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"Totally Committed"

January 22, 2007

I am slowly coming to realize that I am the type of person who needs to have most of her time committed to something, otherwise she gets bored, restless, and depressed. Winter break provided me a clear example of this.

After about a week of unstructured leisure time, I had had my fill of lazing around. With nothing on my schedule except the half dozen checkups with various doctors I’d missed during the first semester, I reverted to my summer behaviors of moodiness, excessive energy, and compulsive cooking. I made great strides in my culinary endeavors, progressing from baked goods to main courses like apple-walnut pork tenderloin and lemon-oregano grouper with vegetables, but no amount of time at the kitchen counter could change the fact that I didn’t have enough to do.

I suppose I should have known better. For at least a year I’ve understood the fact that I need to preempt boredom, anticipating it and avoiding it before it strikes. I am learning, though. Since I had enough time last semester to procrastinate hours playing Free Cell, this semester I’m experimenting with a fuller schedule, the theory being that if I have more to do I’ll make better use of my time.

For starters, I’m taking five classes. A normal course load is four four-credit courses, but it’s actually not that uncommon for students to take five classes at least once during their time at Rollins. Occasionally five classes are a necessity, because at Rollins you need 140 credits for your degree instead of the standard 120. This means you have to average 17.5 credits a semester to graduate in four years. Now, in my case I don’t need to worry about credits because of my AA. No, my problem is that I have way too many interests and a burning desire to explore them all. Admittedly, my books for this semester make a positively alarming stack, but (nerdy as this may sound), I can honestly say I’d have a very hard time dropping any one of my classes.

Another new and exciting development: I’m going to be a writing consultant at TJ’s, the student resource center. This means that six hours each week I will help students at Rollins to become better writers. I’m a little apprehensive—my previous experiences with tutoring have been okay but not great—but I’ll be trained, and I’m actually looking forward to doing grammar reinforcement exercises. Overall, I think I’ll gain a great deal from being a writing consultant.

And now, the biggest, most exciting news: This Spring Break I will make my first trip outside the country. I’m going to Peru! This has been in the works since September, but it’s finally official. The trip is a field study attached to one of the classes I’m taking, which is an anthropology course called “Peru as a Global Culture.” I cannot begin to describe how excited I am. Study abroad is one of the opportunities college affords that I’ve been looking forward to most, and I’m already planning at least two longer excursions in the future. If Peru works out well, I may make field studies a Spring Break tradition. I’m certain of one thing, though: I’ll have a totally amazing entry accompanied by photos of the rugged and beautiful Andes for you all come late March!

That’s how my semester is shaping up so far. Needless to say, I’ll be busy. By the end we’ll all know whether or not taking on so much was a good idea. For now, all I can do is wonder whether my time is totally committed . . . or totally over-committed.

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