Real Life, by Aaron Vandenberg
Friday, April 30, 2004

Last but not least

Well, the last of the semester has finally hit me with a full force of a Tornado. 16 pages due within the next three days and I haven’t started researching two of them. What to do? P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-E!! There is nothing better than the ol’ habit of putting things off.

I got really, really full last night by gorging myself on Northwestern Pacific Salmon, served up at the College Outdoors BBQ. I felt like a grizzly bear waddling around as if I had been fishing in the rivers of Alaska for three hours eating and eating and eating. I felt sick. I then proceeded to go to another BBQ for my Africa trip and have some eats there to—watch out.

The more and more I look back on this semester and realize just how many people I have met over the last six months blow my mind. Just yesterday I met someone and it is the last day of classes-go figure. For me, coming from a town that barely hit a population mark of 700-1000 people, horses consistently riding down mainstreet, and no stoplights for at least a 45 minute drive, coming here was a quite a shock. I remembered something about myself this year that I had not yet realized last year—I had to learn how to meet people. AND! I had to learn how to sustain a conversation with them longer than a brief interlude. It is a strange thought, but sadly…it is very true. I think I am getting better.

It was the last and final day before next semester across the other half of the world and I am SOOO excited. It is a strange thought to have on the last day. I will be going to school on the Serengeti this time next semester, or Zanzibar, or Nairobi. So cool! Last days are always a little strange.

Homesickness kicked in too-I saw an Australian Shepherd on TV last night and really started missing my pooch. That is one thing about college I cannot and am not going to get used to. There are not enough dogs around here for mental stability, let me tell you. I think L&C should get the Humane Society to come out here with a bunch of dogs and let them go home with students. They could all sleep in my apartment and I wouldn’t mind a bit. I miss my pets too much right now.

The end of the college year for me is a strange and daunting thought. I really haven’t been home for any significant amount of time—more than a month—for about two years now and it seems a little hard to get over. One of my friends last night said she really wasn’t looking forward to going home because her parents were going to replace the old restrictions one her. That made me think what were some of the of the strangest things that happen to you when you leave college for the first time and go home. Anybody like top ten lists? Here one is:

The TOP WEIRDEST THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHEN YOU GO HOME FOR SUMMER:

10. When you leave college and get on the plane to return home you start to shake from withdrawals of procrastinating and doing papers/250 pages of reading/etc.

9. You get off the plane and immediately remember something really important is in storage in a box in the dorms, 600 miles away.

8. You hug your parents/friends with ecstatic joy only to questioned whether you have been washing behind your ears.

7. You return home and immediately call/email your friends—no, not the ones that actually live there—but the ones from college.

6. You finally get around to calling your old high school friends only to discover that they are not home yet and are not coming home. You are the only one in your town because L&C gets out WAY early in the summer!

5. You must hastily find a job, but the Baby Boomers all have Masters degrees and are working in all the McDonalds/cafés/etc. in your locale

4. Your friends come home, find jobs without you and are completely different from how they were six month ago. You realize just how strange/unique you have become.

3. Two weeks into break you find that those shakes have not gone away. You want to be back doing papers, not sleeping and having a blast with your friends—in college.

2. Your home town become extremely boring—no friends, not a concert, movie or large library with thousands of titles in sight. You make a pact with yourself to find what you love and do everything in your power to do it for the rest of your life, but not like this.

1. Your relationships (usually) gets better, more succinct and wholesome. Your parents start to realize the old you is not who you are now. Where did there child go? That’s okay, you’re an “academic” now.

Well, it’s time to go and work on my papers. It believe this is the final entry. I hope everyone that reads this understands a little more about the school, my life and a little about you too. Why read if it doesn’t benefit you some, huh?

If any people have dogs they want to donate next spring or just want to chat or have questions over the summer don’t hesitate to ask: aaronv@lclark.edu

www.lclark.edu/~aaronv

Follow the Africa trip at: www.lclark.edu/~2004eaaf

Cheerio Tout’ le Monde!

Aaron