Student Experience Blog

How I Spent My Tuesday

I’ve spent a large part of my day in the library, wondering what I’m going to do with my life, and trying to get all of my last remaining assignments done so that I can focus on studying for my finals for the rest of the week. I’ve been pretty stressed about finals, because I know  that they’ll be here before I’m even close to ready. But I was very productive today and decided to take a little break after dinner, and it has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable Tuesdays in memory. I went to Ballroom for the last twenty minutes or so, long enough to learn how to jive. Ballroom is always a great time, and tonight was no exception, even if it was brief.

I went to my room, to try to find four dollars--which would have to be in quarters and dimes seeing as I am out of cash--to go to the planetarium show (which is actually FREE). I’ve been wanting to go to the planetarium since September, and it was worth the wait. I really love the planetarium because I rarely spend time looking at the stars. Even when I look at stars outside, I've never been anywhere where I can see them nearly as clearly. Being in the planetarium feels like you could be anywhere in the world. I always picture myself on a wide open African savanna. This really doesn’t make sense, because I've never been to Africa, so I have no idea what it would look like at sunset (I'm basically basing the entire landscape off of my memory of The Lion King, which cannot possibly be very accurate), plus we were tracking the sun and the planets from the perspective of the Northern Hemisphere, but that's what I imagined and it made it even better than it already was. The planetarium was full of kids, and they thought everything was the most amazing thing ever, which helped remind me that it is pretty amazing.

Then I went to the last ten minutes of the symphonic concert in Langroise. There’s something awesome about walking from a silent hallway into an auditorium and feeling the swell of music in your chest. I’ve never learned to play an instrument, so I always really admire people who can play. It’s like they don’t even have to think about what their fingers are doing, it just happens.

I don’t remember the last time that I’ve been so humbled in the space of an hour and a half: I’ve been reminded that am I a mediocre dancer at best, unimaginably tiny in the universe, and far from mastering any instrument; I feel like I’ll probably spend the rest of my whole life in college, changing my mind about what to study, because there are so many cool things that I don’t know anything about. One of the best things about not knowing very much--and one of the reasons why I love it here--is the fact that there are lots of people just in this tiny school who are talented dancers, and who know about space, and who can make something beautiful out of some wood and wire. Being surrounded by amazing people doesn’t make me feel inadequate, it just makes me feel like people are generally awesome.

So if you're a person, which you are, I probably think you're awesome. Congrats. 

--Claire Cushing
