Oct 24, 2008
A List of My Own
Being a Sophomore at UT has its own specific challenges and subtle enjoyments. In honor of James Agee, I verbosely listed a few.
Money. My roommates and I live well and happily (see below), but have to be creative in some areas to do so. Like furniture. Who needs a real desk anyway? I've never realized before how much it truly costs just to keep me alive and reasonably clean. My poor parents. Rent is a huge part of my budget, but that was e
xpected, so it seems like less. (Like college tuition. How did we get into this situation? Are we really paying $80,000 to learn a skill? Whatever happened to apprenticeships? Was there anything really wrong with that? But I saw that one coming, so, again, it seems less.) The difficult one for me to handle is food. I like food. Food is good. I eat a lot of food. I have friends who tell me I eat more food than they thought was humanly possible. I used to just laugh those types of comments off, but now I cringe and agree. My grocery bills are huge. Last month, I almost actually "ate myself out of house and home." Literally. I came about $50 away from eating so much that I couldn't pay rent. And do you remember all of those things that just magically appeared in your house when you needed them? Like toothpaste, toilet paper, hot sauce if you're in my family, laundry detergent and/or clean underwear...the list goes on. No one told me that those things don't just magically appear. You actually have to buy them, and what's worse, you actually have to remember to buy them. It's a terrible feeling, staring at your pantry, realizing you forgot to buy soap again, and trying to decide whether or not you want to pay outrageous prices at the on-campus store, run to the strip and be late to class, or show up smelling like you have been resurrected after a couple days underground. And I don't know if you've heard, but gas costs a lot. It's funny, the things that I suddenly have come to consider "within biking distance." The strip, downtown, friend's houses, over the river, Kroger, Nashville...
Class. Class suddenly gets harder Sophomore year. I swear to you. I took eighteen hours or something like that last year for both semesters, and I decided to take it easy this semester, so I have thirteen. I think my grades are actually worse. Maybe I'm just upset about this today because we got our organic tests back. We will not discuss this matter further.
Friends. When you are a freshman, you kind of have friends shoved down your throat. There are so many school-sponsored events, and even if you don't go to any of them, you have thousands of people living down the hall from you, and you will most likely meet at least one of them. Sophomore year is harder. I have had a hard time and have been pretty slow about making friends. I feel like my friend group exploded at the end of last year and scattered throughout the city. There are a few people in my building, but now we have to be a lot more intentional about it if we want to see each other. I actually have to use my phone. I have to drive (or bike--see above) to see them.
Deciding on a major. You know, the reason I'm here and everything. Eventually I will have to start studying something. I'm not quite sure just what. I wish I had more to say about this. "It's a typical situation in a typical town--too many choices."
Marriage. People I know keep getting engaged, which I hear, when left untreated, could eventually lead to a marriage. I am co-best man in my middle brother's and best friends' (two of them, marrying each other) weddings. I think that counts the same as a full best man for one wedding. Four other couples I know have gotten engaged recently. This
is a strange phenomenon, and somewhat challenging for a variety of reasons, which leads me to my next point.
Actually growing up. People keep getting jobs, starting and ending relationships, graduating, failing out, and otherwise moving on. Everything happens so fast. It's hard to keep up, and it's harder to slow down to enjoy things. I feel like Alice, eating cake and drinking potion, and I can't quite find the right equilibrium. I don't know what to tell you. College is transitional. You aren't quite grown up, but you aren't truly a child either. You have to find the balance between making something of yourself and actually enjoying the life you have. But, c'est la vie.
Most of the time, I feel like, in balancing this equilibrium, most of the joys and beauties of life are subtle, but powerful. It's easy to forget or pass over them unnoticed as you're dealing with the problems that can easily conquer and overwhelm you. Tomorrow night, I plan to watch war movies with a friend of mine while eating potatoes and salsa--today was cold, and I wore my new jacket. I went to the library to study and saw about twenty people I know who performed the vital role of distracting me from studying--a few days ago, I went to the cereal bar in the old city with of couple of my friends from high school. I got lucky charms and a cream soda, and we played board games until two in the morning.
