Cue the Jaws Music Finals are Approaching

Now that I’m back at school I’m faced with a number of responsibilities as the semester comes to an end on December 19.  While I’m practicing for squash matches against Hamilton and Franklin Marshal this weekend I will also be preparing for final exams.  Today I met with my Advanced Fiction professor and went over my final project.  Each student in our class was able to submit two stories during the semester to workshop with the rest of our peers.  We must revise and edit one of the papers from either workshop before submitting the work for possible publication.  In the meeting my professor helped me with revision strategies, editorial concerns, and answered any questions I had.  After today’s conference I feel much better about the final project.

For my final exam in Sexuality and Culture we have a class project where our goal is to remake our sexual culture.  This is how the project is explained on our syllables:

        "The ability to create social change and a more sex positive environment on campus is a central goal of our course.  To that end, you will be working as a group to create cultural change here at SLU.  You can break up into small groups and do small projects or you can create a larger social statement---however, you must take an active step in creating a more sex positive SLU! (Dr. Daniele Egan course syllabus for Sexuality and Culture at St. Lawrence University Fall, 2008)

So our class has decided to hold a Sex Positivity Panel in the Winston Room, located in the student center on Friday, December 5^th from 11:40am – 12:40pm.  We’re going to be discussing the various perspectives on sex, sexuality, and gender.  There will also be a chance for students to get creative during lunch and craft an anonymous question or statement in our SLU Sex Positivity book (basically it’s just the PostSecret books/website).  Also, we will be making pamphlets answering questions students have asked about in our Sex Positivity Question Box that’s been available to students during the lunch hours.  I’m hopeful that we’ll have a good turn out and if you’re around campus, stop by!  I’m sure you’ll learn something that may surprise you.

During Interpersonal Communication our time was devoted to a much anticipated final project, a talk show!  The class was divided into five groups each with a different theme.  I am in Group One with three other people where we will be researching relational maintenance and computer-mediated communication.  Well what the heck does that mean?  It means that today’s technology has completely changed the way we choose to communicate with one another.  From letters, phone calls, and e-mails to Instant Messaging and what seems to be driving everyone’s phone bill up these days, texting!  Writing this, the Spell Check assures me with its red squiggly line that ‘texting’ isn’t a word. It wasn’t until 1998 that ‘texted’ was recognized as a word in Webster’s Dictionary.  Our previous means of communication (verbal and non-verbal) begin to transform as technology continues to advance. Times are changing and trust me, I know; my parents remind me everyday, haha.

Finally, I have a final scene for Acting on Monday in which I work with two other students from my class.  We have met several times outside of class time trying to remember lines, props to bring, clothes to wear, and making sure we have proper blocking for the audience (whom are our classmates of course).  Wish me luck! Just don't say, "break a leg."