Saturday, March 26, 2011

Wolf, tequila and end of semester blues

Here are three expressions I have taken a liking to in the last few days/weeks.

Don't feed the bad wolf
My mother's coworker has this tattooed on her arm and as she told me the story, I immediately took a liking to the expression. The moral which is based on an old Cherokee Native American tale, is a good one for someone like me who is just a little bit negative.

One winter’s evening whilst gathered round a blazing camp
fire, an old Indian chief told his grandson about the inner struggle that goes on inside people.
“You see” said the old man, “this inner struggle is like two wolves fighting each other. One is evil, full of anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, deceit, false pride, superiority, and ego."
“The other one,” he continued, poking the fire with a stick so that the fire crackled, sending the flames clawing at the night sky, “is good, full of joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." For a few minutes his grandson pondered his grandfather’s words and then asked, “So which wolf wins, grandfather?”

“Well”, said the wise old chief, his lined face breaking into a wry smile,
“The one you feed!”

Tequila can save any night
I am a firm believer that it rarely gets more fun than the pre-drink. The apartment chill always seems to exceed what is encountered at the bar. Last night began as one of those evenings. Cold weather, long lines
and bad atmosphere made the night less than appealing. When I was about ready to give up and catch a cab, Lisa who was determined to save the night-out exclaims that there was nothing tequila could not fix! I have to admit how right she was and say this may become my new motto.



Everything is going to be alright
Maybe not today but eventually.
Our fabulous student paper
the Concordian, features a weekly mix-tape hosted on 8tracks.com. I have become a pretty avid user of the site and the other day one of the sets had this photo attached. It stuck probably because it describes my current state end of semester blues perfectly.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Impending failure

I am not sure if it was the love/pressure from my "fans" that sent me back to this very familiar blog or just nostalgia but here I am at 1 a.m. on the night before my political science essay is due to say that I have officially given up! Okay, that reads a little dramatic but basically I have this essay that is 3000 words due tomorrow and I have written 1600. While an all-nighter would be a solution, I simply no longer have the brain capacity to write another word on the subject of clientelism and patron-client relations in India.

Seeing as it is worth 40%, handing in a half completed essay is basically subjecting me to a mark in the D-F range. For someone who cries at the sight of an A- in political science classes, giving up is not only a sure GPA killer but also an emotional disaster waiting to happen. Yet, despite this I still will not return to the essay because I think everyone is allowed one little fuck up in university and with one semester to go, I figured I would use mine up with this essay. Also as someone who stresses and panics over every little thing, I have a sense of calmness about this decision. This of course may change if I fail the class which hopefully will not happen.

While this was not what I planned as my first post back, I figure I can't justify spending time writing much else while my essay sits neglected. SO for now, this is what is here BUT hopefully with each day the Whiteboard will take one step closer to it's glory days....whenever those were.