Airports

Today I got to experience one of the many joys to the start of the holiday season--the airport. First of all, I live in Virginia, but go to school in Missouri. I obviously don't get to go home all that much, and when I do, I fly. I'm terrified of heights. But I fly so I can be home with my family.

I hate what entails traveling. I loathe packing, the whole business of it turns me off. I hate having to do laundry so I can have clothes to wear, or having to quasi-plan out what I'll be wearing for the next however many days. I always forget things. This time, I forgot a razor. Good thing my boyfriend is back west and I don't have to shave my legs. I have to make lists. Or else I'll forget my phone, or computer, or something else important.

But what I really hate most is security. Poor anxious travelers file in to the roped off sections to have their belongings rifled through and to be felt up by an overweight and underpaid TSA officer. Maybe really lonely guys enjoy being patted down. It might be the most action they've seen in a while. Everyone reacts the same after getting through security. After the frenzy of getting halfway undressed, you have to collect your things haphazardly and perform the walk of shame to the closest bench to repack your belongings and locate your dignity. But, luckily everyone else is doing the same, so they too avoid eye contact like they also just had a date gone sour. It's degrading.

Nonetheless, through the pain and torture I go through to get to my gate, I get on a plane and find myself in a place where I haven't been since August when I left. I'm home, in my own bed and the few thousand t-shirts I couldn't fit in my bag on the way back to school.

Professor Evaluations

Teacher evaluations are probably the most pointless thing in the world. No professor ever takes them seriously, just like no student really cares enough to be honest. They're either a great professor, or a terrible one. I doubt if anyone takes it seriously.

And the answers are so predictable. If I'm taking a Geology course, of course the material isn't going to be relevant to me in real life. I really don't plan on going out and collecting rocks with my English degree.

Just another way for professors not to care what students think. Most of them are too set in their ways or too new, and trying to figure out what works for them. Just takes up a good 20 minutes of class.

First of all.

I decided to create a blog. I figure it's way less trendy than something like Twitter, since blogging itself has been around for a while. I have facebook, but there's nowhere for me to just write. Sometimes you just feel like typing, you know?

I used to write on this website called JamsBio, where you could pick a song, artist or album and write a memory or review about it. I loved that site. Every now and then they (the editors, I suppose) would pick a post to be "Post of the Week." I had the PotW twice. That's not entirely why I wrote, but it certainly felt nice for someone to recognize the content or style of the post was halfway decent. Sometimes a pat on the back from someone you don't know is just what you need. Especially if you love writing as much as I do.

I consider it a weird form of exercise. It's something I do when I'm frustrated, procrastinating or content. I've always done it, I have copies of old journals at home on my bookshelf from the fourth grade. I never worry about how I sound in the writings, it's just to write. I don't think many people do that.

So this little outlet replaces my poor JamsBio, which has been shut down to the public, denying me a writing post. I'll write here, and if I like a particular post, I'll give myself a Post of the Week merit. Suck on that, JamsBio.