Twitterpated

Spring has most definitely sprung here at Centre College and the beautiful weather achingly calls to me as I sit, frantically studying, in the library and my dorm. Everyday a new tree blooms, another bird is seen wheeling around campus, and both the staff and students have infectious grins on their faces. I'll be the first to admit that it's certainly hard focusing on all of my work in such conditions, but the promise of summer helps keep my attention firm.

One thing I've noticed on campus is the uncanny nature of new relationships to pop up during the seasonal change. I'm constantly being informed, "Oh, didn't you know, so-and-such are dating now!" Though of little concern to me, it's occasionally hard to keep up with who's dating whom and why the couple three-tables-over are headed for a breakup. And ultimately, I can't help but feel as if these couplings are "too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be 'Ere one can say 'It lightens.'" (10 points if you can name the play, act, and scene!)

Rather than being "twitterpated" with someone, I'm enamored with the possibilities of summer (only 6 days away!) and the exciting fall term ahead of me. I've been cast in the 2008 Family Weekend show, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, as Charles Dabernow Schmendiman—an inventor who somehow doesn't seem to grasp the futility of his inventions. This means that in addition to working at New Harmony Theatre this summer, I'll be preparing a role and returning to Centre a week early to begin rehearsals.

Also, this summer I'm starting research for my CentreTerm class, "England Regional Theatre Tour." The pace at which life is flying by seems unreal. Last evening I was talking to my father about my end-of-the-term schedule (4 papers, 2 presentations, 1 test and 50 lines of Latin--not including finals--if you're keeping track) and the enormity of the realization that I'm at the end of my first year of college hit me. While we made small talk about the weather, my friends, final examinations, etc., I began to realize just how much I've changed over the course of the year. I feel as if my primary achievement has been the development of a sense of comfort within my own mind--I've learned to explore subjects (whether they interest me or not) and create my own theses and analyses.

It sounds cliché, I know, but my experiences this past year have really brought Centre's slogan, "Personal education, Extraordinary success" into greater focus. Striving for success in education, I've discovered that success is not necessarily a numerical average, but the ability to recognize that the retention of information and adaptation to new learning processes are integral to life beyond college.