First Day

Note: this post contains a lot of talk about happiness.

I love the first day of class. I always have. The first day of a new school year just makes me happy. This morning I got up in time to go to the all-college convocation... mainly because I love the music so much. I also love seeing all the professors. The only part I dislike is that St. John's and St. Ben's have separate convocations and because most of my classes in the past years have been at SJU, that's the convocation most of my professors are at. I still saw one of my favorite music professors along with my stats prof who once told his class, in a comedic attempt at explaining his high amount of energy at 8 am, that his water bottle actually was full of straight scotch. So, I was definitely in high spirits at the end of convocation and then some friends and I recorded our last first day of class:

L to R: my roommate Allison, me, Chris, Laura, Heather, Angela

For those of you unfamiliar with the St. Ben's campus... behind is the mall and between the 2 buildings in the background there's a flag pole. If you stand at the flag pole and do a full turn you can see almost every building on campus.

After convocation I went home with Allison where I put my backpack on, not to take it off again for probably 2 more hours. I didn't like not having a class to go to this morning so I just wore my backpack instead. Eventually I packed a small lunch and rode the bus to SJU to eat by the lake. I really just wanted an excuse to ride the bus as I haven't since last December due to study abroad. It's so fun to listen to the freshman trying to make friends. I remember those days.

Also, on the CSB/SJU link there's a rule... you don't stand up to get off until it's your turn. We go about exiting the bus in a very orderly fashion and everybody gets their turn. The freshman are taught how to do this in orientation. So then, if you stand up before your turn everybody knows you're a 1st year. The 2nd best thing to watching a 1st year stand up is to listen to them remind each other to stay seated. I tried not to giggle when I heard the girls in front of me telling each other "don't stand up, don't stand up!" I can only laugh because I was there once too. I ran in to my friend Mason and we gamboled around campus for a bit before I finally headed down to the lake to eat my lunch and do some more studying for the GRE.

Which brings me to talking about one of my most favorite things here.

Lake Sagatagan. AKA Lake Sag. It's absolutely beautiful. 1 to 2 times a week this past summer I would take my book or GRE study materials and a blanket and just camp out in a grassy area along the side of the lake. There's a small chapel built a ways out that stands alone against the trees, mixed with sunshine, calm water, wildlife and a good book, I couldn't ask for a more perfect place. My goal is to watch the sunrise over the lake before I graduate. I'm going to have to do it one of these days soon before it starts to freeze. I'd like to find a friend to come with but I'm sure they'll all think I'm crazy. Sunrises and sunsets make me happy but as was discovered by Christopher McCandless, happiness is only real when shared.