be some fill-in-the-blank, computer-generated document that you've probably used hundreds of times. I just to make known that the current Parking and Transit services are not even remotely close to sufficient. And your refusal to change anything about it is as crooked as the convicts and inmates who play football for you.

Have a nice day.

Books.

Being a college student, I am no stranger to textbooks. Better yet, I am no stranger to the "HELP, I'M BEING ROBBED!" reaction that you get when you purchase said textbooks.

My university, like many others, has a program where the bookstore will buy back old textbooks from past semesters. If you know you're going to need the extra cash for your following semester, the program will supposedly work as a buffer for the coming expenses. Supposedly.

So, I figured I'd give the program a shot. It's better than nothing, right?

Wrong, actually. It's pretty much nothing.

The amount they offer for your books is so painfully low that most students immediately assume the fetal position and begin rocking back and forth telling themselves it's all a dream. In my case, I was just so overcome with anger that all I could think of was slapping the greedy smirk right of the clerk's face. Do they really think students can afford to sell their books back for less than 10% of what they purchased them for?

Luckily at the register, as I was angrily taking back my books, a girl next to me who was also very upset with the program stopped me. "Hey, I need that book!" she said. "I'll buy it from you for more than these people will." She proceeded to tell me the approximate amount she paid for each of her books originally, how much they offered to buy them back for, how she planned to stick it to the man, and some other crap. I really didn't care. I just wanted her money so I could leave.

In the end, she paid three times the amount the bookstore offered me, and I got the satisfaction of smirking back at the clerk and mouthing, "That's how you do business."

But while I may have won this battle, I know they will ultimately win the war against my wallet. I'm really starting to hate college.

Diligence.

I am, in fact, still writing. However, rather than all my writing being concentrated in one place (this blog), it's been skewed across several locations.

One of those places is my new job that I was talking about earlier. I absolutely love it. Not just for the fact that I get praise and recognition to do what I love, but also...actually, that pretty much sums it up. Since it's Fall Break, my editors are giving me this week off, and thus, my focus returns here. Temporarily.

The second and possibly the most prominent place is my composition class. Now, I enjoy writing and English in general, but when you're professor is somewhat of an emotionally unstable advocate for racial equality, the work becomes very VERY monotonous. Everyday, she brings up the age-old Black vs. White debate, and everyday, we "discuss" it. By "discuss" it, I'm referring to screaming our unwavering viewpoints back and forth for a full 50 minutes. It's very tiring, but I've yet to lose an argument. My temper, on the other hand...hopelessly lost.

Well, that's a general recap of the past two weeks. Taking turns with my classmates, forcing our opinions down each others' throats. Gotta love college.

My first college assignment.

It went a little something like this...

Back in late June, all incoming Freshmen at UT were informed that they were required to read the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder and write a creative response about it.

Not bad for Summer reading. I've had much worse, so I didn't complain.

Unfortunately, I assumed that the assignment was due on the first day of school since that's when normal people make Summer reading due.

But I recieved an email at approximately 5:46 PM EST last night that read:

This is just a reminder that your creative responses are due tomorrow! Many of you have already begun submitting projects and they are outstanding so far.

If you have problems please email me and I will help you!

Have a great evening!
 
Drew
 
It wasn't a great evening. Thanks buttloads for that, Drew.
 
Communication is really, really important, especially with the people in charge of your grades. Although, the people in charge of my grades can't seem to grasp that concept.

I did get it done, though. Unfortunately, some of my friends weren't so lucky.

I blame Drew. As should we all.

Movin' on up.

I'm collegiate, officially.

And despite the impending flood of stress and emotion these next four years are going to throw at me, I think I might just be ready.

I've straightened things out, and God's got my back on this. I'm sure of it this time.

UTK, hit me with your best shot.

The Future.

To sum it up? I'm utterly terrified of it.

I don't have the slightest inkling of an idea what it holds, and it recently hit me that, up until this point, I really haven't given it much thought.

Sure, you can  pretend to have the rest of your life planned out, but do you honestly? And even if you think you know what you are going to do for the rest of your life, do you truly think you're even remotely qualified to make that decision? I don't.

I often feel inadequate to make even the most trivial of choices, so obviously, I don't feel capable of deciding my future...and I'll probably continue to feel that way until I'm literally finished with college and already well into my career. But until that time, I'll remain terrified and clinging.

Clinging to the only lifeline I have, the only One who is qualified to decide my future...and already has.
 
 
See? I can be all deep and philisophical, but don't expect any profound masterpieces from me. My scholarly insight comes in very short bursts.