Let me start off this week’s blog by saying if you’re looking to get pumped up for college, don’t read the rest of this. Last week, the Colby campus was full of kids drinking coffee like it was water, people pulling all nighters for never-ending papers, and students having nervous breakdowns in the middle of the library. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic. But it’s safe to say the usual campus atmosphere was a lot more depressed than the usual energetic and up beat campus that we have every week of the semester but finals week. Generally finals week differs for everyone depending on what their major is and what classes they take, but no matter what you’re studying you’re going to notice this very dramatic and sudden change coming over campus at the end of the semester. You find yourself crashing at 4 AM and waking up at 7, not talking to anyone for days at a time, and having nightmares about your tests. Like actually. Sunday night I had a dream about Super PACs. Clearly my massive campaign finance paper and final was getting to me a bit.

Anyways, I could probably say a bunch more about finals week but: 1) I didn’t want to depress you guys too much 2) I didn’t want to depress myself too much and 3) I wanted to talk a bit about grades! This means that for this week we’re going to mix it up a bit: I thought that instead of writing the usual blog, I would throw in a bit of math. For those of you who are prospective students and fresh out of some high school AP Calc, feel free to point out any stupid things I did – otherwise, if you’re a parent, this is a good way to try to bring back your high school or college algebra skills!

Colby likes to torture students and not release grades for a few weeks after the semester ends. If you submit professor evaluations, you get them a bit earlier. But what the registrar’s office has overlooked (or maybe just isn’t too worried about) is that your GPA and credit hours update whenever a professor puts in a new grade. So, what you can do is obsessingly stalk the MyColby page and whenever your credit hours update by four, you know a new grade has been submitted. To find what this grade is, you can do something like the following: (x is the grade you’re looking for)

x = ((new GPA * new credit total) – (previous credit total * previous GPA)) / (new credit total – previous credit total)

Solve for x, and voila, your grade, revealed. I was debating describing the process of how I painstakingly found my awesome formula to you guys and where I derived it from, but I figured nobody would read it. And, I need to go apply for a job helping out with an Augusta lobbyist firm when I’m at Colby over the summer. See you guys next week!

Nick

It’s Friday evening, and all I can think about is Monday. That’s because by the time this Monday rolls around, days of the week won’t exist to me anymore. The only concept I’ll have of time is that it will be SUMMERTIME!

Never have I wanted Monday to come so badly. Still, at the same time, I can’t believe it will be here so soon. I’m feeling a little freaked out that I’m almost not a freshman anymore. Next year people will expect me to know what I’m doing. Yikes. Plus, I think I’m going to miss this place. I’m definitely going to miss the people here.

We’ll get through these last exams, but don’t miss out on the last moments of the year. Monday, here we come!

Alice

Having now spent nearly two years at Colby, I can say that I actually don’t mind reading period. I may even slightly like it. To me, there’s something nice about knowing that I don’t actually have to be anywhere for most of the day; I merely have the entire two-day reading period (plus the time before my first scheduled final, which is usually a couple of days after the end of reading period) to work on assignments. Not having any scheduled commitments generally makes me quite productive, which means that, during reading period, I have time to both do my work and have a little bit of fun, too.

As of late, I’ve tried to spend my free nights or part of the day on a weekend exploring and appreciating the Maine area. Last week, I went to Camden with a friend. Even though it was raining, we still had a blast. The scenery was amazing, and we were able to eat dinner at a waterfront restaurant. Similarly, over the weekend, we went to Portland. However, instead of spending the entire time touring the city, we decided to take the ferry to one of the nearby islands. We went to Peaks Island. There were not many activities, per se, at Peaks Island, but we still had a blast. It’s a great area just to take a long, multiple hour walk—that is exactly what we did, actually. There are tons of pretty houses to look at, and docks to explore. When walking through Peaks Island, it almost feels like you’re being taken back a couple of decades in history; and yet there’s something wonderfully relaxing about this feeling.

I find that these kinds of mini adventures are the perfect way to unwind during what is a very hectic, stressful, and chaotic time. Because students have virtually all day to do work, most can afford to spend an evening relaxing for a bit, and what better way to do that than explore Maine? I, for one, certainly plan on continuing with these adventures, especially since I’ve completed most of my work by this point of finals week. Sometime soon, I think I will explore Bangor. Or maybe Bar Harbor. Then again, there are four more islands near Portland that I have yet to explore. Oh, the options!

