HELLO OUT THERE

It has been... Forever?

Yes.

Why did I come back?

I'll tell you.

Intro: When it's 9:00 PM on a Saturday, and you are willfully in the Periodicals section of the Harold B. Lee Library reading The Economist for an assignment that's due on Tuesday (not one, but two full days away), you know you are:

A) Finally becoming the student your parents prayed would make the most of tuition.
B) Into reading the news.
C) In EURO 490R (a Senior).
D) Desperate to get out of the apartment, but not extreme enough to get out of Provo.
E) All of the above.

The answer tonight is E.

Body: I figured by this year I would be the kind of college student that was both getting all A's and had a blossoming social life with a group of friends that movies teach you you can make at huge universities. Neither of those things have happened to me. I have made A's, and I have made so many great friends, but what has happened instead of the movie plot is that I realized I need to graduate with something better than a 3.3 and my friends all got boyfriends or love to ski. The library is heated, and has air filters; these are two things that are essential to surviving Winter 2013 at BYU. The library also has multiple copies of The Economist, which, it turns out, is a necessary periodical for understanding contemporary Europe as an American student. And while I could have texted people to hang out, the last time I tried that, everyone was busy. Literally over two dozen people told me they wanted to, but they had to rain check. I know that maybe that was a once-in-an-undergraduate kind of night (who knew everyone makes plans on Hobbit Day?), but it left me absolutely free of every feeling like I needed to be the one to make plans. I guess I was looking for an excuse to be able to say that; I shall never be the initiator, again! At any rate, it has stuck. But, unfortunately, the library on a Saturday night, even with Debussy radio on Pandora and my own complimentary copy of The New York Times, is not as fun as it could be. Part of me wishes I was in the movies about silly girls that make crazy decisions with their crazy friends during long weekends--even if it meant I would have to give up the heated and filtered air. When I have feelings like that in the library at 9:30 PM on a Saturday night, my alternative to going upstairs and texting two dozen people that I want to do something spontaneous is blogging. I am, after all, All of the above.

Conclusion: I hope you are reading this in good health and good company, enjoying heated and filtered air, because I know that those are four things you can't take for granted. I also kind of hope that you aren't reading this as I post it, because that probably means that you know what it's like to spend your Saturday evening reading things like "Life After Mario? Italians and investors alike worry about who might succeed its current leader." Moreover, I hope you come back. I think this night is my initiation in the blogosphere of 2013. And what a year it will be!


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