Duquesne During the Winter

I don’t know if I’ve actually felt cold before, now that I am wintering here at Duquesne.  Duquesne is on a bluff, so it’s windy, its frigid, and it gets down right nasty.  Today, I am going to be explaining just what I go through every morning here to further my education.

First, I layer on a hoodie, coat, gloves, scarf, and hat before trudging down 6 flights of steps to face the outdoors.  As soon as you hit the doors, the cold hits you like a brick wall.  Its not just chilly, its not just cold, its the kind of bone that chills you down to the marrow of your bones.

So, I start walking.  Depending on where I need to get to determains how cold I actually get by the end of it.  Either A.) a vicious chill that won’t leave my body or B.) frozon solid.  The wind whips down A walk, tangling your hair, trying to pull your coat off, and blowing down the front of your shirt.

If its snowing at the time, its twice as bad.  The snow hits your face and feels like little daggers. 

The wind chases you into whatever building you are going to.  It follows you right through the door.

I know the perks of the bluff.  In the summer, the breeze cools down Duquesne and makes it much nicer than the rest of Pittsburgh.

Too bad I go to school predominately in the winter.

And Let the Games Begin!

The spring semester has now officially started!  Can’t you just feel my joy? 

On todays schedule was English and Chemistry II.  I would also normally have chem lab, but labs don’t start till next week so I gained a small reprieve. 

 Today went like most first days go.  You walk into a room, sit down awkwardly next to some Joe Schmo that looks sorta friendly, get the syllabus, listen to the professors tell you exactly what the last few professors told you, yadda yadda yadda.

If you can’t tell, being back at school brings out a very negative light to me.  I’m really not that mean of a person, honestly.  Sometimes, I even like Joe Schmo by the end of the semester.  However, college = stress.   Which = negativity.  And boy, I can feel the pressure already. 

You see, I’m not exactly like every other college student out there.  As pathetic as it sounds, I live, eat, breath, and function while at school to get A’s.  I am not here for the social life.  I am not here for the fun (although I do have some occasionally!).  I am here for my education.  I am here to get into vet school.  And this attitude I have adopted puts me very much so apart from my freshman peers.  Many of them have said they were coming to college to make friends and to have great memories.  I have always said that while friends were not on the front of my mind, if I made some along the way I would be quite pleased with that.  However, I am not shucking out $40,000 to make friends. 

I have already finished every stitch of homework those teachers gave me for the first day.  I have successfully read and created a study sheet on all of Chapter 10 in chemistry, recopied my chem notes, read the first chapter in english, written my reading journal on it, and have contacted my lab employers about continuing work for this semester.  And at only 9:19 the night is young! 

In all honesty, I guess I get a little obsessive about school work.  It makes me into a not so nice person sometimes.  However, with vet school as my destination and no back up plan, I kinda have to be that way.

I feel like the longer I do the whole college thing, the better I’ll be at balancing.  And staying ahead.  And doing more than just getting by.  And I feel like once Lance is here, he will drag me away from my books and make me have fun once in a while.  And, in turn, I will shackle him to his desk and make him study once in a while.  I feel like it will be a good trade. 

Whats worse?  Too much fun and too little work, or too much work and too little fun?  Is it worth risking your future career path for some fun now, or is it better to be a little more conservative now and have a future you know you are going to love?