Finals Who? Good Grades Where?
By Cameron Rusin
Hi friends!
It’s Friday night, so something is probably going on, but it’s officially finals period and I’ve managed to get the flu during my last week on campus so I’m having a peaceful night kind of studying, but also just thinking, on the library roof. It’s insane how beautiful it is up here! I watched the sunset then when it got dark the landscape lights turned on, I’m surrounded by yellow tulips that decided it was time to bloom this week, and the ballroom team is practicing their swing dancing up here (although their music taste of country music is a little questionable).
I guess I’ll start the blog with the bad news, but maybe not actually bad news. I’m officially getting my first B ever! Exciting? I don’t know, but I have been thinking about it a lot more than I should. I came to college knowing it would be hard. I knew that no one graduated with a 4.0, therefore I was bound to get a B at some, probably multiple, points during my college career. But then first semester came and went and although some A-s tarnished the 4.0 GPA, no Bs were to be had! Was I invincible? Could I somehow do the impossible? Needless to say, Chem 12 slapped me back down to Earth. I don’t know how I did on the final yet, but I had such a solid B that nothing I did could have gotten me higher than a B+, but also nothing I did could have gotten me lower than a C+, so a B is a safe assumption.
Probably the worst part about this B is that I wholly deserve it; I f*cked up in many a places and often let my utter hatred for my TA get in the way of holding myself accountable for trying a little harder on problem sets. But at the same time it was kind of nice? Don’t get me wrong, I still did way too much googling of “GPA needed to go to grad school” and “how bad is a B in college,” but I think it was probably important to get this B out of the way. I certainly finally learned that unlike in high school, As need to be worked for, but not having the stress of a final that would make or break my already suboptimal chem grade allowed for me to have some fun during reading period! So that’s what I’m gonna talk about now. (Sorry, this blog might be long. I have nothing better to do than write).
Well, I started reading period after a late night after my burlesque show (another post?) and woke up with the flu! I was in a lot of denial that I was sick so tried to get stuff done, but I really don’t remember anything I did that first day through the fever/headache fog. The real fun begins Wednesday night! I was studying with a friend here on the roof because it’s been so nice out, and we overheard someone talking about a geocache they couldn’t find. Me being me, I immediately disregarded my work, made a geocache account, and looked up geocaches near me. Low and behold, there was one just 45 feet away! We had some fun finding it and then a third friend showed up, just by luck! Now with a trio of pals who didn't want to study, we decided to see what other geocaches are on campus and started ourselves on a 12 part adventure made with the intention of showing the new Jumbo around campus. We started pretty late, so only got to 3 caches (unfortunately only actually finding 2…) before getting tired of romping around campus in the dark. Not wanting to go to bed, we laid on the Rez Quad and looked at the light polluted sky (I’m so ready for Yosemite stars). Two of us almost spent the night out there, but once we discovered that my friend was very allergic to the grass we decided not to. I’m a little sad that this didn’t happen, but I have three more years to sleep on one of the campus lawns.
The next day a few pals and I got up early to go on a bike ride! A couple of days earlier when the weather was getting nice and I was getting bored with taking time off of running I threw out the idea of getting bikes from the Tufts bike share and going for a ride and got quite the little gang to sign up! I was so excited! The bike ride was pretty uneventful, but I didn’t realize what a treat it was to have a dad stick me on a bike when I learned to walk, as the half mile of street riding we had to do to get to the bike path was quite the adventure… Anyways, our final stop was the farm where my friend Alexandra is going to work this summer, and we saw some good animals!
Anyways, that was a long blog post, but I found some unexpected inner peace during reading period that lends itself to blogging. Let’s see how long this lasts!
Hi friends!
It’s Friday night, so something is probably going on, but it’s officially finals period and I’ve managed to get the flu during my last week on campus so I’m having a peaceful night kind of studying, but also just thinking, on the library roof. It’s insane how beautiful it is up here! I watched the sunset then when it got dark the landscape lights turned on, I’m surrounded by yellow tulips that decided it was time to bloom this week, and the ballroom team is practicing their swing dancing up here (although their music taste of country music is a little questionable).
The view from my spot. It's hard to capture the serenity but imagine mood lighting and tulips dancing in the wind
I guess I’ll start the blog with the bad news, but maybe not actually bad news. I’m officially getting my first B ever! Exciting? I don’t know, but I have been thinking about it a lot more than I should. I came to college knowing it would be hard. I knew that no one graduated with a 4.0, therefore I was bound to get a B at some, probably multiple, points during my college career. But then first semester came and went and although some A-s tarnished the 4.0 GPA, no Bs were to be had! Was I invincible? Could I somehow do the impossible? Needless to say, Chem 12 slapped me back down to Earth. I don’t know how I did on the final yet, but I had such a solid B that nothing I did could have gotten me higher than a B+, but also nothing I did could have gotten me lower than a C+, so a B is a safe assumption.
Probably the worst part about this B is that I wholly deserve it; I f*cked up in many a places and often let my utter hatred for my TA get in the way of holding myself accountable for trying a little harder on problem sets. But at the same time it was kind of nice? Don’t get me wrong, I still did way too much googling of “GPA needed to go to grad school” and “how bad is a B in college,” but I think it was probably important to get this B out of the way. I certainly finally learned that unlike in high school, As need to be worked for, but not having the stress of a final that would make or break my already suboptimal chem grade allowed for me to have some fun during reading period! So that’s what I’m gonna talk about now. (Sorry, this blog might be long. I have nothing better to do than write).
Well, I started reading period after a late night after my burlesque show (another post?) and woke up with the flu! I was in a lot of denial that I was sick so tried to get stuff done, but I really don’t remember anything I did that first day through the fever/headache fog. The real fun begins Wednesday night! I was studying with a friend here on the roof because it’s been so nice out, and we overheard someone talking about a geocache they couldn’t find. Me being me, I immediately disregarded my work, made a geocache account, and looked up geocaches near me. Low and behold, there was one just 45 feet away! We had some fun finding it and then a third friend showed up, just by luck! Now with a trio of pals who didn't want to study, we decided to see what other geocaches are on campus and started ourselves on a 12 part adventure made with the intention of showing the new Jumbo around campus. We started pretty late, so only got to 3 caches (unfortunately only actually finding 2…) before getting tired of romping around campus in the dark. Not wanting to go to bed, we laid on the Rez Quad and looked at the light polluted sky (I’m so ready for Yosemite stars). Two of us almost spent the night out there, but once we discovered that my friend was very allergic to the grass we decided not to. I’m a little sad that this didn’t happen, but I have three more years to sleep on one of the campus lawns.
The next day a few pals and I got up early to go on a bike ride! A couple of days earlier when the weather was getting nice and I was getting bored with taking time off of running I threw out the idea of getting bikes from the Tufts bike share and going for a ride and got quite the little gang to sign up! I was so excited! The bike ride was pretty uneventful, but I didn’t realize what a treat it was to have a dad stick me on a bike when I learned to walk, as the half mile of street riding we had to do to get to the bike path was quite the adventure… Anyways, our final stop was the farm where my friend Alexandra is going to work this summer, and we saw some good animals!
Alpaca!
Another Alpaca! They were shaven with just their afros on top of their heads, which was a silly but reasonable look considering how HOT it has been here
The baby goat decided to stand on one of the mamas? Not his mom though. This was very confusing but also comical and adorable
The gang! Left to right, Alexandra of MA, Johanna of Oakland, and Grace of Chicago
Anyways, that was a long blog post, but I found some unexpected inner peace during reading period that lends itself to blogging. Let’s see how long this lasts!
:)
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