Large Letters

Doing hardcore homework on the Saturday after the first week of classes seems a bit much, but I'd rather this semester not trick me into thinking it's going to be the cakewalk I've been pretending college has been up until now. But it's good, because I've gotten a chunk of homework (that I'd already fallen behind on) done here at the Caribou, AND I got 10 cents off my order due to my past as a literature aficionado (er, of sorts) on my high school Scholastic Bowl team.

Also, I have to start another blog for my Digital Storytelling class. This class is crazy in the best sense of the word. I mean, Jim Groom has already thrown all kinds of "assignments" at us, which involve setting up a Twitter account, purchasing a domain, getting a wiki account, and other assorted cyber things I haven't gotten around to yet. And apparently on this new blog, I have to discuss meta-media. Trippy. I could tell UMW's once best professor Gardner Campbell had his hand in this project before he showed up via Skype on a big screen in class on Thursday evening. Turns out he is the reason for the aim of this class. THE AIM: To explore how technology shapes us, our culture, and our relationships. Gardner asserts that it is absolutely necessary and essential for students to embrace the technology we have and purchase domains of their own upon entering college so that they can develop as adults without airplane-acting spoons flying toward their mouths. What he's saying is he hates 5-paragraph essays and blackboard. Understandable. But for real, he makes a valid point. How many underqualified job candidates are colleges throwing into "the real world?" Countless, without a doubt. I mean, I could be one of them with my half-assed anti-collegiate efforts in the world of academia. Education is no longer governmentally mandated for me, and it is something I really should be embracing beyond the required boundaries of syllabi. Countless times I've heard my father say how much he's always wanted to be a college student again ever since he graduated with his doctorate in Theology/Philosophy. This reminds me of my dad's Psalm 111 sermon...

"Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them." -Psalm 111:2

And here I am not taking advantage of one of the most amazing opportunities I may ever face in my life. I'm thanking my parents for their all-too-generous payments to this institution by daydreaming in class, not doing my homework, and minimal amounts of study time for exams.

In the words of my beloved good friend and roommate of my first two years of college, Gilmore McLean, "I guess we've all got priorities. I f***ed it up with considerable ease... please, please, please forget about her sh**ty, awful, guilty priorities."
She wrote this song for her baby nephew she knew she wouldn't be around to see grow up. She laments feeling like she has to go out into the world to truly live her life at the expense of not being there for him.

For me, this translates to feeling like I need to take this approach with God. I tell Him I can go out there and figure things out on my own. Then I tell Him to help me, but I ignore His hand when He holds it out. I started this semester telling God I need to get out of my mind-mess, and then I arbitrarily opened my Bible to Galatians. Arbitrary my butt. Galatians addresses the fool I've been, and God is pretty clearly saying, "Um, yeah, it's about time you want to get out of that mess. Here, I already told you what to do a long time ago, so how about you really learn it this time, k?"

Paul says in Galatians 6:11, "See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand," in his final warning. Perhaps I should make my font clearer and boot it up a few sizes myself.

Will do.