First Year Diary 11

This week has been filled with a lot of painful good-byes. On Monday, I had my last ballroom practice until my Senior year. That was a strange feeling. Monday has always been my ballroom-filled day. We had a little Senior send off as well. It was sad to see the Seniors go, but it was more weird to say good-bye to the Juniors, especially my partner, Josh.. Don’t get me wrong – it was a great night of dancing, but it was just sad. Tuesday was my last day of classes at Holy Cross until Fall 2010. I’m glad that I could end with Professor Perry’s Honors Seminar, though. All of my classes have been fantastic this semester (actually, make that this entire year!), and I’m missing out on a lot of amazing classes that are being offered here next year. I will survive though, methinks! Also, this past Sunday was my last Mass at Holy Cross for a year. It didn’t hit me until I was counting people during the homily. I was standing up in the choir loft, and that’s when I realized that that would be my last time doing that for quite a while. It’s just a weird feeling to think that I won’t be back here as a student until Fall 2010. Am I excited to study abroad? Most certainly. Am I nervous? Most certainly!

Today, I turned in my Tolkien final paper. I’ve been working on this paper for quite some time, so I’m glad that it’s finished. I argued that Tolkien mimics the Beowulf poet (or at least Tolkien’s understanding of him) by combining pagan philosophy with Christian theology, specifically with regards to the body and the soul. I know that this is going to sound crazy, but it was such a fun paper to write. It was difficult, and all of the librarians think I’m a little weird for checking out the entire Anglo-Saxon section in Dinand. But it was still so much fun! Who knows? Maybe I’ll continue that theme for my Honors thesis. But I don’t want to talk about that right now, because that’s a 100+ page paper.

I’m finished with three out of my four classes now. My last final is Wednesday, and it’s for my Early Christian Literature class. Between now and then, I’ll be studying and packing up the room. Packing is going a whole lot better than last year. Remember my frantic posts? Those feelings of anxiety are no more! I actually have more storage than stuff; that’s an exciting feeling. Another reason why I’m better off now than a year ago: my computer is fully functional, so I don’t have to rely on the O’Kane computer lab. That’s always a good feeling!