What's Going On (Junior Year: Begin)

As a writer, albeit an unsure, indecisive, rusty, and uncommitted one, I am finding that sometimes, I must force myself to write, must scrape a topic from the scoured interior of my brain, must encounter that ever-dreaded Writer’s Block against which all must stumble, and other times, the topics and the themes just come to me, all wrapped up nice and pretty like a Welcome Home! present from life, something like a pie or a free coupon for a pizza. This is the preferable situation to write in, more enjoyable for the reader and the writer both (which is great for me because for most things I write that will be just me). As you might guess, life throws quite a few prime situations when beginning one’s junior year of college. I’ll give you a quick run through – try not to get lost in the technical jargon.

1) A Ticket for Exceeding the Speed Limit in Unjust Little Town

2) Watching so much TV and playing so many video games that my roommates and I actually consider Wii Tennis exercise

3) A Ticket for Parking Without A Permit for a School Event Honoring Our Fallen Aggies

4) Inventing a Game Called Head-Butt Each Other

5) Making a Table By Hand With Afore-Mentioned Genius Roommates

And you can catch the drift. Accompany me, if you would, on my rant explaining, detailing ,and dismantling the case against me for Speeding in Bremond, TX.

Bremond sucks.

Admittedly, that answer is quite immature and unfair. Instead of spending my valuable time watching hours straight of Scrubs or practicing my (virtual) golf swing, I now have the privilege of taking the online Defensive Driving course for a total of 300 minutes. But it’s a good experience. It’s sort of like finally getting a cavity; I’ve been clean my whole life, and now all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I have this blight. And I say what everyone else always says – I’m a great driver! And I am, I just got caught being a really good driver. An Eleven Over level driver, to be exact. I never speed more than five over. It wasn’t even a good ticket, for something outrageously unlawful like going through a drive-thru backwards or robbing a bank, or a really bad ticket, for something outrageously meticulous, like stopping an inch over the turn-lane line. I just got caught in a speed trap in a revenue-hungry little Texas town. The injustice!

Now, in reference to point 2, it would be unfair to say that we are just spending our time in the apartment. We have gone to class (at least the majority of classes, three days is an ample amount of time to maybe accidentally let one or five slip) and we have (gasp!) been to the Rec to exercise (this might be a life record) four times in a week and a half. I consider this to be valid credit for a lifetime of New Year’s Resolutions. However, we have also instituted a Candy Bowl Policy in our apartment which basically states, when stripped of all the legislative jargon, that we must have a Candy Bowl furnished with candy such as Skittles or Starbursts or M&M’s at all times, open to easy access on the countertop. The constituents are very pleased.

Yes, I did also get ANOTHER ticket for parking without a permit on an A&M lot. I went to highly attended campus wide Bible Study followed by a ceremony honoring all Aggies fallen in the month prior, or in this case, the summer prior to the memorial service. Thousands of us stand in one of our plazas, uncomfortable, sweating, but together, completely silent, to show our support for the members of our family we might have never met or even seen, who we will never have the chance to meet or see again. It is one of the most beautiful traditions we have here at A&M and it was the event that I attended as a freshman that made me begin to feel the spirit running under the campus and through all those who counted themselves as members of the community. It showed that we loved our own enough to come together for a time of silence to honor their passing, to say and to show that they were important enough to be missed, and that they leave not unknown. I love being a part of this family and I have the deepest respect for the University.

How I feel about the pettiness of the Texas A&M Transportation Services is a different story.

Regarding number four, we do play a game where the object is to headbutt the fatty area of the chest just under the collarbone next to the shoulder. There’s pretty much nothing I can say to make that seem any more intelligent than it actually is so I’ll go ahead and leave it at that.

This same group of headbutting roommates are also now the proud owner of a table we made completely by ourselves, consisting of a narrow door for a table top, support beams, thick ex-fence post legs, and feet bases, soon to be painted with our beloved Texas flag. Before you even think to yourself if a table can get any better, I’ll confidently declare No, it cannot.

That is the latest update of What’s Going On. I’ll leave you on the edge of your seat with a (just what you were dreading!) TO BE CONTINUED!