My First Weekend Away

I'm not at Swarthmore! Eek!

For the first time in three weeks I stepped off the campus and out of the so called Swarthmore "bubble." It was surprisingly easy. I took a train right from campus to Philly, from Philly to New York, and from New York to Poughkeepsie (the home of Vassar College). I felt all independent, foraging for my own meals, exploring unknown locations, and navigating complex systems of underground tunnels.

But I got a little lonely too. One nice man next to me on the train asked me about my Linear Algebra homework and reminisced about how much he hated it as a college student. That didn't quite cut it.

While reading The House on Mango Street, I wanted to read my roommate a selection about Juan (the dream guy we made up late one night), but for the first time, she wasn't there. And yeah, I love seeing my high school friends here at Vassar, but its not the same. Who will play catch with me for three hours while discussing philosophy and Sarah Palin? Why aren't the cafeteria trays here decorated with biology diagrams and impromptu poems? Where are all the beautiful plants?

Even though I have to face another hectic week, I'll be happy to go home.

My First Awesome Connection

It hit me right in the middle of Intro to Philosophy: Socratic questioning is just like the Gaussian Method for row reduction. I probably sound like a lunatic. But in truth, I'm just a Swattie. Something about the way Socrates tried to make all the men in Athens see in the contradictions in their arguments made me think of what Dr. Hunter had taught us in Linear Algebra about solving systems of equations. 

This idea was so important to me that I scribbled it down in my planner. But when I looked at it again, it seemed kind of silly, and I couldn't quite grasp the connection or the excitement any more. But then I realized I had my first awesome connection (so I got excited again). I wanted to come here (to Swarthmore) so that I could take a math class just because I wanted to and not have my advisor think that was a waste of time. And now that otherwise unnecessary math class had suddenly given me a new insight and a new way to understand philosophy. Yay!