The Christmas reboot

Ahh, Christmas break was just what I needed. It was like a reboot for me.

For the first week of break, it was just me and my parents and my dog. I remember the night I first came home. I rode home with my friend Graham from high school, who also goes to Centre. He dropped me off at my house around 8 p.m. My parents came out with all smiles and took all my luggage for me, and then I walked in the house after them. The house smelled like popcorn, the Christmas-tree lights and miniature winter houses on the shelves lit the living room. Presents were already piled under the tree, and as I progressed further into the house, there was my dog with his paws hanging over the top of his little pen, and his tail was just wagging and wagging. Oh, it was so perfect. It was now officially the Christmas season.

Mom had cleaned my room up nice and had set out some pictures of me, certificates, newspaper articles, and medals on my dresser as though she was soon going to arrange them in a scrapbook. The next week my brother Joseph flew in from Claremont, California. I also remember the first day he came. I was vacuuming the living room rug and saw someone come through the front the door in the corner of my eye. I expected it to be Mom back from shopping, but it was Joseph! He was well-dressed and just seemed more grown up. I wondered if he'd changed.

Now, the whole family was back together again. We went out to eat and shop together as much as possible all together about every other night. Then, as tradition goes between us, my brother and I would go out together after dinner and shop with the family, see a 10 p.m. movie at the theater, and then get a midnight snack from Steak & Shake or Starbucks. I usually didn't go to bed until about 1 a.m. and didn't wake up until about 10 a.m. It was awesome.

It was a little odd at first being home for so long and not really doing anything; I felt like I should be doing something. So I often found myself just going to our local library and finding some books to read and look through. Break altogether was really nice: not having to do anything, spending time with my family, hanging out with my brother and friends just like old times...etc. But after the first two weeks I started feeling "homesick" for Centre. Believe it or not, I missed the routine that I'd I gotten so used to—not only with class, but all my other extracurricular activities. And ESPECIALLY all my Centre friends and hall mates. I remember driving back to Centre after break, sooo excited just to get back on my hall with all the decorated doors and bright fluorescent lights. Haha.

For CentreTerm, I've chosen this French Revolution class that is set up as a game. It closely studies the French Revolution and the philosophers at the time, and sets up a game where we pretend that we are the National Assembly of 1791, deliberating on what France's new constitution should entail. We've all been assigned roles and must accomplish the victory objectives of that person, to be winners of the game. It's a lot like a Model UN program (or for those of you who are from Kentucky, it acts a lot like KUNA). It's proved to be a rather time-consuming class, but is a lot of fun—especially since this is the kind of stuff I love.