When you live with people, you learn how to read them. Constantly being around my friends at Colby has taught me the importance of looking out for one another.

There are times in college when you forget the reason why you’re working so hard. When work piles up and you get stressed, it gets hard to see the big picture. I’ve learned that these are the times when it’s most important to reach out to friends. Whether I’m the one feeling that way or I see someone else struggling, I’ve learned it’s worth it to sit down and talk to someone.

Of all the valuable things about college, one of the most valuable things is the friends you make. I’d say it’s worth going to college just to have the experience of making those friends. The friends I’ve made this year are, in many cases, very different from me. We are interested in different things, we take different classes, we have different beliefs. This experience, of learning how to trust someone who has a totally different view of the world than you do, teaches you how to truly respect their views. Being friends with people different than you also builds those friendships on deeper things than a shared opinion or hobby. I’ve learned how to reach out to people that I maybe wouldn’t have reached out to before, and because of this I’ve made incredible friends. We’re not friends because we like the same music or are from the same place – it runs deeper than that.

Thanks to all of the friends I’ve made this year. Also, thank you for taking care of me this week when I got sick away from home for the first time.

If there are times when a certain class or homework assignment is wearing you down, remember that there are always people in your life to support you. If nothing else matters, it’s the people who you depend on and who depend on you that do matter. Love one another.

Alice H

I am not even close to comprehending the fact that I am leaving Colby next week and won’t be back until soccer tryouts in August. Weirdly, it feels similar to when I left home to come to Colby last summer; in the sense that my social, academic, and every other kind of mentality is directed towards things going on at Colby. I haven’t reflected much upon the year as a whole past the point of knowing that it was a great experience and I have changed in a lot of positive ways. So, now that you’ve gotten through my short freshman year reminisce, I’ll tell you about what the end of second semester is like here.

Tomorrow marks the end of second semester, the beginning of Loudness, and hopefully a concurrent small break in the stress associated with finals. This loudness there will be fireworks… Yes, fireworks! On Friday night there will be fireworks over Johnson Pond. I am beyond excited at the prospect of fireworks this weekend. And that’s only a small part of all of the activities this weekend. Tonight, there’s a “Party in the US Gay” sponsored by the Bridge, (Colby’s LGBTQI group). After the fireworks on Friday, there is a dance on the lawn outside of Dana. And on Saturday there is tons of activities in the afternoon (bull riding and a bouncy house for example) followed by a concert that night.

Needless to say, it will be no problem finding a distraction from schoolwork this weekend. Thankfully Colby gives us a reading period on the Monday and Tuesday before finals to prepare for our upcoming tests and papers. I guess this weekend is technically a part of the reading period too; but with Colby enabling us to have this much fun it would be tragic not to take advantage of Loudness and by doing something as preposterous as studying the weekend before finals.

When I first came to Colby, I had a sort of phobia of alumni. The whole idea of one seemed daunting: almost a reminder of how not far through life you have gone and how much more you need to do. Mentioning alumni or meeting them served as a constant reminder that you somehow have to not only not completely and utterly fail at life, but somehow be someone like they are thirty years from now. Okay, I guess I’m being a little dramatic. But just the whole idea of an alumni is a little humbling to a current college student whose most important goal in life right now is writing a paper and worrying about whether that picture of me in a dress from last Saturday night will look good on Facebook. After graduating, alumni have to pay for gas, buy their own food, (or god forbid actually make it. Last time I tried to make a sandwich without my mom I spilled jelly all over myself and had to give up) and worst of all, do taxes. How the hell am I supposed to do that? I tried to do my tax returns a few days ago and instead forwarded the pdf to my parents, who forged my signatures and did it for me. Or something like that.

But I digress. I have nothing against alumni, just the whole daunting reminder that someday I’ll have to pick out my own clothes and such things. In fact, I actually love alumni with a passion and love meeting them. They’re such wondrous people: they’ve made it through all the essays, finals, internships and everything else that marks the college process. If anything, they are both tremendously reassuring at the same time they are daunting. They’ve done it all and always have that knowing smile of secretly knowing all the crazy stuff that you’ve done that you don’t tell your parents about.

