Friday, December 05, 2008

17 Things

1. As a not very religious person (at this point in my life) I’m not sure how I feel about the commercialization of Christmas. On the one hand, I’m definitely not pro-consumerism as the main goal of the holiday (especially as a financially challenged college student), but I have to say, I love the decorations. I love cutting down a tree, or at least getting a potted one to replant, but it has to be alive and smell like pine, otherwise there’s no point, and decorating it, I love cooking, I love Christmas music, and I love lights. And maybe these are all thing invented to benefit some industry or another, but I would argue that they have taken on a significance beyond their monetary value and I can never see myself boycotting everything about Christmas that makes me feel good, just to make a statement about my values. Because yes, every other month of the year I would argue strongly against cutting down trees with abandon, buying all sorts of needless plastic and using electricity to light the outside of a house, but I don’t think it’s exactly true to my “values” to speak out against something that means something on such a fundamental level to me. And maybe it’s superficial, but it doesn’t make me feel superficial, and I would argue that that is what is important.

2. An ongoing discussion I’ve had with my friend Erin is about which of the four elements we most fear, mostly based on the destruction they cause. For example, if your greatest fear is drowning, then water would be your most feared element. If the idea of an earthquake or mudslide is more frightening, then earth. If you fear your house burning, forest fires, or lightening, then fire. If you’re afraid of tornadoes, hurricanes, and, one could argue, height, then air is the element you fear. My friend’s is fire. I think mine would be too. I love the water, and in all the places that I live, there has never been much likelihood of danger from air or earth.

3. Speaking of water, I love the stuff. Nine times out of ten, if you ask me what would be the most refreshing drink you could give me, the answer would be water. With ice. None of this European room temperature business.

4. Of all the things that have been an influence on my life, reading is definitely the strongest. I would be a completely different person today if I had not started reading (and consequently stopped doing pretty much anything else, including mouthing off in class) when I was eight.

5. In that same vein, sometimes I feel like I am betraying myself by not majoring in English. If only there was enough time in the world to do both. And some profitable career.

6. I have never been drunk in my life and I don’t ever want to be. Honestly.

7. I love being alone in the car. Driving and listening to music or podcasts or the wind relaxes me and I miss it at college.

8. College is much easier than I thought it would be. I don’t mean the classes, they’re pretty much what I expected and I felt prepared and all that. What I mean is that it’s a lot easier being away from my family and friends than I expected. Considering how I handled the first couple weeks in Germany, I expected to be a wreck at college and things have gone surprisingly smooth.

9. That being said, I think it is important that we address the topic of me being friendless. I mean, Zada and I totally hit it off and we get along better than pretty much anybody in the history of roommates, but aside from the people she knew in high school and the people she has me through them, I have hardly anyone else on campus that I could really call a friend. Or even an acquaintance.

10. This doesn’t bother me nearly as much as I would expect it to. Or nearly as much as it would bother my other friends from high school.

11. Sometimes I’m afraid that nobody else has the same relationship to music that I do.

12. I really want to go back to Italy.

13. Ditto Germany.

14. I generally prefer quiet to loud.

15. Strange, because I tend to not hear very well.

16. My favorite season is spring, even though I was born in fall and I think it's beautiful, spring just makes me so happy.

17. My favorite flavor of ice cream is mint chocolate chip.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home