On Turning Twenty

During my childhood, I had a burning desire to be older. I wanted to be able to stay up late, and drink soda whenever I wished, and watch PG-13 movies. Now, having stepped through the doorway between that precarious time known as the "teens" and the possibility filled "twentysomethings," I find myself wishing that I could somehow treat time like a VCR (oh dear, I'm showing my age, who uses VCRs anymore); rewinding, pausing, taking it slow. Now that I'm leaving behind the last vestiges of childhood and taking the big step into my twenties, I don't want to be older. I don't want to be five years older than the Harry Potter kids, or attending my little brother's high school graduation at the end of this year, or remembering middle schoolers when they were in first grade, or even worse, when they were born.

I'm just around the corner from being "grown up." I have a car, and insurance, responsibility, important life-changing decisions to make. Since when was I old and mature enough to even contemplate making a decision past what I want to wear to school that day (and I'm sure most people would question my ability to do that). I guess I'm saying that I'm not ready for this. My brother just got a job for when he graduates from college in a few months. A real job, a grown-up job. A job where you go to work and your name is on a piece of plastic Velcroed to the side of your cubicle next to the gap in the wall which constitutes a door. Once that happened I realized that in two years I'd better be thinking about getting one of those name plates with the Velcro on the back. And then I realized that I have no idea what I want to do with my life, a rather sizable obstacle which must be overcome prior to obtaining the Velcro laden plastic nameplate.

Moving up to school this year was something I have dreaded all summer for a variety of reasons. Near the top of this list is the prospect of having to figure out my whole life in the next semester (or at least getting some semblance of an idea of what I want to do). All of a sudden, pressure reared its ugly head, and I was struck by the reality that I won't be in college forever and I've got to take some major responsibility much sooner than I wanted. What all this boils down to is that I'm very afraid. There are so many things that I will be facing in the near future which might determine the course of the rest of my life. Should I stick with theatre, or drop it completely? Do I want to try my hand at writing as a major? Can I take the criticism if I do? What am I going to do with English Literature anyway? Teach? Teach what? Middle schoolers? Even the smart kids are holy terrors at that age. And the drama, I just couldn't take the drama. I guess I thought that if I just stayed home, time would freeze and I could stay in the summer of 2005 for as long as I wanted, I could have more time to make decisions about my life.

We Won

Cute...

...but I don't think I'd want one for a pet.

BRISTOL, Great Britain -- 'Kintana' is the first captive bred aye-aye, an arboreal nocturnal lemur, Daubentonia madagascariensis, a native to Madagascar, to be born in the United Kingdom. Bristol Zoo Gardens announced that it is the first UK zoo to successfully breed and hand-rear an aye-aye, the largest nocturnal primate in the world and one of the strangest mammals on the planet. (04/15/05 AP photo)

This one, on the other hand, is also cute and slightly less creepy looking. It's from the Philippines. Well, that explains it.

BOHOL ISLAND, Philippines -- A Philippine Tarsier watches as a photographer takes his picture inside a captive breeding center in Loboc town on Bohol Island. The endangered animal, who feeds on tiny insects is believed to be the world's smallest primate. (03/11/05 AP photo)

All of these (and more) are from a slideshow on the local news website. I thought they were entertaining.

Putting In My Two Cents

As I'm sure most people are aware, the NCAA has voted to ban the use of Native American mascots, imagery and nicknames in NCAA championship play. This decision has effected my school, the Florida State University. To say the least, I think it's ridiculous. The Seminole tribe of Florida has blessed the use of their name, the Indian head symbol, and everything else associated with them by FSU. Why trample on their rights as a tribe to be "politically correct." It's like the NCAA is saying, don't worry Seminole Indians, we'll protect you from being offended by something that DOESN'T OFFEND YOU!!! Oh, you like them using your name? Well, I'm sorry, you just can't do that, it's not politically correct. Frankly, NCAA, you need to take your nose out of where it doesn't belong. Why don't you fix things that need fixing, for example, the Bowl Championship Series, which I think everyone will agree sucks (to put it mildly), or perhaps the number of athletes who attend college to play sports, and don't end up graduating once their millisecond in the spotlight is over?

My question is this: do they really think that banning the Seminole head from Doak Campbell stadium will make it go away? Do they realize that college students are the absolute most stubborn group of people on that planet, and will doubtlessly wear the Seminole head with pride as soon as the NCAA tries to take it away? Do they want us to forget decades of being the Florida State Seminoles and suddenly become something else? Will they ask us to take down the Heritage Statue by the Union of the first African American Homecoming Queen wearing the traditional headdress of the Seminole tribe? Ask us to change the "Tomahawk" and "Renegade" bus routes? Take down the brand new bronze statue of Chief Osceola and Renegade on Langford Green? Change the street name of Chieftan Way?

I guess what they don't realize is that no matter how hard they try, there will always be Florida State Seminoles. There is too much heritage built into the campus and into the thousands of students who have been Seminoles for it to suddenly go away because they don't want to offend a tribe who is proud to lend its name to Florida State University.

They can rest assured, the Seminoles aren't going down without a fight.

Maybe You're Just Not Suited for a Desk Job

I was sitting at my desk today, entering numbers and contemplating how many trips to the rest room I could take before my coworkers are convinced that I have bladder control problems. And then I thought, what am I thinking about? And why am I thinking about it here? I could totally be half way to the bathroom by now? So I went, taking the bridge across the gap (the same bridge with the hidden hole through which I will inevitably fall one of these days), down the long wall of Worldwide Challenge pictures, and into the women's restroom at the end of the building. It was on the way back that I thought, maybe I'm just not suited for a desk job.