Student Blog: My First Week of Senior Year

It’s kind of crazy to think that I’ve already completed my very last first week of school. Though it’s only been a week, so much has already happened. Allow me to tell you about my first week of senior year!

My classes this semester are great because I don’t have much homework at all. I’m mainly taking all English courses (English major here), in addition to one journalism class, and one theatre class. I went into the semester thinking I’d be most excited about my theatre class, but as it actually turns out, I think my poetry class might just be my favorite. There’s something so healing about going from a room of sixty people talking about journalism things, to a room of just fifteen people reading and writing sonnets. There’s no lecture slides, no discussion posts, no articles to write. It’s nice. Our only assignment is to bring in copies of a poem we’ve written every Tuesday. I enjoy smaller and low stress classes like this because I feel you can really connect with the rest of your peers and understand the material more deeply.

Last Friday and Saturday were the second day of auditions and callbacks for my theatre group’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and since I’m production manager, I got to sit on the audition panel and watch everyone’s auditions and callbacks! It was really cool because I’ve only ever got to do that once before, but that was for a show that only consisted of five ten minute student-written one-act plays, and it only ran for one night. This show however, was a Broadway musical so casting it required a lot more thought and careful deliberation. The cast is absolutely amazing. We had our first read through on Sunday so to see all the cast together in the same room was just so wonderful because everyone looked like they were so happy to be there. 

Also this past Sunday was the very first production staff meeting for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee! I led the meeting, which was really exciting because I’ve always wanted to lead the production staff meetings. You basically go down the production staff list and ask if anyone has any important updates in regards to their position  they’d like to share. The night before, I went to the grocery store and bought cookies for everyone in honor of the first p-staff meeting, which I think were appreciated by all. 

All throughout this week, my professors have been strongly recommending that we wear our masks in the classrooms because there’s been an upsurge in COVID cases recently. I know at least five people who have tested positive for it now, including one of my best friends. I’m trying my best to avoid contact with people, so out of precaution, I’ve made the upcoming production staff meeting on zoom to minimize risk. If the number of cases continue to increase, I think we’ll probably go back to mandatory masking. 

The weather here has been excruciatingly unbearable for the past couple of days. It’s been in the high 90’s all week and I’m practically melting. On Thursday,  there was an English Department ice cream social so I walked over there from my room  to get some. I don’t live too far from where the event was. It was probably a six minute walk. Halfway through my walk back to my room, my ice cream was soup. It was all melted so I had to drink it - it was tasty though. If you ever get a chance to visit Delaware, go to UDairy Creamery! Also, fun fact - Pres. Biden said that UDairy’s mint chocolate chip is one of his favorite flavors. I don’t like mint so I’m gonna have to disagree. 

On Tuesday, my laptop decided to check out on me. It would turn on, but the brightness would be very very low, and then it would shut off after a second. I watched a YouTube video of someone who had the exact same problem as me, and to fix their computer, they popped out the RAM in the back and then inserted a new one. I asked my friend if he could come fix it, but he couldn’t help too much, so I had to take it to the IT Department. They told me it would be an easy fix, but it would take a long time because there’s so many laptops that need to be fixed. When I asked for an estimated time on when I’d get it back, they said  either the end of this month or the beginning of October. I love my laptop, so having to part with her was a tough decision, but ultimately, it had to be done. I handed her over and then I filled out an application to get a loaner laptop for two weeks. It’s okay… My laptop has a bunch of stickers on it so it has a lot of personality, but this one will do just fine. 

And finally, last night, one of the student centers on campus had to close early because a pipe had burst and so students had to evacuate the building. This was really the first breaking news story of the semester, so me and  a few writers and photographers from the student newspaper all went to our office and grabbed some press passes. Then we went over to the student center and did some “on the street reporting.” After which, we compiled up our quotes, wrote a little breaking news story, and got it posted to the website within two hours of the event, which is pretty good for us! 

All in all, I would say I had a pretty eventful first week of school! I’m definitely eager to see what the rest of the school year has in store for me.

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