I entered this year with a lot of high hopes--I hoped to meet a lot of new friends, I hoped to do well in classes, I hoped to discover that my choice of major was fitting for myself, and I hoped to have a blast.
I did, in fact, meet a lot of new and amazing friends--people whom I think I would gladly do just about anything for. They're fun and witty and excitable.
I did decently well in classes, managing to get a B, two B+s, and an A in classes first semester, bringing three classes up by a letter and one class down on the finals. This last semester I felt like I didn't do as well--I was able to keep up with everything in East Meets West without a problem, but Chemistry just wasn't challenging. Without a challenge, it doesn't seem as though I can apply myself, so I didn't. I got embarrassingly low grades on all three tests, and it seems as though the same is true for the final. It's mildly distressing, as I'm not sure how this will affect me for the future. I know well that I can do fantastically in all of my classes as long as I apply myself. Where I'll find the resolve to apply myself, though, I do not know.
I still think that my choice of Biology as a major was a good one--it permits me to take the classes that interest me most, and as I am now a double-minor in History and Intercultural Studies, I will be able to take almost all of the classes that have caught my eye.
Most of all, I very definitely had a blast. College was more challenging than I had expected, but also a lot more fun than I had expected. Professors were enjoyable, lectures were interesting, and classmates were a riot. I cannot wait until next semester rolls around. If I can maintain the fun aspect while getting better grades, college will be a blast clear through.
East Meets West has been perhaps the most fantastic course I've ever taken. For an honours program, it seemed fairly easy a lot of the time--we only had papers every other week, and the lectures were fascinating but general. I suppose it was the work load that was supposed to drag us under, as we averaged anywhere from 100-200 pages of reading every night. However, that's not a lot for me, and I would happily spend my free time reading what we were required to read anyway. So I guess it's due to my pre-existing interests that EMW seemed so easy.
In two days we will have been in Budapest for two hours, something to which I'm greatly looking forward. I don't know how I will react when we reach Europe--after more than a year and a half away, I don't even know if it will still feel like home. Did I pull up all of my roots when I came to the USA? I was never fully Slovak (my grasp of the language--conversational--is embarrassingly poor considering that I spent eleven years there), yet I am nowhere near to being American. I fall entirely in the middle ground, and as I grow more distant towards my homeland, I still do not grow closer to the USA. Perhaps I do not even have a home anymore. Such are issues that from what I understand almost every Third Culture Kid experiences. The knowledge that hundreds of other kids my age are dealing with the same issues does not make them any easier, though. It is a very frightening feeling, actually, to not have a home. It's beyond the feelings that I suppose must stem from lacking a place in which to live. I don't need a place to park my physical baggage, but to lack a place where my emotions rest is very hard. Thus, when I get to Hungary, I might cry for joy, or I might be distressingly apathetic.
Three weeks after we touch down, I will finally get back to Slovakia, for the first time in 1 year, 9 months, and 19 days. I would see Chad and Michael, but both of them are going to be getting jobs in the USA for the summer. Chad's family is in the USA at present, which means that I will be staying with Michael's family, with whom I was never as close as I was with Michael himself. Anna will be there, but that's not quite the same thing--she's fun, but she's not my best friends. With Anna, and with Heather, and MaryGrace, and Catherine, and Daniel, and Lydia, I will be going to a Switchfoot concert for free. This is a very exciting plan. Additionally, I'm planning to make them show me around everything in Bratislava that has changed since I left. And I'm planning to consume copious quantities of Kofola. I won't really be able to bring any back, so I plan to make the most of it while I'm there.
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