Money. My roommates and I live well and happily (see below), but have to be creative in some areas to do so. Like furniture. Who needs a real desk anyway? I've never realized before how much it truly costs just to keep me alive and reasonably clean. My poor parents. Rent is a huge part of my budget, but that was e
xpected, so it seems like less. (Like college tuition. How did we get into this situation? Are we really paying $80,000 to learn a skill? Whatever happened to apprenticeships? Was there anything really wrong with that? But I saw that one coming, so, again, it seems less.) The difficult one for me to handle is food. I like food. Food is good. I eat a lot of food. I have friends who tell me I eat more food than they thought was humanly possible. I used to just laugh those types of comments off, but now I cringe and agree. My grocery bills are huge. Last month, I almost actually "ate myself out of house and home." Literally. I came about $50 away from eating so much that I couldn't pay rent. And do you remember all of those things that just magically appeared in your house when you needed them? Like toothpaste, toilet paper, hot sauce if you're in my family, laundry detergent and/or clean underwear...the list goes on. No one told me that those things don't just magically appear. You actually have to buy them, and what's worse, you actually have to remember to buy them. It's a terrible feeling, staring at your pantry, realizing you forgot to buy soap again, and trying to decide whether or not you want to pay outrageous prices at the on-campus store, run to the strip and be late to class, or show up smelling like you have been resurrected after a couple days underground. And I don't know if you've heard, but gas costs a lot. It's funny, the things that I suddenly have come to consider "within biking distance." The strip, downtown, friend's houses, over the river, Kroger, Nashville...Class. Class suddenly gets harder Sophomore year. I swear to you. I took eighteen hours or something like that last year for both semesters, and I decided to take it easy this semester, so I have thirteen. I think my grades are actually worse. Maybe I'm just upset about this today because we got our organic tests back. We will not discuss this matter further.
Friends. When you are a freshman, you kind of have friends shoved down your throat. There are so many school-sponsored events, and even if you don't go to any of them, you have thousands of people living down the hall from you, and you will most likely meet at least one of them. Sophomore year is harder. I have had a hard time and have been pretty slow about making friends. I feel like my friend group exploded at the end of last year and scattered throughout the city. There are a few people in my building, but now we have to be a lot more intentional about it if we want to see each other. I actually have to use my phone. I have to drive (or bike--see above) to see them.Deciding on a major. You know, the reason I'm here and everything. Eventually I will have to start studying something. I'm not quite sure just what. I wish I had more to say about this. "It's a typical situation in a typical town--too many choices."
Marriage. People I know keep getting engaged, which I hear, when left untreated, could eventually lead to a marriage. I am co-best man in my middle brother's and best friends' (two of them, marrying each other) weddings. I think that counts the same as a full best man for one wedding. Four other couples I know have gotten engaged recently. This
is a strange phenomenon, and somewhat challenging for a variety of reasons, which leads me to my next point.Actually growing up. People keep getting jobs, starting and ending relationships, graduating, failing out, and otherwise moving on. Everything happens so fast. It's hard to keep up, and it's harder to slow down to enjoy things. I feel like Alice, eating cake and drinking potion, and I can't quite find the right equilibrium. I don't know what to tell you. College is transitional. You aren't quite grown up, but you aren't truly a child either. You have to find the balance between making something of yourself and actually enjoying the life you have. But, c'est la vie.
Most of the time, I feel like, in balancing this equilibrium, most of the joys and beauties of life are subtle, but powerful. It's easy to forget or pass over them unnoticed as you're dealing with the problems that can easily conquer and overwhelm you. Tomorrow night, I plan to watch war movies with a friend of mine while eating potatoes and salsa--today was cold, and I wore my new jacket. I went to the library to study and saw about twenty people I know who performed the vital role of distracting me from studying--a few days ago, I went to the cereal bar in the old city with of couple of my friends from high school. I got lucky charms and a cream soda, and we played board games until two in the morning.
• • •
6 Comments:
I enjoyed reading that! (:
Thanks.
Alex, I am currently a student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I am looking at doing an internship at UT this spring and I am looking for housing. Would you know of anyone who is in need of a roomate or a subleaser for 3 months? If you don't, could you please point me in the right direction?
I am currently a student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and I am looking to do an internship this spring at UT. I am looking for housing and was wondering if you knew of anyone who is looking for a subleaser or roommate for three months. If not, could you please point me in the right direction?
I think your best bet would be to find people who are going abroad and haven't been able to get out of their lease. A lot of people use Craig's list, and I'll ask around. You might try calling the international office and seeing if they can help you out. They probably won't give you any names, but they may post your name somewhere.
HI! I'm a junior at a tiny podunk school in Michigan that no one's ever heard of, and I'm looking into University of Tennessee Knoxville for graduate school. Your blog-article-thing caught my eye. I totally agree with everything. It seems the world is spinning by so fast and grades and rent and what? I'm doing a thesis in September? ackkkkk...
I enjoyed your article, you're a good writer, keep it up :) :)
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