The thing about being in college is that you can choose what you want to do. Since the only things you're really required to do only pertain to some classes that you take a couple of times a day or a part-time job, the rest of the time is free for you to be beholden to no one but yourself.
I'm in love with this aspect of college.
In fact, this is one of the primary reasons I avoid social obligations. I don't want to let anything encroach on the time I have to pursue the things I'm interested in. There are a few problems with this (besides the obvious, potentially socially stunting problem). Firstly, the more time I have, the bigger my list of interests gets. It started out with writing, which is something I've been interested in since I was eleven or twelve. But once I got writing, a whole new vista of possibility stretched out before me. Writers can't just write - they have to write about something, and usually in order to write about it, they have to do research on it. So pretty quickly I started pursuing knowledge in international politics, corporate crime, small firearms, swordplay, desert topography, Middle Eastern culture, kudzu growing habits and state government. Soon there were so many that I couldn't really get in-depth on any of them. So I had to pick and choose, narrowing my research down to one writing project and then throwing myself into one thing at a time. The topic I've settled on to focus on at the present moment is virology (specifically smallpox). It's interesting and fun and I get to put a lot of the informtion I find into my story, so that's good.
That's just one example of how quickly things can get out of hand and how drastically I have to rein myself in (otherwise I'd just be a frazzled mess who skipped class all the time to read up on the science of gecko's feet so I can derive from it for an alien race I'm writing about). Another example would be TV. As you know I like to watch a lot of shows, and a lot of the time I'm not very picky about how critically acclaimed they are. As long as they're about something that interests me, I'm good to go. Recently my love for TV led me to start watching some Korean television. Korean film is extremely new and often extremely derivative, and a lot of the time it's hit or miss. But the thing I like most about it is that from what I've seen Korea is very proud of and relishes its culture, and its television uses that culture to set itself apart from other Western shows. I was really intrigued by what I saw so I started to read up on the culture and customs in Korea, which led me to reading about the language, which was really intriguing, which led me to learning basic phrases and sentence structure and the alphabet and whatnot.
Age of information? Yes please.
This process of exponential interest growth has happened to me countless times and begins with the simplest things, like hearing a really great song and wanting to find the sheet music, or watching a really great video and wanting to get a camera to do my own videos, or seeing an awesome hat and wanting to learn how to purl so I can make one too. The problem is finding the time and energy to actually invest in these things (and developing the ability to let some things pass by for the sake of my sanity, no matter how desperately I'm interested in them). Here's how I've had to narrow it down. Everything I research/do has to
1. Pertain to something productive (learning or practicing a relevant skill or making a useful product), and
2. Only use available resources that don't cost extra (library, internet, piano, and technology that I've already purchased like my laptop, camera, and flipcam. This also means no printing, driving, or purchasing materials of any kind).
Obviously this doesn't narrow things down all that hugely, but it's a start, and with writing, virology, French and Korean, I've pretty much got my hands full.
This post was obscenely long and not very interesting, but I was in an introspective mood (when am I ever not in an introspective mood?) and I had to get it all off my chest. Next time I promise I'll try my hardest to say something funny.
-Amy
P.S. I discovered a band called Klaypex. They're like the Glitch Mob only they're more consistent about making you want to dance every second. I listen to them in the early mornings so make myself feel good about the rest of the day.
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