Yesterday was Thursday (Thursday); today, it is Friday (Friday); me, me, me so excited — me so excited, me gonna have a ball today. Please forgive me, but when else am I going to be able to use such horrible syntax and get away with alluding to Rebecca Black in a respectable publication? And besides, there are so many things to be excited about:

I have a fresh new set of classes (ITAL20 with Giovanni Tempesta is the best thing ever and everyone should study Italian just to take this class), and I’m taking IntroSems for the first time; the SLE curriculum is moving into the modern era — I’m familiar with even less of the texts than I was last quarter and am looking forward to expanding my repertoire. EastFlo played “The Game” last weekend, which was one of the best experiences of my Stanford life (as was Band Run, Part II — it’s much better when you know what to do beforehand…). After lots of doubting and hedging, I submitted my preassignment application for Casa Italiana and already can’t wait to find out if miei amici and I get into our desired houses on the Row (I’m really looking forward to knowing people in all the good houses on campus); I had my first ProFro on Tuesday and am psyched for one of my best friends to come to Admit Weekend and be completely unbiased about where she goes (come to Stanford!); I get to see Stanford Football on Saturday at the Cardinal and White Game — however unofficial it is, that one loyalty point would have saved me $17 and the immense dread I felt when I thought I couldn’t go to Big Game — and Sophomore College applications are due on Monday. To top it all off, I don’t have classes on Friday.

Essentially, life is progressing in a beautiful way. Fall quarter was like a fairytale — everyday, there was something new to be excited about — and winter quarter was, well, winter quarter. If the fact that it was cold (in the 50s), cloudy and rainy the entirety of spring break (which I decided to spend in California/the Bay Area/at Stanford) epitomizes winter quarter, the fact that literally the first day of spring quarter, the forecast magically became sunny and hot shows that even Nature knows spring quarter’s where it’s at. The words, “Look at the stars — look how they shine for you” never rang truer. Thank God.

But seriously. On the other hand, though, the year feels like it’s already over. It is very difficult to realize that eight weeks is a comparatively long period of time, especially given how the weeks seem to fly by in the quarter system.

Part of me worries that I won’t be able to maximize the experiences I want to have in the quarter — spending time in the dorm with the always-excellent residents of Alondra; appreciating the unique intellectual opportunity afforded by SLE (and wanting to delay becoming a “regular” Stanford student as long as possible); spending time with my beyond-wonderful roommate and making the most of our final weeks living together; spending time with my friends before going home for the summer (I can’t even begin to fathom what that will be like), while trying to meet new great people; staying fit and taking advantage of all of Stanford’s athletic, cultural and academic events — being able to do all of this concerns me.

To that end, my best friend and I, inspired by her mother, decided to declare “resolutions” (which I renamed “concrete objectives”) for spring quarter. Our shortlist is as follows:

Academic Objectives

1) Get up at 8 every (weekday) morning, go running around Lag and eat breakfast;

2) Spend two solid hours each morning/afternoon doing work and an hour at night in the CoHo to finish it up;

3) Finish all the week’s SLE reading by the start of Tuesday’s first lecture (we don’t have discussion section until Wednesday, so this is quite admirable);

4) Arrive to all classes early;

5) Be in bed by 2 a.m.

 

Personal Objectives

1) Go on weekend/day trips at least twice a month;

2) Visit The Dish at least once a month;

3) To go to EBF every Wednesday (I left space for it my for-the-first-time printed quarter calendar).

 

We got up at 8 and ran the first three mornings of the quarter — even though we had decided our resolutions needn’t officially go into effect until week two — just to prove to a doubtful friend that we could commit. Then Band Run happened and while she’s run every day so far, yesterday was the first time I’ve run since then.

But just as I realize I shouldn’t sweat maximizing my time, I am also not beating myself up for not meeting these objectives — I’m still fulfilling the spirit of the “abstract ideals” on which these objectives were based. I’m sleeping and waking up relatively earlier, eating breakfast, concentrating more on my work (though with frequent interruptions to sun on FloMo field), being social and generally having a blast.

And while the forecast is sadly just in 60s this coming week, I’m still optimistic. Just look at the stars, Stanford — look how they shine for you. And it was all yellow…

 

Upset at the Coldplay reference? Yell at Kristian at kbailey ‘at’ stanford.edu. But please, no anti-Rebecca Black emails.