CSO’s Executive Director Matt Rubinoff came to campus and we did some video blogging. Here I encourage you to think outside-the-box and venture away from home for college. Sorry about the rain and thunder background noise; it was not your typical sunny California day!

Well, 1/8 of my college experience and (knock on wood) I’m very happy with where I’m at.  In my last post, I discussed how it took a few people to go out of their way and really become friends with me.  These are some great kids, and I have surely managed to have a great time at Oxy up until now.   As one of my friends and I were reflecting on the past semester though, we came to the conclusion we really didn’t DO as much in L.A. as we thought we would.  Occidental makes a very good case that the whole of Los Angeles is an integral part of the experience.  As my friend and I discussed, though, we realized that the times we had attempted to leave campus by ourselves (neither of us have a car) using the public transportation, that you can be very lucky or very unlucky in terms of how much you wait.  As a matter of fact, a few of us decided we wanted to see Hollywood on a Saturday night.  Thirty minutes on the bus and we were standing wide eyed on the corner of Hollywood and Vine in the shadow of that building that looks like a stack of records.   Later on though, we waited almost 2 hours for a return bus with maybe 15 Angelenos and didn’t return to the dorm until around 3:00.  Not to mention all the arrests we witnessed in our short stroll along the Boulevard, it was a pretty nerve-racking experience.

This semester though I really do plan to visit some of Los Angeles’s most important cultural attractions, museums, and maybe the beach a couple of times.   It truly appears to be a great city, but I think it might be wise for us to much better understand the transit system.  Very few of my peers have cars on campus, and of the few that do, a minority are from out of town and willing to “explore” the city.  I’m sure that this will be easy to overcome though.  My only fear is that increasing my focus on seeing the sights will detract from my studies. My class lineup this semester seems to be far too interesting for that though. (Michelangelo, Intro to Urban & Environmental policy, The Russian Experience, and Spanish) all cater to very specific interests of mine.

Alas though it will likely be a struggle against the ease of hedonistic pursuits to again truly learn this semester, but there is no reason why overcoming such distractions shouldn’t be easy.

Wow!  Like everyone else has said, this semester has absolutely flown by.    I remember during the first few weeks of school wondering whether or not I was going to handle the social situation of all these kids that I had very little in common with.  I did miss my family, my friends, and my comfort back home for the entire semester, but that feeling was especially strong in the first few weeks.  My peers at Oxy had all been extremely friendly, and almost without exception, they have proven to be caring, compassionate, and outgoing people.    Now, I understand that people at any college are probably more friendly than the average population, however it took a while for me to come around the realization that this is how ALL people CAN BE. What’s more, I had always imagined that the historic class struggle would keep me from ever really penetrating their ranks.

With this realization it was very easy for me to make friends.  I’ve never been, by any means, a socially estranged person, but I think I can finally understand how some might sense an alienation and let it confine them.  For me, it was that a few people went out of there way to be kind to me that this became possible.  They were my gateway to a larger population at the school.   While still existent, those feelings of loneliness and distance from familiarity were significantly downplayed.  I am appreciative then for my new friends who have made being away a genuinely great experience and who have taken the pain out of it.  I genuinely believe that without them I probably would have performed much worse this semester (grades were 3 A’s and a B — the B was in a math class).  I guess what I’m saying is that, especially at a residential college, social interactions are a part of the equation. I would caution all people though to watch the company you keep because new friends might be detrimental to your success, something thus far I have tried to avoid.

Swish…loop…crank…crank…nervousness…click click click (gear grinds)… click clack…This is the last hump on the roller coaster of my first semester.  There is a lot to do between today and the end of this semester, but somehow these last few months have sped by.

For you high-schoolers out there my guess is that you are experiencing a similar sense of unease and nervousness.  The time to finish college applications is nigh, just as the promise of a break from school for the holiday season.  I remember that when my C.U. application was somehow erased every time I attempted to save it, a certain heat went up and down my back. So much frustration resulted from this that I felt I alone possessed a terrible burden.  In short, the college application process was a very intense experience for me, and I’m sure it is proving to be, at some points, for you as well.

What I have noticed though is that stress is inevitable.  I find that the heat is on now as the first semester comes to a close. With due diligence and a lot of patience I have faith that it will all work out in the end, and if you have that same faith it will help you to make more rational and cautious decisions than if you don’t.  Let me tell you that your applications and essays will look much better if you type them with a clear head rather than with “just finishing” in mind.  These applications and such can be finished, and if I can impart those seniors out there with one more bit in the endless stream of advice: don’t stress out and make more problems for yourself. At the same time though I want to be clear that what you are doing is important, and that is why it is so important to approach these issues with a level head.

