So The past 36 hours have been interesting...
I got into the two courses I was trying to add, and now need to drop one. I think the AEM course will go, but I need to sit down and figure out the pre-reqs for the other classes I'm going to need to take. The other is expository writing, a very cool class and fairly straight forward. There is, as the name implies, a good deal of writing, but that's about it. Classtime is discussion focused, and mostly on the area of current events.
I got approval from the instructor the other day, and had the course secretary sign my slip yesterday. Then I turned in my ipod and rushed to get to the Statler. I had work to do.
The work was fun work. I have recently been hired as a head reunion clerk for Cornell's 2004 reunions' weekend. I will have to do some pretty intensive things, but this weekend was chill. So were the people.
I'm working with five other undergraduate head clerks. There is also a new woman working on Reunion, and she is almost like a 7th clerk. Then there's another guy who was a head clerk the past two years, so he's like our big brother 8th clerk.
I just spent 36 hours joking around with them, and while there is only one other guy -- he's all that's needed.
Mike is clearly the joker of the group, making jokes about the minimal labor, but maximum pay. Mike sums himself up best when he says things like, "I like to get things I don't deserve." We're going to get along fine.
The girls are also cool. Three of them play(ed) rugby, and the fourth runs track. Once again, all nice people to have conversations with, so I'm looking forward to working with them this year.
---
I had to leave lunch today early beucase IP told me I needed to give the speech about why to join sports. I got excited at first because I like speaking in public -- it's a great chance to tell stories and get instant feedback. Unlike the column, where I write, and maybe get an e-mail here or there.
Then I thought I didn't want to do it. I spent last night working on the speech, just talking outloud in our common room for an hour. Eventually I hit gold.
The timing was great, too. I told Owen and Ip to call me after Nate finished introducing the first person. They did, and I just made it out in time.
I arrived at the organizational meeting just as Marc was wraping up. People applauded for him (polietely), and then I walked across the front of the room and squatted next to Alex and Owen. We got up together, Ip introduced us, and then he gave me the floor.
I had a great time with it. I told the story about how the LA Times wanted to send two sports writers to cover the war in Iraq, then I talked abotu all the things sports could give people, and finally about how I joined the sports section. I called it the best mistake of my life, and urged everyone else to make the best mistake of their lives as well.
I said before that Alex gave me the floor. I'd like to think that my speech alone gave us 18 new writers (wow!). Of course, I can't take the credit. If Amanda hadn't pushed us to be the best, we probably wouldn't have won the Ben Mintz media award. If Alex and Owen and all of our current writers didn't work so hard, we'd probably not have the section we do today. I did not get us 18 new writers, we got us 18 new writers. We produce the section as the team, all I did was tell the story.
But now I have to go get my glasses (no doubt another story in progress).
No comments:
Post a Comment