Finals and Holidays

Ah, so Thanksgiving was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of college life. Sometimes you really forget what it's like to live at home. With parents. With rules. With a car. Without your friends right next door. Without wireless internet. Without a roommate. Without cafeteria food. With pets. With a landline telephone. With the need to go out on a Friday night to have a good time.
As you can see, I'm a little split about the whole college experience still. There are so many things that I truly love about it. For the first time in...EVER...I actually feel as though I have more control about my life than, say, my mother. I'm realizing more and more each day how much I've been kept from, and learning more and more about the ways in which I was brought up. There are some common sense rules within my house that just make sense. But there is a degree of control that my parents just refuse to relinquish.
But that doesn't mean that college is completely liberating in all ways. I miss having my car. I chose where to go and when. I'm becoming more and more aware that I choose what I want to do and where I go based around buses. I actually find myself missing out on some aspects of college life just because I am so removed from everything that's going on ON CAMPUS. I need to justify the 10 to 15 minute bus ride to do anything on campus, and find myself choosing to find some alternative in my dorm.
That's not to say that's a bad thing! I have some amazing people living in my dorm. Like I said, we don't really have the NEED to go out on a Friday night in order to have fun. We stay in and create our own. I wonder if I'm limiting myself as far as making friends goes though. If I were to branch out earlier in the year, would I know more people on Main Campus. Would I have more reasons to make the trek by bus more often? Would I get more involved in campuse activities? I don't know, but for now, I'm going to say that staying on South on the weekends is the best choice for me.
Going back for Thanksgiving made me realize just how incredible WiFi is. I take for granted that I'm sitting on the bottom floor of Bird Library with not a single cord coming out of my computer as I type this on-line. This winter is not going to be fun. If I want to go on the Internet, I have to go on my old school desktop and I can't travel around my house freely. Another downside is the fact that my Mac will have no Internet for some time. I mean I COULD hook it up to the Internet. But that means disconnecting that old school desktop and then connecting the Mac, waiting for it to recognize and then connect. I have no mobility with it. I am completely strapped down by cords. And once I'm done, I have to disconnect the Mac, reconnect the desktop and figure out how to reset the connection so that my parents don't bitch at me for daring to use my computer to do anything (like iChat with my friends whom I'm so used to being right down the hall from me).
But once I go into my room. I will be all alone. ALL ALONE. There will be no roommate who's working on some art project that, frankly, doesn't really interest me. I can play my music without feeling bad that she's sitting there doing stuff. My room won't smell like food. ALL lights will go out when I go to sleep. I won't have to answer rhetorical questions like se seriously needed me to justify things. I will be ALONE. NO ONE. MY room will be MY room.
I won't have to talk when I don't want to. I can dance around when I do want to--in my underwear. I can just change my clothes or get ready for a shower without the warning "Don't turn around." It will be peaceful.
Break will be nice for once too. During every other winter break I've had, I've had to deal with homework, papers, and projects to get done. This year there will be none of that. I will be completely done with my first semester of college, for that glorious month, I won't have work to deal with. When I return I will have a completely new schedule. So for once, I feel like I'll really be able to rest without worrying if I'm forgetting to complete some project. I won't actually be procrastinating because there will be nothing to procrastinate!
Speaking of which, that's why I'm writing this. I really should be finishing my CAS essay so I can edit it later (rather, re write the first part and tighten up the second part) and writing my QSX paper. Then I need to study for my Spanish oral interview which is tomorrow. And then somehow, I need to make sure that I get plenty of rest for the presentation tomorrow.
So now that I've shared some of my thoughts on college and going home, I'm going to get back to work.