<p>My house has finally started doing big sib/little sib, and so I am currently seated next to about a pound of candy. Yay! This makes the midterm I have today a whole lot better (or at least more sugary).</p>
<p>My mom is coming up for Family Weekend next weekend, and I’m excited to show her all my favorite spots on campus and go shopping in town with her and all that good stuff. Plus, she’s making banana bread and bringing it up, yum.</p>
<p>I have gotten a whole lot busier since I last posted, as I’ve joined a group on campus that I LOVE that takes up 15 hours of my week. I also have a couple of smaller, one hour/week commitments that I also like. Between all that, work, trying to stay healthy and having a social life I basically have no time. I love it here, and feel that I made absolutely the right choice.</p>
<p>I chucked when I read about your packed schedule, it reminds me of my first year. I wish I could say I got better at balancing everything but i"m not sure that’s totally true. Have fun and try not to let your sleep suffer too much (though sleep with me was always the first thing to go!) Good luck on you midterm!</p>
<p>Heh. That sounds <em>so</em> familiar. That said, watch your sleep carefully and get “caught up” now and then. You’re more resilient at 18 than you are a few decades later but sustained lack of sleep even at your age can open the door for depression or even just clouding your judgment enough to take the edge off your ability to perform on tests, write papers that are coherent when you read them two weeks later, etc.</p>
<p>Hey, Phanatic, we haven’t heard from you in about three weeks. Is no news good news?</p>
<p>Teenage_cliche, I am delighted you have settled in and are as happy as can be. It is so satisfying to hear that! I agree with, S&P; try to sneak in sleep!</p>
<p>I doubt we’ll hear from phanatic again, I think when someone on here posted that she knew her roommate that scared her away. I would be afraid to discuss my situation candidly in an online forum too if I thought that that info could get back to my roommate.</p>
<p>I winced when I saw that post. It’s not very comforting to see someone refer to a roommate you’re having difficulties with referred to as “awesome”…it has the effect of attempting to invalidate your feelings about the situation, making it <em>your</em> fault.</p>
<p>Well, and if she’s alreayd in a position where she feels like her roommate has more support from the house than she does, she’s not going to want to make it any worse by having it reported all over the house that she’s “bad mouthing” her roommate on the internet. I don’t think she did anything wrong, she’s an anonymous poster here and she didn’t use her roommate’s name or any details about her so she can hardly be accused of going behind her roommate’s back. She was just trying to seek a little advice from friendly ears, since those that were supposed to fulfill that function in her house were clearly not being neutral. </p>
<p>But I’m sure that her roommate and half the house know by now, and sicne this thread is probably now being watched I doubt we’ll hear from her again anytime soon.</p>
<p>You’ll hear from me, CC addict that I am. It’s been a lack of news and an abundance of homework more than anything that has kept me away, as well as the fact that someone friendly with my roommate (who admitted to telling essentially the whole house about the trouble we’d had) was watching me. If you would like to know details, you may feel free to message me. However, it’s essentially what S&P said: I’m trying not to create anything that my roommate can use against me, though I have done my best to preserve her anonymity. </p>
<p>Carolyn, thank you for your kind message checking in. I’ll respond to it this evening after I get done with class and reading. </p>
<p>Oh trust me, sleep is one of my priorities. I spent 4+ hours a day commuting to and from my high school, which meant that I had to wake up around 5 AM and getting 6-7 hours of sleep a night was the absolute best I could have. I am loving being able to get a full 8-9 hours at college. And I’m a morning person, which helps; if it’s 11 PM I better have a damn good reason for not being in bed.</p>
<p>I’m an '05 alum and a singer. Do NOT worry about not being in the choir! A couple of things:
Consider asking for a reaudition-- tell the director your experience and explain that you froze up. You should at the very least be able to reaudition next semester, which will come soon enough.
Try out for the a capella groups to get your singing bug on.
I actually got into the choir my first year and then quit because it wasn’t rigorous enough after my high school choir experience (in hindsight, I should have given it another couple of weeks; friends told me it got better). So I joined a regional adult a capella group (can’t remember the name or I would tell you) that met weekly in Sage and let me sing.
Getting into Glee Club (for sophomores, juniors, and seniors) has nothing to do with who was in choir. Also, Jonathan Hirsh, director of the Glee Club, is great in auditions. He is friendly and nice and understands shyness and nervousness-- he will work really hard to boost your confidence until he can hear your musicality. He understands nerves and works hard to judge you on your musicianship, not on how well you sing solo.
(Unrelated to singing) - I was in the Quad my first year and the house vibe just… didn’t fit me. I transferred to a different house (Hopkins, a co-op) sophomore year and was MUCH happier. If you’re not feeling at home in your house, start looking for another. Many more people move houses than Smith culture would lead you to believe-- my senior year, only 50% of the folks in my class from my first year were still in the house. The rest had found different options. Nothing against the house, just because they found something that worked better. (And it went the other way, too-- lots of new folks transferred into the house.)</p>
<p>Jonathan Hirsh is terrific. He’s the orchestra conductor and when D and we were visiting Smith during her junior high school year, D had made an appointment to meet with him. When he found that we were staying overnight, he invited her to come back that evening and sit with her section on stage while they rehearsed.</p>
<p>It was an experience and an attitude that completely knocked our socks off about Smith, so much so that even after seeing Yale the following day, I was thinking “I think Smith is a better fit.” Not sure what D was thinking but the Yale adcom saved any potential agonizing, LOL.</p>