May 11, 2008

Commencement!

Today ended an era. Some of my favorite people have graduated, and now they are going into the "real world." I still can't believe that they're leaving Wabash. I know, I saw them accept their degrees, but it saddens me to know that I want see them again at meals, at parties, or just chillin' in the stairwell when I return to campus. 

Even more surreal, I am halfway done with Wabash. It feels like just yesterday I was being "rung in" with the rest of 2010. I still remember when the night when I met all my pledge brothers... all the good times we had during pledgeship.... all the good times we had after pledgeship ended. And now, I can't believe 2 years have gone by. 

 I keep wondering how to make the most of my time here. It feels like it just keeps slipping away. Its kinda like I have cupped my hands together to hold water, but the water just keeps flowing through the cracks in my hand. Sometimes I wish I could just stop time and have revel in the moment.

However, no matter how sad I am that the seniors on going on, I am really proud of them. They made it through, and they have some exciting times ahead of them. Congratulations class of 2008!

Posted by kingda at 08:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 24, 2008

And the Sophmore Year Comes to an End...

Well, exam time is here again... another year has gone by. I honestly cant believe I'm a junior in college.

This next week is going to be insane... I have 4 exams back to back. I start Tuesday and I dont finish until Thursday. When I get done with all my tests, I'm gonna throw a party.... I may be the only one there but I'm gonna have me a party.

Soon after my exams, I am going to begin my internship with Dr. Timmerman. We, Dr. Timmerman and Grant Gussman, are researching the Boondocks cartoon in hopes of getting published. So, basically for th 1st four weeks of my summer, I will be watching cartoons by day, and writing a rhetorical analysis by night... sounds fun right.

Then, after that, I will be doing a psychology internship for the next 8 weeks. This isn't my own research, but I am excited because I am going to gain all kinds of valuable research skills this summer.

Overall, my summer is going to be extremely productive. And I think it will lead perfectly to my semester abroad in Italy. As of now, I dont expect to take class too seriously when I'm over there. My first goal is to travel and experience the culture. I want to see all of Europe. Then comes school. Dont get me wrong... I will still do all my work. I'm just not going to stress away the best semester of my college career.

So those are my plans for right now. Research, research some more, and then Italy. Sounds easy enough, right?

Posted by kingda at 07:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 13, 2008

(no subject)

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. My life has just been unbelievably busy lately. This past week, I was accpeted to study abroad in Italy this fall! I am so excited about studying and traveling in Europe. It will be like nothing I have ever experienced. I dont even know what to expect... probably nothing less than the greatest semester of my college career.

This weekend, I went to IU for the first. It is the big Little 5 bike race. Of course, no one goes for the race, only for the parties. According to the students, Little 5 is basically like an on-campus spring break for them. My time at IU was an eye opener for me. Being at IU was like being at some college created within a television show. What I mean is there were 40,000 kids running around and no seemed to no anybody. I asked a couple students how long does it usually take them to walk to class... they said about 20 minutes. I couldn't believe it. They told me some of their classes had like 400 kids in them... I just couldn't believe it. Then, there were all these rules about having visitors in the dorms. It was crazy. Wabash is nothing like that. It was just so hard to believe.

Then there was Greek row. I don't know if you have ever seen Greek on ABC family, but it was just like that TV show. Each house had their own personalities. There was the jock frat, the party frat, the "hot" boys frat, the Jewish frat, the "hot" girl sorority, the slutty sorority, the fat sorority.... you name it, they have it. Driving down there Greek row was kinda overwhelming... I just tried to imagine me living in one of those labeled fraternities. I imagined the rivalries with other houses... I'm sure they exist. Or, throwing parties with sororities... just living across the street from a sorority house crossed my mind.

IU is definitely different from Wabash, but I'm glad I am here. It seems like you can get swallowed up at IU so easily. You can pass by your 4 years there and never really know the people around you. I feel like at Wabash... you can almost learn everybody's name on campus. This weekend, I learned I would rather have the Wabash experience than the IU experience any day. 

Posted by kingda at 12:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 05, 2008

It Was A Black Tie Affair

We had our annual big formal last weekend. I must say I had a better time than I did this year than I did last year. Last year, my date was ok, but this year my date was awesome! Her name was Ashley and she is a senior at IU. We have the same sense of humor so we laughed and joked all night long. She was a dancer too. So, when the music started playing, we were the first on the floor. During the night, she requested Michael Jackson "P.Y.T." like 3 times... she was said that was her jam. I'm guessing the other couples, especially the guys were sick to their stomachs of Michael. 

It was a good night... what more can I say?

Please check out some pics here.

Posted by kingda at 05:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 01, 2008

The Scholarship Luncheon

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to be the keynote student speaker at the luncheon. The luncheon was an opportunity for scholarship donors to meet the students who actually receive the scholarship money. My task was to discuss the importance of scholarship. Well, I wanted to take the next step and discuss what scholarship means to me and other Wabash students. I opened with my own personal account of how I came to Wabash... I wanted to highlight my own trials and struggles of coming to school to really connect with individuals in the audience who may share similar experiences.

I got so much positive feedback from the speech. People are continuously telling me how much they enjoyed the speech. I am so pleased that people liked it. It feels good to know that people appreciated what I have to say. I actually got an e-mail fro a Wabash Alum today saying he was immensely proud of me. Although I don't know him personally, I'm glad that what I had to say touched him.

 I don't know if I will ever have another chance to be invited to give a speech, so I really wanted to make this one meaningful. I think I pulled it off.

Posted by kingda at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 25, 2008

More Thoughts About the Media

Last time, I discussed how the 24-hour news network is destroying the fabric of our society... just kidding! The 24-hour news network isn't that harmful.

However, whoever is in charge of the major news network believes that the news happens by the hour. Thus, our lives are bombarded with minutia that is not relevant to anyone.

A few days later, I thought to myself. I can't leave the critique right there. So what, the news media isn't doing its job. Now what?

Well, I think my critique begs the question: What does it mean to be well-informed?

I can't answer that question directly. However, implied in my question is a sense of what it means to be ill-informed. We discussed that the news networks are not really informing people about anything. It seems that news networks are ill-informing with supremely irrelevant information.

Because we have a sense of what it means to be ill-informed, I think we are on the way to answering what does it mean to well-informed.

I tell you more when I learn what it really is.

 

Posted by kingda at 10:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 23, 2008

Weekend in Atlanta

This weekend, I went to Atlanta to present the research I did last summer under Professor Lake. We flew down Friday, stayed all day Saturday, and left today. We actually didn't present until Saturday, but I had plenty of business to conduct before then... none of the business actually related to the presentation mind you.

I hooked up with a couple of friends of mine at Morehouse and Spelman College. They showed me a good time in Atlanta. We ate at the Chessecake Factory and then went to see Meet the Browns. It wasn't the most exciting weekend, but it still felt good to hang out with old friends... it felt just like high school again. 

When we finally presented our research on Saturday, we got a lot of positive feedback from the other scholars. They were really impressed that a undergraduate sophomore was conducting that level of research. They said our project was really significant and it was definitely Ph.D level work.

Obviously, that made me feel good. I had no idea that the work we did last summer was so important nor did I realize that it was PhD level work. I was thinking about pursuing other research projects this summer, but the positive feedback has encouraged me to stay on for another summer.

To cap off the weekend, I met Danny Glover. He was also speaking at the conference. I shook his hand and he was kind enough to take a picture with me. I was really impressed after hearing him speak. He's really intelligent. 

Overall, it was a pretty interesting Easter Weekend.

Posted by kingda at 11:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)