Thursday, August 28, 2003

RIO HONDO... HERE I COME

Whoo-hoo... "I am so smart, S-M-A-R-T." And my cumulative grade as a community college student continues to stand at a beautiful 4.0. Wish I could say the same for Berkeley... Much thanks to Gabbo for my A, who wrote numerous "constructive criticism" replies to my fellow classmates. I may have been banned from any future on-line English courses and will from hereon be known as the Rio Hondo b*tch.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Whoa... so exhausted. Here I stand, my 3rd year of college... 2 classes away from a Political Science major, 5 classes away from a Rhetoric major. I think I've made good time considering my joke of a schedule each spring semester for the past two years.

What have I learned?

Am I a more skilled writer? Not really.
Am I smarter? Not by much.
Am I a better person? Perhaps...
Have I changed? Definitely.

I've been back in Berkeley for only a matter of 2 weeks and already, I've been challenged like no other. I've been forced to have to think on my own, more specifically, think about things I never had to deal with. It's strange... I often feel out of place with my friends from back home. I think I've probably become more left of center than they last remember me and more caught up in politics than ever.

All throughout high school, we were forced to think a certain way – forced to take the fast track of APs and Honors to get to where we are. But it's only now that we're truly allowed to develop a sense of individualism and find who we really are. All I know is that my thoughts and ideas are different from "high school Jamie", yet my values and my morals haven't changed. The latter two run too deep and are perhaps permanently ingrained through my parental/cultural upbringing. But have I changed for the better or worse? That's yet to be decided. At least I'm not doing anything bad, like robbing liquor stores. But then again, being couped up in an office from 8am to 8pm isn't good, either. I guess this is one question even a Magic 8 Ball can't foretell... only time will tell.