This doesn't work.

Ineffective ways to write an essay:

• Put it off until the night before it's due.
• Watch one (or more) episodes of the Office for creative influence.
• Invite friends over of any kind.
• Check your email.
• Write a blog.

Love, Jennifer

So...

Here is a hard lesson.

Everything matters. All of it. Even the stuff you think doesn't, it does.

Love, Jennifer

don't even read this.

So here is how my day went...

Woke up, writing class, eat, IT class.
....................................................................................
That was a lot of nothing.

Printed some stuff for classes, more boring than it sounds.

Listened to lots and lots of 30-second music clips, discovered Fleet Foxes. Wanted to contact people, didn't.

Left the dorm, which was starting to feel claustrophobic. Walked to the trax station to go somewhere, then left after sitting for a couple minutes cause I didn't even have anywhere i wanted to go.

Walked back up campus to the druggie grove, laid in the grass and achieved a state of semi-sleep. Woke up and felt funny. Walked up to Chapel Glen and fell asleep on the grass with Alexia and Sarah.

Woke up later after they left and went to the HC. Ate food. Wanted to contact more people again, still didn't.

Came back, endured fire drill. Now typing this. Now leaving. haha.

Such a boring day.

Love, Jennifer

kidneys

Here is a thought from an essay I read in my writing class. M and I discussed this, and I've been thinking about it a lot...

"After learning that thousands of people with failing kidneys die each year while waiting for a transplant, he contacted a Philadelphia hospital and donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger.
...he says that the chances of dying as a result of donating a kidney are about one in four thousand. For him this implies that to withhold a kidney from someone who would otherwise die means valuing one's own life at four thousand times that of a stranger, a ratio Kravinsky considers 'obscene.'"

From "What Should a Billionaire Give?" by Peter Singer


So that's a big enough concept to keep one occupied for a bit of time considering. I know I have. Anyway, that's all for now.

All the love I could possibly give,
Jennifer

This Big Picture

I woke up about an hour ago, which I was actually thankful for today because I was having the most horrible dream. I dreamt that the school year was over, and my parents were here picking me up to go home for the summer. Except everyone else got to stay here at school. I've got to say, I haven't felt such extreme sadness and despair in a long time! Anyway, I tell you this, because it might help to explain how I feel about this place, although I have only been here for three weeks.

I love it's newness, which still hasn't worn off, and I love meeting so many new, great people. To be honest, it's been extremely difficult staying true to the things I thought were unmovable in my life. It's hard to be different. Specifically, it's a challenge to be LDS. Pretty much everyone I've met have been genuinely good people, but not all of them have the same moral code as I do. Sometimes the general vibe I get is, If you're a Mormon, why don't you just go to BYU? Good question. I've asked myself that as well, but I honestly have no answer. It just never seemed right, whereas the U really did. Anyway, I've been spending my days trying to navigate this new life, thinking of questions I don't immediately have the answer to. I have been trying to figure them out, however. (A couple of you can attest to this!)

My point is, I love this school. I am loving a school that doesn't necessarily love me back. For once I am a religious minority! But it does accept me. But I think that soon I will figure out who I really am, and how I fit into this big picture.

That's my thought for today. I was happy to wake up.

Love, Jennifer