more about me; gardening

I'll try to make these posts as regular as possible, but no guarantees (you'd immediately make this conclusion if you saw my schedule).

Anyway, life in college is a drag at the moment. The academic side is, as I expected it should, testing my limits of time, health, and sanity: I have four major exams next week, as well as the Cisco CCNP ISCW exam, which will come immediately after; that's what I get for taking five classes (technically six) that have nothing remotely to do with each other: astronomy, organic chemistry (lecture and lab), Chinese, psychology, and network engineering. In addition to that, I am a member of more clubs than I would like to count (and I am thinking of joining two more, believe it or not). On top of all that, I am pledging a fraternity this semester called Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity; the process can get quite hectic, physically, mentally, and philosophically, as there are plenty of requirements to fulfill. So, yeah, quite a full, ponderous plate have I on my hands this semester!

As for my spare time, I enjoy origami, photography, music, cooking, gardening, and video games, as well as reading about said pastimes. Each comforts me in its own way, and they all help keep me (relatively) sane and functional on my worst of times. Each will be expounded upon at a later date.

I'm only nineteen, but I'm feeling old already. I have been around to experience the collegiate revolving door phenomenon: people come in, and people get out, but most of us are still inside, looking out. It seems like freshman year of high school was just a mere year ago, but it's already been six years! Time really does fly when you're busy. And it really doesn't help that all this stress from college is aging me a lot faster, but, then again, that's college for ya.

Anywho, I like to think that my dorm room is a jungle. On sunny days, I open my blinds and put all my sun-loving plants on my intentionally south-facing windowsill, on a humidity tray: a magenta-colored geranium, basil, ginger, an apple seedling, and a cherry tomato plant, as well as a gardenia hiding in dappled shade, all of which are in pots way too small (plastic water bottles cut in half). The rest are on my desk: snake plant, pothos, spider plant, monstera, syngonium, dumb cane, and some mystery plant which (I think) is in the genus Tradescantia, each of them beautiful in their own ways. In case you were wondering, if I could start college all over again, I would be studying horticulture as well as biochemistry, but that arrangement is currently impossible: the nearest college offering it is an hour away, and the university with the state cooperative extension (in my case, Cornell; that's a hint on where I am) is another hour. I love where I am, though, and I would never trade this place for anywhere else, but I sometimes feel as though I were neglecting some part of me, that the experience here could never be as deeply fulfilling and satisfying as if I had gone to, say, Rutgers or Cornell (well..... I'd rather not go to Cornell, but just for the sake of my argument, I'm mentioning it). I know these shoulda/coulda/woulda's are useless to ask, and that I will go where I was meant to be, but I can't help thinking what could have been.

But I digress. (must be from the stress, I presume.)

I am called to this APO conference tomorrow morning (later today, but it's not THAT late yet...), and I must sleep, so... piu tardi.