It finally happened! The semester was over and I could get the rest I desperately needed. I don’t know if it was the lack of sleep or the plethora of cramming sessions, but I was exhausted. Finals hurt. In a sense, college finals are very similar to high school finals but are harder and actually matter. Of course, in true procrastinator fashion, I put off studying until the last minute. In retrospect, I think I lost two hours of sleep per hour that I put off studying. Well, I got through them… more or less.

            My break was amazing. It was great, not because I took an exciting vacation, but because I did nothing: absolutely nothing. It’s physics; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. My intensely stressful studying and work had led to the equally opposite reaction of me going into what could be misconstrued as a coma for a month… it was heavenly. Well, it’s over now and I am very well refreshed. This next semester should prove interesting.

School was finally over… well maybe not, but a break was a welcomed reprieve from the ridiculous amount of work I had to do. No words can express how excited I was, not to go home, but to just slack off. In fact, I was so excited that I started my break several days early with my utter refusal to do work… and I had a lot. Why would I procrastinate like this? Well, to me a break is like a barrier into one’s forward vision. You only care about the break and don’t give a second thought to what you need to do upon return. I am a prime example of this statement. I didn’t do work I should have done, I didn’t do my laundry, and I didn’t clean my room. My break was great and relaxing. However, when I returned, after being delayed at the airport, I walked into my room thinking a tornado destroyed it…depressing. I thought to myself that there was no way I left my room this messy, but I should never underestimate myself like that. I had two papers due, a test, and a lot of busy work due the following day. In addition, after I thought there was nothing that could add to my stress, I had no close to wear. Ladies and gentlemen…. do not do what I did.

            Halloween. I have no idea how or why this peculiar holiday came to be, but it is definitely one of the more interesting holidays. However, over the years I stopped participating in the events of Halloween… until this year.

            Halloween started like any other day… I actually forgot that it was Halloween because I hadn’t participated in the festivities for so long. However, in class all the students were very excited about Halloween. Were they excited about the trick-or-treating? No. They were excited about the costume party at one of the fraternities. They had all gone out and bought these amazing costumes to portray how creative they were. And me? I hadn’t even considered getting a costume yet. After the school day was done, my roommate convinced me to go to the costume party. Sadly, my wardrobe did not consist of Halloween costumes, and I had no time to go out and buy one. So, what did I do? I just started throwing on random articles of clothing. I started out with jeans and a black undershirt. Then, I looked to my right and saw a tie hanging in my closet. I put it on over the T-shirt… it looked ridiculous. Then I put on a Hollister button-down shirt and tied a knot on the back. Did I have any idea what I was aiming for? Absolutely not. I was literally just throwing on random articles of clothing. My roommate gave me a blank stare as he pondered what I could possibly be.  Taking the hint, I made my way down to my sister all to get the final piece of apparel: a pair of white girly sunglasses with music notes on the sides.  A look at myself in the mirror for second and said, “ I look like Elton John”. Several girls confirmed my statement… and my Halloween costume was complete. As I reentered my room, my roommate stared at me in amazement.  The glasses made all the difference.

            Surprisingly, I had a great time with all the Halloween festivities. The party was fun. Food was available in abundance.  Most of all, it was an excellent break in the routine.

            It was Saturday and I had to get up terrifyingly early…I believe 10:00 was when my alarm sounded. What could possibly give me the motivation to wake up at 10:00? Apple picking. Yes, I’m in college and I was going apple picking on a Saturday. Actually, I was going because some girls asked me to and whined until I said yes. Does that redeem me?

            I make my way outside to meet up with the group. To my astonishment, the group is an estrogen fest. I was the sole contributor of testosterone. However, I was not afraid…a lesser man might have run to protect his sanity, but I was determined to succeed. No one brought an iPod, and thankfully South Carolina morning radio consists of bad country and worse country. We didn’t listen to music…silence. Success! I avoided the usually inevitable assault on my ears from a loud sing along.

            We got to the orchard and bought some warm apple cider doughnuts, easily the best doughnuts I have ever had in my entire life. After we finished our doughnuts, and in all I think each of us had around six...delicious, we made our way down to the trees. All the families and other visitors would not venture far… so we had to go far away to find any apples. There were many different varieties, but we each pulled a particular one off a tree and immediately fell in love with it. They were Fuji apples. We climbed up trees, shook branches, and eventually filled up our basket…that I ended up carrying around.

            I actually had a good time picking apples with the girls, but I can promise you I didn’t eat anything with an apple in it for a week. The day was gorgeous and it was a relaxing day to spend a Saturday… second only to sleeping 

My Date MeganHomecoming: the dictionary defines it as the annual school or university reunion for graduates. I actually had to look it up because, truthfully, I didn’t have an exact idea on what homecoming was actually about. The plethora of completely unrelated events seemed to, in my mind, dilute the “true” meaning of homecoming. Honestly, I don’t know how homecoming became a student body event rather than an alumni event…whatever; the true meaning of homecoming is boring anyway.

The signature event of homecoming was the dance… and I needed to get a suit. Not only did I need a suit, I needed a suit in two hours. After the football game, I went to a nearby Men’s Warehouse to resolve this dilemma. While quietly browsing, I was assaulted with sales pitches…“For $200 more, you could have two rear vents!” said the annoying salesman. It took some time, but, after listening to the sale’s pitches and countless buy one get one half off deals, I bought a suit. The tailor complained that he had to fit the suit so soon, but it took him five minutes. I rushed back to the dorm to get ready for my dance

The dance was exactly like you’d expect…there was no actual dancing. As with all dances these days, shaking one’s hips close to someone else’s is the preferred style. I’d dare say that a lot of people couldn’t even do that with any sense of rhythm. However, I am in no place to judge… someone tried to teach me to dance once, but never again. So, like all the rest, I flailed my hips around like I was having a seizure.

Our Hall Macot To conclude the evening, I had my date pose with a fellow dorm mate… as you can see from the picture, he took the dance seriously: he wore a kilt and had a cigar in his mouth the entire time. I’m sure there were alumni roaming around on campus, but, to the students, homecoming provided some welcomed relaxation.