Last summer I was amazed by how many alums I ran into as I was out and about. On an uninhabited Maine island, at a restaurant, on the beach: Colby alums are everywhere. There is just no feeling in the world as good as hearing: “Hey! Colby class of ’82!” and starting an extremely enthusiastic conversation with them. They always get nostalgic and remember all the crazy but awesome times they had, and I always find it unbelievably interesting to hear all their Colby stories and to see where they’ve been in life. It’s sort of my mission when I get off campus to scour parking lots for Colby bumper stickers and to wear my Colby t-shirts (I have a ton) everywhere I go. I swear to god, when I graduate I am going to wear a Colby shirt every single day of my life. My flying car will have a plethora of Colby bumper stickers on it that you’d only ever see on a Subaru. And when I meet a current Colby student, I’ll probably start bawling remembering all the good times I had.

-Nick

Life decisions. Terrifying, aren’t they?

Having to pinpoint what I’m truly interested in has always been difficult for me. Following one goal or path seems to take away other opportunities, to make life almost too predictable.

This week was the deadline for picking classes for next semester. Although it seems like choosing a few classes shouldn’t be too complicated, I had to figure out how those classes would get me on track for a major or fulfill distribution requirements. Again, not supposed to be hard, right?

Still, in my mind, the classes one chooses to take can help define their identity. When you pick a class, you declare your interest in a subject and curiosity about the material. Course selection can definitely be exciting when you read about all the classes you could take and the topics you could explore. Where I run into problems is actually narrowing all those options down to the few I can take in a semester.

It’s pretty awesome that we get the chance to choose who we want to be and what we want to do. I’m excited for all the possibilities ahead, and my only qualm is that I don’t want to sacrifice anything. If only college were a little longer…

Bring on the sunshine! Last week was a record breaking warm week in Waterville, and Colby students know how to enjoy themselves after a brutal (but wonderful) winter. Here are seven items to check off the bucket list for next time the sun’s out…

1. Walk to Dairy Cone-located just at the bottom of Mayflower Hill, Dairy cone may look like just a small stand on the side of the road, but it’s got a huge selection of delicious treats! It is also a great way to treat yourself after running the 3-mile loop as it is conveniently located right near the end of the path. Tonight the Colby-Waterville Alliance is paying for the ice cream so it’s free to all students—there’s no excuse not to go!
2.Grab a friend and head down to the tennis courts-I went for the first last week and had a BLAST! Not only was I surprised by how many kids were taking a break after lunch and playing either for iPlay or for fun, but it was a nice change of pace to be running around on a solid surface after being in the boats for Crew everyday.
3.Colby-Hume Center (aka my home away from home!)- Located only 7 miles from campus, the Hume Center is truly one of Colby’s best kept secrets. With a beautiful dock to lay out on, picnic tables right by the water, and of course the Crew boat house, there is always something going on. During COOT week, leaders pack onto the dock for some fall sunshine, and nothing changes in the spring as we had to maneuver our way with the boats over many students enjoying the sun on the dock the other day!
4.Campus Golf-I will admit, this is something I have yet to check off my list, but have seen a myriad of students partaking in it the past few days and it looks so much fun. Using foam golf balls, groups of students create various “holes” (landmarks) on campus and see who can make it in the least strokes. Make sure to keep your head up!
5.Grab n’ Go on the Quad- Bobs, Foss, Dana…I don’t need to tell you that we’re spoiled with our food selections here on the Hill, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not nice to change things up sometime. “Grab n’ Go” or “Take 4” allows you to hop in line, pick up a hand picked sandwhich, fruit, chips, drink and fruit all packaged up and read to go. As the Quad gets packed when it’s nice out, there are always frisbees and footballs being thrown, and people stopping to chat in between classes. I had a lunch date with a friend I wanted to catch up with the other day as we sat, ate, and enjoyed the sun-what could be better?
6.Study by Johnson Pond-I promise you, reading for a class never was more enjoyable than if you’re seated under a willow, on a blanket with friends overlooking beautiful Johnson Pond. While you definitely don’t need to bring work to enjoy the surrounding area, chances are there’s enough to be done so you might as well dive in (to the book that is, not the pond…)
7.Convince a Professor to hold class outside-my anthropology professor Britt Halvorson held half of class outside the other day, and there are often English classes stationed on the steps of Miller, or biology classes walking around outside. It’s a great way to extend the conversations literally outside the classroom, boost morale, and we had much more energy as we returned to the classroom for some final thoughts!