That’s how I felt last year at this time. The leaves were falling off the trees, the air had a bite, and the sun was setting earlier.  The election season was over, and I had spent the last few months putting off thinking about college in favor of work and the campaign.  Fall had come, and it didn’t wait for me.  I had done most of what was expected so far thanks to the guidance from a caring teacher, but I hadn’t even begun to consider what schools to apply to. In fact, all I had really done was take the ACT with writing.  The deadlines were coming though, and I had made sure in advance I hadn’t missed any.

An important conversation that I had with one of my mentors earlier that year left me with an interest in Liberal Arts colleges.  After leafing through a book with overviews of schools throughout the country in the days following the election though, I had a good idea of what institutions interested me.  This is a practice I highly recommend to all of the high-schoolers out there.  In fact, it was the Insider’s Guide to Colleges that first informed me of Occidental College’s existence.  That Oxy wasn’t even on my radar before is important because it shows the importance of broadening the scope of your horizons.

When applying to schools, listen to others but also think for yourself.  What you want is important, and it is your education on the line here.  Many high school students aren’t getting fantastic advice in their schools.  In my case, I was lucky to have it from one teacher and a whole host of mentors outside of my school.  If you feel the same way, I would recommend looking around the other regions of your life for advice.  The internet is a tremendous resource as well, but I recommend using your informed instincts there as anywhere else. Just don’t be afraid of rejection.

Finally, the last bit of advice I have is this: Get your applications done in plenty of time so you can make sure it is done correctly.  I can’t stress this enough.  All the mysterious people you are sending your application to will see are the words in front of them. Make sure that it’s you that they can see, and take the time to be certain. You won’t regret it.

In the last month, I’ve begun to think seriously of what my role in academia is.  Perhaps the most surprising conclusion that I have begun to arrive upon is that our roles are constructed.  Undoubtedly it would appear that such a conclusion offends the very grain of our existence as it doubts our very core assumption of personal power.  Perhaps that is why I have not begun to consider this until now.

Familiarity makes us comfortable, but sometimes we stand on pedestillian prisons of our own making.  We imagine a role as ours that we want, regardless of what our role may be.  We cannot construct our own roles though. It may conflict with the popular conception of individualism to realize that our function is not exogenous, but we are better for appreciating it.

Resigning oneself to the fact of a world that we must fit into is at once frightfully pessimistic. But that world is already there.  Recently, I read a book entitled “They Say, I say” that suggested the academic conversation is like a party:

1. It has been going on a long time when you arrive
2. Just as soon as you hear enough of the conversation to jump in, you do
3. After hours of lively conversation and stimulating debate, you have to leave
4. The conversation continues long after

The intellectual in all of us wants to stay at the party, and see what happens next.  We are only given short time to learn from it and offer what we can though.  I think this realization is crucial to intellectual growth, and any further understanding of what our role is.  In many ways, then, life is just the party.  All that you have to do is be attentive, forget shyness, and your role finds you!

A kid up the hall in my dorm left last week, for good it turns out. His parents came to take his belongings back home, and they didn’t seem happy about it.  College is not High School.  For me, high school was merely a carry-over of the meritocracy I was accustomed to since kindergarten with a few exceptions.  It provided a clear layout of expectations, teachers were clear about what they wanted, and I was never asked to be any more than a mostly passive actor my education.  Simple. Perhaps more importantly, there was familiarity.  That is not the case here. This is a new world, and it can be academic oz if I want it, a place of real learning.

I find myself forever trying to consciously avoid the numerous distractions and nervous about whether I’m really smart enough for all of this. They keep telling us that we are, after all, we got here.  But then there’s that kid up the hall.  He was clearly intoxicated the other night when he wandered up to my door in a daze.  It’s only the 6^th week of school (already!?) and his resign to the temptation of ease may have cost him some great opportunities.  There’s a lot of work here, he wasn’t doing it.

I got sick last weekend, and couldn’t go to my classes on Monday. Everyone’s getting sick.  At least it is early in the semester so we can catch up, but missing even a little is a big deal when you have to diligently manage your time. It’s a concept that isn’t new to me, but it’s definitely tougher than high school.  These weeks have gone fast, but I’m learning a lot and making many new friends.  In the weeks ahead, I am sure to become more acquainted with these peculiar surroundings.