17 days until move-in

So all the '09 RHPers have attended Orientation and had at least their first dose of USC spirit. I am, as well as everyone else, living out the last few weeks before Move-In Day. Ever since my last day of high school, I've been getting constant mail from USC departments, offices, and organizations, sometimes more than one envelope a day. There's even emailing from organizations to which I've showed an interest in on one of those countless Internet or paper forms I've filled out. It's exciting.

One thing that broke my excitement yesterday was the Thematic Option mailing from Penny. The introductory paragraph was the routine "I hope your summer is going well...it's getting close to move-in day...we are excited...welcome to the Thematic Option." And then the next paragraph: "Your CORE 111 writing class will be rigorous--so tough, in fact, that your first assignment is due before you are." Bummer. And now that I'm reading it again from the excellent quality USC letterhead, I realize that that sentence doesn't make any sense at all. As if I'm "due" or something. Oh well. I understand plenty well enough to be unexcited. [few minutes later] Eh, I get it. Scratch that.

I suppose I overreacted at the fact that I have to complete an assignment that's due before classes start. Penny wrote, "This will give us a sense of who you are and will give your writing instructor an idea of where you are beginning as a writer." Okay, so I hate these diagnostic writing pieces. And the very next paragraph says, "Have fun with the assignment. It won't be used as an academic mug shot..." Now isn't that contradicting what she just wrote in the previous paragraph? I'll try to have fun, yes, in constructing this 2-3 page essay (which I'm sure will seem ridiculously easy by the time we get our first few writing assignments in class), but I don't want someone to gauge my writing ability or style through a "fun" piece.

My excitement was revived (I know, passive voice, I don't care!) by the mailing from TrojanHousing. Yes, those who are a bit further from LA than I am, you are getting your roommate information really soon! I was paired with an RHPer (hey there, Sean). Can I assume that you "matched" responses for the most part on that questionnaire we filled out many weeks ago? Haha, I wonder.

Now about majors and minors and careers and futures...How certain are the RHPers about their stated majors as incoming freshmen? I've discussed careers with my parents, who tell me that they know a lot about what certain careers entail, and I trust them. I've wrestled with the possibility that I may waste a few semesters before finding something on which to set my heart. Perhaps I am not one of those lucky few who have specific passions in the academic world. I'm trying to pick something not so difficult (I'm sorry engineering majors if I offend you :) ) because I want a high GPA for grad school (right now, aiming for law school). Unless, of course, I do happen to find that passion. But it seems unlikely because there's only so much "trying out" of classes I can do. That being said, I hope that economics turns out to be interesting to me.

I'm trying to finish some books before everything gets hectic. Has anyone read Into Thin Air?

Class Schedules

'Lo, guys, this is Sean Nelson and since no new posts have been, well, posted for a certain while, I thought I might be the one to break this devastating and unbelievable trend.

So, most of us have been to orientation and most of us have received our class schedules, at least tentatively. Anyone want to share their class schedules? Here, I'll be the first one to submit, since it would only seem appropriate.

Taking TO CORE 102 and 104, and of course the writing session. For the 102 course, I'm taking Pleasure and the Social--you should've seen the look on my local bookstore helper's face when I asked her if they had Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. She thought the title blunt. For 104, I'm taking PROGRESS. Man, that professor really knows how to emphazise words, masterful.

My foreign language is Italian 1. I practically failed my French placement test. That failing means that either I've forgotten all of my french within the past two months OR that our french teachers aren't very good at my high school, since I took the hardest french class offered and made A's. So much for that.

My extra, fun class is song writing, and on that note, anyone play an instrument, I'll be trying to start a band out in LA. Christian psychedelic rock, anyone? As Andre 3000 would put it, Hey Yeah!

Ok, you people comment, that's how it works.