Time to breath, read and watch television

It’s finally here: the last week of classes. While we still have classes on Monday, April 29, I don’t really count that as is the last day of class (which is weird that the last day of class is a Monday when our classes are either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday - just seems weird). But it doesn’t matter, because a week from now I will be done with my junior year of college. I will be able to call myself a senior again, but this time instead of the stress of going to college, it will be the stress of finding a grown-up job, figuring out where to live and how to pay for it.

But I have to get through this week first. Thankfully, I am done with writing stories for the Minnesota Daily for the semester (and forever, sadly). For months I have been not only writing news stories, but also always thinking about what news stories should be written; it’s crazy how much less stressed I am and how much free time I have. It’s as if I have come out of a shadow into the sun and can actually look forward to the promise of summer freedom. As I’m typing this, I’m realizing maybe that isn’t the best thing to say as I’m hoping to go into journalism when I graduate. Oh well. 

What’s crazy is that I have no finals this semester, which is a first. I had a “final story" for my intermediate reporting class, a “final paper and presentation” for my global communications class, and then I have “final projects” for my social psychology and multimedia class. But I have been working on completing those over time, so they’re not the same as a big “final test.” Not too bad, if I say so myself. 

I was talking with my roommate about professors and finals and such. She told me in her science and engineering classes, the professors purposely make the tests and exams very difficult so the average scores end up being about 60%. She said after one quiz the average score was 9.5/10: The professor was upset and said it was a bad reflection on his teaching. It’s just crazy that it seems like they want their students to fail. Thankfully, none of my professors seem to have this type of attitude, and would actually prefer that we do well on quizzes and such. A crazy concept, I know. 

But while I am still in my bubble of homework and school, there have been some things happening on campus that I think you might find interesting. Today, a student activist group set up tents on the lawn outside the main school buildings and held a peaceful protest against the University’s investment in the Israel-Hamas war. I guess the University invests in companies that are complicit in the violence in Gaza, and some students are upset about it. Of course, the Daily had to cover it, so I was learning about it as it progressed. 

What happened is while they set up their tents around 4 a.m., police arrived at 7 a.m. and arrested seven students, one faculty member, and someone not associated with the University for trespassing. The policy states people are allowed to have demonstrations of less than 100 people, but they are not allowed to have tents. I saw over social media that those arrested are banned from campus for a year, which is going to be interesting for the students and the faculty member. 

Many other students expressed their frustration over social media about not only the arrests, but the social situation, so those of us not involved have been able to watch what’s been happening. It’s just incredibly interesting to see how people react to things and why, but that could just be the psychology part of me being piqued. 

The next time you hear from me, hopefully I will have had more sleep and less stress. There are so many books I want to read and TV shows and movies I want to watch. I want to go out and touch grass, hang a hammock and enjoy the sun. But I will not be pitching a tent on the school’s lawn, that’s for sure. 

My Determination: “Hughie, you’ve done a murder. Comparatively speaking, this will be a piece of cake.” - Butcher, The Boys