Well, my first year of college finally ended. After a five hour airport, I finally boarded the airplane from Atlanta back to New Orleans and came back to this.


The view from my dining room. It was actually taken before I left for school.

I had forgotten how beautiful the view was. There had been precious few good views on Emory's campus, despite the painstaking care the groundskeepers took to keep the campus nice for any visitors. They were probably the most efficient department of the school, sad to say. There were only a couple really pretty vistas across campus-- one from right in front of my dorm, and one from the third-floor walkway between Emerson and Atwood (and the latter was only good when the maple trees had leaves). It was a nice campus with lots of marble and greenery, but very little could be called beautiful.


Actually, the two paths aren't parallel, they're more like spokes on a wheel. Panorma app is a mindfuck.

I've been back for five days. It's been nice not having to go to class, not having to climb down a ladder when I get out of bed, and best of all, I don't need to clean the toilet before I use it. Yes, there are many things about college that are convenient (especially if you lived in a nice dorm, I didn't), but there is no way it will beat living at home for convenience and comfort. Ever. Even if you wash the dishes, vacuum, clean the bathrooms and do the gardening. Heck, I even enjoy washing the dishes (idk, but steam and warm soapy water? its kind of nice, the way fresh laundry is nice).

My family's been pretty much the same old old as well, meaning my mom still likes to get on my case. It didn't take long before she got on my case about what I was doing for the summer.

Now, she knows I tried real hard to get a job.

My first choice was to return to the USDA lab to work as a lab assistant. Unfortunately, due to the economic and political climate *coughrepublicans*, the research lab's budget had been severely cut. If I had tried, I could probably have wiggled my job back because I'd been there for a long time and my supervisors absolutely loved me (I liked to think I was useful too). Still, budget issues. My dad actually worked there (in a different department to be sure), but working there would have made me feel like I was competing with him for money. Even if it was a bit, that would have felt strange and wrong to me.

Given that was a nono, I sent out a wave of applications. I got called back for a hospital internship, and after some job-flirting, I got the job. Sure, it wasn't going to pay as well as my old job. Sure, it was farther away from home. But, I'm a pre-med student, so getting to work in a hospital was pretty much the best I could have hoped for. I had no idea how much I would be allowed to do there being a freshman and whatnot, but hey,it was a hospital and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to make the most of it.

Unfortunately, I got an email in late April saying I'd been replaced. Now, I called shenanigans on that instantly because the deadline for the position had passed a long time ago, and goshdarn if I hadn't worked hard to get the job (relatively speaking, for a freshman student). Apparently a board member's niece or nephew had appeared needing a job, and being a board member's niece or nephew, he/she got that job. I was pretty angry, but I immediately went to look at other jobs and opportunities.

Funny thing. All the deadlines for jobs had passed. In addition, the deadline to apply for classes was pretty much past too. Huh. So, I was stuck with nothing.

All that notwithstanding, my mom seems to think that it's all my fault. "You should have had a backup plan," she says. Backup plan? Right, the same way the groom has a backup plan if the bridge is a no show at the wedding. Thanks mom. Deep down though, I think she knows that I have no desire to sit on my ass all summer. I sure as hell know I don't.

Still, I don't think I'm going to find any paying job at this point. I think my best option is to go volunteer the the Democrats-- do some surveys, polling, whatever. I'll be as useful or more than I would be in a hospital, honestly. It's got nothing to do with my major/career whatever, but it IS election year. I think I can spare a summer for the country rather than whatever job I'll have in the future. After all there will be other summers to intern, study or work in a lab. But being an enthusiastic college campaign volunteer... that's once in a lifetime.

Go Obama! Or rather, Romney's logo looks like aquafresh neeneeneener