Change Is Back In Town!

I hate change. Really. I hate it, in the worst possible way a person is capable of hating a thing. Even if the changes are really small or insignificant or something that will hardly effect me at all, I'm like, "ARRRRGGG! NOT ANOTHER CHANGE!!!"

But, as we all know, change is inevitable. Things change whether you want them to or not. Some people embrace Change and welcome it with open arms. For the rest of us who hide from Change in a closet with a walkie-talkie and a butcher knife, we have to find our own ways to deal with it.

Me? I hide in closets with knifes just like every other normal person, but Change finds me anyway, like I knew it would. So what do I do? I ho and hum and drag my feet and scrape and plead with Change to leave everything the same (if it's not broke, don't fix it, right? and if it IS broke, just pretend that it's fine). When THAT doesn't work, I grudgingly follow the masses and accept that Change is here and he's here to stay. (I don't embrace him, though. I give him a small man-nod from across the room, but my eyes are saying, "I'm watching you, punk.")

By now you're probably wondering what exactly is going on in my life to make me portray myself to you as a paranoid, potentially homicidal schizophrenic maniac. The answer, let me assure you, is legitimately disturbing.

I've started school. I've gone from full-time at work to only every other weekend, and begun a full-time school schedule, which I will maintain for the next three years. You see? It totally legitimizes the whole walkie-talkie-butcher-knife-in-a-closet thing. Am I right?

But for some reason, this time was different. This time, Change came just like it always does, but I wasn't apprehensive about it so much. This time, I shook hands with Change and gave him a tiny half-grin. Why? Who knows. Maybe I'm excited to start school so I can get DONE with school, so I can start another job and get paid more. That appeals to me greatly.

Regardless the reason, this is the first time in a LONG time that I've actually been even slightly excited for an upcoming change. It's been a pleasant change. (Whoa, I don't think I've ever said that before in my LIFE).

So, school. It's not bad, so far. Granted, it's only the first three days into the quarter, but the first three days weren't bad, so that's something right? I've missed school, actually. College students make me laugh.

College students walk around like they're walking into the wind, even when they're not. They lean wa-a-ay forward (maybe because of the weight of their backpacks?), they hold onto both straps of their backpacks (at all times), they all wear hoodies and keep the hoods up (at all times) and they never--EVER--look you in the eye intentionally.

If, by chance, they're glancing this way just as you're glancing that, and your eyes meet, their eyes kinda get wide like, "Oh, crap, I just looked at a person!" and they throw their gaze back to the ground in front of them. It's seriously hilarious.

Oh, and another thing to do to college students that makes me laugh, is, when you're walking by them and they're watching the ground like it's about to turn into gold, look them in the eye and say, "Hi!". They will look up at you, and when they realize you've said it to THEM, their eyes will get huge and this horrified expression will come over their face and they'll look at you like you just stuck a gun in their gut and pulled the trigger. Then they'll mumble something and practically RUN away from you, like you're the Grim Reaper come to harvest their soul or something.

And then there's other times, like if you're standing in line in the bookstore carrying a stack of books that you know is gonna cost you their weight in gold, and a person behind you is looking at your books and is like, "Hey! You must be taking history! Who's your teacher? When's the class? How long have you lived here? What program are you in? What's your favorite color? How 'bout this weather? What's your name? Have you ever thought about how clouds form? No? Let me tell you about it...!" (No lie, I actually had someone ask me that and patiently listened while they talked for ten minutes about cloud formation).

And for some reason, the line to the checkout counter is not moving even a little bit, and the person behind you wants to be best friends and doesn't seem to realize that you are carrying 50 pounds of textbooks (textbooks that are trying to wriggle out of your arms) and it's eight-thirty in the morning and you haven't had coffee yet and all you want to do is make it to your class that starts in three minutes!

But overall, it's been fun. Everybody is in the same boat you are. We all want to get out of class as fast as possible without having to answer any questions in class, we all want to just finish our program so we won't have to ever sit through another boring class, we all want good grades...the list goes on and on.

So. I'm sure, just like the last time I was in college, you'll be hearing from me frequently as I tell my tales of college life and recall the more interesting things that happen from day to day. Stay tuned...Change is in the house!