AN APOLOGY
I think it’s appropriate for me to follow cyberspace tradition and apologize for being a delinquent blogger. My only consideration in doing so, however, is that I have no idea who I am actually apologizing to. You see, the funny thing about blogging is that it is never very clear who reads one’s content. The “ARCHIVE” apparently gets a few thousand hits per month, but I imagine that most of that traffic speeds past like the cars at exit 8 on highway 81.
That is neither here nor there. I’d like to try to vindicate myself — at least partially — for falling below my blogging quota. While traveling for several months in Italy and Spain, I had no shortage of stories to share with everyone back home. Everything felt new and worthy of documentation in photographic and written form. Now, I am back in Ithaca and the town’s most striking feature is its profound familiarity. As a freshman, I looked at the campus map and expected the sprawling assemblage of buildings and paths to always remain a mystery to me. As a fourth year, it has become as familiar as the sound of my Sony alarm clock each morning.
It’s a little strange for me to write openly about all the various aspects of Cornell that surround me. It would be like writing a detailed account of the veins and freckles on the back of my hand. There are probably a hundred things a day, which I experience here, that might be notable for prospective students, parents, strangers, friends, and family — but it will take me some time to figure out what those things are.
The past couple weeks in Ithaca have been a bit difficult for me as I attempt to jam a few remaining requirements into a feasible schedule. On top of that, I have been racing between various extracurricular activities: assembling slideshows and grading papers as a TA, attending meetings with Solar Decathlon, working at Day Hall, and ducking in at the fraternity on occasion. If my stress level were plotted alongside productivity, I have far exceeded the point of diminishing returns.
That being said, I retain some hope that things will run much smoother in the coming weeks. Classes and assignments are becoming more routine and I plan to reign in the extracurriculars. Maybe if all goes well I will find enough time each day to reflect on Life On The Hill with all of you.