Wanted: College, Just Without the "School" Part

After spending a wonderful Memorial Day weekend “chillaxing” back home, catching up on movies like “X-Men 3”, “Da Vinci Code”, and “MI:3,” and spending time with some old friends, I woke up this morning ready to take care of the remaining loose ends that I had left behind some 300 miles north in Syracuse. So, I jumped into my car, and drove up for about three and a half hours to arrive once more in New York State’s icebox.

An icebox that happened to be 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

The second I jumped out my car, I felt like I had just been bitch-slapped by the Devil himself. Now, trust when I say that I can handle hot weather, but I must admit that I was rather surprised to experience that kind of weather in Syracuse, of all places. It was only two weeks ago when the mercury hit 36 degrees. I mean, sure, during the summer, Syracuse actually does get hot, but definitely not this early on in the season. But whatever, I’d rather take the hot weather than the cold, any day.

There were a number of reasons that factored into my return to Syracuse this week. For one, I needed to look over my once-beloved (as in, it used to look like a home, not a Katrina disaster site) apartment, pick up any remaining belongings, and hand in my keys. Next, I came to finish off some photography work that I did not finish during the semester. Long story short, basically, the darkrooms that I needed to do my work closed at random times during the end of the semester. Everytime I had the opportunity to do some lab work, the darkroom was closed, so, by the end of the semester, I did not finish my course work. I tried reasoning with the professor, but she said that there was nothing that she could do about it. (A HUGE lie) The teacher gave me an “F” for the course, but, according to the Dean of my college, I still have an outside chance of getting her to change the grade, provided I show up at her front door like, “here, wench!!!” There’s also a part of me that just wants to finish the work just so I can have some cool black and white images to decorate my room back in NYC. So either way, my work isn’t going to waste. :-)

The third reason I came back up was to schedule a meeting with the Dean of my home college to get her to exert pressure on another professor to change a grade I received. In this case, I e-mailed my professor my final project for the semester, and on three different occasions, over a span of five days, she said that she never received my work, even though I e-mailed her the assignment again and again. Finally, a day after grades were due, she e-mailed me back and said that she received, “all my e-mails” but that she wasn’t accepting my work. “I turned in grades already. I’m sorry.” Considering that each e-mail that I sent had a date and time stamp, she had proof right in front of her face that I e-mailed those assignments on time. However, despite the evidence, she did not budge. I sent her a long e-mail, basically pleading my case and stating the facts, but when she refused to reply, I decided to go above her and talk to her bosses. Now, it looks like I have some powerful people on my side when it comes to this issue, so hopefully, she’ll take their “recommendations” into consideration and actually evaluate my final paper.

Man, why does shit have to be so damn difficult? Can’t I just leave already!? It sure as hell seems like SU really doesn’t want me to leave. Ever.

In another day, or so, it’ll all be over, though. I can run away from Syracuse and not look back. I’ve already moved out. Now, I just have to tie these loose ends up, and I’m off running.

Will I come back to the city of Syracuse after this, for non-school related reasons? Probably. I’ve made too many friends over the years that are actually from the city of Syracuse, or at the very least, are currently living here until they can get a job, that I cannot just abandon them. It should be awesome chilling with them now that the school aspect of my life is now over. No more worrying about assignments while I’m out with friends.

It’s like college… just without the school part. :-)

FREEEEEEEDOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!

After 200+ pages of writing, hundreds of hours of video editing and photo lab work, and countless pages of reading, I can finally declare that my last official "Finals Crunch Time" as an undergrad is officially OVER. Yes. It's OVERRRR. And I'm freeeeeeeeeeee!!! I have finally completed my college career at Syracuse University. And man, I must say that it feels great to be at the finish line. Yes, I know reality is going to smack me in the face real soon, and I'm going to have to hit the pavement hard to secure myself a job, but I absolutely need to take some time off and revel in the fact that I'm now done with college.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! I'm done!

Okay, I'm done now. Whew. You don't understand just how great it feels to be able to move onto something new. Yes, I enjoyed being in college, and I'm sure I'll be looking back on these times one day and miss them tremendously, but right now, this is THE life. I can finally go home and not worry that I'm wasting time doing something that I shouldn't be doing because of some stupid deadline. Shit, I can read books for leisure again! (I haven't done that since high school.) Instead of writing up some silly ass assignment, now I can blog frequently again. Instead of being forced to sit in front of my computer to do work, I can now go out, play baseball, work on some independent film projects, catch up on my personal writing, and see friends that I've lost contact with since I entered college. Hell, now that I have time, I can even go on dates now! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Seriously, since I last blogged, I was sucked into a huge vacuum of work and barely had the time to catch a breath of fresh air. And, just when I thought I was done, I was sucked right back into it after certain professors decided that they wanted to be complete 'tards and give me "Ds" for no reason. As I type this, I'm still working on petitions to get professors to change their grades in light of all the work that I did for them, but, for the most part, in terms of heavy duty college work, I'm completely done. At the same time, I had to move out of my apartment in Syracuse and get 5 years worth of stuff and transport it all back to the Bronx. So far, I've made about 3 trips back and forth between the two cities, 300 miles each way, in the past week and a half. (Yeah, I had a lot of stuff) I still need to go back to the Cuse on Tuesday to finish up some odds and ends for school and start working on a job search, but, come Thursday, when I head back to NYC, I shouldn't have a reason to head back to Cuse other than to just chill with some friends. After that, my real summer begins, and I'll take the opportunity to recover from Finals for about a month. With any luck, I should start a job by late July, early August.

So, I'm back. Keep coming back here for more blog entries when I get into a few more details with everything and I catch up with all my little "Coffee Break" featurettes. Let me say it loud one more time....

I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!