There's A Time for Every Star(t)

I think there must be something about the middle of spring semester that changes people.

By this time, you start really looking forward to the weather changing. You start figuring out your summer plans. Suddenly everything everything in this year begins to focus on next year. The semester goes by quickly. Out of nowhere it's time for midterms and then spring break and then the year is essentially over.

And for some reason people are nicer.

All year I've had to put up with my neighbors. They play Guitar Hero basically all day and all night. They blast music. The bass can be felt throughout my entire room.

And then tonight I met the third boy in the room. It turns out that he's actually really nice. Who knew? The other two have always come off as assholes.

There are a lot of ironies built into life. I think this is one of them: you never really get anything done until the end is near. So now that we have two months of this semester left, it's finally time to start accomplishing things.

I know people who checked out books from the library for the first time yesterday. Personally, I've been making more of a point to get to the gym.

Maybe it's just that by this time, there's only so much more you can control. If it's been a hard year for you, your grades might not be completely salvageable. If you're running low on cash, getting a job may be increasingly difficult by now (personal experience).

But friends, acquaintances, neighbors--these are all still in your control. The year is coming to a close, like it or not. And it's coming much too soon for my taste. But it's not over yet.

Just close enough to being over to start over again.

Yes We Can, Yes We Can

I'm going to let you in a little secret: I'm from Missouri. This probably means nothing to you, and there's a fair chance that you can't even place it on the map.

Here's a hint. It's in the middle.

Usually I try to hide my Midwestern roots. People have certain conceptions of people from the region... Sure, it is the Bible Belt, but that doesn't mean I'm shoving Genesis down anyone's throat; I don't even consider myself terribly religious. I also don't live on a farm, just so you know.

Oh, and I'm not a redneck. It's Missouri, not Mississippi.

Ok, enough ranting. There's a reason why I need to bring this up. I stayed up pretty late last night watching the returns come in. I know a lot of people get sick of hearing anything related to the campaigns, but you have to admit that it's important and you certainly have to admit that Super Tuesday was huge.

And when Obama won my home state by a handful of votes, that was huge. It isn't very often that you see a comeback like that. Three hours before the state had a projected winner, the Senator from Illinois was down by about 30 points.

I considered registering to vote in Massachusetts. After all, I spend considerably more time here than at home now. But I'm lazy and I figured Missouri needed my vote more than Massachusetts did and it turns out that I was right.

It's easy to feel like your vote doesn't count. Delegates, the electoral college... It's not so cut and dry. A lot of people feel like their votes get lost in the shuffle.

But it does count. So if you were out at the polls yesterday, I have to congratulate you. And if you weren't, I have to ask you to please make more of an effort in November.

Besides, you don't really want Missouri looking better than you.