The beginning of the end...

Well, I'm alive. Those three words pretty much sum up my time in PCB this year. I partied like it was my last spring break ever..oh wait..it was. My intention going into the trip was to create memories that I want to share with everyone, much like I did for my recap of SB 09. However, I'm not going to do that. It's not because this year was X-rated or anything that crazy but there was, what I shall call "the incident", with a friend, that became the center of a trip and I would rather not dwell on it. But besides that, I had the time of my life, just like last year. I met some interesting people and some VERY interesting people, and it definitely felt like a different atmosphere without 40 of my friends partying in our hotel rooms every night. Yet, I still made the most of it and celebrated my 22nd in style. Both trips were unique but the only thing I would say was worse this time, besides "the incident", is the weather. We got three days of sun as opposed to only two days of rain in 09. And, the temperature was easily 10 degrees colder this time around. Despite the sucky weather in Panama, though, it could have been worse. The Weather Channel told me Ohio got pounded with snow and my friends back home told me not to complain because while I was in the sand, they were in the slush. Luckily for all us spring breakers, we got to come back to decent weather (it will be 75 on Wednesday, who's up for some frisbee on the oval?)

After being on vacation for a week and having two of my best friends and a champagne bottle made of chocolate waiting for me when I returned, it is now safe to say that today was one of the saddest days ever-and it's only going to get worse. I have begun what is my last quarter as a student at The Ohio State University and I could not be more upset about it. What makes it worse is that I actually overheard people talking about how bad they want to get out of here. I know the school part is rough on us all but these are the best four (or 5 or 6) years of our lives. This is the place where we learn who we are and make lifetime friends along the way. Why are people in such a hurry to leave? Maybe I just don't want to leave because I don't have a job or a graduate school lined up yet but I will spend a lot of time working on that so hopefully when I write me senior story in 2 months I can mention it.

Despite the sadness, I did find a little bit of inspiration in my finance class. This class was the last one of my day and I went into it with the sour memory of how accounting ripped out my soul last quarter. I had heard finance was better but I had my doubts. I'm just not good with numbers. I was good at statistics but that's because it was more data analysis than crazy formulas like "if 3xy=z2wtf, what is the reciprocal?" I'm not making that up either, it was on the GRE, maybe not the exact letters but definitely the same formula. Side note, if anyone's super bored (which you must be if you're reading my nonsense) wants to figure this out and let me know the answer, I'll buy you a box meal at Cane's. No lie. Anyway, as I sat there with my new Droid Eris, trying to figure out how to send a picture message, in walks this man with funny hair that looks like every other business professor at OSU. I continue messing with my phone but as soon as he started talking about how we got to use formula sheets on exams because he thinks formulas are tedious information for us to memorize, I put it down and decided to give him a chance. The class seemed more and more interesting by the minute. He told us that he is the oldest man with ADD and that the only reason he switched to finance from engineering in undergrad was because it was easier math. Now this is my kind of teacher. What moved him into my top 5 all time professor list had to be his comment about the kind of people that will truly make it in this world: "The ones who will succeed are going to be the ones that leave this lecture and go grab a burger and a beer rather than read the course material because those are the ones that have the social skills that can get them through any situation." I am pretty sure he just described my life phiolosophy to a T. I'm not staying I don't study and work hard because I do and I love doing it, but there is a fine line between overworking yourself and success. Success is not all about money and getting that dream job right out of college or graduating magna cum laude. It's about the way you present yourself to those around you in work or play. In the end, employers don't really care what your GPA was, as long as you have the life experiences that make you a viable candidate for their orginizations. So whatever happens in the next ten weeks, whether I land my "gateway to my dream job" job, or I decide to keep learning, I'm going to live my life to the fullest and make top notch memories that will hopefully send me out in style.

Cheers to you, Professor Hal Green!