Hotelie-On-the-Go

Lots and lots has been happening since my last post — almost too much to keep track.  We’ll start with the good news, though; it looks like I will have a choice between PhD programs (*phew*) since I seemed to have somehow tricked these programs into taking me.  Yes yes, I am sneaky like that.  UCLA Anderson School of Management and USC Marshall Business School are the two latest acceptances (along with UC San Diego Psychology from before) that I can add to my tally, and it’s a fantastic feeling knowing that I have places aside from where a single acceptance would force me to go (and not that I know where I’m going at all yet, but yeah, options are good)…

Next, well, there’s always some kinda bad in Ithaca — and you could probably guess it’s due to the weather.  I don’t really remember the weather being this much of an issue in the 3 past winters I’ve trudged through, as this one seems to be a special kind of ridiculous.  The other day, I saw a pickup truck do a 360-spin right in the middle of the intersection near Campus Ave, and it just kept driving like nothing happened.   Now that’s Ithaca conditioning for you.  I know it might be a product of me being from upstate NY my whole life, but once you get over the “oh, that snow looks so awesome” phase, it seems to take me less and less time every year to get to the “I hate ice, sleet, snow, outside … and wtf happened to my coffee?!” phase.

But most importantly (and tragically), Cornell has lost another student to unfortunate and avoidable circumstances.  George Desdunes ’13 — from all accounts that I’ve heard — was an incredible person, and I find it sad that these deaths still find their way onto our campus and into the happy-go-lucky college student life that so many of us take for granted at Cornell.  The fact that the Cornell community continues to have to “reboot” itself after mourning is trying for so many, and the stress on the friends and families of these individuals seems incomprehensible for me to imagine myself enduring.  George was a fellow brother in the Greek fraternity system — a brother in SAE — so it hits especially close to home.  My best wishes go out to the friends and family of George; I only hope the strength of the bonds that he created at home and at Cornell can honor how good of a person it sounds like he was.